10 Movies That Relied On Deus Ex Machina

The second Harry Potter film has several examples of deus ex machina, including Ron’s sentient car somehow finding him and Harry at the last second and rescuing them from the spider’s lair.

However, the main occurrence is at the climax when Harry is about to be killed by the basilisk and Fawkes the phoenix flies into the Chamber of Secrets, proceeding to peck the creature’s eyes out. Godrick Griffindor’s sword then magically appears in the Sorting Hat (which Fawkes had delivered earlier) allowing Harry to dramatically stab the basilisk through the head, killing it.

He is bitten in the process, but luckily phoenix tears have healing properties, so Fawkes returns again to cure him! Fawkes also deposits Tom Riddle’s diary into Harry’s lap which he stabs with a basilisk tooth to save Ginny. Even this would have been more satisfying if Harry had learned previously that this would work, rather than just picking up the nearest sharp object.

It is difficult to criticise a film about magic for having plot devices that wouldn’t happen in the real world, but it seems like Fawkes managed to solve a lot of Harry’s problems which Harry later received credit for. It would have been nice to see Harry beat the Basilisk using something he had learned, or a skill he had gained from a previous experience, instead of having a magic bird do all the hard work.