Ever notice that every blockbuster movie has the same fundamental pieces? A hero, a journey, some conflicts to muck it all up, a reward, and the hero returning home and everybody applauding his or her swag? Yeah, scholar Joseph Campbell noticed first—in 1949. He wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces, in which he outlined the 17 stages of a mythological hero's journey.

About half a century later, Christopher Vogler condensed those stages down to 12 in an attempt to show Hollywood how every story ever written should—and, uh, does—follow Campbell's pattern. We're working with those 12 stages, so take a look. (P.S. Want more? We have an entire Online Course devoted to the hero's journey.)

Ordinary World

Johnny Hooker is a street grifter who works with his buddy Luther and does pretty well for himself. He makes a big score now and then, but he always blows his money immediately with gambling because he's a thrill-seeker who has no clue what to do with money once he's got it. He gets bummed out one night, though, when his old partner Luther tells him that he's going to leave the conning game behind.

Call To Adventure

Johnny finds out that the mob is after him because one of the guys he conned was a bagman for the gangster Doyle Lonnegan. Johnny's partner Luther ends up getting killed by Lonnegan's people, and Johnny decides that he needs to avenge Luther's death the only way he knows how: conning Lonnegan out of a ton of money.

So Johnny heads out to Chicago to meet one of America's greatest conmen, Henry Gondorff.

Refusal Of The Call

At first, Johnny isn't impressed with Henry Gondorff at all. He thinks the guy is a washed-up drunk and reconsiders trying to play a big con on Lonnegan. But eventually, his need for revenge gets the best of him and he agrees to do whatever it takes to get Lonnegan.

Meeting The Mentor

Once Johnny spends a little time with Henry, he realizes that Henry truly is a great conman and that he can learn an awful lot from him. In this sense, Johnny goes from having Luther as a mentor to having Henry as one. Johnny has no clue how to pull off a big con, so he listens closely and follows Henry around to his conman hangouts to learn from everything he does.

Crossing The Threshold

Johnny finds himself right in the middle of the conning universe when he meets Henry Gondorff's buddies and learns all about the big con. Once the men hatch their plan, Johnny is put with Henry and asked to be an "inside man," meaning that he'll have to make direct contact with Doyle Lonnegan and convince the guy that he's a disgruntled employee of Henry Gondorff. Johnny does just this, and before we know it he's gained Lonnegan's trust.

Tests, Allies, Enemies

Everything seems to be going well with the big con, except for the fact that Lt. Snyder has followed Johnny from Chicago and wants to shake him down for money. Snyder is a threat to the entire big con because he knows Johnny's true identity. That's why Henry Gondorff uses an ally (Hickey) to pose as an FBI agent and distract Snyder by pretending to make him work on an ongoing FBI case.

Approach To The Inmost Cave

As the movie goes on, Johnny tries harder and harder to conceal from Henry the fact that he (Johnny) has Snyder breathing down his neck. Johnny also forms a relationship with a waitress named Loretta and reveals to us just how lonely he feels all the time. Throughout this movie, Hooker has seemed like a lone wolf. But now we realize that this life is getting to him and that he wants something more.

Ordeal

Johnny is walking to meet Loretta one day when a mysterious gunman appears out of nowhere and shoots Loretta in the head. Johnny's stunned, but the gunman quickly tells him that Loretta was actually an assassin hired by Doyle Lonnegan to kill Johnny. It's hard to see how Johnny will be able to keep it all together for his big con with Lonnegan, but we know he's come too far to turn back and that he'll just have to deal with it.

Reward (Seizing The Sword)

In the final scene at the fake betting bar, Johnny and Henry spring their trap on Lonnegan and get him to cough up a half-million dollars. The whole con goes swimmingly and Lt. Snyder ends up pulling Lonnegan out of the bar after it looks as though Henry and Johnny have been killed.

The Road Back

Outside the bar, Lonnegan yells about the half-million dollars he lost. But Snyder tries to talk sense into him by reminding him that there are two dead bodies in the betting bar and that he (Lonnegan) needs to get as far away as possible to avoid getting mixed up in the crime.

Resurrection

There is an almost literal resurrection that takes place when we realize that neither Johnny nor Henry are actually dead. They've both faked their own deaths with fake guns and some handy-dandy blood capsules. Hey: they've said all along that the only way to con Lonnegan was to keep him from realizing he'd been conned.

Return With The Elixir

Henry swiftly tells all his conmen buddies to tear down the fake betting bar and leave no trace of it for anyone to find. Then he asks Johnny if he'd like to go pick up his share of the big con money. Johnny turns down the money and says he'd only blow it anyway. The only thing that matters to him is that he avenged Luther's death and that he has a new mentor/friend in Henry Gondorff.