When the hero wins by chance...

[Martianinvader]

Last week ABC had Minority Report on; I'd never seen it, but this time I caught the last third of it. It was enough to get the basic idea of the thing.

What bothered me was that Mr. Anderton went through that whole ordeal for nothing. He failed in what he tried to do. Then the bad guy only got caught due to a slip of the tongue when he met Mr. Anderton's wife. And imagine if he'd married someone without a gun. 9_9

Do any of you get kind of irritated when the heroes win by chance? Prison Break is heading in this direction fast, and I don't want it to.

[Agent S7]

As a writer, I have sort of a love/hate relationship with the oft-used premise. (I sounded so smart right there!)

It all depends. I don't think there's a single movie out there where a hero wins ENTIRELY by chance. Most of the time their decisions earlier influence the chance or alter what would've happened. Example: If Anderton had decided to turn himself in, the Bad Guys would've won. Boom, end of movie.

What I'm trying to say here is that although I love movies where skill overcomes the villian, a lot of the time movies where chance and decisions made in the past save the main character are pretty good.

Cut the yellow or blue wire? Let's try blue. Yay, you saved the day! By chance, but also probably by getting to the bomb.

In short, I get where you're coming from. But I also belive that, if implemented right, chance can really make for a fascinating and suspenseful plot.

~s7

[Rover_Wow]

The first things I thought up when I read this thread:

1. The Phantom Menace: You don't think Anakin was aiming for the bad guy's reactor, do you?
2. Naked Gun 2 1/2: Leslie Nielsen accidentally trips on power cord... and prevents White House nuking with that. Blech!
3. This article I read (http://rinkworks.com/badmovie/reader/371.shtml) on an old Maria Montez flick. Good Maria practically wins by chance when Bad Maria falls off some ledge!
4. Not movies, but anyone remember the comic strip "Ghost Story Club"? (The gimmick of concluding a story that had run in the Monday-Saturday short strips in the Sunday edition wasn't such a good idea, IMO.) One story has a mad scientist who kidnapped dogs and put their heads on monkeys. Main character's dog gets kidnapped. Main character follows to mad scientist's lair. Mad scientist exposits his stuff, and adds that he can get the monkey-dogs to follow their orders. That said, orders them to attack (obviously meaning the intruder). They attack him instead, giving main character enough time to rescue her dog, escape, and quip something about that he wasn't specific enough in his orders. Another story had its main character put into a warehouse, and the villain (a rip off of the Human Torch) setting it on fire. And then Torch got drenched by a water torrent, and the main character, having gotten out by chance now, discovering there was a water tank on top of the warehouse.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Minority Report was excellent until Tom Cruise got to the moment in the apartment he was dreading. After they got to the cabin, it was just another Spielberg schmalz.

If I could, I'd get the DVD and edit that last 20 minutes of the movie myself on a computer.

[Redi]

Minority Report was excellent until Tom Cruise got to the moment in the apartment he was dreading. After they got to the cabin, it was just another Spielberg schmalz.

If I could, I'd get the DVD and edit that last 20 minutes of the movie myself on a computer.
...then send a copy to me.

That movie went from 5/5...to 3/5 because the movie didn't end after the big apartment scene. All the evil boss/conspiracy stuff seemed like it was tacked on just to give the film a happier(not better) ending.


AI would have been better if ended 20 or so minutes eariler also.

[The Myst]

2. Naked Gun 2 1/2: Leslie Nielsen accidentally trips on power cord... and prevents White House nuking with that. Blech!

Naked Gun doesn't really count since it was a spoof and a comedy.

[Rover_Wow]

"The Frighteners". Comedy-horror? Yes. An excuse for a chance win? No. To wit:

So, Michael J Fox has discovered the serial killer that has been killing lots of people. A chase and fight scene ends with Fox dead in heaven, and the killer celebrating beating Fox... and then a worm eats the killer and Fox gets sent back to earth. At least, that's how I remember it...

Though I still have a bigger grudge with the fact that Michael J Fox sees a kill happen at a museum that's like a mile away, and instead of continuing along his way and ignoring the kill to prove to the cops that he didn't do it, he just goes to the museum, and not only sees the body but also the next victim. Sheesh.