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The inciting incident is not a murder; it is a meeting. When Aileen meets Selby (a character based on Wuornos's real-life lover, Tyria Moore, played by Christina Ricci), the script shifts gears into a love story. The first act of the film is almost entirely devoted to the awkward, tender, and desperate courtship between the two women.
Written by Patty Jenkins, the Monster 2003 script is a masterclass in character study, narrative structure, and ethical storytelling. It is a document that took a tabloid headline—the life and execution of Aileen Wuornos—and sculpted it into a Shakespearian tragedy. To read the script is to understand how a story about a "monster" became a story about humanity. monster 2003 script
Compare the first act dialogue—full of hopeful “maybe” and “I wish”—to the third act, where Aileen’s speech becomes a tangle of justification and nihilism. In the infamous scene where she confronts Selby after her final murder, the script does not allow for a melodramatic confession. Instead, Aileen screams: “You don’t know what it’s like to be hated your whole life.” It is a child’s argument, a plea for understanding that comes out as rage. The inciting incident is not a murder; it is a meeting
In the end, Patty Jenkins’ Monster script transcends the true crime genre. It is not a whodunit or a howcatchem. It is a requiem for a woman the world had already buried long before she was executed. By structuring the narrative as a love story, by writing dialogue that bleeds pain, and by centering the abject physicality of its protagonist, the script forces a radical re-evaluation of the term “monster.” Written by Patty Jenkins, the Monster 2003 script
The most significant change is the ending. The script ends with a silent shot of Aileen on death row, overlapped with the image of the young girl from the opening prayer. The film truncated this for pacing. The script’s circular structure (prayer to execution) is more literary than cinematic.