Questions tagged [plot-device]
An element introduced into a story, film, play etc. to advance the plot.
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In what TOS episode did Spock use a prop known as an analog flight computer, and why did he need to turn to a "handheld device" in this case?
In the recent Undecided with Matt Ferrell video Why the Future of AI & Computers Will Be Analog after about 05:44, the Original Star Trek TV show's Mr. Spock is shown holding a analog flight ...
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Was a ferret used in an attempt to try to kill the Borrowers in the novel “ The Borrowers” (1952, 1953) by Mary Norton or any adaptation of it?
Today in a discussion about ferrets I wrote:
I don't doubt anyone who says ferrets make good pets.
However, I sort of think that ferrets are rather sinister ever since reading Mary Norton's The ...
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What was the explanation for the existence of the Klingon sleeper ship in the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “The Emissary?”
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Emissary” (S02E20), the plot revolves around the following:
“In this episode, the Enterprise is sent a half-Klingon, half-human emissary to help ...
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Why did Dumbledore tell everyone that Voldemort had killed Cedric Diggory?
At the end of the Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore tells the school that it was Voldemort who killed Cedric Diggory. However, it was actually Wormtail (Pettigrew) who killed Diggory. So ...
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Does the character of Jar Jar Binks serve an actual purpose in Star Wars?
I'm not asking about just an in-universe explanation. I'm talking about it from the point of view of a writer or of someone analyzing a film or written story.
I recently re-watched all six Star Wars ...
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Why did the Andromeda Strain start digesting rubber (polychron) and human bodies?
Michael Crichton's 1969 science fiction thriller The Andromeda Strain and the 1971 film of the same name ficticiously describe/depict a Phantom F-4 where a biological agent recovered from a satellite ...
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Is there an SF story on the theme of language that does NOT use the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? [closed]
There are numerous SF stories based on language but I have never heard of one that doesn't focus on the idea that language shapes thought. For example, here is a previous question that lists a few ...
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Was The Blob in the Steve McQueen version or the 1980s remake sentient?
Maybe not explicitly so, but hinted at that the creature has, for example, some understanding of humans being separate creatures? I thought that in the remake it animates the dead body of a kid, ...
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Why was it necessary to destroy Skynet?
In Terminator 2: Judgement Day, why was it important for John Connor, his mother and the T-800 to destroy Skynet? From the sequels we find out that it didn't work anyway. So why not have the Skynet ...
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Was there ever a "flu season" in the Flintstones original TV show or in subsequent works?
Inspired by the Biology SE question Was there a flu season in paleolithic times?.
From Wikipedia's Paleolithic:
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic... also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ...
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Did the Tri-Wizard Tournament organizers know Hagrid put in a blast ended skrewt in the maze?
There is this line in GoF before the third event of the TWT
"We seemply ’ave to get through the maze?” said Fleur.
“There will be obstacles,” said Bagman happily, bouncing on the balls
of his ...
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What were all of those other chambers and floating bat bodies in the spaceship in Lifeforce (1985)?
In Lifeforce (1985), the crew of a joint British and American space mission to explore approaching Haley’s Comet discover an alien spaceship in the tail (coma) of Haley’s Comet that seems to contain ...
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Why is twin core priori incantatum supposed to be so rare?
The twin-core priori incantatum that happened between Harry and Voldemort at the end of Goblet of Fire was supposed to be a rare phenomenon (I don't remember where exactly this fact was mentioned, it ...
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Why did Eleven lose her powers at the end of season 3?
The scene made it feel like the Mindflayer, or the piece of itself that it injected in her, did something to her to reduce her powers. The Mindflayer also seems to recognize her as a threat the moment ...
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What happened after Alderaan blew up in A New Hope?
In A New Hope, Princess Leia sends R2-D2 and C3PO to Obi-Wan who is supposed to take R2 to Alderaan where Leia's father is supposed to decode the Death Star blueprints out of R2's memory.
Then ...
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Can Ant-Man solve world hunger?
Can Pym Particles be used to take an ordinary apple, blow it up to the size of a building and feed an entire town?
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How many times has Dumbledore outright lied to Harry (or anyone)?
As we are on the subject of lies in Harry Potter,
We know that Albus and Aberforth grew up with lies and deceit, and Albus was a natural. In the last book Aberforth also asks Harry whether ...
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Are there any prior (in universe) indications of seven being the most magically powerful number before Slughorn's memory?
I have been reading a bunch of older questions here, and some of them are questioning the importance of Slughorn's memory in HBP, and I feel for good reason. The only explanation the story gives that ...
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When was the Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator first depicted?
The Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator was an explosive device meant to destroy the Earth, which was blocking Marvin the Martian's view of Venus. It may have also been mentioned with a different but ...
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What did Han Solo experience while frozen in Carbonite?
Inspired by this other question about what Captain America experienced after being frozen for 67 years at the bottom of the ocean, is there any in-universe explanation for what Han Solo experienced ...
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Is there an “expiration date” related to how long a living creature can be frozen in Carbonite and then safely revived?
After asking this other question about Han Solo’s personal experience of being frozen in Carbonite, I was wondering: Is there the equivalent of an “expiration date” when it comes to a living creature ...
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Did Star Trek have any episode (in any of the incarnations or even novelizations) inspired by ultra high-g creatures in Dragon's Egg?
I ask this because since the original series, Star Trek has done a real decent job apparently of employing qualified technical advisors. Only Star Trek seemed to understand astronomical distances even ...
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Dragon's egg -- fear of heights?
Not sure this can be answered, but I recall and the synopsis in Wikipedia mentions the extreme fear of heights that creatures who live in 67 billion Gs have.
It is reasonable that such creatures would ...
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In "The Rubber Bend", what is the significance of Dr Dodson's lover being called his 'daughter'?
"The Rubber Bend" is a Gene Wolfe short story which parodies Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
It first appeared in Universe 5 and also appears in Storeys from the Old Hotel.
The detective's ...
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In "The Lake House," how did the book get under the floorboards?
In the film The Lake House, at what point and how did Alex get access to Kate's apartment on Racine in order to put Persuasion, the book she lost at the train station, under the floorboards of her ...
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What happened after the first video conference between Jason and Sarris?
In Galaxy Quest, when the show's cast are taken to the spaceship by the Thermians the first time, Jason gets into a conference call with Sarris. At the end of the call, he off-handedly tells the ...
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Why didn't they also rescue the cavemen?
In the film Time Trap there are two kind of people trapped in the cave, people from 21st century and then some cavemen that have been living in the cave for ages.
The rescue team that come from ...
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What was supposed to make replicants obedient?
I think in one of the short films, Neander Wallace says his new "angels" will obey no matter what and he seems to demonstrate that. But the replicants prior to that: was it believed that ...
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Why were the "Monsters, Inc." monsters told that touching kids would kill them?
Throughout the start of the movie the monsters are told again and again that touching a kid would/could kill them.
Eventually everyone finds out that isn't true, but the movie never gives a reason as ...
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What kind of beings are shown by the Marauder's Map?
The map definitely shows people (humans) inside the castle, but I remember reading about Harry watching Peeves bouncing around in the trophy room and Peeves is not human. I don't remember if I had ...
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Why does Weyland Yutani want a xeno for weapon when they have, for example, androids?
I could see xenos being useful from a medical standpoint but in a time when technology includes not just FTL drives but also controllable androids, what could xenos do as a weapon that would be useful?...
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Explain rift plot points of Season 2 finale of Lost in Space (2018)
I'm having great difficulty understanding the basic Rift-related plot points of S2E10 Ninety-Seven of Lost in Space.
Since ships can follow others through the Rift (as jeffronicus points out, the ...
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Why did Rey not change her clothes for 6 years (three movies)?
Why was Rey’s character made so unhygienic by making her wear the same clothes the entire time?
I shiver every time I think how she must have smelled.
And if she did change, where on Earth did she ...
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In the Time Machine (2002) did the fiancée have to die?
In some respects, the idea that somehow a new "story" is written (By whom? the Guardian of Forever? The mind of the Creator of the Universe?) each time The Time Traveler tries to save his ...
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How closely did When Worlds Collide authors pursue the physics of the catastrophic damage and planet trajectories?
After writing this comment I thought of the 1933 novel When Worlds Collide co-written by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer.
South African astronomer Sven Bronson discovers that a pair of rogue planets,...
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In the movie Donnie Darko (2001), what was the symbolism or purpose of the obese girl?
In the movie Donnie Darko (2001), what was the reason for inclusion of the obese girl who is highlighted in several scenes but does not seem to play any part in the overarching plot?
Is she supposed ...
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How is the Daybreak mental state transferred from person to person?
In John Barnes' Daybreak series, we are given to understand that people are infected with "Daybreak" -- ideas that lead them to create bioengineered bacteria, immense fusion bombs, and other ...
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Why is Chevy Chase's clothing sometimes visible in "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" and sometimes invisible?
In this first clip his clothing is visible.
In this second clip, his clothing is invisible, as otherwise the men who are hunting him would have seen his clothing.
...
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Why were wayfinder directions written on a dagger?
In The Rise of Skywalker, the heroes find the location of a Sith wayfinder by reading a runic inscription on Ochi's dagger.
What purpose does it serve to inscribe a random artifact's location on an ...
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The movie Seconds (Frankenheimer/Rock Hudson): Was the procedure purely medical?
Or was there some "magical" aspect? The transformation is of course quite remarkable but also, when the main character, pre-transformation, says he wants to be a tennis pro, he is told this ...
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Why was Quaid so sure about starting the reactor (Total Recall)?
In Total Recall, Quaid, after meeting Kuato, seems to be certain that starting the reactor was a good idea
This idea seems to have been given to him by Kuato (his final words were to start the ...
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What was the point (out of universe) of house-elves?
When I first read about house-elves in The Chamber of Secrets, I thought they were introduced as a very clear ethical artifact to teach children reading the story about slavery and forced work. The ...
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Who is the mother of the son of Godzilla from the 1967 movie of the same name?
This is the son of Godzilla (Minya/Minilla) as seen in the 1967 movie Son of Godzilla.
So, Godzilla’s son is “born” after hatching from an egg a trio of giant praying mantises dig up on Sollgel ...
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In the novel The Three-Body Problem, does the Sun's amplification of radio transmissions have a scientific basis?
Per Wikipedia
[...] However, she is rescued at the last minute by Yang Weining and Lei Zhicheng, two military physicists working under Red Coast (a Chinese initiative for alien communication ...
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What caused the execution by dementor at the end of Goblet of Fire?
Although the dementor's kiss is a major turning point at the end of the fourth book, which serves as a premise for Fudge's attitude in the 5th book, the execution itself seems somewhat unnatural and ...
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Radio interference caused by Martian dust storm
In comments below this excellent answer to Are there methods of lightning detection on Mars? I lament not being able to remember where I'd read about radio noise in the receiver of a real-world ...
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Why did the Armageddon (1998) plot require a "rogue comet that jarred loose a Texas-sized asteroid"? [closed]
Wikipedia's Armageddon (1998 film); Plot begins:
A massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis, before entering the atmosphere and bombarding New York City. NASA discovers that ...
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What was the point of the unique ammunition used by the PMC in the desert?
At the beginning of 'Batman v Superman', a firefight breaks out, and a private military contractor employs unique ammunition to kill several people. The ammunition becomes a significant plot point ...
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How did Neo end up in the train station?
At the end of the second movie Neo feels the sentinels and stops them just by his mind, then collapses.
At the beginning of the third movie he suddenly wakes up in the trainman's station
How did he ...
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What is special about "Quantum spatial entanglement"?
In book 2 of Peter Hamilton's Salvation sequence, there is some talk about elements having tried to subvert the key portal teleportation technology, similar to his FTL/wormhole trains in previous ...