Ordet
How do we understand faith and prayer, and what of miracles? August 1925 on a Danish farm. Widowed Patriarch Borgen, who's rather prominent in his community, has three sons: Mikkel, a good-hearted agnostic whose wife Inger is pregnant, Johannes, who believes he is Jesus, and Anders, young, slight, in love with the tailor's daughter. The fundamentalist sect of the girl's father is anathema to Borgen's traditional Lutheranism; he opposes the marriage until the tailor forbids it, then Borgen's pride demands that it happen. Unexpectedly, Inger, who is the family's sweetness and light, has problems with her pregnancy. The rational doctor arrives, and a long night brings sharp focus to at least four views of faith.
Plot Structure
Story beats plotted across runtime
Narrative Arc
Emotional journey through the story's key moments
Story Circle
Blueprint 15-beat structure
Arcplot Score Breakdown
Weighted: Precision (70%) + Arc (15%) + Theme (15%)
Ordet (1955) exhibits strategically placed narrative architecture, characteristic of Carl Theodor Dreyer's storytelling approach. This structural analysis examines how the film's 15-point plot structure maps to proven narrative frameworks across 2 hours and 5 minutes. With an Arcplot score of 6.7, the film balances conventional beats with creative variation.
Structural Analysis
The Status Quo at 1 minutes (1% through the runtime) establishes The Borgen family searches for Johannes across the windswept Danish fields. The household is established as devout but troubled—Johannes has wandered off again, believing himself to be Christ. This opening establishes a family bound by faith yet fractured by tragedy and doubt.. Significantly, this early placement immediately immerses viewers in the story world.
The inciting incident occurs at 15 minutes when Anders announces he wishes to marry Anne, daughter of Peter the tailor—leader of a rival, stricter religious sect. Morten erupts in fury at the thought of union with this "gloomy" faith. This religious conflict disrupts the family's stability and introduces the central schism between different expressions of Christianity.. At 12% through the film, this Disruption aligns precisely with traditional story structure. This beat shifts the emotional landscape, launching the protagonist into the central conflict.
The First Threshold at 31 minutes marks the transition into Act II, occurring at 25% of the runtime. This reveals the protagonist's commitment to Morten swallows his pride and visits Peter the tailor to request Anne's hand for Anders. Peter coldly refuses, calling the Borgen faith too worldly and "merry." This rejection forces the families into open conflict and commits the narrative to exploring whether faith divides or unites. Morten's choice to humble himself begins the story's deeper examination of religious pride., moving from reaction to action.
At 63 minutes, the Midpoint arrives at 50% of the runtime—precisely centered, creating perfect narrative symmetry. Significantly, this crucial beat Inger goes into difficult labor. The doctor is summoned as complications arise. Johannes prophesies that Inger will die and that he could save her if anyone would believe. This false defeat transforms the theological debate into life-or-death stakes. The abstract question of faith becomes achingly concrete: can belief actually matter in the face of medical reality?., fundamentally raising what's at risk. The emotional intensity shifts, dividing the narrative into clear before-and-after phases.
The Collapse moment at 94 minutes (75% through) represents the emotional nadir. Here, Inger dies. The light of the household is extinguished. Mikkel breaks down—the atheist who loved her most is destroyed by loss. Johannes disappears into the night, and the family assumes his madness has finally consumed him entirely. Death has won. The "whiff of death" is not metaphorical but absolute: the most faithful, loving presence in the film has been taken., reveals the protagonist at their lowest point. This beat's placement in the final quarter sets up the climactic reversal.
The Second Threshold at 100 minutes initiates the final act resolution at 80% of the runtime. Johannes returns, transformed—his madness lifted, speaking now with clarity. Little Maren, Inger's daughter, approaches him with pure, childlike faith and asks why no one will let Uncle Johannes wake Mother. In this moment, the synthesis occurs: Johannes's prophetic vision meets a child's simple belief. Johannes realizes that faith has been present all along in the innocent., demonstrating the transformation achieved throughout the journey.
Emotional Journey
Ordet's emotional architecture traces a deliberate progression across 15 carefully calibrated beats.
Narrative Framework
This structural analysis employs proven narrative structure principles that track dramatic progression. By mapping Ordet against these established plot points, we can identify how Carl Theodor Dreyer utilizes or subverts traditional narrative conventions. The plot point approach reveals not only adherence to structural principles but also creative choices that distinguish Ordet within the drama genre.
Comparative Analysis
Additional drama films include After Thomas, South Pacific and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.
Plot Points by Act
Act I
SetupStatus Quo
The Borgen family searches for Johannes across the windswept Danish fields. The household is established as devout but troubled—Johannes has wandered off again, believing himself to be Christ. This opening establishes a family bound by faith yet fractured by tragedy and doubt.
Theme
Old Morten Borgen discusses faith with the doctor, lamenting that the family's "living faith" has disappeared with Johannes's madness. The doctor suggests that miracles belong to a bygone era—stating the theme that modern rationalism has killed authentic faith. This dialectic between belief and doubt will drive the entire narrative.
Worldbuilding
The Borgen household is established: Morten the patriarch clinging to his "happy Christianity," Mikkel the skeptic married to the luminous Inger, mad Johannes wandering the hills, and young Anders yearning for love. The farm represents traditional Danish faith confronting modernity. Inger's pregnancy and gentle spirit establish her as the household's emotional center.
Disruption
Anders announces he wishes to marry Anne, daughter of Peter the tailor—leader of a rival, stricter religious sect. Morten erupts in fury at the thought of union with this "gloomy" faith. This religious conflict disrupts the family's stability and introduces the central schism between different expressions of Christianity.
Resistance
Morten debates whether to approach Peter the tailor about Anders's marriage. Meanwhile, Inger serves as spiritual guide, counseling both Anders about patience and Mikkel about reopening his heart to faith. Johannes wanders through scenes prophesying doom that no one heeds. The family struggles with whether to reach across religious division.
Act II
ConfrontationFirst Threshold
Morten swallows his pride and visits Peter the tailor to request Anne's hand for Anders. Peter coldly refuses, calling the Borgen faith too worldly and "merry." This rejection forces the families into open conflict and commits the narrative to exploring whether faith divides or unites. Morten's choice to humble himself begins the story's deeper examination of religious pride.
Mirror World
Inger and Mikkel share an intimate domestic scene, revealing the depth of their love despite his atheism and her quiet faith. Inger represents the film's thematic ideal: faith as lived love rather than doctrinal dispute. Her pregnancy symbolizes hope and continuation. This relationship embodies the "word made flesh"—the incarnational theology the title references.
Premise
The exploration of faith through the Borgen household intensifies. Johannes continues his prophetic wanderings, dismissed by all. Anders and Anne meet secretly, their young love defying parental prohibition. Mikkel and Morten debate God's existence. Inger's presence brings warmth to every scene—she alone seems to bridge all the divisions. The promise of the premise unfolds: what does authentic faith look like?
Midpoint
Inger goes into difficult labor. The doctor is summoned as complications arise. Johannes prophesies that Inger will die and that he could save her if anyone would believe. This false defeat transforms the theological debate into life-or-death stakes. The abstract question of faith becomes achingly concrete: can belief actually matter in the face of medical reality?
Opposition
Inger's condition worsens despite the doctor's efforts. The baby is stillborn. Johannes's prophecies grow more urgent—he insists he could raise Inger if only someone would believe. The family dismisses him as mad. Peter the tailor arrives, and in shared grief, he and Morten begin to reconcile. But the rational world seems to be winning: medicine fails, and no one has faith enough to ask for a miracle.
Collapse
Inger dies. The light of the household is extinguished. Mikkel breaks down—the atheist who loved her most is destroyed by loss. Johannes disappears into the night, and the family assumes his madness has finally consumed him entirely. Death has won. The "whiff of death" is not metaphorical but absolute: the most faithful, loving presence in the film has been taken.
Crisis
The family gathers for Inger's funeral preparations. Morten's faith is shattered—he raged against Peter's gloomy religion but now faces the same devastating loss. Mikkel sits in silent grief. Anders and Anne find each other, their love the only reconciliation amid sorrow. The pastor arrives to speak empty theological platitudes that comfort no one. Faith itself seems to have died with Inger.
Act III
ResolutionSecond Threshold
Johannes returns, transformed—his madness lifted, speaking now with clarity. Little Maren, Inger's daughter, approaches him with pure, childlike faith and asks why no one will let Uncle Johannes wake Mother. In this moment, the synthesis occurs: Johannes's prophetic vision meets a child's simple belief. Johannes realizes that faith has been present all along in the innocent.
Synthesis
At Inger's open coffin, Johannes commands her to rise in the name of Jesus Christ. The family watches in terror and hope. Slowly, impossibly, Inger's hands move. She opens her eyes. She lives. Mikkel, the lifelong atheist, embraces his resurrected wife and whispers that he has found his faith. The miracle validates not doctrinal correctness but pure, childlike belief—the word has become flesh once more.
Transformation
Inger and Mikkel embrace as life returns fully to her body. She asks about the child; Mikkel tells her it died. "But I have you," she says. The final image inverts the opening: where the film began with the family searching for the lost, mad Johannes, it ends with wholeness restored through impossible grace. Faith—not doctrine, but lived, trusting faith—has performed the miracle that reason declared impossible.