04 February 2023

Midstory Surprises


  

I've always enjoyed plot twists. I love it when a novel or movie or short story suddenly changes direction--and it doesn't have to be a surprise ending like The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects or Planet of the Apes. Effective twists and reveals can happen anywhere in the story, and in my opinion, the bigger the change, the better.

I've written a lot of these story twists myself, and encountered a lot of them when I'm watching a movie, or reading. So, since I was recently thinking about this kind of thing and also wondering about a topic for today's SleuthSayers post . . . 

Here are a few movies that had what I think are memorable and mid-steam plot twists. I liked them all.

Psycho -- The first of the two big surprises in this movie happens before the midpoint, but it's still a good twenty minutes or so into the story. All of you know what it is--Janet Leigh said in an interview that she only took baths afterward, never showers--and it turns what starts out as a theft-and-getaway story into an edge-of-your-seat horror/suspense film.

Marathon Man -- Midway through the movie, we discover that the two characters we've been watching separately, in their own story-worlds, are closely connected--in fact they're brothers. The novel, by the great William Goldman, used the same surprise, and perfectly. This is one of my favorite midstory reversals.

Titanic -- Starts out as a romance and becomes, when the iceberg shows up, a disaster movie. (Not that we didn't expect it.) This reminded me a bit of what happened in the lesser-known Miracle Mile.

The Village -- This one begins as an otherworldly love story/horror story in which residents of a small settlement live in fear of terrible unseen creatures in the surrounding forest--and then becomes a real-world suspense tale. It's probably worth mentioning that none of my writer friends liked this movie. (What do they know? I loved it.) 

 From Dusk till Dawn -- When a group on the run from the law after a bank robbery stops at a bar in the middle of nowhere, the story turns into a vampire/horror flick. Tarantino at his zaniest.

Gone Girl -- Here, the audience discovers in midstream that the girl who's gone is instead alive and well, and--of course--everything changes as a result. Similar, in that respect, to Laura and The Third Man.

Vertigo -- An investigation suddenly becomes a strange romance. This one also reminded me a bit of Laura

A History of Violence -- At about its halfway point, a small-town hero is revealed to be ruthless former assassin, and because of this, a local crime story becomes a movie about mafia hitmen. Another little-known movie that 's one of my all-time favorites--probably because I've always liked watching Ed Harris and William Hurt.

Sunshine -- This one changes in the middle from a science-fiction film to a horror/slasher movie.

Predator -- Same kind of thing. Starts out as a jungle rescue operation and turns into a science-fiction/horror tale.

The Sound of Music -- A romance movie becomes (admittedly late in the story) a suspenseful drama about escape from the Nazis. Not a great example, but I wanted to at least mention it.

Bone Tomahawk -- Changes suddenly from a Western to a horror movie. (I read someplace that this one starts out as True Grit and becomes Cannibal Holocaust.)

L.A. Confidential -- This is one of five films I can remember (Psycho, Deep Blue Sea, Executive Decision, and Pulp Fiction are the other four) where one of the most famous and top-billed of its actors is unexpectedly killed off fairly early in the movie. Each of these reversals is an absolute and intentional shock, and leaves the stunned audience wondering What else might happen?

Not that it matters, but here are a few more midstory events that changed everything:

- The chest-buster scene in Alien

- The restaurant murders of McCluskey and Solozzo in The Godfather

- Maggie breaking her neck in the boxing ring in Million Dollar Baby

- The T-Rex escape in Jurassic Park

- The near-miss shark attack on Chief Brody's son in Jaws (turned a land-based investigation into a seagoing survival movie).

NOTE: Also interesting about the above five examples is that four of these films were the original installments of what would become hugely successful multi-movie franchises.


Can you suggest other midstream reversals that I've missed or forgotten? Do you think this kind of plot shift--and jolt to the reader/viewer--adds value to the story? Can you think of any surprises like this that didn't work? How about your own writing--if you use plot twists, do they ever happen in the middle of your story or novel? 


That's my rant for today. Take care, and keep writing!




27 comments:

  1. The Navigator - what starts out as a medieval fantasy turns into a time-travel adventure and then turns into... something else.

    Oh, and, imho, WORST mid-plot twist - "Vertigo". I still think it would have been better if he'd left us guessing until the very end.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Eve. I haven't seen The Navigator, but I will. Sounds a little like Outlander, except for the starting point. As for Vertigo, I can't help liking the movie (the actors, the music, the settings, everything)--but I do see what you mean. Interesting thought!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought of Outlander too, the book especially, which starts out as a World War II coming-home novel.

      Delete
    2. Liz, I haven't read the book. I'm enjoying the series, but haven't been watching regularly. Seems authentic to me, and I like time-travel stories anyway.

      Delete
  3. Don't get me wrong, John - I love Vertigo. But when that scene comes on, I find it's a good time to go get a drink of water or something.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! Yep, that's break time. The truth is, I loved almost all Hitchcock movies, but--like you--I sometimes think a few things could've been done better. An example is, at the very end of Psycho, after the final revelation and the point of highest tension, at least ten minutes is spent with Norman just sitting there while a lot of "talking" is going on. I think the only reason Hitchcock could do that and get away with it is that everyone in the theater was still stunned by the final scary scene. The master at work, I guess.

      Delete
  4. I have watched Psycho dozens of times. I always like the Simon Oakland (and Ted Baxter) ending.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Jim--thanks for stopping in. I thought Psycho was great, but I've wondered a hundred times whether we needed quite so *much* of Oakland's explanation at the very end. My opinion only. But then again--as I said earlier--maybe it worked because the audience had time to decompress a bit after the shocking root-cellar scene. It remains my favorite Hitchcock movie.

      Delete
  5. For the Twist List: Life of Crime. Based on Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch (1978)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Replies
    1. Jim, I've read The Switch but never saw Life of Crime (!?!?!). Gotta check that one out. Thanks for mentioning it.

      Delete
    2. 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Crime_(film)

      Delete
  7. I Know Where I'm Going is a 1940s English film . Wendy Hiller, the great Wendy Hiller, is a self confident woman who thinks she knows everything as she sets out to wed a rich older man and chooses instead handsome Roger Liversey. It's all because of the weather. Hiller was the original Eliza Doolitte and George Bernard Shaw's favorite actress. Uhoh, actor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mary Jo, that's another movie I haven't seen. Good grief--I have to check out these recommendations. Many thanks!

      I find myself watching a lot of '40s movies lately, many of them old noir films I've heard about here at SleuthSayers (either via comments or the blog posts of others), but also a good many English movies. There's just something about some of the old black-and-white films that ring true to me. Seriously, thanks for mentioning this one.

      As for both actors and actresses being actors, it makes sense but still sounds different to me. I'll have to get used to it. (I'll probably change when the Oscar categories change.)

      Delete
  8. Elizabeth Dearborn04 February, 2023 13:10

    A little-known movie from 2021 starring Jason Momoa, "Sweet Girl," has a twist that is almost (some would say completely) unbelievable. It is available on Netflix.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Another one for me to watch, Elizabeth. Thanks so much!

      Delete
  9. Chinatown switches from a story about corruption to one about horrible family dysfunction, to put it mildly. And that happens pretty close to the end. All of a sudden you forget about LA's water problem!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To put it mildly. And yep, not another thought about water rights! Boy was that a great movie.

      Thanks for stopping in here, Floyd. Keep writing!

      Delete
  10. John, I am in the process of re-reading your book of short mysteries, Rainbow's End. You are definitely the master of plot twists!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous--how kind of you! Glad to hear you're (re?)enjoying the book. That was my first, and still one of my favorites.

      Thank you so much!

      Delete
  11. Did anybody (ever) read Tony Burton's 2010 anthology Murder to Mil-Spec? Barb Goffman and Brendan DuBois had stories in it, as did I. My story changed from a prospective barroom showdown with guns to a romance with potential happy ending—provided the hero could stay sober. I think it worked, but the truth is the author knew a lot more about getting alcoholics sober than she did about guns and barroom brawls or battles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Liz, thanks for mentioning that book. Somehow I have not read it, though I've enjoyed many of Tony Burton's anthologies--and your story sounds like one I would like. By the way, I'm one of many who probably know a lot more about guns and battles than about getting alcoholics sober . . .

      Delete
  12. Wow! You're one (or several) up on me! I can't think of another example!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jeff, you probably will, later. So will I.

      Take care!

      Delete
  13. Michael Connelly included just such a mid-plot surprise in his Harry Bosch novel CITY OF BONES (and when he incorporated that novel's plot into the BOSCH TV show, he changed up said "surprise.").

    Made me want to throw the book across the room. Only one if his novels that garnered that reaction from me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's right, Brian--I never thought of that one. BUT . . . I didn't realize it had been changed in the TV show. Interesting!

      Delete

Welcome. Please feel free to comment.

Our corporate secretary is notoriously lax when it comes to comments trapped in the spam folder. It may take Velma a few days to notice, usually after digging in a bottom drawer for a packet of seamed hose, a .38, her flask, or a cigarette.

She’s also sarcastically flip-lipped, but where else can a P.I. find a gal who can wield a candlestick phone, a typewriter, and a gat all at the same time? So bear with us, we value your comment. Once she finishes her Fatima Long Gold.

You can format HTML codes of <b>bold</b>, <i>italics</i>, and links: <a href="https://about.me/SleuthSayers">SleuthSayers</a>