1.   An evil essence descends on the citizenry, leaving havoc and occasional plot devices in its wake.

2.   And fiction writers from Stephen King to Tom Clancy have made microbes prominent plot devices.

3.   As films become increasingly infatuated with high-tech toys, virtual murder takes on currency as a plot device.

4.   But off camera, the closeness between the two actors is no Hollywood plot device.

5.   But she turns out to be little more than a plot device.

6.   Charles Laurutis may inspire makers of action movies about people trapped in skyscrapers to develop a new plot device.

7.   Give the solid-imaging pioneers a few more years of tinkering, and that Hyperduplicator might not look like such a silly plot device after all.

8.   Gruffudd and Roberts are attractive performers, but they never make their characters seem like much more than plot devices.

9.   Here the United States does not exist at all except as a plot device, as a hall of mirrors for the hero to smash.

10.   I still recall a blessed spot underneath a palm tree in Waikiki where I dreamed up a plot device for my first novel.