30 '90s Thriller Scripts to Download and Study
5AM StoryTalk has curated a tour through the most thrilling feature scripts from the end of the 20th century for you to learn from
A few months ago, a StoryTalker (K Brown) reached out and asked why I hadn’t curated a screenplay collection of thrillers yet. I didn’t have a good answer for them, but I quickly dropped one on my publishing schedule to correct my oversight - which brings me to what you’re reading right now. As I worked on this curation, collecting favorite scripts from the past 70 years or so, I quickly discovered some 40% of what I was flagging were films from 1990 or so to 2005 - and the majority of even these were from the 90s. So, I decided to zero in on this decade and see what more I could find. It took a lot of digging to locate everything I was after, but I pulled it off with three exceptions (which I’ll name in a moment).
Thrillers, like most genres, come in all shapes and sizes and blur the lines with any number of other genres — especially horror, crime, and legal/political dramas. Personally, I think of them as a vibe. If the audience is expected to be caught up in suspense and anxiety, in an endless progression of thrilling twists and turns, and be surprised by the finale, then whatever you’re watching, reading, whatever is a thriller.
Understanding how they’re written is key to crafting a masterful one yourself. That isn’t to say anything here should be perceived as a rule or any kind of guiding principle. But as I like to point out: while you should always strive to challenge and innovate form and narrative, it’s important to first understand the “language”, so to say, producers, development execs, and agents and managers expect from any given genre - before you blow it up.
Below you will find links to 30 ’90s thriller scripts for you to download and study.
All of these screenplays tend to vanish, as all things do on the Internet. Download ASAP for your personal study. And if you want more resources like this one, be sure to check out my other script curations:
Resource: Hundreds of Screenplays All in One Place
Every six to eight weeks for the past couple of years, I’ve shared a personally curated screenplay collection for you to download and study. Today, I’m sharing all of them with you in one place!
Enjoy the reads!
FLATLINERS (1990)
by Peter Filardi
GHOST (1990)
by Bruce Joel Rubin
Read my own thoughts on the Ghost script here: “‘Ghost’ Is a Great Example of How We Collectively Misremember Some Films”.
JACOB’S LADDER (1990)
by Bruce Joel Rubin
MISERY (1990)
by William Goldman
William Goldman is one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. See what he does with Stephen King and horror.
CAPE FEAR (1991)
by Wesley Strick
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
by Ted Tally
BASIC INSTINCT (1992)
by Joe Eszterhas
This is one of three Eszterhas scripts on this list. The guy could’ve probably bought a small island with all the money he made in this decade doing work like this. But I think it might’ve gone to coke instead.
