X-Nico

unusual facts about plot device



Big red button

Once contemporary definitions of the BRB gained popularity as a plot device in Looney Tunes; the button became a running gag.


see also

Amy Jenkins

Although it was the second biggest debut novel of the year, selling over 250,000 copies in the UK and Commonwealth, critics noted that a central plot device in Jenkins' work possessed a striking similarity to the premise of Noël Coward's play Private Lives.

Bed trick

The bed trick is a plot device in traditional literature and folklore; it involves a substitution of one partner in the sex act with a third person (in the words of Wendy Doniger, "going to bed with someone whom you mistake for someone else").

Cerulean Warbler

Jonathan Franzen uses the Cerulean Warbler as a plot device in his 2010 novel, Freedom.

Coffman engine starter

The starter became famous as a plot device in the 1965 movie The Flight of the Phoenix, in which pilot Frank Towns (James Stewart) has a limited number of cartridges with which to start the makeshift aircraft's engine.

Edouard Fleissner von Wostrowitz

Jules Verne popularised the turning grille in his novel Mathias Sandorf, published in 1885, by using it as a plot device.

Geobacter

Geobacter are used as a plot device in the first episode of the third season of ReGenesis.

Glory of Heracles

The Taphus, an invention designed by Daedalus, is a recurring plot device which was punished by Zeus for extracting Ether from the world.

Golden-cheeked Warbler

Susan Wittig Albert uses the golden-cheeked warbler as a plot device in her 1992 novel Thyme of Death.

I Love You Baby

The plot device of a disco ball injury mirrors an incident that happened to Boy George in December, 1998, when a 62-pound ball fell from the ceiling of the Bournemouth International Centre, hitting him on the shoulder and knocking him down.

IBM 5100

The Visual Novel/Manga/Anime series Steins;Gate makes numerous references as a plot device, such as when they needed it to crack some of CERN's files.

John Lee Mahin

According to Kreuger, it was Mahin and producer Arthur Freed who introduced the plot device of keeping the lovers Magnolia Hawks and Gaylord Ravenal young at the end, rather than having them age forty years as in the original stage musical.

Kingswood Country

While some condemned its racist and sexist humour, this was simply the plot device, and indeed the premise of the entire show, to show and mock the bigotry of the main character, Edward Melba "Ted" Bullpitt (Ross Higgins), a white Australian, conservative, bigoted, Holden Kingswood-loving putty factory worker and WWII veteran who recalls his difficult childhood in ever more exaggerated ways.

Landscape zodiac

They seem to play a part in personal belief systems, possibly as fictional devices; for example "The Brighton Zodiac" - created by Sally Hurst, based on the streets of that town - features as a plot device in Robert Rankin's novel "The Brightonomicon" .

Lourdes SIGINT Station

The station was a key plot device in the August 28, 2012 episode of the USA television network series Covert Affairs episode "Loving the Alien".

Matchlock

The distinctive smell of burning match-cord was also a giveaway of a musketeer's position (this was used as a plot device by Akira Kurosawa in his movie Seven Samurai).

Newel

A loose ball cap finial on the newel post at the base of the stairway is a plot device in the 1946 classic "It's a Wonderful Life." The same is used in jest in the 1989 film "Christmas Vacation."

Point of divergence

An Axis victory in World War II is probably the most common use of this plot device in contemporary alternate-history SF.

Polo-Cockta

Polo-Cockta has made a significant appearance in the Polish film Kingsajz by Juliusz Machulski, where it was a major plot device.

The Captive Mind

The Captive Mind begins with a discussion of the novel Insatiability by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and its plot device of Murti-Bing pills, which are used as a metaphor for dialectical materialism, but also for the deadening of the intellect caused by consumerism in Western society.

The God Machine

Deus ex machina, a plot device that originated in the drama of Ancient Greece

We Got It

(This plot device mirrors the Andrews Sisters' real life tragic dilemma of LaVerne Andrews death in 1967 which by default broke up their singing group.) By the addition of Mitzi to the group, they had their third singer and were on their way to the "big time".

Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game

It is based on the fictional game of Duel Monsters created by manga artist Kazuki Takahashi, which is the main plot device during the majority of his popular manga franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and its various anime adaptations and spinoff series.