third act
Drama's closing section
The third act is the final section of a three-act dramatic structure, where conflicts reach their climax and resolution.
In screenwriting and theater, it's where everything comes together or falls apart.
Figuratively, a third act is any late-stage comeback or final chapter: She's having quite a third act as a painter after retiring from law.
- finaleConcluding part of performance
- climaxPoint of greatest intensity
- final showdownDecisive concluding confrontation
- resolutionFormal decision or determination
- denouementStory's final unraveling
curtain · showdown · redemption · character arc · twist · revelation · dramatic irony · confrontation · ticking clock · payoff · tragedy · catharsis · unraveling · reckoning · epilogue · conclusion · downfall · triumph
- film termsfilm, auteur, genre, celluloid, mise-en-scene
- plot elementsplot, protagonist, antagonist, main plot, subplot
- ACT typesscene, monologue, dialogue, soliloquy, curtain call
- story structureclimax, exposition, denouement, prologue, epilogue
- threestrio, triad, triple, triplet, trinity
- screenwritingscreenplay, screenplays, screenwriter, screenwriting, script
third actfirst act
Initial division of drama
opening act · setup · beginning · prologue · introduction
third actexposition
Systematic explanatory presentation
setup · establishment · complication · rising action · premise
third actfirst act
Initial division of drama
debut · beginnings · first chapter · early days · early innings
third, act, thirds, acts, acted, acting, actor, actors, actress