Coincidences In Movies

[CyberpunkCentral]

Does anyone dislike coincidences in movies? It weird because coincidences happens all the time in our daily lives, but I can't accept them in movies for whatever reason. Can y'all think of any scene that are coincidental in movies?

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

Does anyone dislike coincidences in movies? It weird because coincidences happens all the time in our daily lives, but I can't accept them in movies for whatever reason. Can y'all think of any scene that are coincidental in movies?

Well, what are we talking about here? There are a few movies where coincidences are baked into the plot because they're all deep and stuff. Pulp Fiction, Magnolia, and Babel come to mind. Coincidences are a theme for these movies, and I find them fascinating that way.

If it's the Deus Ex Machinas you're talking about, they can be hard to accept when screenwriters become lazy and directors enable them because they think it's cool or something. But an Ex Machina can be fine if it's properly foreshadowed. Best examples are in Star Wars (

[Show spoiler]Han saving Luke's butt during the Death Star battle

) and Lord of the Rings (there's a bunch here:

[Show spoiler]the Rohirrim saving the day at Helms Deep, ghosts saving the day at Minas Tirith, eagles saving everybody from lava

).

One (arguably) bad example: Avengers: Endgame,

[Show spoiler]when in the aftermath of a massive crash scene, all the portals suddenly open up and Dr. Strange enables an entire army of everything to appear for the epic final battle

. Sure, it's an epic, feel-good, cheer-worthy moment, but it wasn't set up well imo. I can't comprehend the logistical challenge Strange went through to pull this off, it's pretty dang unbelievable even for a Marvel flick. The only reason I can shrug this one off is because the timing matches up okay--there's, what, like twenty minutes of movie time where he's absent, so obviously he was busy the whole time. Foreshadowing would have gone a longer way to make this more satisfying though.

I suppose any kind of coincidence bears an artificiality that can't be fully reconciled, so your mileage will definitely vary. Will have to think of more examples.

[dvining]

My general rule is that coincidence can get protagonists into situations, but it cannot get them out.

The good guy and bad guy are coincidentally in the same place and that makes the good guys mission harder? Fine.

The good guy coincidentally falls next to the MacGuffin and wins the day through no effort of his own? Unsatisfying dramatically.

As AI_The_Strange points out rather well, though, when coincidence is kind of the point of the story, the theme or part of the controlling idea, it's different (storytelling is full of rules you can break if you know what you're doing, but you have to know what you're doing). Like him, I immediately thought of Magnolia.

The thing is that, in terms of coincidence winning the day, it's unsatisfying because we want to see heroes strive and earn their victories. They have to win the day through their own wit and strength, not through dumb luck. That's one of the major elements that makes the best victories so satisfying in fiction.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

Does anyone dislike coincidences in movies? It weird because coincidences happens all the time in our daily lives, but I can't accept them in movies for whatever reason. Can y'all think of any scene that are coincidental in movies?

What like Star Wars where the droids get captured and sold to Luke's uncle, Luke who just happens to be the brother of the hologram lady.