In the past, antagonists in thrillers typically wore black hats and shot everyone, while protagonists wore white (or at least not-black) hats and, when pressured, shot reluctantly back. For many years this demarcation seemed inviolate. Why? The world up to the recent has been one of guns and bullets, where the white hats in one clever way or another stopped the bullets and saved the day. 


Today, neither antagonists nor protagonists even wear hats, making them initially indecipherable from each...


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