To Be a Bad Red Herring, You Must First BE a Red Herring
The Weekly Rhapsody: MacGuffins and Red Herrings
I went to the eye doctor today, and the exercise of going through an exam has them extra tired tonight, so this will be a short, raw post. Still, I had a thought. Every day at work, I spend a good deal of time doing bits of research for my afternoon blog posts. I was looking for examples to share with you, specifically of Red Herrings that have entirely failed, and I came across an interesting idea. Tell me what you think…
This week, we’ve been talking about MacGuffins and — mostly — Red Herrings. This has been building on last week’s topic of basic mystery tropes. And there was also last week’s Ask the Bard in which I explored the concept of Deus ex Machina.
So, with all of that in mind, let’s look at an example from one of my very favorite mystery sub-genres, the caper! Now, I don’t want to get side-tracked on what makes a caper a caper, but suffice to say we’re looking at a specific class of theft mysteries where we’re rooting for the thief. Think Ocean’s Eleven, Hackers, or the Now You See Me franchise.
Which is, naturally, what I want to talk about! A caper and magic?! Be still my fluttering heart! Specifically, I want to talk about Now You See Me 2 which is, for some reason, accounted as a bad red herring. And, to a point, I agree, it would be a bad red herring if it were, in fact…a red herring. Or, at least, if it were entirely a red herring.
I assert that the movie’s twist — when we find out that Daniel Radcliff’s character is the son of Sir Michael Caine’s character — is NOT a red herring but is instead a Deus ex Machina and that the writers might have outsmarted their audience.
Hear me out.
Michael Caine’s involvement in the movie does nothing except tie it to the first movie. His son doesn’t need him to access his vast, mind-numbing resources, and seeking approval from Daddy isn’t the son’s motivation, he already has Daddy’s approval and full support. Michael Caine’s character is a MacGuffin coupled with….
…wait for it….
…a Deus ex Machina. The technology, the money, the resources are all ‘the machine’ from which the evil entrapping ‘god’ appears.
The reason why the twist is a bad red herring is because it was never a red herring to begin with. If you bite into an orange, but were expecting an apple, then it doesn’t matter how good at being an orange the orange is, it’s still a very bad apple. The same thing applies here.
So what’s your opinion? Is the twist a bad take on a rotted and stinking red herring? Or do you also see it as a unique and skillful use of a non-traditional Deus ex Machina? Let me know in the comments, in a note on your restack, or in a message!
Coming This Week:
Tomorrow: New fiction on Fiction Friday, The Graveside Letters of Jolene Williams 03! Catch up here:
Part 01: I Miss You
Part 02: How Are You?
A wrap up and round-up of the week and a NEW game: Quick Six, a series of themed prompts to get you thinking about how to apply MacGuffins and Red Herrings to your own world-building!