WGA 101 Greatest Scripts of the 21st Century #97 - Nomadland (2020)
Nomadland is a fine screenplay, an exercise in brevity and a challenge to use it as a springboard for cast and crew to make magic.
Logline: A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
Written by: Chloé Zhao
Based on: The 2017 nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
Pages: 86
Chloé Zhao’s screenplay of Nomadland almost reads like a tone poem. Adapted from the 2017 nonfiction book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder, it packs plenty into its brief 87 pages. But what a wonderful brief 87 pages! It is a deeply moving and affecting portrait of a widow who travels around America in a van, who represents many older Americans who adopt nomad lives particularly in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 Great Recession. The script’s simplicity, with its brief directions, evokes an almost documentary feel. But look under its hood and you’ll discover a sturdy structure that functions according to the rules of drama, the engine that powers this beautiful tale you are reading.
After having almost lost everything, Fern packs all that she owns into a van and sets off on the road to explore a new path in her life. She earns money by working seasonal jobs, most notably at Amazon. Along the way, we encounter fictionalized versions of Linda May, Swankie, and Bob Wells, real-life nomads who appear in Bruder’s book. The blurring between life and fiction is a recurring theme in Zhao’s body of work, The Rider accomplishing something similar. It’s an intimate immersion into this world and we see it all through Fern’s eyes in the year 2012.
The script opens with a montage of archival photos of Empire, a mining town that was shut down, and from where Fern was. It starts with Fern going through her storage container to see what she wants to take on the road with her before heading off to work a seasonal job as a packer for Amazon. Her days are made easier thanks to her friendship with Linda May who makes everyone feel loved and welcome. She’s the one who suggests that Fern visits Rubber Tramp Rendezvous, an annual gathering of nomads at Quartzsite, Arizona, organized by Bob Wells, who is described as looking like Santa Claus. There, Fern learns new skills and makes new friends to help her better on the road.
What kind of work is available for a nomad? Fern finds gigs as a camp host at Cedar Pass Campgrounds and kitchen jobs at Wall Drug in South Dakota, and beet harvesting in Nebraska. And of course, the seasonal Amazon gig. When she returns to Amazon towards the end of the script, she curiously notes the high-tech Delivery Robot doing the packing work that she did at the beginning. It’s a foreboding sign that the tech giant’s path to automation is going to seriously endanger the nomad lifestyle, which is already precarious.
Make no mistake, Zhao is not romanticizing this lifestyle. There’s something quaint and freeing about being a nomad but it is not easy. She articulates this through Swankie, who berates Fern for not having a spare tire after her tire blows out.
This is also juxtaposed and hammered home in two other scenes: The first occurs around page 23, when Fern and Linda May take in and admire the luxury RVs on display at the Quartzsite RV show, highlighting the stark disparity between the wealthy who travel in a RV for fun and those who have no alternative.
The second occurs on page 66: Fern, staying with her sister, Dolly, after her van is put in the garage, has to resist the impulse to tear out a guest (Jim) tries to show support of Fern’s lifestyle but ultimately comes off as naïve:
No Jim, you would not be jealous, especially if you had to take a dump in a bucket because the RV doesn’t come equipped with toilet facilities…
… or scrub disgusting camp toilets for money, a task only tolerable when with friends.
But the screenplay wouldn’t work if Fern weren’t an interesting and complicated character. Having lost her husband, the only constant companion she has is her van (affectionately named ‘Vanguard’). There’s Linda May, Bob Wells, and Swankie, but apart from them, Fern is mostly alone. There are hints that this is by choice. Through runs in with people from the past (page 9 and 10), we get hints that Fern used to be an English teacher (this is later made explicit in page 14).
Moreover, Fern has a strong streak of pride. She doesn’t consider herself homeless, but “houseless,” as she states once on page 10…
And again on page 66…
By not equating herself with the homeless, she rejects any pity or charity to that effect (page 16). Indeed, this is an attitude many nomads have adopted- they see their way of living as a lifestyle. It makes you admire them for their resilience and furious at the social structure for not doing by them better.
The script also offers a potential romantic interest for Fern through fellow nomad, Dave. He is clearly interested, and she likes him too. But she doesn’t want to get involved in anything. None of this is said openly. It is hinted and insinuated. When Dave returns home for the birth of his grandchild, he offers Fern a place to stay in the guest house so she retains her independence. Although Fern is tempted, she opts not to stay ultimately.
Does Nomadland have a screenplay structure?
Act 1
Setup – We get to meet Fern and acclimatise to her lifestyle
Inciting Incident – Unable to find any new work, Fern heads out to Quartzsite, Arizona
Plot Point 1 – At Quartzsite, Fern finds a community
Act 2
Rising Action – Fern meets new faces (including Dave) and learns new valuable skills. She befriends Swankie, is warned of the perils of the nomad lifestyle if unprepared, and finds a job as a camp host at Cedar Pass Campgrounds
Midpoint – Fern and Linda May say their goodbyes as the latter moves on to the next chapter in her life
Plot Point 2 – Fern urges Dave to go back with his son, but at the cost of leaving Fern truly alone on her nomad life, and then Vanguard’s engine dies
Act 3
Build Up – Given the cost of repairing Vanguard, Fern is forced to call up her sister, Dolly, for financial assistance
Climax – Despite Dolly’s attempts, Fern won’t stay; but she visits Dave where she is offered a place to stay, yet she turns down the offer to continue another year on the road
Finale – Fern gives up her belongings from the storage and returns to Empire, a ghost town, and takes a look at her old home before she leaves
What is the writing style of Nomadland?
Zhao’s writing style is evocative. With a few lines, she is able to plumb the depths of emotion and humanity and find a truth. But there’s also another purpose to this: To leave room open for spontaneous discovery. This may not be welcomed on scripts for mid-sized to large-scale productions but if you are writing a low-budget or small-budget script and you plan to work with non-professional actors in established locations, Zhao’s approach might do you good: Provide enough direction for the cast to know what the scene is about and for the crew to figure out lighting, sound, and set design, but let the screenplay act as a guide rather than a strict blueprint.
Frances McDormand and producing partner Peter Spears optioned the rights to Bruder’s book in 2017. McDormand thought that she could play Linda May, with the story chronicling her efforts to buy a piece of land to build a home. That same year, McDormand saw The Rider at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and knew she had found the right person to adapt it. But when Zhao came on board, she convinced McDormand to play a fictional nomad. Personally, I think it’s a choice that works out beautifully (hey, it did win the Oscar for Best Picture).
It also explains the brevity of the script’s directions and why it feels closer to a documentary. It gives the actors and crew plenty of leeway to improvise while retaining the structure of a story. It’s also loaded with conflict which makes for great drama instead of being a limp series of imagery without any real story.
It’s worth noting that even though Nomadland did not win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (it was beaten by The Father), it was selected for the WGA’s Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century list (along with Best Original Screenplay winner, Promising Young Woman). That’s because Zhao’s screenplay is a beautiful and compact adaptation of one woman’s year as a nomad, captured in a snapshot of America circa 2012. Particularly as AI proliferates creative domains, Nomadland is proof that screenplays of this caliber matter. I will only concede the battle to AI if it can spit out a screenplay as fine as this.