Ever notice that every blockbuster movie has the same fundamental pieces? A hero, a journey, some conflicts to muck it all up, a reward, and the hero returning home and everybody applauding his or her swag? Yeah, scholar Joseph Campbell noticed first—in 1949. He wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces, in which he outlined the 17 stages of a mythological hero's journey.

About half a century later, Christopher Vogler condensed those stages down to 12 in an attempt to show Hollywood how every story ever written should—and, uh, does—follow Campbell's pattern. We're working with those 12 stages, so take a look. (P.S. Want more? We have an entire Online Course devoted to the hero's journey.)

Ordinary World

Earthlings are totally unaware that trouble is coming when the film begins. Americans are gearing up to celebrate the 4th of July weekend, and we presume that other people around the world are looking forward to their regular old weekends as well.

Call To Adventure

Unfortunately, a bunch of alien spaceships show up and position themselves over major cities around the world. They aren't communicating with anyone on earth, so no one's sure what they're there for or whether they're friendly.

Refusal Of The Call

Being optimistic and assuming that the visitors are friendly (or at least, not there to cause trouble), U.S. forces send out some planes to communicate with one of the alien spaceships. Unfortunately, the aliens blow that plane right up.

Now that they know their visitors are not nice, the U.S. President orders the evacuation of American cities.

Meeting The Mentor

Kind of parallel with the "Refusal of the Call" phase, our friendly neighborhood mentor/hero, David Levinson, shows up at the White House to try to lend a hand/offer advice.

Well, he's really there to get his ex-wife Connie (the President's communications director) out of Washington, D.C., but he ends up trying to give the President advice, too.

You see, David has realized that the aliens are planning an attack and tells the President what he believes they are planning. Unfortunately, that information comes too late to prevent the aliens from decimating the military's "Welcome Wagon."

Crossing The Threshold

David, Connie, Julius, and various White House staff (including the President and his daughter) flee Washington on Air Force One. Their entire world has been completely turned upside down as they face the end of the world, potentially.

Tests, Allies, Enemies

David struggles to help as the President and his Secretary of Defense ponder using nukes to combat the spaceships. David's super against this…which leads to a big argument.

However, that tussle does lead to something good: the President learns for the first time that Area 51, long the fodder of alien conspiracy theorists, actually does exist. He insists on visiting, and there the whole group of them learns that there's been a functional alien spaceship there since the 1950's.

After the attempt to nuke the aliens fails because of their shields, David concocts a plan for disabling those protections. His idea: plant a computer virus in their mother ship, which will take down the shields long enough for forces around the world to destroy the spaceships positioned near them. Fighter pilot Steve Hiller volunteers to pilot the alien spaceship up into the mother ship to carry off the plan.

Approach To The Inmost Cave

After a few hiccups, Steve manages to get the ship up and out of Area 51, and he and David successfully make their way into the bowels of the mother ship.

Ordeal

They worry about being detected as they enter, but they make it through (it helps that they're driving an alien spaceship, natch).

Reward (Seizing The Sword)

David rushes to plant the virus before they are detected. He succeeds, and it looks like everything's going to work out just as planned. However, they do get a bit stuck as they are preparing to leave, and it looks like the aliens are going to figure out they've been infiltrated.

Stress levels rise (for David/Steve and us).

Meanwhile, back on earth, Russell manages to destroy the spaceship over Area 51 by getting the missile to connect directly with the spaceship's major weapon. Now that they know the best way to take down the ships, the U.S. forces message their allies around the world.

The Road Back

After crouching down out of view of the aliens for a while (long enough to smoke a celebratory cigar), David and Steve manage to blow their way out of their sticky situation and escape just in the nick of time before the mother ship closes its doors. They head back toward earth.

Resurrection

David and Steve just escaped death—that's basically all the rebirth the movie can handle.

Return With The Elixir

David and Steve return to earth heroes and are reunited with their lady friends, Connie and Jasmine. David then finally gets what he's been wanting for a while now: he seems to be officially reunited with Connie.

Her love is all he needs, to paraphrase his father/the Beatles.