Climate Screenwriting for the Ages

As I write, there’s a collective rumble – more likely, a moan – rippling across social media platforms about that carriage scene in Bridgerton. Long before the Regency era drama set a lusty sexcapade to a classical version of Pitbull’s pop hit “Give Me Everything,” there was A Knight’s Tale. I remember well the shock, confusion, and subsequent delight I felt when the opening notes of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” began to play. It collapsed all time and space between a jousting competition in the 1300’s and a darkened movie theater in 2001. Upending expectations like this is just one of the clever ways period pieces can lend themselves to provocative writing.

Turn real-life people into beloved characters and kicky cameos.

Take whatever era your film or TV script is set in and include real-life, climate-adjacent historic figures, or characters inspired by them. They need not be a primary figure in your story. We all love cameos, recurring roles, and supporting characters who steal the show. If the issues are grounded in fact, go ahead and write characters to your fancy.

Picture socialite Bertha Russell in The Gilded Age, set in 1880’s New York, awaiting a visitor based on real-life scientist Eunice Newton Foote. Over dinner, Bertha’s husband George brings up Eunice’s discovery of carbon dioxide warming the atmosphere. George, whose money is tied to railroads and thus the coal industry, might ask a variety of questions that go from curious to skeptical to incensed when Eunice suggests his own industry could alter the world in a negative way. Perhaps the tension from that conversation lingers long after Eunice is gone and drives a wedge between George and Bertha, which influences the trajectory of the larger story. Or maybe it's simply a moment in time where George dismisses Eunice’s discovery as being outright silly, highlighting a dynamic that mirrors both climate denial and sexism. Or, hey, maybe George takes Eunice’s discovery to heart and decides to divest from his company in a very ahead-of-his-time kinda move. Now that would upend expectation.

Find the historic throughline.

Dig into the period you’re writing about, and you’ll find a link to a contemporary climate issue. Maybe your story, like Apollo 13 and Palm Royale, takes place in the late 1960s when the first computer model of the earth’s climate was created, thus paving the way for climate science. Maybe it’s set in the late 1400’s -slash-early 1500’s and can shed new light on the massive genocide of native peoples, something many consider to be the precursor to our current climate conundrum. Maybe your work flashes back to the Caribbean in the 1970’s where environmental racism played out with the import and use of a banned chemical pesticide that causes health problems even today.

What’s that? Oh, your story takes place way earlier in time and you don’t think you’ll find a climate link to it? I got you. Consider: There were gas wells in China in the year 347. Consider also: Ancient humans “significantly altered” ecosystems with fire. Let those two disparate examples help you see that when it comes to climate issues, there’s always a creative parallel to explore in your work.

Look to the futurists.

Around the same time Columbus and his ilk were slaughtering Indigenous people and altering the course of life for centuries to come, Leonardo da Vinci sketched an idea for the “aerial screw.” This proposed invention evoked the design of the helicopter, a machine that wouldn’t be created for another 450+ years. Whether they’re based on real people or not, using future-focused visionaries in your period piece allows you to play with all kinds of climate ideas that help the audience connect dots between historic and present-day realities. Because the climate solutions we need today come from the dreams of visionaries past.

Pro Tip: A good way to approach this is to manufacture it backwards. Start with what climate issue you feel particularly passionate about, dream big about potential solutions, then use that info to develop fresh but believable futurists for your script.

Use proxy stories.

It’s possible to write a climate screenplay that never mentions climate change. (To be fair, most films and TV shows don’t. If you’re curious, use the Climate Reality Check tool next time you’re watching something and let us know how it fares.) Proxy stories like Don’t Look Up use metaphor to draw parallels to the current climate predicament. 

In that vein, imagine, if you will, a period piece set in the 1980s that brings us through what happened with the ozone hole over Antarctica, from the scientists who discovered it to the government officials who acted urgently, to the education of the public, and the ultimate solving of the issue. How powerful would it be right now to see a story of people coming together to solve a seemingly insurmountable problem? Before work begins on your next historic screenplay, consider other man-made crises that were solved through collective effort. If you can examine any of them in your work, you might just inspire the lot of us.

Dialogue that makes the audience feel smarter.

Nothing makes a viewer feel smarter than knowing something a character doesn’t. When dealing with stories that take place before the era of climate consciousness, dialogue is a great tool to convey climate-coded nods to the audience. Ironic quips and witty retorts that seem to deny the existence of what we now know to be true or otherwise speak to our current situation will always get a laugh when done well. Similarly, dialogue that has characters wondering about future impacts of historic actions will also get us thinking.

Period pieces give us a window into worlds gone by, though we can never uncouple our perspective from the timeline we find ourselves in now. That inherent tension allows screenwriters to bring fresh takes to historic time periods.

As an exercise, take a scene from a favorite period movie or TV show and rewrite it to include a climate issue. When you figure out how to do that in a way that seamlessly supports the plot, you’ll be ready to rumble. Because there’s nothing better than a writer whose work deepens our understanding of the world while packing an entertaining punch. 

What favorite period movie or television show have you seen that includes mention of climate change? Did it work for you? Let us know by tagging us on all platforms, and don't forget to use the hashtag #ClimateScreenwriting.