Soul
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.
The film struggled financially against its major studio investment of $150.0M, earning $122.0M globally (-19% loss).
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%)
Soul (2020) demonstrates deliberately positioned narrative architecture, characteristic of Pete Docter's storytelling approach. This structural analysis examines how the film's 15-point plot structure maps to proven narrative frameworks across 1 hour and 41 minutes. With an Arcplot score of 7.6, the film showcases strong structural fundamentals.
Structural Analysis
The Status Quo at 1 minutes (1% through the runtime) establishes Joe Gardner teaches middle school band, dreaming of becoming a professional jazz musician but stuck in a life that feels incomplete and unrewarding.. Notably, this early placement immediately immerses viewers in the story world.
The inciting incident occurs at 12 minutes when Joe gets the call of a lifetime: his former student Curley invites him to audition for the Dorothea Williams Quartet, and Joe nails the audition, finally achieving his lifelong dream.. 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 25 minutes marks the transition into Act II, occurring at 25% of the runtime. This shows the protagonist's commitment to Joe escapes the conveyor to the Great Beyond and accidentally enters the Great Before, committing to the deception of being a mentor soul to find a way back to Earth and his big performance., moving from reaction to action.
At 51 minutes, the Midpoint arrives at 50% of the runtime—precisely centered, creating perfect narrative symmetry. Structural examination shows that this crucial beat Joe (as cat) and 22 (in Joe's body) successfully return to Earth with Joe's body intact and the performance still possible—a false victory as Joe still doesn't understand what he needs to learn., fundamentally raising what's at risk. The emotional intensity shifts, dividing the narrative into clear before-and-after phases.
The Collapse moment at 75 minutes (74% through) represents the emotional nadir. Here, Joe crushes 22's spirit by telling her that her epiphanies about life were "just regular old living," causing her to become a Lost Soul, and Joe realizes he has destroyed the one being who helped him return to life., demonstrates the protagonist at their lowest point. This beat's placement in the final quarter sets up the climactic reversal.
The Second Threshold at 80 minutes initiates the final act resolution at 80% of the runtime. Joe returns to the Great Before and reviews 22's memories of her day on Earth, finally understanding that life itself is the purpose, not achievement—the spark isn't a purpose, it's the joy of living., demonstrating the transformation achieved throughout the journey.
Emotional Journey
Soul's emotional architecture traces a deliberate progression across 15 carefully calibrated beats.
Narrative Framework
This structural analysis employs a 15-point narrative structure framework that maps key story moments. By mapping Soul against these established plot points, we can identify how Pete Docter utilizes or subverts traditional narrative conventions. The plot point approach reveals not only adherence to structural principles but also creative choices that distinguish Soul within the animation genre.
Pete Docter's Structural Approach
Among the 4 Pete Docter films analyzed on Arcplot, the average structural score is 5.5, showcasing experimental approaches to narrative form. Soul represents one of the director's most structurally precise works. For comparative analysis, explore the complete Pete Docter filmography.
Comparative Analysis
Additional animation films include The Bad Guys, The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie and Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel I. Presage Flower. For more Pete Docter analyses, see Inside Out, Up and Monsters, Inc..
Plot Points by Act
Act I
SetupStatus Quo
Joe Gardner teaches middle school band, dreaming of becoming a professional jazz musician but stuck in a life that feels incomplete and unrewarding.
Theme
Joe's mother tells him: "Your father had big dreams too, and where did those dreams get him?" establishing the central tension between pursuing passion and practical security.
Worldbuilding
Joe's ordinary world: struggling with unmotivated students, pressure from his mother to accept a full-time teaching position, his tiny apartment filled with jazz memorabilia, and his all-consuming dream of playing professional jazz.
Disruption
Joe gets the call of a lifetime: his former student Curley invites him to audition for the Dorothea Williams Quartet, and Joe nails the audition, finally achieving his lifelong dream.
Resistance
Joe walks on air after landing the gig, but in his distraction falls down a manhole and separates from his body, finding himself as a soul heading toward the Great Beyond, desperately trying to escape back to Earth.
Act II
ConfrontationFirst Threshold
Joe escapes the conveyor to the Great Beyond and accidentally enters the Great Before, committing to the deception of being a mentor soul to find a way back to Earth and his big performance.
Mirror World
Joe is paired with 22, a cynical soul who has spent thousands of years in the Great Before and has no interest in Earth, establishing the relationship that will challenge Joe's understanding of life's purpose.
Premise
Joe tries to help 22 find her "spark" so she can get her Earth pass and he can steal it; they experience Earth accidentally with Joe in a therapy cat's body and 22 in Joe's body, where 22 begins discovering life's simple joys.
Midpoint
Joe (as cat) and 22 (in Joe's body) successfully return to Earth with Joe's body intact and the performance still possible—a false victory as Joe still doesn't understand what he needs to learn.
Opposition
22 experiences the beauty of ordinary life while Joe becomes increasingly single-minded about making the gig; Terry the accountant closes in on them; Joe's selfishness grows as he dismisses 22's discoveries and uses her to get what he wants.
Collapse
Joe crushes 22's spirit by telling her that her epiphanies about life were "just regular old living," causing her to become a Lost Soul, and Joe realizes he has destroyed the one being who helped him return to life.
Crisis
Joe performs with the Dorothea Williams Quartet and achieves his lifelong dream, but feels empty and realizes that 22 was right—he thought the gig would make him feel complete, but he feels exactly the same.
Act III
ResolutionSecond Threshold
Joe returns to the Great Before and reviews 22's memories of her day on Earth, finally understanding that life itself is the purpose, not achievement—the spark isn't a purpose, it's the joy of living.
Synthesis
Joe rescues 22 from being a Lost Soul by showing her the beauty she found in living; he returns to Earth with a new understanding, ready to truly live rather than just wait for life to start when he achieves his dream.
Transformation
Joe walks the same New York streets shown at the beginning, but now notices the leaves, the sky, the people—fully present and alive to the beauty of ordinary existence, transformed from someone waiting to live into someone living.