Chris Vogler, a story analyst for Disney, Warner Bros, 20th century fox an more explored the construction of narrative from a character driven perspective. His Theory is called the hero’s journey.
The Hero’s Journey consists of 12 parts
I will list the parts with reference to my chosen film: Star Wars: A New Hope (1977, George Lucas)
1: Ordinary World: We start off seeing Luke on his home planet, we are slowly introduced to him and his environment to help establish his place as the protagonist.
2. The call to adventure: A message from Princess Leia calls Luke to save her from the empire.
3. Refusal of the call: Less of a refusal, R2D2 runs away before Luke can get enough information about the situation.
4. Meeting the Mentor: When looking for R2D2 luke and the gang are ambushed and attacked, Ben Kenobi (Obi Wan Kenobi) ends up finding Luke and takes him to his home.
5. Crossing The Threshold: After seeing his home has been attacked, Luke agrees to be taught under Obi Wan Kenobi, and to go save Princess Leia from the empire.
6. Tests, Allies and Enemies: The hero – Luke, is constantly tested in fights to build his skill and confidence and help him get ready for the final challenge. Additionally he meets Han Solo and Chewbacca who agree to help him on his journey
7. The Approach: Not too much happens here, it is mostly just preparation for the main ordeal.
8. The Ordeal: Luke and the gang end up trapped in garbage chute / crusher, They nearly all die but manage to escape just in time.
9. The Reward: Luke and the gang are finally safe with the “reward”: Princess Leia. And start the journey back home.
10. The Road Back: although they have the reward, they try to go home but are tracked by tie fighters and must escape them aswell – usually a chase scene occurs.
11. The Resurrection: Luke, after recovering Leia, goes to destroy the death star, however Darth Vader is there to block Luke’s quest, in-fact it looks look Vader is about to kill Luke, however, just as it looks like the hero is or is about to die, they suddenly come back to life with full force and complete the quest, in this case, Han Solo helps Luke to fend off Darth Vader so Luke can Destroy the Death Star.
12. return with the elixir / tot he ordinary world: This is the final stage and it is very simple, in which the hero returns to their own world after completing their quest. However in some cases where sequels exist, the quest is not finished and Luke never really exits the extraordinary world, this is because there is still more of his quest, so in the next films Luke restarts the Hero’s journey in some form and it repeats.
