William Gillespie image by Miriam Martincic.

Peripeteia

In classical tragedy (and hence in other forms of drama, fiction, etc.): a point in the plot at which a sudden reversal occurs. In extended use: a sudden or dramatic change; a crisis.
 

Peripeteia is a sudden reversal of the protagonist's fortune, whether for good or ill, that emerges naturally from the character's circumstances. Unlike the deus ex machina device, peripeteia must be logical within the frame of the story. 

Source

OED etc

Examples

An example of a reversal for ill would be Agamemnon's sudden murder at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra in Aeschylus' The Oresteia, or the situation Kate Hudson's character finds herself in at the end of The Skeleton Key. 

The Twilight Zone, including episode "Time Enough at Last" where Burgess Meredith's character is robbed of all his hope by a simple but devastating accident with his eyeglasses. 

A positive reversal of fortune would be Nicholas Van Orton's suicide attempt after mistakenly believing himself to have accidentally killed his brother, only to land safely in the midst of his own birthday party, in the film The Game. 

Aesop's fables

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