Screenplay Structure Analysis

Killers of the Flower Moon

Written by Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese · Crime Drama · 155 pages · 205 scenes · 3-act natural structure · linear organization · Analysis confidence: Low

In 1920s Oklahoma, a series of brutal murders targeting wealthy Osage Nation members for their oil headrights exposes a conspiracy of greed that reaches the highest levels of white society.

Tone
Dark, methodical, tragic

Tension curve

Dramatic intensity across Killers of the Flower Moon from first page to last, sampled at 40 points on a 0–10 scale. Values: 4.1, 4.3, 4.5, 5, 4.5, 5.1, 5.3, 6.7, 6.8, 6.8, 6.6, 6.6, 6.6, 7, 7.4, 7.2, 6.7, 6.1, 6.9, 7.2, 7.3, 6.5, 6.7, 7.1, 7.7, 7.3, 7, 6.7, 7, 7.1, 7.2, 6.9, 6.9, 7.2, 8.2, 8.7, 8.6, 7, 5.2, 3.8.

Structure at a glance

Inciting incident
Page 28, 18% of the script: A montage shows young Osage men dying mysteriously - John Whitehair, Bill Stepson, Anna Sanford, and Rose Lewis - all without investigation.
Act 1 break
Page 30, 19% of the script: Ernest and Mollie's wedding marks the end of setup and beginning of the systematic murder campaign.
Midpoint
Page 83, 54% of the script: At the Smith home, Reta tells Mollie she changed her will to protect her and suggests someone has put medicine on Mollie, questioning why she's helping the killers and urging her to leave for Colorado Springs.
Act 2 break
Page 118, 76% of the script: Tom White's arrival and confrontation with Ernest shifts the story from conspiracy to investigation and reckoning.
Climax
Page 135, 87% of the script: Kelsie Morrison testifies that Hale hired him to kill Anna Brown for $1,600, describing how he shot her through the head in Three Mile Canyon.
Peak tension
8.7 out of 10, reached about 90% of the way through; the script averages 6.5.
Average scene length
1.2 pages

Structural personality

This is a methodical, sprawling crime epic that functions as both intimate family tragedy and sweeping indictment of American capitalism and racism. The structure mirrors the slow, systematic nature of the conspiracy itself - building relationships and trust in Act 1, then methodically destroying them through calculated murders in Act 2, before the inevitable reckoning in Act 3. The pacing is deliberately patient, allowing the horror to accumulate through repetition and escalation rather than sudden shocks.

Pacing

The script uses a slow-burn approach with short, interconnected scenes (average 1.2 pages) that create a mosaic effect. Key murders are spaced throughout to maintain tension, while domestic scenes with Mollie and Ernest provide emotional grounding. The investigation phase accelerates the pace through cross-cutting between multiple storylines converging on the conspiracy.

Themes

Similar shapes

Screenplays whose tension curve most closely matches Killers of the Flower Moon.

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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