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How does Amazon choose its top Plot Keywords for DVD releases?
Where do these Plot Keywords come from in the first place?
What does it hope for its customers to get out of these lists?
Well, I can't answer either of the first two questions, but that third one should be easy for any student of the deductive arts. Amazon gives the top 12 Plot Keywords for all its movie releases, and that obviously means that those twelve words are the most plot-related (i.e. 'Key') words to use when describing the film. Thus, we should be able to reverse engineer, right? Let's find out.
Let's start with a Special Edition coming out August 1:
V For Vendetta
Plot Keywords:
Character Name In Title | Serial Killer
DC Comics | Lesbian
Vendetta | Virus
Futuristic | Lesbian Kiss
Fireworks | Knife
Idealism | Burned Alive
From this, we can infer that the movie is about idealistic lesbian serial killers who get AIDS and are burned as witches on the Fourth of July...in the future. Based on the comic series "Birds of Prey."
Staying with Hugo Weaving, a huge hit from 1999:
The Matrix
Plot Keywords:
Spoon | Fall From Height
Mentor | Parallel World
Future | Maya
Computer | Spiral Staircase
Belief | Subterranean
Nuclear Winter | Rebellion
This film is about The Tick, one of the few survivors in the aftermath of a Nuclear Holocaust he accidentally caused by riding an H-Bomb down like in Dr. Strangelove...in the future. Now he is training Arthur to be a superhero using the Adam West School of Heroism, in a TicKave complete with a TicKomputer and an upper level only reachable via spiral staircase. Based on a poem by Maya Angelou.
Staying with Keanu Reeves, take one step back to 1992:
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Plot Keywords:
Religious Conflict | Loss Of Loved One
Character Name In Title | Death Of Loved One
Telepath | Statue Weeping Blood
Aristocrat | Revenge
Sexual Awakening | Curse
Sexual | Lesbian Kiss
AKA Marvel Comics' Dark Phoenix Saga. A telepath who dies (and is lost to death) struggles with the morality and Book-of-Revelations-like implications of joining the Hellfire club and maybe transferring her consciousness into Emma Frost, in this case through a liplock. When the Virgin Mary cries, the Phoenix becomes Catholic, and everybody feels guilty by osmosis.
Staying with Gary Oldman, fast forward to 1997:
The Fifth Element
Plot Keywords:
Evil | Rescue
Epic | Futuristic
Destiny | Space Travel
Space Opera | Explosion
1990s | Invented Language
Flame Thrower | Space
Obviously, this one is about an antiheroic mezzo alto with the Saturn-Alien Opera Company (...in the future) whose destiny is to go through a wormhole and thus travel back in time to the 90s in order to rescue the Klingon language from the brink of extinction. Weapon of Choice to force nerds to keep saying "Hab SoSlI' Quch!": A flame thrower.
Staying with Bruce Willis (and ordinal numbers), go to 1998:
The Sixth Sense
Plot Keywords:
Surprise Ending | Twist Ending
Hanged Family | Therapeutic Alliance
Child Psychologist | Stuttering
Able To See The Dead | Spiral Staircase
Twist In The End | Mother Son Relationship
Blockbuster | Paranormal
A blockbuster movie about a child psychologist with a limp and his therapeutic alliance with someone who can see dead people, probably a kid. The kid has a difficult relationship with his mother, especially where it concerns other recently-deceased family members. The movie looks like it's going one way, but instead the child psychologist (who has a limp and stutters) turns out to be Keyser Söze. A spiral staircase features prominently.
Where do these Plot Keywords come from in the first place?
What does it hope for its customers to get out of these lists?
Well, I can't answer either of the first two questions, but that third one should be easy for any student of the deductive arts. Amazon gives the top 12 Plot Keywords for all its movie releases, and that obviously means that those twelve words are the most plot-related (i.e. 'Key') words to use when describing the film. Thus, we should be able to reverse engineer, right? Let's find out.
Let's start with a Special Edition coming out August 1:
V For Vendetta
Plot Keywords:
Character Name In Title | Serial Killer
DC Comics | Lesbian
Vendetta | Virus
Futuristic | Lesbian Kiss
Fireworks | Knife
Idealism | Burned Alive
From this, we can infer that the movie is about idealistic lesbian serial killers who get AIDS and are burned as witches on the Fourth of July...in the future. Based on the comic series "Birds of Prey."
Staying with Hugo Weaving, a huge hit from 1999:
The Matrix
Plot Keywords:
Spoon | Fall From Height
Mentor | Parallel World
Future | Maya
Computer | Spiral Staircase
Belief | Subterranean
Nuclear Winter | Rebellion
This film is about The Tick, one of the few survivors in the aftermath of a Nuclear Holocaust he accidentally caused by riding an H-Bomb down like in Dr. Strangelove...in the future. Now he is training Arthur to be a superhero using the Adam West School of Heroism, in a TicKave complete with a TicKomputer and an upper level only reachable via spiral staircase. Based on a poem by Maya Angelou.
Staying with Keanu Reeves, take one step back to 1992:
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Plot Keywords:
Religious Conflict | Loss Of Loved One
Character Name In Title | Death Of Loved One
Telepath | Statue Weeping Blood
Aristocrat | Revenge
Sexual Awakening | Curse
Sexual | Lesbian Kiss
AKA Marvel Comics' Dark Phoenix Saga. A telepath who dies (and is lost to death) struggles with the morality and Book-of-Revelations-like implications of joining the Hellfire club and maybe transferring her consciousness into Emma Frost, in this case through a liplock. When the Virgin Mary cries, the Phoenix becomes Catholic, and everybody feels guilty by osmosis.
Staying with Gary Oldman, fast forward to 1997:
The Fifth Element
Plot Keywords:
Evil | Rescue
Epic | Futuristic
Destiny | Space Travel
Space Opera | Explosion
1990s | Invented Language
Flame Thrower | Space
Obviously, this one is about an antiheroic mezzo alto with the Saturn-Alien Opera Company (...in the future) whose destiny is to go through a wormhole and thus travel back in time to the 90s in order to rescue the Klingon language from the brink of extinction. Weapon of Choice to force nerds to keep saying "Hab SoSlI' Quch!": A flame thrower.
Staying with Bruce Willis (and ordinal numbers), go to 1998:
The Sixth Sense
Plot Keywords:
Surprise Ending | Twist Ending
Hanged Family | Therapeutic Alliance
Child Psychologist | Stuttering
Able To See The Dead | Spiral Staircase
Twist In The End | Mother Son Relationship
Blockbuster | Paranormal
A blockbuster movie about a child psychologist with a limp and his therapeutic alliance with someone who can see dead people, probably a kid. The kid has a difficult relationship with his mother, especially where it concerns other recently-deceased family members. The movie looks like it's going one way, but instead the child psychologist (who has a limp and stutters) turns out to be Keyser Söze. A spiral staircase features prominently.