3-Act Structure in True Romance

The film True Romance adheres to the traditional hollywood 3-act structure very well. In the first act, we are introduced to the main characters and their situation: Clarence, a lonely comic book store clerk meets Alabama, a breezy call girl and they fall in love. They are married 17 minutes into the movie, the quickness of which sets the pace for the rest of the film. The first act peaks at a major plot point when Clarence kills Drexl, Alabama's pimp, and takes a suitcase which he believes to be full of her personal items, but is actually full of cocaine (about 30 minutes in). This advances & complicates the plot in 2 ways: first, it presents the central "mission" of Clarence and Alabama: they decide to go to California and sell the cocaine in bulk with the hopes of eventually starting a new life together with the money. Second, the missing cocaine prompts a group of Sicilian gangsters, Drexl's superiors, to hunt down Clarence and Alabama and retrieve their drugs.

In the second act, the plot is further developed as Clarence meets his friend, an aspiring actor named Dick who lives in California, whose contact Elliot can connect Clarence to Lee Donowitz, a big-time movie producer to whom he plans to sell the cocaine. About an hour long, the second act takes its time with scene progression and is slightly slower-paced than the first. Clarence and Alabama visit Clarence's dad, an ex-cop, to make sure they aren't being followed by the police because of Drexl's death. They find out they are in the clear, make merriment, and go on to California. Soon the Sicilian gangsters are introduced as they show up in Clarence's dad's trailer, demanding the whereabouts of Clarence and Alabama and eventually killing Clarence's dad. Once in California, Clarence and Alabama have a series of meet-ups with Dick and Elliot, eventually setting up a deal with Donowitz. There are a few more plot points in the second act that escalate the film's conflicts dramatically: First, one of the gangsters shows up in Clarence and Alabama's motel room and finds Alabama there alone, he beats her into submission and almost kills her, but she luckily gets the upper hand, takes a mozart bust and bashes his head in with it. This brings knowledge of the gangsters' pursuit to Clarence, who decides to bring a gun to the meeting with Donowitz, just in case. Second, soon before the meeting, Elliot is arrested for cocaine possession, and after interrogation reveals the planned drug deal to the cops. They get him to wear a wire at the meeting, planning to burst in and arrest everybody once sufficient evidence has been obtained.

The 3rd act and climax of the film is the drug deal scene in Donowitz' hotel room, about 30 minutes long. Here is the peak of the conflict, where all of the opposing forces in the film come together. All the major characters, protagonists and antagonists, are present, Clarence, Alabama, Dick, Elliot (wearing the wire), Donowitz, and 2 armed guards inside the hotel room, the cops listening in from a lower floor, and the sicilian gangsters on their way through the hotel. There is a period of calm before the storm as Clarence and Donowitz talk, bonding over their mutual love of badass cinema. The deal is made, and the cops and gangsters burst in at the same time, setting off a massive shootout. Dick flees and everyone but Clarence and Alabama are killed, although Clarence sustains a gunshot wound to the eye. The two of them make their way out of the hotel with the money, avoiding the masses of police outside. They are shown later on a beach in Cancun with a baby, having resolved their conflicts and achieved their goal in the film, in a "happily ever after" scene.