Movies like this

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I am looking for movies where an event occurs and the whole arc and goal of a character changes and to get out of that scenario is everything for that character and that becomes ultimate resolution of the movie.

Few examples are:-
13th warrior - antonio banderas is punished by being appointed as an ambassador to the north. But once he meets norsemen the whole movie becomes about their mission and how to complete it. The whole ambassador thing is thrown out of the window.
next three days - we see a normal couple and then the wife is accused of the murder she didn't commit. From then on the main goal of the husband is to escape with his wife and evade police and leave the country untraced. Nothing in their lives will be the same.
Even prison escape movies like escape from pretoria or shawshank redemption or even midnight express where characters are thrown into certain situations and the whole movie becomes about that.
Crawl - its hurricane and girl tries to get her father out of basement and she is stuck in there with crocodiles and whole movie is about how she can get out of that water.

Once they are in a situation in the movie....the entire movie becomes about getting out of that situation. It need not be prison escape movies....but a good thriller with this kind of storyline is what i am looking for.



I suppose that any "man in a hole" story would fit this, so you should find a great abundance of answers. Probably too many to be useful. In the most direct sense, Buried would be a good example, and so would Red Eye, as they are literally stories of confinement in a problem.

Can you be a little more specific about the pattern you're hunting here?



I suppose that any "man in a hole" story would fit this, so you should find a great abundance of answers. Probably too many to be useful. In the most direct sense, Buried would be a good example, and so would Red Eye, as they are literally stories of confinement in a problem.

Can you be a little more specific about the pattern you're hunting here?
Buried wouldnt fit the bill because the movie doesnt have a significant enough life outside the box and box is too small. Red eye is good example.

My pattern is pretty simple. A person is going by his day with lot of plans or just a normal day. But all of a sudden something happens to him that puts him in a situation that he must get out of and getting out is the ultimate goal in the movie.

I forgot to give the best example and that is predator.
In that movie the main mission is to attack a bunch of south american soldiers and extract someone but 30 minutes into the movie and it becomes only about escaping/killing the predator. By the end its no longer about the mission or the south american woman they retrieve. Its just about surviving the day and killing the predator and getting the hell out of there.

Even psycho is a best example. Until the lady reaches the motel, its all about her escape and the money she stole and he affair but once in the motel it just becomes about the motel and uncovering the secrets of the motel.Since the killer in the motel in much more intriguing that a woman stealing money the movie is engaging.

I am looking for movies like that. I would say predator, 13th warrior and psycho are exactly the kind of movies i am looking for. The mission/goal of the movie should change sometime into the movie. It can't be the same from the beginning. Even wrong turn movies are like that. The characters in those movies are planning to go somewhere but suddenly their plans are changed and they are in a whole another set of dangerous situations that they must survive and thats the main goal of the movie.The goal and purpose of movie changes. Even deliverance is good example. The movie starts off as just 4 friends on a boat trip but soon it turns into something else, much more dangerous and intense. By the end you don't care about why they are there in the first place. Its all about the unexpected things that happened.



Buried wouldnt fit the bill because the movie doesnt have a significant enough life outside the box and box is too small. Red eye is good example.

My pattern is pretty simple. A person is going by his day with lot of plans or just a normal day. But all of a sudden something happens to him that puts him in a situation that he must get out of and getting out is the ultimate goal in the movie.

I forgot to give the best example and that is predator.
In that movie the main mission is to attack a bunch of south american soldiers and extract someone but 30 minutes into the movie and it becomes only about escaping/killing the predator. By the end its no longer about the mission or the south american woman they retrieve. Its just about surviving the day and killing the predator and getting the hell out of there.

Even psycho is a best example. Until the lady reaches the motel, its all about her escape and the money she stole and he affair but once in the motel it just becomes about the motel and uncovering the secrets of the motel.Since the killer in the motel in much more intriguing that a woman stealing money the movie is engaging.

I am looking for movies like that. I would say predator, 13th warrior and psycho are exactly the kind of movies i am looking for. The mission/goal of the movie should change sometime into the movie. It can't be the same from the beginning. Even wrong turn movies are like that. The characters in those movies are planning to go somewhere but suddenly their plans are changed and they are in a whole another set of dangerous situations that they must survive and thats the main goal of the movie.The goal and purpose of movie changes. Even deliverance is good example. The movie starts off as just 4 friends on a boat trip but soon it turns into something else, much more dangerous and intense. By the end you don't care about why they are there in the first place. Its all about the unexpected things that happened.
OK, I think I get it now.

Well, I suppose From Dusk till Dawn would be a fit, right? This is what I usually think of as a genre-turn film, where the 2nd act surprise is so wild that it pushes the film into a different genre (e.g., from action to horror).

I think some Manic Pixie Dream Girl movies arguably fit. You have a protag who is down and doing something mundane (like going to a funeral or a reunion) and then the Manic Pixie changes his trajectory in life. I also think of "Nocturnal Romp" films from the 80's which are somewhat in the orbit of the genre like Into the Night (1985), After Hours (1985),and Vamp (1986).

With regard to taxonomy here, I think a key question is "How soon do you allow the turn of the character's purpose?" Some films almost immediately hit a protagonist at a right angle, changing their purpose, which does not give any sense of "this to that" because we start at the reaction point. Do we have to have the sense that the story itself has changed or just the character's purpose?



It almost feels that quite a large portion of films is like that. Depends what kind of time frame you’re looking at, but in Molly’s Game, for example, the character’s entire life is wrapped up in being a skier, and then circumstances force her to seek another ‘high-end’ career.
Also, I’d say 127 Hours (agree with your point about Buried that the life pre-predicament is not explored in enough detail, but it is addressed once he’s stuck and is thinking about it).
Fearless (1993).
Cast Away (2000).
Run (2020).