History Main / HyperlinkStory

-->-- '''Creator/KitHarrington''', defining the trope and how ''Series/GameOfThrones'' fits into it.[[note]]Interview by Bruce Handy, ''Esquire Magazine'', April 15, 2019[[/note]]

-->'''Dr. Hartman''': Oh, oh yeah. {{beat}} [[LampshadeHanging Cool tie-in with the other story, though.]]

* ''Film/DoYouBelieve''

* ''Film/{{Crash}} (2004)''.

* ''Film/{{Snatch}}''
** The spiritual predecessor to ''Snatch'', ''Film/LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels'', has this as well.
* ''Film/{{Magnolia}}''.
* ''Film/PulpFiction''.
* ''Film/LoveActually''.

* ''Film/TwoHundredCigarettes''.
* ''Film/FourRooms''.
* ''Film/PodPeople''.
* ''Film/TheGodsMustBeCrazy''
* ''Film/{{Lantana}}''
* ''Film/LookBothWays''
* ''Film/{{Syriana}}''
* ''Film/{{Traffic}}''

* ''Film/{{Matinee}}''
* ''Film/HistoriasMinimas'' (aka ''Intimate Stories'')
* ''Film/TheDeadGirl''
* ''Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001)''
* ''Smoke (1995)''

* ''Film/IndependenceDay''.

* ''Film/ReachMe''.

The simplest description of this kind of plot is a "story without main characters" where every character more or less has equal weight in screen-time and star-power. The name for the trope comes from film critic Creator/RogerEbert, and is definitely TruthInTelevision. Other terms for this, proposed by film theorist David Bordwell is the "network narrative", where he notes that it ''aims to show a larger pattern underlying'' the ''individual trajectories'' of disparate characters, where the central theme is the network of connections between the stories.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', from the same writer.
* ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent''

* ''{{Middlemarch}}''

* ''Literature/TheSagaOfSevenSuns'' is this, being narrated in the same manner as ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. In fact, the main differences between the two series are that Seven Suns features significantly less pornographic scenes and significantly more advanced technology.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin has a revolving POV structure where each chapter is narrated by alternating series of characters from different parts of the fantasy setting, from different classes, genders and ages. Some of the plot threads, such as the Night's Watch and Essos, rarely overlap directly but play as parallel narratives to the realm of the Seven Kingdoms, the arena where most of the characters' stories take
place.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin has a revolving POV structure where each chapter is narrated by alternating series of characters from different parts of the fantasy setting, from different classes, genders and ages. Some of the plot threads, such as the Night's Watch and Essos, rarely overlap directly but play as parallel narratives to the realm of the Seven Kingdoms, the arena where most of the characters' stories take place.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin has a revolving POV structure where each chapter is narrated by alternating series of characters from different parts of the fantasy setting, from different classes, genders and ages. Some of the plot threads: the Night's Watch, Essos rarely overlap directly but play as parallel narratives to the realm of the 7 Kingdoms which is the arena comprised of most of the characters.

* While the first ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' was fairly strightforward in how its cases were connected (they were all linked to the same international smuggling ring), the sequel's first four cases seem completely unrelated at first glance. An assassination attempt on a foreign president, a murder inside a prison, an unsolved case that was the last one Edgeworth's father took before his death, and an assault and a murder during Edgeworth's Prosecutor Investigation Committee hearing. It's only once you get to the fifth case that it's revealed they all link to the BigBad in some way. [[spoiler: The killer of the third case was the BigBad's father, who abandoned him and fled the country. He ended up in an orphanage, where he witnessesd the assassination of the president of Zheng-Fa, arranged by his body double. The body double is the president you met in the first case, having replaced the real one. The owner of the orphanage and a corrupt prosecutor were in on the assassination and helped cover it up. The orphanage owner went on to become the prison warden you meet in Case 2, and the corrupt prosecutor is the head of the PIC and the killer of Case 4. Every previous murder except Case 3's was [[TheChessmaster orchestrated]] by the BigBad to bring the conspirators he witnessed to vigilante justice.]]

* While the first ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' was fairly strightforward in how its cases were connected (they were all linked to the same international smuggling ring), the sequel's first four cases seem completley unrelated at first glance. An assassination attempt on a foreign president, a murder inside a prison, an unsolved case that was the last one Edgeworth's father took before his death, and an assault and a murder during Edgeworth's Prosecutor Investigation Committee hearing. It's only once you get to the fifth case that it's revealed they all link to the BigBad in some way. [[spoiler: The killer of the third case was the BigBad's father, who abandoned him and fled the country. He ended up in an orphanage, where he witnessesd the assassination of the president of Zheng-Fa, arranged by his body double. The body double is the president you met in the first case, having replaced the real one. The owner of the orphanage and a corrupt prosecutor were in on the assassination and helped cover it up. The orphanage owner went on to become the prison warden you meet in Case 2, and the corrupt prosecutor is the head of the PIC and the killer of Case 4. Every previous murder except Case 3's was [[TheChessmaster orchestrated]] by the BigBad to bring the conspirators he witnessed to vigilante justice.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E23TheCutieMarkChronicles The Cutie Mark Chonicles]]", each of the Mane Six ponies relates the story of how she discovered her special talent in life and earned her Cutie Mark. It turns out that [[spoiler:Rainbow Dash unwittingly had a hoof in helping the other five discover their destinies]].

* ''TheWire'' is a Hyperlink Story. Every named character, and some that aren't named, eventually affect the overall plot in some meaningful way.

* Creator/JeanRenoir's ''The Rules of the Game'', an inspiration for Altman, was an early attempt at this kind of story, all the way back in 1939. Renoir's ''La marseillaise'' was another example of the same genre, only here applied to HistoricalFiction in UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution.

* The prologue of ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'' happens JustBeforeTheEnd and jumps between five groups of people in five different countries reacting to the disaster underway, escaping it either by chance or active effort. The reason these characters got any focus at all becomes apparent only after a 90 year TimeSkip, when the people organising an expidition in what the disaster turned into a ForbiddenZone turn out to have familiar last names.

* ''Lantana''

* The MarvelUniverse and DCUniverse can be this way sometimes, especially if the story is a CrisisCrossover.

* GeminiRue has 2 separate stories at first: Azriel is looking for his friend on a rainy planet, while miles away, an amnesiac is trapped in an odd complex. Near the end of the game, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the two are one in the same, where Azriel is the amnesiac with false memories. He ends up killing the man who once ran the complex.]]

* ''BrokenSaints'' starts out as four seemingly unrelated stories. By the end, it's only one story.

* Creator/JeanRenoir's ''The Rules of the Game'', an inspiration for Altman, was an early attempt at this kind of story, all the way back in 1939.