# 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:** 15
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/81 "2012-03-23T07:42:11Z")
**[Severance](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464196/combined)**
It starts out like The Office, a staff jolly to the corporate hunting lodge somewhere in the Ukraine (IIRC), then suddenly turns into Deliverance.
The moment where it switches gears is REALLY shocking.
There is some foreshadowing, admittedly, but the shift in tone and genre is still about as abrupt as I think you could wish for in this thread.
Bonus points if you recognise Black Adder’s Sir Percy 🙂
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### Author:  [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/82 "2012-03-23T22:31:38Z")
> [@StusBlues](#):
>
> Adaptation would qualify. For most of the film, we see a sensitive screenwriter trying to piece together a beautiful narrative without twists and turns; he just wants to adapt a beautiful story about orchids. In the final reel, that all goes to hell. On with the chase scenes and drug dealers!
I only post this because I still come across people who don’t “get” the tone shift in _Adaptation_:
The abrupt change happens exactly when Charlie calls his brother for help. The movie then turns into the sort of ridiculous Hollywood drek that his brother would write, because _his brother helped him finish the script_.
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### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/83 "2012-03-24T00:31:16Z")
Auto Focus changes dramatically, if not suddenly, in tone. It starts off looking and sounding like Herbie The Love Bug, and ends up looking and sounding like something Cronenberg would make. You wouldn’t know the first and last scenes were from the same movie.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/84 "2012-03-24T02:12:55Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> Mr Death: A documentary about a guy who fixes electric chairs, but is then called to build gas chambers (IIRC)…then it switches gears when he travels to Auschwitz and denies that the Holocaust happened.
>
> I went into this movie expecting a documentary only about a guy who fixes/creates capital punishment devices. It got really bizarre at the end. I’m not even sure if I made it all the way through. If I wanted to learn about what Holocaust deniers have to say, I bet I could come up with something more authoritative then some guy saying "See this rock, I got it from Germany, promise, and I had it tested, really I did, and it doesn’t have any poison gas residue in it (50 years later). Therefor there was no Holocaust. "
Watch it again, with this quote from Errol Morris (the director) in mind (about his movie vs. **Schindler’s List** ): “Stephen Spielberg had a very interesting idea, which is that _anyone_ can become a hero. I have what I think is a more interesting idea, namely that anyone can _think_ he’s a hero.”
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### Author:  [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/85 "2012-03-24T21:30:54Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> 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.
Really? It’s that bad on your side of The Pond?
I don’t want to hijack this thread, but do police in the States _REALLY_ execute innocent people on a regular basis? :eek:
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2012, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/86 "2012-03-25T09:57:19Z")
No, but they get accused of it on a regular basis.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/87 "2012-03-25T17:54:50Z")
Dr. Horrible’s sing-a-long blog started off as a comic book parody about a bumbling supervillain, but took a bit of a left turn towards the end, When Dr. Horrible kills the girl and becomes an actual competent villain.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2012, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/88 "2012-03-25T18:00:05Z")
> [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](#):
>
> Really? It’s that bad on your side of The Pond?
>
> I don’t want to hijack this thread, but do police in the States _REALLY_ execute innocent people on a regular basis? :eek:
Well, no. But you see, the courts seem to disagree with you that it was a “execution”, although the settlement etc seems to indicate it was a "unfortunate tragedy. "
We have had several of these here in the USA, just a few years ago a Cop in Oakland shot a man, and the Cop was found guilty and sent to prison.
I’d say a police shooting that is disputed happens fairly often and a police shooting where a civil settlement occurs is maybe once a year.
But you have to remember how many times the population of the USA vs UK, and thus how many more times such things are likely to occur.
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### Author:  [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/89 "2012-03-25T19:27:30Z")
[A Simple Plan](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120324/plotsummary)
Three ‘good ole boys’ find a load of money. It starts out being a lighthearted “buddy” movie. Then greed sets in, and it gets dark quick.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/90 "2012-03-25T19:51:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> It’s hard to say what the overall genre will be while the series is still in progress. Stirling has hinted that the whole thing may be “technology so advanced it’s indistinguishable from magic”. The characters in the early books grew up in a technological society so they saw the mystery in technological terms, even if they didn’t know what the technology was. The current characters are a generation younger and have no personal experience with technology. So their default explanation for something they don’t understand is magic.
At the end of the (IIRC) sixth book…
[spoiler]We find out that the spirit of the universe has basically gone insane and wants to teach humanity a lesson in humility by taking away our toys. But another part of that spirit has broken away and wants to rule the world by possessing a dictator.
I suppose it could still be aliens (which is what the first three books hinted at), but right now it looks unlikely.[/spoiler]
By the by, Stirling has announced the series has bloated to ten novels now. Initially the whole thing was going to be wrapped up by book seven.
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/91 "2012-03-26T08:59:21Z")
> [@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).
Yeah, but it’s still a bit rude to post something that we can only “get” by watching or listening to something else. Even when linking to text it’s considered polite around here to post some sort of summary, and with a video, many people can’t access them at work/on their cell phone/etc.
Incidentally, I’d disagree with your characterization. Maybe the title (or your description) biased my expectations, but it didn’t sound to me like a cheery romantic folksong at the start. It sounded like a murder ballad or a war lament, which wasn’t too far from the truth.
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Well, no. But you see, the courts seem to disagree with you that it was a “execution”, although the settlement etc seems to indicate it was a "unfortunate tragedy. "
>
> We have had several of these here in the USA, just a few years ago a Cop in Oakland shot a man, and the Cop was found guilty and sent to prison.
>
> I’d say a police shooting that is disputed happens fairly often and a police shooting where a civil settlement occurs is maybe once a year.
>
> But you have to remember how many times the population of the USA vs UK, and thus how many more times such things are likely to occur.
I’d never heard of the incident in question until now (which also dulled the “shock” of the song.) I’m honestly surprised, because it’s the sort of thing I’d expect myself to be familiar with. I’m also shocked by what I read about it just now, which is that unlike the police shootings I’m familiar with here in the US, this was a case of the police deliberately assassinating someone, who turned out to be the wrong someone. Despite Obama recently moving us further in that direction, as far as I know no government agency in the US has a _policy_ of shooting suspects in the head without warning when they don’t appear to present an immediate danger.
Frankly, if the basic facts outlined in the Wikipedia article are close to correct, it’s a truly shocking event that calls into question the most basic issues of human rights in a modern democracy like the UK, and it deserves much greater attention in the US than it apparently got.
And with that, I think it’s fair to say that this thread has taken a sudden shift in tone, format, or genre!
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/92 "2012-03-26T12:19:40Z")
I’ve always felt that Heinlein’s _Farnham’s Freehold_ falls into this class. You could argue thatit’s setup followed by the REAl plot, but the setup goes on way too long. I’ve always felt that Heinlein started off writing a straighforward “Survive Armageddon” story, with his family getting through The big One, but then realized that the result was depressing and not vetry sexy, so he he switched to his magical “we got transported somewhere else” storyline that put them in an Edenic landscape, and then when _that_ started getuing dull because he’d exhausted the interesting things you can do in that situation, and he needed a menace thrown in, he brought in the Time Travelling angle. It feels as if every time reader interest might be lagging he throws out another plot twist to keep the audience hooked.
_Number of the Beast_ feeels the same way, only a lot less successful.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/93 "2012-03-26T13:59:56Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> By the by, Stirling has announced the series [Dies the Fire] has bloated to ten novels now. Initially the whole thing was going to be wrapped up by book seven.
This is my shocked face: :eek:
What is it about fantasy/SF series? It seems like this happens to every one that is supposed to run for more than 3 books. Trilogies, somehow, don’t bloat the same way.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/94 "2012-03-26T18:18:58Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#):
>
> Yeah, it was my first.
>
> I knew he wrote in the “weird fiction” genre, so I was definitely expecting weirdness. But because the first five chapters seemed to be set in our modern world, I wasn’t expecting the absolute zaniness that followed.
Heh. I still remember this b/c the timing was so perfect. I was reading it in bed and about to fall asleep when Billy opened that package and Goss and Subby popped out. I was all ::yawn:: “Wait, what?!”
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/95 "2012-03-26T19:47:10Z")
_2001: A Space Odyssey:_ Like _From Dusk Til Dawn,_ it’s two different stories stitched together. What everybody remembers is the plot about Hal going crazy – but that could have been stuck into **any** space-travel story with comparable tech. It has **nothing to do** with what the movie is mainly about, i.e., mysterious ETs nudging human evolution along.
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