http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeusExMachina

— Emma Coats "Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating."

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A Deus ex Machina (pron: /diːəs ɛks mækɪnə/ for Britons, /deɪuːs ɛks mɑːkɪnə/ for Americans; /deus eks maːkʰinaː/ in the orginal Latin) is when some new event, character, ability, or object solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in a sudden, unexpected way. It's often used as the solution to what is called "writing yourself into a corner," where the problem is so extreme that nothing in the established setting suggests that there is a logical way for the characters to escape. If a bomb is about to go off, someone finds a convenient bomb-proof bunker in easy reach. If a protagonist falls off a cliff, a flying robot will suddenly appear to catch them. A Million-to-One Chance of something occurring is accomplished by a bystander who didn't know what they were doing. If The End of the World as We Know It is about to happen and nobody is able to stop it, it will be stopped thanks to some scientist's otherwise useless invention.

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The term is Latin for "god out of the machine" and originates in ancient Greek theater.note the original classical Greek "theos ek mekhanikos" became "deus ex machina" through Latin translations of Greek literary criticism in the Renaissance. It referred to scenes in which a crane (machine) was used to lower actors or statues playing a god or gods (deus) onto the stage to set things right, often near the end of the play. In its most literal interpretation, this is when a godlike figure or power, with all the convenient power that comes with that, arrives to solve the problem. A Divine Intervention need not always be a Deus ex Machina or the sole way this trope plays out however.

Note that there are a number of requirements for a sudden plot development to be a Deus ex Machina:

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The concept eventually came back into vogue during the early years of the film industry thanks to The Hays Code. Villains, and anyone else who didn't toe the moral line, were absolutely not allowed to get away with their crimes. But, more often than not Evil Is Cool. The solution was to let the bad guy be awesome for the duration of the movie, then drop a bridge on them in the last five minutes.

Remember, even the notorious Deus ex Machina can be pulled off. Sudden resolutions are perfectly capable of leading to satisfying conclusions - see the entire "Rule Of X" series of tropes: Rule of Cool, Rule of Cute, Rule of Empathy, Rule of Fun, Rule of Funny, Rule of Romantic, Rule of Scary, Rule of Sexy (for those ever-so-fun Deus Sex Machinas), Rule of Symbolism, and especially Rule of Drama. Apparent Deus ex Machina also happen plenty in real life, given reality is far more complex and random than most fictionalized versions of it.

For more information about this Trope.See Only the Author Can Save Them Now.

Compare to the Reset Button, Non-Protagonist Resolver, Diabolus ex Machina, Coincidental Broadcast, You Didn't Ask, Eureka Moment and Suspiciously Specific Sermon. Not to be confused with the tropes Deus Est Machina, Deus Exit Machina or Ave Machina. Nor the works Deus Ex, Deus ex Machina, Ex Machina or Ex Machina.

Please make sure an example meets the criteria before submitting. This is not a place to Complain About Plot Twists You Don't Like.

Examples (Warning: Ending Spoilers)

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Fan Works

Films  Animation

Music Videos

In the Music Video for Cyndi Lauper's "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough", André the Giant appears out of nowhere (literally, just a puff of smoke, and there he is) to chase off the bad guys.

The climax of Clamavi de Profundis's first Chieftain saga, "Strong", features a literal example when the Villain Protagonist is stopped by an angel from killing a monk whose monastery his troops were raiding.

Myths & Religion

Classical Mythology: Funnily enough, there are many times in Greek Mythology where the gods and goddesses fail to do this all the way through; they may do something which only partly rectifies the situation or has its own shortcomings to it. Not all instances from classical mythology are subversions, though. For example, at one point Hera offers her aid to the Argonauts to get them through. In fact, the entire name of the trope came from the theatrical device used (via a cherry-picker like machine) in ancient Greek plays based on the Greeks' myths.

Radio

While writing the first installment of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams found himself faced with a writer's dilemma: His characters had just gotten thrown out an airlock, and would pass out and die from lack of oxygen in 30 seconds, and it was so utterly improbable that another spaceship would come around within those 30 seconds to rescue them that to have had that happen would've been nothing short of this trope. This gave him the idea for the Infinite Improbability Drive. The Quintessential Phase, which adapts Mostly Harmless, at its conclusion has the Babel Fish suddenly turn out to have an ability to teleport itself out of danger when facing certain death. This was done to avert the Kill 'Em All ending of the book, and is naturally subject to liberal Lampshade Hanging when Arthur asks why it's never come up before.



Roleplay

Tabletop Games

In Dungeons & Dragons, the high-level Cleric spell Miracle allows you to request intervention from your deity. It costs experience points to use in that fashion, but other than that the only stated downside is that the deity might refuse. In 5th Edition, Clerics can eventually gain a feature that lets them beseech their deity to offer assistance in their time of need. The roll for it is very unlikely to succeed, but having a more limited but reusable version of the Wish spell is nothing to scoff at.

Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok allows player characters to ask a deity to help them in battle. A sacrifice is performed, runes are drawn, and if the aforementioned deity is in a good mood, Deus ex Machina may occur. However, if your prayer has angered it, the divine intervention will benefit your opponents!

In GURPS, a character can buy an Advantage called Serendipity, which allows one extremely fortunate event per game session to take place at the player's discretion. The Gizmos advantage is designed to let players imitate fictional characters like Batman and James Bond, as described above.

The parody RPG Ho L has the "Grace of God" pool, which players can put points in by rolling Critical Hits during the game. If the character cannot get out of a situation and has points in Grace of God, they can say "Praise Jesus", which allows the DM to use any random, nonsensical, and/or inexplicable means they can think of to solve the character's dilemma.

In the tongue-in-cheek RPG In Nomine Satanis / Magna Veritas, which is played with rolls of 3d6, anyone rolling 111 means a direct and usually over-the-top divine intervention happens. Which can be a very good thing if you're playing an angel, and a very bad thing if you're a demon. And of course, a roll of 666 causes a direct satanic intervention. Also, any angel can try to summon his archangel, and any demon can try to summon his demon prince. And yes, it can work... If you're lucky.

Magic: The Gathering has the "Miracle" mechanic. Cards with Miracle are all powerful, expensive spells. However, if they're the first card their owner draws in a turn, they can be immediately played for their (deeply discounted) Miracle cost, making them a sudden solution to many a hopeless scenario.

Lampshaded in Munchkin: There's a card called Deus Ex Machinegun that has the gods come down with a machine gun and kill all the monsters, take all the treasure, and make the combat just magically go away.

Shadowrun actually has a rule about this, called Hand Of God. When a PC ends up in some sort of hopeless situation, the PC's player can invoke the Hand Of God, having the GM save the PC via some form of Deus ex Machina. There's a catch, of course: it has a hefty experience-point cost, and it can only be used once per character.

In Spirit of the Century players may use their characters' Aspects, a Declaration, or even certain Stunts to make an unlikely coincidence happen. Players can also have gadgets and artifacts with undefined abilities, so you can decide that they do exactly what you want at the right moment (of course, once you've decided it stays that way at least until the end of the adventure)

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Dark Heresy have the Fate Points, which will unfailingly pull a character out of certain death and put them in a position where you are safe for the immediate moment. For small stuff a Fate Point will turn a killing blow to a glancing one, cause the enemies to take you prisoner instead of killing you on the spot, or let you dodge that lethal fall pit, but it becomes one of these when, say, you've just been killed by being spaced, caught inside a collapsing mine or building, or by having a daemon biting your head off.

This is Modus Operandi for the Legion of the Damned chapter of Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000. They appear without warning and aid beleaguered Imperial forces against the enemies of mankind, then disappear as soon as the battle is won just as suddenly as they came. Notably, this is one that creeps out the Imperials something fierce. Interestingly, one of the theories behind the Damned Legionnaires' appearance is that they are extensions of the God-Emperor's will. Although he's more like Deus IN Machina. You know, the Golden Throne?

An actual game mechanic in World of Synnibarr (really). If your character is on the verge of death with no hope of salvation, you actually get a dice roll to see if your patron deity turns up to haul your arse out of the fire.

For some Game Masters, this is going to happen eventually. Whether it be a Total Party Kill where it shouldn't be, the players making a decision that turns out to be much worse than they could imagine, or other misadventure, a group of players will find themselves in a situation where the only way out is to basically cheat. Some GMs will just rewrite the then-latest events, but for GMs who like to maintain the narrative, this may be the only way out.

Theatre

Toys

Happens quite a bit in BIONICLE, but three particular examples stand out: In the final moments of the Bohrok-Kal arc, Tahu summons the Kanohi Vahi, which gives the Toa Nuva just enough time to defeat the Kal, who were literally only seconds away from victory. There was no prior indication that Tahu had the Vahi (though the novelization Makuta's Revenge fixes this). In the Toa Inika's battle with Vezon, Jaller pulls out a unique Zamor Sphere that freezes Vezon in stasis when Vezon, who's in the middle of a rage-induced Villainous Breakdown, attempts to inflict a Fate Worse than Death on Matoro, allowing the Inika to recover the Mask of Life. Unlike the Vahi example, there was a scene of Axonn giving Jaller the sphere, however its power was never explained, note The most Axonn says is that it's "for protection" which raises a lot of Fridge Logic. In the Grand Finale Journey's End arc, completely out of the blue, the Mask of Life creates a mystical set of Golden Armor for Tahu, which is capable of annihilating every single Rahkshi soldier and gaining all their abilities. Granted, the Mask Of Life has done and created some pretty crazy things with its power before, but this is said to be a contingency plan of the Great Beings for if The Makuta ever rebelled. It was never mentioned prior to this, and you'd think it would've activated a lot sooner if it supposed to be a fail-safe.



Visual Novels

In Super Danganronpa 2, the characters are forced to make a Sadistic Choice: either A. "Graduate", which would replace their memories of being the most dangerous terrorists alive who brought about the end of the world with the memories of the time they spent in the virtual world, reforming them and giving them hope for the future. This, however, would release a malevolent Artificial Intelligence (specifically that of their leader during their time as terrorists) which would infect every person on the planet, essentially turning it into a world of nothing but copies of said leader, plunging the recovering world into a permanent state of blood, horror, and, most especially, despair. Oh, and it would also trap a couple surviving characters from the first game inside the virtual world. activate the "Forced Shutdown", resulting in them losing all of the memories they've acquired in the virtual world and revert back to being the horrible terrorists (who are also physically mutilated), with a chance of being executed. However, this would completely destroy said malevolent AI, saving the world. They choose option B. The ending of the game reveals that after getting out of the program, the characters decide to stay on the island and try to revive their friends who died inside the virtual world (of which there is a very, very small chance of pulling off), peaceably seeing off said first-game characters who put them in the program in the first place. Obviously, they didn't simply revert to their old terrorist selves; either the Forced Shutdown replaced their terrorist memories with their virtual ones, or they now have both sets of memories. Either way, there was no foreshadowing or explanation given for how or why the program would behave in such a way .

Web Animation

Web Comics

Web Original

Web Videos