Three-thousand warriors, swords in hand, await their command from a man on a white horse. “Chaaaargggeee!” he yells, and the order descends into chaos. If the journey is great, sweeping spectacles are the norm, or a great swath of time is compressed into a two- or three-hour running time, you're probably writing an epic film. Often set in another time period, epic movies are large in scope, and tend to focus on power struggles between clearly defined forces of good and bad. Similar in structure to war movies and adventure films, epics push the boundaries of the medium to compress huge scenes and expanses in time into the 2-D world of cinema.

Usually a once-normal man or woman who has received a greater calling, epic protagonists have a date with destiny, and it is their path through the historically significant events of their time period that structures the film. Rarely the chosen leader, epic heroes tend to be the underdog commander that rallies the masses. As the world they once relied on crumbles in the first act, the protagonist will need to draw from previously unrealized inner reserves to rescue themselves and later lead the way toward salvation. While the hero’s goal is usually obvious, the obstacles to achieving this goal will be daunting and sometimes unexpected. Unlike other genres, changes in the hero will often be external: As epic films progress, their protagonists’ motives often remain the same, while their appearance, strength, and outward abilities improve dramatically. The epic film ends, most often, with a sweeping victory for the good guys; in the best films, this victory is coupled with some type of great loss.