Editing technique · used in 7 films
Cutting between 3 or more storylines happening at the same time in different places. The pattern draws out shared themes and usually builds to a single combined climax.
Examples
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 1988
The film opens with 3 separate men: a cab driver, a drifter and a young lawyer. You cut between them without knowing how they connect. Then the paths meet, and you realize that each of them ends up in the same room of consequences.
Where to see it: The café: Jacek sits at a table with rope and a stick in his bag, and Piotr takes his wife to the same café. Waldemar's cab stops outside, which sets the killing in motion.
Paul Thomas Anderson · 1999
Anderson cuts between the collapse of Frank's interview, Earl's dying confession and the other storylines. The stories echo each other emotionally, and each one makes louder what the others can't say.
Where to see it: The 'Wise Up' sequence. It cuts between all 9 storylines in a montage that completely breaks the film's own rules of realism.
Peter Jackson · 2002
Jackson weaves together Frodo/Gollum, Aragorn/Helm's Deep and Merry/Pippin/Treebeard as 3 parallel stories that share no scenes. The film's rhythm (that is, how long it stays with each thread before cutting) makes you feel a war being fought on several fronts at once.
Where to see it: The crosscut of the Ents' march on Isengard against the fight at Helm's Deep. The threads reach their climaxes together.
Alejandro González Iñárritu · 2003
The film cuts between Paul, Cristina and Jack constantly. Each thread comments on the other two, and they build toward one combined crisis in a motel. You feel how one accident links three different lives.
Where to see it: Motel: Paul and Cristina check into the motel where Jack is staying. Paul leads Jack into a clearing at gunpoint but cannot kill him.
Darren Aronofsky · 2006
The film cuts between three eras in which the same actors play three versions of a man and a woman. Each thread answers a question the others raise. They come together at the end.
Where to see it: The final stretch. The three timelines move toward the same moment at the tree.
Ridley Scott · 2015
The film cuts between 3 places at once: Watney on Mars, NASA and JPL on Earth, and the Hermes crew in space. The Earth scenes are crowded and busy, which sets off the empty dust of Mars. The 3 threads join in the final rescue.
Where to see it: The rescue attempt: Lewis blows open part of the Hermes to slow it, then flies out on a tether, and Watney punctures his suit to propel himself toward her.
Rian Johnson · 2017
The film cuts between Rey on the island, Finn and Rose on the casino planet and the fleet being chased through space. Each thread is about someone trying to find a way to hope, and the three come together at the Resistance's last stand.
Where to see it: Cutting between Ahch-To, Canto Bight and the fleet. Rey's lessons, the casino mission and the fuel chase run side by side.
Questions