Making a Deal with The Devil

One of the eight basic plots I was mostly fascinated by was "Faust". Faust is a protagonist based on a classic German story. This is when the protagonist supposedly makes a pact with the devil or a devilish figure, which usually involves selling their soul in exchange for unlimited knowledge or worldly pleasures or riches. This is often a pattern I have noticed in storytelling which can be frustrating knowing where our protagonist will end up yet they do it anyway!

So why do characters make a deal with the devil? Well, the protagonist must want something. They seek either fame, fortune or power in order to escape the mundanity of their everyday lives and a supernatural figure is just the push they needed. Maybe they are caught in a web of secrets, lies and hidden truths and they look for answers. The Devil provides the answers and is the only one willing to reveal them, on the condition that character makes a deal. The Devil must be really persuasive and not underestimate the deal they make with. The deal must look promising and will somehow benefit the character but at the end of the day, it will benefit the Devil more, meaning the gift will backfire or reveal to something sinister.

A more realistic use of this plot in film, I have encountered is one of my favourite films, Limitless (2011) where a down-on-his luck struggling writer Eddie Mora (played by Bradley Cooper) is given a drug by his ex brother in law, whom he has not seen in years. The drug is called the NZT 48 and it enhances the ability of accessing the entirety of his brain. Eddie takes it and later enjoys the consequences of his actions with making a deal with the devil until all of a sudden his brother in law is killed, meaning that he will be next for the drug he took, everyone is after. There's no going back. Eddie then takes all of the stash and tries to develop his career, his love life and eventually finds himself working for a big company alongside Carl Van Loon played by Robert Deniro, whilst keeping a well low profile. The stakes run high as the people who are after the drug are hot on Eddie's tail and his enhanced, new starts to crumble before him.

So whenever you hear a concept of a film like this you would probably think, "wow! I want that drug!" But there actually is a line where Eddie says, "what would you do?". There is always a cautionary moral in this type of plot, Faust, and that is actions have consequences... so be careful of which action you choose to make.