History Main / ExcusePlot

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{Commando}}''. Not unexpected being that it's part of the Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger oeuvre, but a particularly notable example -- the movie doesn't even ''pretend'' it's going to have anything to do with the whole "kill the Prime Minister / President / whatever of Val Verde to get your daughter back" stuff. This has the rather amusing result that pretty much every scene with Arius before the climax basically involves him sitting around waiting for Matrix to show up and kill him [[GenreBlindness even if he doesn't realize it]].

An Excuse Plot [[TropesAreTools is not necessarily]] a poorly written, minimalistic, or stupid storyline, only one that has been written to obviously showcase something else. These are typically featured in works targeted at children and families, as a complex storyline may be deemed too much for an average child to understand, yet they can also be featured in content (primarily video games) where the core experience is enjoyable on its own merits. Beware of the AnthropicPrinciple.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Nekopara}}'' revolves almost entirely around {{Cat Girl}}s and their antics. The setting of a world where cat girls are kept as pets isn't really fleshed out much beyond that, and it's really just an excuse for cat girls to exist (and in the 18+ versions, to see sex scenes with them). When the anime adaptation aired, the series' creator begged people on Twitter not to think too hard about the premise and just enjoy the cute cat girls.

An Excuse Plot is not necessarily a poorly written, minimalistic, or stupid storyline, only one that has been written to obviously showcase something else. These are typically featured in works targeted at children and families, as a complex storyline may be deemed too much for an average child to understand. Beware of the AnthropicPrinciple.

* Film/{{Enough}} is pretty much just a [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks repeat]] of "Film/SleepingWithTheEnemy" in this style. The entire film skips almost all of the character development and the start of the marriage, heading straight to the abuse portion, and there's also not any deep focus into the concept of [[DomesticAbuse domestic violence]] at all. Everything really just seems to be a plot device to build up to the movie's [[JustHereForGodzilla main appeal of female empowerment with "good housewife gives her bad husband a taste of his own medicine"]] before she actually kills him. In comparison, the previous film gave a fairly thorough examination of how domestic violence works and the effect it can have on victims, even if not perfectly. There's also the fact that this ends on a far more happy and joyful note, despite both films having a happy ending for the victims. [[/folder]]

* "Film/{{Enough}}'' is pretty much just a [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks repeat]] of "Film/SleepingWithTheEnemy" in this style. The entire film skips almost all of the character development and the start of the marriage, heading straight to the abuse portion, and there's also not any deep focus into the concept of [[DomesticAbuse domestic violence]] at all. Everything really just seems to be a plot device to build up to the movie's [[JustHereForGodzilla main appeal of female empowerment with "good housewife gives her bad husband a taste of his own medicine"]] before she actually kills him. In comparison, the previous film gave a fairly thorough examination of how domestic violence works and the effect it can have on victims, even if not perfectly. There's also the fact that this ends on a far more happy and joyful note, despite both films having a happy ending for the victims. [[/folder]]

* "Film/{{Enough|2002}}'' is pretty much just a [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks repeat]] of "Film/SleepingWithTheEnemy" in this style. The entire film skips almost all of the character development and the start of the marriage, heading straight to the abuse portion, and there's also not any deep focus into the concept of [[DomesticAbuse domestic violence]] at all. Everything really just seems to be a plot device to build up to the movie's [[JustHereForGodzilla main appeal of female empowerment with "good housewife gives her bad husband a taste of his own medicine"]] before she actually kills him. In comparison, the previous film gave a fairly thorough examination of how domestic violence works and the effect it can have on victims, even if not perfectly. There's also the fact that this ends on a far more happy and joyful note, despite both films having a happy ending for the victims. [[/folder]]

* "Film/Enough'' is pretty much just a [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks repeat]] of "Film/SleepingWiththeEnemy" in this style. The entire film skips almost all of the character development and the start of the marriage, heading straight to the abuse portion, and there's also not any deep focus into the concept of [[DomesticAbuse domestic violence]] at all. Everything really just seems to be a plot device to build up to the movie's [[JustHereForGodzilla main appeal of female empowerment with "good housewife gives her bad husband a taste of his own medicine"]] before she actually kills him. In comparison, the previous film gave a fairly thorough examination of how domestic violence works and the effect it can have on victims, even if not perfectly. There's also the fact that this ends on a far more happy and joyful note, despite both films having a happy ending for the victims. [[/folder]]

[[/folder]]
* ""Film/Enough'' is pretty much just a [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks repeat]] of "Film/SleepingWiththeEnemy" in this style. The entire film skips almost all of the character development and the start of the marriage, heading straight to the abuse portion, and there's also not any deep focus into the concept of [[DomesticAbuse domestic violence]] at all. Everything really just seems to be a plot device to build up to the movie's [[JustHereForGodzilla main appeal of female empowerment with "good housewife gives her bad husband a taste of his own medicine"]] before she actually kills him. In comparison, the previous film gave a fairly thorough examination of how domestic violence works and the effect it can have on victims, even if not perfectly. There's also the fact that this ends on a far more happy and joyful note, despite both films having a happy ending for the victims.

* ''Manga/{{Dandadan}}'' follows the cast getting thrown into one crazy scenario after the other, whether that be fighting giant crabs, getting mixed up in a giant worm cult, stopping an evil alien baboon who's trying to turn people into tin cans, or the gang getting into a HumongousMecha made from the female protagonist's house and using it to fight a kaiju. The closest thing there is to any kind of overarching plot tying it all together is the male protagonist [[ItMakesSenseInContext trying to get his testicles back after they go flying off during a race against a supersonic old lady]], which only emphasizes [[TropesAreTools how crazy the whole thing is]].

A potential disadvantage of including a half-assed plot (as opposed to no plot at all) is that, poorly executed, it can drag the rest of the work down. Missing story beats could make the product seem unpolished, while a particularly bad plot could break immersion. However, many creators either do not consider these risks, think they are insignificant, or find the structure and context an Excuse Plot provides to be worth it.

* In Music/GioachinoRossini’s ''Il viaggio a Reims'', the story in a nutshell is as follows: People prepare to go to the coronation of Charles X but can’t make it, so they stage a concert in the king’s honour in their hotel. The whole opera consists of arias, duets and ensembles just barely connected with each other in terms of plot. But well, it’s Rossini, so the arias, duets and ensembles are gorgeous.

* ''ComicBook/CivilWar'', according to WordOfGod from Creator/MarkMillar. He just really wanted to write a story about people who were typically on the same side beating the tar out of each other, and the SuperRegistrationAct was just a convenient backdrop he came up with to allow this to happen. Any and all [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical political subtext]] was completely unintentional.
** The sequel, ComicBook/CivilWarII, had an even more transparent excuse plot. Organized so that Marvel could crowd comic store shelves with new books that said "Civil War" on the cover just as the MCU version of the original hit theaters, the event used unbelievably flimsy justifications to turn hero against hero yet again. The arbitrariness of the entire conflict was one major reason (albeit not the only one) that fans reviled it.

* The author of ''Fanfic/OriginStory'' has admitted that he wrote this story primarily because he “wanted to give Tony Stark a punch in the mouth” after reading Marvel's ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' story.