Why Establishing the Stakes Early Matters

If you’ve ever watched a movie with me, you’ve probably heard me say this one thing out of frustration: “You need to establish the stakes.”

It’s not just a nitpicky film snob phrase — it’s the backbone of good storytelling. Stakes are what give a story its teeth. They show the audience, “Here’s what’s on the line. Here’s why you should care.” Clearly establishing stakes can also help build tension. Once you see what has happened, you can infer what could happen.

Without clear stakes, you’re not watching a movie. You’re watching stuff happen. And let’s be real — vibes alone don’t carry a film. Yes, I will die on this hill. Think movies with important or shocking revelations early on.

Think From Dust Till Dawn (1996), Scream (1996), or A Quiet Place (2018)

Mickey 17 — A Masterclass in Raising the Stakes Early

Let’s talk Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho’s recent sci-fi film starring Robert Pattinson as the titular Mickey. In the first 20 minutes, this movie makes one thing brutally clear: being Mickey sucks.

He’s not a hero. He’s not even really a person in the eyes of his crew. Mickey is an Expendable — a cloned human used for suicide missions. When he dies, they just boot up the next copy. But the genius (and horror) of Mickey 17 is that each Mickey remembers. This prompts the bulk of his interactions with others to revolve around people prying for the gritty details about what death is like. So, it's safe to say that Mickey's social group is limited.

We watch Mickey suffer, scream, and survive situations no one should.
He’s trapped in the vacuum of space.
Exposed to a grotesque, body-melting virus.
He loses a hand — and is forced to calmly describe it as it happens.

That’s not just trauma for shock value. That’s narrative weight. What makes all this even more gripping is when we learn that Mickey chose to be an expendable. To make that make sense the story has to give us a situation so desperate that Mickey would come to make this decision that being an expendable is somehow a better alternative. I won't give anything away, but that's exactly what happens.

What Stakes Does the Movie Establish?

The existential horror of being disposable. Mickey's body is collateral, his pain is routine. What's so horrifying to us, as the audience, is that it no longer seems to phase Mickey.
The moral decay that made Mickey Expendable in the first place. The film hints at deeper political and legal systems that allow human lives to be reduced to property, justified by survival and profit.

These aren’t just personal stakes for Mickey. They’re societal. We’re not just asking “Will he survive?” — we’re asking “Is this system justifiable? Is humanity still humane?”

The Takeaway

Mickey 17 isn’t just a sci-fi flick with cool visuals and a bleak premise. It’s a warning. It’s an ode to the slow, surgical degradation of human dignity. It’s also a scathing look at how institutions — legal, corporate, governmental — make that degradation feel normal, even necessary.

So, next time you sit down for a movie and wonder why you're not connecting, ask yourself: Did it set the stakes? Because when a film like Mickey 17 does it right, it doesn’t just tell a story — it hits a nerve.