Scene Description Spotlight: “Up”

Pixar filmmakers are masters at setups and payoffs as in the script for Up.

The ‘Carl and Ellie married life sequence’ is often lauded for its efficiency, entertainment, and emotional impact. But it also traffics heavily in terms of setups and payoffs. Let’s break it down.

INT. CHURCH — DAY

FLASH! A photo is taken of the wedding couple: Carl and
Ellie, now 19. She jumps at him and gives him a big kiss.

Ellie’s side of the church erupts like wild frontiersmen. A
gun shot is fired in the air.

Carl’s side, rigid puritans in black, clap politely.

EXT. DILAPIDATED HOUSE — DAY

Carl carries her past a “SOLD” sign. It’s the same house
where they met as kids.

EXT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE — DAY

Still in their wedding clothes: She saw as he hammers.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM — DAY

They push two chairs into place side by side in the living room.

EXT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE — DAY

Ellie finishes painting “Carl & Ellie” on their MAILBOX.
Carl lean in to admire her work but leaves a messy paint
handprint on the mailbox! Oh well; Ellie adds her handprint
as well. They smile.

EXT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE — DAY

Their house now matches Ellie’s colorful CLUB HOUSE DRAWING
from her childhood Adventure Book.

EXT. RURAL HILLSIDE — DAY

They run up a hillside together.

They lie side by side on a picnic blanket. She describes the
clouds. He watches as a cloud transforms into a turtle.

Carl closes his eyes and smiles. He’s lucky to be with her.

EXT. ZOO — DAY

Ellie emerges from the South American House, dressed in her
Zookeeper’s uniform.

Carl shows off his new BALLOON CART and uniform. Behind him
the balloons lift his cart off the ground. Carl jumps to
catch it. She giggles.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM — DAY

Carl and Ellie sit side by side in their chairs, reading.
Without looking up from their books, they hold hands.

EXT. RURAL HILLSIDE — DAY

Again at their picnic spot, they watch clouds. Ellie sees an
elephant with wings. Carl gives it a try and points out a
BABY. Ellie lights up, excited. She sees ALL the clouds as
babies! Carl is stunned… but smiles.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, BABY ROOM — DAY

Ellie finishes painting a wall mural of a story carrying a
bundle in its beak. Carl hangs a mobile above the crib.

INT. DOCTOR’S OFFICE — AFTERNOON

Carl touches Ellie’s shoulder as the doctor explains. Ellie
drops her head in her hands.

EXT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM — AFTERNOON

Carl looks out the window. Ellie sits alone under a tree,
the wind in her hair.

EXT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, YARD — AFTERNOON

Carl joins Ellie. he hands her the Adventure Book. She smiles.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM — AFTERNOON

Ellie paints a MURAL of their house atop Paradise Falls over
the mantle. Carl organizes a compass, map, binoculars, and
native bird figure beneath the painting. It’s their shrine
to Adventure.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM — AFTERNOON

Carl sets a JAR on a table, “PARADISE FALLS” written on it.
Ellie drops in a few coins. She looks at Carl and crosses
her heart. Carl crosses his.

A SERIES OF SHOTS

The jar slowly fills as Carl and Ellie toss in spare change.

Their car blows a tire.

The two stand by the jar, reluctant. Carl BREAKS the jar.

New tire.

Carl in the hospital with a broken leg.

Breaking jar.

A storm rages. A tree falls, crushing the roof.

Breaking jar.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, FRONT HALL — MORNING

Carl struggles to tie his tie. Ellie helps. They walk out
the front door arm in arm.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, FRONT HALL — 3 YEARS LATER

Ellie struggles to tie Carl’s tie as they rush out the door.

A SERIES OF SHOTS as Ellie straightens Carl’s ties. Stylish
1950’s ties. Wide 60’s ties. Paisley 70’s ties.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, FRONT HALL — 30 YEARS LATER

Older Carl and Ellie smile at themselves in the hall mirror.

EXT. ZOO — DAY

Carl in his 60’s. They still work happily side by side at
the zoo. Carl’s cart lifts off the ground. He casually
leans an elbow on it.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM — NIGHT

Carl and Ellie dance in the evening candlelight. The
PARADISE FALLS JAR sits off to the side, now dusty and
forgotten.

INT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM WINDOW — AFTERNOON

Carl cleans the inside of the window. Ellie cleans the
outside.

INT. CARL’S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM — AFTERNOON

Carl vacuums the Adventure Shrine on the mantle. Carl smiles
at a photo of Ellie as a child, wearing her flight helmet and
goggles. He looks up at the mural of their house at Paradise
Falls. His smile fades.

Behind him, Ellie sweeps the floor. Their dream has gone
unfulfilled.

Carl has an idea.

EXT. TRAVEL AGENCY — DAY

Carl buys two tickets to South America.

EXT. RURAL HILLSIDE — AFTERNOON

Carl hurries excitedly up picnic hill. He hides the airline
tickets in his basket.

Behind him, Ellie falters and falls. She tries to get up but
falls again. Something is wrong.

He runs to her.

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM — DAY

Ellie lies in a hospital bed. She looks through her
ADVENTURE BOOK.

A BLUE BALLOON floats in to the room.

Carl stands at the door. He smiles and walks to her bedside.

Ellie pushes her Adventure Book toward him. She weakly pats
his cheek and adjusts his tie.

He kisses her on the forehead.

INT. CHURCH — AFTERNOON

Carl sits alone, next to a huge bouquet of balloons.

EXT. CARL AND ELLIE’S HOUSE — DUSK

Carl walks into the house, holding a single blue balloon.

FADE TO BLACK.

Here is movie version of this sequence:

There’s a lot to be gleaned from this sequence, but let’s focus on how screenwriters Bob Peterson and Pete Docter (with a story by credit for Thomas McCarthy) use scene description to do set-ups and payoffs.

• “It’s the same house where they met as kids.” In this sequence, the fact they move into the familiar “dilapidated house”is a payoff to the earlier set-up. But the house continues to be an enormously important narrative element — the cause of the dispute between the greedy commercial developer, the means of transportation to South America, and on an emotional level, representing to Carl his beloved wife Ellie (Carl even looks up from time to time and addresses the house as “Ellie”). Of course, the ultimate payoff is in the denouement, the very last image of the movie, where the clouds part and we see the house has magically found its way to the very spot Ellie fantasized about — atop Paradise Falls.

By the way, I always thought that Pixar must have been inspired by It’s A Wonderful Life, how on his honeymoon night, George was driven to his new home — a dilapidated house that had been an important moment on the first night of George and Mary’s romance.

• “They push two chairs into place side by side in the living room.” The chairs take on symbolic heft, too — there’s Carl’s chair and Ellie’s chair. Indeed, once Carl has managed to get the house to the top of Paradise Falls, one of the first things he does is reposition the chairs as they have always been. And in a fun bit of business, when Carl decides to go save Russell and Kevin, and tosses all the furniture out of the house so it can fly again, as the house soars away, there is a shot: Of the two chairs, side by side, atop Paradise Falls, a nifty and final payoff to their set-up.
• “Ellie finishes painting “Carl & Ellie” on their MAILBOX.” This is a set-up for a pivotal moment in the movie — where a construction truck backs into the mailbox, a worker attempts to help straighten it, but Carl strikes the man on the forehead, leading to Carl appearing in court, then being forced to leave home and live in a retirement village. That, of course, leads to Carl’s decision to fly the house to South America.
• “Their house now matches Ellie’s colorful CLUB HOUSE DRAWING from her childhood Adventure Book.” A payoff to an earlier set-up.
• “They run up a hillside together.” A set-up to a later scene in the sequence when Ellie “falters and falls,” signifying her transition toward death.
• “They lie side by side on a picnic blanket. She describes the clouds. He watches as a cloud transforms into a turtle.” A set-up to a later scene in the sequence where they see the baby shapes in the clouds.
• “Carl shows off his new BALLOON CART and uniform. Behind him the balloons lift his cart off the ground.” The balloon theme has already been set-up with Carl and Ellie as children. This picks up on it and pushes the theme ahead — Carl’s job is selling balloons. And that tiny moment where the balloons “list his car off the ground” presages Carl attaching thousands of helium balloons to his house and taking off for South America.
• “Carl touches Ellie’s shoulder as the doctor explains. Ellie drops her head in her hands.” A sad payoff to the couple’s dream of having children.
• “Ellie paints a MURAL of their house atop Paradise Falls over the mantle. Carl organizes a compass, map, binoculars, and native bird figure beneath the painting. It’s their shrine to Adventure.” As a response to Ellie’s despondent mood after learning she can not bear children, Carl ‘resurrects’ the dream of going to Paradise Falls. The mural as well as the various objects in the “shrine to Adventure” come back into play in the story again and again, each symbolic reminders of Carl’s promise to Ellie that he will take her — by extension through the house — to Paradise Falls.
• “Carl sets a JAR on a table, “PARADISE FALLS” written on it.” The jar is a set-up that gets played out within the context of this sequence through a series of shots — each time the jar was getting filled with coins, something happened that caused the couple to break it, and use the money for something other than a trip to Paradise Falls.
• “Ellie drops in a few coins. She looks at Carl and crosses her heart. Carl crosses his.” The cross your heart elements has already been set up when they were children, and is called back on numerous occasions throughout the story, Carl remembering his pledge to Ellie.
• “Carl cleans the inside of the window. Ellie cleans the outside.” This is a set-up to a payoff during the Carl living alone sequence — he cleans the window and stops, no smiling face of his wife to peer back at him, a grace note that drives home his state of solitude.
• ”A SERIES OF SHOTS as Ellie straightens Carl’s ties. Stylish 1950’s ties. Wide 60’s ties. Paisley 70’s ties.” This is not only a great way to show the passage of time, but also serves as a set-up for a touching moment toward the end of the sequence, the last gesture Ellie makes to Carl before she dies — “She weakly pats his cheek and adjusts his tie.
• “Carl walks into the house, holding a single blue balloon.” And so the story comes full circle, Carl as a boy with a blue balloon, part of the narrative of how he first met Ellie. And now accompanying him as he has said good-bye. But of course, this is not a farewell to balloons, is it?

Set-ups and payoffs work on so many levels, everything from measuring time to taking on deeper meaning as the story evolves. The filmmakers of Pixar understand the power of set-ups and payoffs, perhaps better than anyone else making movies today. And the marriage sequence in Up, which is an awesome piece of storytelling, works in part because of the script’s implementation of set-ups and payoffs.

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