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FuzzyWulfe
Since: Nov, 2010
A kind of plot that's driven by the protagonists attempting to do something important and failing at it repeatedly. The protagonists make an attempt, but through a combination of bad luck and stiff opposition, they stumble - the villains escape, making the goal impossible, but the heroes aren't beaten so badly that they can't follow the villains to the next stage of their plan and try again. At the end, the protagonists manage to, finally, comprehensively win, in such a way that the villains are unable to respond.
Famously, this is the format of the Indiana Jones films, particularly Raiders and the Last Crusade, but it appears elsewhere, such as in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
Edited by Merus