How To Write Screenplay Exposition (With Examples): Turn Exposition Into Ammunition

Writing good exposition is one of the toughest parts of writing a screenplay that works. Exposition is by default boring because it deals with facts and backstory, not story and action. And if you are boring for even a single page (that’s one entire minute of screentime) you’ll lose the reader AND the audience.

But there is hope! Here are some ideas to help you write screenplay exposition that crackles and pops off the page. If there’s one phrase to remember about great exposition, it’s this: make it dramatic.

What Is Exposition?

Exposition is information the audience needs to know to understand the story. For example, in Superbad (written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg), we need to know that Seth and Evan are in the last year of high school, they’re going to different colleges, and they’re both virgins. In Bridesmaids (written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig), we need to know Annie’s business went bankrupt, her love life is a disaster, and her best friend is dating someone great.

Here’s Blake Snyder’s definition of exposition from his book, Save The Cat:

“Exposition is backstory or details of the plot that must be told to the audience in order for them to understand what happens next. But who wants to waste time on this? It’s boring. It’s a scene killer. It’s the worst part of any complicated plot.”

You can’t just have your character tell us or other characters the exposition. As Snyder says, that will be dead boring. So here’s how to write exposition that works:

Turn Your Exposition Into Ammunition.

I have this written on a post-it note on my desk. It comes from Robert McKee’s book, Story, and it means that your characters should use exposition (information they have) to get what they want in a scene. You should dramatize the exposition by making it ammo, not just info. Here’s McKee explaining this:

“Skill in exposition means making it invisible. As the story progresses, the audience absorbs all it needs to know effortlessly, even unconsciously… Dramatized exposition serves two ends: Its primary purpose is to further the immediate conflict. Its secondary purpose is to convey information… To dramatize exposition apply this mnemonic principle: Convert exposition to ammunition. Your characters know their world, their history, each other, and themselves. Let them use what they know as ammunition in their struggle to get what they want.”

Here’s an example from an early draft of Wedding Crashers (Written by Steve Faber & Bob Fisher). At the top of this scene, Jeremy pulls out a bottle of single malt whisky with a ribbon around it and hands it to John:

The exposition in this scene is that Jeremy and John have been best friends since high school and every year Jeremy goes out of his way to celebrate the anniversary of the day they met. But Jeremy doesn’t just come out and say it - he uses the information to get John into the celebratory spirit. He reminisces about their shared history to energize John in preparation for what comes next in the screenplay.

The conflict in the scene comes from Jeremy accusing John that he’s “underwhelmed” when he should be jazzed, while John doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal.

The exposition, meanwhile, disappears off the page. And that’s exactly what you want! The more conflict you can generate in a scene, the less visible the exposition. In the best scenes, exposition is invisible because you’re caught up in the drama of the characters. Here’s John Yorke explaining this in his book, Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story:

“All good exposition is disguised by making it dramatic– by injecting conflict… Exposition works when it’s a tool a character uses to achieve their desire. If this desire is confronted with opposition, conflict is generated and exposition becomes invisible… The greater the conflict, the less visible the exposition.”

So, try to transform your exposition into ammunition. Your characters should use the info they have to try and get when they want. If you do it right, your exposition will “disappear” right off the page.

Exposition Can’t Be The Sole Reason For A Scene.

A scene must either reveal character or move the story forward (preferably both).

If it doesn’t, and it exists solely to convey exposition, then cut it. Cut it cut it cut it. Because it’s going to bore the hell out of your reader. Here’s McKee again in Story:

“If exposition is a scene’s sole justification, a disciplined writer will trash it and weave its information into the film elsewhere.”

The scene from Wedding Crashers doesn’t just give us information - it also reveals character. It paints Jeremy as the loose, big-fun, ready-to-party guy. John, meanwhile, is more subdued and contemplative, which foreshadows that he’s ready for something more than just another one-night stand.

Plus, the scene moves the story forward. Jeremy isn’t just reminiscing for the sake of it. He’s getting John in the headspace for what comes next: the weddings they’ll attend for the end of the wedding season.

So if your scene is only exposition, either find a way to also move the story forward and reveal character OR cut the scene and integrate the exposition into a scene that does.

Bury Your Exposition Using Jokes.

The scene above is also funny! Using jokes to help bury your exposition is a great tool. Here’s Jamie Nash, from his book Save the Cat Writes for TV:

“Find a place to blend exposition into moments that propel your story forward. There's an old saying in sitcoms, ‘Put your exposition into jokes!’ You need to find a way to fold your exposition into scenes that have plot, that have change.”

Take a look at this excerpt from Bridesmaids:

Annie’s dialogue is hilarious, especially considering she’s an engagement ring salesperson. But it also reveals a lot about Annie’s character. It’s clear she’s had her heart broken and has given up on the idea of love. That’s exposition we need to understand the story and her motivation throughout it, but it’s delivered in a joke. That’s good writing.

Never Start A Scene With “Let Me Get This Straight.”

I have to include this caveat because I recently watched the 2022 Scream movie (written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, based on the characters created by Kevin Williamson) and I nearly jumped out of my seat.

SPOILER ALERT - SKIP TO THE NEXT SECTION IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN AND WANT TO SEE “SCREAM” (2022).

We had just entered the second act - when Sam (the lead character) has collected all her friends in the living room to tell them the truth about who she is. In the movie, the scene goes like this:

Sam: “I asked Mindy to call everybody here because there’s something I have to tell you.”

Then there’s a timecut to a short time later, and a picture of Billy Loomis (from the original Scream movie) is on the TV screen in the living room. Then Chad says:

“So let me get this straight. You’re saying that you’re the daughter of Billy Loomis, and what, that one of us is the killer?”

First, the dialogue rang false for me because no one speaks in recaps like that. And secondly, I was reminded of what Lew Hunter says in his book, Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434:

“You’ll be tempted to start scenes with a deadly phrase you’ve heard ad nauseam. ‘Let me get this straight.’ Then you hear a character recapping the plot or blathering on about something coming up, or describing an incident that happened off-camera between scenes. It’s a weak, static, and lazy way to disguise exposition. When tempted to use ‘let me get this straight,’ or have your characters ‘run over it one more time,’ don’t. To disguise your exposition, be inventive. Create something out of nothing. Use character, sets, locales, events, babies, sex.”

After watching the scene, I was curious if Chad’s recap line was actually in the script. Guess what? It’s not - at least not in the March 2, 2020 draft readily available online. I assume that an executive or producer was worried the plot was getting confusing and added the line for clarity. For me, instead of clarifying anything, it reminded me I was watching a movie.

Here’s how the scene starts in the screenplay, right after the timecut:

This is far more reasonable. It serves a similar purpose but excludes the recap line and sounds natural.

So search for “let me get this straight” and other variations of that phrase in your scripts. If you use it, find a more creative way to share the same info. Your viewers will appreciate it!

If You’re Not Sure A Piece of Exposition Is Necessary, Lose It.

It’s not always clear what info is necessary for the audience to understand the story and what isn’t. But a good rule to follow is that if you’re in doubt about a piece of exposition, then cut it.

The reason is that audiences and readers are smart. They have seen thousands of movies and have an instinct for how they work. Plus, it’s not what you include in a script that creates interest - it’s what questions you raise by leaving certain info out.

Here’s McKee explaining this in his book:

“Never include anything the audience can reasonably and easily assume has happened. Never pass on exposition unless the missing fact would cause confusion. You do not keep the audience’s interest by giving it information, but by withholding information, except that which is absolutely necessary for comprehension.”

If you’re worried that cutting a piece of exposition may confuse the reader, cut it and have a friend read it. If they’re confused about that aspect of your script, add the info back in.

Exposition Works Best After “Whammos.”

Where you position a scene with heavy exposition makes a big difference. The James Bond movies always open with a BANG and then settle into the exposition scenes with Bond’s boss, M, which set the story. And those exposition scenes work because the film opened with an epic action sequence full of what Syd Field calls whammos.

Here’s Field explaining this in his book, Selling a Screenplay: The Screenwriter's Guide to Hollywood:

“Suppose you’re dramatizing a bank robbery. It’s tense, terse, taut. That’s a whammo. Now, suppose the robbers race out of the bank, and the car is gone. That’s a whammo. Or they race out of the bank, and the car won’t start. That’s a whammo. Or as they race away, the street is suddenly blocked by a huge streetweeper. That’s a whammo... What makes the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark so great is that it’s one whammo after another… It’s that opening that makes the following exposition scene work.”

So if you can’t figure out a way to make the exposition sizzle itself, make sure the scenes before are crazy entertaining. That way you can allow your audience to recover as you give them the info they need to understand the story.

Put The Pope In The Pool.

Another way to make exposition go down easier is to make the scene so visually interesting or surprising that the audience won’t even notice they’re being “explained” to.

In Save The Cat, Blake Snyder recounts what he was told by Mike Cheda, who once read a script called The Plot To Kill The Pope. The script buried a bit of exposition using this trick:

“Representatives visit the Pope at the Vatican. And guess where the meeting takes place? The Vatican pool. There, the Pope, in his bathing suit, swims laps back and forth while the exposition unfolds. We, the audience, aren’t even listening, I’m guessing. We’re thinking: ‘I didn’t know the Vatican had a pool?! And look, the Pope’s not wearing his Pope clothes, he’s… he’s… in his bathing suit!’ … The Pope In The Pool gives us something to look at that takes the sting out of telling us what we need to know.”

So figure out what your own “Pope in the Pool” scene looks like. Use everything at your disposable: cool locations, giant props, crazy characters - whatever, to distract us from any boring info you need to explain. Be anything but boring.

Keep going and keep writing.

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ARTICLE SOURCES

Bridesmaids, written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig

Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story, by John Yorke

Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434: The Industry's Premier Teacher Reveals the Secrets of the Successful Screenplay, By Lew Hunter

Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need, by Blake Snyder

Save the Cat Writes for TV, by Jamie Nash

Scream, written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, based on the characters created by Kevin Williamson

Selling a Screenplay: The Screenwriter's Guide to Hollywood, By Syd Field

Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting, By Robert McKee

Superbad, By Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Wedding Crashers, Written by Steve Faber & Bob Fisher

Writing Television Sitcoms: Revised and Expanded Edition of the Go-to Guide, by Evan S. Smith