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Film & Television vocabulary · Genres and Storytelling

Inciting incident

Meaning in film & television, with examples

nounCommon term

In film & television, inciting incident means: An event that disrupts the main character's situation and starts the central story conflict.

In Turkish: tetikleyici olay

How it is used

Writers use the term when discussing what forces the central story to begin.

Example sentences

  1. The missing child's phone call is the inciting incident of the thriller.

    The call disrupts normal life and launches the main search.

  2. We moved the inciting incident earlier so the audience meets the conflict sooner.

    Changing its position alters how quickly the plot begins.

Common collocations

  • identify the inciting incident
  • strong inciting incident
  • genreA category of films or TV shows that share a style, subject or set of conventions, such as comedy, horror, western or science fiction.
  • plotThe series of connected events that make up the story of a film or series, and the order in which they are shown.

More terms: Genres and Storytelling

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