Deus Ex Machina in Film

[Warhammer]

So I'm sitting here watching The Matrix Revolutions (I know...) and clearly, the ending is a result of deus ex machina, of course carried out by the machine intelligence called Deus Ex Machina (...seriously). I never realized just how lazy the ending truly was. I was just wondering if anyone had examples or wanted to discuss various deus ex machina in film. Remember that lazy writing or a cop out ending isn't always an example of deus ex machina. And of course, this thread contains spoilers.

- For those that don't know what deus ex machine is, here is a definition:

Dates from ancient Greek times, where "deus ex machina" ("god from the machine") in a play referred to the act of lowering a god on stage using a cable device (therefore, a god from a machine) to decide in a dilemma and give fate a nudge, so to say. These days, deus ex machina has the negative connotation of an utterly improbable, illogical or baseless plot twist that drastically alters the situation, as if the "deus ex machina" came down to give fate that little push.

[DarkSovereignty]

the ganali device in TASM, I loved the movie but that really stuck out to me.

[Silvermoth]

A good one is when they say by blowing up a single mothership or defeating the biggest alien, the entire race or fleet instantly dies.

Vampires suffer from that a bit too.

[THANOSRULES]

The new Total Recall kinda had this in effect with the last scene.

[Thundarr]

The Beastmaster

When the man eating bird people showed up at the last second to save The Beastmaster and his friends from The Junn Horde. It would have been better if the people in the city had stormed the battlefield and run them off.

[Gianakin_]

The T-Rex at the end of Jurassic Park.

Han Solo in the Death Star fight at the end of A New Hope.

[CapedCrusader14]

Gandalf and the Eagles at the end of Return of the King.

[johnrain]

The Army of the Dead in Return of the King

[R3M3D1]

Superman reversing time in the first movie (and then in the Donner Cut of Part 2)

In the Part 2 it just meant the whole movie never happened

[terry78]

Every Disney animated movie's climax. The hero does stop the villain, but they don't know what they're doing will fix EVERYTHING.

[Thundarr]

Originally Posted by terry78

Every Disney animated movie's climax. The hero does stop the villain, but they don't know what they're doing will fix EVERYTHING.

Problem is most of those movies are based on Grimm's Fairy Tales. And pretty much every story The Brothers Grimm ever wrote ended in a Deuce Ex Machina. And if you're gonna make a movie based on the fairy tale, well . . .

[Picard Sisko]

The Avengers is full of examples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZkqC4Lz8dU

[obin_gam]

Originally Posted by johnrain

The Army of the Dead in Return of the King

Oh god yes! I remember I was completely thrown off when those guys came and just sort of deleted the bad guys. Seriously, this is how the giant fight will end? ARE YOU ****ING KIDDING ME

[Assassin32]

Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite did it with a wink and a smile - and it was brilliant.

[Thundarr]

Originally Posted by obin_gam

Oh god yes! I remember I was completely thrown off when those guys came and just sort of deleted the bad guys. Seriously, this is how the giant fight will end? ARE YOU ****ING KIDDING ME

Again . . . It's an adaptation to the book. If Peter Jackson hadn't done that, there would have been even more people saying "Are you f**king kidding me? That's not what happened in the book!"

[Lighthouse]

The end of "Savages".

[jacobed]

Originally Posted by Thundarr

Again . . . It's an adaptation to the book. If Peter Jackson hadn't done that, there would have been even more people saying "Are you f**king kidding me? That's not what happened in the book!"

That's the only reason they're in it too. He didn't want them in there

[Abudefduf]

Originally Posted by Thundarr

Again . . . It's an adaptation to the book. If Peter Jackson hadn't done that, there would have been even more people saying "Are you f**king kidding me? That's not what happened in the book!"

But that's not what happened in the book. In the book Aragorn brings the Deads to Pelargir, where they defeat the Corsairs and the Southrons by literally scaring the hell (they can't phisically fight, they're just ghosts) out of them; Aragorn then frees the Deads from the curse.
The battle of the Pelennor Fields is won by the combined forces of Rohan, Minas Tirith and the Southern Fiefs of Gondor.

What happens in the movie is nothing more than a Deus Ex Machina and a cheap cop-out on Jackson's part.

[Gianakin_]

Originally Posted by Abudefduf

But that's not what happened in the book. In the book Aragorn brings the Deads to Pelargir, where they defeat the Corsairs and the Southrons by literally scaring the hell (they can't phisically fight, they're just ghosts) out of them; Aragorn then frees the Deads from the curse.
The battle of the Pelennor Fields is won by the combined forces of Rohan, Minas Tirith and the Southern Fiefs of Gondor.

What happens in the movie is nothing more than a Deus Ex Machina and a cheap cop-out on Jackson's part.

Thank you.

[Thundarr]

Originally Posted by Silvermoth

A good one is when they say by blowing up a single mothership or defeating the biggest alien, the entire race or fleet instantly dies.

Vampires suffer from that a bit too.

This is only Deuce Ex Machina if they make no mention of it until the very end. If they hint at it early without beating you over the head with it right away, then no.