QUALITIES OF A GREAT NEMESIS #4: Relentless

Michael Hauge 12 Comments

Time for the seventh in my series of articles on how to captivate your audiences and readers with the use of conflict, and the fourth in the corresponding series examining the Nemesis character.

Building and accelerating the conflict your hero must face greatly increases the emotional impact of your story. So when you have a nemesis character trying to stop your hero from achieving his or her goal, you don’t want that nemesis to just make a single appearance in the story and then disappear. He must be relentless in his desire, and we must see him confronting or closing in on your hero.

In the 2016 multiple Oscar® nominee Hell or High Water, Jeff Bridges plays Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton, determined to track down the film’s hero Toby Howard (Chris Pine) and his brother Tanner. Toby and Tanner have been robbing banks throughout West Texas, and Marcus is determined to stop them.

Taylor Sheridan’s brilliant screenplay repeatedly cuts away from the brothers to show how smart and experienced Marcus is as he figures out that it’s the Howard brothers who are responsible for the robberies, and predicts where they will strike next.

Each time we see Marcus, we anticipate the final showdown that awaits our hero, and that he is up against a smart, tough and relentless nemesis. Nothing is going to stop him until he has a final showdown with the hero he wants to stop.

As with the nemesis Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, (see Article #3 in this series), Marcus and his partner Alberto (Gil Birmingham) are also principled. But instead of their own personal code, they are Rangers committed to upholding the law. And representing the law makes this nemesis even more powerful.

An argument can be made that Marcus is actually an equal hero to Toby. Marcus is introduced separately, during the Setup, and has a clear, visible goal that will take him to the climax of the story.

We also empathize with Marcus at least as much as we do Toby. Marcus is likable, highly skilled and in jeopardy of not catching or stopping the Howard brothers. We also sympathize with him as he contemplates his impending retirement. And Marcus and Alberto are funny:

MARCUS
Oh, who knows. Maybe one of these bank robbers is gonna want a gunfight and I can dodge my retirement in a blaze of glory.
ALBERTO
Well, I’ve seen you shoot. There won’t be much glory in it.

But even if we regard him as one of the two heroes of Hell or High Water, he still serves as the nemesis for the other one. And Toby then serves as Marcus’ Nemesis, since his goal is to stop Marcus from achieving what he wants.

It’s pretty rare to have two equal heroes who are in opposition in this way, because there’s a danger of dividing the readers’ and audiences’ loyalties. (It’s far more common to have two heroes who are aligned, as in a lot of buddy movies like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and romantic comedies like Pretty Woman.) But in Heat, the cop and the thief (played by Al Pacino and Robert De Niro) each function as the other’s nemesis.

In creating a nemesis in your own story, be certain this character appears or is mentioned two or more times, and that their threat to your hero’s goal grows increasingly stronger.

NEXT: NEMESIS #5 – Authoritative

Previous CONFLICT articles in this series:

CONFLICT #1: Tiger
CONFLICT #2: Combat vs. Conflict
CONFLICT #3: Follow the Pain
CONFLICT #4: The Nemesis
QUALITIES OF A GREAT NEMESIS #1: Powerful
QUALITIES OF A GREAT NEMESIS #2: Threatening
QUALITIES OF A GREAT NEMESIS #3: Principled