Idiot plot

In literary and film criticism, an idiot plot is a plot which (in the words of the Turkey City Lexicon), "functions only because all the characters involved are idiots: They behave in a way that suits the author's convenience, rather than through any rational motivation of their own." Alternate formulations describe only the protagonist as being an idiot.

The origin of the term is uncertain; it has been attributed variously to film critic Roger Ebert (who used the term in his review of the 1966 Western movie The Ugly Ones, and continues to use it frequently), and to science fiction author and critic James Blish.

One of the most commonly occurring instances of the so-called idiot plot shows up in various horror movies, wherein the potential victims often continue to split up even after other people in their group turn up dead, run into dead-end alleys, make noises that allow the killer to find them while in hiding, refrain from collectively arming themselves, etc. The definitive example of a horror film idiot plot is this: when the female protagonist learns that the homicidal maniac is somewhere in the house, she decides to hide in the basement rather than leave the house.

Damon Knight later coined the term "second-order idiot plot," which is applied to science fiction plots involving an invented society "which functions only because every single person in it is necessarily an idiot."

References

• The Ugly Ones by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, January 3, 1969, retrieved January 5, 2008
• The Hearse by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, July 7, 1980, retrieved August 24, 2006
• The Turkey City Lexicon