I was watching this tutorial on the three act structure and they talk about what is sometimes called the "ALL IS LOST" moment. It's described in 6:10 into the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6QD5Pbc50I
Basically in the 3 act structure at the end of the second act, especially in a thriller, the MC comes close to beating the villain but then everything goes wrong. The MC then has to come up with a much newer, much more desperate plan. It's been done a lot in movies of the thriller genre.
However, when my MC tricks the villain into making a mistake and tricks him into his own downfall, the trick is to write it so that the villain does not come off to the audience as been too stupid. But since the MC's new idea, has only come about just before the third act, he doesn't have a lot of time to trick the villain, but he has to do it quickly before the climax, compared to before, where the villain wasn't willing to fall for any tricks.
In a lot of thrillers, they use the All Is Lost moment, and then have to come up with something else to get the villain. But the trick is, how does the MC come up with a plan to trick the villain, but at the same time not make the villain look too stupid, and make logical sense that the villain would fall for it so quickly in the process, compared to all the much longer efforts that failed before? What is the trick to bringing the villain down in the third act, with a new fast idea, compared to all the longer ideas, that wouldn't work before?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6QD5Pbc50I
Basically in the 3 act structure at the end of the second act, especially in a thriller, the MC comes close to beating the villain but then everything goes wrong. The MC then has to come up with a much newer, much more desperate plan. It's been done a lot in movies of the thriller genre.
However, when my MC tricks the villain into making a mistake and tricks him into his own downfall, the trick is to write it so that the villain does not come off to the audience as been too stupid. But since the MC's new idea, has only come about just before the third act, he doesn't have a lot of time to trick the villain, but he has to do it quickly before the climax, compared to before, where the villain wasn't willing to fall for any tricks.
In a lot of thrillers, they use the All Is Lost moment, and then have to come up with something else to get the villain. But the trick is, how does the MC come up with a plan to trick the villain, but at the same time not make the villain look too stupid, and make logical sense that the villain would fall for it so quickly in the process, compared to all the much longer efforts that failed before? What is the trick to bringing the villain down in the third act, with a new fast idea, compared to all the longer ideas, that wouldn't work before?
