Top 10 Deus Ex Machina moments
Ah, the deus ex machina. To our intense delight, Greek theatre’s fall from grace as the last word in popular culture means that this phrase tends not to literally refer to a god being lowered onto the stage with a crane to thwart the baddies and generally sort things out. Having said that, some of the more stultifying descendants of this most lazy plot device would give any mechanically-manipulated deity a run for its money. Here they are: our Top Ten Deus Ex Machina moments!
#10: Bill and Ted’s booby traps – Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Yes, we know that Bill and Ted’s first screen outing was a deliberate send-up of the time-travelly sci-fi movies which flooded out of Hollywood in the late eighties. We know that. But how could we leave out such an absurd conceit as Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan managing to manifest a set of keys simply by exercising interdimensional willpower over his future self? We were particularly impressed by him having the foresight to write ‘Wyld Stallyns Rules’ on the bin which drops on his father’s head – that’s class, in bin terms.
#9: PowerBook 5300 – Independence Day
In 1996, Apple had been long established as the discerning geek’s computer company of choice, so it is perhaps unsurprising that Jeff Goldblum’s earnest techie character in Independence Day should be a Mac user. It’s spectacularly unfortunate, however, that the Mac he owns is the infamous PowerBook 5300, which is widely acknowledged to be the worst Apple product of all time – and deeply frustrating that even a crappy Mac would be able to PLUG INTO A BLOODY ALIEN SPACESHIP. Fuck you, Steve Jobs.
#8: Iocane powder – The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride is a glorious film, and the iconic ‘battle of wits’ scene between Vizzini and the Man in Black takes some beating, overflowing as it is with bons mots and hyperdramatised gestures. However, no amount of lines as good as “You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous of which is ‘never get involved in a land war in Asia’…” could atone for the absurd moment when Cary Elwes’ hitherto unmentioned immunity to iocane powder is revealed. The jammy, moustachioed, beautiful git.
#7: Ark of the Covenant – Raiders of the Lost Ark
In one of the most explicit examples of a deus ex machina (or should that be deus ex cista? Eh, Latin fans? Eh?) to have appeared in modern film, the day is resoundingly saved for Indy and Co. by… well, by God. Himself. Zooming around a cave and melting Nazis with incredibly badly animated lightning. In fairness, this moment is foreshadowed a little bit, but since that’s in the Bible I think we can be justified in ignoring it. Harrison Ford’s cool, fine, but must we believe that even YHWH is a fan?
#6: Green Kryptonian crystal – Superman II
So, Superman, you’ve decided to expose yourself to the irreversible effects of red Kryptonian sunlight in order to relinquish your superpowers and live a normal life? That’s incredibly shortsighted and selfish of you, particularly when General ‘kneel before’ Zod and his cronies are on their way to Earth to cause a big pile of trouble. Oh, so now it turns out that there’s a green crystal which can handily reverse the transformation? And it’ll suddenly give you the power of ‘amnesia kissing’? Gosh, that’s convenient.
#5: Great Eagles – Lord of the Rings
Now, I’m not saying that taking a Great Eagle from my lavish townhouse to Best For Film Towers every day wouldn’t be pretty shit hot, because it clearly would. I just happen to think that there’s something rather silly about the repeated contrivance of creating LotR plot arcs which end up with people trapped on roofs/floating on rivers of lava/anywhere else which might require the sudden appearance of a massive bloody bird. Why didn’t the Fellowship just fly to Mordor and have done with it?
#4: Sword of Godric Gryffindor – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
You may never have tried to choose the single most ridiculous example of a deus ex machina from the entire Harry Potter canon. If you never have, all I can suggest is that you keep things that way. Almost every one of J K Rowling’s write-by-numbers stories ends with some absurd secret abruptly changing things in Harry’s favour, but surely there is nothing to match the moment when Harry is saved from certain death by a PHOENIX with MAGIC TEARS bringing him a SWORD. A SWORD HIDDEN IN A HAT.
#3: Alien spacecraft – The Life of Brian
Monty Python classic The Life of Brian includes one of the most deliciously, dizzyingly over the top introductions of a deus ex machina (navis ex caelum) in cinematic history – it didn’t make it to number one because it’s so obviously tongue in cheek, but it had to make it into the top three. In case you haven’t seen the film, 1) you’re an idiot. and 2) the hapless Brian falls from a tower, only to be caught by a passing alien spacecraft which subsequently drops him off and plays no further role in the film. It’s genius.
#2: King Richard – Disney’s Robin Hood
The penultimate scene in Robin Hood ends with Prince John’s castle aflame and the Prince himself belabouring his unfortunate courtier Sir Hiss. This shot fades out to the following dialogue, immediately before the soppy denouement of Robin and Marian’s wedding: “You know, I thought we’d never get rid of those two rascals – but lucky for us folks, King Richard returned and, well, he just straightened everything out.” That’s it. The only time we even see the King, he’s inexplicably slapping an ecclesiastical badger.
I know, I know. It’s hard to imagine an example of the deus ex machina’s arcane powers more ridiculous than any of the above, but believe me – such a monstrosity does exist, and it came into being at the hands of an author who really should have known better. Brace yourself for our #1 most absurd deus ex machina moment…
#1: Bacteria – War of the Worlds
For sheer frustration value, this has to take the biscuit. Earth is being steadily annihilated by frankly badass Martian war machines who can effortlessly sweep our puny military from their path (and, in the 2005 film, inexplicably vaporise people whilst leaving their clothes intact) in much the same way as we have always battered any culture less advanced than us. Then all the Martians get colds and die because there are no germs on Mars. That’s it. End of story. Cheers, H G Wells… more like H G Dickhead.
Have we missed out your favourite deus ex machina moment? Let us know below!
Half of your top ten are not examples of “deus ex machina”.
An unbelievable plot development (like in Independence Day) is not enough, it must be the bringing in of something hitherto not present. The immunity in Princess Bride is such an example, the bacteria in War of the Worlds (while surprising) is not as 1. there is nothing “magical” about it, 2. it has been foreshadowed when the reader was informed that the aliens had long ago eliminated bacteria and disease on Mars.
Indiana Jones doesn’t count either. Yes, it is supernatural but the whole story was about chasing a supernaturally powerful object. Turns out that the object’s power has a mind of its own.
The scene in Life of Brian is an excursion and has nothing to do with the plot. Brian falls from the tower merely to be caught by the flying saucer, not the other way around.
And LOTR? Well, blame Peter Jackson for having a whole armada of Eagles rescuing Sam and Frodo. Anyone familiar with the book (or the films) can explain to you easily why “simply fly to Mordor” could not have worked.
One cannot simply…. Yadda yadda yadda?
Wells…a dickhead? I think not.
Eagles can see a rat one mile away. Apply it to a hypothetical giant eagle and you have a one hundred mile long vision. Add to it the fact that Gandalf knew exactly where Frodo and Sam were (Mount Doom) and the hope that they were still alive and it was not only POSSIBLE but TOO EASY to the Eagles finding the Hobbits.
Therefore stop calling this scene a Deus Ex Machina because it isn’t.
Cool story, bro.
This is an old article but had to thumbs up the War of the Worlds deus ex machina. When I saw the film for the first time I remember my reaction to the machines dying on their own. My thought was “anti-climatic” and it took me out of the movie. Only a few years ago I learned there was a name for it.
The War of the Worlds ending is not a deux ex machina. It is the very essence of what the film is all about. The irony is that the very germs that wiped out whole cultures when the Europeans arrived to the Americas, the germs we despise because they make us sick every year and sometimes kill us slowly, are the only weapon powerful enough to save the world. It shows the power of mother nature. There is no way HG Wells wrote himself into a corner then used a deux ex machina to get himself out of it. He probably came up with the ending and then created the story after that. THAT is how good the ending actually is in that movie.
Correct, that isn’t a deus Ex machina, it’s the whole point in the story. Humans think of themselves as the dominant species on the planet, the aliens invaded and were more than a match for us, yet they weren’t a match for other lifeforms on the planet (a virus). It’s a clever piece of storytelling that has the potential to alter the reader’s perspective on the world: calling it a deus ex machina (and HG Wells a dickhead) is ridiculously wide of the mark.
Furthermore, at the time that ‘The War of the Worlds’ was published i.e. 1898, the concept of germs being the cause of death for the Martian aliens was cutting edge science. And it would have been for many years after that. If the book, which is set in Victorian England amid the major medical and scientific discoveries that would change the world forever in the next century up until the present, was read with that knowledge in mind then the reader would be highly impressed. Most of the world was still trying to establish basic literacy levels if they could afford to. Perhaps the last film adaptation of it could have updated the cause of the alien invaders’ demise, but then it wouldn’t be ‘The War of the Worlds’.
My favorite? I don’t know where to begin.
I think most Hollywood’s products are ‘dei ex machina’ (crap). 🙂
I think just because in the movie someone is saved out of the blue doesn’t mean that it’s a dues ex machina because you also have to watch out for foreshadowing!!! So if your going to complain about a movie then maybe u should actually pay attention when you watch the movie!!! So you guys…calm the fuck down…
Jurassic Park: T-Rex
Matrix 3: Deus ex Machina (literally)
Avengers: Exploding mothership
Thor Dark World: The Convergence portal bullshit
Toy Story 3: The Claaaww.
Back to the Future: Bulletproof vest (made possible by a letter Doc tore up in a stormy night)
I’m sure there’s more but this is all I can think of right now.
I really don’t know how ‘Jurassic Park’ did not make it onto this list. I’ve always thought of it as the definition of Deus Ex Machina in cinema.
have to agree with other commenters that most of the examples here aren’t “deus ex machina” at all.
to add to other comments with regards to war of the worlds Dakota fanning has a splinter in her finger at the start of the movie, Tom cruise as her father offers to take it out to which she replies something along the lines of “when my body is finished with it, it will simply push it out”…clearly foreshadowing what planet earth does to the aliens later on.
you either didn’t watch the movie or were too stupid to pick it up.
FAIL BLOG
Well for LOTR, you guys should read the book, you will understand that eagles are sent, like Gandalf, by Manwe (air god) to bring news from Middle Earth. They only intervene when they’re concern. That’s why they “couldn’t” just simply fly Frodo to Mordor.
yeah because your explanation doesnt sound like deus ex machina eh? hahaha
I don’t think it means what you think it means. Referencing the princess bride. You look at what it means and its a development in the story that furthers the plot when the writer has figuratively backed himself into a corner. For example War of the Worlds Is completely not DEM because that was part of the story originally. If you look at Raiders, I would also disagree with DEM for that because, what would you expect would happen to them as they opened the Ark? They read the book that showed beams of light coming out of the ark and earlier in the movie, the ark burned the nazi symbol on the storage crate.
What about the sand worms in Beetlejuice?
I think though some of these might ‘feel’ like DEM, a closer look at the setups for them shows that they are simply solutions to problems that are adequately set up in expositionary dialogue and character dynamics. Doc Brown’s relationship with Marty McFly is such that he goes against his own rules and patches together the letter he tore up. Even more clearly: Indiana Jones explains what the Ark does early on, it manifests the wrath of God. That’s why the Nazis want it. That’s why it is being ‘Raided’. The Imam advises Jones to respect the ark, in accordance with the legendary warning not to touch the ark. Jones’ superior knowledge / humility allows him to remember this as the Nazis are violating the ark. Thus does he tell Marion to keep her eyes closed no matter what happens. The ark wouldn’t have solved the problem, it would have killed everyone who disrespected it, but Jones didn’t and was spared. That’s not DEM, that’s the lesson learnt by the initially arrogant Jones, who had boorishly / skeptically tossed his gun in his luggage when dismissing Marcus Brody’s hints at the sinister powers of the ark as “hocus pocus”. The Jones at the end of the movie uses knowledge rather than bullets and his victory is one of survival. That’s his arc, no pun intended.
Tim Burton Mars Attacks : killing all the aliens with Tom Jones ! so logical 😀
I think one of the worse deus ex machinas, (even though I liked the film anyway), was the ending of “The Abyss” when the alien spacecraft simply decided, after all that drama, to lift everyone to the surface of the ocean to save the day!
Some of my favorites are the extraordinarily helpful pirates in hamlet, the silver parachutes in the hunger games, and the “bottomless” bag in Harry Potter #7.
Kenny McCormick’s return at the end of the 2002 South Park season. After being dead for a year, with seemingly no plans for homto come back, the boys struggled to find that new fourth friend for awhile, and they simply resolved it by having him casually walk in on the last scene, in the “Red Sleigh down” episode.