Right on Cue: Deus ex Machina in Film Quiz

Answer: They closed their eyes.

The Ark, being the Biblical Ark of the Covenant, was said to behold the power of God, which might be why the Nazis wanted it in the first place. Yet the power was never meant to be looked upon by mankind. Hence, a simple shuttering of Indy's eyes let him escape the face-melting, Nazi-burning lightning that happened to burst forth.

When the pair opened their eyes, they stood before an army of the dead.

Answer: Baseball bat

"Swing away," Merrill's deceased mother had given him as advice. His younger sister, Bo, had mysteriously left half-empty glasses of water around the house and that gave Merrill all the ammunition he needed against the invader. He swung his bat into the glasses, splashing the water-now-acid onto the alien, killing it.

Some might argue that since there was indeed foreshadowing, this is not a case of deus ex machina, but that isn't quite accurate. There is no explanation for why "superior" invaders wanted a planet composed primarily of their main weakness. Therefore it would be silly to believe that our protagonists would be saved by the liquid, and hence the supernatural nature of their escape makes it all the more puzzling.

Why does the mother whisper the advice to swing away and why does Bo leave around those glasses of water? It isn't explained, it just happens, therefore we have a resolution that could only be explained "from the god machine".

Answer: He had conveniently spent years developing an immunity to the poison.

How terribly convenient that Westley (the Man in Black) was immune to the Iocane powder. The whole scene is played out without any prior knowledge of said immunity, yet the film seems to recognize this fact, and so the deus ex machina here is poking fun of itself.

Answer: Tapping her heels together and saying, "There's no place like home."

Well, it seems like all that time on the yellow brick road was now a complete waste if she could just get home by tapping her ruby slippers from the beginning. But it gets even better. Dorothy was never in trouble in the first place since everything was a dream to begin with! Since it was used once, I'm sure that whole "it-was-a-dream-the-whole-time" plot device won't be used ever again...

Answer: Eagle

In his writings, Tolkien commonly used the Great Eagles to this effect, especially concerning Gandalf's rescue. In the movie, Gandalf and the Eagles arrive just in time to save Frodo and Sam. While Gandalf is indeed the agent driving his rescue, the Great Eagles' previous absence and sudden helpful appearance helps lend to the case that we are witnessing a deus ex machina. After all, we aren't privy to the scene where Gandalf convinces these prideful beasts that they ought to help.

Some have speculated that the Great Eagles of Middle-earth were powerful enough to be kept in check by Saruman, and therefore would have drawn attention if the ring had been shuttled by them. Therefore, their use as rescue agents was appropriate to their characters.

Answer: Jurassic Park

The joke lies in the moment of deus ex machina in "Jurassic Park" in which a Tyrannosaurus Rex just happens to chomp down on a raptor as it's leaping for its kill. The kill happens to be our protagonists, who can now get away unharmed.

The catch is, why didn't we, or for that matter the raptors, hear the enormous beast on approach? And how the heck did it get into that building? It matters not. We move on, our protagonists happy that the ferocious beast that nearly killed them earlier has suddenly become an arbiter of justice.

Answer: Bacteria

It's funny that water and other simplicities are often the downfall of alien invaders, yet there is an implicit lesson in this for us humans. Ignoring the small things or believing mankind to be superior to them can lead to doom.

Answer: A flood

Loosely based on Homer's "The Odyssey", it's no surprise that "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" utilizes a deus ex machina effect that was popular in Ancient Greece. In this instance we can see a more literal sense of the term, since it is believed by Ulysses that God himself saved him and his fellow convicts.

Answer: Destroy Riddle's diary with breath of fire.

While it might all seem rather ridiculous when discussed in a detached manner (e.g. "a hat which contains a magic sword"), it doesn't seem quite so when we give names to these items:

It was the "Sorting Hat" which contained the "Sword of Godric Gryffindor"!

Let's stop pretending and just see them for what they were: deus ex machina. We would have five less books/films without them.

Answer: A spaceship suddenly scoops him out of the sky.

The scene is so absurd and out of place that it can only be taken as knowingly self-effacing. And in a film that can be seen as religious satire, it is interesting that we also see a satire on the concept of "god from the machine"! Those guys really thought of everything!