Deus ex machina

You're watching a horror movie and the monster chases after the mortal lead character. It's the dead of night and our lead runs, he runs for his life, and he finds an old tunnel-perhaps one used during colonial times-with a prominent but faded "Danger: Do Not Enter" sign mounted on the entrance blocked by rusty wire mesh. Nowhere else to go, he decides to hide in the tunnel (you say to yourself, 'Seriously, a tunnel? Stupid!'), so he hurriedly untangles the wire mesh, the monster quickly gaining on him. He's inside. A few meters into the tunnel, it's a dead-end.  

Your heart beats fast, really fast. The monster is inside too; now in front of him, it opens its ginormous mouth filled with overlapping and extremely jagged teeth, its sticky saliva dripping like a rabid dog's. It's the end of him. He's dead, you're very sure. How else can he get out of that?

Then suddenly, our mortal lead, amid his fear and dread, inadvertently channels a hidden skill from deep within: he magically disappears and is transported into a safe place. Turns out our mortal lead isn't very mortal after all; he comes from a long line of powerful witches and wizards. You are surprised, that was not explained earlier nor were there hints at the film's theatrical trailer. What a twist!

A plot twist like that is an example of a deus ex machina. A quick Wiki search provides a sufficient description of this rather lazy plot device: "A deus ex machina [1] Latin: 'god from the machine' pronounced [?deus eks ?ma?.k?i.na]; plural: dei ex machina) is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved, with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. Depending on how it is done, it can be intended to move the story forward when the writer has 'painted himself into a corner' and sees no other way out, to surprise the audience, to bring a happy ending into the tale, or as a comedic device."

The deus ex machina is usually attributed to poor storytelling but many notable storytellers have employed the device throughout the centuries. Greek tragedian Euripides was often criticized for it, although he would still generally end his plays in misfortune, true to the nature of Greek tragedy. Even William Shakespeare used deus ex machina in 'As You Like It,' 'Pericles,' and 'Prince of Tyre,' among others.

Last night, I watched the highly anticipated alien flick Pacific Rim at the cinemas. Here, the translation of deus ex machina-'god from the machine'-takes on a more literal meaning. The story centers on the Human- Kaiju war, the Kauiju being giant Godzilla-like aliens that invade the planet through a portal located at a massive trench somewhere in the Pacific. To neutralize them, humans started producing the Jaegers, giant exoskeleton weapons controlled simultaneously by each of two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge.

Anyhow, whilst very entertaining, this movie about giant god-like machines did use deus ex machina at least once. (Spoiler alert!) When the Jaeger of the lead characters was brought up to the stratosphere by a Category 5 (the highest) flying Kaiju (the only one to ever fly throughout the film), and their oxygen started reaching dangerously low levels (obviously the machine isn't built for extremely high altitude), they're suddenly saved by the Jaeger's sword, a weapon even one of the pilots didn't know it had.

My friend Joaquin Quisumbing commented: "It had a sword? It had a sword and yet it had to use a boat as its weapon earlier?!" Well, like most of the people in the cinema, myself included, he seemed to enjoy the movie, but not without noticing that they pulled a deus ex on us.

So what is the point of this whole discussion on deus ex machina? Let's shift our attention to the national narrative. How can our economy be as robust without any actual and meaningful economic policy introduced by this Administration? Magic? Leaving a viable explanation out and being contented with simply enjoying the fruits or accepting the unsatisfactory reasoning that it's because corruption is down (because it is not. Just Google the Trade Statistics Index of the International Monetary Fund which details how smuggling in this Administration's first three years has more than doubled compared to the ten years of the preceding government) is allowing a deus ex machina to unfold before our very eyes on a grand, national scale. And we seem clueless.

Of course we can all heave a sigh of relief that ours is one of the stronger economies in the region, but mature citizens of a dynamic and working democracy can enjoy a show yet still be critical of the details (like how Joaquin was toward Pacific Rim). As to our economy, simply put: a tree needs to be a certain age before it starts bearing fruit. You don't plant one and expect to harvest tomorrow. 

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