The Hero's Journey is the template upon which the cast majority of successful screenplays are built upon. Films as diverse as Gladiator (2000), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Raging Bull (1980) and Scarface (1983) were all constructed around the Hero's Journey Template.

One excellent side-effect of the Hero's Journey is the tendency to force writers to focus on one single idea.

With outer, inner and romantic challenges, with multiple antagonisms the norm etc - multiply ideas increase the tendency for messiness.

Using Gladiator (2000) as an example, the story is about Maximus and the conquest of his challenges. Though there are other interesting characters and points of view (Rome itself is a fascinating topic), the screenplay focuses on simply taking Maximus through the required steps until his journey is complete.

However, the single idea does not limit the number of characters involved in a story. In Million Dollar Baby (2000), the single idea is that "we can break free from the demons that haunt our past." Three strong characters are critical to this story.

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