Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Difference between revisions

As corollaries, you can ensure [[A Simple Plan]]'s success by making it an [[Unspoken Plan]], and guarantee failure by telling the audience the details of the [[Zany Scheme]]. Expect to hear the phrase "I've got a plan" spoken by one of the characters with no further explanation [["I Know What We Can Do!" Cut|before the cut]] to the next scene. Explaining the plan after it's been carried out is optional.

 

 

Admittedly, the reason for revealing only failed plans to the audience is obvious. Where's the drama in something going wrong if no one knows what was ''supposed'' to happen? Conversely, where's the drama in seeing exactly what you were just told would happen?

* Zigzagged in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', where Aeolia Schernberg's unspoken [[Xanatos Gambit]] doesn't necessarily succeed or fail, just that it's hijacked and changed halfway through by the [[Big Bad]]. Even after the plan is put back on track by the heroes and eventually does succeed, the details of what the original plan was supposed to be are never revealed.

* Although this is usually in full effect with [[The Smart Guy|Kurama's]] plans from ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', one notable subversion has him attempt a suicide plan to defeat his opponent, which he completely thinks to himself. {{spoiler|It goes completely according to plan, except for Kurama dying}}.

 

== Ballads ==

* In ''[[Curious George Goes to Paris]]'', The Man in the Yellow Hat discusses a plan to save the British soldiers with Corporal McFluffin, which the reader never hears about. The plan goes well until Nazi tanks show up.

* In ''[[Fallout Equestria]]'', the plan for defeating the Goddess. Notable in that this trope applies in-story as well; after coming up with the plan, Littlepip tells each member of the party their part in the plan and ONLY their part, and then has her own memories removed. The reason is that the Goddess is telepathic, and Littlepip herself will be facing the Goddess directly. Letting your opponent read your mind and figure out your plan would kind of put a damper on it.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Carefully laid out plans are made for the overthrowing of Emperor Commodus in ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]'' involving the release of Maximus and a coup against the empire. The plan fails when they are betrayed by a Senator.

* ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' spends good five minutes describing the plan and showing it being executed in the intercuts. As soon as all details are established, things get wrong.

* In ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' Shoshanna's plan to burn down her theater while it was full of Nazis goes off perfectly, but she doesn't live to see it. However, it's hinted that she wasn't planning to survive the fire anyway.

** ''Basterds'' has a number of plans that don't go according to plan as a result of being discussed.

** {{spoiler|Outright subverted in ''Dune Messiah''. The Tleilaxu, Qizarate, Fremen naysayers, Bene Gesserit, and Spacing Guild hatch (a) plan(s) to remove the Atreides from power that seems to revolve around a clone of dead Atreides retainer Duncan Idaho. It turns out that the plan was much [[Gambit Roulette|more complicated]] and the clone only played a minor role, but for all the plotting it only ends up making Paul blind and by the end of the book all the conspirators are dead save for a [[High Heel Face Turn]]. What's strange is that even after the plan fails it still remains largely unspoken, especially strange since each group of the conspiracy had different agendas, meaning that each group, save for the Tleilaxu who put it in motion, was an [[Unwitting Pawn]].}}

** {{spoiler|Played straight in ''Children of Dune'', as the book covers in excruciating detail the plans of everyone conspiring against the children, but Leto II's plan remains a secret until the very end and completely trumps everyone else's.}}

* In James White's early ''[[Sector General]]'' novels, Dr. Conway did this frequently at the end of a story, when he'd finally correctly diagnosed what was wrong with his latest patient-from-an-unknown species. Somewhat [[Justified Trope]] in that the situation was by its nature [[No Time to Explain|time-critical]] by that point.

** ''Hospital Station'', "The Trouble with Emily": In this case, Dr. Conway figures out what Dr. Arratepec is trying to achieve with the titular character but will not reveal the information to the Chief Psychologist (and thus to the reader). [[Justified Trope]] in that he does not reveal his deduction to the rest of his colleagues because he may have reached his conclusion on the basis of privileged information, since the [[Psychic Powers|telepathic]] Arratepec had touched his mind. He also does not reveal his conclusions to Arratepec, whose people have been keeping quiet about the purpose of the Emily experiment for fear of public ridicule if it doesn't work out.

* ''[[The Rockford Files]]'': This trope is used every time Jim Rockford plans a con. The only time the plan is described at the beginning, everything goes south and turns into a game of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]].

* Parodied on ''[[The Young Ones]]'', when Mike proclaims he has a plan, gets into a tight huddle with the other lads, and the ''psssh psssh psssh'' sound of muffled conversation is heard. When the huddle breaks up and he asks if they all know what to do, Neil replies: "Yeah, we all go 'psssh psssh psssh'."

* The ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' sketch "How Not To Be Seen". The announcer tells the subjects to stand up after they've been concealed, only for them to be gunned down.

* Often employed by Sam and Dean on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. Pretty much any hunt that is explained beyond what has to be done to kill the [[Monster of the Week]] is going to go awry. Perhaps best exemplified by the episode "Mommy Dearest", where the heroes are shown discussing both a Plan A and a Plan B. Both are easily foiled by the episode's villain. Dean then kills her with a previously unmentioned but obviously thought out beforehand Plan C.

* Subverted in an episode of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', when the guys plan to neutralize a 15-year-old prodigy by getting him to a party with a bunch of teenage girls. Once the party starts, they spend several minutes coming to the realization that the whole thing actually has no chance of working, and are totally flummoxed when they realize it worked ''exactly'' as planned.

 

* [[Shakespeare]]an examples:

** In ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', Friar Lawrence's plan involving the {{spoiler|faked death of Juliet}} is described to the audience. So naturally, it ends horribly.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Any episode of ''[[Scooby-Doo]]'' where the plan to capture the monster is spoken out loud will be ruined, usually by Scooby and Shaggy's incompetence, though it will invariably succeed in a different way because of this.

** Subverted in [[The Movie]], along with most other ''[[Scooby-Doo]]'' cliches, by having the spoken plan... actually ''work'' after it almost fails.

* [[Double Subverted]] in the ''Fairly Odd Baby'' [[Made for TV Movie]] of ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]''. Timmy comes up with an Unspoken Plan that appears to fail miserably... but it then turns out it wasn't actually finished, and once it is, it ''does'' work perfectly.

* [[Double Subverted]] in a grand fashion in an episode of ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]''. We're given a step-by-step breakdown of the team's plan for infiltrating an assembly of villains complete with accompanying imagined footage of them enacting the plan. Numbah 4 expresses his doubts about the plan... [[Gilligan Cut|and then says how it worked perfectly.]] The double subversion comes when Numbah 1, who was missing during the plan, was actually captured by said assembly, forcing the team to rush in to save him.

** And Drakken's [[Eucatastrophe|most successful plan]] to defeat Kim (in [[The Movie|"So the Drama"]]) was the one where he didn't even tell [[The Dragon|Shego]] what he was planning until Kim was safely captured. Specifically justified in this case because Drakken was keeping Shego in the dark to test whether the plan was clever enough that Kim wouldn't figure it out until too late.

* Subverted in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' where Mojo Jojo whispers a plan to defeat an alien invader. Although it initially works, its eventually failure leads to him having a break down that fuels an unstoppable beatdown of rage against the enemy

* Danny announces such a plan in a ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' episode. Though Danny didn't suspect [[The Jailer|Walker]] to use the Fenton Thermos against him, he didn't suspect Danny's plan, so it all works out in the end.

'''NEPTR''': That was a great plan.

'''Finn''': Nah, that wasn't my plan. We got lucky. }}

* Subverted in ''[[Chaotic]]''. Kaor's plan to steal Maxxor's new battle gear is one of the first things the audience learns. It goes off without a hitch.

* Subverted in ''[[Futurama]]''.

* Played with in ''[[Storm Hawks]]''. One episode has a character narrate a plan beforehand over what looks to be an [[Imagine Spot]] of the plan actually playing out. The narration continues even when everything starts going wrong, and the spot is shown to really be a flash-forward.

* Every contraption Klunk devises on ''[[Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines]]'' will be detailed by Zilly (who always translates Klunk's bizarre mode of speech). And naturally, [[Failure Is the Only Option|they do not work]]. Dick Dastardly does the same thing on the show which he started, ''[[Wacky Races]]''.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]

[[Category:Finagle's Law]]