The hero's journey is THE screenwriting template. With it screenwriters can build effective stories from the ground up. Consider this, ALL of the Academy Award Winner Best Films of the last thirty years have used it as a template. There are at least 188 stages to the hero's journey and more than thirty archetypes.

Two of the archetypes that most frequently appear in the hero's journey are a) the supernatural aid and b) the shape shifter.

The Supernatural Aid:

The supernatural aid has many functions. He is often, but not always, a decrepit old man that does not appear to be powerful. In Million Dollar Baby (Academy Award Winner Best Film 2004), it is Morgan Freeman as Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris. In Gladiator (Academy Award Winner Best Film 2000) it is Proximo - the Old Gladiator who fought in Rome until Marcus Aurelius set him free - and of course it is Ben Kenobi in Star Wars and Yoda in Empire Strikes Back. In The Big Lebowski (1998) it is Sam Elliot as The Stranger.

But the aim of the Supernatural Aid is to guide and in Raging Bull (1980), it is not an aged old man but a voluptuous and alluring young female in the shape of Vickie. Vickie