Setias 1

James Eugene L. Setias

Ma’am Maria Carmela Paula Blacer

English 3

February 18, 2019

The Concept of Deus Ex Machina In Films

The main character is trapped. There’s no way out. they are surely doomed. The movie is

over. Then suddenly, an inconceivable solution appears from out of the blue. This is what is

referred to as a deus ex machina and it is one of the most frowned upon tropes in filmmaking.

Writing yourself in the corner then you carelessly bail yourself out with no regard for thoughtful

plot development. Coined during Ancient Greek theatre, deus ex machina translates to “god from

the machine.” This refers to a mechanical device that the Greeks would use to lower actors playing

gods onto the stage. These gods often served as a plot device to help the characters out of a sticky

situation. Sophocles, Aeschylus, and especially Euripides really loved to put in divine intervention,

and the audiences loved them until Aristotle started criticizing their style in his book poetics which

said that “The resolution of conflicts in stories should arise internally through character

interactions…” despite the criticism the trope is persisted in Western Tradition even one of the

greatest playwrights, Shakespeare even used it. Since then, this term has been applied to any cheap,

improbable solution in film, theatre, or literature.

In a narrative, deus is unsatisfying for two reasons. The first is that it spoils any future

attempt to build tension if the author has established that a difficulty can be resolved by a deus.
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The second, and for the purposes of this essay more important, reason is that it does not fit with

the internal structure of the story. There is no reason internal to the story why the deus should

intervene at that moment. There is only an external explanation which is that the author wants to

save their hero.

Deus ex Machina can be seen in a wide range of film genres like sci-fi, action, drama, and

many more. In modern pop culture we can see this trope in Game of Thrones we have King Joffrey

who was a universally hated character. For four seasons I’m sure the audiences were waiting for a

well-deserved death for him. Surely the directors of Game of Thrones knew of more diabolical

methods of executing him. Poisoning smacks of a deus ex machina killing that was not planned

for which applauded the audiences like me even if it was anti-climactic. In Independence Day, an

alien race with the coordination like ants and bees also known as hive mind who traveled trillions

of miles with superior technology just happened to forget to update its virus protection and is

infected from a late 90s MacBook. Then one of the most iconic examples of this trope is in War

of the Worlds, as the situation got bleaker and bleaker, we the audiences were expecting a fantastic

and a climactic ending but instead we were treated with a voiceover that the aliens basically got

sick and died.

Another popular variation of this trope which is common in a lot of comics and superhero

movies is when a writer suddenly grants a character a new ability which has never been shown or

explained that fixes everything in the tiniest way. Like in Pacific Rim where one of the last jaegers

protecting earth from an invading kaiju is taken to the edge of space, it seems that all hope is lost
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until the Jaeger suddenly can use a sword and cuts itself free from the Kaiju. Another one is in

Superman, when Lois Lane is killed in a landslide, he revives her by flying around the world so

fast that he reverses the rotation of the planet thus he rewinds time just because that’s how time

works, putting aside that it definitely makes no sense it’s ridiculous that the movie has to resort to

superman using his powers in a completely unheard of way.

Deus ex machina for the Ancient Greeks was an accurate depiction of how they saw life

“The gods do what they like and we the mortals are at their mercy”. In society today where humans

are more individualist like most of the western world this perspective of the world doesn’t stand

up. There are times where a deus ex machina ending is just so fun or just so self aware that they’re

forgivable and enjoyable. It gives us some certain truth to the term to deus ex machina that

sometimes life is random, unexpected and with convenient coincidences happen all the time. This

shows us that this trope isn’t always synonymous with lazy writing, well most of the time.
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References:

“Independence Day: Resurgence.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Feb. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day:_Resurgence.

“Deus Ex Machina.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Feb. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina.