Back in August 2003, I promised to discuss the concept of plants and payoffs in a future essay, and the time has finally arrived. Plants and payoffs can give your script depth and breadth but they require deft handling or else your plot will come off as artificial. This is why looking for ways to set up later events or revelations, or finding ways to carry certain motifs, objects or lines of dialogue through your script, is usually dealt with in revision, not in a first draft. You want your plants and payoffs to seem to emerge naturally from your story, not look like “clever tricks” foisted onto your characters and the plot by the writer.

What are plants and payoffs? A simple way to explain is with a familiar axiom: if you show a gun in an early scene (plant), it had better go off at a later point (payoff). If it doesn’t, the audience will feel cheated, and your story will seem like it is missing something. Conversely, if a gun is to go off at some point, then we better have seen the gun earlier on in the story. Otherwise the action will be contrived.

Plants and payoffs come in all shapes and forms. Director Billy Wilder was a master at this technique. Studying any of his films will give you hundreds of examples of plants and payoffs to examine. As a test case, let’s look at THE APARTMENT. Wilder and his co-screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond give the story an elegant cohesiveness via the use of plants and payoffs. Every character has a unique way of speaking, and certain phrases are used later by other characters. For instance, one of the executives that Jack Lemmon’s character works with, played by David Lewis, likes to add “-wise” to the end of everything: “Premium-wise and billing-wise, we are eighteen percent ahead of last year, October-wise.” Later, when Shirley MacLaine’s character laments her inability to fall in love with a nice guy like Lemmon, he responds, “That’s the way it crumbles, cookie-wise.” MacLaine then uses this exact phrase when she dumps her lover, played by Fred MacMurray. The replay of these phrases pulls the audience into this world. Just as we come up with catch phrases with our friends, it feels familiar and authentic when movie characters do the same. Wilder also uses props for payoffs in the movie. Lemmon takes a sleeping pill at the beginning of the movie and MacLaine later overdoses on the same pills. Lewis forgets his champagne after Lemmon refuses to let him bring his girlfriend into the apartment, and later Lemmon opens the champagne on New Year’s Eve. MacLaine, outside the apartment, hears the pop and thinks Lemmon has shot himself. This beat is yet another payoff, as Lemmon had earlier told MacLaine that he had once tried to shoot himself over an unrequited love. Again, because we have been filled in earlier on the characters’ backstories, these payoffs make us feel like insiders in the action.

As mentioned, the potential for both plants and payoffs is best determined in rewrites. Every revision will reveal a new opportunity for you to set up an important dramatic beat earlier or pay off on a line of dialogue later. Consider these tips when dealing with this technique:

1. Beware the obvious set-up: Say you have a mantel clock that will blow up at some point, as a surprise. Don’t have a character suddenly point to the clock for no reason in the middle of an early scene. Make sure the reference to the clock is essential to the first scene in some way. This way, we will register the clock without wondering why in the world the character has pointed it out.

2. Don’t overdo the dialogue payoffs: There is a fine line between the realistic repeating of catch phrases and arch, theatrical speech. Put less effort into being clever and more into making the characters sound like real people. Payoffs in dialogue work best when they are used primarily for key dramatic moments.

3. Streamline: If a music CD ends up having some emotional meaning for the story, but is introduced late in the script, yet earlier on we see a book with similar personal import, eliminate the book and use the CD throughout. This makes the role of that single object much stronger and more resonant.

4. Consider the genre: Plants and payoffs work well in comedy, where the repetition of actions or phrases can be used for humor. In more serious stories, they must be used more subtly and sparingly. Nevertheless, meaningful catch phrases in a character drama or a clever payoff on a planted prop or event in a suspense film can be just as effective if done well. Just be careful not to go overboard or else the action will start to seem coy rather than clever.

5. It doesn’t have to be obvious: Plants and payoffs can be so indirect and understated that they only become apparent on repeated viewings of a film. They are still working, on a subconscious level, however, to create a contained, three-dimensional world for your story.

The technique of plants and payoffs is an important element of the screenwriting craft, but one that takes practice to carry off well. Studying other films will help you see how screenwriters use this device to give texture and life to their stories.