What’s a Callback in a Script and Are They Necessary or Even Useful?

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Tim Schildberger - July 18th, 2025

It’s OK if you’re not super familiar with the term ‘callback’. It’s not one of the most commonly used bits of screenwriting terminology or jargon, but it’s a really helpful and fun tool. Yes, I said fun.

A callback is when you as a writer bring something back in a script or connect a later part of your script with an earlier moment, or scene, or action, or even some words in dialogue. Now if you google this, you’ll probably be swamped with examples of callbacks in movies that use moments from previous movies. You know, how Marvel might mention something from an earlier film, or a reboot of a franchise will give a nod to the old movies. That’s not what we’re talking about here. That’s an entirely different, much more pandering type of thing, and you don’t have to worry about it until you’re paid to write the sequel to your blockbuster.

For this article, a callback is the tool you use to make your script more entertaining, more coherent, and to show your reader you’ve really thought this through. It could be something simple, like establishing a character uses a certain phrase when they are stressed in the beginning, and then at the end when they’ve been through an emotional journey – you re-work that turn of phrase to help show the character’s evolution. Or you use a character’s particular quirk introduced early to somehow impact your climax. Indiana Jones and his snake phobia is a solid example.

The best callbacks are subtle. The writer doesn’t go out of their way to draw attention to something early in the film, nor do they wave big flags when it returns later. The last thing you want is for the audience to notice. That defeats the whole game. (This is the bit where I said callbacks are fun.) Your entire script is essentially one long communication with your audience. You’re telling them a story, and you’re trying to do it in the most entertaining and engaging way you can. Right? Otherwise, what are we all doing here?

If you think of your script that way, then obstacles become challenges. And callbacks become useful, fun tools, and something to give to your audience to let them know you’ve not only thought this whole script through, you actually still remember what happened earlier, and who your characters are, and how they are evolving. I mention this, because I’m not sure if you’re like me, where sometimes I’m writing page 85 and page 10 feels like forever ago.

Read the rest of this article on Script Magazine HERE