GET SMART: Narrative Analysis

Get Smart has 3 clear sections of the narrative, which follow Todorov's principle extremely well, showing an equilibrium, a disruption and a final restoration.

• Equilibrium: Get Smart begins with the morning life of Maxwell Smart, preparing for a normal day as an analyst for a spying agency called CONTROL.  He likes his job of intercepting, translating and analysing Russian chatter, and does it very well, but he has always dreamed of becoming a field agent for CONTROL.  He never, however, gets the job; even though he is capable, he is such a good analyst that he would be a great loss.

• Disruption: One day, Max returns to CONTROL headquarters and realises that there has been a break in.  This leads to every agent in CONTROL having their identities compromised, except for Agent 99, who has recently had a change in appearance.  Max is then promoted to an agent, and can finally live his dream, but must stop KAOS, a terrorist group threatening the world with nuclear force.
Restoration: Max makes it to the performance for the president of the United States in time to prevent a nuclear bomb being detonated, and not only saves many innocent lives and the city of Los Angeles from destruction, he proves his worth as a competent (yet clumsy and accident-prone) field agent for CONTROL
• Restoration: Max makes it to the performance for the president of the United States in time to prevent a nuclear bomb fro KAOS being detonated, and not only saves many innocent lives and the city of Los Angeles from destruction, he proves his worth as a competent (yet clumsy and accident-prone) field agent for CONTROL