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- Exposition: Here we are just learning the characters and what the story will be about. Brian's parents are divorced because his mom is seeing another man. Brian lives with his mother and goes out to the Canadian oil fields every summer to see his dad. Brian is given a hatchet by his mom before he boards the plane, and he doesn't exactly like it.
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- Risting Action: The pilot allows Brian to fly the plane under his control, and Brian enjoys it. However, the pilot undergoes a heart attack and dies.
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- Rising Action: Brian swirls around in the air, desperately trying to figure out what to do, but eventually is forced to crash land due to his fuel running low. Brian ends up in an L-shaped lake in the Canadian wilderness.
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- Rising Action: Brian finds some berries, builds a shelter out of some tree branches and a cave, and has an encounter with a bear in the woods.
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- Rising Action: One day, as Brian is in his shelter, a porcupine comes along, and Brian gets and leg full of razor-sharp needles in his leg.
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- Rising Action: As the days pass, Brian realizes he needs to make a fire. He tries hours and hours, leading to no success. Finally, he realizes one crucial component was missing; oxygen. Brian blows on the fire a bit and finally gets a little flame going, which turns into a large fire.
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- Rising Action: One day, a rescue plane flies overhead, but Brian misses it, and only sees it fade off into the sky. Brian screams, cries, and is overcome with complete despair.
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- Rising Action: Brian recovers his attitude, and becomes even more mentally and physically tough than he was before. He builds his bow and arrow, hunts birds and rabbits, learns to fish, and makes a stronger shelter to withstand the environment. He has to fight off animal attacks and eats raw turtle eggs for food.
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- Climax: This part is the climax because when the tornado hit, it made the plane that was at the bottom of the lake go back to the top. Brian is able to get into the plane and retrieve the survival pack. In the pack was a compass, a sleeping bag, cooking tools, matches, lighters, bandages, and a rifle. There was an emergency transmitter in the bag, but Brian thought it was useless because it seemed like it didn't work, so he put it aside.
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- Falling action: The transmitter Brian thought to be broken turns out to have actually worked. A plane appears, it circles above the lake, and lands. Brian sees the pilot come and he tells Brian that he picked up the signal from the emergency transmitter.
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Resolution: Brian returns back to his home, and reunites with his mom.