Story and Narrative

By Jabed Ali

Conventional Action Story-line

A basic action film story-line is when the protagonist is faced with
a challenge or plot where he or she must accomplish a mission or
obtain an item from somewhere. However, the protagonist is
faced with tough challenges throughout this journey and is faced
against the antagonist and is initially defeated by the antagonist.
Furthermore, the protagonist learns from his/her defeat and
trains or learns from new experiences which enables the
protagonist to be able to defeat the antagonist in his/her final
battle which resolves the movie. This closely links to Barthes
theory of action coding where he states every film needs.

Conventional story-lines
French semiologist, Roland Barthes stated that there are 5 different
narrative codes which enables the reader to make sense of it in action
movies. He stated typical conventional storylines contain the action
code. This is a narrative device by which a resolution is reached through
a specific action scene, for example, the final fight scene in a movie
which decide the outcome of it. This is very common in action movies.
Secondly, enigma code. This occurs when a film doesn't reveal all
essential information at once, but instead, drops clues to keep the
audience intrigued. Third, is semantic coding, this points to any
element in the text that suggests or implies another meaning or an
underlying meaning. Fourth, is symbolic coding. This is very similar to
semantic coding, but at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings in
a broader and wider level. This is usually done in the use of antithesis
where meanings come from conflicting ideas. Lastly, the cultural code
highlights how the audience recognize as being part of a culture.

Conventional story-lines in movies

The action code that Barthes refers to, I believe is most
common in action movies. This is because nearly all action
movies obtain a final fight scene to resolve the movie. This
is evident in many movies such as Matrix and Rocky V.
These two movies unfold with the protagonists being trained
to such an extent where they could face their strong
antagonist.