Imagine a cinematic world intricately built to save you from a shocking truth. Then, the world peels away, layer by layer, and the revelation changes everything.It's not a dream sequence. It’s a brilliantly engineered lie that we all bought into, for the sake of a character. It’s not a mere plot twist. It’s a reveal that makes us question everything we’ve watched. Personally, I am a massive fan of audience manipulation. I love it when a movie successfully manipulates me and leaves me questioning my own judgment. The protective lie trope can be a powerful screenwriting weapon. By hiding the truth in plain sight, you can build tension and deliver twists that do not feel forced. You can control the audience's perspective and guide them towards an assumption before revealing the actual truth.Now, let’s try to understand the protective lie trope and look at a few solid movie examples that leveraged it perfectly.So, What Is The Protective Lie?In simple terms, a protective lie is a large-scale, deliberately constructed deception that is created by a character or a group of characters to shield another character (most often the protagonist) from a truth that is deemed too traumatic or dangerous.An ordinary lie, which might be told through dialogue, simply to protect a character from something, does not qualify as a protective lie. Unlike a typical lie, a protective lie defines everything a character knows about themselves and their immediate surroundings.A protective lie is framed with care, typically out of some kind of...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Wednesday, 3 December