deus ex machina

plural dei ex machina · plural dei ex machinis · plural deus ex machinas

1. human sciencesAny resolution to a story that does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and that is so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, and presumably allows the author, director, or developer to end the story in the way that they desired.

   Near-synonym: (vulgar, slang) ass-pull

   4 more examples

   The women who merge in the final pages leave me unsettled and depressed. Their future is grim. There is no deus ex machina to save them.

   1975 December 13, Regina Kahney, “Sister Gin (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 24, page 13

   The repeated tactic of deus ex machina (without a deus) has a deplorable effect on both the plot and the dialogue.

   2007 August 12, Christopher Hitchens, “Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 07 Apr 2020

   Despite the government shutdown, at the end of the last season Knope is able to put on a children's concert in the abandoned lot she's been trying to turn into a park due to a quick deus ex machina.

   2011 January 20, Dave Thier, “‘Parks and Recreation’: Comedy Imitates Life (Sort Of)”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 02 Mar 2013

   Compared to that, the season-four finale “Server Error” felt comparatively tame, focusing mostly on Richard’s maniacal efforts to create a new kind of internet, which were helped along by a confusing deus ex machina.

   2017 June 26, David Sims, “How Will ‘Silicon Valley’ Work Without T.J. Miller?”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 27 Jun 2017

   Synonyms: ass-pull

2. broadlyA contrived solution to a problem, relying on an agent external to the situation.

   The belief that a cure for cancer is being withheld by vested interests is a long-standing one. It is often used as a universal deus ex machina for those pushing an alternative alleged cure […]

   2016 January 26, David Robert Grimes, “On the Viability of Conspiratorial Beliefs”, in PLOS One, volume 11, number 1, archived from the original on 04 Feb 2025, page 3

   1 more example

   Handler’s bad advice for generals […] is mostly notable as the most extreme expression of peculiar pleas by Trump opponents who seek some deus ex machina that will stop the president: generals simply disobeying the president, other civil servants refusing to follow through on orders, or even the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

   2017 August 14, David A. Graham, “The Search for a Magical Way to Stop Trump”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 31 Aug 2017

3. historicalliteraryA deity in Greek and Roman drama who was brought in by stage machinery to intervene in a difficult situation (i.e., to resolve a crisis, or untangle issues surrounding it, a character logically expected to do so).

   I was going to wait for Monsieur Hyppolyte and, like a craven, hand the whole thing over to him. Let the deus ex machina fly in out of the clouds...

   1959, Mary Stewart, chapter XVII, in Nine Coaches Waiting, M. S. Mill Company, page 268

4. historicalA machine used to bring an actor playing a god onto the stage, either up through a trapdoor or (e.g. by crane) from above.