21.   Stuck for a plot device?

22.   The fickle finger of fate is both the theme and operative plot device in this foolish, overwrought Spanish film.

23.   The Elizabethan plot devices of testosterone-driven revenge and street fighting are all too familiar.

24.   The film turns on a conventional plot device and drags in spots, but it succeeds at humanizing the cartoon figures.

25.   The five-to-seven was so commonplace even in the recent past that it was employed as a plot device in countless novels, plays and films.

26.   The lesbian angle is more than some plot device, related with key sympathetic characters instead of the usual disposable secondary roles.

27.   The machinations of age-old conflicts are far too complex to be brushed off with sketchy plot devices, instant romances, and crimes that are made too simple.

28.   The movie employs all the old plot devices.

29.   The possibilities for personal embarrassment are so rich that I predict this will become a standard plot device in situation comedies for years to come.

30.   There are five interrelated plot devices in the book.