The Ultimate Collection of Protagonists Who Act as Obstacle Characters

When the one driving the plot is not the Main Character, they often are the Obstacle Character.

In Dramatica, the Protagonist is defined as the character who drives the story towards resolution. When this character is not the the Main Character, they often are the Obstacle Character (the one challenging the Main Character to reconsider their justifications).

This question popped up on Discuss Dramatica this week and I thought it would be great to keep a list of all of them in one place. So here we go:

Obstacle Character as Protagonist Movies

  • Inside Man (Clive Owen is the OC/Protagonists)
  • The Lives of Others (the writer is the OC/Protagonist)
  • The Yellow Birds - a great film I just saw at Sundance based on the book and starring young Han Solo as new recruit in Iraq. Very Platoon like (mom, CID offOCer are co-protagonists)
  • Come to think of it, Platoon is probably the same - (Barnes/Tom Berenger is OC/Protagonist)
  • The Bucket List (Freeman is OC Pro)
  • Brokeback Mountain (Jack is OC Pro)
  • Eastern Promises pretty sure Viggo is OC Pro
  • Election Witherspoon is OC Pro
  • How to Train Your Dragon - StoOCk is OC Pro
  • Sideways Jack is OC Pro
  • Mad Max: Fury Road Furiosa is OC Pro
  • The Shawshank Redemption Andy is OC Pro
  • The Great Gatsby Gatsby is OC Pro
  • The Insider Bergman is OC Pro
  • Fight Club Tyler is OC Pro (though...)
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Rey is OC Pro (MC in series no doubt)
  • Witness John is OC Pro
  • The Princess Bride - Westley is OC Pro
  • her - Samantha is OC Pro
  • Professor Marston and the Wonder Women - Marston is the OC Pro
  • Old Henry (Will is the OC Pro)
  • Bumblebee (Bumblebee is the OC Pro)

If you can think of any others, please drop us a line on our contact page.

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