Countless quest stories – ranging from modern to ancient texts – have all conformed to a certain archetypal structure. Christopher Vogler writes: “All stories are made up of a few common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and films. They are known collectively as The Hero's Journey. Understanding these elements and their use in modern writing is the object of our quest. Used wisely, these ancient tools of the storytelling trade still have enormous power to heal our people and make the world a better place (xxvii). As one of the most popular art forms in the world, it was inevitable that these archetypes would find their way into cinema as well. In this essay, I will argue that the films Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, Watership Down, and Trainspotting are all versions of The Hero's Journey, therefore demonstrating how prevalent these archetypes have become in modern cinema. And that mythology and storytelling are important elements of every culture because they keep the darkness in our hearts from spreading. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell argues that most mythologies and stories in the world that feature a protagonist, or "hero," "Going on a Journey" shares an eerily similar structure. Campbell calls this structure the "monomyth", which he describes as follows: "A hero ventures out of the common world into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are encountered there and a decisive victory is won: the hero returns from this mysterious adventure with the power to grant benefits to one's neighbor” (30). But what is most important is the purpose of this trip. Campbell writes that “the action of the modern hero must be that of a quest... middle of paper... a thing. Mark Renton learns that the life he once considered boring is actually preferable to a life of addiction. From here we can learn not to, like the world of gangsters, romanticize drug culture and the world of drugs. Each of these films, with release dates ranging from 1976 to 1996 (Taxi Driver and Trainspotting, respectively), has the same, eerily similar feel. structure. This is not limited to cinema. Any art form that contains narrative contains examples of this same monomythic structure, and both cinema and literature will never stop producing works that fit this structure. Indeed, as previously stated, storytelling and mythology are an integral part of all human culture. They can show us the darkness that lies in wait for us, threatening to corrupt us, thereby protecting us from it. The story, in this sense, acts as an instruction booklet for life..