The Trial of the Chicago 7 has heavy hitters across the board. It’s very much an Aaron Sorkin film in addition to being a Netflix fall cornerstone release with Oscar® hopes. The cast is also jam-packed with star power, even in minor roles, while the story itself is rich with fabled political history that is proving eerily timely on the eve of an incredibly important election. The title (and the intriguing trailer) lets the audience know the movie is a heavy-hitting ensemble with Sacha Baron Cohen in perhaps the flashiest role as charismatic Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman, but no role feels unimportant in this film, and that’s by design. It’s ensemble writing at its best, especially coming from Sorkin, who has spent a career crafting some of the best ensembles in the biz. So, how does a writer balance writing for so many strong characters at once? Here are five tips to do just that. WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

1. Introduce Your Characters One at A Time.
In a large cast it’s a good idea to give each character an individual and memorable opening. Sorkin does this masterfully as he gives the audience perspective on every major character of the film as they prepare to go to Chicago for the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Protestors converged on the city to protest Vietnam and to follow charismatic leaders of several revolutionary movements. Sorkin illustrates the slightly disorganized chaos of the moment, as well as how loose revolutionary movements often come together. Each pivotal leader is seen on their way to the destination, but perhaps most memorable is Black Panther leader Bobby Seale (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who portends the violence to come as non-violent protest is failing the movement at the moment. Regardless, giving the audience a separate beat with each main character allows for connection and a memorable moment to define each individual.

2. Give Your Characters a Shared Goal.
This is easy for Chicago 7. All the main characters want to defeat the system and walk free, particularly because they did not commit a clear crime. As Abbie Hoffman famously says on the stand, “Give me a moment, would you friend? I’ve never been on trial for my thoughts before.” This is indeed the reason all the characters are brought together, not to mention Sorkin has the built-in trope of a courtroom drama. That said, both in real life, and in the film, some of the defendants didn’t even know each other. Notably, Bobby Seale was thought to have been lumped into the group to make them appear scarier. Seale’s objective was simply to be treated fairly in court, and despite his horrendous and memorable moment of being bound and gagged during the courtroom proceedings, Seale’s trial was dismissed, and he was eventually acquitted of all charges

3. Write Distinct Personalities.
Sorkin had the benefit of crafting characters based on real people for this film, but he’s excellent at creating distinct and memorable characters in all his work. Chicago 7 is no exception. While not every character had monumental screen time, every single person is given memorable lines (and in a less Sorkian trope than usual, a very distinct voice). “This is the Academy Awards® of protests, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s an honor just to be nominated.” This is a zinger from Lee Weiner (played by Noah Robbins), one of the two defendants acquitted of all charges. While Weiner is not a primary character, his zingers land as do his incredulous glances from the defendant’s table.

“With the trial starting, it might get easy to forget who this is about,” utters Rennie Davis (played by Alex Sharp) in reference to why he’s keeping a list of those killed in Vietnam during their trial. Another smaller character in the ensemble, Rennie never loses sight of what’s important, making him a memorable defendant despite his less flashy role. As is Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), who declares, “When we walked in this morning, they were chanting that the whole world was watching. If we leave here without saying anything about why we came in the first place, it will be heartbreaking." While Rubin often serves as the only comic relief in the film, his convictions remain unwavering and attracted an actor like Strong to play a goof of a revolutionary who will never falter when it comes to his perspective on the revolution.

4. Playing With Formatting is Fair Game.
Ensembles often allow the screenwriter to play with time and place and linear formatting (think Tarantino). Chicago 7 is no exception, as it flashes back and forth between the trial, events leading up the Democratic National Convention, and Hoffman recounting events to a crowd assembled in what feels like a stand-up comedy club while he espouses his point of view wearing an American Flag shirt. (That flag shirt was symbolic to Hoffman, as he was the first person to stand trial for desecration of a flag for wearing a different flag shirt to court). Playing with the narrative format allows the screenwriter to both keep track of events, and to quickly get across the point of view of characters often telling their own version of a narrative essential to the main courtroom plot of Chicago 7, while still being able to occasionally leave the static location of the main trial.

5. Use Your Characters to Explain One Another.
Oftentimes, characters are discovering something about themselves throughout the journey of a movie, but the beauty of having many characters allows for the screenwriter to use them as tools to help with that self-discovery journey for each other. Different characters can serve as a foil or a reflection for individual character arcs. In Chicago 7, Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) serves an excellent foil to Abbie Hoffman. Hoffman doesn’t have a specific political mission beyond dismantling systems that do not work for him, whereas Hayden is clear on his political ambitions from the beginning—getting the “right guy” or the “better guy” in office is his goal. These two reflect each other in that they both love the limelight, but they are foils in that they do not always respect how each of them seek it out, or the ultimate mission they hope to convey. One of the more moving scenes in the film is when Hayden and Hoffman find common ground of respect for each other when Hoffman admits to Hayden he never misses a piece of his published writing. Using characters as tools of exposition and self-discovery can often help a screenwriter avoid a scene delving into expository territory, or from feeling too on the nose.

Final Takeaway: While being charged with “incitement to riot” is a strange unifying through-line for a script, real life is often stranger than fiction and the late 1960s were strange days indeed. That’s perhaps why Chicago 7 feels so timely. History repeats itself, and we are again facing revolutionaries taking on corrupt police departments and justice systems across the country. The ragtag ensemble of the film become united in their conviction to stand against a compromised judge and DOJ controlled by politics. These men are watchable because Sorkin still masterfully draws characters that feel real, especially when the source material is rife with lessons for the now.