# Movies without the plot armor **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 10, 2017, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978 "2017-09-10T01:13:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978/61 "2017-09-13T07:12:43Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > John Wayne was pushing 60 and playing a paratrooper. You’re going to need some serious plot armor to drop a sextagenarian out an airplane and not kill him. [http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/george-hw-bush-90-birthday-skydiving-107773](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/george-hw-bush-90-birthday-skydiving-107773) ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978/63 "2017-09-13T17:53:53Z")
Also known as an Eigen Plot. The character has a random assortment of tools, and must use each and every tool exactly once to overcome some otherwise insurmountable obstacle. Or each member of the team has a special skill, and each and every team member must use their special skill exactly once. > **[Plot Tailored to the Party - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotTailoredToTheParty?from=Main.EigenPlot)** > > A plot carefully constructed to use all the character-specific skills or abilities of the ensemble. Often referred to as "Eigen Plot", after a mathematical concept of mapping graphs around specific vectors. For example, if your team plays … ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978/64 "2017-09-14T20:21:17Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > _Saving Private Ryan_ – In the final battle, Private Ryan is killed alongside the last of the squad of Rangers sent to save him. Their dog tags are eventually recovered. In the final scene, the President begins writing a letter to Mrs. Ryan, letting her know that all of her sons died in the invasion. As his voice-over continues, we fade to a shot of an Army sedan driving up to her house as the grief counselors arrive. They hand her the President’s letter and she collapses. Fade to black. > > The man visiting the gravesite is Private Ryan’s younger brother, who was too young to join the fight. Would have been an improvement, as we would have been spared the lame “Have I led a good life?” scene. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978/65 "2017-09-14T22:00:15Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Also known as an Eigen Plot. The character has a random assortment of tools, and must use each and every tool exactly once to overcome some otherwise insurmountable obstacle. Or each member of the team has a special skill, and each and every team member must use their special skill exactly once. > > [Plot Tailored to the Party - TV Tropes](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotTailoredToTheParty?from=Main.EigenPlot) An Eigen Plot is also when someone has to kill a bunch of physicists. You know, like in that classic movie _The Eigen Sanction_. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978/66 "2017-09-15T07:47:10Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I’ve always been curious what Bond movie could he have gotten out of without plot armor (mainly characters not shooting him when they should have, I’ll give him some luck based powers in terms of avoiding gun shots from random guards and in terms of things completely out of his hands like gambling) > > Dr No - The moment Dr No realizes Bond won’t switch sides when he invites him over to dinner, he should have immediately been shot and killed as opposed to thrown into a holding cell. > > From Russia With Love - Rosa Klebb should have just shot Bond at the end when she had him at her mercy (though considering this is at the very end of the movie he did pretty well for himself) > > Goldfinger - Goldfinger never would have made his pitch to the mafia regarding Grand Slam since the only reason in the plot is for Bond to learn of it, thus Bond would be completely in the dark about the nerve gas part of the plan > > Thunderball - Bond should have been shot at the health clinic, they already were trying to kill him and one guy had a clear shot but didn’t for some reason. > > You Only Live Twice - Helga Brandt should have shot him mid-way through the movie as opposed to leaving him in an escapable death trap > > On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - Blofeld leaves him in a holding cell that has an open window instead of just leaving him in a completely locked closet, thus allowing him to escape and meet-up with Tracey. > > Diamonds Are Forever - Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd literally leave him in a sewer pipe instead of just killing him outright. > > Live and Let Die - Left to die via gator with nobody around, thus allowing him to get away > > The Man with the Golden Gun - Scaramanga has multiple open opportunities to kill Bond but doesn’t . However I’ll give Bond this one because Scaramanga is an ego-maniac and thus would only settle for a “fair” fight which Bond does outwit him at the end. > > The Spy Who Loved Me - Jaws should have just straight up killed Bond at the Egyptian ruins instead of mess around with him > > Moonraker - That guy who threw a knife at him really should have just used a gun or hit Bond first instead of his driver. > > For Your Eyes Only - Bond is bleeding and underwear near multiple sharks, and yet the sharks never attack him and instead attack the henchmen pursuing him > > Octopussy - I forgot if Khan had a legit reason for keeping him around, but Bond’s assassins bring knives not guns to try to kill him on Octopussy’s island and ignoring that Bond wastes more time disarming the nuke then he realistically should have. > > A View To A Kill - Breathing underwater using a cars tire is impossible to do in real life so he’d be dead there > > I forgot the plots to the ones after that so feel free to jump in Casino Royale - No plot armor. Bond and everybody else is converted into a cloud of ionized particles; they then report to the afterlife, put on their wings, and dance the Frug while the credits roll. Then they retire from the Cold War Spy business and make a multi-picture _Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang_ franchise (well, they would if I were in charge. Reboots are lazy filmmaking). ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978/67 "2017-09-15T10:20:14Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Switching to TV series, if that’s okay: > > Voyager: Various adventures kill off characters as the ship attempts to transit back to the Alpha Quadrant. After a few seasons, Tom Paris is CO with acting LCDR Wildman as XO, and a bridge staff that included various local people that the ship had picked up along the way (Ensign Kim died early on - sorry), and only one shuttlecraft remained. Actually, the Voyager that the series started out with, is NOT the Voyager that made it home. On the original Voyager, everybody dies except for ensign Kim, who transferred to another Voyager in a parallel universe/reality (Along with an infant Naomi Wildman). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978/68 "2017-09-15T11:55:22Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > An Eigen Plot is also when someone has to kill a bunch of physicists. You know, like in that classic movie _The Eigen Sanction_. I’m still waiting for the sequels, _The Eigen Vector_ and _The Eigen Values_. They can tie these movies in with the _Matrix_ series. Call it _The Matrix Inverted_. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978/69 "2017-09-15T15:45:29Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’m still waiting for the sequels, _The Eigen Vector_ and _The Eigen Values_. > They can tie these movies in with the _Matrix_ series. Call it _The Matrix Inverted_. Meh. Once you start examining these movies, you can see how derivative they are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-without-the-plot-armor/795978.md?page=3)