Did THE WARRIORS Influence Video Game Structure?

Director Walter Hill’s adaptation of Sol Yurick’s novel on New York street gangs debuted in the winter of 1979. The film featured mostly a cast of unknowns and became a moderate hit at the box office. The advent of VHS, Betamax and TV exposure breathed new life in The Warriors, transforming into a cult classic beloved by generations of viewers. With a TV series based on the film reportedly in the works, it raises the question of what makes this film so special. As is the case with many films, it boils down to a good, fun story.

A big time gang boss named Cyrus calls all the gangs of New York to gather for a rally in a neutral location. He gives a speech that all gangs must put aside their differences, work together and the city would be there for the taking. In the midst of his speech, a gun is drawn, and Cyrus is assassinated. A gang leader, Luther, pulled the trigger, and frames the Warriors for Cyrus’ killing. Once word gets out about the Warriors, the guys must endure a night long chase back to their home turf on Coney Island.

As the Warriors go from neighborhood to neighborhood, they encounter rival gangs and the police. Each location is more hazardous than the last one. As the scenes progress, the weapons grow deadlier (from fists to chains to bats, knives and guns) and increasingly more difficult to escape; until finally coming face-to-face with Luther at the film’s conclusion. The film’s screenplay, when viewing the increasing levels of difficulty, shares its narrative device with that of video games.

Screenwriting And Video Game Structure

When looking at the structure of a screenplay, the majority of them are concerned with unity of time and unity of space. Unity of time concerns the film’s time frame (set over a single day, real time, five years etc.), while the unity of space is the location of the story (set in a neighborhood, a town, several countries etc.). Some scripts emphasize the former more than the latter (thrillers with kidnapping/ransom plots) and vice versa ( haunted house movies and prison stories). With The Warriors, the film balances the two equally.

As soon as they hear that they’ve been framed for the death of Cyrus, it becomes a race to get back to Coney Island. They can only stay in places for a limited time, or risk death. Most of the journey back home is on foot, so it takes almost all night until daybreak to get back. The unity of time is clear and gives the audience a sense of how long the journey takes.

Unities of space become even more clear when there is a distinct location, such as a major city or restricted space. New York and all the neighborhoods within, make up our unity of space. The characters do not venture to small towns or out-of-state, but are limited to New York, where the background itself almost becomes a character. The clear representations of time and space makes the film a good study piece for screenwriting courses, and with that being said, let’s analyze how the story format follows video game structure.

Borrowing from Video and Arcade Games

Before the rise of Nintendo, the go-to console in the 1970’s was the Atari, or mall arcades. Games such as Pong and Space Invaders were some of the major titles with simple graphics and basic objectives. You build points, and proceed to the next level, as what the characters in the film do.

The Warriors arrive on alien ground, see a rival gang, and fight them. After they fight, they flee to the next area. Upon arrival, the new gangs they fight are either bigger in size, or have a weapon to use to their advantage. As the Warriors move on, their size dwindles due to separation, or in the case of one member, police arrest. At dawn, they finally make it back to Coney Island, the final level.

Once at Coney Island (final level), the Warriors face Luther (the end level game boss) to prove their innocence. Luther pulls a weapon, but is stopped before he uses it. Prior to this, the Warriors are cleared of the murder accusation, but Luther still goes in for the attack. Once he does, the Warriors are the winners of the game, then the credits roll.

Weapons to Power Up

In classic arcade and video games, your avatar can obtain a weapon or some sort of power for aid. These weapons and powers add more bars to your lifeline or make your character stronger. When the gangs attend the rally, they don’t bring any weapons, sans Luther and some others. The Warriors lack any weaponry in the beginning, as characters in video games often do.

Alternatively, enemy weapons weaken the player/character. When Warrior, Ajax (James Remar) sees a woman sitting on a park bench, he stops to chat with her. To his dismay, the woman is an undercover cop. Her weapon against his lifeline bars: handcuffs. Ajax gets handcuffed to the bench, while she calls for squad cars to take him away. For Ajax, much like your avatar in a video game, it’s game over.

Neighborhoods as Levels in The Warriors

The film’s plot concerns this gang trying to get back to their home turf on foot, through a minefield of rival neighborhoods. New York is very large, so their journey taking all night is plausible. With that, they enter many neighborhoods, or as they’re called in games, levels.

In each neighborhood, they meet a new challenge or adversary. Once they beat them, they advance to the next neighborhood and rival. These transitions mirror level advancement in video games. Once the objective is cleared in level one, you proceed to level two.

The end level is their home turf of Coney Island, with Luther serving as the end level boss you have to beat to win the game. As stated earlier, the truth is revealed, and everyone now knows who killed Cyrus. Once the level boss (Luther) is defeated, the Warriors won the game. A game of survival that ends with Luther’s gang in shame, the Warriors go home to rest and other gangs show up to handle Luther’s crew.

Final Thoughts

The Warriors plot structuring of 1970’s games served as a harbinger for games with distinct characters (as opposed to a ball or spaceship in these early games) that went through challenging levels in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Games like Double Dragon show two street tough brothers using martial arts to advance from one neighborhood to the next, while Battle Toads (a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ripoff) use humanoid amphibians that advance from planet to planet fighting copious aliens with advancing levels of difficulty.

In 2005, a video game version of The Warriors was released, continuing to introduce this beloved cult film to new generations, as done with video game versions of The Godfather and Scarface. With video games continuing to sell, get downloaded and played, this classic film with video game-like plotting that preceded the craze will continue to be watched and discussed for years to come.

Do you think this movie is structured like a video game? Are there other films that share this format? Please comment below