What Is A Deus Ex Machina And Which Movies Use Them?
“Deus ex machina” is one of the most commonly cited tropes in blockbuster cinema. It’s also one of the most commonly misunderstood, because even the English translation of its Latin name – “god from the machine” – doesn’t define itself very clearly. Broadly, a “deus ex machina” is a convenient coincidence that gets a character out of a jam in a story. The trope has its roots in ancient Greek theater. When the hero was out of options and facing certain death, an actor dressed as a god would be lowered down onto the stage on a pulley system to save them with divine intervention at the last minute.
Since it’s a nice, easy way to solve a story problem, the “deus ex machina” trope can be seen in all kinds of stories. A classic early example of Hollywood’s use of this trope is in The Wizard of Oz. When the Wicked Witch of the West sets the Scarecrow on fire, Dorothy throws a bucket of water over him to put it out. Some of the water splashes on the Witch and water just so happens to be her greatest weakness. She starts melting – apropos of nothing – and the goons that surround Dorothy and the heroes suddenly start celebrating her death.
Avengers 5 Shouldn't Try To Top Endgame
Steven Spielberg has employed a “deus ex machina” in some of his most popular movies. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, after Indy fails to stop the Nazis, God himself unleashes his wrath through the opened Ark of the Covenant. In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, when Elliott and his friends are stopped by a police patrol while trying to escape with the alien, it turns out E.T. can make bicycles fly. At the end of Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs chasing after the heroes – a T-rex and a pair of velociraptors – lose interest in eating them and fight each other instead.
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