The Structure of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

             In my younger years, Ace Ventura was my movie obsession. Who would have known that one of my favorite Jim Carrey movies followed Hollywood's 3 act structure? This structure is commonly used in stories involving a triumphant quest that resolves in a happy ending. This is precisely what Ace Venture illustrates.



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            The beginning (Act I) of the movie introduces the crime of the missing Miami Dolphin’s dolphin. It runs about 33 minutes until it reaches the mini climax, where Ace finds the first clue setting off the action for the rest of the movie. In this mini climax, Ace finds an orange amber stone from a Miami Dolphins 1984 AFC championship ring. He uses this clue during the majority of the middle of the movie to search for the football player missing that stone from his ring. In the middle (Act II) he has complications of searching for this ring. At about 51 minutes another plot point occurs where Ace learns that the dolphin’s old kicker, Ray Finkle, was still obsessed with a lost Super Bowl. Ace knew he had the perfect motive to kidnap the dolphin so now he just had to track him down. During the end (Act III) the crime is resolved and Ace solves the case. At around 66 minutes Ace realized that the police chief was actually Ray in disguise. Ray is arrested and the dolphin is saved. Then the happy cliché music plays as the Miami Dolphins play in the Super Bowl along side their newly rescued mascot dolphin.