The Assistant
In this digitally connected world, technology is here to assist us all. That helping hand turns deadly for the owner and everyone connected.
The film earned $1.3M at the global box office.
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%)
The Assistant (2020) demonstrates strategically placed narrative design, characteristic of Kitty Green's storytelling approach. This structural analysis examines how the film's 15-point plot structure maps to proven narrative frameworks across 1 hour and 28 minutes. With an Arcplot score of 7.3, the film balances conventional beats with creative variation.
Structural Analysis
The Status Quo at 1 minutes (1% through the runtime) establishes Jane arrives at the empty office in darkness before dawn, the first one in. She cleans, organizes, and prepares the office space - establishing her role as the lowest-ranking assistant who handles menial tasks.. Significantly, this early placement immediately immerses viewers in the story world.
The inciting incident occurs at 11 minutes when Jane finds an earring on the boss's office couch and is asked to help arrange travel for a young woman to/from a hotel. The first concrete evidence that something inappropriate is happening, disrupting Jane's ability to ignore the office's dark undercurrents.. At 13% through the film, this Disruption is delayed, allowing extended setup of the story world. This beat shifts the emotional landscape, launching the protagonist into the central conflict.
The First Threshold at 22 minutes marks the transition into Act II, occurring at 25% of the runtime. This reveals the protagonist's commitment to Jane makes the active choice to draft an email apologizing to her boss for a perceived slight, debasing herself. This marks her decision to engage with the system rather than remain passive - she will try to work within it to address what she's seeing., moving from reaction to action.
At 45 minutes, the Midpoint arrives at 51% of the runtime—precisely centered, creating perfect narrative symmetry. Structural examination shows that this crucial beat Jane goes to HR to report her concerns about the new hire and the boss's behavior. This is a false victory - she thinks speaking up is the right move, but it will actually make things worse. The stakes raise as she puts herself at risk., fundamentally raising what's at risk. The emotional intensity shifts, dividing the narrative into clear before-and-after phases.
The Collapse moment at 67 minutes (76% through) represents the emotional nadir. Here, Wilcock calls Jane to reassure her that the boss thinks she's doing a great job and has a bright future - if she stays quiet. This is the death of Jane's hope that the system can be changed, the death of her innocence about how power works., demonstrates the protagonist at their lowest point. This beat's placement in the final quarter sets up the climactic reversal.
The Second Threshold at 71 minutes initiates the final act resolution at 80% of the runtime. Jane makes the realization that she has a choice: complicity or conscience. There's no new information, just acceptance of the truth she already knows. She understands the system won't change, but she can decide who she wants to be within it., demonstrating the transformation achieved throughout the journey.
Emotional Journey
The Assistant'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 The Assistant against these established plot points, we can identify how Kitty Green utilizes or subverts traditional narrative conventions. The plot point approach reveals not only adherence to structural principles but also creative choices that distinguish The Assistant within the thriller genre.
Comparative Analysis
Additional thriller films include Eye for an Eye, Lake Placid and Operation Finale.
Plot Points by Act
Act I
SetupStatus Quo
Jane arrives at the empty office in darkness before dawn, the first one in. She cleans, organizes, and prepares the office space - establishing her role as the lowest-ranking assistant who handles menial tasks.
Theme
A coworker casually mentions "that's just the way it is here" when Jane questions something unusual. This line captures the theme of normalized abuse and complicity in toxic power structures.
Worldbuilding
Jane's routine day begins: answering phones, making copies, cleaning up messes, coordinating schedules. We see the power dynamics - two male assistants who treat her dismissively, constant emails and calls from the unseen boss, the sterile corporate environment.
Disruption
Jane finds an earring on the boss's office couch and is asked to help arrange travel for a young woman to/from a hotel. The first concrete evidence that something inappropriate is happening, disrupting Jane's ability to ignore the office's dark undercurrents.
Resistance
Jane observes more suspicious patterns: a new attractive young hire with no relevant experience, hushed conversations, the boss meeting alone with young women. She debates whether to say something, discussing it obliquely with her coworker assistants who tell her to stay quiet.
Act II
ConfrontationFirst Threshold
Jane makes the active choice to draft an email apologizing to her boss for a perceived slight, debasing herself. This marks her decision to engage with the system rather than remain passive - she will try to work within it to address what she's seeing.
Mirror World
Introduction of Wilcock, the HR representative, who represents the institutional response to abuse. He embodies the thematic counterpoint: the system that claims to protect but actually enables.
Premise
Jane continues her work day while building evidence of the boss's predatory behavior: more suspicious travel arrangements, the new hire who seems lost and unprepared, phone calls from the boss's wife, passive-aggressive emails. The "promise of the premise" - watching the accumulation of small indignities and red flags.
Midpoint
Jane goes to HR to report her concerns about the new hire and the boss's behavior. This is a false victory - she thinks speaking up is the right move, but it will actually make things worse. The stakes raise as she puts herself at risk.
Opposition
The HR meeting goes badly. Wilcock systematically dismantles Jane's concerns, gaslights her, implies she's jealous, and subtly threatens her career. He makes clear that the system protects the boss, not victims. Jane returns to work humiliated and afraid. Her male coworkers distance themselves from her.
Collapse
Wilcock calls Jane to reassure her that the boss thinks she's doing a great job and has a bright future - if she stays quiet. This is the death of Jane's hope that the system can be changed, the death of her innocence about how power works.
Crisis
Jane sits in the darkness of her emotional defeat, processing the reality that speaking up accomplished nothing except putting her own job at risk. She watches her coworkers continue as if nothing happened.
Act III
ResolutionSecond Threshold
Jane makes the realization that she has a choice: complicity or conscience. There's no new information, just acceptance of the truth she already knows. She understands the system won't change, but she can decide who she wants to be within it.
Synthesis
Jane finishes her workday, completing tasks mechanically. She helps arrange more travel for the boss, prints documents, answers phones. The routine continues, but she's fundamentally changed by what she now knows and cannot unknow.
Transformation
Jane leaves the office in darkness, the last one out, mirroring the opening. But where the opening showed routine, this shows resignation and moral compromise. She's still there, still complicit, transformed by the knowledge of what silence costs.