Unrelated to anything happening here--I think it's a valid question in a TV show, with characters or worlds that have set up clear expectations to say "But why did they do that?"

But with a movie, when you ask "Why did they make the decision that's the movie's premise?" isn't it sometimes sufficient that that's why someone made a movie? If I'm the sort of person that freezes in a conflict and gets bitten by the zombie right away, no one is paying to see my apocalypse story. You're going to pay to see the one where someone did something *not* immediately normal, and escapes--or has luck that saves their lives--or something.

I mean, up to a point, the reason is "because that's the story I chose to film--if you need your story, you film it."

That isn't to explain away incomprehensible fiction, or even unlikely fiction that's framed badly--but the thing about unlikely is that someone does do it, otherwise we'd have called it impossible. And sometimes they do that too. Not every possibility is going to get a movie made out of it. We're not all stranger than fiction. Usually we're too boring for it. Or at least clumsily paced, and unevenly plotted.

If I'm the sort of person that freezes in a conflict and gets bitten by the zombie right away, no one is paying to see my apocalypse story.

What you are in that case is a bit character in a Stephen King novel. We'll get to know you just enough to wonder why we bothered wasting our time reading about you before you die and the plot moves on.

Mostly, though, we'll wonder why we had to read about you picking your nose before you died.

We're not all stranger than fiction. Usually we're too boring for it. Or at least clumsily paced, and unevenly plotted.

I'm stranger than fiction, but I'm clumsily paced and unevenly plotted. Right now I'm in a brief chapter that consists of "She spent some years resting from her adventures, doing simple work, eschewing love and amassing her fortune." Can't wait for the next chapter!

Oh, dear, I think I'm in the hard-working, long-suffering parts that would either be an Oscar-winning drama--probably with Sally Field being stoic and plucky and rural--or glossed over with a montage with noble, heart-stirring music. Maybe I'll get a glorious "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" moment.

I'm in the "She's waiting for something to shake her out of her rut" part of the movie, with a voiceover of me declaiming that 40 isn't "middle-aged," blah blah blah.

But I'd prefer this be a quirkyfun movie where "getting out of my rut" means something new and fun, not a trauma-laden movie where "getting out of my rut" is preceded by the loss of my dearest love. I'll keep him in my rut, thanks ever so.

I like ruts. They're comfortable.

Hmm, maybe I'll petition the Great Script Writer for one of those "Everyone thought they were a mild-mannered couple that just seemed to be getting by, but they had a dark secret that was about to be blown out into the open." Kind of like RED with spoiled cats.

I think I'm in the montage part of the movie that lets the writer establish Wacky Things Happen, Okay?, and sets the groundwork for the Really Big Wacky Things that are about to happen.

I'm tired of being Katherine Heigl in the tight-assed part of the movie. Oh, okay, Katherine Heigl has an accident in the tight-assed. rut-driven part of the movie.

heh. Has this already been posted?

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