Film 210: Want, Obstacle, and Outcome

In this lesson, you’ll learn:

How want and obstacle define each other as two sides of the same coin
Different ways character wants can intertwine to create conflict
Why equal matching prevents one side from steamrolling the other
How to structure layered conflict through setup and central conflict
Six types of story outcomes and when to use each

Let’s begin!

You already know the basics from the previous lesson:

Conflict = want + obstacle - a character wants something, but something stands in their way
Want gives the story direction - think of it as a flag planted in the ground that tells both character and audience where the story is heading and guides us toward the outcome, whether the character gets their want or not
Wanting never ends - characters enter your story already wanting something, and even when they achieve their goals or fail completely, their desire persists in some form

But there’s more to want and obstacles than just this.

Want and Obstacle Are Two Sides of the Same Coin

Want and obstacle aren't separate elements—they define each other. Your protagonist's want exists because of what stands in their way, and obstacles only matter because someone wants to overcome them. Remove the want, and the obstacle becomes irrelevant. Remove the obstacle, and there's no story.

Character Wants Intertwine

Your protagonist and antagonist can be in conflict in several ways:

They want the same thing (both want the treasure, both want the promotion)
They have opposing wants that conflict (one wants to build, the other wants to preserve)
One character’s want becomes another’s obstacle (the protagonist wants peace, the antagonist wants war)

Remember that both characters must want their individual goals badly enough to be willing to do anything to achieve them. If there is a chance they can walk away, you don’t have a story.

Want and Obstacle Must Be Equally Matched

Want and obstacle must be equally matched to create an ongoing struggle. Equal matching can involve any traits that create meaningful competition - whether they’re the same (strength versus strength, intellect versus intellect) or different qualities that balance out (funny versus serious, angry versus kind, terrifying versus lucky and skilled). The key is preventing one side from steamrolling the other.

Even if one side wins a round, as long as the other side can pick themselves up and keep the conflict going, that’s what matters.

Obstacles Create New Wants

Obstacles can reveal entirely new wants. Teenagers wanting to party suddenly want survival when a killer appears. A character content with a quiet life wants to clear their name when framed for murder. This shift drives stories in unexpected directions.

Conflict Creates Connection

At the heart of storytelling, we create shared experience by showing what it's like to be a specific character in a situation.

Titanic lets us experience terror through a couple's eyes as the ship sinks.
The Godfather asks what we'd do to keep a mob family together.
A Marriage Story takes us inside a broken marriage.

We use want and obstacles to connect with characters. Once we know what they want and see what stands in their way, we can journey with them through that struggle.

Conflict and Tension

Conflict doesn’t always mean explosions and car chases. What we actually mean by conflict is the underlying tension between what a character wants and something standing in their way.

This can be as big as defeating terrorists who have taken over a building, or as small as:

The dis-ease of entering a room full of strangers
The expectation that something bad might happen
The uncertainty of a first kiss

Each of these creates tension because the characters want something, and they are uncertain about whether they will achieve it.

A story doesn’t need big dramatic action—it simply requires us to connect with characters who want something and struggle to get it. The struggle creates the tension that drives your story forward.

How Conflict Works in Story

Conflict works by opening tension through want and obstacle, and this tension must be resolved by the story’s end. However, conflict doesn’t begin when your story starts—characters arrive already caught in unresolved struggles from their past, or living in a perfect state that’s about to be disrupted.

Stories operate with layered conflict: whatever tension you open, you must close. Each struggle you introduce needs resolution, even if the character doesn’t get what they want. The want acts as a flag that signals what the outcome must address.

If conflict remains unresolved, or if resolving one conflict creates new tension, that tension carries forward into new sequences, acts, or stories. This basic open-and-close pattern can expand into longer works—an unresolved outcome can launch a new story sequence, act, or sequel. Even a resolved outcome can create fresh conflict when the character gets what they want but discovers it doesn’t satisfy them.

Most stories work with at least two conflict layers that demonstrate this principle: setup conflict and central conflict. Both must be resolved, and understanding how they connect shows you how conflict flows through story.

Setup

Story always operates with conflict or tension—characters wanting something.

Characters don’t wait for your story to begin wanting things. They arrive already caught up in desires they can’t shake:

something they can’t achieve
something they have but still want (wanting never ends)
or somewhere in between—achieving what they wanted but discovering it doesn’t satisfy them.

In your opening beats (around 10-12% of the story), reveal this existing struggle.

This isn’t exposition where you describe their world. This is dramatic action. Show them wrestling with what they want. If they can’t get it, show the struggle. If they have it, show them possessing and still wanting it. If they’re not actively struggling, show that ease, which creates its own tension about when they’ll lose what they have.

The setup gives us characters already wrestling with desire before the central conflict takes over.

Central Conflict

The central conflict begins when something disrupts the setup conflict pattern, creating a new want/obstacle dynamic that will drive most of your story.

This disruption can come from outside forces beyond the character's control or within their existing relationships and past.

Shrek: Shrek wants solitude but feels lonely → when fairy tale creatures invade his swamp (outside force), he wants his swamp back
The Godfather: Michael wants to stay out of the family business → when his father is shot by rival families (inside disruption from existing criminal relationships), he wants to protect his family

The central conflict is why we come to the movie. The setup conflict is why it matters.

Both conflicts must be resolved, but the central conflict want becomes the primary flag that drives your story toward its outcome.

Outcome

The interplay of want and obstacle ultimately leads to an outcome. This is where we address the flags planted by each want—both the existing problem from setup and the central conflict must be resolved. Any tension you create or open must be addressed or closed in the outcome.

Characters must be willing to reach or exhaust the limits of their abilities and resources to get what they want. The outcome must be shown, not hidden. Some stories try to avoid definitive endings, but unless there’s a thematic reason, this often feels like the writer couldn’t make the hard choice about where their character ends up.

Types of Outcomes

Stories end when characters get or don’t get what they want:

Success: They get what they want, but this doesn’t stop them from wanting: “Behind mountains are more mountains.”
Failure: They exhaust all options or reach the limits of their abilities and resources.
Mixed Results: The character gets one thing but not another—partial victory, a win at some cost, or a Pyrrhic victory where they achieve their want but at such significant cost it’s essentially a failure.
Sacrifice: A character gives up something they once wanted to achieve something that means more to them.
Change: The character decides to alter what they seek, showing growth in positive or negative ways.
Ambiguous Ending: The audience is uncertain whether the character achieves their want. While this can serve the story’s theme, it often feels unsatisfying. Ask yourself: Does the ambiguity truly serve the story, or am I sidestepping a challenging decision?

Resolution: The Mirror to Setup

After the want is resolved, there’s often a moment of reflection. The resolution mirrors the setup—just as the setup showed us the character wrestling with their existing wants before the story began, the resolution shows us who they are now. We see their new state, their transformed or unchanged patterns.

This comparison between opening struggles and final state gives your story its sense of completion. Remember: wanting never truly ends—it persists in some form beyond your story.

Key Takeaways

Want and obstacle define each other—remove one, and you have no story
Characters must want their goals badly enough that they can’t walk away
Conflict means underlying tension, not necessarily big, dramatic action
Stories need layered conflict: setup plus central conflict, both must be resolved
Every want plants a flag that must be addressed in the outcome