by Asya Mukhamedrakhimova
MKH digital plubication © 2025
by Asya Mkh
Category Film & TV
Published January 29, 2025
The Allure of Non-Linear Storytelling

The Red Bridge, by Julian Alden Weir

Trying to put the pieces together, they Googled storylines while the story was still happening. Their attempts to catch up with the plot forced them to miss more and more of it, so there they were, relying more on Reddit threads than on their own eyes and ears. Each of them was too absorbed in the online breakdowns of the scenes, so none of them bothered to push the pause button. When they finally looked up, they were forced to rewind the film ten seconds at a time.

“Let’s just do a rom-com,” one of them cheerfully announced, with a slight hint of hope in her voice. Everyone else, not showing much initiative when it came to proposing other options, reluctantly agreed. They began their search by going from Netflix to Prime, Apple TV, and Disney+. Netflix rom-coms were quickly removed from consideration since every movie on the platform was immediately dismissed by someone screaming, “I just saw this recently.” No one could ever really know if the person saying that was being honest or lying to avoid watching a movie they didn’t like, so they had no choice but to comply.

No one really knew how the movie night traditions began. They just knew it included drinks, often cocktails, specific snacks and a random movie to talk through. It seemed like a fun, low-impact activity to use as an excuse to catch up while wearing sweatpants. Someone texted the group chat, noting it had been a while since they had a movie night, meaning it had been a while since they all caught up. The location was picked, and the time and place were settled. The time and place varied, but the location almost always belonged to that unfortunate friend with the cosiest living room, the biggest TV and the least annoying neighbours.

After about thirty minutes of going through every rom-com known to humankind, they decided to widen their search. That’s when one of them had the bright idea of looking at mystery and thriller genres. Finally, they all agreed to watch a movie none had seen before, but all had heard or read something about it at one point.

The host had help cleaning up, and after everyone’s Uber arrived at approximately the same time, they all headed home. On their way, each of them went on TikTok and YouTube to look at video explanations of the movie and the correct timeline of the events, sending clips to each other and sharing their thoughts now that they had time to process what they just watched. They all collectively agreed that the best time to do the research was, in fact, after the movie and not during; it was simply less stressful.

One of them woke up and started screaming at others: “Guys, pay attention!” After a couple of people said, ‘I was watching,’ and then immediately said, ‘Wait, what happened?’ and ‘Where did this character come from?’ the rewind button was pushed.

Twenty minutes into the movie, confusion took over their previously excited faces. They looked at each other, and after realising that nobody had any fucking idea what was happening, the phones that were previously lying side by side on the table were now in their hands. The search began, Google was opened, and the movie kept playing.

I see how using a story about people watching a movie that utilises non-linear storytelling as an example of non-linear storytelling is a bit on the nose, but if we are going to discuss a storytelling tool that relies heavily on curiosity and confusion, why not have fun with it? This story also perfectly demonstrates one of the issues with this very popular plot device. There is a fine line between keeping people’s attention with a story that unravels, creating a unique timeline and disorienting the audience so much that they feel the need to depend on the help of the internet just to keep up with the story. It might also be on the audience to be patient and allow the story to clear itself up, or at least wait until the movie’s end before jumping on their phones for explanations.

So here we are. After discussing foreign films, character archetypes and hot takes on the Lord of the Rings franchise, we have arrived at the subject of storytelling techniques. The non-linear structure is perhaps one of the most interesting and popular plot tools used to add some mystery to the storyline and keep the audience on their feet all the way to the end. This age-old technique entrusts the audience with putting the story together, leaving it lingering in their head long after the movie is done. It has been present in different types of content, from books to art, but today, I want to focus on its use on the big and small screen. This will be categorised as Film&TV, so I have to attempt to relate the story to the category somehow.

Year after year, non-linear narratives continue to dominate our screens. The beauty of this tool is that its premise is so simple that it can be used in many different ways. It allows writers and directors to keep experimenting and bringing new iterations of a story told outside of time. And every year, they do not disappoint. This year, we saw this technique utilised across genres. Whether it’s the chaotic and sexually charged story of Challengers unfolding as we watch an intense tennis match play out in real-time or the emotionally overwhelming love story of We Live in Time told in fragmented milestones and heartbreaking revelations, after we are done, the non-linear becomes linear. As the full picture is revealed and we can put together a timeline, we can’t imagine the story being told any other way.

On the small screen, we recently got a treat with an episode in Marvel’s Agatha All Along. I know it seems to be a pretty wild show to mention when discussing fragmented storytelling. Still, its seventh episode serves as a perfect example of how this technique can shake up the story and treat an individual episode as part of the bigger plot and an independent storyline that uses the character’s pre-existing abilities as a door into original storytelling.

There are stories where the non-linear narratives become the key to the plot. With staples of this genre like Mulholland Drive, Memento, and the most recent addition, Tenet (from the master of non-linear storytelling himself, Christopher Nolan), we not only get a greatly complex and engaging story, we get groups of people who are still trying to unpack the true meanings of scenes, put the timelines together and read between the lines to uncover new secrets. What begins as an unconventionally told story becomes a cultural moment still referenced today. These movies not only encourage but require multiple rewatches to understand and fully appreciate the convoluted nature of their plots. Maybe that’s why this device is being used so often: Who wouldn’t want their movie to be rewatched, analysed, and talked about for years to come?

Another part of fragmented storytelling that I have always found exciting is that it allows emotions to be experienced outside a set timeline. Since you are not burdened by previous events or trying to predict behaviours and reactions, you can experience scenes moment by moment and have individual responses to each one. Then, when you put all the scenes together, you can experience completely different emotions about the same scenes. It celebrates the duality of perspective we often exhibit when our reactions change based on the information we learn. For example, when you first read the story I presented, your reaction to people being on their phones during a movie might have been different, but when you realised why they got the phones out in the first place, you might have changed your initial opinion. Honestly, I think I’m overestimating the amount of emotions my little story, with essentially zero plot value, has caused. One thing I think it might have caused was confusion.

Confusion is a pretty common side effect of non-linear narratives. Whether it was googling ‘what was that about’ as I was walking out of the cinema after watching Tenet or pausing to process Memento every ten minutes, I often felt like my brain was about to break putting scenes together. When you look at the movies as a whole, it becomes less complicated to see the overall plot and the satisfaction you get after putting the pieces together is unmatched. On rare occasions when I managed to piece together the plot before the movie even ended, I’m not going to lie; I felt pretty intellectually superior.

Despite all my love for this type of storytelling, I feel like I need to bring up one important question. Would the movies still be as interesting if they were told linearly? Or is non-linear storytelling sometimes used to make a film stand out more? In many of these films, the fragmented timelines are necessary to portray the character’s journey since they show how the characters experienced time themselves. In that case, it’s hard to tell if the movie would even make sense if it were not told using the perspective of that specific timeline. Other times, especially when this device is used inconsistently, we are left wondering whether it was even necessary.

On the off (0000000000000.1%) chance that Christopher Nolan ever Googles his name and gets all the way to page 3000, where he will find this article, I want to point out that when I question the necessity of telling a story in a fragmented way, I do not mean your movies — they’re great.

Although its primary purpose is to create storylines out of time, there are elements of non-linear storytelling used in movies to add layers to an existing plot. If you break down how many callbacks and throwbacks might be considered a part of this type of storytelling, you will find that it is everywhere. Movies like Pulp Fiction or Sin City use separate character storylines that eventually come together and are not always told chronologically. There are also movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that show the story moving backwards from the point where the characters eventually end up. Backward storytelling, in its simpler form, is also used every time we start a film or a show with a character ending up in a specific place or position before spending the rest of our time unpacking how they actually got there. I find this way of storytelling quite useful since it takes away the suspense of not knowing what will happen and allows the audience to focus on ‘how’ it will happen. As someone who gets anxiety from even a suspicion of suspense and enjoys knowing the endings of movies to reduce stress, I find that seeing the characters in their final development phase helps me appreciate the film more. Although, sometimes, those final scenes shown at the beginning of the movie are just there to trick the audience, and the film eventually shows that nothing was what it seemed, but that’s also fun in its way.

Whether it’s simple throwbacks or complex timelines that bleed into each other, audiences run to see movies that include twisted storylines and narrative devices used to trick them into confusion. Honestly, if I were ever to tell my story to a larger audience, I would not do it linearly. Sometimes, we want to focus people’s attention on certain events, only revealing our motivations later. We also want to highlight certain parts of our lives, categorising them by how brightly we remember them. Maybe watching a non-linear story inspires us to view our own life in a non-linear way. It might be a bit confusing, but it can add some fun to more mundane moments and memories.

As for the people watching the movie and Googling the plot out of sheer confusion, the next time they gathered for a movie night, they chose a film in advance, and yeah, it was a rom-com.

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