Narrative technique · used in 12 films
Dropping a normal citizen with no special training into a conspiracy or crime. You identify with them because they are as unprepared as you would be.
Examples
Alfred Hitchcock · 1942
Hitchcock said he wanted the leads to show the thrilling importance of unimportant people. Barry is a young worker with no training in spying. He stumbles into a ring of saboteurs, and you feel how little he can do except keep moving.
Where to see it: The desert ranch. Barry follows an address from an envelope and discovers that a respected rancher is secretly working with the saboteurs.
Fritz Lang · 1944
Wanley is a quiet professor with no criminal skills. When he has to hide a body, you feel how unprepared he is.
Where to see it: Hiding the body: after the self-defense killing, Wanley drives the body to the countryside and leaves clues behind.
Alfred Hitchcock · 1956
Ben is a doctor on vacation. A dying stranger whispers a secret to him, and he has no training for what comes next. You feel how out of his depth he is.
Where to see it: The Marrakesh square. A man is stabbed in the back in the crowd and whispers to Ben that a statesman will be assassinated in London.
John Schlesinger · 1976
Babe is a Columbia University student with no spy training. He is dragged into a conspiracy he does not understand, so you feel as unprepared as he is. Everything he knows is running and history.
Where to see it: Doc dies in Babe's apartment: Babe's brother is stabbed and dies before he can explain anything.
Roman Polanski · 1988
The whole nightmare starts because Sondra picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport. You see the mix-up before you see its price. It is a petty mistake with a huge cost.
Where to see it: The hotel room: Walker realizes Sondra picked up the wrong suitcase. While he showers, she gets a phone call and disappears.
Alan J. Pakula · 1993
Darby is a law student at Tulane. She has no training in the kind of danger that now surrounds her, and she must learn on the run. Her professor and lover is killed in a car explosion that she narrowly escapes, and from there she improvises.
Where to see it: The car explosion. Darby's lover Thomas Callahan is killed in a car bomb that she narrowly survives, and she goes into hiding.
Michael Mann · 2004
Max has no weapon and no training, only a car and his knowledge of Los Angeles streets. His first plan is to honk for help and his second is to steal the briefcase. They are the moves you might try yourself.
Where to see it: The first stop. A body falls onto the cab, and Vincent makes Max hide it in the trunk and keep driving.
Paul Greengrass · 2006
The people who fight back are not soldiers or agents. They are passengers with nothing to go on but a few phone calls. Greengrass shows them working it out step by step and arguing over what to do, so the choice to charge the cockpit feels like something real people would arrive at.
Where to see it: The planning at the back of the cabin. Tom Burnett gathers the able-bodied men to plan a counterattack, and Todd Beamer says "Let's roll" as the passengers charge.
Oliver Stone · 2016
Snowden begins as a young soldier and computer worker with a regular life and a girlfriend, Lindsay Mills. He is a computer specialist, not an action hero. His everyday life, from his job to his move to Hawaii, makes the leak feel like a choice any thoughtful person might face.
Where to see it: Hawaii. Snowden moves there with Lindsay and learns that a program he worked on supports drone strikes.
Todd Haynes · 2019
Robert Bilott is a corporate defense lawyer. Taking on a huge company is a job he has never done. You follow him as he finds out what he is facing at the same speed he does.
Where to see it: The first visit from Wilbur Tennant. The farmer arrives with a large set of videotapes and asks Bilott to investigate why his cattle are dying.
Darren Aronofsky · 2025
Hank is a bartender who agreed to feed a cat. He has no training for any of this, and he gets beaten badly the first time the Russians find him. You root for him because he is as lost as you would be.
Where to see it: The beating. Two Russian mobsters look for Russ and beat Hank so badly that he needs emergency surgery.
Paul Greengrass · 2025
Kevin is a bus driver and Mary is a teacher, and neither has fire training. They solve problems by trial and error and good instincts. You believe it because you would be as unprepared as they are.
Where to see it: The empty collection point. The bus reaches the place where the children were meant to be handed off and finds it deserted.
Questions