Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Try to dodge bullets, and you'll end up like me. Say you're watching your favorite action movie. Bob is in a car chase and the bad guys are right behind him. He sees a sharp turn up ahead next to a brick wall. Thinking ahead, Bob decides to drift at the last second so he can cause his pursuers to crash and escape. However, Bob is not an experienced drifter, so instead of drifting, the car flips, does a rollover, and smashes into the wall, letting the bad guys catch up with him.
This is what is probably going through your mind: "Huh? Did that just happen? I meanβ¦ that is how it would happen in Real Life, butβ¦" A Surprisingly Realistic Outcome happens when a work subverts narrative conventions by deriving an outcome from realistic principles, temporarily removing otherwise fictional logic. We can often anticipate results based on the story's narrative pattern; this trope subverts those expectations by momentarily employing more realism than its norm.
This trope isn't merely a Plot Twist. To minimize stress on editors, make sure your example is Surprising , Realistic , and an Outcome :. Surprising : A moment needs to be objectively surprising to qualify, meaning a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome requires an Expected Unrealistic Outcome for its genre.
We expect unexpected events in fiction , as stories would be boring if everything always happened according to plan. Unlike a regular Plot Twist , a surprisingly realistic moment deliberately guides audience expectations in one direction , only to suddenly avert the Artistic License or Rule of X necessary for that outcome. In doing so, it highlights how unrealistic it was for the viewer to expect that in the first place.
Also, character reactions cannot qualify under this trope, as real people's emotional and psychological responses to a situation vary wildly. We can't say any response is necessarily unrealistic in fictional scenarios, and not even the character's author can know such things.
