abstract
| - A standard ingredient of the Trope Workshop:Impossible Mission plot: after having outlined the goal for the episode, Mr. Exposition will describe a list of all the insurmountable obstacles that stand in the way of that goal. It could be an elaborate security system, along the lines of "The medallion is sealed in a box of three-foot tempered steel, which is monitored by heat sensors and motion detectors, in a warehouse that's locked with a security code and voice recognition and retinal scan, and is surrounded by nine hundred armed guards..." This is often illustrated by the camera focusing on each obstacle in turn. If the exposition is worked from the outside-in, the obstacles are sometimes each explained as they are overcome. What also often happens is one character mentions all the Description Porn they can of the castle they are going to storm and a second character explains the exact details of how they can get around all the traps and not be seen. It's not always as blatant as you might think it is, and the purpose is not necessarily for exposition, but it is a method of making the audience and the characters on the same wavelength. When the plot is moving at high speed and the characters act in a certain way the audience is not narratively left behind. If they don't explain it in full that wouldn't be this trope and would likely fall under the Unspoken Plan Guarantee. If, during the planning stage, someone mentions a back-up plan in case a certain portion goes sour, you can also expect them to have to resort to that backup plan. See also Mission Briefing. A subtrope of Description Porn. See also the "I Know What We Can Do!" Cut, where a plan and its obstacles are described to the audience while the characters are actually executing it. Examples of Obstacle Exposition include:
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