# Non-supernatural stories in which something supernatural happens **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670 "2013-04-02T22:01:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/1 "2013-04-02T22:01:49Z")
By “not supernatural” I mean stories in which the supernatural is not a key element- you wouldn’t classify it as a thriller or what-not- but there is a single supernatural occurence. Example: _Slumdog Millionaire_ is a straightforward story of three slum kids and how their lives wove back and forth and it’s far from mystical in most parts, except that the Muslim main character has a vision of the god Rama It’s almost non-sequitur to the rest of the movie. Another example I mentioned recently: Stephen King’s novel _Dolores Claiborne_ is not a supernatural thriller, but Doris has a telepathic link with a character from one of his other novels, _Gerald’s Game_, and may have heard her employer call to her from miles away encouraging her to kill her husband. Any other events like these in which something supernatural happens in an otherwise mundane (in the ‘non-supernatural’ sense) story? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/2 "2013-04-02T22:17:35Z")
_Pulp Fiction_ had the glowing thing in the briefcase that ate somebody, but was otherwise a fairly mundane movie. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/3 "2013-04-02T22:21:42Z")
Downton Abbey, second season. - One (or more?) of the women has ESP awareness of bad stuff happening to guys in battle overseas, and - Matthew’s dead fiancee in heaven ouija boards her blessing of Matt and Mary’s union. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/4 "2013-04-02T22:24:26Z")
Hamlet. An otherwise straight forward story of betrayal also contains a ghost story. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/5 "2013-04-02T22:27:19Z")
The raining frogs at the end of “Magnolia” (though there is some real-world precedent for this). The Christian medieval knight thing in the third Indiana Jones movie. Or, for that matter, the Nazi-killing fire-sandstorm in the first one. (Yes, there were a thousand IMPLAUSIBLE moments in these films, but that’s different than supernatural.) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/6 "2013-04-02T22:33:46Z")
Another one: the last scene in “Breaking the Waves,” with the pealing bells. Great scene in a great film, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/7 "2013-04-02T22:49:33Z")
_Oh, God,_ when George Burns becomes invisible at the end of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/8 "2013-04-02T22:50:32Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Hamlet. An otherwise straight forward story of betrayal also contains a ghost story. The ghosts in Macbeth and in Richard III, and the witches in Macbeth, are not really essential to the story. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/9 "2013-04-02T22:50:44Z")
This [io9](http://io9.com/the-most-demented-episodes-of-supposedly-realistic-tv-s-464951915) article may be of interest. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/10 "2013-04-02T22:54:51Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Hamlet. An otherwise straight forward story of betrayal also contains a ghost story. I’ve often wondered how real the ghost was. You’ve got a couple of guys on a night watch in a spooky Danish castle in winter. Anyone could see a ghost in those conditions. I’m a rational 20th century boy, but I’ve been spooked walking through dark woods at night. Then Hamlet hears the rumors and starts seeing the ghost himself. But is it really an actual ghost, or is it an inner manifestation of his own guilt and suspicion. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/11 "2013-04-02T22:57:45Z")
Last scene of “Being There,” when Chance walks on water. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/12 "2013-04-02T23:03:38Z")
Oh, and in the last scene of “Magnolia” it wasn’t so much the frogs as it was the dispersed characters singing that stupid song in unison (I liked the rest of the film, BTW.) ---
**Author:** ![Reyemile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@Reyemile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reyemile)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/13 "2013-04-02T23:06:25Z")
Depending on your interpretation of Men Who Stare At Goats, it’s possible that there is only one or two genuine supernatural occurrences in the movie, which aren’t central to the plot. Alternately, it’s possible that it’s a fantasy movie filled with supernatural stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambrosio_Spinola)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/14 "2013-04-02T23:11:14Z")
Neal Stephenson’s _Cryptonomicon_ contains one scene where a dead character is resurrected. The prequel novels of _The Baroque Cycle_ feature two more resurrections by the same means. These are not the sort of stories where you would expect such things to be possible. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/15 "2013-04-02T23:14:17Z")
> [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](#): > > Neal Stephenson’s _Cryptonomicon_ contains one scene where a dead character is resurrected. The prequel novels of _The Baroque Cycle_ feature two more resurrections by the same means. These are not the sort of stories where you would expect such things to be possible. Enoch Root in those books reminds me of _30 Rock_, in which Kenneth has inexplicably been alive without aging at least since the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![Soulcatcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Soulcatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soulcatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/16 "2013-04-03T00:05:37Z")
I seem to recall a Sopranos episode where Pauly sees ghosts of people he has killed, or something along those lines. ---
**Author:** ![Postariti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Postariti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Postariti)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/17 "2013-04-03T01:05:14Z")
The Hudsucker Proxy is an odd screwball comedy. Towards the end they suddenly, dramatically, throw in an angel. It was a real jolt, and took me out of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/18 "2013-04-03T01:11:55Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Or, for that matter, the Nazi-killing fire-sandstorm in the first one. (Yes, there were a thousand IMPLAUSIBLE moments in these films, but that’s different than supernatural.) There were also a couple of moments with the headpiece manifesting supernatural effects, and the emblem being seared out on the crate containing the Ark–enough that the Ark lightning didn’t come out of the blue. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/19 "2013-04-03T01:13:23Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > _Pulp Fiction_ had the glowing thing in the briefcase that ate somebody, but was otherwise a fairly mundane movie. Wait, it _ate_ someone? When? Where? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670/20 "2013-04-03T01:14:55Z")
You see this a lot in TV shows (and I think we’ve had a thread on such). Example: In _M_A_S_H\*, Radar is slightly precognitive, and always announces the incoming helicopters a little before they’re heard. _Happy Days_ had an episode with Mork, and another where the Fonz made a deal with the devil. And many shows have had a Christmas episode where it turns out that Santa is real after all, or where a character has an _It’s a Wonderful Life_ experience. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-supernatural-stories-in-which-something-supernatural-happens/654670.md?page=2)