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

The ordinary world in North by Northwest is just that: ordinary, and emphatically so. Except that "ordinary" for Roger Thornhill is pretty fabulous by the standards of everyday people. That's because he's a high-powered Madison Avenue type.

Still, when the film opens, we see him immersed in his day-to-day routine, which involves lots of cocktails, dinner engagements with "Mother," and deluxe business meetings.

Call To Adventure

At one such meeting, Thornhill's rudely interrupted by some toughs, and that's when everything changes for him: when, at the Oak Bar in the Plaza Hotel in New York, he's mistaken for George Kaplan.

Refusal Of The Call

The transformation that the hero undergoes is gradual in North by Northwest, not just because Thornhill keeps insisting—rightly—that he's not George Kaplan. His first refusal of the call comes when he's taken to the Townsend mansion in Long Island and told threateningly to spill the beans, to say what he knows about Vandamm and Co. and how he knows it.

He knows nothing, so he really has no choice but to refusal the call to adventure, which requires him to be someone he's not.

Meeting The Mentor

It's not until Thornhill meets the Professor—very late in the film—that he'll understand this. His pretending to be George Kaplan really does become a matter of national security, because only this pretense can save Eve from detection by Vandamm. Before Thornhill realizes this, though—that is, before the Professor can explain it to him—several thresholds have to be crossed.

Crossing The Threshold

Thornhill passes the point of no return after the real Lester Townsend's killed at the United Nations, stabbed in the back by a knife thrown by one of Vandamm's underlings.

Go figure: Thornhill happens to be talking to Townsend when he dies, and makes the mistake of pulling the knife from his back just after the murder takes place, making everyone around convinced that he's the culprit.

And so Thornhill runs for cover, straight to the Train Station, but by now there's no more going back to his old life. Since Roger Thornhill's wanted for Lester Townsend's murder, he has no choice but to become someone else. And this brings him that much closer to acknowledging the need to fully assume George Kaplan's identity.

Tests, Allies, Enemies

Still, as far as Thornhill's concerned, there's another George Kaplan, and it's this guy that Thornhill pursues until he realizes, as the Professor says, "there is no such person."

In his quest for Kaplan, Thornhill meets Eve, a key ally and eventual spouse who will also spend time looking like an enemy to preserve her cover.

Approach To The Inmost Cave

Thornhill's arrival in Chicago marks his approach to "the inmost cave" that is Vandamm's house near Mount Rushmore. But already at the auction house, he's getting closer; after all, it's here he first sees the object that holds the government secrets that Vandamm smuggles: the pre-Columbian statuette. Thornhill keeps up the approach the farther west he goes.

Ordeal

Don't get us wrong: there are lots of ordeals in North by Northwest, beginning with Thornhill's forced drunk driving. But of all the ordeals that the film recounts, one stands out. You guessed it: the crop-dusting sequence. Hitch called it "a nightmare" for good reason: it features near-death experience after near-death experience in just a few minutes' worth of storytelling and film-viewing. Running, then diving, for his life, Thornhill very narrowly escapes the plane on the prairie.

And as if all that weren't enough, he has to steal a car and speed off when the scene ends as well.

Reward (Seizing The Sword)

In North by Northwest, the sword's a gun, and Thornhill seizes it when he finally figures out—better late than never—that the housekeeper is holding him up with a gun that shoots blanks, not real bullets. This frees him up to run to Eve's rescue just when she's about to board the plane from which Vandamm plans to throw her to her doom.

The Road Back

In the sped-up denouement, the road to resurrection's a pretty short one, screen-time-wise. After he gets away from the housekeeper (see Seizing The Sword), Thornhill rushes to Eve's rescue, only to find that the gate's locked.

This second-to-last obstacle then sends him to the very last one in the film, but, this being Hitch, the hero's last challenge is nothing to sneeze at: he has to climb down Mount Rushmore!

Resurrection

But the national monument ends up being the place of Thornhill's resurrection, since it's here that he's able to put an end to Vandamm's secret-smuggling plans and lift Eve to safety, having promised to return with her to New York.

We know that this return will really be a resurrection, though, since Thornhill's a changed man: having been Kaplan for a time, he's no longer under his mother's protection. He's outgrown all such shenanigans and matured, and Hitch sets us up to expect that he'll be a great husband for the rest of his days with Eve.

Return With The Elixir

We don't see Thornhill's return to New York with Eve, but we know when the film- journey ends that they're en route together, on an express train headed straight for marital bliss.

And don't forget sexual healing.