Script: It's A God Thing

Okay, let’s talk about these meddling gods and how they keep messing up perfectly good endings. There’s a saying that you can’t start if you don’t know how you mean to end, so what’s up with films that motor along and then realize, “shit, I’m gonna hit credit soon, how do I wrap this puppy up?”

I firmly believe you can get away with anything as long as you plant it, so why not plant, or at least plan, your ending? Why let it come from left field, potentially wounding or blinding unsuspecting audiences?

Well, I’ve thought about it, and I came up with two situations where deus ex machina isn’t just a god thing, it’s a good thing.

The first is Lord of the Flies. A bunch of boys are running gonzo on a deserted island, and mean ol’ Jack is just about to kill our slightly better moralistically endowed hero Ralph, when suddenly, the cavalry shows up. Credits.

I think this works because it completes the theme. By confronting our little castaways with civilization, we realize just how far they have devolved. Let’s face it, this is not a movie, it’s a theme with cinematography. So yeah, I’m okay with this ending. Just because the adults are here doesn’t mean the kids are saved. The damage has been done, from here on it’s juvie or bust, baby.

The other example is Shaun of the Dead. Shaun and his buddies go through hell, everyone’s dead or dying except for him and Liz. They escape the Winchester, and stand on a dark street surrounded by shuffling munchers.

The first time I saw this film, I was dead curious how they’d end it. Down endings are a zombie convention, but this is a rom-zom-com, so how to please the soccer moms in the back and the zombie fans drooling up front? Well, as Shaun and Liz stand there, dazed and likely dead meat, the army shows up. Day saved, we laugh about Z-day and keeping Ed locked in the shed because a good xbox buddy is hard to find.

Why is this okay? Well, for a couple reasons. The first is that this isn’t really about the zombies (although they’re a lot of fun). This is about Shaun needing to change, and boy does he. He goes through some huge emotional growth, and finally manages to be the guy Liz needs. As soon as he and Liz work through their issues and reconcile… the movie’s done, folks. It doesn’t matter what happens now, how or if they survive, they’ve done what we needed them to do. Now, to wrap up those darn living dead…

And, to be fair, Shaun planted it. Yvonne, whom Shaun keeps running in to, has spent the whole movie looking for help. So when she reappears, of course she’s got the whole friggin’ RAF with her. And the army aren’t really too interested in Shaun anyway – they’re not there to save him and Liz particularly, they’re just dealing with the outbreak of rotting cannibals. Zombie uprising? Of course the military’s out and about. Only makes sense.

So what have we learned? Well, sometimes deus ex machina can be a good thing, especially when the movie isn’t really “about” whatever particular jam the protagonist has gotten themselves into. If they’ve learned their lesson, made their thematic point, resolved all the issues they’ve been struggling with… let someone else sweep up and get the lights.

Machinery of the gods is okay, as long as you involve the army and use them to lay the smack down on misbehaving children or misbehaving corpses.