How To Do A Plot Twist - Knives Out

I have never seen a better example of a subverted expectation than in Ryan Johnson's knives ow what like seriously if you want to shock your audience and do it right where it's not just a cheap trick but instead it's something that improves the whole story there truly is no better case study than knives out but hold on a minute this makes no sense right because Ryan Johnson's last film was the last Jedi a film overwhelmingly criticized for the fact that it subvert of people's expectations what's right clearly something's amiss if the truth is the story

behind knives out fascinates me but it wasn't the plot although that was great rather it's what happened behind the scenes because it's a rare day when we have such a crystal clear example of a director using a device in one work and failing to use it correctly then they learn their mistake and bring that forward and use that exact same device to achieve an outstanding result in their very next work in short this video looking at knives out isn't just about how to do a plot twist and subvert expectations correctly it's also about the redemption

of Ryan Johnson and how he learned a valuable lesson about how to do a subversion one I can't wait to share with you all today but before we talk knives out we need to address the the elephant in the room the last Jedi was um how should I put it at a slightly divisive film I would be worried if everybody across the board was like yeah it's much more exciting to me when you get you know a group of people who are alike just I mean literally saying that was the worst movie I've ever seen

having those two extremes to me is you know the type of movie that I want to make and with the last Jedi Rian Johnson was clearly making an intentional effort to be divisive and what's worth saying is when it comes to fiction there are very very few things that are inherently bad and that includes being divisive but how is it okay to tell a polarizing story well I think a great example would be stories that cover highly controversial subjects for example American History X a lot of people hated that film because it explored such a

taboo topic as it did although I won't say what that topic is because I'll get hit by the de monetization hammer if I just say that one word but I think the biggest error in Johnson's intentions in being divisive with Star Wars wasn't that in itself but it's because he went about it in all the wrong ways he wasn't divisive because he raised valid and interesting questions that some people just prefer not to be raised its instead because he achieved his goal of division by compromising fundamental aspects of his story for a quick short-term cash

in no shock he achieved his desired polarity by intentionally incorrectly using storytelling devices and decreasing the quality of his work or as everyone called it back then subversive expectations but how the hell does knives out relate to this well ensure the Ryan Johnson who make the last Jedi is not the same one who made knives out because he's clearly learned a valuable lesson since then and it's something he really should be commended on and what I think that lesson was is that a subversion done right doesn't just not reduce the quality of your story it

instead enhances it and really I think Johnson realized that there are three rules are three core rules that decide whether or not your subversion of expectation will be an asset to your story or a detriment and the first rule to making any form of subversion shook or twist in your story good is it must enhance your story going forward secondly it must have a strong verisimilitude with the story's logic that's come before and thirdly this is the big one this is the main reason why the last year those twists and turns just didn't work it

has to be in keeping with all the promises that you've made so far to your audience and what you'll see once we've broken all of these three down is how the last Jedi breaks all of these rules and knives out passes all three with flying colors so firstly how is it possible for a subversion of expectation to enhance your story it's easy to say well it should just enhance your story but how does a good subversion actually do that well the main subversion knives out is the fact that it flips genres a third of the

way through the entire advertising campaign of this movie and also the whole first act is all about this movie being a whodunit they are trying to find Harlan thrombus killer but then at the end of the first act we have a flashback that tells us exactly who did it and seemingly answers all of the questions all of a sudden with the flip of a coin this is no longer whodunit it's a how the hell is she gonna get away with it and what I love so goddamn much about this twist is how wonderfully it serves

the story going forward like Jesus Christ I love this like Rian Johnson I actually love you for this like if you're watching this and we ever just happen to like meet up one day I promise I will buy you like ten rounds of drinks because of just how genius what you've done here was but the reason why this subversion is so good is because Johnson weapon eise's the tropes of the genre because now the tropes of the murder mystery genre are themselves the antagonists because of the flashback the audience believes that Marta poisoned thrombi by

accident and so far mut has been a thoroughly kind and likeable person and because of that we're rooting for her to succeed but in every murder mystery the detective always catches the killer like always at the end of every murder mystery the detective stands around all the suspects has a monologue where they go through all the clues and then he points at the person who did the deed and then they get caught it's just a trope that every murder mystery has and on a meta level not just by looking at this film itself but rather

the context of our culture we're now even more invested in the story because Johnson as a result of subverting the genre exploits those tropes to make the audience truly believe that the detective will find her out by the end of the story and she will go to jail and these subverted tropes combined with how much the audience is rooting for her to get away with it to create some really really compelling engagement like I'm sorry I very rarely use naughty words in this channel but I'll make an exception just once I this is [ __

] genius like I cannot get across how god damn like clever this is like this is the first time I've ever seen a story exploit and weaponize its own tropes by subverting them in this way like I'm just I love this movie like seriously this strong twist in knives out is one of the best subversions I've seen maybe even the best I've ever seen because it isn't just a lazy subversion like in the last year I where it's purely for the shock instead it does an outstanding job at raising the stakes and increasing audience investment

going forwards what knives out demonstrates really quite well is that Bryan Johnson has the best mentality when it comes to being a writer director liked the film proves that he's striving to improve himself so he can tell better stories and if you're a writer you should always be on the lookout for more resources to learn from so you can improve your craft and when it comes to a great place we can find no end of material to learn from audible has a trove of interesting audiobooks that I personally learn to turn from and I can

happily thank audible for sponsoring today's video a while ago I recommend you guys check out the audiobook for save the cat by Blake Snyder because it's full of some really good tips for writing screenplays and it especially helps if you're having plotting issues but recently I've been listening to save the cat writes a novel and it's basically save the cat but it's well you guessed it about how to write novels and it somehow got even more useful tips and the original save the cat but really like if you're interested in telling stories on the screen

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and you'll get a free 30-day trial two free audible originals and a free credit that's good to redeem any audiobook you like on their platform but if I had to boil it down to just one I'd recommend you get save the cat writes a novel because it's slightly longer and it's got slightly more actionable advice for you like this audiobook is free but you can listen to it immediately and all you have to do to collect it is click my link at the description that's audible.com forward slash closer look or text closer look to five

hundred five hundred and get your free audiobook today this anyway back to the video as for rule to the subversion must have a strong verisimilitude with the story told before I didn't know that this word existed when I made my scary video a few months back but now I do please please forgive me Jesus Christ you guys really did not forgive me for that one in the comments but essentially verisimilitude means that a thing makes perfect logical sense in light of all the other logic that surrounds it now you may think that well all that

means when it comes to twists in a story is foreshadowing and in some subversions like your traditional plot twists that can be totally true but it isn't always here's a great example of how foreshadowing isn't everything instead verisimilitude is the infamous infamous scene from the last Jedi where rey gives Luke his older lightsaber and then he throws it over the cliff the reason why this subversion just doesn't work is because it completely goes against luke's character and what he would actually knew in this scenario like this lightsaber was created by his father for the longest

time it was his mentor's for the longest time it was his even if he's denounced being a Jedi and has become a cynic this weapon would still be of incredible sentimental value to him and ET is a family heirloom the only heirloom that Luke has and the fact that he casually throws it away without a second thought like it's a used tissue paper totally goes against his character in this case it's an issue of verisimilitude as to why this subversion just doesn't work not foreshadowing this also cuts the other way because if you have a

twist that's got really bugger-all foreshadowing but it's got a really great there a similitude where it's totally in line with your story's logic it makes that twist so much more likely to be a good one and it makes it far easier for your audience to swallow that twist a great example would be Ned Stark's death in Game of Thrones this is why I'm saying you're shocked twist or subversion needs verisimilitude and not necessarily foreshadowing because Ned Stark's death is a great twist and it's got basically no foreshadowing with this scene everyone who hadn't read the

books beforehand expected Ned's life to be spared then for him to go on and join John in the Nights Watch okay look it's been a while since I saw the show so maybe I'm wrong I'm sorry if I am but I can't remember this moment having any foreshadowing in the show but when Joffrey says it's incredibly shocking but it also totally works because it makes perfect sense like yes by killing Ned Stark Joffrey will start a war he will create massive friction with his relations to the north and it's a move that any wise level-headed

King would never do but that's not who Joffrey is he's a naive child who totally lacks any wisdom and to top it all off he's an impulsive trax who loves hurting people and ruining diplomatic relations and starting a war that will kill thousands of his own people and make his life considerably harder going forwards for no other reason than the pleasure of pleasing the mob and seeing their die is completely in line with what Joffrey would have done if this story were real as a result it's a twist that works wonderfully despite the fact that

it has basically no foreshadowing and okay if we're making a video called how to do a plot twist we can't really do that title justice without covering foreshadowing and in my opinion the most cathartic kinds of plot twists are the ones were the clues are there where it's possible for the audience to figure the twists out but where the clues are so deftly placed the audience only realizes that they were in fact clues after the twist is revealed now obviously you could have a great twist that isn't this like it's possible for someone to see

your twist coming and still love it when it happens but if you don't land in what I'd call like the plot twist sweet spot where like the twist is extremely obvious and hindsight but not at all beforehand then plot might be criticized as being hackneyed because it's too easy to predict or alternatively it's nonsensical because it wasn't remotely possible to predict that twist beforehand because you laid a poor groundwork for it but a great example of foreshadowing done well in knives out is how ransom is revealed to be the real killer behind it all it

turns out that he swapped Harlan's medication to trick Marta into giving him a lethal morphine dose but what I love so much about this twist is how it lands so well in that sweet spot that we just talked about where it's damn near impossible to figure it out beforehand but extremely obvious in hindsight and what I think's really interesting on how Johnson does this twist is how he uses a specific approach to foreshadowing that I absolutely adore it's by carefully choosing the order in which we're fed the clues and this is something that I think's

wildly underestimated because when people talk about plot twists they often don't mention that the order in which you deliver the clues has a massive effect on how easy to guess the twist is but it has basically zero effect on how cathartic that twist is when it happens okay so of the very first clue we get that ransom is the murderer is right at the very start when blank is interviewing the family and were told that at 3 o'clock in the morning once everyone is in bed the dog started barking and we absorb this information we'd

have no idea what to make of it so we just remember it and nothing more but now going forward Johnson gives us the hints that help us piece together exactly how important that main clue was because throughout the entire film the dogs are friendly to everyone they meet like when Marta sneaks up in the night just after 12:00 they're friendly with her and don't make a sound a when thrombi his daughter arrives they sprint towards her enthused like at one point one of them even plays fetch with detective blanc like the only time in the

whole movie where we see the dogs worked up is when ransom first arrives and they harass him and bark loudly like at one point Blanc even says this dog here Johnson has told us that ransom is the murderer he's confessed it we just don't realize it yet now this may sound odd but trust me it's totally true if you're going for a plot twist one of the best ways to do it is exactly how Johnson does it in knives out and give the main foreshadowed clue first and then slowly between then and when the plot

twist happens you drip feed in the hints and the information that allows the audience to make that connection like and even though Johnson does this rather cheeky approach to foreshadowing when the finger of blame is finally pointed at ransom it's cathartic not because we realize it's ransom but because we finally realize it could have only been ransom and the boot doesn't fit any other foots than his and finally let's talk about promises I think this is the main issue most people had with the last Jedi we were promised certain things and those promises were totally

broken Rey's parentage is a great example of this so JJ Abrams when he made the force awakens essentially said hey we don't know who Ray's parents are but I promise it's got a very interesting answer oh I wonder what's in this mystery books oh it's gonna be a big reveal later on down the line and even though JJ Abrams had no idea what the arcs that mystery even was but still did a pretty damn good job at getting people hyped for this plotline for this mystery thread there was gonna take place in the other films

like lots of people speculating like this promise people were interested in seeing it delivered on and then of course we have the moment where kylo Ren just says you remember that incredibly fun mystery that everyone was excited to see resolved yeah yeah yeah there's that the answers mundane yeah the answer is boring your parents were nobodies like when Johnson did that it achieved nothing absolutely nothing except disappointment because it broke a promise made for a thoroughly pointless reason and what I think's brilliant about knives out is how Johnson's clearly learned from this mistake and he's

realized just how important it is to keep your promises and what he does that's really cheeky in knives out is he lets you think that he's broken his promises but then subvert Stan says oh just kidding here's the answer that you will want it and it's this very very but fun climax but what is really good about the plot of knives out is how we have that murder mystery plot and then it just fizzles out goes away now we have this entirely new plot of martyr trying to get away with it and this is the

best bit because not just that plot were invested in is resolved in the end but the murder mystery plot that we all thought was just dead and buried a promise that Johnson let us all think broken when the movie change genre z' is resurrected and now that second plot of her getting away with it recombines with the initial murder mystery plot as we realize that there's another malicious accurately and in the end every single promise made in all these two plot lines they collide seamlessly to result in a thoroughly cathartic climax when finally we realized

it was ransom who did it all and then he gets taken away and it's just such a satisfying climax when it happens I am truly envious to my core of Johnson's achievements with knives out because I couldn't even dream of writing a plot even half as perfect as this one anyway thanks for watching please don't forget to click my link in the description to check out that free audiobook and I'll see you guys next time on the closer look