Before we get started with the Act II breakdown, I wanted to post this tribute to Harold Ramis by Stephen Tobolowsky. If you read nothing else, skip down to paragraph seven and read through about how the pencil breaking scene to test the rules of the world evolved. Just brilliant.
Groundhog Day, Act I breakdown here
Groundhog Day, Act I breakdown here
ACT TWO, PART 1
SEQUENCE THREE
… and Phil wakes up in the B&B bed, to the same clock,
the same song. This time he is elated, though. Downstairs, he asks the
proprietress if the cops have been by looking for him, and when she says no, he
kisses her. He announces “I’m not going to live by their rules anymore!” We see
immediately his PLAN is to take every advantage of his new situation (and we’re
already looking forward to what Bill Murray is going to do with this). (37
min.)
At the diner, Rita watches in disgust as Phil eats a huge
spread of various full breakfasts and pastries, and then lights up a cigarette.
She quotes Sir Walter Scott, “The Wretch” at him. Phil laughs: “You think I’m
egocentric?” Rita replies, “I know you’re egocentric. It’s your defining
characteristic.” (THE AWFUL TRUTH, and sets up CHARACTER ARC.) On the way out,
Phil stops to talk to an attractive woman diner (Nancy) and asks a series of
questions about where she went to high school and her English teacher’s name.
We sense what’s coming.
Then next day, Phil finds Nancy at Gobbler’s Knob and
pretends to recognize her from high school. She doesn’t know him but is
convinced by the details he knows, and impressed that he’s a TV weatherman, and
is happy to meet him later.
That night Phil makes out with Nancy in his room, but keeps
calling her Rita.
Phil continues to take advantage of his situation; in a
montage he uses his foreknowledge of events to steal money from a bank truck,
buy a classic car, and seduce more women.
SEQUENCE FOUR
Now Phil turns his attention to Rita. He sabotages the van
so he can get Rita for a whole day, and in a series of scenes, he takes several
days — or maybe weeks — in a row to learn a great deal about her and refine his
seduction story, feigning that her favorite drink is also his, that he wants
the same lifestyle that she does, even learning to quote French poetry. (This
is a wonderfully comic takeoff on the standard GETTING TO KNOW YOU scene and
apparent cosmic synchronicities of romantic comedy — it’s all a complete game
to Phil.)
(43 min.)
Rita is suspicious of his attention (proving she’s the right
person for him) but over a series of dates (actually, the same date) she starts
to warm to him. Finally they have a genuinely beautiful night, with a
spontaneous snowball fight and some real chemistry, even dancing in a gazebo.
Phil manages to charm Rita up to his room (54 min.), but
there he becomes too aware of the rapidly ticking clock and comes on too
strong. Rita is suddenly certain this has all been some kind of setup, and
slaps him.
The next night Phil runs through the same sequence, trying
to recreate the same magic, which of course he can’t. He becomes increasingly
manic and desperate (with a hilarious takeoff on the GOSH, WOULDN’T WE MAKE
GOOD PARENTS trope of romantic comedy) and Rita slaps him again.
Cut to a
montage of slaps.
Phil finally walks home in the dark, past a lineup of ice
sculptures of human-sized groundhogs (EXTERNALIZING HIS OPPONENT — or what he
is coming to think of as his opponent. Also groundhog Phil is Phil’s
DOPPELGANGER).
This is the MIDPOINT — a big, big defeat. 58 min.
ACT TWO, PART 2
SEQUENCE FIVE
In the next days we see Phil starting to crack. He gives
increasingly offensive newscasts on the festival. The alarm clock looms larger
and larger and Phil destroys it again and again. (Great EXTERNALIZATION OF
OPPONENT.) He’s given up.
(Also note that it is a very common technique in romantic comedy, as well as other genres, to open the second half of the film with a montage, to show passage of time, progression, or as here, that the protagonist is stuck.)
Rita is clearly concerned about him, sensing an emotional
break. Phil in fact becomes convinced that this is all Phil the groundhog’s
doing and kidnaps the other Phil (after bidding Rita an emotional goodbye:
“Remember that we once had one beautiful night together.”). After a police
chase, Phil drives into a quarry and drives the car off a cliff; it explodes,
killing both Phils. But the next morning Phil wakes in bed again, whole. (1.05)
SEQUENCE SIX
There follows a series of suicide attempts, none of which
take. (A whole VISIT TO DEATH montage!) A devastated Rita identifies Phil at
the morgue; Larry is delighted to comfort her. (1:06)
In the diner, Phil desperately tries to talk to Rita again.
He takes her around the diner and tells her everything about everyone in it,
and everything that’s going to happen. Then he tells her everything he knows
about her. Then he writes down exactly what Larry is about to come in and say,
which Larry does. Rita finally believes him. She says she’s going to spend the
rest of the day with him as an objective witness to see what happens. (1.10)
Back in Phil’s room, they bond while tossing cards into a
hat on the bed. Phil is a master at it — he’s spent the last six months
learning how. Rita asks, “This is how you spend eternity?” (A nice nudge toward
Phil’s eventual revelation.) Phil says the worst part is that tomorrow she’ll
wake up and not remember any of this and treat him like he’s a jerk again. Rita
says he’s not a jerk, but Phil admits “I am
a jerk.” (CHARACTER GROWTH.) Rita says the situation might not be so bad:
“Sometimes I wish I had a thousand
lifetimes. Maybe it’s not a curse.” She snuggles up to him at midnight — then
hits him when he doesn’t disappear. He says it doesn’t happen until 6 a.m.
(even Phil’s MAGICAL HOUR is warped) — and asks her to stay. Platonically.
Phil reads poetry to Rita in bed as she falls asleep. Then
he confesses to her that he thinks she’s wonderful. “I’ve never seen anyone
that’s as nice to people as you are. The first time I saw you something
happened to me … I knew that I wanted to hold you as hard as I could. I don’t
deserve someone like you, but if I ever could, I swear I would love you for the
rest of my life.”
(CONFESSION TO SLEEPING LOVED ONE.)
An interesting image here — the ice on the window looks like
the eye of God, watching, and seeing Phil's growth.
But at 6 a.m. the song plays, and Phil wakes up in bed,
alone. (ALL IS LOST) (1:15)
ACT TWO CLIMAX
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)
(Includes full story structure breakdowns of ten films of all genres.)
--------------------------------------------------
If you find these story breakdowns helpful, you can find more in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. Different breakdowns in each book.
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors and Writing Love, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, II, available in e formats and as pdf files. Either book, just $2.99.
- Kindle
- Amaxon DE (Eur. 2.40)

(Includes full story structure breakdowns of ten films of all genres.)