Forbidden Plot Motifs

Complaining about bad writing in movies is pointless if the complaint itself is a scattershot screed of vague concepts like, "Tired," "unoriginal," "insipid," and, "this movie has been made before."  There seems to be an implicit assumption that there are so many ways to write a bad movie that it is impossible and pointless to list them all and that we need to depend on the artistic intuition  of writers to police themselves.  However the idea of a complete enumeration of ways a script can be categorically poor may indeed be possible.  The criticism of being "unoriginal" in all its forms is the category of poor writing that we will explore here by attempting to list all the ways a movie can generate the feeling that "it has been made before."  

Here we list overused plot ideas who's presence in a script implies lack or originality by definition.   The contemporary challenge is to write stories that do not contain any of the below listed ideas in any context.  I would hope that writers would refrain from using any of the listed motifs unless they pay special attention to the fact that these plot devices are deeply cliché and that they make special attempts to execute them in an unusually creative way.  

This list can be used in two ways.  First it is cautionary, warning writers that they must stretch their minds and generate new tension building methods, character motivations, and ways of communicating themes.  Second, it can be used as a evaluation checklist where a writer can take their completed script and compare the list against the script's structure.  A script will "pass" if it contains none of the listed cliché motifs.

Also I have a deeper motivation.  Is it possible that if we eliminated the plot ideas listed below there would be no stories left to write? Could it be that all conceivable stories have been written?  Could it be that human creativity is rapidly approaching some fundamental limit?  I don't think so but it would be nice if television and movie scripts gave me more reason to doubt these ugly possibilities.  Also think of it this way: If you write a script and NONE of the motifs below appear in the script, then you have a fighting chance that your story is interesting, creative, unique and wont rely solely on special effects and hype to get by.

The basic reason for the forbidden status is given in parentheses.

 
1. Infiltration to exploit major weakness. (Implausible + cliché)
Movies which require a gargantuan operation to be felled by a small band of good guys inevitably set themselves up for an infiltration targeting a major soft spot that the enemy may or may not be aware of.  The infiltration is the acting out of all our hopes that evil, no matter how large and how strong can be overcome by the individual acts of a few brave properly motivated individuals.  More than that even, infiltration is a statement of hope that evil MUST eventually fall because someday just the right hero will arrive.  Examples include: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (at least three occasions), Minority Report, The entire Bond franchise, Alcatraz, the Dirty Dozen.
2. Betrayal by your boss. (cliché)
Primarily driven by the perennial need for a plot twist at the end, our hero may learn that the person he or she has been chasing is not really the mastermind that they think they are.  The easiest way to suddenly shift suspicion to someone else without having to generate entirely new characters is to make a character that is otherwise necessary turn out to be the villain.  The most obvious such character is the protagonist's supervisor.  The hope is that the audience will not suspect because the supervisor is an obligatory character anyway.  However it has now been so overused that we always suspect the boss from the beginning.  Examples include: Minority Report, Mission Impossible, Monsters Inc.
3.  Deep computer databases. (implausible + cliché)
Extensive cross referencing of critical information found in computer databases to quickly drive the story forward is both unrealistic and hackneyed.  This is especially bad when it involves breaking a password or hacking of any type.  Note that infiltrating into an evil-compound and gain access to an evil computer is a double cliché..
4. Targeting the family.  (cliché)
Certainly the cheapest and easiest way to zero in on the audience's heartstrings is to target a family, especially the hero's family.  Inevitably this forces the director to include a scene where the hero is spending nice quality family time stressing the idyllic nature of his family bonds.  Such a scene is a harbinger of a kidnap, murder or some such nefarious attack on the family.  Examples include: Lethal Weapon, Face Off, Spider-Man, Seven
5. Sick or handicapped hero.  (cliché)
Another crutch technique.  Stories where an actor must struggle to portray the difficult life of a sick person is a cheap way to generate sympathy with the audience and pretend that the actor is really working hard.  The idea is to demonstrate depth and to select a story about a "hard" subject, but the only hard thing now is to find a disease that hasn't been written about.  The real problem with this motif is that the writer is allowed more or less to create arbitrary problems for sick character and we just have to take the writers word for it that this is what life is like for this guy.  In fact all these movies typically do NOT reflect the truth of the disability.    This motif pretends to teach us something, but really doesn't.  It makes the script much more akin to a circus sideshow curiosity than a film that titillates or teaches us anything.  Since these people are dealing with such exotic health problems they become nothing more than curiosities. Examples include: Rainman, Awakenings, I am Sam, A Beautiful Mind, Charlie
6.  Contrived public exposé. (implausible)
This is the absolutely cheapest way to ensure that our hero is in the end, well, a hero.  This motif involves having the final conflict resolve in the full view of the public.  I have seen it done every way possible: the public views everything on television, the conflict is resolved in a banquet hall, a stadium, etc. etc.  The fact is that this is both stupid and implausible.  Inevitably the contrivances developed by scriptwriters to implement such a viewing are implausible at best and ridiculous at worst. This means, ironically, writers must do something difficult, contrive a public viewing, in order to exploit a cheap and easy method to make their hero a hero. Examples include: The Fugitive, Minority Report, Spider-Man
7.  Broken friendship reunites. (cliché)
A close friend of our hero gets fed up and abandon's him or her.  Basically the hero must go into the climax a lonely person with the odds against them, but the ultimate lesson we need to learn is that friendship and teamwork are an absolutely necessity if we are going to prevail over evil.  Therefore, for whatever reason, the friend realizes their error and returns in the nick of time.  OK, OK, I got the point.  I won't turn my back on my buddies and I will help them save the world against all odds should the situation ever arise.  Now, can we please move on?  Examples include: Monsters Inc. Star Wars.
8. The evil conspirator with a conscience. (cliche)

If there is more than one evildoer in a script it seems typical that one of them always has their doubts.  These doubts are inevitably suppressed, perhaps very deeply, but in the end the doubts actual cause an evil-to-good conversion that enables some aspect of the story to move forward.  Either a key piece of evidence is delivered, a catastrophic rebellion among the baddies is initiated or some such unlikely activity.  Look, I want PURE evil or at least evil with conviction.  New Rule: If the story must have an ambiguously bad character then the story should focus exclusively on the complexities of this person, i.e., that person must BE the Hero. Examples include:  Darth Vader probably fits this category.  The white haired conspirator in the X-files.  Howie Long's character in Alcatraz.       (Thanks to L.M.)
9. Physical isolation. (implausible)
Frequently writers are so concerned about controlling the detailed interactions of the characters that all the normal activities of life must be eliminated.  Typically this is done by isolating the characters in a remote location or by closing out the rest of the world in some way.  Obviously physical isolation is part of the formula for horror movies ( a summer camp, an abandoned town....) but the notion comes in in non-horror settings as well.  Frequently the outside world can somehow look in and see what is going on is some limited way and occasionally there is some communication with the outside world that is carefully controlled by the author.  Occasionally there is an outside agent that is somehow marginalized by the outside world but has special knowledge of what is going on in the isolated world but is more or less unable to directly help (the police officer in Die Hard for example).  The ending of these stories frequently included reestablishing contact with civilization.  Examples include: Examples:  Hard Rain, Die Hard, Panic Room, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park 2
10.  Facing up to the reputation of a parent. (cliché)
We all have our crosses to bear and being better or worse than our parents is one of them.  However in movies this motivation is yet another cheap way to provide depth to a character without really providing depth.  It is like a puddle that pretends to be deep but really isn't.  Examples include: Top Gun, Sleepy Hollow
11. Characters that suddenly do something out of character. (implausible)
The most common implementation of this motif is the mute who suddenly speaks, often delivering some apropos post-modern remark at the end of the movie.  However it can be some minor character that has a severe phobia but abruptly defeats the phobia to supply key action in the story.  Note that this does not include the main character's ability to overcome their own fears and limitations, just minor characters. (Thanks to J.D.)
12.  Wisdom from unlikely sources. (implausible)
Prostitutes and homeless people always seem to have something important to teach us regular people don't they.  Of course they can't quite use their wisdom to get themselves off the street but scriptwriters have always been willing to exchange plausibility for irony.  The deeper message here is that we can't judge a book by its cover and that wisdom can be found in the most unlikely places when we are least looking for it.  In fact if you take this motif seriously that is the ONLY place it can be found.  One interesting side note: I have actually met homeless people who are exploiting this notion and try to present themselves as unlikely wise-men in order to exploit the expectation that some may have that communicating with them, and helping them out, will be mutually beneficial!  Examples include: Pretty Woman.  (Thanks to V. I.)
13. Kinderaugen. (cliché)
This cliché involves all cases where a child is able to see and understand something and the rest of us "just don't get it."  Most of the movie is spent having a sensitive adult connect with the child and then try to make use of the visions.   This cliché plays to the writer's hopes that some people are indeed special and can see things that will help us escape the limitations of our mundane humanity.  Examples include: The Sixth Sense, The Ring.  (Thanks to S.J.H.)
14. Identity swapping. (implausible)
It is ok for a character to disguise themselves in order not to be recognized.  In fact sometimes we should see more of that, especially with James Bond.  However it is entirely another thing for someone to disguise themselves as though they are a particular person and fool people who are close to that person.  Such disguise ability really stretches the limits of reasonable.  However the real standard here is that such a plot device is overused.  This motifs goes beyond merely disguise, it includes genetic modification, plastic surgery, alien possession, or anything that puts one person inside the body of another so completely that suspicion is raised by inconsistent behavior rather than just seeing through the physical disguise.  Examples include:  Mission Impossible, Die Another Day, Face Off.
15. It's not an object, it's a person. (cliché)
Frequently characters in search of an object of great importance ultimately learn that the object they seek is not a object at all but a person, frequently someone they already know.  The idea, presumably, is to provide a twist near the end of the story where the characters must adjust their thinking to incorporate the fact that the object of their quest is a living human.  Examples include: Jewel of the Nile, The Fifth Element, MIB2.
16. Psychologist/Therapist minor character. (cliché)
Frequently it is necessary to get into the head of the main character of a story and one obvious way to do this is to put that character into therapy or the some thinly disguised equivalent.  Clearly this saves time and trouble trying to reveal the character through action and interaction, but now this method is old and needs to be laid to rest.  However, having said that, stories where the main character IS a psychologist are probably OK.  The error only occurs when the therapist is a minor character with minimal direct affect on the action.
17. "Orcs" and "Robots" (cliché and implausible)
Morally free killing is a real world impossibility but often in fiction hero's need to be able to kill without concern for their targets.  The audience can't be worried about the moral standing of every act of bloodletting  without becoming distracted and one way around this problem is to create "orcs."  These are enemies devoid of moral value who can be dispatched with extreme prejudice.  There is no doubt in the mind of the audience and the characters that "the only good orc is a dead orc."  The obvious trouble is that the metaphysical foundation that excuses the killings is almost impossible to present and any attempt to do so is generally inadequate.