People want to be moved.
When it comes to storytelling, conflict is what gives us the ability to move them. Filmmakers, as conductors of feeling, guide the audience on an emotional journey. The story is the vehicle that takes us, but without external conflict, it’s a car with no engine.
Today we’ll explore the six types of external conflict and their significance in storytelling. We’ll also examine the relationship between internal and external conflict through the lens of filmmaker Derek Cianfrance (Roofman, Blue Valentine). His films are pressure-cooker environments for characters facing profound battles both within and outside themselves. The kind of narrative that pulls hands to chests, leaves hearts racing, and creates cinematic experiences that linger long after the lights come up.
So if that’s what you’re after, jump in and buckle up!
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Exploring External Conflict
First, let’s define external conflict.
Whether you’re writing your first screenplay or your fiftieth, you want to craft something with both depth and tension. External conflict not only drives your plot forward but also reveals your character’s inner life through how they respond to obstacles.
EXTERNAL CONFLICT DEFINITION
What is external conflict?
External conflict occurs when a character battles a force outside themselves. Rooted in action and confrontation, this kind of conflict drives the plot, pushing characters to act, change, and grow.
The six types of external conflict are: Character vs. Character, Character vs. Society , Character vs. Nature, Character vs. Technology, Character vs. Supernatural, and Character vs. Destiny.
Types of External Conflict
External Conflict Examples
Character vs. Character: The protagonist struggles against another character whose actions, goals, or values oppose their own. This type of external conflict is the most common and often drives the story’s core tension. Examples: Harry vs. Voldemort in Harry Potter Or Harry vs. Sally in When Harry Met Sally (because sometimes conflict leads to a happy ending.)
Character vs. Society: The protagonist challenges a system, structure, or ideology, such as laws, culture, or government. This type of external conflict is often used to raise questions about freedom and justice, often framing the main character as a rebel or outsider. Examples: The women in The Handmaid's Tale, or Coleman Domingo’s wrongfully convicted prisoner in Sing Sing.
Character vs. Nature: The antagonist is the natural world, whether it’s weather, illness, or isolation. Here, we are highlighting themes of survival, human vulnerability, and resilience. Examples: A storm, a disease, or being stuck on an island with only a volleyball for company a la the movie Castaway.
Character vs. Technology: A character is threatened or changed by advanced technology. This type of external conflict explores the relationship between humanity and innovation. Examples: Fighting AI in Terminator, or falling in love with a sentient OS voiced by Scarlett Johansson in Her.
Character vs. Supernatural: The character battles forces beyond the natural world: ghosts, goblins, and gods, and other paranormal entities. This conflict often touches on themes of fantasy, fear, and the unknown. Examples: The Exorcist, Lord of the Rings, Beetlejuice.
Character vs. Destiny: A character struggles to change or escape their fate. They’re not only fighting the future itself, but the idea that it’s already written. This type of external conflict in a story is commonly used to explore the idea of free will, often through a character who is fighting the inevitable. Example: Paul in Dune, who sees visions of himself leading a brutal war, the star crossed lovers of Romeo & Juliet.
External Conflict In A Story
The Purpose Of External Conflict
Without conflict, there’s no story. Don’t just take our word for it, ask Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who named plot the first principle and soul of a story.
External conflict motivates characters to take action. Without it, we’d just be watching someone sit at home all day. (Which, yes, is technically a TV show called Gogglebox, but we’re talking cinema here!)
Conflict is what makes the audience lean in. As emotional investment grows, so does engagement. It’s what makes readers turn the page, and audiences stay up for “just one more episode.” As the great Octavia Butler says, we want to make them “Feel, feel, feel!”
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Internal Vs. External Conflict
The Two Sides of Conflict
While internal conflict takes place in the heart and mind of a character, external conflict is a challenge outside of them. These external forces stand in the way of what the character truly wants, whether that’s controlling an intergalactic empire or just grabbing some coffee and pie.
This tension shapes narrative structure and raises key dramatic questions
Will the hero get what they want?
And how far are they willing to go to get it?
External vs Internal Conflict
The Relationship Between Internal & External Conflict
A story with staying power weaves together internal and external conflict, allowing them to influence one another in a beautiful pattern of cause and effect.
Take Roofman, written and directed by Derek Cianfrance.
In Roofman, Channing Tatum plays Jeffrey Manchester, a man who robbed dozens of fast food restaurants, escaped prison, and hid in a toy store for six months. (And that’s just the spoiler-free version.) But beneath this sequence of unbelievable events lies something deeper: a man in emotional crisis.
The film could have stopped there, packed with heists and hiding spots, full of action. Audiences might’ve called it “fun!”
Instead, Cianfrance weaves external conflict with core truths about the human experience, shown through the character’s internal struggles.
We may not know what it’s like to run from the law and live in a toy store, but most people know the feeling of shame, of wanting to be better. To be good.
Channing Tatum Stars in Roofman
- External: Manchester is running from the law, lying to people who love him, hiding in plain sight.
- Internal: He feels deep shame, longing to be a good father, but believes his past has made that impossible.
This is the epitome of Character vs. Destiny: he wants to start over but can’t escape what he’s done. We know from the start that he’ll fall and we root for him anyway.
When internal conflict (emotion) drives external action (plot), you get what people call a “character-driven” film and what audiences remember long after the credits roll.
In life, they say challenges are character building and the same goes for film. Without external conflict we get stories that lack tension, stakes, or anything to push our protagonist forward. The more the character struggles, the more real and relatable they become for the audience. When external conflict is through the roof (pun intended), and internal conflict is deeply human, the result is a story that works on multiple layers. It’s not just seen or read, it’s felt.
Up Next
Energize Your Story With Conflict
For more on how blending internal and external conflict can elevate your storytelling, check out the next article.
