We all recall a time when we were watching a movie or a TV show, fully invested in a character and their motivations, obviously thinking that we’d see the rest of the movie through their eyes. But then – bang. They bailed on you. They ghosted the plot. They broke the deal. They tossed you aside. Suddenly, the person you thought was the hero is gone, or not who you expected them to be. That’s the magic of the false protagonist, a storytelling trick that flips the script and keeps us hooked. Let’s take a look at what makes this cinematic tool so solid and reliable, with some iconic examples in film and TV that absolutely hit it out of the park. Understanding The False Protagonist Before we go into memorable examples of false protagonists, let’s try and understand what it really means. Well, simply put, a false protagonist is a character who seems like the story’s main hero but doesn’t turn out to be one. False protagonists draw you into the story, their own journey, their quest to discover or learn something, only to be revealed as a decoy — either killed off, sidelined, or exposed as less central than you thought. This narrative technique hooks audiences by subverting expectations and forcing a shift in perspective that the audience was most likely not prepared for. By creating a sense of unreliability towards the story, false protagonists deepen the story’s emotional or thematic impact. Think of false protagonists as a...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Tuesday, 18 November