CHARACTERS:
-The protagonist faces death, either their own or someone else's.

-The antagonist must initially be more clever and/or stronger than the progonist.
-Either by accident or out of their own curiosity, random characters are dragged into a dangerous conflict.
Characters include criminals, stalkers, assassins, innocent victims (often on the run), menaced women, characters with deep dark pasts, psychotic individuals, spree killers , sociopaths, agents, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, private eyes, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more. The themes frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder.

STORY AND SETTING:
-Thriller plots involve characters which sometimes come into conflict with eachother or with other forces - the threat is sometimes known from the start or unseen up until the sudden end.
Thrillers often portray the world and society as dark and therefore produce a plot of similar darkness known as'pathetic fallacy'