From en.wikipedia.org:
[Narrative technique] [Plot Twist (disambiguation)] A PLOT TWIST is a literary
technique that introduces a radical change in the direction or expected
outcome of the plot in a work of fiction.[1] When it happens near the end of a
story, it is known as a TWIST ENDING or SURPRISE ENDING.[2] It may change the
audience's perception of the preceding events, or introduce a new conflict
that places it in a different context. A plot twist may be foreshadowed, to
prepare the audience to accept it, but it usually comes with some element of
surprise. There are various methods used to execute a plot twist, such as
withholding information from the audience, or misleading them with ambiguous
or false information. Not every plot has a twist, but some have multiple
lesser ones, and some are defined by a single major twist.
Since the effectiveness of a plot twist usually relies on the audience's not
having expected it, revealing a plot twist to readers or viewers in advance is
commonly regarded as a _spoiler_. Even revealing the fact that a work
contains plot twists – especially at the ending – can also be controversial,
as it changes the audience's expectations. However, at least one study
suggests that this does not affect the enjoyment of a work.[3]
Many television series, especially in crime fiction, use plot twists as a
theme in every episode and some base their whole premise on the twist; for
example, _The Twilight Zone_ and _Tales of the Unexpected_.[date=October 2024]
** Early examples
An early example of the romance genre[4] with multiple twists[5] was the
_Arabian Nights_ tale "The Three Apples". It begins with a fisherman
discovering a locked chest. The first twist occurs when the chest is broken
open and a corpse is found inside. The initial search for the murderer fails,
and a twist occurs when two men appear, separately claiming to be the
murderer. A complex chain of events finally reveals the murderer to be the
investigator's own slave.
** Mechanics
[date=September 2014] Literary analysts have identified several common
categories of plot twists, based on how they are executed.
*** Anagnorisis
_Anagnorisis_, or discovery, is the protagonist's sudden recognition of his or
her own or another character's true identity or nature.[6] Through this
technique, previously unforeseen character information is revealed. A notable
example of anagnorisis occurs in _Oedipus Rex_: Oedipus kills his father and
marries his mother in ignorance, learning the truth only toward the climax of
the play.[7] The earliest use of this device as a twist ending in a murder
mystery was in "The Three Apples", a medieval _Arabian Nights_ tale, where the
protagonist Ja'far ibn Yahya discovers by chance a key item towards the end of
the story that reveals the culprit behind the murder to have been his own
slave all along.<ref name=Pinault>[title=Story-Telling Techniques in the
Arabian Nights]<ref name=Marzolph>[title=The Arabian Nights Reader]
*** Flashback
Flashback, or analepsis, a sudden, vivid reversion to a past event,[8]
surprises the reader with previously unknown information that solves a
mystery, places a character in a different light, or reveals the reason for a
previously inexplicable action. The Alfred Hitchcock film _Marnie_ employed
this type of surprise ending. Sometimes this is combined with the above
category, as the flashback may reveal the true identity of one of the
characters, or that the protagonist is related to one of the villain's past
victims, as Sergio Leone did with Charles Bronson's character in _Once Upon a
Time in the West_ or Frederick Forsyth's _The Odessa File_.
*** Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending, is a plot device in fiction which
features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted
with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction. A
cliffhanger is hoped to incentivize the audience to return to see how the
characters resolve the dilemma. A notable example is in the 1980 Star Wars
film _The Empire Strikes Back_: protagonist Luke Skywalker, who was told by
Obi-Wan Kenobi in the previous film that the antagonist Darth Vader had killed
his father, is told by Vader that he is Luke’s father.
*** Unreliable narrator
An unreliable narrator twists the ending by revealing, almost always at the
end of the narrative, that the narrator has manipulated or fabricated the
preceding story, thus forcing the reader to question his or her prior
assumptions about the text.[9] This motif is often used within noir fiction
and films, notably in the film _The Usual Suspects_. An unreliable narrator
motif was employed by Agatha Christie in _The Murder of Roger Ackroyd_, a
novel that generated much controversy due to critics' contention that it was
unfair to trick the reader in such a manipulative manner.[10] Another example
of unreliable narration is a character who has been revealed to be insane and
thus causes the audience to question the previous narrative; notable examples
of this are in the Terry Gilliam film _Brazil_; Chuck Palahniuk's novel _Fight
Club_ (and David Fincher's film adaptation); Gene Wolfe's novel _Book of the
New Sun_; the second episode of _Alfred Hitchcock Presents_, "Premonition";
the 1920 German silent horror film _The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari_; Iain
Pears's _An Instance of the Fingerpost_; _Shutter Island_; and Kim Newman's
_Life's Lottery_. The term "unreliable narrator" is sometimes applied to
films (such as the aforementioned _Brazil_ and _Shutter Island_) which do not
feature any voice-over narration in a conventional sense, but whose
protagonists are still considered "narrators" in the sense that the film is
presented from their perspective and the audience mainly encounters the
narrative and diegesis through that character's point of view.[11]
*** Peripeteia
Peripeteia is a sudden reversal of the protagonist's fortune, whether for good
or ill, that emerges naturally from the character's circumstances.[12] Unlike
the _deus ex machina_ device, peripeteia must be logical within the frame of
the story. An example of a reversal for ill would be Agamemnon's sudden
murder at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra in Aeschylus' _The Oresteia_ or
the inescapable situation Kate Hudson's character finds herself in at the end
of _The Skeleton Key_. This type of ending was a common twist ending utilised
by _The Twilight Zone_, most effectively in the episode "Time Enough at Last"
where Burgess Meredith's character is robbed of all his hope by a simple but
devastating accident with his eyeglasses. A positive reversal of fortune
would be Nicholas Van Orton's suicide attempt after mistakenly believing
himself to have accidentally killed his brother, only to land safely in the
midst of his own birthday party, in the film _The Game_.
*** _Deus ex machina_
_Deus ex machina_ is a Latin term meaning "god from the machine." It refers to
an unexpected, artificial or improbable character, device or event introduced
suddenly in a work of fiction to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.[13]
In Ancient Greek theater, the "deus ex machina" ('ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός') was the
character of a Greek god literally brought onto the stage via a crane
(μηχανῆς—_mechanes_), after which a seemingly insoluble problem is brought to
a satisfactory resolution by the god's will. The term is now used
pejoratively for any improbable or unexpected contrivance by which an author
resolves the complications of the plot in a play or novel, and which has not
been convincingly prepared for in the preceding action; the discovery of a
lost will was a favorite resort of Victorian novelists.[14]
*** Red herring
A red herring is a false clue intended to lead investigators toward an
incorrect solution.[15] This device usually appears in detective novels and
mystery fiction. The red herring is a type of misdirection, a device intended
to distract the protagonist, and by extension the reader, away from the
correct answer or from the site of pertinent clues or action. The Indian
murder mystery film _Gupt: The Hidden Truth_ cast many veteran actors who had
usually played villainous roles in previous Indian films as red herrings in
this film to deceive the audience into suspecting them.
In the bestselling novel _The Da Vinci Code_, the misdeeds of a key character
named "Bishop Aringarosa" draw attention away from the true master villain
("Aringarosa" literally translates as "pink herring"). In the William Diehl
novel _Primal Fear_ (also adapted into a film), a defendant named Aaron
Stampler is accused of brutally murdering the Archbishop of Chicago. He is
revealed to have a dissociative identity disorder, and is not executed on plea
of insanity. Near the end, Aaron's lawyer discovers that he feigned his
insanity to avoid the death penalty. Agatha Christie's classic _And Then
There Were None_ is another famous example and includes the term as well in a
murder ploy where the intended victims are made to guess that one of them will
be killed through an act of treachery.
The complete second timeline of the sixth season of the television series
_Lost_ is a red herring: initially, this second timeline seems to be an
alternate timeline in which Oceanic 815 never crashes (the main timeline
revolves around the crashing of such plane on an island). However, one of the
last scenes reveals that this timeline is "a place" where the characters of
the series meet after they have died, similar to the Bardo or Limbo concept.
A red herring can also be used as a form of false foreshadowing.
*** False protagonist
A false protagonist is a character presented at the start of the story as the
main character, but then disposed of, usually killed to emphasize that they
will not return. An example is {"content": "''", "type": "DELIM", "wikinode":
"WikiDelimNode"}Psycho{"content": "'''", "type": "DELIM", "wikinode":
"WikiDelimNode"}s Marion Crane (portrayed by Janet Leigh), who is brutally
murdered about halfway through the film. Another instance is the film
_Executive Decision_, in which the special-forces team leader, played by
highly-billed action star Steven Seagal, is killed shortly after the mission
begins. The character of Casey Becker (played by then A-list actress Drew
Barrymore) in _Scream_ is killed in the first fifteen minutes. An example in
literature and television is Ned Stark in the _Game of Thrones franchise ,_
who is killed before the end of the first book/season, despite receiving the
most focus of the ensemble of characters.
*** Non-linear narrative
[Time travel in fiction]
A non-linear narrative works by revealing plot and character in
non-chronological order.[16] This technique requires the reader to attempt to
piece together the timeline in order to fully understand the story. A twist
ending can occur as the result of information that is held until the climax
and which places characters or events in a different perspective. Some of the
earliest known uses of non-linear story telling occur in _The Odyssey_, a work
that is largely told in flashback via the narrator Odysseus. _The Aeneid_,
another epic poem, uses a similar approach; it begins with the main
protagonist, Aeneas, telling stories about the end of the Trojan War and the
first half of his journey to Dido, queen of Carthage. The nonlinear approach
has been used in works such as the films _Mulholland Drive_, _Sin City_, _Saw
IV_, _Premonition_, _Arrival_, _Pulp Fiction_, _Memento_, _Babel_, the
television shows _Lost_, _How to Get Away with Murder_, _How I Met Your
Mother_ (especially in many episodes in the later seasons), _Heroes_,
_Westworld_, the book _Catch-22_, and _WandaVision_.[17][18]
*** Reverse chronology
Reverse chronology works by revealing the plot in reverse order, i.e., from
final event to initial event.[19] Unlike chronological storylines, which
progress through causes before reaching a final effect, reverse chronological
storylines reveal the final effect before tracing the causes leading up to it;
therefore, the initial cause represents a "twist ending". Examples employing
this technique include the films _Irréversible_, _Memento_, _Happy End_ and
_5x2_, the play _Betrayal_ by Harold Pinter, and Martin Amis' _Time's Arrow_.
Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's _Merrily We Roll Along_ and the 1934
Kaufman and Hart play that inspired it both tell the story of the main
characters in reverse order.
** See also
- Climax (narrative)
- MacGuffin
** References
[2]
[Narrative modes]
Twist Category:Television terminology