Screenplay Structure Analysis
Conclave
When the Pope dies suddenly, Cardinal Lawrence must oversee the secretive papal conclave to elect a new Pope, but discovers shocking secrets that threaten to tear the Catholic Church apart.
Tone
Tense, contemplative, with mounting paranoia and moral complexity
Tension curve
Dramatic intensity across Conclave from first page to last, sampled at 40 points on a 0–10 scale. Values: 5.1, 5.2, 4.9, 4.3, 3.7, 4.2, 5, 5.8, 5.7, 5.6, 5.5, 6.1, 6.6, 7, 6.2, 5.3, 4.6, 4.3, 4.1, 4.6, 5.3, 5.9, 6, 6.4, 6.9, 7, 6.7, 6.5, 6.7, 6.9, 6.8, 6.9, 7.1, 7.1, 6.8, 6.8, 7.5, 8.2, 7.9, 7.5.
Structure at a glance
- Inciting incident
- Page 3, 2% of the script: Lawrence enters the papal bedroom and sees the dead Pope lying on the bed, with three senior cardinals kneeling around it, then joins them in prayer.
- Act 1 break
- Page 35, 27% of the script: The first day of conclave ends with Lawrence's speech and the cardinals settling in for the election process.
- Midpoint
- Page 68, 53% of the script: Lawrence encounters Bellini by the sealed papal suite entrance, where Bellini accuses Lawrence of ambition and warns about Tedesco's savage attacks on the Holy Father.
- Act 2 break
- Page 101, 78% of the script: Lawrence confronts Bellini about the Pope's secret report, marking the climactic revelation before the final ballot.
- Climax
- Page 124, 96% of the script: Lawrence confronts Benitez about the Geneva clinic treatment, and Benitez reveals they were born intersex and underwent surgical procedures to live as a man.
- Peak tension
- 8.2 out of 10, reached about 95% of the way through; the script averages 6.0.
- Average scene length
- 1.3 pages
Structural personality
This is a tightly contained chamber piece that builds tension through incremental revelations and political maneuvering. The structure follows the ritual progression of the papal conclave itself - from the Pope's death through multiple voting rounds to final election. Each day of conclave brings new secrets to light, creating a mounting pressure cooker effect within the Vatican's walls. The story uses the formal constraints of Catholic ritual as both dramatic framework and metaphor for institutional power struggles.
Pacing
The pacing mirrors the deliberate, ceremonial nature of the conclave while building underlying tension. Long stretches of procedural scenes (voting sequences around scenes 60-85) are punctuated by explosive revelations (Tremblay's corruption around scene 96, the terrorist attack around scene 111). The rhythm accelerates significantly in the final act as secrets cascade and Lawrence must make crucial moral decisions under extreme pressure.
Themes
- Faith vs. doubt
- Power and corruption
- Truth and secrecy
- Tradition vs. progress
- Moral ambiguity
Similar shapes
Screenplays whose tension curve most closely matches Conclave.
- The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh
- Past Lives by Celine Song
- The Big Short by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
Scene summaries and structural markers are generated by AI analysis of the screenplay text and may contain minor inaccuracies. ScriptGraph analyzes structure and does not reproduce screenplay text.
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