“Desperation explanation”: the attempt to make up anything the average person will buy to cover up an inconvenient, unexplainable fact. No, the bullet didn’t bounce off body armor and go straight up, and it didn’t go down into the heart either. Just because they try to sell it doesn’t mean we have to buy it.

An example from The Truman Show:

A great example of the tactic above is from the movie, The Truman Show. In the movie, Truman lives in a staged, fake world but doesn’t know it. One day, a stage light falls from the dome far above “the stage” on which Truman lives and crashes onto the street next to Truman. It’s marked “Sirius,” having represented one of the many “stars” in the fake sky of Truman’s fake world.

But the controllers of that world wanted to make sure that the accidental falling of that stage light wouldn’t prompt Truman to begin questioning his reality. They needed an alternate explanation, which they quickly provided. On the radio, during Truman’s drive to work, the media explained that an airplane flying far above had some trouble and started “shedding parts.” Truman had never had a reason to suspect that the media would lie to him, so he bought the explanation and moved on.

Here’s the scene:

Note: Truman represents mankind. Which is why they chose the name.