What do you want the audience to feel…
…when they walk out of the theater at the end of your movie?
Or you can re-frame the question this way: What do you want a reader to feel when they finish your script? With regard to screenwriting, these questions lie at the heart of the denouement.
The Oxford dictionary defines it this way: the end of a story, in which everything is explained, or the end result of a situation. In other words, what does the story mean? How has it impacted the main characters? And critically, what is their emotional state based upon what they have experienced? Because what the primary characters are feeling is what should be conveyed to the reader in the hope that they share those same feelings.
The denouement is the part of the script which follows the Final Struggle. That is the culmination of the Plotline, but it is not the end of the story. For example, Rocky has lost the fight in Rocky on a split decision (the culmination of his boxing match with Apollo Creed), but the ending of the movie is this:
Rocky calling out “Adrian,” she runs into the ring, they hug and she says over and over again, “I love you.” That little bit of dramatic business…
