The 15 Biggest Deus Ex Machina Moments In Film History Ranked By How Crazy They Were

The 15 Biggest Deus Ex Machina Moments In Film History, Ranked By How Crazy They Were

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1 The 15 Biggest Deus Ex Machina Moments In Film History, Ranked By How Crazy They Were

Even the best movies fall victim to Deus Ex Machina, but embracing the craziness can make for some incredibly memorable moments.

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The direct translation of the phrase ‘Deus Ex Machina’ is ‘God From The Machine.’ It connects to the idea of an unexpected power, event, or person showing up to save the day in a seemingly impossible to escape situation. In the entertainment industry, the Deus Ex Machina has become a popular (and often controversial) way of concluding a plot or saving the life of a character.

Here’s a list of the biggest Deus Ex Machina moments in movies of all time, and ranked them by just how unbelievable they were.

Updated January 19th, 2021 by Kristen Palamara: Movies continue to use the Deus Ex Machina trope technique as a quick fix to save a protagonist or to move the story along without necessarily fully explaining what happened or logically making sense to the audience. Deus Ex Machina plot points are convenient moments in a movie that quickly and easily solve everything that is wrong in the main characters’ lives. Although there are Deus Ex Machina moments being introduced in new movies every year there are some classic moments in film history that still stand out as crazy Deus Ex Machina movie moments.

15 Toy Story (1995)

Toy Story doesn’t exactly seem like the sort of movie that would be bombarded with plot issues. It’s a movie about living toys, after all, so disbelief has to be suspended somewhat. However, all seems lost for Buzz and Woody when they get stranded at a gas station. All of a sudden, they notice that a delivery driver for the exact restaurant Andy is at is filling up right next to them and they hop in.

14 The Princess Bride (1987)

The Princess Bride is a fantastical fairy tale movie so this Deus Ex Machina doesn’t feel as out of place as it would in a more realistic world. The heroic man in black, Westley, faces off against Vizzini so he can save his beloved Princess Buttercup. Vizzini says that one of the two goblets of wine has a deadly poisonous iocane powder fully dissolved and they’ll play a battle of wits to see who survives. Vizzini drops dead and Westley suddenly reveals he had been building up a tolerance against that specific poisonous powder his entire life so he was fine after ingesting the poison.

13 Monty Python’s The Life Of Brian (1979)

The only reason Life of Brian is so low down on this list is that it is a bizarre, surreal comedy that can get away with a lot more craziness than most serious movies. However, Brian accidentally falling off of a building and landing safely inside an alien spacecraft is one of the strangest things to have ever happened in any movie.

12 Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Slumdog Millionaire is a heartfelt story that touched the hearts of many and was, rightly, loved by millions around the world upon its release.

The whole point of the movie is that the central character knows the answers to the questions throughout thanks to events scattered throughout his life. Rather disappointingly, the million-dollar question that concludes the movie is nothing more than a lucky guess.

11 The Karate Kid (1984)

Although The Karate Kid established that Mr. Miyagi had the ability to use Reiki to help heal injuries quicker earlier in the movie when he helped heal Daniel’s sore arms after his chore training, it was still a dramatic Deus Ex Machina in the climactic tournament scene. A Cobra Kai member purposefully kicks Daniel’s knee to take him “out of commission” for the final fight. It looks like Daniel’s too injured to compete against Johnny, but Mr. Miyagi is able to temporarily fix the knee he couldn’t walk on moments before.

10 Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park has held up surprisingly well since its release in 1993, spawning a multitude of sequels of varying qualities. The original movie remains a landmark in the fantasy genre, though, telling a violent story with amazing visuals and interesting characters. However, the entire plot hangs on a massive Deus Ex Machina at the very end: the characters are surrounded by Velociraptors and it seems impossible for them to escape. Without warning, the T-Rex shows up and attacks the Raptors, making escape suddenly possible.

9 Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

Shaun of the Dead is widely considered to be one of the best British comedy movies of all time. It is a precursor to the manic work Edgar Wright would go on to produce in the following years and one of the best ‘zom-coms’ stories ever told. The ending, however, seems a little rushed and put together haphazardly. After an intense, emotional final scene, Shaun and Liz wander out of the Winchester only to be greeted by the army, who seem to quickly put an end to the zombie apocalypse.

8 Star Wars: Episode II – Attack Of The Clones (2002)

The Star Wars prequels aren’t exactly known for their logical connections to the original trilogy, but Attack of the Clones makes a few questionable continuity decisions. When Padme is facing certain doom in the droid factory, R2-D2 saves the day with a newfound ability to fly which had never been hinted at before.

7 The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

The third installment of The Matrix franchise has a major Deus Ex Machina moment when it looks like the main character Neo is going to lose to his enemy Agent Smith. Neo pleads with a machine, literally called Deus Ex Machina, to kill Agent Smith to save the entire Matrix world. The Deus Ex Machina machine suddenly shows up and fixes everything Neo had been trying to solve in the movie.

6 The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003)

The Return of the King houses one of the biggest Deus Ex Machina moments in cinema. The eagles are particularly prominent in their life-saving abilities throughout much of Tolkien’s work, after all. Devoted Lord of the Rings fans will be quick on the draw to attempt to explain why this wasn’t possible, but there is no reason concrete enough as to why the Eagles only show up at the last possible moment.

5 Superman (1978)

Superman is full of plot-holes. The biggest one is the fact that, without warning, Superman is able to fly so quickly around the Earth that time is reversed and the events of the movie’s third act are undone.

If this power had been foreshadowed or explained before, maybe they could have gotten away with it. What the filmmakers shouldn’t have done is make it completely illogical: if Superman could fly this quickly, he could have stopped the missiles, right?

4 The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

The Wizard Of Oz provides one of the earliest examples of Deus Ex Machina in cinematic history, while simultaneously delivering an early version of one of the most disappointing twists in film. After the crazy events audiences have just witnessed, the last thing they want is for every single second of it to be undone. The fact that Dorothy simply wakes up from her manic dream really ruins the impact of the story.

3 Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)

Bill and Ted have received a few helpful Deus Ex Machina from time-traveling moments in both its first movie when Ted is able to find the jail keys after some confusing time-travel maneuvering but arguably the crazier Deus Ex Machina moment comes in the sequel. Two evil robot versions of Bill and Ted have been wreaking havoc and the real Bill and Ted are at a loss with how to stop them until they are introduced to intelligent aliens who are able to build good robot versions of them to defeat the villains.

2 War Of The Worlds (2005)

The alien invaders of War of the Worlds seem impossible to beat throughout most of the movie no matter what the humans of Earth try to do to defeat them. The aliens are exposed to the elements of Earth outside of their ships and, all of a sudden, they shrivel and are easily defeated. It’s revealed that bacteria on Earth can weaken the aliens enough for them to be defeated, and it seems like everything goes back to normal after humanity figures this out.

1 Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002)

Harry Potter is full of magical Deus Ex Machinas that are suddenly introduced exactly when they are needed for the plot, but none are more glaring than at the end of Chamber of Secrets. When all looks to be over for Harry and Ginny, Faux the Phoenix flies down into the chamber and gives Harry the sorting hat with the Sword of Gryffindor allowing him to kill the Basilisk, cries on him so that he doesn’t die, and flies them out of the chamber so they aren’t all stuck down there. A triple-threat of Deus Ex Machina from a very minor, non-human character.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/biggest-deus-ex-machina-moments-in-film-history/

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