# Stories with a REALLY major mid-story shift in tone, format, or genre?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 19, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225 "2012-03-19T13:44:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/61 "2012-03-20T07:25:33Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#):
>
> Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson starts out with the disappearance of all modern life in Europe, replaced by strange, dangerous lifeforms; the book starts out being about the exploration of this new land, then gets weird…
Thanks for the recommendation. I found an eBook version and started reading it this evening. It’s great so far. (Haven’t gotten to the mid-story shift yet though.)
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/62 "2012-03-20T15:06:29Z")
This [movie trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo0MIS4-EXQ) uses this idea.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/63 "2012-03-20T15:40:13Z")
_Matrix_ has got to be on this list somewhere.
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### Author:  [@EvilMinion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilMinion)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/64 "2012-03-20T17:27:00Z")
I’ll submit _28 Days Later_ for this list. It starts off as a zombie movie, then it becomes apparent that the movie is actually about the effects of isolation on a group of people under the influence of a charismatic and not quite all there leader. _The Beach_ and _Sunshine_ also explored this, and all three movies are Danny Boyle-directed and written by Alex Garland.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/65 "2012-03-20T17:33:32Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> _Matrix_ has got to be on this list somewhere.
No. The shift happens very shortly into the film, and is just setup. It’s more a Sense of Wonder SF moment, as I’ve said before.
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### Author:  [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/66 "2012-03-20T17:43:24Z")
EvilMinion - good point about those Danny Boyle films. The shift in tone worked for “28 Days Later”, but for “Sunshine” I wish he had stuck with the movie he started with.
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/67 "2012-03-20T18:31:11Z")
> [@EvilMinion](#):
>
> I’ll submit _28 Days Later_ for this list. It starts off as a zombie movie, then it becomes apparent that the movie is actually about the effects of isolation on a group of people under the influence of a charismatic and not quite all there leader. _The Beach_ and _Sunshine_ also explored this, and all three movies are Danny Boyle-directed and written by Alex Garland.
Meh- that’s as much a staple of zombie fiction as anything else. Ultimately everything still comes down to the zombies.
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### Author:  [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/68 "2012-03-20T19:21:53Z")
Maybe _Event Horizon_ fits this? It starts off as a fairly straightforward mysterious-ship-in-space movie, and ends up as this whole paranormal, WTF?!, _Hellbender_ horror flick kind of thing.
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### Author:  [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/69 "2012-03-20T19:24:00Z")
> [@gatorslap](#):
>
> _Rat Pfink a Boo Boo_ is an interesting example, and a terrible movie. The first forty minutes are a completely serious crime drama (and not a good one). Then, suddenly, the lead and a minor character step into a closet and emerge in ridiculous costumes as Rat Pfink and Boo Boo. The rest of the movie is basically a ripoff of the '60s Batman series.
This was mainly because Ray Dennis Steckler, writer/director of this and other low-budget cheeseballs, got bored with his original plot halfway through and decided to change it.
* * *
The first time I saw _Sneakers,_ its first 45 minutes or so seemed like a fairly lighthearted caper movie. It got a little darker when
the Russian consul is shot with Bishop’s gun and Bishop gets kidnapped.
On subsequent viewings, it’s not as jarring, but my friend and I in the theatre seeing it first time were like “Is this the same movie?”
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/70 "2012-03-20T23:27:22Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#):
>
> Thanks for the recommendation. I found an eBook version and started reading it this evening. It’s great so far. (Haven’t gotten to the mid-story shift yet though.)
Hope you enjoy it (I did, in spite of the twist)
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### Author:  [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/71 "2012-03-21T05:00:38Z")
Read a book called _Oh Pure and Radiant Heart_ that shifted so much I fell off the edge of it.
It starts out as being about three scientists from the atomic bomb projects (Oppenheimer, Fermi and Szilard) getting transported into the 2000’s at the moment of the test blast as an unforeseen consequence, and living with a quiet average couple (Ann the librarian and Ben the devoted but boring landscaper) who live near the scientists’ old work site which has been turned into a museum. Focuses on 1) the culture shock each experiences in modern times 2) their feelings of guilt etc seeing documentaries and such about the blast, 3) human nature, through the lens of the history of nuclear development (vivid account of Hiroshima after the blast, painstakingly-researched bits about various nuclear tests). After adjusting a bit, the five of them go to Japan so the scientists can confront the results of their work.
I really liked Fermi at this point, as he was a quiet voice of reason to the other two scientists. Things were looking promising for his character arc- Ben had taken a liking to him and gradually realized Fermi was suffering depression (having adjusted to the 2000’s far worse than his fellows), and there was one kickass scene where MIB-looking American agents had sat next to him on a bench in Japan and tried to intimidate him. His crowning moment of awesome: “There were secret police in Italy, too. You don’t scare me.”
In the second half, which isn’t marked as a part 2 or anything, the witty and emotionally wringing stuff gives way to boring accounts of characters’ inner musings as they go for long walks, then the scientists and the couple get swept up in a strange Christian cult-y movement, which started when a bunch of stoners and hippies living in Tokyo listened to a speech Oppenheimer was pressured into giving. Ann’s enthralled with the scientists which causes tension between her and Ben, she falls asleep next to Oppenheimer and Ben thinks she’s cheating, and once they go back to America there’s some kind of strange stage performance with some dancers as cranes that ends up with the scientists getting shot dead (with at least a third of the book left to go) onstage by secret police in such a way that of the whole audience, only Ben and Ann know they’re dead. I don’t know what happens after that because I quit reading, but if you like radical changes in tone/genre you may have better luck than I did (maybe I was too invested in Fermi and Ben).
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/72 "2012-03-21T05:10:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> No. The shift happens very shortly into the film, and is just setup. It’s more a Sense of Wonder SF moment, as I’ve said before.
I feel some of these suggestions are missing the point. Sometimes the change in genre is the whole reason for the movie. It’s like complaining that _Cowboy and Aliens_ started out as a western and turned into a sci-fi movie.
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### Author:  [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/73 "2012-03-21T05:15:40Z")
> [@Quercus](#):
>
> I think the movie _Barton Fink_ is maybe a better example than _Dusk Till Dawn_. But I pretty much prefer the Coen Brothers to Tarantino, so maybe I’d be expected to say that.
I dunno. Barton Fink starts out kinda weird and spends the whole movie ramping the weird up. It’s not exactly a sudden shift.
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### Author:  [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/74 "2012-03-21T23:09:28Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Then put it on spoiler tags. I don’t know about how others feel, but I consider it kind of rude to force people to watch a video or listen to something in order to understand what you’re talking about.
Blimey! :rolleyes: I’m not _forcing_ anyone to listen to anything - I just made a suggestion, is all. You can listen or not bother. Whatever.
Still, if you must…
It starts out as an ‘as I walked out one midsummer morning’ folk song and turns into a searing description of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes by police at Stockwell underground station in July 2005. Almost an English version of _The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol_ Lyrics [here.](http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/16lit/hollowpointlyrics.html).
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/75 "2012-03-21T23:58:35Z")
Thank you.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/76 "2012-03-22T02:15:20Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#):
>
> Was that your first Mieville book?
>
> Becuase my experience is that _all_ his books are extremely creepy, weird, and supernatural.
The City and the City was creepy and weird but not necessarily supernatural.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/77 "2012-03-22T02:16:57Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#):
>
> Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson starts out with the disappearance of all modern life in Europe, replaced by strange, dangerous lifeforms; the book starts out being about the exploration of this new land, then gets weird…
God, I hated that twist. Almost as much as I hated the shift in _Sunshine_.
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### Author:  [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2012, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/78 "2012-03-22T05:29:27Z")
There is a movie that came out in 2010 called The Perfect Host that has two dramatic mid-story changes. I originally watched it on netflix because I love David Hyde Pierce and at both points where the story changes I literally sat up and yelled “Holy Shit!”
The movie starts out with a bank robber looking for a place to hide out from the police and trying to talk his way into various people’s houses. He talks his way into DHP’s house only to end up being drugged and gagged because DHP is a psychopath and a murderer…apparently.
While it isn’t the best movie ever it is well worth an hour and a half of your time. You should see it if you haven’t already.
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### Author:  [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/79 "2012-03-22T14:12:49Z")
hmm. according to some of these definitions the film version of “Wizard of Oz” had a big shift - from "realistic"musical story of girl in Kansas to fantasy musical of girl in Oz. complete with color shirt.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/80 "2012-03-22T21:50:50Z")
> [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](#):
>
> Blimey! :rolleyes: I’m not _forcing_ anyone to listen to anything - I just made a suggestion, is all. You can listen or not bother. Whatever.
>
> Still, if you must…
>
> It starts out as an ‘as I walked out one midsummer morning’ folk song and turns into a searing description of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes by police at Stockwell underground station in July 2005. Almost an English version of _The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol_ Lyrics [here.](http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/16lit/hollowpointlyrics.html).
Sorry, dude. Here in the USA we’re not that up on these sorts of thing, police shootings are all too common around here. Even after reading the lyrics I had no idea of what that was about.
Nice tune, tho.
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