Infinite Ammo (Until it’s not)

The scene of one or two heroes taking on a room full of bad guys comes up a lot, and with good reason. It shows our hero’s skills and usually looks cool. What is less cool is watching those heroes, fumble around in their pockets for spare bullets. So, the simple solution? Just activate an infinite ammo cheat! Some films go even further and don’t even require our heroes to reload, able to defeat all their enemies with just a pistol. Except, that’s not quite true. Because there are many crucial moments when our hero has the villain in their sights (or vice versa), pulls the trigger and- click. If only they’d brought one extra bullet.

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Breakfast in movies look amazing. So many film families get a full spread of waffles, toast, pancakes, orange juice etc. Barely any of it gets eaten of course, as a character is inevitably running late and will hurry out the door after nothing more than a quick bite of toast. What’s more impressive is that all of these characters are up, awake and still have a reasonable amount of time before their day starts. Do they not start work until the afternoon? Is someone getting up at the crack of dawn to prepare all this food?

Underwater Vision

Most people in the real world struggle with keeping their eyes open in the shower, but somehow, everyone can keep their eyes open underwater. Even if you do manage to open your eyes, it’s usually not for very long. Certainly not long enough to save someone from a sinking car. It’s not like you can see particularly well when underwater either, what with all the water in your eyes. It’s usually not very good for you either. And that’s not even mentioning how long people can hold their breath…

When and Where?

When arranging to meet someone, there’s usually a whole conversation about it. One of you is probably working, and on days you aren’t working, they are. Then you have to decide on a time and place to meet. Not so in the world of movies though! Chances are, the protagonist’s best friend or love interest is also free Saturday night, and magically knows exactly where to be and when to be there without further discussion.

Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel

As well as people knowing exactly where to be, they also know exactly where to tune TV’s and Radios. When someone rushes home and yells “Turn on the TV”, it’s always on exactly the right channel. It’s always exactly at the important bit, with the character’s favourite show being interrupted for breaking news. Not even an advert or more important news, it’s like the TV is sentient. Still, if characters did have to wait for the important bit, it could be awkward.

Super Hearing

Night clubs are loud. Shootouts are also loud. Yet somehow, our heroes manage to have full conversations in both of these situations, or anywhere full of loud noise, and hear each other perfectly or even eavesdrop on a private conversation from a distance. Some films do get around this with earpieces or some other technology, but many would just have us believe that the characters can hear mice’s footsteps. Yet somehow they don’t go deaf

Also Read: Seven Creative Movies Dealing With Memory Loss

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Sci-Fi: Crimes Of The Future

In Crimes of the Future pain is mostly a thing of the past because of implied evolution. And some people are now able to grow extra organs. But others have evolved further, now being able to eat and digest plastics along with other undigestable materials. Something which the government wants to suppress. Featuring such intriguing concepts as theatrical live organ transplants, human bodily evolution to adapt to a decaying world and surgery being so commonplace it is considered “the new sex”, David Cronenberg’s return to body horror encourages much discussion thanks to the many thought-provoking ideas that populate this fascinating world.

Comedy Action: Everything Everywhere All At Once

When the year started everyone wanted to see how Doctor Strange’s sequel would showcase the creative possibilities of the multiverse. But Everything Everywhere All At Once managed to capture viewer adoration more. And it used the multiverse concept as an excuse to showcase a number of creative and hilarious ideas. Including using technology to access skills possessed by different versions of oneself in the multiverse, showcasing a diverse array of parallel worlds that feature such great ideas as humans having sausages for fingers, humans being controlled by raccoons, and the main characters becoming rocks and an apocalyptic doomsday device made from a snack. All of which was accomplished on a $25 million budget. 8 times less than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Showing that the multiverse has such big creative potential even smaller productions can use it to showcase fantastic ideas.

Thriller: Fall

Movies primarily based around one location are nothing new. Fall however bases its central plot around two friends scaling up and then trying to get down from a 2000-foot-high TV tower. This conceit not only provides a thrilling setting for most of its action but allows for a constantly high amount of tension to be present even during mundane scenes. This is thanks to the high winds at such heights and the small surface area not providing many opportunities for respite. Plus being up so high provides great explanations for common problems viewers have with many of these thrillers. Such as why don’t the protagonists just call for help? High-altitude thrillers are always a guaranteed source of tension. And the conceit to set one atop such a thin, high structure paid off.

Horror: Hatching

Hatching concerns a child facing incredible pressure from her mother. She subsequently takes care of an egg which eventually hatches into a monstrous creature. It then begins taking on more of the girl’s likeness and violently acting out. Hatching’s central idea is a perfect allegory for how abusive parental pressure negatively impacts and shapes children. The creature acts as a great metaphor for the child’s mental health. Demonstrating once again that horror is a perfect genre for using creative ideas to address bigger issues.

Action: Prey

How do you revive interest in the predator franchise when only the first one is universally considered a good film? You go back to the series’ roots, having the predator attack a group of people in a sparsely populated area while offering something new by setting the film in the 1700s. The era of colonial expansion. This conceit of placing the technologically futuristic predator during this era instantly stacks the odds against our main characters and provokes discussion of colonialism and power. Additionally, the film gives us diverse, fully-rounded indigenous protagonists, and centralizes their voices in depictions of their cultural history. Instead of having them act in service of someone else’s story.

These were just a small sampling of creative ideas that we got to see this year. So please make sure to let us know any creative movies you particularly gravitated towards. And let’s hope 2023 continues to provide us with more genius film ideas.

Also Read: The Impact: How Dozens of Filmmakers Around The World Crowd-Created A Film About The Apocalypse

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