Exposition (plot device)

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Plot dump, infodump, or exposition is a term used by the movie and television industries to describe a plot device by which critical elements of the plot, often involving the back-story, are not depicted directly but are instead elaborated in dialogue by one of the characters or by a narrator. In written fiction, the term is additionally used to indicate giving information by exposition rather than revelation through action and dialogue; if such passages are well-written and intriguing, they may be described as "info-dumping" with no pejorative intent. This method has long been used in classic drama and modern productions where the plot is the consequence of preceding events that would either weigh down the production or would reveal too much, spoiling the mystery. Exposition is also necessary in some dramas since it is can be from the point of view and perception of a character, and may or may not accurately reveal the facts. Examples of such well done exposition include Shakespeare's Hamlet and the 1956 film Forbidden Planet.

An early form of plot dump known as the "prologue" was practiced in theatre. For example, many of the plays of Shakespeare begin with a character coming forward and speaking the prologue to set the scene - Romeo and Juliet being one of the best-known examples. In Hamlet, however, he has plot dumps performed by Bernardo, Marcellus and Horatio in the first scene, and by Hamlet's father's ghost in Act I, Scene IV, demonstrating that the technique is not always the mark of an inferior writer.

The term is usually invoked in a derisive sense, however. Plot dumps at the beginning of a movie are often tolerated as a necessity for setting the premise of the plot; this is the case for such widely-acclaimed movies as Casablanca and . However, a plot dump expressed by characters in dialogue during the course of the movie is often taken to be indicative of an inferior narrative. Examples of the latter sense often take the form of one character explaining elaborate details regarding another character that would seem exaggerated and out-of-place in real-life conversation.

A stereotypical and exaggerated example of inferior plot dump would be:

Joe: Who's at the door?

Mary: Oh, it's my uncle, who was released from prison yesterday after serving ten years for stealing the family jewels from this very house, although the jewels themselves have never been found and are rumored to be buried in a secret chamber guarded by the ghost of my late grandmother.

Particularly egregious examples which involve characters discussing facts already well known to both of them are sometimes referred to by the phrase "As you know, Bob"[link], [link] (sometimes the other character will even say something like, "Why are you telling me this? I was there," to which an unconvincing reply will be given - for an example, see Marvel Comics' first X-Factor series, where Cyclops makes this remark during a backstory review). Fans of the X-Files call this phenomenon "cabbage head syndrome" (where the person listening to the exposition is the "cabbage head"). Interior monologue is also sometimes used (again notably in Marvel Comics) to review the previous episode of a story for the sake of the readers. This was parodied in the comic book Cerebus where the character The 'Roach, a parody of super heroes, would think "It's hard to believe that..." followed by a very lengthy recount of the entire story.

Less obviously unrealistic but still somewhat crude is the "idiot lecture", in which a character who knows nothing is used as an excuse to give extensive backstory. This technique was widely used in science fiction of the 1930s (the "Golden Age of Science Fiction") to give the technological background to the story; the scientist would lecture an ignorant, often young character on how his invention worked. The technique is still in use for this purpose (for example, in Jurassic Park, or with history, as in The Da Vinci Code). An amusing variant on telling another character, or displaying text on-screen, occurs in the Hammer film studio's Dracula, in which the character Van Helsing plays himself a home-made phonograph record of his detailing the particulars of vampirism and sits still, alone, while it plays.

Villains are frequently given to making speeches about their sinister plans to helpless heroes, often foolishly prefacing their exposition with the comment that it can't hurt to divulge the plan, since the hero will be dead soon anyway. This is known as the villain speech or monologuing. James Bond villains and comic book supervillains are particularly prone to it.

Plot dump tends to be more tolerated on television than in the movies because the narrative of television episodes is shorter. Plot dumps are especially common in sit-coms in the introduction of non-recurring characters which drive the comedic plot of a particular episode.

In television sketch comedy, which itself borrows heavily from the tradition of Vaudeville comedy, plot dump in the most exaggerated sense is often used explicitly for outrageous comedic effect. In this case, plot dump is not seen as a weakness but as a standard and necessary aspect of the genre which is expected by audiences.

Examples of Plot Dumping

The Austin Powers film series has a character named Basil Exposition whose job was to repeatedly plot dump as a parody of the process in ordinary movies.

The series Mystery Science Theater 3000 always mocked movies who made blatant use of this practice. For example, in , there is a scene where a character views a videotape that explains the organization's origins and purpose in painstaking detail, basically providing all of the necessary exposition in one fell swoop. Tom Servo quips, "Good thing he wandered into the Department of Backstory!"

In the TV series Charmed, exposition is continuously referred to by the main characters as information is explained about demons, all the time.

Urinetown - the musical has an extreme amount of exposition throughout the show, and especially in the opening.

The Lew Archer mystery novels by the late Ross Macdonald, AKA Kenneth Millar, make excellent use of exposition. Especially in the later novels of the series, the entire plot is concerned with the teasing out of family histories dating back for decades and the discovery of long-hidden murders and child abuse.

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