History ChekhovsGun / Film

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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Film -- Animated]]
* Early in ''10+2: The Big Secret'' Infinity discovers a secret passage hidden in the school's basement, leading to a tunnel with a locked door at the end. Later in the movie, Milessima discovers a key that her uncle Aristotle seems very secretive of. When Infinity and Milessima share each of their discoveries, Milessima quickly realizes that the key might open the locked door Infinity found, and waits for an oppurtunity to get the key so they can investigate it. They later do so, and discover the secret library hidden beneath the school.
** Additionally, when Infinity first opens the Book of Virtues, he takes out the Sapphire clasp keeping it locked and puts it in his pocket so he doesn't lose it. When he and Milessima close the book at Aristotle's insistance, Infinity forgets to put the clasp back. When Miss Zenobia later opens the book, causing it to go berserk, Aristotle is unable to close the book. Milessima remembers that Infinity (who at this point has left the school after Zenobia told him his services were no longer required) still has the clasp, and must contact him and get him to return to the school with the clasp so they can close the book before it destroys the school.
* ''Disney/BigHero6'' - Upon meeting Baymax for the first time it is stated that the robot can only cease function when the phrase "I am satisfied with my care" is used. This then returns in the final film sequence [[spoiler: as the setup for the emotional interaction between Hiro and Baymax where Hiro must leave Baymax behind in the portal.]]
* ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'' makes masterful use of this trope, in conjunction with the RuleOfThree. [[spoiler: The beginning of the movie sets up one of Bolt's fictional superpowers, the Super Bark, by giving him a specific ritual to perform before making it. In the middle of the movie, he tries the ritual / Super Bark again to prove to Mittens that he's a superhero; he just barks normally. Finally, when Bolt and his owner Penny are trapped in a fire at the studio, Bolt manages to lead her to an air duct ... and then performs his Super Bark ritual again to bark as loudly as he can down the duct. The echo of his bark along the ducts allows the firemen to locate and rescue them.]]
** Additionally, Mittens is shown at the beginning of the movie bullying pigeons to get food for her. One would most likely assume that this behavior (as well as the great lengths she goes to ''talk'' about her claws, but never use them) is simply a throwback to her acting like a mob boss, but we later find out it's because [[spoiler: she's declawed.]]
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheCareBearsMovie'', as the key to [[SealedEvilInACan seal the evil book]] is brought up, but in the climax is destroyed. Yet one of the Care Bears uses magic to remake the key.
* ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'': Flint's [[MadeOfIndestructium indestructible]] Spray-On Shoes, which he uses to destroy the FLDSMDFR. In the CreativeClosingCredits, he repurposes it as a roofing sealant.
* There were several in ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}''.
** [[spoiler: The well]]
** It was subtle but the [[spoiler: ghost eyes: the little ball that one of the mice was playing with during the circus scene; the pearl ring that the Other Forcible wears during the theatre scene; and the part of the Other Father's tractor during the garden scene.]]
** Another subtle one is [[spoiler: the Detroit Zoo snowglobe.]]
** In a way, the stale taffy [[spoiler: after Spink breaks it to reveal the green stone that would later help Coraline find the eyes of the ghost children.]]
** The green stone was a (somewhat) obvious ChekhovsGun. What is less obvious however is how it became one. Just before the second visit to the Otherworld, Coraline baits the jumping mice with a piece of cheese. Once she gets there, it has been transformed into fine cheddar.
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2'' has Dr. Nefario's terrible-tasting jelly that he made by combining every berry in the world, which he mixes with the PX-41 antidote to cure Gru's mutated minions. Later on there's Lucy's lipstick taser that she gave to Gru, which he uses to defeat El Macho.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'': The bat sounds MK's father keeps on his phone.
** The pinned bug armor that's on display.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'':
** A big example is Buddy, the annoying little kid who pops up in Mr. Incredible's car in the beginning of the movie. Since the opening of the film shows us "a day in the life of a superhero", Buddy just seems like a typical fanboy...until [[spoiler:he grows up to become the supervillain Syndrome]].
*** When Mr. Incredible goes to Edna for his new costume, he asks for a cape. Edna shoots this down, describing in detail every super that had been killed by their cape. The fact that Syndrome has a cape ultimately leads to [[spoiler:him being killed by being sucked into a jet engine]].
*** It's also implied that [[spoiler:the jet plane from the cape-death montage was put back in danger after the superhero in question, Stratogale, was killed by its engine.]] Considering that jet engines sometimes do fail when birds hit them, this implication effectively turns this into a ''nested'' Chekov's gun once you see that [[spoiler:Syndrome's death, being yanked into its turbine by his cape, was what caused the Manta Plane to explode.]]
** Edna fires two missiles into Helen's suit to showcase its invulnerability. This probably explains why Helen was able to protect her kids when her plane took those anti-air missiles.
** Also, the Omnidroid: "The only thing that can pierce it is... itself".
** Also, Dash and Mr. Incredible playing football. Comes back when Mr. Incredible throws the remote to Dash.
* ''WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoStrings'':
** You know that bell in the village? Turns out that it's the Helmet Invulnerable, the final item Kubo needs to battle the evil Moon King.
** The bracelet of his mother's hair Kubo wears and the one he makes out of Beetle's bow string. Both are used to restring his shamisen to defeat his grandfather. Monkey telling him about the power of memories also is one, as Kubo invokes that power in doing so.
** The lanterns of the deceased which are introduced early on later return during the FinalBattle.
* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' is full of these. In particular, the FinalBattle has them come up all the time in rapid succession, referencing everything from Po's sucking in his stomach to specific training he got from Shifu, from what the characters said right before the battle to things right at the beginning of the movie. Basically, they spend the whole movie establishing how the ButtMonkey can believably fight China's biggest badass.
** The scene where Mantis is giving Po acupuncture and reveals that it is very hard to find his pressure points under all the fur and fat--this becomes a key plot point during the final battle.
** At the prison, what seems like a PerpetualMolt trope turns out to be this as well.
** Another example is the Wushi Fingerhold, which seems like a throwaway gag near the start of the film... really, the entire movie is a love-letter to ChekhovsGun. Remember, "there are no accidents."
** In the first movie, Po remarks how Mantis is the same size as his action figure. [[spoiler: In the second movie, Po swaps Mantis for his action figure while they were being locked up in chains so Mantis could save them after.]]
** Also in the second movie, Po comes across Master Shifu mastering the concept of inner peace by catching a dew drop, rolling it along his arms and shoulders, and depositing it on a nearby leaf. This comes in very handy later when [[spoiler: Lord Shen is firing fireworks at Po; he catches them and [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome sends them back at the bad guys, blowing up the battlefleet.]] ]]
* ''Film/LeroyAndStitch'': With her alien friends leaving the planet, Lilo gives each of them a present to remember her by: a classic Elvis record for Jumba, a simple rock for Pleakley, and a special tiki necklace for Stitch. All three presents have a crucial part in stopping Hämsterviel's plot. Pleakley's rock allows him, Jumba, and Stitch to escape Hämsterviel's black hole deathtrap by redirecting the warp to Planet Turo. Lilo tried calling Stitch earlier, but seeing him not wearing her tiki necklace tipped her off that it was an impostor, leading to her heading to space with 625/Reuben and finally managing to HeelFaceTurn Gantu, as well as meeting Jumba's group when they come from the black hole. Most of all, Jumba used the recording of Aloha Oe to implant a SelfDestructMechanism into the experiment of mass destruction that Hämsterviel forced him to create; when the final battle comes and Jumba remembers as much, all they have to do is play the song and Leroy shuts down.
* In ''Disney/TheLionKing'', there's a cute scene where Simba and his best friend Nala get into two play fights, which [[IWasBeatenByAGirl Nala easily wins]] by flipping Simba over while he's on top of her then pinning him down once she's on top. [[spoiler:When they end up fighting again years later as adults Nala uses the same move on Simba again and he recognizes her, with the two happily reuniting as lovers. Simba later uses this technique himself to defeat his EvilUncle Scar during their battle]]
-->'''Nala''': Pinned ya ''again''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MinusculeValleyOfTheLostAnts'', it's the box of matches on the picnic site.
* ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'':
** The paperclip that Rico coughed up earlier is later used by Private.
** Similarly, Rico eating Dave's snow globes becomes useful [[spoiler:when the penguins need to figure out where he will attack next. They are also used to enhance the ray gun when it is set to return the penguins back to normal.]]
** Private's cuteness works like this: it starts off as an obstacle for him to be respected by the others, but eventually [[spoiler:powers Dave's gun to reverse the effects of the Medusa Serum.]]
* The fine folk at Creator/{{Pixar}} are masters of this, and most of their films have at least a few examples.
** ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' alone has at least a dozen. "All drains lead to the ocean." "Sandy says that sea turtles live to a hundred!" "Swim down!"
** Also, the mine field surrounding Bruce's boat.
--->'''Dory:''' Hey look! Balloons! It ''is'' a party!\\
'''Bruce:''' Mind your distance, though. Those balloons can be a bit dodgy. You wouldn't want one of them to pop.
** ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' has a slight variant, in that the fire extinguisher which comes into use at a critical moment isn't the ''same'' one seen previously.
** Andrew Stanton states that the landing pads for the cruise ships serve as one, and the ''Axiom'' lands on one at the end.
** Chekhov most have written ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' himself, as it's ''full'' of these; [[spoiler:the dogs chasing the tennis balls, the Grape Soda bottle cap, the list goes on.]]
** They actually started out by subverting the trope: in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' Woody gets a match put into his holster which he later pulls out to light a rocket that will let him and Buzz catch up to their moving owner...only for a passing car to immediately blow it out.
*** But then immediately plays it straight when [[spoiler:Woody uses the burning things with a magnifying glass trick that Sid had done to his forehead using light going through Buzz's helmet to light the fuse.]]
*** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' also has a straight example. Prior to the film's events, Mrs. Potato Head lost one of her eyes, though she can still see through it when she covers her other eye, or when both eyes are removed. Later in the film, when the toys are at Sunnyside Daycare, Mrs. Potato Head sees Andy frantically looking for them through her missing eye, convincing the toys to return home.
* Done by the Creator/{{Pixar}} staff for ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars 2}}'', as an aspect of the film is Tow Mater's habit of fanciful storytelling. Since this was a trait not shown in the first film, it was feared that the sudden appearance would look like an AssPull, so the [[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts "Mater's Tall Tales" shorts]] were created to establish this ''two years in advance.''
** Mater's gatling guns [[spoiler:which he uses to escape from being tied up in Big Bentley.]]
** Pixar studios likes to put Easter eggs into their movies that turn out to be a reference to their next movie. Anything in the background of any scene can be this. For example, [[WesternAnimation/{{Up}} Dug's]] shadow can be seen as the dog that barks at [[WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}} Remy]], and in ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'', [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 Lotso-Huggin' Bear]] can be seen in the little girl's room when Carl floats by. Andy's room in WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 features a poster of the same model car as [[WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} Finn McMissile]].
*** And a [[WesternAnimation/FindingNemo stuffed Nemo toy]] at the end of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''.
* In Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Disney/RobinHood'', the little rabbit sister can't run as fast as the other children, usually lagging behind. This becomes important in the mass jailbreak as she struggles to keep up with the evacuating villagers and Robin Hood has to double back to retrieve her, leaving him trapped on the opposite side of the gate.
* In ''Animation/TheSnowQueen2012'', Orm's ability to turn into a polar bear plays a pivotal role in the climax.
* In ''Film/SpaceJam'', early on the Monstars [[CartoonPhysics squish]] UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan [[CartoonPhysics into a basketball]] in order to humiliate him. During the final seconds of the game, Michael stretches his arm out in order to make a slam dunk from half-court while the Monstars are holding him down.
* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobSquarepantsMovie'', in which he and Patrick are too stupid to properly use the bag of winds that Princess Mindy had given them.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'': One of the seagulls rips off a page of the magic book and drops it into the ocean...which ends up [[spoiler:on top of Sandy's treedome. Later, when the gang are stranded on an island by Burger-Beard, [=SpongeBob=] uses the page to transform the gang into superheroes]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', Cartman is outfitted with a V-Chip that electrocutes him whenever he cusses. At the end of the movie, it malfunctions, allowing Cartman to sling lightning when he cusses.
* In ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'':
** Rapunzel's hair glows when its magic is invoked. [[spoiler: This comes in handy when she and Flynn/Eugene need light to find their way out of a watery death.]]
** At one point in the movie, Rapunzel [[spoiler: shoves Gothel into her mirror]], causing the mirror to break. [[spoiler: Flynn/Eugene would later use a broken glass shard to cut Rapunzel's hair.]]
** Rapunzel's painted walls and the hankie Flynn buys from the marketplace [[spoiler: are what causes Rapunzel to realize she is the lost princess.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'', the official trailer showed a scene where Wallace got stuck coming through the trapdoor to the kitchen and Gromit needed to use a mechanized hammer to get him through. This at first seemed like an amusing gag, but it turned out to be the very driving part of the film concerning Wallace's diet and his unfortunate transformation.
* ''WesternAnimation/AMatterOfLoafAndDeath'' features the crocodile pit at the zoo, and the fact that Piella was dropped as the Bake-o-Lite girl when she became too fat to fly in the balloon used for the promotions, which combine at the climax to [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath gruesome]] [[GoryDiscretionShot effect]].
* The letter Rat finds in ''WesternAnimation/TheWillowsInWinter1996'' ends up being Toad's salvation during his DarkestHour.
* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' has a few. "[[ArcWords Going]] [[ChekhovsGunman Turbo]]", Cy-Bugs [[TheAssimilator becoming what they eat]], the volcano, the Code Room (and the fact [[spoiler:King Candy]] [[ChekhovsSkill can edit it...]])
* In ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'', Maurice's wood-chopping contraption comes in handy during the climax when [[spoiler: Chip uses it to free him and Belle when Gaston locks them in the cellar.]]
* ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}''
** The blueberries grown by Judy's family which she brought along. [[spoiler:They look just like the Night Howler-extract pellets which fool Bellwether into gloating and publicly confessing being behind everything.]]
** In a darker sense, the fox-repellent spray Judy's parents give her. [[spoiler: While she never uses it in the film, during the press conference when Nick asks "Do you think I might try to eat you" and lunges toward her, she instinctively reaches for it. This hurts Nick's feeling and leads to their PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film -- Live-Action A To I]]
* In ''Film/The6thDay'' the Governator's character Adam Gibson is a chartered helicopter pilot. In one of the first scenes he is seen checking out the new model of remote control for the helicopters. Much later in the movie the remote is used to fly a decoy helicopter.
* The cars in the Russian plane in ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve''.
* ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' has an interesting case: Chekhov's ''Library'', established in an early scene to have somewhat... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin literal]] books.
* ''Film/AdeleHasntHadHerDinnerYet'':
** Police commissioner Ledvina ''always'' eats, usually junk food like sausages, pickled sausages or smelly ripened cheese, and he's seen using his own pepper-pot and salt-cellar. The pepper-pot saves detective Nick Carter's life. When he's being devoured by ManEatingPlant Adele, police commissioner Ledvina throws the pepper-pot into her mouth. Adele starts coughing and gagging, and she spits Nick out.
** A man trying to fly a bicycle with wings and propellers can be seen in the background several times. Near the end of the movie, Nick borrows his flying machine, fixes its glitch and uses it to catch the villain who's escaping in a hot-air balloon.
* ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel'': the bomb Joe Seluchi buys in the airport gift shop.
* ''Film/{{Aliens}}''
** A perfect example in the form of the powerloader. In a seemingly throwaway scene towards the beginning of the film, Ripley is shown to have a remarkable degree of skill with this particular piece of equipment -- and she goes on to use this exact piece of equipment in the climactic mano-a-mano battle with the Alien Queen.
** Even more subtle is the air lock that the Marine sergeant offhandedly demands to be sealed in the same scene.
** Ripley is seen smoking out of habit when Burke and Gorman meet her aboard Gateway Station, and can be seen using a specific lighter at several points. Later on, when she discovers that the facehuggers are in the Medical Lab with her and Newt, she uses the same lighter (which she carried with her from Gateway) to activate the fire alarm and notify the Marines that the duo are in danger.
** The tracking device that Hicks gives to Ripley. Ripley later gives it to Newt, and near the end she uses it to track down Newt inside the alien hive. It doesn't get her to Newt's exact location, but it does get her close enough to hear Newt scream when the egg near her hatches.
* In ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'', one scene in the beginning informs us that the waters of the Antarctic are so cold you'd die in 3 minutes. Now guess how they took out the alien Queen.
* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' has the Ganali device. Connors points it out to Peter when he shows him around the lab, saying it's been sitting there collecting dust. [[spoiler:The Lizard takes it to spread the serum across New York; Peter uses it to distribute the antidote instead.]]
* ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'' has a Chekhov's Gun early in the movie when Ron Burgundy says, "I'm Ron Burgundy?" while voicing the question inflection because [[spoiler: he reads ''exactly'' what is displayed on the teleprompter. This later causes him to say "Go fuck yourself, San Diego" instead of his trademark "Stay classy, San Diego", which caused him to be fired, a major plot point later in the film.]]
* ''Film/TheAndromedaStrain'' (1971). Dr. Hall is repeatedly told about Wildfire's nuclear bomb SelfDestructMechanism (which will go off if a disease escapes containment), how he's the only one who can stop it from detonating and how important it is that he be able to get to one of the deactivation terminals quickly. Guess what happens at the end of the movie.
** In the novel, Dr. Leavitt is repeatedly shown averting his gaze from blinking lights. In the climactic chapter, he doesn't do so fast enough, and thus do we learn that he has epilepsy.
* In ''Film/AngelsAndDemons'' the book, there's an unusually large amount of detail given about St Peter's tomb when the characters are merely wandering by it. Naturally, it's an important place for plot related reasons later.
* There are two major ones in ''Film/AnnaAndTheApocalypse'':
** One is a star-shaped set piece being used in the Christmas show Anna's school is putting on, which is noted to be dangerous due to how easily someone could just pull a certain rope and send it flying across the stage. Anna ends up using it at the climax to knock Savage into a crowd of zombies and save her dad.
** The other one is Steph's car keys. They get confiscated from her early in the film, and she manages to locate them during the climax, giving her and her surviving friends safe transport out of town.
* ''Film/{{Annie 2014}}'':
** Cell phones. Due to most phones being smart phones, they prove instrumental in helping save Annie in the film's climax.
** Social Media: Bobby's having given Annie her own {Twitter} account results in her getting mentioned all over the site and trending when she realizes her "real parents" are nothing of the kind and starts trying to get help by waving at passerby.
* Used with a couple props in Billy Wilder's ''Film/TheApartment'', before [[spoiler: pointedly inverting the trope with an actual gun.]]
* In the beginning of ''Film/{{Arachnophobia}}'', carpenters building Dr. Jennings' wine cellar introduce him to a nail gun, which he uses in the final act of the movie.
* ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'' begins with a group of hunters funneling a tapir into a spring-loaded trap. Later, as the hero is being pursued by warriors through the area, he finds a similar use for the trap.
* Lampshaded in ''Film/ArizonaDream'', in voice over, while [[spoiler:Axel points a gun at Grace]].
* ''Film/AssassinsCreed2016'': While Moussa is in Sophia's office, there's a glimpse of a couple of bombs encased in glass on a table. He later initiates the prison break by using them on the guards in the cafeteria.
* ''Film/AustinPowersInternationalManOfMystery'': Midway through the movie, Vanessa shows Austin a variety of dental hygiene products. Austin assumes that they are actually weapons, but she informs him that they really are for him to clean up his teeth. Later on in the movie, when Austin and Vanessa are suspended over a pool of ferocious sea bass, Vanessa remembers the toothpaste. Austin judo-chops the tube, spraying toothpaste in the only guard's eyes and causing him to fall into the water where he gets consumed by the (mutated and ill tempered) sea bass, allowing Austin and Vanessa to escape via dental floss swing.
** Random Task and his "lethal" footwear reappear during the denouement, along with Austin's [[EmbarrassingCoverUp Swedish Penis Pump]].
* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': For just living being examples (because a full listing would be ''just too long''):
** [[spoiler:The Tricerotops/hammerhead monster. A brief appearance, then a big important scene]]
** [[spoiler:The Na'vi's ability to communicate with nature via their hair]]
** [[spoiler:The giant dragon. At first just a nice folk story, then a MAJOR plot-point]]
** [[spoiler:Some might consider the cat monster, although it had a good run the first time it appears.]]
** [[spoiler:The giant leaves that Jake fails to grab while training, but when he falls from a large height they save his life.]]
* ''Film/TheAvengers1998''. The boots Steed gives to Mrs. Peel, which later turn out to have a TrackingDevice installed.
* In ''Film/{{Awake}}'', there is a brief scene near the beginning of the film where Sam, the protagonist's wife, grabs her mail and sticks it in her purse as she and Clayton are on their way out of her apartment. This becomes important later on when Clayton's mother goes through Sam's purse after finding out that Clayton's transplant failed, and finds out that not only was Sam living under an assumed identity... but that she used to be a nurse, who worked with Clayton's doctor in the past. She then realizes that Sam has been part of a conspiracy with Clayton's doctor to kill him and take his money.
* ''Film/{{Babes in Toyland|1934}}'', the Creator/LaurelAndHardy version: Toymakers Stan and Ollie mess up at the beginning by, instead of making 600 1-foot-tall wooden soldiers, they make 100 6-foot-tall soldiers...who join the fight in the final battle.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuture
** In an early scene, a woman tells Marty and Jennifer about how the town's clock tower was struck by lightning and hands him a flyer that gives all the details. This works mainly since the scene is also funny, allowing viewers to think it was simply a joke and thus not realize its significance until later on.
** There are many other examples than just that; Lorraine's reminiscing about the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance, Doc's rambling about he came up with the idea for the Flux Capacitor, Marty's walkman, and the radiation suits all coming into play sometime later in the film. It uses this trope so well that film schools use it as a perfect example of {{Foreshadowing}} and ChekhovsGun.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII''
** The hoverboard is kept in the Delorean after Marty [=McFly=] uses it to beat Griff Tannen, the hoverboard plays an essential role in the third film, when Marty flies it over to Doc Brown, who is hanging off a speeding train. Not only are Doc and girlfriend Clara saved, but the hoverboard allows Brown to rebuild the technology, allowing him to create a [[CoolTrain FLYING TRAIN]]. Holy ''shit''.
** In a rare case of a Chekhov's gun being set on the mantle in one film intentionally to be fired in the sequel, [[spoiler: Marty walks into 1985-A Biff's hot tub room in ''Part II'' and sees him watching the scene from ''A Fistful of Dollars'' wherein Creator/ClintEastwood uses a metallic plate-like object as a makeshift bulletproof vest. When he ends up bumping into and knocking off a stove door in the Old West in ''Part III'' during a hectic pre-shootout sequence, he remembers this and it ends up saving his life.]]
** A similar rare Chekhov's gun is the notice of dismissal the older Marty receives in 2015. [[spoiler: The younger Jennifer took a copy of that print in ''Part II'' while hiding in a closet. It was erased after Marty refuses to race with Needles, when he is back in 1985 at the end of ''Part III''. Marty had learned from the past and did not react on Needles' teasing anymore. It proved he had finally overcome his BerserkButton of NobodyCallsMeChicken.]] However, an explanation for this two rare Chekhov's guns can be given: "Back to the Future" Part II and III were recorded at the same time, but released on a different date, something rarely seen in movie history. This made it possible to use Chekhov's Guns which were planned to be set in a previous part and fired in the next.
** In Part II, when confronting Biff about the Sports Almanac, Marty takes a match on Biff's desk, representing the casino. After the almanac is burnt, the logo changes to represent Biff's auto dealership, showing that history is back to how it should be.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''
** ''Film/Batman1989''. The Joker's helicopter first appears after Batman uses the Batmobile to blow up the Axis Chemicals complex. After the Joker and Vicki Vail climb to the top of a building, the helicopter appears again (after being summoned by the Joker) as a means of escape.
** ''Film/BatmanReturns'' (1992). Bet you forgot about that stungun Miss Kyle picked up before she became Catwoman!
** ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' (1997). Gotham Observatory has a satellite system that's designed to reflect from around the world so that its telescope can look at the sky everywhere. Near the end of the movie the system is used to concentrate sunlight from the part of the world that's in daylight to defrost Gotham City.
** ''Film/BatmanBegins'' (2005)
*** A subtle one can be seen when Alfred is putting Rachel into a car to take her home. To lay her down in the back seat, he moves some random golf clubs out of the way. Why are they there...so Alfred can use them to beat down a henchman of the League of Shadows upon his return. Also in ''Batman Begins'', Bruce Wayne is subjected to ninja hallucinogens at the beginning of the movie, which are later revealed to be the same as the Scarecrow's weird gas poison.
*** The monorail built by Bruce's dad turns out to be a ChekhovsGun used by Ra's al Ghul to spread Scarecrow's gas.
*** There are so many examples of this in ''Batman Begins'' that it is too hard to list them all. The piano, the introduction to the capabilities of the Batmobile, everything having to do with [[spoiler: Ra's al Ghul / Ducard]]. Seriously, like everything in the first half of the movie comes back in the second.
** ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' (2008)
*** A small gag is used with Bruce not knowing all the features of his new suit and shooting the blades of his gauntlet. Near the end of the film, he uses the gauntlet's blade-shooting ability deliberately.
*** The sonar technology used to map out Lau's Hong Kong office is used again to track down The Joker during the climax.
*** Also, Harvey's coin is introduced early in the film, which he later uses [[spoiler: when he becomes Two-Face]].
** ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' (2012)
*** The film introduces one in the form of the Bat's faulty auto-pilot. It becomes relevant later when [[spoiler:Bruce uses the Bat to dump a bomb out at sea, but has to pilot it manually due to the auto-pilot being faulty]].
*** And then subverted when [[spoiler:it's revealed Bruce had fixed the auto-pilot and used his "death" to make a new life]].
* In ''Film/{{Bean}}: The Ultimate Disaster Movie'', several items which are only briefly seen at the start of the film come into play much later (such as the M&M's, and the laxatives).
* In ''Film/BigGame'', the shrapnel lodged near Morris' heart. It's even explicitly stated that it will kill him if it moves as much as two centimetres. [[spoiler:Later, Oskari's arrow, while not strong enough to pierce a bulletproof vest, delivers enough force to do just that.]]
* ''Film/BirdBox'': The story Tom was telling the kids near the end of the film. Malorie cuts him off before he finishes, scared that putting the idea of playing outside in their heads will have them try to attempt to go outside where they could be put in danger. [[spoiler: In the climax, when she loses track of "Girl" in the woods and calls out to her, she finishes the story to counter the creatures trying to mimic her voice and lead the girl to her.]]
* The cage in ''Film/BlackDeath''.
* ''Film/BladeRunner''. Early in the movie Gaff is shown creating small figurines out of paper (origami) and matchsticks. At the end of the movie Deckard finds one outside his apartment, letting him (and the audience) know that Gaff had been there and not killed Rachel.
** In the [[ReCut Director's Cut]], this takes on a whole new significance - [[spoiler:it infers that Deckard's dreams of the unicorn have been known by Gaff, meaning that Deckard himself is a replicant.]]
* Both used and subverted in ''Film/BloodSimple''. The gun and the number of bullets it has is a running detail. Many other details, such as the lighter under the stack of fish, get shown but end up playing no importance at all. In fact, the whole movie is really more of a satire of Chekhov's Gun, toying with the audience as it focuses on details only to either not use them or use them in a way not expected.
* In ''Film/{{Bloodsport}}'', Frank Dux demonstrates the ''Dim Mak'', a powerful palm strike, by breaking a brick. In the quarterfinal of the tournament, he applies this technique against the Hawaiian wrestler. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope And it fails to work]], so he has to follow up with a [[GroinAttack cheap shot]].]]
* In ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'' we're treated to a brief tour of Agent Jarda's kitchen, which is well-equipped with very nice, and very obvious, cutlery, which naturally makes its appearance [[spoiler:in the ensuing combat between Jarda and Bourne]].
* In B-Grade monster movie ''Film/TheBrain1988'', the main character finds out pure sodium explodes on contact with water, and uses it for a prank involving [[TheCanKickedHim the school's toilets]]. Guess what's used to kill the titular monster at the end of the movie.
* ''Film/BurnAfterReading'' plays it straight and literal. Harry Pfarrer brags more than once that in all his years as a federal marshall, he's never discharged his weapon. So you know before the end of the movie...
* Creator/BillMurray himself could apply in ''Film/{{Caddyshack}}''. His attempts to kill the gopher are seen as just a funny subplot - until the explosives he sets off at the end cause tremors that allow Danny's final putt to sink in.
* ''Film/CaptiveState'': Tons. The computer teletype, the print on the wall, the record player, the Blackberry, etc.
* The ''Charlies Angels'' film duology:
** Subverted in the [[Film/CharliesAngels2000 first film]]. The film goes a little out of its way to point out the lighter that Creator/DrewBarrymore carries everywhere, and when she's tied to a chair during the climax she naturally snatches it from her sleeve and tries to burn the ropes. However, it refuses to make any flame and so she has to fight a bunch of guys while [[WithMyHandsTied still tied to the chair]].
** Played straight in the sequel ''[[Film/CharliesAngelsFullThrottle Full Throttle]]'', when Bosley II points out the girls' custom-made Kevlar vests that later save them when they get shot by the BigBad.
* ''Film/{{Chinatown}}'' has the car horn: [[spoiler: Evelyn Mulwray dozes off in the car, her head falls and sets it off. In the end when she tries to escape, a policeman fires at her and then we hear the horn blare...]]
** "[[spoiler:The salt water is bad for the glass.]]"
* The sled from ''Film/CitizenKane''. Cmon! ItWasHisSled!
* In ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'' Riddick kills a Necromonger with a knife that was sticking out of his back, and then gets to keep it because the Necromongers "keep what they kill." Guess what he uses this same knife for later.
* In ''Film/CityOfEmber'', Loris Harrow gives his son; Doon an object that is the key to them leaving the city.
* Subverted in ''Film/CityOfGod'' in scenes involving Goose's gun. When we first see the gun in TheSixties, Goose is hiding it in a drawer and tells Rocket to never touch it. Later, in TheSeventies, Rocket finds the gun and takes it with him during his "flirtation with crime"; however, the gun is never fired or even used.
* Chekhov's gun in retrospect in ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}''. The premise of the film is that it is amateur video footage of a giant monster attack in Manhattan, and that this footage is overwriting the tape that is already in the machine. The original recording on the tape was of a date between two of the main characters several weeks earlier, and in one of the scenes left intact, the falling satellite which awakened the monster can be seen in the background. This is only seen at the end of the film, when the monster footage ends.
* ''Film/CodeOfSilence'': An early scene at the police precinct shows a demonstration of a remote-controlled assault vehicle. Sure enough, it ends up getting used against the bad guys in the climactic showdown.
* In ''Film/CowboysAndAliens'' [[spoiler: when the alien appears in the stranded ferry, it's chest opens revealing it's weak spot: it's beating heart. It was only vulnerable once, when the kid used another Chekhov's Gun: Dolarhyde's knife.]]
* ''Film/TheCountryBears'', combined with {{Running Gag}}. Big Al throughout the film constantly tells people not to walk on the grass out front of Bear Hall. In the end of the movie, the band is depressed when no one shows up for their concert, but Big Al says they are all out back because he did not want them walking on his grass.
* ''Film/{{Crash}}'' is a movie that seems to almost entirely be based on Chekhov's Guns. The most noticeable example being part of the climax. The Persian woman insists on buying ammunition for a new gun, from a box that the owner gives her a cock-eyed look for choosing. When her father later attempts to shoot [[spoiler:the lockpick]], who he feels cheated him, the [[spoiler: lock installer's young daughter]] jumps in the way. It turns out that [[spoiler:those bullets came in handy, and were actually blanks, since the Persian woman knew that her father may actually end up firing the gun irrationally one day]]. Which works even better in conjunction with a rather charming example from much earlier in the movie, where [[spoiler: the lock installer tied a "bulletproof, invisible cape" to his daughter in a heartwarming scene, which ironically worked, despite being make-believe.]]
* ''Film/TheCrazyFamily'' has the drill and the ant poison, both of which are used to try and [[spoiler:[[KillEmAll kill the family by the father]].]]
* From ''Film/TheCrow'': Eric learns all that Shelly went through before she died - a 30 hour ordeal - by laying his hands over Albrecht's head and eyes ('seeing' through his eyes how much Shelly suffered, and what's more, feeling it as well. At the film's climax, Eric finishes off Top Dollar, the BigBad, by putting his hands on the villain's head and sharing the same experience with him. While Eric is able to withstand the pain, Top Dollar is not.
* ''Film/TheDaVinciCode'' goes out of its way to point out an apparently utterly trivial detail about the Louvre near the beginning of the film -- which turns out to be of vital importance in its last minutes.
* In ''Film/TheSeeker'', Will gets a digital watch for his birthday, which he later uses to amaze a Viking.
* ''Film/DateNight'' has a gun hanging from a wall that a character looks at briefly; naturally, a few scenes later, it's revealed that he stole it. It does eventually get fired, but is hilariously ineffective.
* In the ''Film/DayOfTheDead2008'' remake, before Hud [[spoiler: is bitten and turned into a zombie]], he tells the female romantic interest that he is a vegetarian in an attempt to impress her. When he [[spoiler:is turned into a zombie]], he doesn't eat people, which later comes to serve as an AssPull by allowing him to save the main character.
* In ''Film/TheDeadPool'', "Dirty" Harry Callahan witnesses the use of a portable whaling harpoon in the first act, and rediscovers it when the plot steers its location back to the same locale.
* In the ''Film/DeathRace'' remake, one of Jensen's mechanics jokes that the cigarette lighter is the most important part of the car. Sure enough, in the ensuing race, Jensen uses the cigarette lighter to eliminate one of the drivers trying to kill him by igniting a tank full of napalm.
** The Death's Head trap is another, as all the drivers manage to evade them after the preliminary intro race...until Joe and Frankenstein use their cars to obscure a Death's Head mark on the ground, causing the [[MoreDakka gigantic deathtruck from hell]] to impact and flip, dropping its flamethrower tank right on top of the cab.
* In ''Film/{{Deathtrap}}'' the main character [[spoiler:fakes a murder]] and in the process invites his guest to try out Houdini's Handcuffs, which he cannot escape because they are fake. Later, when [[spoiler:his accomplice betrays him and is robbing the house]] the main character is handcuffed to a chair, then shortly after calls out "You can come down now, those were Houdini's real handcuffs."
* In the Italian horror film ''Film/{{Demoni}}'', which is set in a movie theater, there is a mannequin of a samurai mounted on a dirt bike in the main lobby, complete with samurai sword, presumably as a movie promotion. In the film's climax, both of these items are put to good use.
* In ''Film/TheDeparted'', a random scrap of paper written by one of the protagonists is the key to uncovering the mob's rat in the Massachusetts State Police.
* The gun in ''Film/DesertHeat'' comes in the form of a fighter jets that always fly by at the same time each day.
* ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''. When Film/JamesBond first meets Tiffany Case she's wearing a brunette wig. Later in the movie she says "What's my black wig doing in the pool?" It turns out to be the hair of Plenty O'Toole, a brunette that Bond met earlier - she was drowned by Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd off-camera.
* ''Franchise/DieHard'' is well-known for its use of Chekhov's Gun, to the point where it's a defining feature of the DieHardOnAnX trope.
** ''Film/DieHard'':
*** A passenger gives John advice about recovering from jet-lag, which involves removal of all footgear. This leaves John barefoot throughout the action.
*** Each of the luxuries of Argyle's limo, and Argyle waiting for John in the parking garage, are what clue Argyle in on what's going on, even allowing him to take out one of the terrorists himself!
*** Holly uses her maiden name at work, and in a moment of frustration, turns a family picture upside down. This keeps her husband safe long enough for him to rescue them all, as Hans realizes too late that Holly Gennero is actually [=McClane=]'s wife.
*** Ellis gave Holly a Rolex - too bad she had to lose it to kill Hans.
*** The very fact that John is a cop is what gives him his service weapon as his starting inventory. Perhaps more crucially, [=McClane=] talks like a cop, knows how to spot phony [=IDs=] and gather evidence, and knows the emergency channels to summon help. This, in fact, is what clues Allen in on the fact that John is a fellow officer, earning the former's trust.
** ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'':
*** Detective [=McClane=] has a really bad hangover and desperately searches for aspirins whenever he can. Simon Gruber suffers from migraines. This gives John the vital clue as to where Simon is hiding - he traces Simon's aspirin bottle.
*** We also see Zeus admonish his nephews for not going to school. Simon later plants a (fake) bomb at that very school to get Zeus' attention.
*** Half the cops in New York play their badges in the lottery, but none of the "cops" in the elevator knew the lottery numbers.
*** Remember those fourteen stolen dump trucks mentioned offhand at the start? Simon uses them to transport the gold out.
*** Breaking out of handcuffs and stealing cars is made easier when your partner works as an electrician/locksmith.
** ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'':
*** Warlock's CB radio frequency comes in handy when you need to contact FBI Deputy Director Bowman.
*** The chief of police knows John's exact location because his unmarked car, like all government vehicles, has a Lojack on it. Well, when the villain's fleeing in a government-owned vehicle...
*** Bowman orders an F-35 to fly over and keep an eye on Woodlawn until he gets there - then Gabriel spoofs the tower and orders that same aircraft to fire on a pursuing [=McClane=].
*** Mai's "Sexy Voice", originally mentioned in a passing comment, is again recognized by Farrell when she impersonates the police dispatcher.
*** The combat technique of firing the opponent's sidearm while it's in its holster, shooting him in the foot, is first shown used by [=McClane=] at the power plant. Lucy uses that same trick at the end to distract everyone.
* [[spoiler:Played straight]] in ''Film/DillingerIsDead'': the main character finds an old revolver that doesn't work one night as he is making dinner at home. Throughout the movie, while going about his evening, he carefully disassembles the gun, cleans it, reassembles it, paints it red with white polka-dots, hangs it to dry, and then in the end [[spoiler: shoots his sleeping wife with it]].
* ''Dirty Mary Crazy Larry'' [[spoiler:opens with a shot of the freight train that the protagonists drive into at the very end of the movie.]]
* The alien command module in ''Film/{{District 9}}''.
** The prawn Exosuit would have been this if not for trailers.
* Early in ''Film/{{Dobermann}}'', Nat uses a throwing knife to scare Manu in a TwangHello moment. It is a safe bet that most of the audience has forgotten about it when she draws it from under her hair and uses it on a cop during the firefight in the nightclub.
* ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'' had Peter's receiving of Patches' scarf and a random reading of the Sudden Death guidelines, both of which come into play in the final showdown.
* ''Film/{{Dogma}}'':
** It's mentioned off-hand that God is a fan of skeeball. Late in the movie Bethany realizes that [[spoiler:John Doe Jersey is God because he was waiting for a skeeball park to open]].
** Metatron tells an anecdote about the reason for his position, namely that the first few Adams died before they realized mortals couldn't withstand God's voice. When God speaks late in the movie [[spoiler:it kills the now-mortal Bartleby]].
** Silent Bob steals a golf club from the Archbishop as petty revenge. He later uses it to [[spoiler:kill Azrael, as the Archbishop had blessed it to play a better game]].
* In ''Film/DolphinTale'', Kyle gives his cousin Sawyer a Swiss Army Knife. Later, Sawyer uses the knife to free Winter the dolphin from the crab trap ropes.
* A gun in ''Film/{{Doom}}'' (the film): The {{BFG}}. No, not ''a'' BFG, this is ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' we're talking about. It's '''The''' BFG.
* In ''Film/{{Doomsday}}'' the film, the main character, Eden, has a prosthetic eye in place of her missing right eye. Its purpose serves as night vision and a camera. She uses it a few times early on, and then it is forgotten about until the end when she uses it as a recording device to record incriminating evidence to bring down the ManBehindTheMan.
* ''Film/{{Dope}}'' features [[spoiler: an actual gun]] placed in a bag along with the titular dope early in the film. [[spoiler: The hero Malcom uses it to scare off some bullies and would be thieves from from robbing him and his friends near the end of the film.]]
* During his initial debaucheries, Hyde in ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' (1920) takes a poison ring from a dancer. Much later in the film, [[spoiler:Dr. Jekyll consumes its contents, poisoning himself and his evil alter ego]].
* In ''Film/DraculaHasRisenFromTheGrave'', the Monsignor attaches a large metal cross to door of the Count's castle to prevent him from entering; later, [[spoiler:this is removed and cast into the ravine below, where, later still, [[DisneyVillainDeath Dracula falls to his doom]], impaled on the cross itself.]]
* In ''Film/DraculaUntold'', Vlad is forced to pay silver coins as tribute to Mehmet. Silver hurts vampires. [[spoiler:Mehmet uses the silver when they fight in the final battle]].
* The coin-collecting side plot in ''Film/DragMeToHell'', if Chekhov's gun was surrounded by flashing neon and howled "Look at me! Look at me!" whenever possible.
* In ''Film/DreamHouse'', the opening scene shows Will quitting his job at GPH publishing. [[spoiler: It is later revealed that he had been a patient at '''G'''reenhaven '''P'''sychiatric '''H'''ospital for five years, and his "co-workers" were fellow patients]].
** Jack Patterson looks at an e-mail concerning the custody dispute with his ex-wife Ann over their daughter Chloe. [[spoiler: This was the motive for the triple murder, as he had sent a hit man to kill Ann to get the insurance benefits and sole custody of Chloe]].
** Also, Will's co-workers at GPH [[spoiler: actually, his fellow psychiatric patients at the hospital]], mention the novel he was working on. [[spoiler: In the ending, he had published a novel called ''Dream House'' under his real name, Peter Ward]].
* ''Film/DudeWheresMyCar'' contains several examples. The most memorable is probably the nature show the boys are watching at the beginning which [[spoiler: provides the key to saving the universe]]. Many seemingly random people and events in this film are actually significant, but just as many (such as the pissing roommate) have no plot relevance whatsoever and are there solely for the WTF factor.
* At the beginning of ''Film/{{Duel}}'', David Mann stops at a gas station and is advised to get his radiator hose replaced. This errand is put on hold when David is targeted by a murderous truck driver, and naturally the strain the truck's pursuit puts on his car eventually causes the hose to break.
* ''Film/EnterTheDragon''. In one scene, Roper is taken through a medieval torture museum room by Mr. Han, which includes a glass display case with several replacement weapon-hands. This scene introduces several examples:
** The room itself is used in a big fight.
** One of the replacement hands, a metal claw, is used during the final fight.
** During the big fight in the museum room, Mr. Han tries throwing a spear at Lee, which goes through a wall and into the HallOfMirrors beyond. The climax of the movie involves Lee kicking Han right into the spear and [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice Impaling Him With Extreme Prejudice]].
** The advice that Bruce takes about "smashing the image" in order to defeat Han was itself a Chekhovs Gun given by Bruce's master near the very beginning of the film.
* ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' has an incident where John Preston hands his gun to Brandt for later exploitation.
* ''Film/EscapeFromLA'' has a few of these and one of the best played examples. When Snake is given the weapons and tools for his mission, they show him a Holographic projector that can display his image from a distance. He also is determined to get his BadassLongcoat from a thug who took it from him mid-film. Before taking on the mission he placed the projector in the inside pocket of the coat and never mentioned it again for the rest of the film. During the final scene, when his superiors realize [[spoiler: that the EMP control disc they have is a fake]] they open fire on Snake [[spoiler: who had been using the projector as a decoy the whole time]]. Cue SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Destruction of Modern Society]], and a badass break in the [[BreakingTheFourthWall Fourth Wall]].
* ''Film/ExecutiveDecision'' starts with the main charactertaking a flight test. At the end of the film, he has to land a 747.
* ''Film/ExMachina'': There is a brief scene of Kyoko preparing dinner, and a close-up on her slicing fish with a knife. This knife later becomes very important [[spoiler:when she and Ava stab Nathan to death with it]].
* ''Film/FastFive'' has an extra safe of the same style that they are trying to steal.
* ''Film/FatalAttraction'' has a literal revolver.
** In the original ending, it was an audio tape.
** As well as the knife that Alex tries to stab Dan with during the confrontation in her apartment. Watch the lingering close-up on Dan's hand around the blade handle as he places it on the counter. In the original, Alex uses that same knife to slit her throat, effectively framing Dan for her murder.
* In ''Film/{{Fearless 2006}}'', Creator/JetLi's character says that all tea tastes the same to him, so he doesn't bother to check what is in his cups. [[spoiler: In the final act, he fails to notice his tea has been poisoned.]]
* The mithril shirt that Bilbo gives to Frodo in ''Fellowship of the Ring'' is a mild example.
* In ''Film/TheFifthElement'', Corbin Dallas's box of matches is almost empty in his first scene (which is OK because he's been meaning to quit smoking anyway). The last match winds up being a key part of switching on part of the alien weapon at the end.
* In one of the first scenes of ''Film/{{Firewall}}'', we see the sister yelling at the brother because his radio-controlled car causes interference with the television. Guess what Harrison Ford uses later to disrupt the villain's security system?
* Done perfectly in the 2007 film ''Film/{{Flawless}}''. Mr. Hobbs, the janitor, tells Laura Quinn the properties of the diamonds, one of them being that diamonds never dampen in contact with water. Later when the diamonds belonging to the company are stolen by Mr. Hobbs and Laura tries to find them, she loses a diamond earring in a sink and when she retrieves it, she notices that it is not wet. She then realizes that Mr. Hobbs [[spoiler:had probably discharged the stolen diamonds into a sink, therefore the diamonds must be in the sewer]].
* Clumsily done in ''Film/{{Fletch}}.'' Near the beginning, Fletch (Chevy Chase) lights a cigarette with a Zippo lighter. This is the only time he's ever seen smoking in the movie. But at the climax, when he needs a way to escape, the lighter comes in handy.
* Partly subverted in ''Film/{{Flyboys}}''. Each of the young pilots is given a revolver by veteran pilot Reed Cassidy. The explanation is that, if their plane catches fire they can use the gun for a quick suicide. The audience KNOWS this will be used for that, but the first plane to catch fire [[spoiler: explodes before the pilot can act]]. It is used near the end of the movie by [[spoiler: Briggs Lowry]], finishing the loop. However, [[spoiler: Blaine Rawlings then uses HIS gun to surprise and kill the BigBad when his gun is shot out in the final duel.]]
* Subverted in ''Film/FoulPlay''. Gloria is unknowingly slipped a cigarette pack with the bad guys' plans, which ends up dropped behind a couch in her apartment. Much, much later, the landlord's pet snake finds them, only for him to say "How many times do I have to tell you, don't eat cigarettes!" and toss it in the fireplace, not knowing its importance. Cut to the snake laughing.
* In the first ten minutes of ''Film/{{Frequency}}'', John's best friend's kid finds a shotgun in an old case where John's father's old ham radio is. Although it is only mentioned and seen in passing then, [[spoiler: John's father later uses it to blow off the hand of, and, 30 years later, kill, the villain.]]
* In ''Film/FunnyGames'', the film points out a knife that gets dropped to the deck of the family sailboat. When the woman is brought back to the boat by her captors, she grabs the knife [[spoiler:but her captors immediately spot her and grab the knife, making the whole thing a red herring.]]
** [[spoiler:Arguably a lampshaded red herring, considering the context of the film.]]
* In the opening scenes of Film/TheFugitive, Dr. Kimble's friend Dr. Nichols returns his keys to him, thanking him for loaning him his car. Later, during Kimble's murder trial, the investigating detective testifies that there was no sign of a break-in, making him doubt Kimble's claims of an intruder. Not until the very end of the film does Gerard realize the significance of this and tell Kimble that Nichols must have used the keys to let the assailant into his home.
* ''Film/GalaxyQuest''. The time-machine device that allows the user to go back 13 seconds into the past, just enough time to correct a mistake. It's mentioned early in the film but then dismissed and not used until the end.
* The incinerator in ''Film/{{Gattaca}}''- [[spoiler:in the [[BittersweetEnding final scene]], as Vincent finally leaves Earth, Eugene crawls into it to commit suicide.]]
* Almost averted in ''Film/GetCarter''. In the first act Jack Carter finds his brother's double-barreled shotgun, which he then carries on and off for the rest of the film -- but never actually fires. He does kill a man with it, though -- he beats him to death with the stock.
* Early in ''Film/TheGiantGilaMonster'' Chase frets about notroglycerine transported unsafely in a vehicle. In the end he destroys the giant gila monster with a vehicle unsafely loaded with nitro.
* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': The flames device is seen a couple of times being used to burn things for no apparent reason [[AttackBackfire before it scorches off]] the BigBad's face.
* Occurs practically every other movie in the original ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' series.
* ''Film/TheGoldenChild''. While Chandler Jarrell is in Tibet, Kee Nang's father (masquerading as a beggar) sells him a medallion. Near the end of the movie a demon tries to stab Chandler with the Ajanti Dagger and the medallion [[PocketProtector deflects the blow]].
* Averted and subverted in ''Film/GranTorino'': Creator/ClintEastwood's character threatens people with guns several times [[spoiler:but only fires a gun once, by accident and early in the movie]]. Additionally Eastwood's character in the finale [[spoiler:mimics movements that he made earlier where he pulled a gun, but he isn't carrying one at the time]], which he does for the purpose of [[spoiler:tricking the gangbangers who raped Sue into killing him and getting them all arrested for murder]].
* ''Film/TheGravedancers'': The axe being used to split firewood when Harris, Allison and Sid first arrive at the mansion. During the final confrontation, Emma summons it to her hand and uses it to go on a rampage.
* Subverted in ''Film/TheGreenHornet'' with all of the cars in the garage; the only one that ends up being driven is the Black Beauty.
* In Film/GreenLantern: Gravity's a bitch.
* In ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'', the Peltzer family keeps a shield and two swords in their living room. At least one of the swords is still a very functional weapon.
* Early in ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}'''s first film, ''Film/DeathProof'', the characters have a conversation about whether or not carrying a gun is necessary to protect oneself. Near the climax, the character who carries one shoots the BigBad with it.
* In ''Film/GrossePointeBlank'', Martin Blank is given a pen with the business details of an old schoolfriend at a reunion. He later uses this to stab a would-be assassin to death.
* In the live-action adaptation of ''Film/TheGuyver'', Fulton Balcus keeps and uses the old toaster Dr. Segawa swapped the Guyver out with. Much to his annoyance, though, it burns his toast..
* In ''Film/HangmenAlsoDie'', the bribe [[spoiler:Czaka]] pays Inspector Gruber for police protection [[spoiler:becomes additional circumstantial evidence against him after Gruber is killed by the Resistance.]]
* ''Film/TheHangover'' has several Chekhov's Guns that are used by the three friends trying to find the groom. Some are noticed immediately while others are forgotten about until later. There is the tiger that leads Mike Tyson to them, the card counting book that leads to the Chekhov's Skill, the Holocaust ring that winds up in the hands of a stripper. But probably the most important one is the [[spoiler: mattress that was thrown out of Caesar's Palace. Since the windows are locked, it could have only been thrown from the roof, where the groom is.]]
* In ''Film/HaroldAndKumarEscapeFromGuantanamoBay'', while searching a car, the titular characters come across a huge stash of pepper spray. Later in the film, after they're arrested by the FBI, they manage to escape after it's revealed that Harold managed to hide a can of pepper spray in his pants and uses it to disable their captors.
** ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'' also had a number of Chekhov's Guns. [[spoiler: For example, the cheetah is mentioned on a number of news reports before the protagonists find it, but the news reports are just treated as background noise. The hangglider on top of the car they steal from the extreme sports enthusiasts ends up being the vehicle that carries them to their final destination.]]
* ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'': Snape threatens Harry with the truth-telling potion that he later uses on [[spoiler:Moody]].
* ''Film/TheHeat'': The grenade.
* In ''Film/{{Heathers}}'', Veronica's talent for handwriting forgery is introduced early on with the prank on Big Martha.
* ''Film/TheHidden'': Early on, one policeman shows the two main characters a flamethrower he grabbed from some kids who just happened to carry one in the street. Because it has nothing to do with the scene and disappears just after, it's pretty obvious it will be used against the body-snatcher alien.
* In ''Film/{{Hook}}'', the titular captain reveals in a victory speech to his underlings that he is finally getting his revenge on the now-adult Peter Pan. Prior to kidnapping Peter's kids, Hook killed the crocodile that had been pursuing him all these years and turned it into a ClockTower. [[spoiler: It winds up killing Hook in the final battle when it's accidentally brought back to life.]]
* The Film/HomeAlone movies are full of this. Everything from gifts given, to things said, to items seen briefly in a bedroom come back in some way, shape or form.
* ''Film/HotFuzz'', aka "Chekhov's Gun: The Movie." [[ChekhovsArmoury Nearly everything seen, done, or said in the first half of the film]] becomes an important plot point in the second. Watch it twice then make a checklist. It's uncanny. The DVD feature Fuzz Facts points out every single one of them. And there are a ''lot''.
** The sea mine, [[spoiler: which ''fails'' to go off when it's first discovered in a farmer's barn ... so that it can be detonated in the police station right at the end of the movie.]]
** [[spoiler:The missing swan appears.]]
* ''Film/HouseOfTheDead'' had one girl who is blatantly pointed out as being on the fencing team. This is of absolutely no importance to the plot until the climax where the BigBad picks up a sword and a rather dull sword fight ensues.
* ''Film/HowToMurderYourWife'': If you understand Italian, you'll hear Mrs. Ford recite Stanley's ultimate plot during the couple's visit to the lawyer's office. She summarizes the plot of a recent movie starring Creator/MarcelloMastroianni: "He wanted a divorce and couldn't get one, so he murdered his wife."
* ''Film/TheHungerGames'': The mockingjay pin and [[spoiler:nightlock berries.]]
* In ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'', Jack Ryan consults with a submarine expert in his factory. One of his side projects is a "daughter-ship" mini-submarine capable of docking with other submarines. Later, the mini-submarine permits the American protagonists and the Russian defectors to commune and collaborate aboard Red October, unbeknownst to the crew adrift.
** Also the (seemingly random) introduction of 'Chef's assistant Loganov' to witness Ramius take possession of both Missile Keys. He is later revealed to be [[spoiler: TheMole for the KGB.]]
* ''Film/{{Hush}}'': The smoke detector that goes off at the beginning of the movie is used later by the protagonist to disorient her attacker.
* ''Film/{{Husk}}'': After murdering Alex, Corey tosses the [[GardeningVarietyWeapon pitchfork]] aside and walks back to the house. During the final fight, Scott realizes the pitchfork must still be lying where Corey dropped it.
* Averted in ''Film/InTheLoop''. One character keeps a live grenade in his office as a paperweight -- several other characters mention this fact, and we even get to see the grenade, but it's never in any danger of detonating.
* ''Franchise/IndianaJones'':
** In the beginning of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', when Indy finds a snake in the plane. TheArkOfTheCovenant is hidden in a giant pit filled with snakes. And then Belloq seals him in there...
** Also in ''Raiders'', Marion is first introduced as a competitive drinker who can hold massive amounts of alcohol. Later, when held captive by Belloq, she gets him drunk so she can attempt to escape.
** Early in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' Indy asks Willie to hold his gun during the car chase and she throws it out the window. Near the end he's confronted by two swordsmen, reaches for his gun and... oops!
** See also Mutt's knife in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', which was established mere minutes after we first see him, in keeping with the "greaser" persona. Too bad none of the Soviets thought it might be a good idea ''[[TooDumbToLive to search him]].''
* ''Film/IShotJesseJames'' features a literal example in the SawedOffShotgun that John Kelley always carries around with him. One scene heavily features Kelley cleaning it, and he uses it to shoot [[spoiler: Robert Ford]] in the final scene.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action J To Z]]
* ''Film/JackTheGiantSlayer'': Jack saved that one last bean... [[spoiler: and then uses it to kill Fallon at the climax.]]
* In the beginning of a ''Film/JamesBond'' film, Q briefs 007 on all the new [[ShoePhone clever gadgets]]. Not only will every single one get used at some point, but every ''aspect'' of each item will be relevant. When, for example, Q added a fingerprint recognition feature into the grip of a camera-gun, the weapon was subsequently taken by a foe and pointed at Bond. The pause while the thug fruitlessly attempted to fire the weapon gave 007 the moment he needed to dispatch him. You know that a Bond movie will never end unless every named gadget from the Q scene has either been used or deliberately written off.
** An exception to this is the film ''Film/GoldenEye'', where Q explains all the gadgets in Bond's new BMW, none of which are used at all in the film. Instead, a tank Bond spots in St. Petersburg ends up being comandeered by him.
*** This is because the BMW ProductPlacement came really late into development, so a scene using the car couldn't be created.
** This was referenced in an Creator/EddieIzzard bit where he points out that Bond never returns and says "Q, I've got a lot of stuff I didn't even fucking use!"
*** Similarly, the series itself lampshades this at one point when Q is giving Bond his set of gadgets for the film, and at the end says, "do try to bring some of it back this time..."
** An especially good example also comes from ''Film/GoldenEye'', however. At one point, Boris the hacker's nervous habit of spinning and clicking a pen in one hand while typing with the other is conspicuously shown. When combined with Q's earlier scene, in which Q introduces a pen that acts as a grenade (with three clicks arming the grenade and another three disarming it), you just ''know'' Boris will be spinning Bond's pen-grenade near the end, with explosive consequences. Sure enough ...
** ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'' both utilized and subverted this. Bond is given special "shark pellets" that are capsules full of compressed gas. He never uses them on any sharks, instead using them as a quick way of dispatching the villain by force feeding him one and making him swell up like a blimp and pop. The subversion is practically the opposite of the above ''Film/GoldenEye'' subversion example; instead of not using a gadget that has been introduced earlier, he more or less produces a gadget out of nowhere with no build-up or foreshadowing whatsoever, in this case being a miniature buzz-saw blade in his watch that he uses to saw through rope.
*** The watch has another subversion earlier, as it was introduced as a powerful magnet, which Bond tries to use to pull a metal canoe toward him when he's stranded in the middle of a bunch of alligators. After moving a few inches, the canoe is revealed to be securely tied to the shore.
** The car chase at the beginning of ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' ends when James Bond pulls out a machine gun and blasts the bad guys off a cliff. We had not seen this gun in the movie before Bond uses it... but we ''do'' see him with the gun at the end of ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'', in a scene that takes place about an hour before ''Solace'' begins.
** When exploring the car in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'', Bond accidentally finds the defibrillator that he will later have to use to treat himself when he gets poisoned.
** There's also a semi-subversion in ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'': near the beginning, 007's sum total of equipment received from Q is "a gun and a radio" (actually a "signature gun" which only Bond can fire, and a homing beacon). While 007 later uses the homing beacon in a more-or-less expected manner, the gun is never fired, though a mook does ''try'' to use it against him.
** Another bizarre example is Q's "Ultra-high frequency single-digit sonic agitator unit" in ''Film/DieAnotherDay''. It's a ring that can shatter any glass. That's it. Bond uses it twice, once to escape the bad guys, and another to rescue Jinx.
** At the beginning of ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', we see a wax figure of Bond in the villain's funhouse. At the end of the film, Bond takes the place of the dummy and is able to catch the villain off guard and kill him.
** Not involving Q, but a really horrible one. In ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'' Bond and Melina are taking a SCUBA diving break when, for no good reason at all, she takes her tanks off and ascends sharing Bond's mouthpiece. Later the two are being dragged back and forth over coral by the villain, Bond breaks the rope used to pull them, and they dive to the exact spot where they had previously left Melina's tanks. Lame!
** ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'' has the usual Q gadgets, including a remote-controlled car. It also has a whole host of gadgets that we aren't told about ahead of time, including a wire cutter underneath the BMW emblem, just in case Bond needs to sever a wire at a very specific height. Conveniently, the bad guys put a wire across Bond's path at ''exactly'' that height.
** ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' has three of them, including two of Q's devices.
*** Q gives Bond a wrist-activated dart gun that he uses to escape the gravity trainer and shoot Drax near the end.
*** Dr. Goodhead's "poison pen" (standard CIA equipment). Bond takes it in Venice and later uses to kill the python in the jungle.
*** When Bond meets Q at the Brazilian temporary HQ, one of Q's men is firing a laser rifle that's later used by the U.S space Marines assaulting Drax's orbiting station.
** ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'' has an interesting bit where a device has an ability Q specifically assigned to another device. When going over the devices, he mentions the watch was a Geiger counter Bond could use to find the stolen bombs. The camera was said to be able to take pictures under water in the dark with an infrared film. Later, Bond gives the camera to Domino and tells her it's the Geiger counter.
** ''Film/JamesBond'' examples '''other''' than Q Branch devices: In ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', the giant laser is first used as a threat to execute Bond. It is later used to cut through the outer door of Fort Knox.
* ''Film/{{Jaws}}''
** Brody accidentally pulls the wrong knot and causes an accident involving Hooper's scuba tank.
-->'''Hooper:''' [[spoiler: Dammit, Martin! This is compressed air! If you fool around with it, it'll blow up!]]
*** They are explosive if shot (in the movie, anyway). At the end the shark has one in its mouth and Brody shoots it.
*** Even better, before they leave port Brody briefly sees a * picture* of a shark with such a tank in its mouth, but only for a flash as he's flipping through a book. Blink and you'll miss it.
** During the shark's night attack on the boat Quint takes several shots at it with a rifle, the same rifle Brody uses to shoot the scuba tank at the end of the movie.
* In the 2008 film ''Film/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarthIn3D'', it was magnesium veins in the rock walls.
* ''Film/JudgeDredd''.
** When Dredd and Fergie have to escape the building after Rico kills the Council of Judges, he's forced to use the [[TheAllegedCar defective Lawmaster he demonstrated to the cadets]] as a getaway vehicle.
** Ferguson's hacking skills allow him to [[spoiler: hack and shut down the ABC during the FinalBattle]].
** There's also the signal flare feature on the Judges' gun that Dredd demonstrates to the cadets, and later uses [[spoiler: to distract Rico before throwing him off the Statue of Liberty]].
* ''Film/{{Jumper}}'' has one. Griffin makes a passing mention of how much the average jumper can jump with. About twelve minutes before the end of the film, that knowledge comes in handy to the main character.
* A couple in the ''Film/JurassicPark'' movie; a considerable number in the second novel; the most egregious being Kelly's gymnastics in [[Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark the second film]]. The frog DNA is the most consistent one across the literature and film.
** The model of the raptor voice box in the third film is one of the most straight-forward examples of this trope in any of the films.
** From the first film: When Dr. Grant is trying to intimidate the child who mocked the raptor, he mentions that he'll be attacked not by the one he sees in front of him, but by the one to the side that he doesn't see. The raptors later set up this exact trap to kill Muldoon.
** The mosasaurus in ''Film/JurassicWorld'' that's introduced early in the film doesn't seem to have much to do through most of the movie until the Indominous Rex needed eating. [[spoiler: That she eats Clare's PA during the pterosaur attack sequence cannily serves to remind the audience that she's hanging around in the lagoon for the third act of the movie.]]
* Played straight in ''Film/KickAss''. Half-way through the film, the bodyguard steals a bazooka off of a wall of guns. [[spoiler: It's used in the final scene of the movie to kill the BigBad.]]
* The church which serves as ''Film/TheKiller'''s primary place of peace and sanctuary throughout the movie is the setting of the movie's final BloodstainedGlassWindows shootout.
* In ''Film/KillerCrocodile'', two unscrupulous gentlemen attempt to destroy the evidence about barrels of radioactive toxic waste that were dumped into the river where the movie takes place. One brought dynamite for this task, but he manages to plant only one piece of it before things go south and both men end up croc-chew. Main characters pass the the explosive, but decide to deal with it later. Using dynamite to kill the crocodile in the inevitable climax ends up averted when they instead use something else that was featured prominently: the outboard motor on their boat.
* In ''Film/KingOfThieves'', Brian comments on how distinctive Ken's car (a two-toned Mercedes) is when he is using it conduct surveillance on the safety deposit building. Guess what the police home in one when studying the CCTV footage from before the robbery?
* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', ironically enough it ends up being Valentine's own Neural Chips. They're implanted in all of his men and fellow elite, and rigged to explode if they reveal his plans. Merlin hacks into his systems and sets them off.
* Viciously lampshaded by Narrator!Harry in ''Film/KissKissBangBang'': "Ooo-kay... I apologize, that was a terrible scene. It's like, why was that in the movie? ''Gee, do you think it'll come back later, maybe?'' I hate it when movies do that. TV's on, talking about the new power plant -- hm, I wonder where the big climax will happen."
* In ''Film/KissOfTheTarantula'', Nancy's airtight glass coffin ends up being shared by [[spoiler: Susan's creeper uncle, Walter.]] She stuffs him in underneath Nancy's body, after he attacked Susan and ended up paralyzed after getting shoved down a flight of stairs.
* ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'' has a well-stocked armoury:
** Hexenbane, Kaulder's sword from the prologue, comes back for the final fight against the Witch Queen.
** Glaeser's bug, controlling the Prison Sentry, activates again when [[spoiler:Kaulder, Chloe and 37th Dolan have to break into prison]], giving them some trouble.
** Witch Queen's heart, as mentioned by First Dolan in the prologue, is later used to revive her.
** The notebook 36th Dolan uses to record Kaulder's history is where the man leaves his final message.
** The three weather runes Kaulder confiscates at the start of movie's present day part are later used by him as flashbangs to blind the Witch Queen.
*** For that matter, we also get to learn why he told the young witch he took them from to never, ever, put weather runes in water.
* ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''
** When the League members first enter Dorian Gray's house, Allan Quatermain notices that one of the paintings on the wall is missing (leaving an obvious painting-shaped splotch). Anyone who knows the story of ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'' knows how important it is to Mr. Gray, but what isn't revealed until late in the movie is that the DiabolicalMastermind the Fantom [[spoiler:stole the painting to extort Dorian Gray into working for him as TheMole]].
** Anyone who watched the movie carefully enough saw all of the actions of TheMole [[spoiler:Dorian Gray]] that were later revealed to be his tricks to obtain [[spoiler: the League's super powers and Nemo's technology]].
* ''Film/LethalWeapon2'' features [[IncrediblyLamePun Chekhov's Nailgun]]. Sgt. Murtaugh is having his house expanded, and as he and Riggs go into the construction area, they hear a noise like a shot going off, hit the deck and pull out their pistols. It turns out that the construction worker was using a nail gun. "Don't you use a hammer?" "What's a hammer?" Later in the movie, Murtaugh is at home alone when he's attacked. He leads his attacker into the construction area, and uses the nail gun to kill him with one nail to the head-- and then kill a second enemy with three to the chest. "Nailed 'em both."
* ''Film/LightsOfNewYork'' has a literal gun that Eddie gives Kitty for self-defense. Later Hawk is killed with this pistol either by Kitty or by Molly who claims she had stolen it from Kitty's dressing room.
* ''Film/TheLoneRanger'': The silver bullet; Danny's slingshot.
* A fairly subtle one in ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight''. Samantha Caine slips a matchbook into her daughter's sling, so that she can keep a candle lit while her mother's away. Once Sam has her memory back and is Charly Baltimore, she and her daughter are LockedInAFreezer, where the matches (along with some gasoline) allow her to blow up the freezer door and escape.
** There's a slightly more obvious one, if only because the setup and the payoff occur closer to each other. When Samantha and Mitch are driving away with Waldman, he tells them that he carries three guns on him, including one in his crotch since males are reluctant to check that area while frisking. A few scenes later, Samantha sees Waldman's drowned corpse while she is being tortured, reaches into his pants, and pulls out that third gun. A rare case where the ChekhovsGun is a literal gun.
* ''Film/{{Looper}}'' has telekinesis, which is introduced early and dismissed as not being that big of a deal besides cheap parlor tricks. [[spoiler: Cid, the future Rainmaker, turns out to have the power to make people explode with it, crush vehicles, and flatten entire areas. Foreshadowed by his mother hiding in an old safe when Cid gets angry.]]
%%* Literally happens in ''Film/LordOfWar''.
* ''Film/TheLostBoys'':
** Early in the movie, Michael and Sam deride their grandfather's taxidermy collection. In the third act, Michael defeats David by impaling him on deer antlers from one of his grandfather's mounted animal heads.
** At one point during the movie, Grandpa is making a fence with huge wooden posts. The head vampire is killed and the day is saved when Grandpa unexpectedly crashes through a wall with his Jeep and one of the huge fence posts come flying off the hood of the vehicle, impaling the head vampire.
%%* Literally happens in ''Film/LordOfWar''.
* The rattlesnake that nearly bites Barry when he is searching for the mine in ''Film/LustForGold''. [[spoiler:During the climax, Barry is saved when a rattlesnake bites Ray as he is about to kill him.]]
* ''Film/MadMax''
** Probably the most obvious one is where Goose and the mechanic show Max the newly built Pursuit Special, meant as a means to keep him on the force. Instead he steals it for his RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
** In ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior'', an early scene establishes that Max has an anti-tampering mechanism that self-destructs his car in the event someone tries to steal it (as a way to show how ProperlyParanoid he's become). This later saves Max's life, as the thugs who ambush him and kill his dog inadvertently activate the device and blow themselves up.
** ''Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome'' has an extra-delayed-fire Chekhov's Gun. In the first movie he's a cop with the Main Force Patrol. By the second movie the MFP has ceased to exist and is never mentioned, he even loses his cop car halfway through it. In the third movie he's set to battle the gigantic Blaster. Blaster is rendered helpless by Max's MFP police whistle, since Blaster has a WeaksauceWeakness against high-pitched noises.
** ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' has the IV tubing that Nux was using to siphon blood from Max at the beginning of the film. At the end, Max uses it to save Furiosa's life after she suffered a near fatal stab wound. It also helps that Max is stated to have O-type blood, making him a universal donor.
* ''Film/ManOfSteel'':
** The Codex. [[spoiler: It turns out to be encoded in Clark's own cells, thus giving Zod a reason to kill Clark so he can extract it from his corpse.]]
** The Kryptonian spacecraft key with Jor-El's digital avatar stored on it. [[spoiler: Lois uses it to summon Jor-El while imprisoned on Zod's spaceship so that she can escape and find a way to defeat Zod.]]
** Clark's inability to control his enhanced senses as a child. [[spoiler: It turns out to be an important detail when he goes up against Zod's soldiers, who ''haven't'' had a lifetime to acclimate to their sun-enhanced abilities. The sensory overload quickly incapacitates them when their environmental suits are breached. Zod ultimately figures his abilities out, but Clark's lifetime on Earth is likely a trump card in the end.]]
** The hyperdrive on Clark's spacecraft. [[spoiler: It's made from the same technology as Zod's hyperdrive--which ''he'' made by reverse-engineering the Phantom Zone projector. With some tweaking, the military is able to use it to send Zod's soldiers back to the Phantom Zone.]]
* ''Film/TheManWhoKnewTooMuch'': The main character's wife is an ex-professional singer. Early in the film, she sings a duet with their son and he sings and whistles along. In the end, her powerful scream averts an assassination and her singing helps locate their son when he starts whistling along.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** ''Film/IronMan1'':
*** Tony Stark builds a electromagnetic device called an Arc Reactor to protect his heart, then upgrades the unit by having his secretary, Pepper, install a larger version in his chest. He tells her to throw the small unit away, but Pepper has it put in a display case for him. The miniature reactor becomes crucial later on, when [[spoiler: Obadiah Stane takes the larger reactor from Tony's chest while he's paralyzed, and he must rely on the smaller model to power his suit and his heart.]] Also, Tony's second attempt at the suit doesn't work out too well after ice builds up during a high-atmosphere flight.[[spoiler:He later uses this against the BigBad.]]
*** The giant Arc-Reactor which is mentioned in the first third of the movie, [[spoiler:then overloaded at the end to finally defeat Obadiah Stane.]] Every character, item, and detail has at least two uses in the movie. [[spoiler: "How did you solve that icing problem?"]]
** Film/IronMan2:
*** [[spoiler:Howard Stark's model of the Stark Expo and what happens when two repulsor blasts hit each other]].
*** It also contains a subversion, when we are introduced to [[spoiler:Hammer's "ex-wife" bunker-buster shell. When Rhodes tries to use it on Vanko, it proves completely worthless - after a long, dramatic charge-up sequence, the much-vaunted missile pings harmlessly off Vanko's armor and sputters on the ground like a dud firecracker]]. This includes a subversion and a straight example. [[spoiler: When Hammer is going through all the weapons he's going to add to Rhode's armor, the "ex-wife" is the only one he manufactured himself. Hammer's well established incompetence at weapons design]] is Chekhov's Gun.
*** Black Widow takes out Happy Hogan with a flipping submission move. She later uses similar attacks to take out a hallway full of Hammer Industries guards.
** A few pop up in ''Film/{{Thor}}''. Earlier, Darcy took a picture of Thor. The picture would be used later [[spoiler: on a falsified ID]]. Also, Loki taunting Heimdall [[spoiler:over secret passages that even Heimdall wasn't aware of]] would come to use when [[spoiler:Loki uses those passages to escape death and arrive to Earth]].
** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'':
*** Flipped onto the heroes in this case. Remember how the Iron Legion from ''Iron Man 3'' can be controlled by AI? Ultron did.
*** Helen Cho has invented a synthetic tissue that mimics human biology, which she uses to heal Clint. [[spoiler:The same technology is later used to construct Vision's body]].
*** Two from the previous movie (both involving Thor): the shockwave created when his hammer hits Cap's shield gets weaponized, and his thunder supercharging Tony's technology is used to [[spoiler: give life to Vision]].
*** During the final battle, Cap damages one of Ultron's drones, which Ultron is using to taunt him, and throws it off the edge of [[spoiler:the flying city]]. This drone reappears at the end, [[spoiler:damaged but still functional, as the last vessel of Ultron's consciousness. Vision caught him trying to sneak off]].
** ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''
*** At the end of ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'', Tony gifts Peter with a brand new Spider-Man costume as part of joining the Avengers, but declines it and the position. Come this film, he's wearing the suit and is part of the Avengers.
** ''Film/AvengersEndgame''
*** Back in ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'', when Peter experimented with the full functions of his Spider-Man costume, he accidentally activated its "Instant Kill" mode and quickly turned it off before it could do anything. In ''Endgame'', [[spoiler:upon coming BackFromTheDead and returning to Earth for the FinalBattle, he unleashes this mode on Thanos's mooks]].
* ''Film/{{Maverick}}''. Early in the movie Maverick practices being able to tell which card he drew out of a deck without looking at it, and mentions that the trick had never worked. Near the end he must do the same thing to win the $500,000 poker championship.
* ''Film/{{The Maze Runner|2014}}'' has the two syringes filled with blue liquid that was with Teresa when she was taken to the Glade. First, one is used to [[spoiler:save Alby after he is stung in the Maze by a Griever]], then the second is used when [[spoiler:Thomas stabs himself with a Griever stinger, in the hopes that he will remember what happened before the Maze]].
* ''Film/MedicineMan'' has a doctor in the rainforest where he believes he has found a cure for cancer in the local tribe's sugar supply after realising that the tribe had a very low cancer rate. He figures out that the tribe uses a particular plant for all of their food but he can't reproduce the cure himself. However he didn't consider that the supply could be contaminated [[spoiler: and also ignores their liking for sugar coated ''ants'']].
* ''Film/MeanGirls''
** Chekhov's big yellow school bus, rather.
** Before the talent show scene, Janis tells Cady that "everybody in the English speaking world" knows the words to the song "Jingle Bell Rock". Cady presumably used this information to save the act.
** In the sequel, the paranoid neighbor. Specifically his security cameras.
* ''Film/MenInBlack''
** The flying saucers from the first MIB meeting in 1961, converted into towers at Flushing.
** The little red button in the LTD.
** K orders J to fasten his seat belt before they go for a drive, and J lectures him about being polite. Just after K has J push the little red button he says "And you might want to put on a seat belt".
* In ''Film/{{Monsters|2010}}'', Samantha sees a TV documentary on how jellyfish attract mates with a light display. Later on she realises the giant alien is attracted to the light of a television set and turns it off.
* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''. Halfway through the film, a historian appears to summarize the next part of the plot and is murdered. Later, Arthur, Sir Bedevere, and Sir Lancelot are stopped on their quest and arrested for his murder.
** Originally they had more modern scenes planned, but ultimately focused on the grail quest for the most part. It's funnier because it comes out of nowhere, anyhow.
** Also, on the scene where they have to answer questions in order to cross the bridge, Arthur knows about swallows due to the first scene.
*** Which goes to show that, in comedy, the line between ChekhovsGun, RunningGag, and BrickJoke can become rather blurry.
* ''Film/MoonriseKingdom'': Suzy's lefty scissors seem pretty innocuous when they are first recorded in Sam's inventory.
* ''Film/MuppetTreasureIsland'': Gonzo's odd decision to keep starfish in his pants come in handy when they battle against the pirates. If people count, the fact that JustForFun/StatlerAndWaldorf are the animated, talking figureheads of the Hispaniola also counts.
** Also in ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'': The script of the movie. No, really.
** And in ''Film/TheMuppets'', there's a scene in which Gonzo gets his fingers stuck in a bowling ball [[ItMakesSenseInContext while trying to bowl a pin off Jack Black's head]]. They're still stuck until the last couple seconds of the movie, when [[spoiler:the ball flies off and beans the BigBad, giving him a brain injury and changing his personality, prompting him to sell Muppet Studios back to the Muppets]].
* ''Film/MyCousinVinny'' is loaded with examples, from Lisa's ever-present camera and her extensive knowledge of automobiles to the story of Judge Malloy and the diner cook's brief explanation of how grits are cooked.
* In ''Film/MysteryMen'', Dr. Heller's Tornado-in-a-Can was intended to be a Chekhov's Gun but ended up as a deleted scene. Rather than throw The Bowler's bowling ball into Casanova Frankenstein's machine to destroy it, they were going to throw a Tornado-in-a-Can into it in the alternate version. The effect for this can still however be seen in the theatrical release; just after they toss the bowling ball in and it does its damage you can see the green swirling smoke coming out of the hole.
* Several in ''Film/MysteryTeam'': [[spoiler: Duncan's slingshot, the firecracker, Jason being "The Master of Disguise" and Eric, just to name a few]]. Subverted with [[spoiler: Duncan and Charlie's "skills"]]
* In ''Film/TheNakedGun 2 and 1/2'', Frank uses a police tank to crash though a house, a gated community, and a zoo. Much later, Frank wrestles Quentin Habsburg till Quentin accidentally falls out of a window. He plummets several stories before landing on a canopy and bouncing to the ground unscathed . . . where he is then mauled by a lion presumably from the zoo.
** In a movie like this one its surprising they actually set that gag up as opposed to just having it randomly happen for no reason.
* ''[[Film/{{Neighbors 2014}} Neighbors]]'': The fireworks [[spoiler: Kelly and Mac use these to eventually get the cops attention]].
* ''Nightlight'' (2015): Robin straps a support-splint onto her ankle while changing her shoes in preparation for hiking in the woods. [[spoiler: It later prevents the BearTrap from breaking her ankle outright, although she's left bloodied and limping for a while.]] Also, Robin and Nia find a note in another teen's backpack that includes a reminder to watch out for rattlesnakes. Three guesses what Robin has a close call with not long after...
* ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'': The rabbit trick that the Horsemen perform in their second show.
** Just about everything they're shown doing that isn't part of their shows is setting up for one of them or outwitting the police. That bit where Daniel tries (and fails) reading Tressler? [[spoiler: Clever ploy to get the answer to his security questions on his bank account.]]
** [[spoiler: "I can tell he has abandonment issues. Mommy? No, daddy."]]
* ''Film/{{Oblivion 2013}}''
** Jack's recurring dream about a viewfinder on the Empire State Building. [[spoiler: It's where the [[CloningBlues original]] Jack Harper proposed marriage to Julia.]]
** The fact that the Scavs [[spoiler: LaResistance]] have been stealing drone power cores.
** The fact that lightning strikes force electronics (such as the Bubble Ship's [[spoiler: and the drones']]) to reboot if struck while flying.
** The constant reminding to MissionControl to please send parts and armor to repair the drone on Tower 49, which it keeps disregarding. [[spoiler: Julia's BigDamnHeroes SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome later on is also a good example of WorfHadTheFlu because of it.]]
** The missing drone mentioned at the beginning. [[spoiler: It was captured by LaResistance, but it's intended use to carry a nuke to the Tet ends up [[SubvertedTrope sadly subverted]].]]
** The Bubble Ship and the drones using voice recognition to identify Jack. The latter comes in use when Jack first rescues Julia from the crashed "Odyssey" (since they're programmed to not shoot him). [[spoiler: As for the former... as Jack discovers, all that it's necessary to use another clone's ship is to change the Tech operator number you say for ID, which comes in handy [[HeroStoleMyBike because he needs to use it to save Julia's life after she's accidentally shot]].]]
** The "Odyssey"'s flight recorder. [[spoiler: And its nuclear reactor core.]]
** The Scav communications equipment that Jack deactivates on the ruins of the Empire State Building. And the building itself.
** The fact that the drones can track Jack's DNA comes back to bite the ass of LaResistance during the final act.
** When Jack first reports about finding Julia to MissionControl, Sally says that she would be interested in meeting her. [[spoiler: during the TrojanPrisoner gambit, Jack mentions this back to Sally to be allowed into the ship.]]
** When Jack first starts checking the wreckage of the crashed "Odyssey", he opens a HumanPopsicle capsule which is empty, and when the Scavs [[spoiler: LaResistance]] arrive, you can see them taking that capsule. It becomes pretty important later on [[spoiler: as the capsule Julia goes in thinking she and Jack will do the TrojanPrisoner gambit and Jack then transports to his cabin, where she will be safe. The capsule is labeled "J. Harper"--it belonged to her (real) husband.]]
** A minor one: when Jack first disables the communications equipment on the Empire State, he takes a [[Film/KingKong gorilla]] plushie that was on the room and puts it among his collection of scavenged stuff. [[spoiler: Julia's child is seen playing with it on the movie's epilogue.]]
* At the start of ''Film/{{Oculus}}'', we watch as Kaylie set up various fail-safe measures to destroy the mirror, which can change the perception of the lead characters. One of these is a kill-switch attached to an anchor, not being run by electricity and on a straight path so the mirror is unable to influence it. [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding Then she is tricked into walking in front of it as her brother flips the switch, leaving him to blame for her death]].]]
* In the animated movie ''WesternAnimation/OnceUponAForest'', early on in the movie the animals are told by their teacher that a certain part of the forest is off limits, but says that the reason why is "not today's lesson". Pan across to reveal a trap. This is promptly forgotten...until the very end of the movie, when Edgar the Mole gets caught in it while trying to evade some humans doing cleanup after the gas damaged the forest. One of them frees Edgar, smashes the trap, throws it in the garbage bag, and proves to the animals that perhaps (contrary to dire warnings throughout the movie) [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans aren't exclusively destructive monsters.]] Not bad as environmentalist messages go.
* ''Film/TheOppositeOfSex'': Dedee is shown packing a gun, and helpfully informs the audience, "This is foreshadowing. Duh!". And despite the fact that she toys with being an UnreliableNarrator, it does get used later on. Twice.
* ''Film/OurManFlint''. Early in the movie Flint is woken up from suspended animation by his watch. Later on when Flint is apparently dead, the watch wakes him up again - he was just in suspended animation.
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Outbreak}}''. The soldiers begin rounding up infectees in the quarantined small town, and we get to see only one woman say a tearful goodbye to her family. We follow her for a few minutes while they take a blood sample during her initial medical exam. There is even a close up of the phial, labeled "Sample 612". In a later scene, we see a scientist examining blood slides:
--> '''Scientist''': "Sample 607: Infected. 608: Infected. 609: Infected. * Frustrated sigh* They can't ''all'' be infected. 610... Infected. 611...''Infected''. 612... Damn! Still infected!"
* ''Film/PacificRim'':
** [[spoiler:Gipsy Danger is nuclear powered.]]
** [[spoiler:Chau uses his knife three times: once to intimidate Geiszler, once to check whether Otachi Jr. is dead, and once more to cut his way out of its stomach.]]
** Though it's not explicitly noted, [[spoiler:the fact that the {{Kaiju}} can tell Newt linked up with one of their brains from the far side of the rift indicates that it's possible for signals to pass through it. This comes in useful when mission control needs to keep monitoring Gipsy Danger's progress.]]
** [[spoiler:Raleigh's ability to pilot a Jaeger solo, which he does to finally deliver the final blow.]]
* ''Film/{{Paddington}}'':
** The sandwich Paddington keeps under his hat for emergencies comes very handy when he needs to get out of a jam.
%% ** The pigeons.
%% ** [[spoiler:The handheld vacuums]].
* [[spoiler:Ofelia's red shoes]] in ''Film/PansLabyrinth'' are forgotten about halfway through the film, only to suddenly reappear at the end. They don't really ''do'' anything, they are just a part of the [[ViewersAreGeniuses elaborate system of clues]] that let the viewer know the truth about what happens--[[spoiler:[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Shoes_(fairy_tale) red shoes]] are associated with TheFairFolk, as is Ofelia's all-green outfit, for that matter.]]
** The bottle of sleeping medicine Ofelia's mother was given would count. At first, it seems completely unnecessary since [[spoiler:Ofelia helps her mother to get better with the mandrake root. At the end of the movie though, she uses it to drug her stepfather and escape with her brother.]]
** Mercedes' belt on her robe early on is revealed to have a [[VictoriasSecretCompartment hidden compartment]] where she stores her kitchen knife. The camera focused on it for too long for it to not be of any importance. As it turns out, later she is tied to a chair by the BigBad, and when his back is turned, she retrieves the knife, cuts herself free, and in a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome slices open his cheek before making her escape.
* Happens twice in ''Film/{{Papillon}}''. First on the boat to French Guiana, where Papillon displays his pocket knife, which later is used by Papillon to defend Louis from two robbers. Later, when Papillon, Louis and Clusiot have escaped their captivity, Papillon is shown putting an axe in the back of his pants. The same axe is later used to kill an officer.
* ''Film/PaulBlartMallCop'' has several, including the "Devil's Crotch" hot sauce and the StalkerWithACrush using GPS to track a cell phone.
* ''Film/{{Paulie}}'' has the bookmark labelled "M.A."
* Film/{{Paycheck}} has the main character ending up with his memory wiped after working on a top secret project [[spoiler: involving seeing the future]] and then finding out that his pre-memory wipe self sent his post-memory wipe self an entire ChekhovsArmory full of random, seemingly useless crap to keep himself alive when things go south. Perhaps the most JustForFun/{{Egregious}} gun in the armory, though, is a digital watch that doesn't work that seems to serve no practical purpose even within the armory [[spoiler: until it beeps and reads "GO" when the main character happens to find himself on a catwalk with a gun pointed at him.]]
* In ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'', Pee-Wee buys several strange items at the magic shop at the beginning of the movie, including a boomerang bowtie. However, it is only used in a deleted scene, whereas most of the other items do get used in the movie.
* In ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief]]'', the protagonists find a fountain full of Gold Drachma's when looking for the first Pearl of Persephone. Later on, when they meet Charon, guess what they have to bribe him with?
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'':
** Subverted early in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl first film]] -- a decorative shield-and-swords hangs over a fireplace in the governor's mansion in the grand swashbuckling fashion. When Elizabeth later goes to draw one of the swords to defend herself against invading pirates, she ends up pulling the whole thing down off the wall by accident -- the swords are firmly attached to the shield and ''won't come loose''.
*** Played straight with Elizabeth's bedwarmer; she uses it to dump hot coals on the pirates invading her room.
** It's played straight in the same movie: Norrington mocks Jack's pistol (with only one shot) and compass (that's apparently broken); the pistol has symbolic importance and the compass proves important not only to the first movie but to the sequels as well.
** An interesting one comes in the form of the sword Will forged for Norrington. At the end of the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third film]], Will is killed with this sword.
** Ragetti's wooden eye seems to just be comic relief, until it turns out to be one of the Pieces of Eight.
*** Jack's own Piece of Eight is debatable, being present in the first two movies before the sequels were even written.
** But the ultimate example, as far as the time between when we are shown the gun and when it is fired, are the barrel-pin hinges commonly used in jail cells of the period. In the first film, Will shows Jack how simple it is to unseat these hinges, thereby opening a jail cell door. In the third film, Jack recognizes that the hinges on the brig of the ''Flying Dutchman'' to be barrel-pin hinges, and is thus able to escape with ease because of Will's explanation from the first film.
** Subverted again with the jar of dirt from the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest second movie]]. Jack ends up wasting it.
** The knife Bootstrap Bill gives to Will is the same one that he uses to carve out his heart after Davy Jones is killed.
* In ''Film/{{Pixels}}'':
** The glasses Eddie always has on him [[spoiler:has Pac-Man and Donkey Kong cheat codes inscribed on them.]]
** The Chewbacca mask Bill has won as a child [[spoiler:is later used by him to sneak out of the White House.]]
* In ''Film/PoisonIvy'', Chekhov's Gun takes the form of a melancholy piano piece the heroine, Sylvie, composes and records for her mother as a birthday present, which the latter plays as she supposedly jumps to her death. Soon after, [[FilleFatale Ivy]] convinces Sylvie to take a ride with her in her mother's old sportscar as a final goodbye. As they drive, Ivy absently begins to hum the tune, leading Sylvie to realize Ivy was present when her mother died...
* ''Film/ThePresidentsAnalyst'' is soon being pursued by intelligence agents of every country out to capture him. In New York's Chinatown, an agent chasing him gets stuck in a phone booth which has a logo reading "TPC", which shows up several other places, like on a maintenance truck in suburbia and a wheelbarrow on the White House lawn - late in the movie, the analyst gets stuck in a phone booth [[spoiler: which is pulled up and hauled off, with him in it, to the headquarters of TPC - The Phone Company.]]
* Chekhov's ''lack'' of a gun in ''Film/ThePresidentsLastBang''. Chief Bodyguard Cha refuses his underling's suggestion to carry a gun to the party, saying that President Park doesn't like the sight of guns when he's drinking and relaxing. This later leaves him defenseless when Director Kim comes in shooting.
* Before the makeover scene in ''Film/ThePrincessDiaries'' Paolo refuses to sign the confidentially agreement because, in his own words, 'I know how to keep a secret'. [[spoiler: When Mia goes to school a few days later, paparazzi are swarming all over the place, which Paolo admits to being responsible for, for the sake of pride.]]
* ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' makes a point of showing the audience a rather pricey Automated Surgical Unit that can perform almost any kind of emergency surgery, including complex operations [[spoiler: which is later used by Shaw to perform an emergency cesarean on herself, after having been infected by Holloway.]]
** Also telling that, [[spoiler: when she asks the machine for a cesarean section, the machine replies that it is not programmed for that, and she has to guide it through the procedure. Why would the female bankroller of the operation have a medical machine in her quarters not programmed for female anatomy? Because the machine is for the male head of the Weyland Corporation, who everyone else thinks is dead.]]
* ''Film/{{Rambo}}''. The Tallboy Bomb.
* ''Film/RedEye'' has a few examples of this:
** One of the framed photographs on the mantelpiece in the opening sequence depicts [[ActionGirl Lisa playing hockey]], which becomes relevant much later during the climax.
** The Baybreeze/Seabreeze conversation at the bar, which initially seems like an irrelevant flirting scene, but isn't
** The novelty pen that [[spoiler:Lisa later uses to [[ImprovisedWeapon stab Rippner in the throat]].]]
* ''Film/RedHill'': The Aboriginal weaponry on display in the window of the information centre. It sits there in plain view for most of the movie, appearing to be nothing more than a demonstration of Red Hill's racial insensitivity. [[spoiler:Until Jimmy steals the weapons and uses them to silently murder Willy and Manning]].
* ''Film/RepoMen'', which begins in media res, shows Jude Law's character using a typewriter. Shortly after the film catches up to this scene, it's used to crush someone's skull.
* The peyote the pilot gives Richard when they land at the house in ''Film/Revenge2017''. Jen later uses it to kill the pain when she performs SelfSurgery.
* Every single one of Professor Keenbean's inventions in the 1994 ''Film/RichieRich'' film.
* Near the opening of the Creator/JohnWayne movie ''Film/RioBravo'', Sheriff Chance directs an incoming wagon train to park outside of town (and near the BigBad's land) because its cargo contains dynamite he wants away from the jailhouse. Naturally, at the end of the movie, the big shootout happens in the same location.
* In the 1963 movie ''The Sadist'' one of the characters is scared by a [[spoiler: snake skin she mistook for a rattlesnake]], this doesn't have any significance till later [[spoiler: towards the end where the main villain of the movie is killed by falling into a pit full of rattlesnakes]].
* In ''Film/{{Salt}}'' starring Creator/AngelinaJolie, there was a brief scene where she took some venom from a spider, putting it into a needle. [[spoiler: We find out that she used it to temporarily render the Russian Prime Minister unconscious and paralyzed, giving the illusion that she shot and killed him.]]
* The wild boar tooth fitted with an LED that Frank gives to his son Josh in ''Film/{{Sanctum}}''. With no other light source, Josh uses the special torch to light his way as he swims to freedom at the end of the film.
* In the beginning of ''Film/SawI'', we see a key get sucked down the drain of the tub that Adam awakens in. We later learn that that [[spoiler: this was the key to the shackles he and Lawrence are in.]]
* ''Film/ScarecrowSlayer'': When they first sneak into the field to steal the scarecrow, Dave and Karl pass a large piece of agricultural machinery. One of them comments that it looks like a giant shredder. Guess what plays an important part in the final battle?
* In ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'', after the battle with [[spoiler: the Katayanagi Twins, Scott picks up an extra life, which would be used at the end when he is killed by Gideon.]]
* Teased and subverted in ''Film/SecretHonor''. At the start of the movie, former President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon takes out a pistol in his study and makes sure that it's loaded. By the end, he's waved it around a bit, but not fired it.
* ''Film/{{Serenity}}''. Captain Mal orders Jayne not to take any grenades when they go to rob the payroll shipment. During the robbery the Reavers attack and Jayne sarcastically points out how nice it would be to have grenades available. Late in the movie the Reavers attack again and Mal asks Jayne if he brought any grenades. Jayne just pulls open his coat and shows him the grenades he's wearing.
** Jayne's comment that it "sure would be nice to have some grenades, HUH" is a hybrid lampshade/inversion at the time.
* The music conservatory in ''Film/ASongIsBorn'' contains Chekhov's Drum. Early in the film, the drum falls while the professors are playing The Anvil Chorus. Later, they get the idea to literally get the drop on one of the mooks by making it resonate and fall again.
* The ''Film/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' movie does this in a kind of creepy way. In the Wide Window segment, Aunt Josephine explains her various paranoias about using household appliances. As unrealistic as these fears sound at the time, they all happen for real when the house starts to fall off the cliff.
** Some of these include a doorknob that could shatter into a thousand pieces (which it did by becoming super-heated), a fridge that could fall on someone (nearly falling on the siblings as the house began to tumble) and the radiator, which might explode. Her fear of the Lake Lachrymose and the Lachrymose leeches can also count, too, because she ends up [[spoiler: falling in the lake and getting eaten by them.]]
** The series also had a tendency to introduce the strange things in the various settings, having them be useful or significant later. Usually this was out of necessity (Violet using things like the crabs in the Orphan Shack to make a gadget they needed), but other things like horseradish, the Incredibly Deadly Viper, the Quagmire's notebooks, the Snow Scout masks, and the harpoon all are significant later in their books (or the entire series).
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Se7en}}''. All through the movie we get to see Detective Summerset show exceptional skill with a switchblade, particularly with throwing it. At one point, his partner, Detective Mills even calls attention to the fact that he even has one on him at all. However, he gets almost no practical use out of it unless you count opening boxes and cutting evidence tape.
* A perfect example of Chekhov's Gun can be found in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead''. While getting drunk in the [[MyLocal Winchester]], Shaun and Ed discuss whether the gun behind the counter is real. Later, while dealing with a rather unexpected [[ZombieApocalypse zombie problem]], they discover that the gun is in fact genuine.
* ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'' uses the trope masterfully when a simple poster of Rita Hayworth, requested for his cell by Andy Dufresne, turns out to be [[spoiler: the means by which Andy was covering up his escape tunnel]]
** Really, the whole ending was an entire movie's worth of Chekov's Guns going off one after another in rapid-fire succession. [[spoiler: The rock-hammer he asked Red for? Used to dig a tunnel. The Bible the warden gave him? Hollowed out to hide his rock hammer. The poster he got from Red? Hid the tunnel. The fake identity he used t launder the warden's money? He used it to steal the money to fund his new life, while also exposing the warden]]. Andy was way more of a MagnificentBastard then you would initially believe.
* ''Film/{{Signs}}'' has a few. Which was precisely the point of the movie. Everything happens for a reason.
** Merrill's baseball bat. His basebaal career is discussed throughout the film, and his dead sister in law's last words were about swinging it hard. [[spoiler: It saves the family from the aliens.]]
** Bo leaves abandoned glasses of water in the house everywhere because she's afraid of germs. [[spoiler:The water is poison for the aliens]]
** Morgan's asthma. [[spoiler: He didn't breathe in the poisonous gas.]]
* In ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', Dr. Chilton warns Clarice not to leave anything in Hannibal Lecter's cell and mentions several objects, among other pens. He himself leaves one there, and there is a long shot of it. He later cannot find it for signin a document. Hannibal Lecter is then seen with a part of it in hands... [[spoiler:He unlocks the cuffs with it and can kill his guards.]]
* The 2004 Hong Kong film ''Silver Hawk'' (no, no relation to [[WesternAnimation/SilverHawks these guys]]) has the titular heroine's LoveInterest, a cop who's ironically chasing her masked alter ego, displaying a very weird martial arts stance that dates back to their childhood days in martial arts training (shown via flashbacks): he'd raise his arms above his head, then bring them down slowly to his sides with the hands still pointing upward, while sucking in his stomach and making growling noises--only to frequently get [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments punched in the face for his trouble]]. [[spoiler:Turns out it's a core-strengthening stance that allows him to take a MegatonPunch from the BigBad's cybernetic fist with no ill-effects]].
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow''. The two metal tubes that Polly Perkins received from Dr. Jennings. They turn out to be [[spoiler:the human DNA Dr. Totenkpf need to complete his plan]].
* ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' - much like ''Live and Let Die'', Bond receives a gun with a palm-scanner that only he can fire. When an enemy gets his hands on it, Bond just says "Good luck with that" and leaves him to [[spoiler: get dragged off by a komodo dragon]]. Then there's the knives from the siege at the climax...
%% * ''Film/SkyHigh2005'':
%% ** More like Chekhov's Pacifier - technically, it's an actual gun ''called'' the Pacifier.
%% ** The business card of Ron Wilson, Bus Driver.
* ''Film/{{Slither}}'':
** Subverted. A grenade is shown in the police station's gun cabinet, and a minor character explains what it's doing there. The main character goes back for it, planning to use it to blow up the BigBad. During the climax, the Big Bad knocks it out of his hand, twice, and it finally explodes uselessly in a swimming pool.
** Kylie's nails are discussed during dinner with her family for some reason, later they save her by being able to stab the worm and pull it out of her mouth.
* In ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire'', as soon as we see the flashback where [[spoiler:Jamal mentions he doesn't know the name of the third musketeer]], we know that it will be the final question on ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire''.
* An interesting subversion is in ''Film/SnakeEyes'', where the huge ball that has been lying on the ground for most of the movie doesn't roll over anyone (read: Gary Sinise). However, this was only because test audiences didn't like the originally-planned ending in which it ''does'' roll over Sinise.
* ''Film/{{Sneakers}}''
** After the team steals the black box, they have a party to celebrate. During the party they talk about what they're going to do with the money they'll be paid: Crease wants a vacation with his wife, Mother plans to buy a Winnebago, Whistler wants peace on Earth, etc. At the end of the film they demand certain things from the NSA in return for the box: the same things they had mentioned at the party.
** The murder of [[spoiler: Janek is later tied to the murder of Gregor by "an anonymous tip" as seen in a newscast]].
** Mother's shell case for the Little Black Box that he gives Martin to use as "practice" for the recovery of the Black Box from Cosmo's office. [[spoiler:Martin uses it to trick Cosmo at the end.]]
* In one scene in ''Anime/SonicTheHedgehogTheMovie'', Dr Eggman lets off a missile in the shape of a tortoise; it moves so slowly that it is of very little use to him in the fight. At the end of the film, after Eggman's clone of Sonic is destroyed, he announces that he still has Sonic's DNA and he can make another clone; at this point the tortoise re-enters shot and explodes, destroying the data disk.
* The title of ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''. It's inevitable that somewhere along the line the title character will cast an ill-advised spell on some brooms and hilarity will ensue.
* In ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'', the fortune cookie Yogurt gives Lonestar contains his translation of the OrphansPlotTrinket that Lonestar has carried his whole life.
* In ''Film/TheSpanishPrisoner'', there are usually groups of camera-wielding Japanese tourists in the background, and their presence is noted by the characters. At the end, the protagonist is on a ferry with two villains about to kill him. He appeals to the only other passengers, two of the ubiquitous tourists. They're actually US Marshals, have been staking him out the whole time, and arrest the villains. Virtually ''everything in the movie'' is a ChekhovsGun. Watch it five times and you'll still be noticing new ones.
* Subverted slightly in ''Film/SpeedRacer''. Speed is presented with the modified Mach 5, with 7 different gadgets for him to use. While 6 of them come in handy, the last one is never used, apparently only being included because it was there in the original anime version. The last one remaining unused is fitting, since it was very rarely used in the show and often didn't work right.
* In ''Film/SpyGame'', Agent Nathan Muir receives a framed award for his service, signed by the Director himself. At the climax of the film, [[spoiler:he breaks it open and uses the signature to forge a directive]].
* ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''
** Early in the film Spock appears using [[JetPack Jet Boots]] to fly. Later in the film, when he, Kirk and [=McCoy=] need to travel up a long turbolift shaft he dons the same boots and uses them to fly the whole group up to the top of the shaft.
** Klingon Captain Klaa shoots an old Earth space probe with one of the cannons of his Bird of Prey. Late in the movie, Spock uses the same weapon to shoot "God" and save Captain Kirk from an early grave.
* Subverted in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'' which the opening lines are (now) Captain Sulu dictating the Captain's Log that his ship USS Excelsior has just completed cataloging gaseous and planetary anomalies in the Beta Quadrant. But, at the end of the film Uhura mentions that the USS Enterprise also just happens to be carrying a load of equipment for cataloging gaseous anomalies which turns out to be handy in [[spoiler: tracking and destroying the BigBad.]]
** Shatner purportedly complained that Kirk and the Enterprise wouldn’t need to be saved. So, late in filming the gaseous cataloging equipment was swapped from the Excelsior to the Enterprise. So, in effect- at the start of the film Chekhov’s gun is mentioned to be on the Excelsior. At the end of the film an exact duplicate is fired from the Enterprise.
* ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'':
** Harrison's blood, used to save a comatose girl in the film's opening, also gets used [[spoiler:to revive a dead Tribble and then save Kirk in the film's ending]].
** The 72 advanced torpedoes, which get used to threaten Harrison [[spoiler:and later disable the ''Vengeance''.]]
** Chekhov's Chekov, when Ensign Chekov is assigned to Engineering and manages to be in just the right place to rescue Kirk and Scotty and help save the day. This is the only time in the franchise so far that this trope applies to the character Chekov.
* ''Film/SouthlandTales'': The ground-to-air missile, which is used to destroy the Mega-Zeppelin the climax, [[KillEmAll killing most of the main characters]], including the DecoyProtagonist Boxer Santoros. Also [[spoiler:all that other stuff that made no sense]].
* In ''Film/StayTuned'', Roy's fencing swords from Junior College (mentioned early in the movie) are used to save his life in the climax, when he needs a sword to fight Mr. Spike.
* In ''Film/StepsTroddenBlack,'' Ryan's phone falling out of his pocket [[spoiler: before he is killed]] and Oliver picking it up is given a lot of attention. The creature later uses the phone to pick up Oliver's scent.
* In the Creator/WillFerrell movie ''Film/StrangerThanFiction'' his actions are being dictated by a writer controlling his life. The author mentions his watch repeatedly throughout the film. It turns out that the writer intended to have him be hit by a bus, breaking the watch and having a shard of the face cut through an artery and killing him, due to him accidentally having his watch set early. The writer, upon learning that she's killing a real man, rewrites the ending so that the fragment of the watch sticks ''in'' the artery, ''stopping'' him from death by watch. It makes the ending less ironic than the ending she planned, but oh-so-heartwarming.
* In ''Film/StrawDogs'', David and Amy Sumner get [[spoiler:trapped in their own house surrounded by Charlie Venner and his boys]]. While setting traps, they quickly set a [[spoiler:bear trap. After David uses many other objects and tactics he ends up in a fist fight with David who is the only one left moving. After Charlie has nearly killed David but doesn't kill him which is his intention WhyIsntItAttacking, he proceeds to mock Amy, only for David to (expectedly) kill him with the bear trap]] that they spent so long earlier preparing.
* In ''Film/SunsetBoulevard'' - the swimming pool. The following is not even a spoiler, technically, but: [[spoiler:the audience knows from the start that the victim is found dead in the swimming pool, and attention is drawn to the swimming pool throughout the film - the victim even goes so far as to obligingly turn on the pool lights, really to make his own death scene play better for the cameras! - and STILL it is a surprise ending...]]
* In ''Film/SupermanII'', Kal shows Lois the green crystal that built the Fortress of Solitude. She later leaves it lying on the seat when he calls her to dinner, the camera lingering on it for a second or two. After Kal uses the Red Crystal chamber to turn into Clark permanently, he soon regrets it. When he makes it back to the Fortress, the green crystal starts glowing again, almost saying "Hey! I'm over here!!"
* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros'', a Bob-omb is activated near the end and walks around harmlessly for a long time, only to come to rest and explode under the BigBad at the climax.
** The Bob-omb was actually introduced earlier and wasn't shown again until that point.
* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'':
** Michelangelo's "Buck-Buck" game [[spoiler: which actually comes in handy during the final battle with Shredder.]]
** Eric mentions the regenerative powers of the mutagen in his conversation with April. [[spoiler: These properties are what save Raphael and Splinter.]]
** The 'Hashi' punishment Splinter puts the turtles through [[spoiler: becomes more of a training exercise for when they have to hold up the tower near the end of the film, with Shredder beating on Leo to try and make him break focus. Good thing he didn't have a cheese pizza on hand.]]
* In ''Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny'' the main character has to exercise to do "cock pushups", which comes in handy later on.
* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}''
** ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''.
*** John Connor has a laptop computer that determines [=ATM=] [=PINs=]. It [[PasswordSlotMachine comes in handy later on]] when he needs to open a safe with an [=ATM=] style locking system.
*** When the protagonists need to steal a car the Terminator rips open the steering column in order to start the engine. John pulls down the sun blind and a set of keys drops down. John asks the Terminator "Are we learning yet?" Later on when the Terminator is trying to steal the SWAT van he's about to use force again, remembers what he learned earlier and pulls down the sun blind. The van's keys fall down.
** ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines''
*** Relatively early in the film, we are informed that [[spoiler:Ahnold runs on a pair of nuclear power cells that violently explode if damaged]]; the one he discards after a firefight explodes with enough force to create a mushroom cloud. At the end of the film, [[spoiler:he takes out his other one, stuffs it into the T-X's mouth and uppercuts the T-X, crushing the cell between its jaws]]. Boom.
** ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' details a method for crippling the [=T-600s=]. It too comes in handy later on.
* The store of dynamite Bat keeps in his cabin In ''Film/TheTerrorOfTinyTown''. He tell one of his {{mook}}s not to smoke next to it. At the end of the film, [[WomanScorned Nita]] [[spoiler:uses it to blow Bat to kingdom come]].
* ''Film/TheatreOfDeath'': The TrapDoor in the stage which is used in the voodoo sketch to simululate a stabbing plays a vital rule in the story's resolution. [[spoiler:Nicole is hiding beneath the stage and is fatally stabbed when the spear is thrust through the TrapDoor.]]
* ''Film/ThingsChange'': A mobster gives Jerry a quarter and tells him that if he should ever need help to give him a call. At the end of the film, when things look their darkest, Jerry pulls a quarter from his pocket and announces that he's going to make a phone call.
* The C4-rigged foam footballs in ''Film/ThreeKings'' prove to be very helpful at the climax.
* ''Film/TotalRecall1990''.
** The hologram wristwatch that Quaid finds in the briefcase is later used to defeat some of Cohaagen's troops.
** The [[DrillTank drilling machine]] appears twice while Benny is driving Quaid to the Last Resort. Later on several break into rebel headquarters and Benny tries to kill Quaid using one.
* In ''Film/TrainingDay'', Hoyt comes across two drug addicts trying to rape a teenage girl. He fights them off, and later picks up the girl's wallet. [[spoiler: Later in the movie, Alonzo hires some gangbangers to kill Hoyt. They are about to execute him when they find the girl's wallet in his pocket. The girl he saved was the cousin of one of the gangbangers, and they let him go.]]
* ''Film/{{Transcendence}}'': The copper Faraday cage Will installs to keep cell phones from working in his and Evelyn's garden [[spoiler:also protects a single sample of the Transcendence {{Nanomachines}} from Max's shutdown virus.]]
* The second ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movie does this in reverse, with the more significant use coming before the minor appearance. Part of the plan for getting into a museum involved tasers; Sam's college roommate, who was dragged along more or less by accident, showed his incompetence by shocking himself with one and becoming completely paralyzed. The tasers were then forgotten. Later, the same roommate was freaking out in the back of the car, and wouldn't stop until he was shocked into unconsciousness.
** The first had an example that perfectly fits the Chekhov heading quote: the camera shows a motorcycle in the ground. 5 minutes later, Capt. Lennox rides it to attack a Decepticon.
*** And [[spoiler:the glasses Sam tries to auction off on ebay.]]
*** As an example of ChekhovsHobby, it is stated that Mikaela had a criminal record for helping her dad steal cars. In TheClimax, she uses this knowledge to hotwire a tow truck when Bumblebee is seriously injured.
* ''Film/TrickRTreat'': The candy bar Mr. Keeg takes a single bite out of and tosses away. It later [[spoiler:[[PocketProtector stops Sam from stabbing him]] and becomes an accidental offering to Sam]].
* The flamethrower that Cody was testing early in ''Film/TropicThunder'' was really helpful against the enemy in the final action scene.
** to a lesser extent [[spoiler: the Tivo box used to stop the RPG round aimed at the helecopter.]]
* From Wolfgang Petersen's ''Film/{{Troy}}'': Briseis's virginity. Established early for the sole purpose of ensuring that Creator/BradPitt takes it later.
* In ''Film/TurnerAndHooch'', attention is drawn to the fact that Turner always buckles his seat belt and refuses to start his car unless all of his passengers are also buckled up. This comes in handy when a crook takes him hostage while in the passenger seat. Turner rams the car into a lamp post, causing the crook to fly out of the windshield because he didn't buckle up.
* ''Film/TwoHands'' combines a Chekhov's gun and a Chekhov's gunman - both are literal, but the gunman uses a different gun. A gun fails to fire twice, first in the middle of the film and then again at the end, because the thug it belongs to put it through the wash. The first time allows the protagonist to escape execution by Pando's men. The second time [[spoiler: it costs the thug his life when the boy from early in the film guns down Pando and his men]].
* In the ZombieApocalypse {{comedy}}-{{western}} flick ''Film/UndeadOrAlive'', a Native American woman named Sue remembers a legend stating that the zombification curse can be removed by consuming the living flesh of the person who placed it in the first place. Since that person, her uncle, is dead, this information is brushed off as useless. Once the other two protagonists become infected near the end, however, it comes into play as they realize that Sue herself would count as her uncle's "still living flesh." This doesn't turn out so well for Sue.
* The 2005 action-comedy flick ''Film/{{Underclassman}}'' has the main character (played by Nick Cannon), a young undercover cop at a preppy private school, taking after-school language lessons from the school's [[HotTeacher Spanish teacher]] (played by Creator/RoselynSanchez of ''Series/WithoutATrace'' fame). This later comes in handy during the final confrontation with the BigBad, who's got her in a tense hostage situation [[spoiler:when the protagonist informs her in Spanish that the bullets in his gun are rubber bullets and that they'll sting, following which he shoots her to free her from the BigBad's grasp]].
* ''Film/UndercoverBrother'' has several.
** In the introduction there's file footage of James Brown. Later on James Brown appears AsHimself, but turns out to be [[spoiler: Undercover Brother in disguise]].
** When Undercover Brother first drives his car we see the two black pool balls hanging from the rear-view mirror. This sets up the later joke where Undercover Brother refers to his "big, black, fuzzy balls".
** Several times during the movie Undercover Brother tells people "Don't touch the 'fro" (his Afro hairdo). This anticipates his BerserkButton being set off later on by Mr. Feather cutting off part of his hair.
* ''Film/UpstreamColor'': An early scene reveals that Kris has a pistol in her home. We see it a few more times before the end, when [[spoiler:she uses it to kill the Sampler]].
* In ''Film/VanHelsing'', in the scene where Carl shows Van Helsing his diverse gadgets one is a small glass globe with some weird things inside that produces sun-like light. This comes in handy when they have to escape from hordes of vampires in the masquerade ball.
* ''Film/TheVillain'': A literal example. Handsome has [[spoiler: a seven-shot six shooter,]] which is established early on with a bit of dialog. At one point later, Cactus Jack [[spoiler: empties the bullets from the gun onto a table while counting them.]] Then, assuming the gun is now unloaded, [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shoots himself.]]
* ''Film/{{Waiting}}'': There's a part where Ramirez is showing Mitch the rules and general "moves" in "The Game". The last move he lists is treated like somewhat of a LimitBreak by him as he talks about it before the scene cuts to something else before we see what it entails. [[spoiler: Guess what Mitch uses in his SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.]]
* In ''Walking Tall,'' the main character returns to his hometown after some time away in the military, only to learn that the local saw-mill--the town's primary source of income when he was young--has been shut down, with a casino now bringing in revenue for the citizens. Of course, he gradually learns that drugs are being peddled out of the casino, but he's basically told that nothing can be done about it because the casino's money-making capacity is the only thing keeping the town going since the mill's closure. [[spoiler:It's revealed that the mill itself is where the BigBad has his main drug base--that's why he had it shut down]].
* Several in ''Film/WarCraft2016'':
** The golem Medivh is building in his first scene. [[spoiler:It's activated when Medivh goes full-on demonic and Khadgar and Lothar have to fight it to get to him.]]
** The dagger Taria gives Garona to show her trust [[spoiler:is later used by her to kill Taria's husband, and is how Lothar recognizes who did the deed.]]
** The book Khadgar finds in Medivh's library [[spoiler:is later discovered to contain a clue as to Portal's functioning and Medivh's true loyalties.]]
** The boomstick Lothar is given in his first scene [[spoiler:saves his life when he's pinned down by Blackhand in the first ambush.]]
* In ''Film/{{Warlock}}'', Kassandra is diabetic and used a syringe to inject herself with insulin. At the end of the film she uses it to inject the warlock with salt water which is fatal to witches.
* In ''Film/WaynesWorld'', Wayne and Garth meet up with a security guard after coming out the stage exit during a rock concert, and this guard just so happens to have a lot of information about the big-wig record producer's travel itinerary, including the fact he drives everywhere in his expensive limo with a big satellite dish right on top. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Wayne when Garth figures out a way to use this to further the plot.
* ''Film/WeWereSoldiers'' has Chekhov's ''{{Gatling|Good}}'' Gun: Lt.Col. Moore first meets his new battalion's officer in a hangar where they've just been checking out an M134 Minigun... weapons which play a prominent role in the movie's climactic GunshipRescue moment.
* A very literal example in the Creator/BillMurray film, ''Film/WhatAboutBob''. Near the end of the first act, the psychologist main character has a rifle on the mantle for an interview photo op, but takes it off in favor of a bust. At the climax, he holds Bill Murray's character up with it. The only the thing keeping this from being a perfect Chekhov's Gun is that the rifle isn't actually fired.
* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', during the scene where Eddie visits the scene of Marvin Acme's murder, some of the cops on the site are seen fooling around with a portable hole and a mallet with a spring-loaded boxing glove in it. Both these props come in handy during Eddie's confrontation with Judge Doom at the end of the movie.
** Roger's literally [[MakeMeWannaShout explosive reaction]] to [[CantHoldHisLiquor alcohol]] is seen by accident earlier in the movie when he's offered a drink. When Roger's caught by Judge Doom, Eddie gets a chance to exploit this and offers Roger a shot of bourbon to invoke a chaos and escape safely.
** Also a more explicit example that has some crossover with [=MacGuffin=] in the recurring [[spoiler:love letter that is actually the will written in invisible ink.]]
** The emphasis on laughs could count.
--> '''Judge Doom''': Have you forgotten what happened last time? If you don't stop that laughing, you're going to end up dead just like your idiot hyena cousins!
* Averted, at least partially by accident, in ''Film/{{Willow}}''. As Willow Ufgood sets off on his quest, the leader of his village gives him three magic acorns which can turn what he throws them at to stone. However, throughout the entirety of the movie he attempts to use only two of them, missing a troll with one and hitting Bavmorda with the other only for her to overcome the stone transformation with her own magic. According to Warwick Davis's DVD commentary track the third acorn * was* used--in a deleted scene. Making the whole acorn thing * ding dong sound* entirely pointless.
** Played completely straight, however, with the disappearing pig trick. Which in a way, reinforces the whole point: the most powerful magic is what you make for yourself.
* ''Film/TheWomanInRed'': Charlotte's robe is lying on the bed.
* ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'': [[spoiler:Oliver's birthmark.]]
** The "Out of Order" sign from the disabled toilet, which Sam gives to Gary as a jibe, later comes in handy [[spoiler:when the guys need to make sure no-one goes into the men's room and finds the five teenage Blanks they just destroyed in there]].
* In ''Film/WrittenOnTheWind'', Kyle's father keeps a gun in his desk, and Mitch hides it in a bookcase. [[spoiler:Kyle finds it and decides to kill Mitch with it when he thinks that Mitch and Lucy had an affair.]]
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'': The coin that Dr. Schmidt gives to Erik, which Magneto later [[spoiler:forces through Sebastian Shaw's head]]. Also foreshadowed when Erik [[spoiler:impales a drawing of Shaw's head with it earlier in the film]].
** ''Film/TheWolverine'':
*** [[spoiler: Ichirō Yashida's life support equipment is used to discover the machine suppressing Logan's healing factor.]]
*** In the beginning, a bear is shot by a poisoned arrow, [[spoiler: then in the climax, Logan is taken down with Harada's poisoned arrows.]]
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'':
*** The PowerNullifier that both Charles and Hank have been using to suppress their powers [[spoiler:is useful when dealing with robots that can detect mutant powers]].
*** Magneto is accused of using his powers to [[MagicBullets curve the bullet]] which killed JFK. [[spoiler:He later uses this power to try and kill Mystique when a gun is knocked from his hand after firing a single bullet.]]
** ''Film/XMenApocalypse'':
*** The business card for Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters that Quicksilver received (or stole) in the last movie helps him find the mansion.
*** The fact that [[spoiler:electrical fields interfere with teleportation comes into play during the cage fight and on Stryker's helicopter. Near the end, when Apocalypse tries to teleport away, Storm's lightning attacks disrupt him and gets him killed.]]
* The 1940 Kay Keyser comedy ''You'll Find Out'' has two -- early on after Keyser's big band has arrived at the SpookyMansion that they've been hired to play at for an heiress' 21st birthday (unbeknownst to her, when she turns 21, her WealthyDowager aunt is going to turn her entire fortune over to the young lady), Kay and his band manager are looking at the museum pieces in the mansion. Amongst them is a Malaysian blowgun coated with an instant-kill poison and that leaves an imperceptible mark on the victim. It's not a shock when the weapon turns up used in a failed attempt to kill the heiress. Later, a quack seance is sealed by Tesla Coils which are shown to be instantly destructive of anything that comes between them. At the climax of the film, Peter Lorre, playing one of the villains, maneuvers two of the coils so that they will kill the heiress. He's stopped before he can turn the device on again.
* In ''Zoom'', it's mentioned that [[spoiler: if Mr. Zoom still had his powers, he could create a vortex that would negate the gamma rays' effects, turning his brother back to the good]].
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** Subverted in the [[Film/CharliesAngels first film]]. The film goes a little out of its way to point out the lighter that Creator/DrewBarrymore carries everywhere, and when she's tied to a chair during the climax she naturally snatches it from her sleeve and tries to burn the ropes. However, it refuses to make any flame and so she has to fight a bunch of guys while [[WithMyHandsTied still tied to the chair]].

* ''Disney/LeroyAndStitch'': With her alien friends leaving the planet, Lilo gives each of them a present to remember her by: a classic Elvis record for Jumba, a simple rock for Pleakley, and a special tiki necklace for Stitch. All three presents have a crucial part in stopping Hämsterviel's plot. Pleakley's rock allows him, Jumba, and Stitch to escape Hämsterviel's black hole deathtrap by redirecting the warp to Planet Turo. Lilo tried calling Stitch earlier, but seeing him not wearing her tiki necklace tipped her off that it was an impostor, leading to her heading to space with 625/Reuben and finally managing to HeelFaceTurn Gantu, as well as meeting Jumba's group when they come from the black hole. Most of all, Jumba used the recording of Aloha Oe to implant a SelfDestructMechanism into the experiment of mass destruction that Hämsterviel forced him to create; when the final battle comes and Jumba remembers as much, all they have to do is play the song and Leroy shuts down.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'':
** A big example is Buddy, the annoying little kid who pops up in Mr. Incredible's car in the beginning of the movie. Since the opening of the film shows us "a day in the life of a superhero", Buddy just seems like a typical fanboy...until [[spoiler:he grows up to become the supervillain Syndrome]].
*** When Mr. Incredible goes to Edna for his new costume, he asks for a cape. Edna shoots this down, describing in detail every super that had been killed by their cape. The fact that Syndrome has a cape ultimately leads to [[spoiler:him being killed by being sucked into a jet engine]].
*** It's also implied that [[spoiler:the jet plane from the cape-death montage was put back in danger after the superhero in question, Stratogale, was killed by its engine.]] Considering that jet engines sometimes do fail when birds hit them, this implication effectively turns this into a ''nested'' Chekov's gun once you see that [[spoiler:Syndrome's death, being yanked into its turbine by his cape, was what caused the Manta Plane to explode.]]
** Edna fires two missiles into Helen's suit to showcase its invulnerability. This probably explains why Helen was able to protect her kids when her plane took those anti-air missiles.
** Also, the Omnidroid: "The only thing that can pierce it is... itself".
** Also, Dash and Mr. Incredible playing football. Comes back when Mr. Incredible throws the remote to Dash.

* In Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Disney/RobinHood'', the little rabbit sister can't run as fast as the other children, usually lagging behind. This becomes important in the final battle as she struggles to keep up with the evacuating villagers and Robin Hood has to double back to retrieve her, leaving him trapped on the opposite side of the gate.

* In ''Film/MinusculeValleyOfTheLostAnts'', it's the box of matches on the picnic site.

* ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''. Early in the film Spock appears using [[JetPack Jet Boots]] to fly. Later in the film, when he, Kirk and [=McCoy=] need to travel up a long turbolift shaft he dons the same boots and uses them to fly the whole group up to the top of the shaft.

* Early in ''Film/{{Dobermann}}'', Nat uses a throwing knife to scare Manu is a TwangHello moment. It is a safe bet that most of the audience had forgotten about it when she draws it from under her hair and uses it on a cop during the firefight in the nightclub.

* The 2005 action-comedy flick ''Underclassman'' has the main character (played by Nick Cannon), a young undercover cop at a preppy private school, taking after-school language lessons from the school's [[HotTeacher Spanish teacher]] (played by Roselyn Sanchez of ''Series/WithoutATrace'' fame). This later comes in handy during the final confrontation with the BigBad, who's got her in a tense hostage situation [[spoiler:when the protagonist informs her in Spanish that the bullets in his gun are rubber bullets and that they'll sting, following which he shoots her to free her from the BigBad's grasp]].

* ''Film/HotFuzz'', aka "Chekhov's Gun: The Movie." Nearly everything seen, done, or said in the first half of the film becomes an important plot point in the second. Watch it twice then make a checklist. It's uncanny. The DVD feature Fuzz Facts points out every single one of them. And there are a ''lot''.

*** When Bond meets Q at the Brazilian temporary HQ, one of Q's men is firing a laser rifle that's later used by the U.S space Marines assaulting Drax's orbiting station.