Concepts of a Thriller

A thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, gaming and television. It includes numerous overlapping sub genres.

This means that there are many genres that can be manipulated to be more of a thriller.

There are many "ingredients" to make a thriller. These include a fast pace, frequent action and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains.

Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings (false scares or false endings) and cliff-hangers are used extensively.

There are many types of Thriller

Spy thriller: James Bond: hero who has to take action against terrorists or a rival government.

Political Thrillers: Stability of the government sometimes based on  actual events and has features of conspiracy thrillers.

Military Thrillers: uniformed military officer behind enemy lines or as part of a team of specialists

Conspiracy thrillers: Hero confronts a large powerful group of enemies whose true extent and power only they know.

Medical Thriller: hero is a physician who must fight corrupt drug companies or colleagues engaging in unethical experiments.

Forensic Thrillers: in which the heroes are forensic experts whose involvement with an unsolved crime puts their lives at risk.

Physcological Thrillers: the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional rather than physical.

Horror Thriller: in which the conflict between characters is mental, emotional and physical.

Subgenres: conspiracy, crime, disaster, erotic, legal, medical, political, psychological, religious, supernatural, spy and action thrillers.

Characteristic: overlap with mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of the plots. In a thriller the hero must thwart the plans of the enemy rather than uncover a crime that has already happened.

Thrillers occur on a much grander scale. The crimes revolve around murder, assassinations or terrorism.

Standard elements include a sense of jeopardy and violent confrontation

Climax: mystery climaxes and the mystery is solved and the hero wins.

In thrillers influenced by noir and tragedy, the hero might be killed in the process.

Thrillers often take part wholly or partly in exotic or dramatic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, churches, subways, airports, Polar Regions or high seas. Or the woods.