"How is it that we live in an era of apparently unprecedented choice and yet almost every film and TV series, as well as a good many plays and novels, have exactly the same plot?" asks Eliane Glaser in Aeon. "We meet the protagonist in their ordinary world, plodding along, not living their best life. And then an inciting incident changes everything, making it impossible for the protagonist to carry on as normal. They are pulled into a new quest. On the way, they meet someone who shows them a completely different way of being. They ask themselves: have I been living a lie?"
Obvious examples: Breaking Bad, Ozark, Your Friends and Neighbors, The Last of Us.
"Hollywood's storymakers may have grown more sophisticated about the method of delivery," says Glaser, "but they are still providing the same drug: the shake-up that leads to enlightenment."
Why don't we get bored with the the formula? "Every film opens with a fresh premise. The inciting incident always feels surprising, to the protagonist and to us alike: it's a wild card that comes out of nowhere."
Previously:
• Mind Blowing Movies: What's New Pussycat?, by Richard Metzger
• Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen
• Mind Blowing Movies: Groundhog Day (1993), by Ruben Bolling
• Mind Blowing Movies: El Topo (1970), by Antero Alli
• Great movies to watch: Pretty much anything from Preston Sturges
• Mind Blowing Movies: Bimbo's Initiation (1931), by Jim Woodring
• Mind Blowing Movies: Poltergeist (1982), by Kirk Demarais
• Mind Blowing Movies: Village of the Giants (1965), by Peter Bebergal
