Character Type: Loner
“The thing is, we’ve all experienced loneliness and almost all of us are, by our human nature, social creatures. So when we happen upon a Loner in a story, our instinct is to become engaged with them and their plight.”
Those of you who have followed my blog for some time or taken courses with me through Screenwriting Master Class know how fascinated I am with character archetypes, specifically how there are five — Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster — which recur in movies over and over and over.
Some might see archetypes as a sort of reductionist approach to writing when in my experience, it is precisely the opposite.
By working with these five Primary Character Archetypes, we can identify the core narrative function of every key character, then use that knowledge as a guide as we build them out in a limitless number of ways.
One approach is to use an extensive array of Character Types available to us. So this month, I am running a series in which we will explore 20 Character Types, and consider how writers can use them to create unique, compelling figures in our stories.
Today: Loner.
The Loner is another staple in Hollywood movie history spanning across all genres and story types. If you think about it, the Loner practically defined the Western genre during the 30s-50s with notable examples such as Shane (Alan Ladd, Jr.) in the 1953 movie Shane and Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) in the 1956 film The Searchers:
The tradition of the Loner ‘gunslinger’ has continued into contemporary times with movies like Drive (2011) which parallels the plot of Shane in numerous ways.
Why the popularity of Loners? From an entertainment standpoint, this character type can convey a palpable sense of mystery. Who are they? And perhaps more importantly, why are they alone? This last question is a central one in Loner movies like Finding Forrester (2000), whose central character William Forrester (Sean Connery) is a reclusive author, and Gran Torino (2008), whose main character Walt Kowalski is a racist Korean War veteran ironically forced to live in a neighborhood populated by Asian immigrants:
The bitter Loner is a particular subset of this type, one we see pop up with some frequency as a Protagonist like Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) in Up (2009) and as a supporting character like Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom) in Home Alone (1990):
As with Old Man Marley and similar characters like Boo in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Karl in Sling Blade (1996), the sometimes frightening image of the Loner can be demystified over the course of the story, the figure seen to be a human being like the rest of us.
However, the Loner can also be a dark figure with violent impulses like Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Psycho (1960), Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) in Taxi Driver (1976), and even play the part of a Nemesis as with Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) in the 2007 movie No Country for Old Men (2007):
This type of Loner is perhaps set apart from the rest of us precisely because of their mental instability and/or inherent bent toward the Dark Side. Sometimes, however, a character’s state of solitude derives not from psychological forces, but rather physical ones, trapped by forces of nature as in movies such as Cast Away (2000), Into the Wild (2007), and All Is Lost (2013):
One dynamic that is implied with almost any Loner character is our desire to see them make connections with others. Indeed, many of the movies cited above have this theme at work, the Loner stretching beyond their own personal boundaries eventually to find a friend, a lover or a family, like Wall-E in the 2008 movie of the same name. Who of us didn’t get a lump in our throat when Wall-E, enraptured by the movie Hello, Dolly, mimics the couple on the screen holding hands… by holding his own hand:
Right there, from the earliest moments of the movie, we know the Protagonist’s narrative destiny: To find someone to be with, to care for and to love.
The thing is, we’ve all experienced loneliness and almost all of us are, by our human nature, social creatures. So when we happen upon a Loner in a story, our instinct is to become engaged with them and their plight — to understand them and, if they are not vengeful souls, to hope they find their place in the world amidst a community.
What brainstorming can you do with a Loner character type?
If your goal is to create an immediate level of sympathy for any character with the script reader, there is perhaps no better way than to work with a Loner, for reasons cited above. Moreover the quality of solitude can add a dimension of mystery to any archetype: The Loner Nemesis becomes more threatening because of their silence. The Loner Attractor becomes more alluring because of their public reticence. The Loner Mentor becomes ever more wise because their quietude suggests deep wisdom. And the Loner Trickster becomes even more vexing because the less we know of their motives, the less we can predict when they will flip from enemy to ally, ally to enemy.
The Loner also provides an object lesson about the use of dialogue. It should not be surprising that Clint Eastwood has played so many Loner characters in his career. This is an actor famous for red-lining dialogue in scripts, cutting out half or ever more of his character’s scripted words. Movies are a visual medium. Less dialogue can play to that strength.
Who are your favorite Loner character types in movies?
What can you do with a Loner character type?
For other Character Types, go here.
