-> "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."
->-- Playwright AntonChekhov (From S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911.)

Chekhov's Gun is the literary technique whereby an element is introduced early in the story whose significance does not become clear until later on. For example, a character may find a mysterious necklace that turns out to be the power source to the DoomsdayDevice, but at the time of finding the object it does not seem to be important.

Although many people consider the phrase "Chekhov's gun" to be the equivalent of {{foreshadowing}}, the statements the author made about it can be more properly interpreted as meaning "do not include any unnecessary elements in a story." The gun is seemingly primed to go off on a hair trigger, while {{foreshadowing}} is much softer and is rarely acknowledged by the characters in retrospect.

When used properly, this rule gives the item in question some degree of presence before being used, enough to prevent a potential AssPull that might jar and grate on the viewer. It can, however, turn out to be a RedHerring after all.

As a result of the success of franchises like ''{{Lost}}'' or ''HarryPotter'', viewers and fans of MythArc-laden and/or carefully written shows and books have become accustomed to obsessing over minuscule details and looking out for [=~Chekhov's Gun~=]s everywhere and anywhere...whether they actually exist or not. We call these EpilepticTrees and WildMassGuessing.

'''Chekhov's Gun Depot also stocks:'''
* [=~Chekhov's Armoury~=]
* [=~Chekhov's Army~=]
* [=~Chekhov's Boomerang~=]
* [=~Chekhov's Gag~=]
* [=~Chekhov's Gunman~=]
* [=~Chekhov's Hobby~=]
* [=~Chekhov's Lecture~=]
* {{Chekhov MIA}}
* [=~Chekhov's Skill~=]
* ConspicuouslyLightPatch
* CrossingTheStreams
* InfallibleBabble
* NotSoSmallRole
* {{Rule of Pool}}
** CarryingACake
** SheetOfGlass
* SomedayThisWillComeInHandy

Compare [=~Schrodinger's Gun~=] for a competing dramatic weapons dealer. Contrast to a RedHerring, where something shown early appears to be significant, but turns out not to be. If there is a very long delay between the introduction of the element and its use in the story, to the point where most of the audience has long forgotten about it, then you're looking at a BrickJoke. An item that was never intended to be Chekhov's Gun but becomes one in retrospect is OlafsHammer.

The MagneticPlotDevice can be a standing Chekhov's Gun to blame the plot on. The ImpossibleTask may require one. Also see {{Asspull}} which is what the viewer can sometimes confuse this with if they miss the gun the first time (or if the gun was [[EditedForSyndication edited out]] in the TV version).

This Trope Contains Spoilers By Necessity. Read At Your Own Risk.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this. The device that sets up the plot of the whole series is a large, expensive vase that will be broken. The vase is seen in the foreground of most of the shots leading up to the breakage...and is indicated by a large, blinking arrow. The blinking arrow returns in later episodes to point in every device and person whom will set the plot of the episode.
* The First's Necklace that Tsunade gives {{Naruto}} becomes very important after the timeskip...
** During the Chunin exams the hole in the arena Naruto had to create to beat Neji turns out to be very important for the [[XanatosGambit success]] of Shikamaru in ''his'' match.
** The new book Kakashi had becomes very important before the Pain arc.
** One of Jiraya's books about a battle against a rogue ninja. Once again is important in the Pain arc.
** Itachi stuffing some crow down Naruto's throat. We know its going to be important, but how its going to show up is a mystery.
* Wendy Garret in ''GunXSword'' carries around a gun given to her by her brother, Michael, when their home was attacked. It only has one bullet. There may as well be a large tag on the handle saying "FUTURE PLOT DEVICE".
* In ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}!'', if a character even explicitly obtains a given card (from a trade, a victory, or even just though picking it) rather than having it in their deck, it will be absolutely critical to their victory in at least one duel that season.
** Except Pandora's copy of Dark Magician, which Yugi has never used.
*** If this troper remembers correctly, in the anime didn't Yugi ultimately use this same Dark Magician to beat Pandora in the end? It was even crucial to the plot that Yugi had a Dark Magician to summon.
*** One other example was Jounouchi winning the Fortress Whale card from Ryouta Kajiki during Battle City, which he never used. This time its actually justified in that Fortress Whale is a Ritual summon, so Jou couldn't use it without the ritual card needed to summon it.
* In ''MahouSenseiNegima'', Ayase Yue's [[BookOfShadows Orbis Sensualium Pictus]] and Saotome Haruna's [[GreenLanternRing Imperium Graphices]] were both created well before they became useful. Both Pactio artifacts were the main way for the [[{{Nakama}} Ala Alba]] (not named that yet) to escape and defeat enemies during the arc. Nodoka's Diarium Ejus isn't as distant a creation to use timeline, while Chisame's Sceptrum Virtuale was an outright {{Asspull}} which they also [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] both when it's created and later when a similar asspull is done with Kazumi's Oculus Corvinus is made.
* ''OnePiece'' is fond of this, though how critical the Chekhov's gun is varies per use. Among examples are a rather odd pinwheel worn in the hat of Genzo, the sheriff of Nami's home village. This pinwheel has two Chekhovs to its name. First, it inspires the attack Luffy uses to remove the villain-of-the-arc's giant sea cow from the fight. But the true Chekhov comes at the end, when a flashback reveals that Genzo put the pinwheel in his hat to make the then-baby Nami laugh. To everyone's surprise, it worked, and so Genzo continued to wear it as a way of supporting Nami as she struggled, removing it only when Nami left with the Straw Hats.
** In the Davy Back Fight [[StoryArc arc]], Luffy is outfitted with an afro, thinking that it will make him stronger in his upcoming fight. Then, at the end of the fight, a shard of mirror caught in the afro proves crucial to his victory.
*** Or, to give an even better example, Luffy's brother gives him a piece of blank paper early on in the Alabasta arc. The paper's purpose is left unknown for ''several hundred chapters/episodes'' (depending on whether you follow the manga or anime.)
**** The third movie has Usopp use an actual boomerang in order to attack the [[BigBad big bad]], but as it turns out, it was fairly useless. However, it's later used to lure a bunch of Horn Eaters belonging to the big bad, by imitating a pair of horns, into a ravine, where they are trapped.
***** Three words: Sanji's wanted poster.
****** Oda seems especially fond of this trope. Early on in the story, our beloved pirate/clown Captain Buggy is looking for the treasure of one Captain John. A long long long way down the line during the Thriller Bark arc, Captain John's zombie turns up. After the conclusion of this arc, Buggy's self-proclaimed rival Luffy finds a cool armlet in the Thriller Bark treasure hoard, which stays with him for about a hundred chapters before he and Buggy end up in Impel Down together. Only THEN, do we realize that the armlet Luffy took is in fact the key to finding the long lost treasure that Buggy has been looking for all along!! [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome Are you impressed? This troper is!]]
******* One word: Laboon. The crew meets him just after they've entered the Grand Line, and it is mentioned that Laboon is waiting there for a pirate crew he befriended to come back. Several hundred chapters/episodes later, they gain a new crew member (Brook) who just happens to be the only remaining member of that pirate crew and his goal is to keep his promise that he'll come back to see Laboon again.
* In the first part of the {{ecchi}} OVA ''LabyrinthOfFlames'', we briefly catch a glimpse of a Soviet T-34 tank during maintenance. Its reappearance towards the end of the second episode ([[ThemeMusicPowerUp powered up]] by ''[[RussianRelaxing Kalinka]]'', no less) doubles as the resident LovableSexManiac's CrowningMomentOfAwesome. OrSoIHeard... ... WHAT?!
* In ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', when he leaves his home village Rossiu is given the old book the village leader possessed, and it is revealed that neither of them know how to read it. Subverted, in that Rossiu tries to translate the book, but discovers that it was pure gibberish.
** That episode also has the giant robot that appears early on in the episode and only gets used by the village elder at the end. That's right, it's [[IncrediblyLamePun Chekhov's Gunman]].
*** This Troper also thinks that the lump of green crystal that Simon give Nia might also count, as it seems to have been used later on as the heart of her engagement ring, which in turn [[spoiler: is what let them find the location of the Anti-Spiral homeworld]].
* In ''BladeOfThePhantomMaster'', the main character attacks a gun dealer about half-way through the movie after he is shown a little gun designed for hiding in a sleeve, which he keeps after he tosses the gun dealer into the sea. Guess what the penultimate blow to the bad guy uses.
* ''{{Pokemon}} Special'' gets away with this more often than is healthy for the reader's mind. Lt. Surge's gloves, the feathers on Yellow's hat, a shard of the Grand Meteor (multiple times), and the list goes on. Almost every object explicitly discussed in dialogue returns later in the saga -- or even in a completely separate saga -- to turn the plot around.
** The anime gets away with this a few times too, the most prominent being in "Pika And Goliath" -- Ash revealed he kept the Thunderstone he got all the way back in "Electric Shock Showdown" in case Pikachu changed its mind about evolving.
* In ''TsubasaReservoirChronicle'', the eponymous reservoir, while it appears halfway through the story, does not seem relevant until the final arc, where a flashback and a [[TheReveal reveal]] make it retroactively the most important location in quite possibly the entire CLAMP multiverse. Shoulda known {{CLAMP}} wasn't just throwing in random words for the hell of it.
* ''{{Gankutsuou}}'' has many. One is a literal gun placed in a desk drawer by Fernand. The two suits of armor outside the Morcerf mansion are actually giant mecha. Then there's the watch given to Albert by The Count when they first met.
* Stock in trade for ''{{Eat-Man}}'', where Bolt Crank may spend the entire adventure snacking on a bag full of bolts and other small machine parts. At the climax however, he'll swallow the last bolt, then whip a {{BFG}} he'd just finished eating the last of.
* ''{{Clannad}}'': Remember those orbs of light Miyazawa and the Girl in the Illusionary World were talking about? Those'll really come in handy [[GainaxEnding much]] [[GrandFinale later]].
* A few times in ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'': the horned mongoose whistle [[EasyAmnesia Shinnosuke]] gave Akane ten years ago turns out to be the key to pacifying and sealing the {{Orochi}} of [[MisplacedWildlife Ryugenzawa]]. The photo of Akane that Nabiki snapped (and tried to sell to Ranma, but was bought by Ryouga) gave him the impetus to save himself from a rockslide, and was later used by the bad guys to kidnap her.
* In ''MacrossFrontier'', [[IdolSinger Sheryl]] loses one of her earrings ([[CallBack inherited from her mother]]) when Alto crashes into her in mid-performance. She goes nuts looking for it, but later tells him to keep it as a good luck charm during combat (at which point it's lost forever.) It is later revealed that the earrings are made of [[spoiler:[[AppliedPhlebotinum Fold Quartz]], a material that can transmit thoughts and emotions across the galaxy, and she (and Alto) use the remaining one during the GrandFinale to communicate with the [[BigCreepyCrawlies Vajra]]]]. It became so important, the Blu-Ray release of ''MacrossZero'' went back and [[{{Revision}} added the earrings]] [[CallForward in a scene with Sheryl's ancestors]].
* In ''SailorMoon'', when Sailor Jupiter is introduced in the first season of the anime her rose-shaped earrings sparkle with reflected light. They seem insigifncant until the end of the fourth season, when [[spoiler: Usagi is trapped in Queen Nehelenia's illusions and loses the will to press on to save Mamoru and Chibi-usa. One of Jupiter's earrings falls off and Usagi finds it later; the rose shape reminds her of her love for Mamoru, and she jolts herself out of her illusion to continue to save Mamoru.]]
* ''{{Eureka 7}}'' features a very sneaky Chekhov's Gun in the form of Eureka and Anemone's collars. They seem like random accessories until the ''very last episode'', where it's revealed that they're [[spoiler:devices meant to destroy the Scub Coral, triggered by Dewey Novak's suicide.]]
* In ''{{Utawarerumono}}'', Eruru wears an odd, apparently decorative loop in her hair at almost all times. Later it is revealed that [[spoiler:it is some sort of transmitter orginally made by the humans when it automatically opens the door to a human research facility.]]
* Ichigo's Super Hollow form in ''{{Bleach}}'' could be this. They hint several times that the longer he stays in Hueco Mundo, the more power his hollow side absorbs.
** It goes much deeper. WAAAAAAY back near the beginning of the story Don Kannonji accidentaly turned a half-Hollow into a full Hollow by widening his Hollow-hole. Later in the Hueco Mundo Arc it's mentioned that Ulquiorra likes to give his victims a hole identical to his own. Guess what triggers Ichigo's Super Hollow transformation.
* ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' has Chekhov's Wave Motion Gun; an early episode in A's gives us an apparently throw-away scene involving a high-powered magical cannon, the Arc-En-Ciel. The Arthra is out of service most of the season being refitted. When it returns, what should it come equipped with, but an Arc-En-Ciel.
* In ''{{Monster}}'' a hospital director helps himself to the unconscious antagonist's candy. Nothing happens for a while. And then they find his body next to a candy wrapper.
* ''MacrossFrontier'' gets points for sneaking Chekhov's Gun into what looks to be a throw-away AccidentalPervert gag: [[spoiler:the fact that the Vajra start retreating from Island 1 just after Ranka's scream in that scene is no coincidence.]]
* I'm surprised that ''Detective Conan'' wasn't mentioned. It's frequently used and a regular watcher ends up being trained to look for them in every episode. They're particularly subtle, too. One episode involved the culprit wearing a headband with the name of her favorite singer. The singer, Okino Yoko, has an accent over the 'o'. When the culprit committed the crime, blood, which was the same color as headband, got on it (conveniently right on the accent mark), and was discovered by Mouri *cough*Conan*cough* as the killer. Of course, if you are an American viewer, you might tilt your head at the odd spelling at first since, hey! You don't know how Japanese worth squat! It was probably caught easier by Japanese viewers, but still subtle, and no one really pays attention to it until Conan provides the proof.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* The early 1990s {{Marvel Comics}} series ''{{Sleepwalker}}'' featured the title alien's Imaginator, a teleportation device that can be used by the Sleepwalkers to teleport almost anywhere they can imagine, and to imprison the monsters they capture. Sleepwalker becomes trapped in Rick Sheridan's mind when Rick mistakes the Imaginator for a weapon and takes it away from him, before the device is later retrieved by Cobweb and used as part of his {{Xanatos Gambit}} to invade Earth and frame Sleepwalker as the invasion's leader.
* In the second issue of ''VillainsUnited'', one of the miniseries leading up to ''InfiniteCrisis'', we see a pair of weapons mounted on Scandal's wall when she's writing a love letter. It's the first subtle hint that she is a DarkActionGirl instead of the non-combatant MiddleManagementMook she had appeared to be to that point.
* A cloneworks for xeno-anatomy and a villain with innate power-nullifying abilities both showed up early in the latest volume of ''{{Empowered}}''. Both of those and the [[ChekhovsSkill suit becomes invisible, wearer does not]] trick from an earlier collection become major factors in the last chapter.
* In an early issue of the AffectionateParody title ''[=~Quantum & Woody~=]'', the titular duo set their differing approaches to crimefighting: Quantum has [[CrazyPrepared a fully-laden utility belt and a multi-functional outfit]], while Woody carries, quote, "[a] 9mm Beretta and a Zippo lighter". The Beretta sees occasional use throughout the series, while the Zippo doesn't get another mention until one of the last issues of the Akklaim run ([[DisContinuity which is to say]], '''[[TheyChangedItNowItSucks ever]]'''), [[spoiler:when both of them are [[DeathTrap locked in a cage being slowly lowered into a pool of toxic waste]], by [[TheJuggernaut a superpowered mercenary they had just tried, and failed, to stop with an all-or-nothing energy blast and]] ''[[TheJuggernaut a nuclear explosion]]''. While Quantum recites a prayer, Woody, blinded by the fumes, desperately tries to strike the lighter to see in the "dark". The flame ignites those same fumes and blasts the cage and its occupants to (relative) safety]].
* ''YTheLastMan'': Yorick's gas mask features throughout the whole series as [[PaperThinDisguise a handy way to disguise]] the fact that he's TheOneGuy. But that's not [[ChekhovsGun the Gun]]. [[spoiler:This trope comes into play in the penultimate issue once [[GeneralRipper Alter]] fires tear gas into the building Yorick is in, assuming that he'll be pacified by the gas. Thanks to ChekhovsGun, no such luck.]] Because of its prominence, it might actually qualify as a ChekhovsBoomerang.
* The information pollen in ''{{Transmetropolitan}}'', which seems to be just one among the many random, wacky elements in the story [[spoiler:but which gives Spider a degenerative brain disease]].
* The appearance of [[spoiler:Mister Mind]] in the first issue of ''[[FiftyTwo 52]]''. He's mentioned off-hand maybe twice after that, and then disappears for almost fifty issues before reappearing in the penultimate chapted, having been revealed as the BigBad.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* The sled from ''CitizenKane''. Cmon! ItWasHisSled!
* ''{{Airplane}} II: The Sequel'': the bomb Joe Seluchi buys in the airport gift shop.
* ''[[Film/{{Alien}} Aliens]]'' features 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 of course, she goes on to use this exact piece of equipment in the climactic mano-a-mano battle with the Alien Queen.
* ''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 an early scene of ''BackToTheFuture'', 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.
* Perhaps the best SciFi example of this is the hoverboard from ''BackToTheFuture'', Part II. 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 reverse-engineer the technology, allowing him to create a [[CoolTrain FLYING TRAIN]]. Holy ''shit''.
** Technically, a/ the Doc had already refitted a vehicle with hover technology (the DeLorean) and b/ he activated the hovering system after Marty asked if he was going 'back to the future' (haha) suggesting he'd already been there to make that very conversion, not that he'd made the conversion personally. The hoverboard presumably had enough hardware in it to mock up a Time Machine in the decade or so that Doc spent in the past raising his kids, but not a full hoverconversion.
* A subtle one can be seen in ''BatmanBegins'' 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 ''BatmanBegins'', 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.
** Also, the monorail built by Bruce's dad turns out to be a [=~Chekhov's Gun~=] used by Ra's al Ghul to spread Scarecrow's gas.
** In ''TheDarkKnight'', 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.
** A bit older in the Batman movieverse is in ''BatmanReturns''. Bet you forgot about that tazer Miss Kyle picked up before she became Catwoman!
* In [[MrBean 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).
* The ground-to-air missile in ''SouthlandTales''. Also [[spoiler:all that other stuff that made no sense]].
* Both used and subverted in ''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.
* ''{{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; of course, 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.]]
* ''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...
* Subverted in the first ''CharliesAngels'' film. The film goes a little out of its way to point out the lighter that Drew Barrymore 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, though, in the sequel, when Bosley II points out the girls' custom-made Kevlar vests that later save them when they get shot by the BigBad.
* In ''TheDarkIsRising'', the young hero gets a digital watch for his birthday, which he later uses to amaze a Viking.
* ''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 ''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.
* In ''{{Day of the Dead}}'''s 2008 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 {{Ass Pull}} by allowing him to save the main character.
* In the ''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.
* In ''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 ''{{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 ''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.
* ''DieHard'' was ''rife'' with Chekhov's Guns, from a passenger's advice regarding jet-lag, to Argyle's list of the limousine's features ("CB, CD, TV..."), to Holly Gennero's new Rolex Watch. The significant details seem to outnumber the insignificant ones. In the third film, [=McClane=] complains of having a headache from the moment he joins the film and convinces the BigBad to throw him some aspirin while he's tied to a colossal bomb. After escaping, he keeps the aspirin, finds that it's empty, lays it down so he can see the bottom of the bottle and figures out where the villain's hiding because that's where the aspirin bottle came from.
* [[spoiler: Played straight]] in ''Dillinger is Dead'': 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]].
*''{{Dodgeball}}'' 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 (though not the "alternate" ending where the villains win outright... the fact that said guns would've remained unfired suggest it was never meant to be a serious ending.) However, though the fact that one of the members of the Average Joe's gym believes himself to be a pirate was important to the ending in earlier drafts (which would have had several huge scenes at the Treasure Island casino), he serves little purpose in the final cut.
* Literally a gun in ''{{Doom}}'' (the film): The {{BFG}}. No, not ''a'' BFG, this is ''{{Doom}}'' we're talking about. It's '''The''' BFG.
** But not ''the'' TheBFG.
* The coin-collecting side plot in ''DragMeToHell'', if Chekov's gun was surrounded by flashing neon and howled "Look at me! Look at me!" whenever possible.
* ''[=~Dude, Where's My Car?~=]'' 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.
* Several examples of Chekhov's Guns can be found in ''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. One of them, a metal claw, is used during the big fight with Bruce Lee in the end. In addition, during the big fight (which takes place in said museum room, acting as ''another'' Chekhov's Gun), 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]]. In fact, the advice that Bruce takes about "smashing the image" in order to defeat Han was itself a Chekhov's Gun given by Bruce's master near the very beginning of the film.
* ''Film/FatalAttraction'' has a literal revolver.
** In the original ending, it was an audio tape.
* Clumsily done in ''{{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 ''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, of course, 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 ''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 ''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 ''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.]]
* Averted and subverted in ''GranTorino'': 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.]]
* In ''{{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 ''{{Grindhouse}}: Death-Proof'', 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 ''{{Grosse Pointe Blank}}'', 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 ''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.
* In ''{{Hook}}'', the titular captain reveals in a victory speech to his underlings that he is finally getting his total 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 cop-movie parody ''HotFuzz'', aka "Chekhov's Gun: The Movie," from the same team, has what would be better described as Chekhov's Arsenal stashed in a police evidence room. Actually the entirety of ''Hot Fuzz'' is a great example of this, as 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''.
*** A particularly apt example might be [[spoiler: the sea mine, 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:"SWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANN!"]]
* ''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.
* In the ''IronMan'' [[Film/IronMan film]], 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. ]]
*** Hell, pretty much every character, item, and detail has at least two uses in the movie.
**** [[spoiler: "How did you solve that icing problem?"]]
* In the beginning of a 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 basically 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 ''{{Goldeneye}}'', where Q explains all the gadgets in Bond's new BMW, none of which are used at all in the film.
*** 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 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!"
** An especially good example also comes from ''{{Goldeneye}}'', however. At one point, Boris the hacker's nervous habit of spinning a pen in one hand while typing with the other is conspicuously shown. When combined with Q's earlier scene, you just ''know'' Boris will be spinning Bond's pen-grenade near the end, with explosive consequences. Sure enough ...
** ''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 ''{{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 ''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 ''CasinoRoyale'', in a scene that takes place about an hour before ''Solace'' begins.
** Another bizarre example is Q's "Ultra-high frequency single-digit sonic agitator unit" in ''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.
* In the 2008 film ''[=~Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D~=]'', it was magnesium veins in the rock walls.
* ''{{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 fairly subtle one in ''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.
* ''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.
* ''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 Statler and Waldorf are the animated, talking figureheads of the Hispaniola also counts.
* ''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 ''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.
* ''The Opposite of Sex'': Dedee is shown packing a gun--and, despite the fact that she toys with being an UnreliableNarrator, it does get used later on. Twice.
* [[spoiler:Ofelia's red shoes]] in ''[=~Pan's Labyrinth~=]'' 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.]]
* Happens twice in ''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.
* Strange case in ''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.
* Subverted early in the first ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' -- 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''.
** 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.
** Played straight in the 2nd movie as well, especially in the scene in Tia Dalma's shack, where you see a locket mysteriously similar to Davy Jones' locket (which hadn't been shown yet in the movie), and the [[OnlyMostlyDead newly resurrected]] Barbossa's boots long before he reveals himself.
** An interesting one comes in the form of the sword Will forged for Norrington. [[spoiler:At the end of the 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.
* Near the opening of the JohnWayne movie ''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.
* A perfect example of Chekhov's Gun can be found in ''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.
* Subverted in ''{{Slither}}''. 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 the BigBad. During the climax, the Big Bad knocks it out of his hand, twice, and it finally explodes uselessly in a swimming pool.
** It counts as a subversion because the item failed to be useful. However, the movie has an actual example of the trope - Kylie's nails. They're 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.
* An interesting subversion is in ''Snake Eyes'', 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.
* In one scene in the ''SonicTheHedgehog Movie'', Dr Eggman lets off a missile in the shape of a tortoise; of course, 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.
* In ''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 ubitquitous 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 [=~Chekhov's Gun~=]. Watch it five times and you'll still be noticing new ones.
* ''{{Terminator}} 2: Judgment Day'' - John Connor has a laptop computer that determines [=ATM=] [=PINs=]. It [[PasswordSlotMachine comes in handy later on]].
** ''Terminator Salvation'' details a method for crippling the [=T-600s=]. It too comes in handy later on.
* In ''[=~Wayne's World~=]'' 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. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Wayne when Garth figures out a way to use this to further the plot.
* ''KungFuPanda'': 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 {{Perpetual Molt}} 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 [=~Chekhov's Gun~=]. Remember, "there are no accidents."
* ''{{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.
* In the ''SuperMarioBrothers'' live action movie, a Bob-omb is activated near the end, walks around harmlessly for a long time, only to come to rest and explode under the BigBad at the climax.
* In the Will Ferrel movie ''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.
* ''{{Jaws}}'' with the compressed air tanks. They are explosive if shot (in the movie, anyway). At the end the shark has one in its mouth and Brody shoots it.
* Subverted in the ''SpongeBobSquarePants'' movie, in which he and Patrick are too, ahem, stupid to properly use Scarlett Johansson's airbag.
* ''{{Rambo}}''. The Tallboy Bomb.
* In ''Zoom'', it's mentioned that [[spoiler: if he still had his powers, 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.]]
* The fine folk at {{Pixar}} are masters of this, and most of their films have at least a few examples.
** ''FindingNemo'' alone has at least a dozen. "All drains lead to the ocean." "Sandy says that sea turtles live to a hundred!" "Swim down!"
** ''{{WALL-E}}'' has a slight variant, in that the fire extinguisher which comes into use at a critical moment isn't the ''same'' one seen previously.
** I swear, Chekov most have written ''{{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 ''{{Toy Story}}'' Woody gets a match put into his pocket 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.]]
** A big example in ''TheIncredibles'' 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]].
*** You missed one. 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 him being killed by being sucked into a jet engine.
* Subverted slightly in the ''SpeedRacer'' movie. 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.
* ''{{Signs}}'' has a few: Merrill's bat, Bo's abandoned glasses of water, and, arguably, Morgan's asthma.
** Let's face it... ''{{Signs}}'' could very well have been retitled ''Chekhov's Gun: The Movie''.
**Which was precisely the point of the movie. Everything happens for a reason.
* In ''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 TheMole for the KGB.
* Certain items herald their later use by their very existence. For instance, ''anytime'' you see a vat of acid (or chemicals or boiling oil,) you know that ''someone'' (most likely a villain) is going to fall into it.
* In the animated movie ''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) [[HumansAreBastards humans aren't exclusively destructive monsters.]] Not bad as environmentalist messages go.
* In ''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.
* ''WeWereSoldiers'' has Chekhov's ''[[{{Gatling Good}} Gatling]]'' 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 [[{{Big Damn Gunship}} Big Damn Gunships]] moment.
* ''AustinPowers: International Man of Mystery'': 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 bass, allowing Austin and Vanessa to escape via dental floss swing.
** Random Task—and his "lethal" footwear—reappears during the denouement, along with Austin's [[EmbarrassingCoverUp Swedish Penis Pump]].
* In ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', during the scene where Eddy 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 Eddy's confrontation with Judge Doom at the end of the movie.
** Also a more explicit example that has some crossover with McGuffin in the recurring [[spoiler:love letter that is actually the will written in invisble ink.]]
* In ''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 WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire.
* The ''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.]]
* Subverted in ''{{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!"
* Teased and subverted in ''Secret Honor''. At the start of the movie, former President 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.
* A very literal example in the BillMurray 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.
* At the beginning of ''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.
* In ''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.]]
* Subverted in ''{{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.
* In ''LethalWeapon 2'', 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."
* ''PaulBlartMallCop'' has several, including the "Devil's Crotch" hot sauce which ThisTroper knew would be used as a weapon the instant he saw it (it was, and would have made a huge difference, but Blart laughably failed to take advantage of it), and the StalkerWithACrush using GPS to track a cell phone (which the BigBad eventually stole).
* From Wolfgang Petersen's ''{{Troy}}'': Briseis's virginity. Established early for the sole purpose of ensuring that BradPitt takes it later.
* The church which serves as ''TheKiller'''s primary place of peace and sanctuary throughout the movie is the setting of the movie's final BloodstainedGlassWindows shootout.
* 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.
* The alien command module in ''{{District 9}}''.
* There were several in ''{{Coraline}}''.
** [[spoiler: The well]]
** It was subtle but the [[spoiler: little ball that one of the mice were playing with during the circus scene was actually one of the eyes of one of the ghost children.]]
** 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.]]
* In ''To Catch a Thief'', one of the members of the heist team keeps saying that a compartment in the trunk is too obvious, it's even his catchphrase for a good portion. The villain finds it.[[spoiler: ..and the other heist teammate looks at him, he winks. He put in another compartment and didn't tell anyone.]] Also, the fact that a more major character sells bootleg videos isn't ever really important, but is worth mentioning: All the people who joined in the heist were picked by looking at which movies they bought.
* Almost averted in ''GetCarter''. In the first act 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.
* In ''AlienVsPredator'', 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.
* ''{{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.]]
* In ''{{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.
* In futuristic sci-fi film, ''TheFifthElement'', Bruce Willis' character Corbin Dallas is a smoker and early on for some reason he is seen using an old fashioned box of matches to light his cigarettes. [[FridgeLogic Why someone would use such low tech gadgetry in a futuristic setting with flying cars and interstellar space travel is a mystery]], but he is seen being down to his last match. This match is used at the very end when a sample of each of the four elements need to be gathered together, and his match is the only sample of fire around.
* In 80s B-Grade monster movie TheBrain, 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In DanAbnett's ''GauntsGhosts'' novel ''Honour Guard'', there is a very brief, off-handed scene at the beginning of the novel where Captain Daur is handed a small, insignificant trinket by an old woman who seems insistent that he keep it. At the end of the novel, a psychic vision reveals to Daur and other Ghosts that this trinket is the firing key for Saint Sabbat's massive Chaos-frying psychic weapons system buried underneath her tomb. [[XanatosGambit Just as planned.]]
* DanAbnett's {{Warhammer 40000}} novel ''The Brothers of the Snake'' opens with a Space Marine dealing with a planet invaded by Dark Eldar. Much later, the Marines realize that their purpose there has had reprecussions.
* Douglas Adams' ''[=~The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy~=]'' uses this trope ad nauseam when it comes to a Hitchhiker's towel.
** Hitchhiker's does this with everything but towels. Towels are clearly stated as important from the beginning.
**The character of Agrajag is pretty much a mix of Karmic retrobution and Chekhov's Arsenal. In the first book, approaching Magrathea, it is referenced that two missiles were turned by the infinite improbability drive into a whale and a bowl of Petunias. The whale's thought-processes as it falls to Earth are described in detail, and it is stated that the bowl of Petunia's thought only 'Oh no not again'. At the very beginning, reference is made to 'eating oysters' to provide background to an event. Elsewhere, Arthur talks about 'this damn fly', before remarking 'Got it!' At the beginning of the third book/Tertiary Phase, it references that Arthur kills a rabbit and makes a bag out of its skin. He teleports to Lord's Cricket Ground - where his sudden materialisation gives a man with a heart condition such a shock he has a heart attack and dies, and Arthur's aforementioned love of cricket is reiterated - and the bag is replaced for some strange reason with another one. He expresses his love for the lost bag, and talks about a bag he lost at an airport once coming back from holiday, which had a bottle of Retsina in it. Later on, he teleports somewhere, but is hijacked and ends up in some form of mountain, where he is confronted by a monstrous creature - with hugely impractical sharp teeth - who reveals that all of the creatures Arthur has ever killed in his life were various reincarnations of himself, including the heart-attack man, the bowl of Petunia's ('cruelly dragged back into life after I had given up'), and the rabbit, 'whose skin-bag', Agrajag noticed, 'he had lost'. Agrajag then accidentally stabs himself throught the brain with the teeth, before self-destructing the mountain. Arthur escapes by learning to fly - a long-running Hitch-Hikers' joke in the books, which states that the trick to flying is to be distracted when throwing yourelf at the ground, causing you to miss - after noticing the bag he thought he had lost at the airport a long time before. He then rejoins his friends at a party in a flying house, which they are prevented from entering for not having a bottle. He gets the bottle of retsina out of the bag, and they enter the party to save the universe. Thus reducing Agrajag's character to a device enabling the characters to overcome a totally unnecessary obstacle to get into the party. Into which MASSES of background has been invested over the course of the two previous books and the rest of the book, along with the further two books. Then his love of cricket is used as the whole thing that the plot of that third turns on, but that's a separate example...
* Jim Butcher ''loves'' these.
** One of the baddies in the first ''[[TheDresdenFiles Dresden Files]]'' book, ''Storm Front'', [[spoiler: is motivated to get revenge on John Marcone because her daughter was killed in a mafia shootout]]. ''Nine books later'' we find out that [[spoiler: her daughter is the coma patient Marcone is protecting, the one he stole the Shroud of Turin to try and heal (in Book Five) and the guilt over which motivates him to protect innocents and help Harry out sometimes]].
** In the beginning of ''TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Death Masks'', while Harry and Ebeneezer [=McCoy=] discuss Harry's astronomy lessons under [=McCoy=], they remember when they discovered "Asteroid Dresden", which turned out to be an old, disused Soviet satellite. At the end of the book [[spoiler: [=McCoy=] drags the satellite from orbit and drops it on the mansion of a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Red Court duke]], in retaliation for cheating in a duel against Dresden]].
* Michael Crichton's ''[=The Lost World=]'', the sequel to ''JurassicPark'', subverts this. Early on, a trailer is mentioned as having a bear deterrent in the form of a button that causes thousands of volts of electricity to run across the outside surface of the trailer. Later on, while two [=T-Rexes=] are trying to push the trailer off of a cliff, a character accidentally activates it. It deters the Rexes for about five seconds.
** A more traditional gun is a candy bar wrapper that gets dropped by a character, an action that is given way more detail then it deserves. Until it attracts the raptors, that is.
** A particular kind of toxin is described in the first novel, as part of the process where the modified nuclei are implanted in the ovum. Later in the book, Grant finds himself trapped in the egg nursery by some raptors and several syringes' worth of the toxin...
*** A subversion when that same toxin is explicitly mentioned in the second ''movie'', and the character describing it makes specific mention of all its properties (such as it being so quick "you'd be dead before you felt the prick [of the needle].") The gun armed with this toxin is ''completely unable to save the character'' when it gets its sight stuck in a net, letting the two T.rexes tear him in half. The gun is then lost over a cliff.
** Another one from ''The Lost World'': after a very close call with the T.rexes, Levine says that they're good parents. They're such good parents, that they probably teach their offspring how to hunt, by bringing small or weakened creatures to the nest for them to finish off. Well, guess what happens to [[spoiler:[[CorruptCorporateExecutive Dodgson]]]] when the T.rex gets him but ''doesn't'' eat him outright. (Also a case of KarmicDeath, as the infant T.rex who ends up killing him is the one whose leg he had broken earlier.)
** ''The Lost World'' has plenty of these: Arby's printout of the Isla Sorna facilities (hint: [[spoiler:boathouse and river docks]];) Eddie's insistence on adding backup systems and safety devices in Thorne's vehicles without telling anyone; the observation cage with its prodigious resistance to impacts; the maia eggs stolen by King; [[TooDumbToLive Levine]]'s damn candy bars; also, the rifles armed with neurotoxins are finally put to good use during the raptor chase.
* Subverted in ''[=~2010: Odyssey Two~=]'' by ArthurCClarke. In the beginning of the book a mechanism is constructed to deactivate the to-be-repaired [[AIIsACrapshoot HAL 9000]] instantly in case it [[KillAllHumans malfunctions again like it did in the first book]]. The remote control for this mechanism, a rigged pocket calculator, is given to one of the characters. Surprisingly, it is never used and the end of the book reveals that it wouldn't have worked anyway because it had been disabled at some point.
* PhilipKDick's ''{{Paycheck}}'' is almost entirely composed of this trope. The hero Jennings has just had his memory erased of the top secret project he was working on, only to discover that before it happened he arranged to substitute his paycheck with several seemingly trivial and useless items, including a small piece of wire. Then he's arrested, whereupon it turns out the wire is just the right size to pick the lock of the squad car's back door. It seems the project was a window into the future, which Jennings used to see what was going to happen to him, and so every single one of the items has some purpose to help him stay alive and out of the bad guys' clutches. Half the fun of the story is just seeing what purpose all of them have.
* The ''{{Thursday Next}}'' series is a truly fascinating juggling act of various plot threads that feature all kinds of little moments that pay off down the road, either in the book they appear in or several books later. Amazingly, judging by some statements JasperFforde has made it seems he really doesn't do that much planning ahead for the series; instead he just has an amazing memory for everything that has happened so far and can come up with ways to refer back to it all that all make perfect sense.
** In particular, this troper would like to point out the naming of a minor villain "Yorick" in the first book, who doesn't show up again until the fourth, which happens to also include [[AlasPoorYorick Hamlet]] as a main character...
***"I almost feel sorry for him," said Joffy, who was a lot more forgiving than I. "Yes," replied Hamlet sarcastically, "alas." - ''Something Rotten''
* William Gibson's ''{{Neuromancer}}'' averts this: Molly gives Case a shuriken as a souvenir, and he keeps it with him for the entire book, never actually needing to use it in anger (he comments on this toward the end).
* The ''SwordOfTruth'' series features what is perhaps the most long-term genuine Gun. In the seventh book, ''Naked Empire'', Prelate Annalina is arrested in the People's Palace by Nathan Rahl and thrown into its most secure dungeon cell, specifically designed to hold in magic-users. When she is eventually released, she leaves behind her Rada'Han, a collar meant to suppress the magical ability of whomever wears it, which she had meant to use on Nathan. When the final book of the series, ''Confessor'', rolls around, Nicci is placed into custody to be delivered to [[BigBad Emperor Jagang]] in exchange for him and his Sisters of the Dark not destroying the world through the Boxes of Orden. Eventually, Richard manages to [[XanatosGambit inflict Jagang with dreams of longing for Nicci, such that he leaves the Orden preparations to collect her]]. Once he arrives, Nicci wastes no time snapping the Rada'Han in that very cell around his neck.
** This is to say nothing of the Magic of Orden itself, which was introduced in book one, all but forgotten in book two, and then isn't so much as mentioned again until the final trilogy...at which point it becomes the key to victory on both sides.
** You call that a long-term Gun? [[spoiler:Shar died at the beginning of book 1, and said that should richard need help of the night wisps, to say her name. He did it near the end of book 10.]]
** The [[spoiler:Sword of Truth itself, given to Richard in the first book, turns out to be the real key to unlocking the Magic of Orden in the last book, instead of all those magic prophecy books.]]
* Similarly to Bond, at the beginning of Anthony Horowitz's ''AlexRider'' books and the film version of ''Stormbreaker,'' Alex is given a set of gadgets -- all of which will be used. In fact, most spy films involving gadgets do this, as if the equivalent of Q has the ability to see into the future.
* The dumpy, mushroom-colored bonnet in Diana Wynne Jones' ''HowlsMovingCastle''. At first it's simply a cleverly-written joke when the story Sophie tells while making the bonnet comes true, but then [[spoiler: in the end, it turns out that Sophie is a somewhat powerful witch without even knowing it - she has the ability to dictate the fate of any inanimate object by speaking to it.]]
* In StephenKing's ''Desperation'', a shotgun shell becomes a key item in the last few pages of the book [[spoiler: They use it as a blasting cap to detonate explosives that trap a demon / evil god in an abandoned mine.]]
* ElizabethMoon's ''[[VattasWar Trading in Danger]]'' has two: the model kit and the fruitcakes given to the main character near the beginning both turn out to be very useful by the end, though neither in the way that's hinted at during the various times they are mentioned. [[spoiler: The model kit contains the makings of a communications beacon and the largest of the three fruitcakes holds a small fortune in diamonds and a letter.]]
* LarryNiven might just have pulled off the longest delay between the appearance of Chekhov's Gun and it's firing in the history of modern literature within the boundaries of his ''Known Space'' universe. In his 1966 short story ''At The Core'', Niven introduces the Quantum II hyperdrive, which is capable of moving a starship a light year in 1.2 seconds (as opposed to the Quantum I hyperdrive, which moves at a mere 3 days to the lightyear). In Niven's 2006 novel ''Ringworld's Children'', the Quantum II hyperdrive is used for it's ultimate purpose: to unilaterally end the Fringe War by removing the Ringworld from Known Space entirely. Thirty-eight years from mention to ultimate use just has to be some sort of record...
* Gary Paulsen's ''TheRifle'' is pretty much a story told from the point of view of a Chekhov's Gun.
* In Peter Straub's "Ghost Story", Stella Hawthorne makes use of a Chekhov's Hatpin. Oddly, despite being a somewhat obvious example of the trope, it doesn't really affect the overall story very much.
* TerryPratchett plays with this a lot.
** Used straight in ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'' where Rincewind rescues a small green frog from the ocean that ends up saving his life.
*** Another instance in the same book has Rincewind throwing a bottle of wine at someone in an effort to distract him and escape; the man just uses magic to halt the bottle in mid air. About half a scene later, the magic wears off, and the bottle continues its interrupted journey, right into the face of a guard, distracting him and giving Rincewind the opportunity to escape.
** Also used straight in ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic''. Having been established as a pathetic wizard in ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'', Rincewind is revealed to have come by this trait after reading a powerful grimoire and getting a single, powerful spell stuck in his brain. It is this exact spell that must be cast at the ''end'' of ''Fantastic'' to avert complete annihilation of the Disc.
** In ''Discworld/SmallGods'', the opening paragraphs discuss eagles picking up tortoises and dropping them to crack their shells, and says something to the effect of a tortoise possibly taking advantage of this someday. Close to the end of the book Om, a god trapped in turtle form, gets an eagle to drop him on Vorbis's head (by [[GroinAttack threatening said eagle's sexual organs]]), killing Vorbis, and causing the crowd that's watching to become believers of Om.
*** Granted, it's a {{You Fail Biology Forever}} (eagle gonads are internal), but it's still funny.
**** This takes place in a world where you can inherit scars from your parents and powers from your ADOPTED grandfather. All science on Discworld takes a backseat to the {{Rule of Funny}}
** Subverted ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}''. Several characters point out, in increasingly ominous tones, that the enormous crystal chandelier in the Ankh-Morpork Opera House looks like "an accident waiting to happen", but unlike in ''PhantomOfTheOpera'' (which ''Maskerade'' parodies), the chandelier completely fails to be dropped on anyone. Not that the bad guy didn't try, mind you.
** Subverted in ''Discworld/{{Feet of Clay}}'' where the main mystery of the book is how Lord Vetinari is being poisoned despite his food being safe. Repeated references are made to the horrible green wallpaper in his bedroom, and the implication is that it may have something to do with it, emphasized by the popular theory that Napoleon was killed by green wallpaper (arsenic was once commonly used in green paint). The wallpaper has nothing to do with it, and Pratchett has admitted to getting emails that amount to "We were sure it was the wallpaper, you bastard!"
*** Of course, when one re-reads the book, one discovers that the clues to the ''real'' murder weapon were there all along ...
** Used Straight in ''Discworld/{{Thief of Time}}'' where Lu-Tze shows his apprentice how Yetis "save" their lives and create a sort of premonition ability. He then proceeds to use it later on. One knows he is about to do so when the fact "they cut off his head" is mentioned, because this is how the ability was demonstrated with the yeti.
** Discworld/UnseenAcademicals. Remember, the ball is the ball.
* ''{{Nightmare}}'' by Willo Davis Roberts. About a third of the way into the story, a side character finds shotgun shells in the back of their RV. These end up saving them from death when the same side character uses them as a diversion making the BigBad's sidekick drop his shotgun.
* Y.T.'s scary futuristic anti-rape condom ("[[VaginaDentata dentata]]") in NealStephenson's ''SnowCrash''
*** [[http://www.antirape.co.za/ The anti-rape condom's real, by the way.]]
** Also, Y.T.'s skateboard includes a sonic blast device that shatters glass. While this gets used effectively halfway through the novel, it becomes important at the end, when Uncle Enzo gets her a replacement, and is fighting Raven. He uses the sonic blast device to shatter all of Raven's glass knives.
* NealStephenson's ''{{Anathem}}'' has a character suggest about one-quarter way in using a sextant as weapon against a heavily armed alien space vehicle. About three-quarters into the book, they use a sextant as part of their plan to invade said heavily armed alien space vehicle.
* THE ONE RING. It is just this random magical ring that Bilbo wins from Gollum in ''TheHobbit'', but in ''LordOfTheRings'' it's revealed that it's the most dangerous artifact in existence, and crucial for the return of [[BigBad Sauron]], driving the entire plot.
** Almost all of the items given to the Fellowship by Galadriel. Whether it's characters not being spotted from afar due to their elvish cloaks, a supernatural flashlight, magic dirt, or even a belt that only serves to identify a dead character for sure.
*** Well, except for Gimli's Galadriel-hair. He just made a necklace out of it...
*** As examples of this trope turning into an {{Asspull}}, the scene where Galadriel gives these items to the Fellowship was edited out of the theatrical release, yet most of them are specifically referenced during the remainder of the trilogy.
** The hobbits first acquire elven daggers in the Barrow-Downs during Book 1, a relatively unimportant plot point until Book 5 when [[spoiler: Merry stabs the Lord of the Nazgul behind the knee, weakening him for the final kill by Eowyn]]. This is made possible only by the fact that [[spoiler: Merry's blade was specifically designed for combat against the enemies in Angmar, under the rule of this very foe, the Witch-King of Angmar]].
** On the subject of Tolkien, ''TheSilmarillion'' introduces a Chekhov's gun in the chapter concerning the creation of dwarves by Aulë, where the Sheperds of the Trees (ents) are created by Aulë's spouse Yavanna to counter their harmful axes. Ents are never mentioned again throughout the book until [[spoiler: following the slaying of Thingol in Doriath by the dwarves of Belegost, the dwarves flee eastward to the mountains with the prized necklace of Thingol only to meet the Shepherds of the Trees who rise up and defeat them]].
* Happens often enough in the ''HarryPotter'' series that fans used to obsess over seemingly every little detail in the books in an often fruitless attempt to figure out what would happen in the coming book or books... but only a few picked up on Dumbledore's put-outer, i.e. Deluminator, introduced at the very beginning of book one, which became of importance in the seventh and final book, a sort of long-term Chekhov's Gun that was apparently too subtle and too weirdly-used for the fandom to easily notice. Of course, it's pointedly reintroduced towards the beginning of the book, making it suddenly a whole lot less subtle and a more traditional Chekhov's Gun, but veiling its importance for that long, in hindsight, is impressive given we're talking about roughly a few ''million'' obsessive fans here.
** One object and action regarding said object is also mentioned in the first book, and built upon in significance in the subsequent books; the Vanishing Cabinet.
** And in contrast, the "chess game" scene in the climax of the first book was expected, quite firmly and very widely, to be of help in predicting one of the people who was going to die in the final book. It wasn't.
** In the second book, Dumbledore introduces Fawkes the Phoenix and recounts the various abilities of the Phoenix species - heavy lifting, loyalty, healing tears - all of which are used in the final scene, to the extent that Harry might as well have replied "Thanks a lot, Q - sorry, Headmaster..."
** For most of the third book, Sirius Black is presented as the main villain. In the very first chapter of the very first book, it was noted that Sirius helped get Harry to safety. (He lent Hagrid his flying motorbike.)
*** This is mentioned in the tavern scene in the third book. Hagrid had an upset rant about how he should've suspect something was wrong when that happened, and believed Sirius gave it away so he wouldn't be noticed while on the run - a flying motorcycle stands out pretty well.
** Several times for Peter Pettigrew. He posed for the first two and a half books as Ron's harmless rat, and turned out to be the responsible for betraying Harry's parents to Voldemort. Both Pettigrew's severed finger and the rat's missing one are mentioned in the third book. Then at the end of that book Harry spares his life: now Peter ows him a life debt. In book 4 Peter receives a silver hand to replace the one he severed as a sacrifice to resurrect Voldemort. Finally, in book 7, he hesitated in killing Harry because of the life debt, and his silver hand choked him to death.
*** In the first chapter of book 4, Voldemort tells Pettigrew that he will soon be of use, assisting him in a task that many of his followers would [[{{Foreshadowing}} cut off their right hands for]]... my mother gave me a strange look when I lol'd.
**** He also warned him (kinda) about the hand: “May your loyalty never waver again, Wormtail.”
** In the 4th book there are several times when bad things happen and a bug just happens to be there. It is later revealed that a nosy reporter can turn into that bug and had been spying on Harry.
** In the first edition of ''The Goblet of Fire'' there is an error at the end: during the Priori Incantatem scene, the order of the murder victim ghosts coming out is wrong (because Harry's mother was killed after his father, she should have come out before he did, but the order was reversed). This led to wild amounts of speculation as whether this was some deeper foreshadowing into the events surrounding the death of Harry's parents... but Rowling later explained what happened: the American editor told her there was a "mistake" (which was actually the correct order) days prior to the release. Because he had spotted some such mistakes in the past, she switched the order without thinking about it. She noticed afterwards and it was fixed for the next printings as well as for the translations.
** Within ''Order of the Phoenix'', the mirror is a subversion: Sirius gives it to Harry as a secure way to get in touch in the event of an emergency. Harry never opens the gift: he has no intent to ever use whatever was inside it, not wanting to risk getting Sirius arrested. At the climax of the book, the mirror would have come in ''very'' handy, but by then Harry never knew he had it. Harry only discovers the mirror as he's packing at the end. (It then becomes a ChekhovsBoomerang in ''Deathly Hallows''.)
*** Another subversion: in book 4 Sirius gives Harry a penknife that can unlock any door and untie any knot. While in the bottom of the lake during the Second Task Harry notices that he could’ve used it, had he remembered to bring it. Then in book 5 he takes the penknife with him to the Ministry, only to end up ruined the only time he tries to use it to open the only locked door they find.
** The various Horcruxes tended to be [=~Chekhov's Gun~=]s more often than not. Figuring out who "RAB" was before the last book came out was easy, but remembering that there was a locket in the house of Black, not so much. And who would've remembered about the diadem hidden in the Room of Requirement?
*** The diadem was very well hidden, because when we first see it JKR calls it a tiara.
**** Justified when, if this troper remembers correctly, Harry had to ask what a diadem ''was.''
*** ThisTroper saw the locket connection but thought it was a bit too coincidental. There's a post-HBP Leaky Cauldron interview with J.K. Rowling (link?) and the first theory proposed was Regulus Black and the locket.
** There are so many important Chekhov's Guns in the series, in fact, that they can often cause ContinuityLockout in [[Film/HarryPotter the movies]]. ThisTroper can't wait to see the plot-hole dancing in the Deathly Hallows movies with no prior nods to the mirror, Ravenclaw's diadem, [[spoiler: Dobby (outside of the second movie)]], or Aberforth.
** Then again, there's the Chekov's Gun no one remembers, of the Bezoar, mentioned in passing at the start of the ''first'' book, and not used in ''any'' manner until the sixth. [[spoiler: Where it get's used to save Ron's life.]]
* ''HonorHarrington'' gets this one in an interesting manner. After the events of the first book, in which Honor and her crew successfully destroy a Q-ship (essentially a warship disguised as a freighter) before it can spark a war, the ship's home nation demands Honor be extradited for murder charges on the grounds that she massacred the crew of an innocent freighter. It's an obvious propaganda ploy, and nobody pays much attention, but later in the series (after said war breaks out anyway), Honor is captured and the murder conviction the court handed down without her present is used as a pretext to ignore interstellar treaties dealing with the treatment of prisoners.
** The first book also has a Gun that used a bit earlier in the series: the beginning of the first book shows Honor's ship getting outfitted with a Gravity Lance, which she has to figure out a way to use in war games. It is repeatedly discussed how impractical the device is for real combat situation. This same ship is the one she used against the Q-ship mentioned above. In the end, the only way Honor can defeat the Q-ship is by using the Gravity Lance.
** The Gravity Lance ''was'' impractical. The reason it's the only way she can destroy the Q-ship is because it's the only effective weapon she really ''has'' because of the weapon refit (which stripped her ship of most of its conventional armaments), and she can only use it by getting suicidally close to the Q-ship. It's mentioned by several characters that she could have done a ''lot'' more damage to the Q-ship right off the bat if the ship hadn't been refitted at the beginning of the book. The only reason she won was because of overconfidence on the part of the Q-ship captain.
** There's a much more literal example in ''Honor Among Enemies'': early on we see Honor practicing with her "antique" [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1911_pistol Colt M1911A1]]. Sure enough, later on she uses it to [[spoiler:blow away a man who, like everyone else she kills personally, we're assured [[MoralEventHorizon deserved it]]]].
* Throughout ''TheSparrow'', the author Mary D Russell drops hints about subtle changes being introduced or taking place in the alien environment. The protagonists observe these things without understanding their significance. When they lead to catastrophic conclusions, it is quite a shock, even though each is traceable to an earlier chapter and even though the story opens by telling you the mission was a disaster.
* A major subversion in the ''[[TheDarkswordTrilogy Darksword]]'' trilogy, where in the final book it turns out that [[spoiler:the prophecy driving most of the plot was ''not'' referring to the titular Darksword after all]].
* At the beginning of ''The Wide Window'', the third book in the ''ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' series, Mr. Poe gives the Baudelaire orphans some peppermints - forgetting that the orphans are allergic to them. Later in the story, they end up coming in handy - as the orphans take advantage of their peppermint allergy to get themselves out of a sticky situation.
* Quite literal use in 'Silver Skull' in The Shadow series of pulps, when a gun The Shadow gives to a companion gets smuggled past captors and across the USA, only to be handed back to the Shadow at the climax when his own brace runs empty.
* In the short story "TheToymakersWorkshop", Mr. Silver takes some supplies from a whimpering box while working on the doll. As it turns out, [[spoiler: the box contains the girl he kidnapped and is creating a replacement for.]]
* An ironic version in Camus' ''TheStranger'': Meursault and Raymond get into a fight with some men, including the brother of Raymond's ex-girlfriend. Meursault takes away Raymond's gun so that Raymond doesn't do anything rash. Later on, Meursault encounters the brother, and shoots him for no reason.
* In the ''SkullduggeryPleasant'' novel, the main character's (a skeleton) head is a fake: his real skull was stolen by goblins. This is mentioned as trivia at the time, but becomes important when [[spoiler: they need a part of him to bring him back from another dimension at the end of the third book.]]
* Lampshaded in ''[=~Sophie's World~=]'' with the brass mirror.
* [[AlastairReynolds Chasm City]] manages to feature Chekhov's Brain Surgery. Early on, we hear about an assassin who used GrandTheftMe to kill and replace a loyal retainer. At the climax, we learn that [[spoiler: the protagonist used the same process in reverse, to overwrite his own personality with a different one.]]
* Although Walter Moers has something of a soft spot for the DeusExMachina, he included at least three of these in ''The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear''. [[spoiler: Rumo the Wolpertinger, Nightingale's darkness from deep space, and - oddly enough - Deus X. Machina himself]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Happens in ''{{Alias}}'' with the Bond-like gadgets that Sydney gets, particularly in early episodes, though most of them have a specific and outlined use within missions.
* In a late-season episode of ''{{Andromeda}}'', three crewmembers receive prophecies from an oracle that is "never wrong". By the end of the series (it took two seasons), all of the prophecies have come true. None were disproven or broken.
* ''Angus MacGyver,'' anyone?
* ''ArrestedDevelopment'' is chock full of Chekhov's guns. Nearly every episode has at least one, and there are a few that don't go off until several episodes have passed.
* Emma Peel has a Chekhov's Wardrobe in ''TheAvengers'' (original series). Her clothing style either involved wearing a skirt or a skin-tight SpyCatsuit. Proper British ladies cannot fight in skirts, so she was always wearing her catsuit whenever she became involved in a fight. This may suggest otherwise unmentioned psychic powers she possessed, as her unerring ability to recognize hours before a fight that she would later be involved with one, sometimes requiring her to go home and change clothes before taking other actions. Likewise, if she is seen infiltrating enemy territory in a dress or skirt, it's clear that she will not be caught or otherwise need to pound on said enemies. Either this or we must assume that catsuits cause fights and skirts create peace.
** The one exception to this otherwise hard and fast rule occurs in the episode ''Return of the Cybernauts'', where fashion sense (Emma was going to a formal party) and the plot (she will later attack Steed after being mind controlled) could not be meshed, resulting in an oddly surreal scene where the villain of the piece pulls off her skirt after mind-zapping her so that she can perform the subsequent, oddly stilted, fight scene.
** Calling it a "fight scene" is a stretch; she robo-marches up to an unsuspecting Steed and lays him out a single karate chop.
* The ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'' episode "Grey 17 Is Missing" referenced this by having Garibaldi discuss an antique gun extensively in Act I, which was then not used in the rest of the episode. This was a bit of an in-joke for the people who hung out in rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5; series creator/producer JMichaelStraczynski frequented the newsgroup and often cited "Chekhov's Gun" when talking about TV writing.
** This becomes a double-subversion (partially) when Garibaldi uses the bullets for the gun, which he conveniently put in his pocket, later in the show to defeat the MonsterOfTheWeek.
** Of course there's a far more obvious Chekhov's Gun. The alien healing device is used in one episode in series one, and never mentioned again until the end of series 4.
* The finale of ''BattlestarGalactica''. [[spoiler: "[[RacetracksNukes Racetrack's Nukes]]"]]
** Then there's [[spoiler: Tory's murder of Cally]], which looked for all the world like it would never be brought up again before becoming a key element to the war's resolution [[spoiler:or lack thereof]].
** Another one is early on in the show, when Baltar asks for a nuclear bomb (As per Head Six's order) from Adama, claiming that it's to help his research. The bomb is then detonated and the fallout becomes the most important tool for the Cylons to track down the location of the humans, who settled in a cold but habitable planet.
* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In particular, Season 5, when they faced an unstoppable god. Almost every single episode in that season, including the ones that looked like filler (Warren's [=BuffyBot=], the angry troll who had once been married to Anya, ...) turned out to have a Chekhov's Gun that got used in the big finale.
* Done very nicely in ''DegrassiJuniorHigh'' with [[spoiler:a malfunctioning boiler room and some barrels marked "flammable"]]
* In ''DoctorWho'', the 3-D glasses that the Doctor wears throughout the episode "Doomsday", for no apparent reason until the climax. He [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on it, asking if [[BunnyEarsLawyer anyone's going to ask why he's wearing them]].
** "Warriors of the Deep" features intelligent reptiles as the MonsterOfTheWeek. Early in the story, a character identifies bottles of '[[AppliedPhlebotinum hexachromite gas]]' as lethal to all reptile life, making the climax rather predictable.
** In "Planet of the Ood", the villain, Mr Halpern, is constantly drinking hair tonic given to him by an Ood slave. Later, we find out that the Ood have been feeding him a biological compound... which turns him into one of his own slaves.
** A particularly cool (and long lasting) example of a [=~Chekhov's Gun~=] is the Doctor's hand. It was first severed in "The Christmas Invasion," Jack kept it in his office in ''{{Torchwood}}'' and used it to find the Doctor in "Utopia," the Master used it so he could age the Doctor with his laser screwdriver in "The Sound of Drums," and finally in "Journey's End," the Doctor pushed his regenerative energy into it and when Donna touched it there was a two way "Time Lord-human meta-crisis," in which ''another Doctor'' grew from the hand and Donna was turned half-Time Lord. Which meant that a [=~Chekhov's Gun~=] first appearing in 2005 finally went off in 2008.
*** Speaking of "Journey's End", the previous episode introduced the Osterhagen key, established as a rather obvious Chekhov's Gun; the finale also introduced ''two'' further devices with the potential to end Davros' plans, and characters threaten to use all three at the same time. The whole thing is cleverly subverted when the Daleks casually separate the characters from their respective doomsday devices. All seems lost until the ''real'' Chekhov's Gun goes off when Donna's Time Lord consciousness is awakened from the afore-mentioned "meta-crisis".
** It's subverted in "The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky." Part one goes to some trouble to point out Martha's engagement ring and her reluctance to use guns, leaving the audience to surmise that the absence of one or both of these will tip the Doctor off when she's replaced by an evil clone at the cliffhanger ending. Turns out it's actually neither; instead, the clone just smells wrong. Though, he mentions that this is one of MANY things...
** Bad Wolf, and the rest of the ArcWords.
** In "The Two Doctors", it's established early on that Oscar Botcheby collects moths, and to kill them he uses cyanide rather than ammonia. At the end of the story, the Doctor comes across the cyanide and butterfly net, and uses them to finish off the otherwise far stronger and deadly Shockeye.
** Subverted in "Last of the Time Lords". Early on Martha explicitly introduces a gun that is believed to be the only thing that can kill a Time Lord. Later on the Master easily destroys the gun and it seems like all is lost - until Martha lampshades the ridiculousness of a plot hinging upon "a gun in four parts", then reveals her ''real'' plan.
* In the ''{{Firefly}}'' episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds", Jayne offers up his very favorite gun, Vera, for the new blushing bride. Of course, the Captain refuses, and when the bride betrays them, Jayne happily uses Vera to shut down the electric "net" that would kill them all. Another example in Firefly is Kaylee repeatedly referencing the need for a new part for the engine so they don't get stranded in space. Low and behold, guess what happens in a later episode.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' does this numerous times. One particular example is the train wreck in the first episode. For the first two and a half seasons, we just know it as the train wreck where Claire tests her power by walking through fire and saving a man. However, in Volume Three's flashback episode "Villains", we discover that the train wreck was actually caused by Meredith trying to escape Thompson and the Company.
** This also commonly is used with Sylar's stolen abilities. Whenever he takes an ability, it will play a part in a future episode, often after people tend to forget he got the power. One example is his cryokinesis, which is shown once in the second episode, then doesn't appear again until two of the last four episodes of the season.
*** Another example is his ability to know an object's entire history by a single touch early on in Volume 3. That power then [[spoiler:becomes the most important element into his transformation as Nathan at the end of Volume 4]].
** Prior to Isaac's death, he gave his sketchbook to a seemingly random comic book geek. After going the rest of the season, all of season 2, and most of season three without it, it seemed like a dropped plot line. However, in episode 10 of Volume 3, we find out that this sketchbook is what Matt, Daphne, and Ando need to find out what will happen to Hiro when he goes 16 years into the past.
* If KITT has a new gadget installed on ''KnightRider'', you know Michael will be activating it by the end of the episode. In fact, it'll probably get used ''twice.''
** A slight subversion: I remember one episode (it might have been a two parter or a season premiere) where KITT gets a new button marked "C". I thought it was going to be some new weapon or defensive mechanism, but at the very end of the episode it was revealed to stand for [[spoiler:convertible]].
* Apparently the main employer of Cabot Cove in ''{{Murder She Wrote}}'' is a factory that makes Chekhov Guns.
* ''{{Chuck}}''-ov's Gun: Pilot has a scene where Chuck and other employees are talking about a new virus making the rounds, which infects via porn website. With said knowledge, Chuck later disables a laptop and a bomb along with it, replete with a ThisIsNoTimeForKnitting (in this case, Looking for Porn) moment.
** In a later episode, Chuck and Morgan talk about a guy that sometimes sells them fireworks. Later on Chuck needs to create a distraction in the same general area that the fireworks are being sold. You probably have a vague idea about what happens next.
* Emerson's [[ThisIsNoTimeForKnitting knitting needles]] in episode two of ''PushingDaisies'', and his shovel in episode five.
* Subverted in an episode of ''MidsomerMurders''. We see a character unpacking a backpack and pulling a pistol out and setting it on the table. Later on, we see the killer looking in his window as he has a revelation and rushes off to call the cops. As he leaves the room the camera zooms in on the gun laying on the table. Once in the phone booth, the man is attacked by the killer wielding ... a hammer. The gun never appears again.
* Lampshaded in an episode of ''FatherTed'' where Ted criticises a fellow priest for buying useless objects, in particular a pair of false arms and a remote controlled wheelchair. "What sort of situation would require the use of a pair of fake arms and a remote controlled wheelchair. Only a complete ridiculous one". Later on in the episode however......
** Again, lampshaded in the plane episode, when Ted complains to Dougal that he bought a squeaky phone for a dog, and a tape dispenser which tells you how much you use. The former is used twice for comedic effect, the latter [[spoiler:comes in handy when Ted has to repair a vital fuel line to stop them from crashing.]]
* Subverted in ''TheSopranos'': the grenade in Tony's cupboard is teasingly never used. And, of course, the Russian never returns.
* In ''[[TheColbertReport A Colbert Christmas]]: [[ChristmasSpecial The Greatest Gift Of All]]'', a crossed sword and lightsaber are seen at the beginning hanging on the wall of Stephen's cabin ({{Continuity Nod}}s to the [[TheLordOfTheRings Aragorn]] appearance and the [[ChromaKey Green Screen Challenge]]s respectively). Stephen grabs the lightsaber about halfway through to defend himself against [[spoiler:what he thinks is]] a bear.
* Happens roughly OnceAnEpisode in ''{{House}}'' - House sends the young guns to investigate the PatientOfTheWeek's home, where they find some detail which is either the cause of the disease or evidence that leads House to figure out what's wrong.
** He once solves a case based on the fact that the patient had ''Tic-Tacs''. It's not so much Chekov's Gun as it is Chekov's Secret Satellite Beam Weapon, in that it can ''really'' come out of nowhere.
* Since a single episode of the ''{{Mythbusters}}'' can only showcase a certain number of myths, some of the equipment created for certain myths may appear in the background of certain episodes aired before the episode where it is used is aired. For example, the Faraday Cage used for a myth in the seventh episode of the first season appeared in the background of the same season's first episode.
* A holiday episode of ''[[HomeImprovement Home Improvement]]'' started with Tim and Al practically blinding the ''Tool Time'' audience with some sort of halogen setup. It seemed like a basic opening gag and so I was surprised when Tim's sons activation of the house's Christmas lights (itself a subplot) ''allowed the airliner he was on to land in previously paralyzing fog''.
* Recently used on ''{{Lost}}'': while [[spoiler:travelling back in time to 1954,]] Daniel Faraday is called upon to [[spoiler:disarm an undetonated H-bomb,]] but instead suggests it [[spoiler:be sealed with lead and buried under the logic that, fifty years in the future, it hadn't gone off and destroyed the island, so why worry?]] Anyone who doesn't think it'll come back into play by the end of the season [[ViewersAreMorons doesn't read this wiki]].
** There are countless examples, here is one of the more subtle ones. In Season 3, the Others task Sawyer and Kate with clearing rocks from a dirt region for no discernable purpose. It turns out that they were [[spoiler: clearing a runway, which a plane uses to land on during Season 5.]]
* ''MadMen'', of all shows, recently had a Chekhov's Tractor. Ken Cosgrove brings a John Deere lawnmower into the office ([[FridgeLogic how was he able to fit it in the elevator]]?) and goofs around with it. At the end of the fairly lighthearted episode [[spoiler: a clumsy secretary riding it ''hacks through the foot'' of a suave British redshirt, covering everyone's GorgeousPeriodDress with ''tons of blood'']].
* Done in ''PowerRangers'', in ''[[PowerRangersTimeForce Time Force]]'' The rangers came from the year 3000 which was later revealed to be a razed earth with cities few and very very far between. Fast forward ''eight'' years later in ''[[PowerRangersRPM RPM]]'' we are shown as to how it happens.
* In an early episode of the 2006 ''Series/RobinHood'', the outlaws come across a ledger that details how to experiment with Greek fire (that is, explosives). Robin throws it into the campfire, but the episode ends with Djaq discreetly saving it from the flames. It isn't seen or referenced again until the end of Season 2, where it turns out she was going to give Robin the gift of a pig's head stuffed full of black powder for his birthday. She uses it to [[spoiler: scare an army of mercenaries into delaying their attack, buying the gang enough time for help to arrive.]]
* ''ILoveLucy'' uses the occasional Chekhov's Gun.
** In the episode ''The Freezer'' for example in the first few minutes Fred tells Lucy and Ethel that the furnace is off as he just replaced the fire brick in it and the mortar needs to set. The deactivated furnace then gets used later by Ethel to eavesdrop on Ricky and Fred and again by Lucy to hide seven hundred pounds of beef in. And finally at the end the furnace gets relit, cooking all the hidden beef.
* Parodied in ''ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' in the 'Get Me Hennimore' sketches, which parody old timey sitcoms. A preposterous back story (i.e. a giant jam jar for an Eastern European president, a giant wasp, Hennimore's boss' wife going to a fancy dress party as a wasp) results in a Gilligan Cut to the fallout of a mix-up (Hennimore hitting his boss' wife with a bat).
* The first season of ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'' has several conspicuous scenes where electricity is used to disable Terminators, and Cameron shows the Connors exactly how to remove the processor chip from a Terminator by removing it from Vic. In the premiere for the second season, when Cameron is damaged in the car bombing and goes berserk, the Connors end up using both of these methods against her.
* ''TheShield'' subverted this most notably with the "MAD Document", a notebook/dossier written by Shane Vendrell during season six of series containing EVERY single dirty deed that the Strike Team ever engaged in up until that point in time. Conceived as a means to keep Detectives Vic Mackey and Ronnie Gardocki from retaliating against him after the two discovered that Shane murdered their fellow Strike Team member Curtis "Lem" Lemansky, the notebook is ultimately given to Vic in season seven, when Shane and Vic end up being forced to work together to save their asses. But as the alliance fell apart and Shane dragged Vic's estranged ex-wife into their war, Vic ultimately made the decision to beat both Shane and Ronnie to the punch and narced on both subordinates, via a cliffnotes confession to the first three seasons worth of crimes the Strike Team engaged in. After doing so, Shane contacts Vic and informs him that he's going to narc to the police on everything the Strike Team did, oblivious to the fact that Vic beat him to the punch for the immunity card. But knowing that Shane could find holes in Vic's confession via revealing new crimes that Vic didn't confess to (which would violate the terms of Vic's immunity deal, as far as loopholes go), Vic mockingly told him that not only had he already gotten immunity for his crimes, but added the lie that Vic had used Shane's own MAD Document as the basis for his massive laundry list of confessed crimes, which Vic then promptly badmouth by way of pointing out that it wasn't even as comprehensive as Shane bragged it to be. Shane then promptly went home and murdered his family, then himself after finding himself checked and checkmated by his own plot device.
** Shane has a bad habit of this. In season 4, when he is off the Strike Team, he gets involved with MagnificentBastard Antoine Mitchell, who gets the upper hand on him. The rest of the Strike Team has to save him (because he knows so much, see above), and Lem steals some drugs from a local dealer to leverage him in to helping. Unbeknownst to the team (or the audience), the dealer's girlfriend was an informant who tells her DEA handler about this, and they catch Lem red-handed several episodes later. They try to turn him on the Strike Team and fail, leading Shane to kill Lemansky and set off all of the events of Season 6 and 7, including the creating of the Sins List noted above.
* In an episode of the Australian cop drama ''Blue Heelers'', early in the episode a police officer loses their pen due to it rolling off and falling behind a filing cabinet, to which another officer offhandedly remarks that the cabinet doesn't sit straight. Later on a major plot point develops with another police officer suspected of stealing a vial (containing a blood sample of a suspect) which had mysteriously disappeared - in the end it's revealed the vial had been left on the aforementioned filing cabinet sometime during the episode and had, of course, rolled off and fallen down behind it.
* A conspicuous non-firing of a Gun occurs in ''StargateAtlantis'': A new species of cactus is discovered, and conspicously given to (and named after) Rodney, with the warning "Careful: the needles can break the skin". A bacteria of unknown origin is affecting the entire base, and nobody can figure out where it's coming from. The cactus, however, isn't brought up again, despite it being set up as the explanation. They never do explain the delivery vector or infection method (only that it was brought to the planet a long time ago and that the 'soil samples' didn't have it).
* Played straight in a recent episode of ''{{Taggart}}'' - a suspect's brother has a conviction for modifying replica guns into working firearms, and Burke mentions that one of his guns recently blew up in the face of the user. At the end, the Criminal of the Week points one of these guns at Burke, pulls the trigger... and it blows up in the crim's hand.
* This trope was played for laughs on a ''WayneAndShuster'' parody of the siege of Troy. When Shuster's character suggests the Trojan Horse trick by hiding troops in a giant wooden horse, Wayne's character keeps complaining multiple times as a running gag that he preferred his idea of using a giant cake. At the end of the story, the narrator appears to finish his tale and make a cheap joke about it, only to be suddenly hit in the face with cake. Wayne and Shuster's characters suddenly appear in an inset window with Wayne triumphantly noting, "I told you that cake would come in handy!"
* Season four of ''TheWire'' opens with a humorous scene where one of the characters purchases a nail gun. Several episodes later it becomes integral to the plot.
* Used twice in ''TheXFiles'' Season 5 Episode 4 ''Detour'': once when Mulder and Scully are on a trip to a teambuilding conference with two other anonymous agents (which foreshadows the general theme of the entire episode) and once when the boy Louis is watching ''TheInvisibleMan''.
** Used countless other times in the same series.
* On one episode of ''{{NCIS}}'', Tony steal's [=McGee=]'s apple, munches on it, and tosses the core away in Abby's trash bin. Just yet another example of Tony treating [=McGee=] like the ButtMonkey, right? Yes, except two episodes later we find out that [[spoiler:Chip stole the discared apple in order to get a copy of Tony's teeth marks, and used them to frame Tony for murder]].
* In an episode of ''{{ER}}'', an African woman gives a necklace of the cross to one of the doctors tending her daughter. He claims that he doesn't deserve it, but she calls him a "man of God" for being here, helping them when no one else would. Later on, when captured by the rebels and as they brutally murdered each of their hostages, they were just about to execute the doctor, when they realize he was praying and was wearing the cross, thus believing he was a priest. The woman who gave him the necklace quickly said that even the rebels wouldn't dare harm a "man of God". And so, the rebels let him go.
* [[{{Supernatural}} Dean]] has an [[IconicItem amulet]] that he wears at all times. In the third season episode "A Supernatural Christmas," we find out that Sam gave it to him as a Christmas gift years ago. For many fans it [[MementoMacGuffin represents]] the (sometimes disturbingly) [[HeterosexualLifePartners close]] [[HoYay relationship]] between the two brothers. This was highlighted when Sam was shown to have worn the amulet while Dean was dead (Sam returned it when they were reunited at the beginning of the fourth season). Fast-forward to the second episode of the fifth season, when [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Castiel]] reveals that he needs to borrow the amulet, because [[spoiler: God is missing, and it can be used to find Him, since it glows hot in His presence]].
* ''DesperateHousewives'', given the mystery-based arc plots, has plenty of these.
** A very subtle one occurs in the pilot: during the ColdOpen showing a montage of the chores Mary Alice did on the day of her suicide, the very last one is fetching the mail. We learn later that she was DrivenToSuicide by an anonymous note she received.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mythology]]
* [[GreekMythology Perseus]], prior to his fight against Medusa, gets a number of gifts from the Gods. Every one of them turns out to be critically useful, making this OlderThanDirt.
* In Homer's epic ''TheOdyssey'', the first book/chapter references a number of spears on on the wall at Odysseus's home. At the end, Odysseus and his son use the spears to kill the suitors, among other weapons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* ProfessionalWrestling has used the table the announcers sit by at ringside (and any monitors, voice cables, etc., attached to it) as a weapon so often it became a RunningGag for most of 1998. Even today, any fight going near the Spanish team's announcing table is ''guaranteed'' to result in the fans hoping said table is destroyed. The same goes for any weapons retrieved under the ring, to the point that [[LampshadeHanging even the announcers wonder]] what they were doing under there in the first place. Additionally, whatever wrestler is seen producing a bag of thumbtacks is, as a general rule, going to be the first who is going to end up making contact with the thumbtacks - with the notable exception of TheUndertaker.
** The destruction of the Spanish Announce Table was so prevalent that at one WWE pay-per-view, heel announcer Paul Heyman responded to a wrestler being face-planted on the English table by screeching, [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "The Spanish guys are over there!"]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Gaming]]
* In a game module in the ''StarWars'' RPG, a couple of Squib merchants arguing with another group of merchants near the entrance to a ruined Jedi Academy have a burned out lightsaber for sale. This lightsaber allows you to interact with an important NPC later on, finding out some key info.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* How about guns in Chekhov's own plays? In ''TheSeagull'', Konstantin Treplyev kills a seagull and brings his rifle on stage. The trope is seemingly {{subverted}} when he attempts to use it to suicide and is not successfull, but at the end of the play manages to succeed. In ''Uncle Vanya'', a pistol is introduced early in the play, seemingly innocuous, but used when Vanya attempts homicide in a rage. Annoyingly, a gun is seen in ''The Cherry Orchard'', but never fired.
* Used to great effect in Eugene O'Neill's one act play ''TheEmperorJones'' (1920). In the first scene, the eponymous self-proclaimed Emperor explains to another character how he managed to convince all of his subjects that only bullets made of pure silver could hurt him. To demonstrate his arrogance and overconfidence, he pulls out his gun and shows the other character an actual silver bullet he commissioned himself which he keeps inside the gun's bullet chamber at all times as a final resort in case the vengeful natives finally catch up with him. Naturally, the silver bullet is used towards the end of the play, but in an ironic twist, the actual bullet itself is used to 'kill' a terrifying hallucination dredged up by the Emperor's own mind. In the play's final scene, the report of the gun has given away his position to the vengeful natives, who, upon locating their hated despot in the middle of a dark jungle, riddle the Emperor full of homemade silver bullets.
* Used in Beaumarchais's ''The Marriage of Figaro'': Marcellina makes a throwaway comment in Act I regarding her long-lost son--who is naturally revealed later to be Figaro, conveniently removing his obligation to marry her.
** [[TheMarriageOfFigaro Mozart's opera]] dispenses with the setup, making the {{Luke I Am Your Father}} moment much funnier.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Adventure Games are all over this. If the character adds anything to their inventory, you can almost guarantee it's going to be important for advancing the plot at some point. Of course this depends on the game...some games won't allow you to pick up an item you won't use at some point, but others may have items that ''appear'' to be worthelss because you went through the ''entire'' game without using them; but in fact you could have used that item for an alternative solution to a puzzle.
** Averted, [[{{Troperriffic}} of course]], by the two {{Discworld}} games, where there really are totally useless things to collect, albeit not many, making them more {{Red Herring}}s.
* There are Chekhov's guns all over the place in ''AloneInTheDark'', e.g. an Indian cover, a heavy statuette and others whose use isn't quite obvious at the beginning.
* ''ClockTower3'' uses these with its "Evade Points". For example, in the second chapter of the game, almost right before you meet the Minion of the level, you can check a bottle sitting innocently on a table. Alyssa reads the label, and comments "Sounds Flammable". Shortly thereafter you meet the acid spewing Minion, you use the Evade Point located at the bottle and HilarityEnsues.
** Even better when you come across an oven and throw Scissorwoman into it.
* The original AdventureGame, ''ColossalCave'' (frequently known just as "''Adventure''"), subverts this: there's a room whose description goes on for pages and pages (compared to a few terse lines for other rooms), in an age when computer memory was at an extreme premium. The room has no effect whatsoever on the plot.
** ''SpaceQuest6'' also does this, giving a rather detailed description for something as minor as a small alcove in the floor.
* In ''{{Crysis}}'', during a late-game lull in the action, a technician conspicuously introduces an experimental gun that fires guided nuclear missiles. Your character asks (half-seriously) if he can try it out, and is unsurprisingly denied; of course, you end up retrieving it later after everything goes to hell, and it is instrumental in defeating the final boss.
* Inverted in ''DevilMayCry 3'', where human-sized chess pieces are seen in Mission 4 and must be destroyed to pass an area. 3 missions later, it becomes apparent that these chess pieces, now animated, form a type of enemy. Not something helpful.
* The princess's lute in ''FinalFantasyI'', acquired after the first quest and necessary to complete the last.
* Aeris Gainsborough owns a materia in ''FinalFantasyVII'' that seems to be of no use at all, but proves later to be the materia that summons the ultimate defensive spell, Holy.
* Early in ''FinalFantasyIX'' you are introduced to the Pluto Knights, and are told what their professions and specific duties are for no particular reason. Skip to Disc 3, and you are expected to remember said duties so that they can help defend their DoomedHometown. Doing it perfectly nets you [[DiscOneNuke an awesome accessory]].
* In ''KingsQuest V'', Graham gets a wand in the opening cutscenes that isn't used until the final battle with Mordack.
* In the ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' games, seemingly random, irrelevant things such as a metal detector or a picture of the police mascot are often inexplicably added to the Court Record as evidence. Of course, they will later prove to be crucial in cracking the case. Interestingly, the logical usefulness of an item is almost always inversely proportional to its actual usefulness: murder weapons, security camera videos, and photographs sometimes border on useless, while clay fragments, picket fences, and air tanks are crucial to solving the case.
** The main idea is that the consequential evidence is clearly pointing the guilt of the defendant, and Phoenix's only weapon is to point out the inconsistencies and lies in their testimonies with the seemingly innocuous evidence, as those are the details that everyone overlooks. Phoenix only uses the consequential evidence when he's managed to provoke testimony in conflict with it.
* In ''TheLegendOfZelda: A Link To The Past'', nearly every boss has a piece of equipment that Link can discover to use against it. In fact, TheDragon, Aghanim, can be brought low by the humble Butterfly Net, one of the earliest pieces of equipment found.
** Similarly, in ''Ocarina of Time'' the Deku Nuts that are pretty much useless through the whole game will stun Ganon more effectively than just about any other item.
*** For that matter, in OoT, Gannodorf's magic can be deflected by the common bottle.
*** And then in ''Twilight Princess'', the very first item Link receives is the fishing pole. Seems relatively pointless, other than for...well...fishing. Turns out that, like the net from [=LttP=], it's a weak point for BigBad Ganondorf in the final battle; you can't hit him with it, but you can distract him while you get in a few good shots.
* In ''RatchetAndClank Future'', The Plumber gives you at one point a "3 3/4 centicubit hexagonal washer" "just in case". This item is utterly worthless through the game until the final cutscene, where they use it to fix a device that allows them to escape a sticky situation.
* In ''SuperSmashBros Brawl'', we're treated to a scene early on involving a cardboard box on an enemy ship that inches forward once. Later, Snake pops out, and gives [[HeroicMime the only spoken line]] in the entire mode.
-->'''Snake:''' Kept you waiting, huh?
** Around the same time, you have King Dedede going around, seemingly a villain, [[NeverSayDie "trophy-fying"]] heroes and taking them, seemingly on the same villainous side as Wario. Until he robs him. Then it seems that Dedede just wants to have his own private collection of trophies of the heroes, complete with dressing them up with odd badges, screwing around with the mission at hand (and something Dedede, at his most annoying, would plausibly have done). Until, way at the end it turns out the badges Dedede put on them were time release resurectors, and it was Dedede's plan all along to, in case the heroes failed, save them with his own backup squad. It works, very, very well.
*** This is pretty par for the course for Dedede. He's generally found engaged in activities that are taken as villainous or at least troublesome around the start. Come the ending it turns out that, on such occasions as he wasn't acting in the best interests of everyone at large, he's being mind-controlled by the real villain. He's a bit of a Chekhov's Gunman like that. I think I'm using that right, anyway...
*** The badges Dedede uses have an odd twist on this. When they're first introduced, it's completely understood that they're going to be Chekhov's Guns, and instead the player wonders what part they'll play instead. This is also built up with a scene that Kirby picks up one of them, ponders as to what it is, then runs off. Sure enough, they turn out to be character resurrectors and are key to the plot. However, what's always missed is that Kirby had the one that was presumed to be build-up for the other characters, meaning that he was resurrected too. Quite sneaky!
**** Oh, and also inverted, in that the one Kirby found was Dedede's own one, shown by how Dedede didn't have one for himself, meaning he didn't get resurrected. But it turns out that the ones he put the badges on resurrected him anyway, so it didn't matter.
* In ''FateStayNight'' Unlimited Blade Works scenario, before his death, Lancer activates his Ansuz Rune to burn his dying place for almost no apparent reasons. That action indirectly saved Shiro, Rin and Saber from a fatal, unprepared encounter with Gilgamesh, which forces him to retreat.
** It also ''inverts'' this trope in another instance where the "gun" in question becomes important after its used. In the prologue, Rin uses a literal [[IncrediblyLamePun family jewel]] to save Shiro's life and leaves it with his body. Archer returns it to her later that night. Yet in Unlimited Blade Works and Heavens Feel, Shiro is revealed to have the same jewel, and when Rin sees it she realizes TheReveal, [[spoiler:Archer is who Shiro will become, and he returned the jewel after carrying it for his entire life (and then some) until he saw her again.]]
* [[ChzoMythos 5 Days a Stranger]] has a perfectly textbook example (perhaps intentionally): one of the very first rooms the player enters has a big shotgun hanging up (yes, over the mantelpiece) but you can't walk off with it, because Trilby refuses to lug a big heavy gun around everywhere. The final scene of the game takes place in that room, and the gun is used to solve the final puzzle.
* In ''EarthwormJim'', you launch a cow into the sky at the very beginning of the game. At the game's end, when you defeat the Queen, the cow comes flying down and crashes onto the princess you just saved.
* In ''{{Xenogears}}'', right at the start you can buy an accessory that prevents fuel drain. This is apparently worthless, since pretty much nobody in the game *has* a fuel drain attack... until you reach the final boss battle, where fuel drain can become a crippling problem if you're not careful. (No other stores after this one sell the anti-fuel drain accessory.)
** An available accessory that appears to be worthless, with no indication that you should buy it but without which the final boss battle is unnecessarily hard? That's not an example of this, that's GuideDangIt in action
** What about the Mermaid tear, which you get at the very beginning of the game, and which you can't use until during a certain end-game side-quest?
* In ''SuperRobotWars'', Lamia Loveless (also her distant sister Aschen Brodel) is installed with Code: DTD, which serves as a 'memory reboot', that even her creator Lemon Browning deems "You probably won't need it in this war...". But then in OG Gaiden, it serves to be a truly important device when Axel Almer saved her from Duminuss and ODE influence, by resetting to the point that their alteration never occurred. Her distant sister Aschen from ''Mugen no Frontier'', however, uses it on regular basis to kick the enemy's ass.
* In ''MetalGearSolid'', in every game including the two prequels,the pack of cigarettes is highlighted early on in the game- later, Snake can, and indeed, must, use these to detect security [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]]. Of course, there are [[SmokingIsCool other uses]] for them.
** There's at least one other way to detect the lasers, so he doesn't have to use the cigarette.
** Even more explicitly, in ''Metal Gear 2'' (which is not ''MetalGearSolid 2''; that's the [[OddlyNamedSequel 4th game]]), the seemingly useless lighter and aerosol can are combined to create a flamethrowe which defeats [[FinalBoss Big Boss]].
** The USS Missouri in [=MGS4=] fits this trope. Insignificantly introduced early in the game as a real-life WW2 battleship that had been recommissioned as a training vessel, it later becomes the only ship in the US Navy to survive the BigBad's plan to disable all the weapons in the world(due to not being linked to the "System" which controls all of them), and ends up carrying and supporting the main character in their assault on his floating fortress.
** Another good one :[[spoiler: as Snake is about to shoot himself in front of Big Boss' grave in ''Guns of the Patriots'', he notices that there is a flower bouquet in front of the grave right beside the one he's in front of]]. It makes sense [[spoiler:after the fake credits]] when you realize that said grave marks the resting place of [[spoiler:the Boss, Big Boss' spiritual mother]]. Now guess [[spoiler:who dropped the bouquet before Snake came]].
* In ''{{Halo}} 3'', 343 Guilty Spark has a special eye laser that he uses to fight off Flood and kill Sergeant Johnson.
** Hell, there's a [=~Chekhov's Gun~=] earlier in the ''series''. In the first ''Halo'', Cortana steals Installation 04's Index, the only known way to fire the Halo. At the end of ''Halo 3'', Cortana uses that same Index to fire the new Halo and wipe out the Flood.
** Very few people then remembered that the title of the sub-level where you retrieve the Index is caled 'The Gun Pointed At The Head Of The Universe.' This is a literal Chekhov's Gun.
* ''MassEffect''. Throughout the Citadel there are these innocuous insect creatures called the Keepers, who don't talk to anyone and only seem to exist to keep the impossibly ancient space station running. It turns out that the Keepers' job is to maintain the Citadel because it is a giant Mass Relay that will bring the Reapers into the galaxy. The Keepers' job is to enable civilizations that discover the Citadel to use it without realizing the stations' intent, enabling the Reapers to hit the center of galactic civilization first and without warning.
** Heck, ''Mass Effect'' is replete with these. Who would guess that the Relay Statue was the Conduit? Or that the krogan genophage and the Rachni War would become important plot points on two of the planets you visit later?
** A very subtle example takes place in the Citadel Council tower, if you have Ashley in your party. She'll comment that "I bet these stairs aren't just for show. They'd make for good defensive positions if this place is ever attacked...." Turns out, ''you'' are the one who does the attacking at the endgame.
*** Incidentally, they don't make very good defensive positions.
*** Well, that's kinda GameplayAndStorySegregation. Except instead of story, its a lack of CriticalExistanceFailure in real life.
** A very minor example occurs if you choose all the paragon interactions with the Asari Consort. She gives you a seemingly worthless trinket that you can later use on another planet to unlock a cache of valuable equipment.
* ''FrontMission: Gun Hazard'' winds up giving us a Chekhov's Laser Platform by way of a solar energy collector subcontracted out to TheSyndicate.
* In ''{{Taiyou no Shinden Asteka II}}'' (a.k.a. ''Tombs and Treasure''), you get the lighter from the first room in the game, and it can't be used for anything until the last room in the game, where it's necessary to complete the game.
** Not to mention you obtain a silver key at the same time as the lighter, which is later used to unlock the Temple of the Sun and acquire the game's prime MacGuffin, the Sun Key.
* ''TheWorldEndsWithYou''. In the second chapter, in the cutscene before the second to last boss, Megumi reveals the only thing protecting Neku from his brainwashing is his player pin, so he imobilizes Neku and crushes the pin. It didn't work. Why? Because in waaaaay back in Chapter 2 of the first week, Shiki points out how Neku has 2 player pins, the extra given to him by Josh.
* In ''{{Loom}}'', the first spell cast in the game (and that is periodically replayed to you through it) is the last spell you cast.
* One of the first things the Postal Dude's Bitch says in ''{{Postal 2}}'' (before the game actually starts) is "don't forget my rocky road." At the end of Friday (the last day), she nags the Postal Dude about her rocky road again (after not being mentioned throughout the rest of the game), to which the Postal Dude realizes that he completely forgot about it from the very beginning and shoots himself in the head to escape his wife's nagging. This leads to the events in the addon, ''Apocalypse Weekend''.
* In ''GodOfWar'', the sword-shaped bridge you run over early in the game [[ThatsNoMoon turns out to be a real sword]], and is the weapon needed to finish off the FinalBoss.
* ''MegaMan'' ''loves'' this. It's a safe bet that the most bloody useless Robot Master weapon you get will be the one Wily's weak to. Most extreme offenders: ''[=MM3=]'' (Top Spin) and ''[=MM7=]'' (Wild Coil).
** Averted in ''[=MM1=]'' (Fire Storm) and ''[=MM4=]'' (Pharoh Shot).
* Used and reemphasized to the point of deliberate annoyance in ''SpaceQuest VI''. "Hey, you forgot your fish!"
* ''HotelDusk'' features multiple subversions. First, the inconspicuous sewing machine and adhesive remover that come in a package near the beginning, and whose only introduction is Kyle commenting that they're useless prove to be essential to completing the game. On the other hand, the screwdriver that he repeatedly and visibly proclaims will surely be useful... has absolutely no possible use at any point in the game -- the only thing it can accomplish is getting you a Game Over if you don't put it back at the right time.
* ''TalesOfSymphonia'' drops this in the form of necklace that Lloyd promises to give to Colette. First, Lloyd forgets to make it, then Colette drops a ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies on him, then it breaks, and is forgotten until Colette ''[[AndIMustScream "dies"]]'' and it becomes the MacGuffin that saves her.
** Also, in one alternating cut scene in [[strike: the snowy town I forget how to spell]] Flanoir, depending on who you talk with as Lloyd, you get a different trinket. Later, the trinket saves Lloyd's life by keeping an arrow from piercing his chest.
* The Fire Spears from the first ''{{Suikoden}}''. When first introduced, it seems to serve no purpose, but Odessa insisted that SomedayThisWillComeInHandy. Later, the Liberation Army is [[CurbStompBattle flawlessly beaten]] by Teo's Armored Cavalry... only after getting back the Fire Spears they end up winning.
** The Fire Spears also come back in [[SuikodenII the sequel]], where they're first used to defend the Mercenary Fort against the Highland Army, though they lose effect in the next battle. Shortly after the player [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption loses the second battle]], the Fire Spears are again used to distract Luca Blight while everyone escapes.
* Possibly a case in ''SonicAdventure''. Immediately after the first level (Emerald Coast), Tails explains to Sonic that his new Tornado II prototype is powered by a Chaos Emerald. Near the end of Sonic's story, the monster Chaos gets six of the seven emeralds. Where was the seventh? Still inside the Tornado II. May not directly count for two reasons: 1, the emerald in the airplane is different than the one referenced earlier, and 2, the Chaos Emeralds were established from the very beginning (arguably from previous games) as being supremely important.
* When replaying ''SilentHill'', you find a device in the [[LawyerFriendlyCameo 7-11 lookalike]] that is of no use unless you're at certain locations (e.g. the rooftop of the oxidised Midwich Elementary) through which you get the Alien ending and a raygun for the next replay.
** In ''Silent Hill 3'', you have Heather's pendant in your inventory from the start. There's no indication that it's important and all you see when examining it is a little red bead-like thing inside. This turns out to be the one thing you need at the end of the game. [[spoiler: It's actually the Aglaophotis in pill form. If you use it when Heather is about to birth God, it will cause her to [[YouFailBiologyForever throw up the fetus.]] Caludia eventually swallows it in an attempt to save it and dies a horrible death.]]
* ''{{Lunar}}'': [[VideoGameRemake Silver Star Story Complete]] gives the hero Alex an ocarina item from the very start. It cannot be dropped or sold, and doesn't seem to have much purpose other than to [[InventoryManagementPuzzle take up a valuable spot in Alex's limited inventory]] (in some versions it opens up a sound test, but that's it). He plays it briefly in an opening cutscene and then it's never once mentioned again... [[spoiler: until the very, very end, after defeating the FinalBoss, at which point Alex must use the ocarina to remind [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend Luna]] - who unfortunately at that point has become a [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity sort of deranged]] [[PhysicalGod reincarnated goddess]] - who he is before she kills him.]]
* In ''The Secret of MonkeyIsland'', the pirate drink "grog" is referenced early on, and a pirate in a bar says the stuff is so strong that it can "eat through a pewter mug". It's also described as "the most caustic, volatile substance known to man!" Later, you must use grog to eat through the bars of a prison ... and you have to use ''several'' pewter mugs to transport it there as it keeps eating through them!
** In another example, Guybrush Threepwood comments early on in the first game that he can hold his breath for ten minutes, a skill he considers useless. It ends up working wonders later in the game when he's thrown off a pier with an weight tied to his waist.
** The Monkey Island series often plays this straight, (it is an adventure game, after all). It almost always subverts it as well. While most items you pick up must or can be used at one point or another, there are always a couple items you can pick up (usually towards the beginning of the game) that have no use whatsoever except for humor value or extra background flavor.
**Possibly the best use of this trope is when Stan hands you a bunch of random advertising pamphlets, seemingly with no use whatsoever. However, one of them just happens to be called "How to Get Ahead in Navigating". And when you encounter a group of people looking for a navigating head...
* Done in ''{{Castlevania}}: Dawn of Sorrow''; at one point, Soma is given a good luck charm from Mina Hakuba, his [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend not-girlfriend]]. If you don't equip this item before going into a certain cutscene, [[spoiler: Soma falls for the trap set by the villain and becomes Dracula.]] It's also done later on to get even further in the game; beating the boss Paranoia gets you the ability to enter mirrors and use them as portals. When you finally reach the pinnacle of the castle where Dario is waiting, you notice a demon lurking in the mirror behind him, boosting his power. Entering the mirror triggers the ''real'' boss fight with Aguni. Beating Dario just ends the game prematurely.
* Subverted in ''{{Left 4 Dead}}''. In the No Mercy campaign, there was an incident where the pilot who's gonna save you says there was an incident that happened. If you went through the commentaries, you would know that original, it would be revealed he picked up an infected person who bit him, which caused the helicopter to crash after he turned as well. This was scrapped because, as playtests showed, people felt that a sense of accomplishment was taken away from them by that scene, so they just got rid of that ending bit, rather than fix it.
** This is acually soon to be un-subverted. Valve has just announced a new campaign that takes place after No Mercy where the helicopter crashes called "Crash Course."
* ''DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'' uses Flonne's pendant in this fashion. One, it's an indicator of Laharl's CharacterDevelopment (it burns hotter than the ''magma'' he fished it out of when it's introduced but does nothing when he grabs it near the end). Second, it's a sneak peek at the motives of two other characters who touch it - Dark Adonis Vyers (aka Mid-Boss [[spoiler:aka benevolent Overlord King Krichevskoy]]) and Vulcanus ([[spoiler:whose intentions are just as evil as he looks]]).
** The four leaf clover seal on Rozalin in the second game. Turns out to be a seal on the real Overlord Zenon, a CosmicHorror level overlord.
* The ''NancyDrew'' games are in love with this trope. There are many instances where the player will come across something that appears to be useless until the end of the game, which include:
** The fire alarm in the second game, which will guarentee a game over if pulled too early, but will save Nancy's life at the end of the game,
*** The chandelier in the third game, which once again guarentees a game over if untied too early, but is used to trap the culprit at the end, and
**** A ring won on the carousel in the eigth game that becomes useful not once, but ''twice'' at the end. And these are just a ''few'' examples...
* The chalice in ''[[TheUninvited Uninvited]]'' serves no ready purpose, yet you're forced to take it along in order to open a door about halfway through the game. [[spoiler:Then in the very last room, it's the only thing that can kill the final boss. The only real clue to this is that if you happen to examine it, it emits a sparkle, which was never in the item description before.]]
* {{Lampshaded}} in ''Discworld Noir'', when Lewton notices a grappling hook behind the troll he's trying to question. Sure enough, while he can't collect it immediately, he gets to use it later. "I couldn't have been more interested if it had had 'Plot Device' written all over it."
* The first day of the first route of ''{{Tsukihime}}'' has Shiki bringing an unidentified white ribbon with him for no particular reason. When you eventually get to the maid's routes, [[spoiler:it's revealed this is a keepsake Kohaku gave as a sort of promise for him to come back and give it back to her. The importance he places on it, whether or not he remembers and also identifies whose it is becomes ''very'' important. As in, Akiha and Kohaku can die if he thinks Hisui gave it to him.]] Not bad for an item mentioned in one sentence offhandedly when Shiki is unpacking, eh?
* Semi-subverted in the first ''Broken Sword''. At the start of the game George is shocked with a hand buzzer by the owner of a joke shop, who then laughs and gives it to him as a gift. When George tries to pull this prank on anyone else in the game, they all refuse to shake his hand for one reason or another. It's only when an assassin has George helpless at gunpoint at the top of a mountain that George gets a chance to use it, shocking the assassin and dramatically leaping to safety while he fumbles with his gun.

* Many of the ''FightingFantasy'' gamebooks published in the United Kingdom have the reader collect all sorts of strange odds and ends, most of which seem to have no possible possible justification for the adventurer taking them along. Naturally, those seemingly useless items end up being just what the reader needs to get him- or herself out of trouble, or otherwise make an enemy easier to defeat.
* Most of the early text based adventure games (''Adventure and the Zorks; e.g.'') had you controlling a character traveling through what was essentially a maze of rooms in which were occasionally placed certain things that you would use later; i.e. "You're in a small room with exits to the east and the north. You see a small table here. You see a flashlight here." You could generally plan on needing that flashlight later so you would, "get flashlight".
** Similar to the above example, nearly every Adventure game, such as KingsQuest or MonkeyIsland, has your character collecting seemingly random items, all of which will be used later. One game that averted this was the original ManiacMansion game, which, due to having multiple characters and multiple endings, had many items that were worthless if you had the wrong party. It also had items that were completely worthless no matter what, such as the chain saw, which had no fuel.
*** Interestingly, the sequel goes back to the traditional tactic of not only having every single item be used at least once, but if the item is small enough to be passed through time, it will be needed in another time.
*** The only item that's never used is the hubcap....and you can not pick it up.
** Standard policy for adventure games is that if it's not nailed down, take it, you'll need it. If it IS nailed down, ''find a way to remove the nails'' and take it. And take the nails too. Many, many early adventure games ''punished'' people for following this advice before realizing that it was a bad idea. For example, in ''Uninvited'', picking up a certain seemingly important gem results in being demonically possessed about three turns later. Whoops.
* ''MonkeyIsland 2: [=LeChuck=]'s Revenge'' plays with this one. At one point you can pick up a staple remover, which Guybrush remarks will probably come in handy. Contrary to almost everything else you find, it is never useful.
** There's a staple remover in the first game as well. It is also useless.
* Many adventure and RPG games [[TooAwesomeToUse condition pack-ratting behavior]] as an inventory management pressure, especially if there are inventory limitations and/or economic necessities. Not all games give clues whether the items are useful for problem-solving, or at least for uncovering Easter Eggs, or just VendorJunk or completely dead weight. Recently the games have gotten easier by simply making the 'Handy' things undroppable/unsaleable, rather than more intuitive in their problem-solving application.
* ''ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlrevis'' introduces us to Sulpher, SnarkyNonhumanSidekick [[{{Familiar}} Mana]] of TheHero Vayne. Sulpher knows a lot more of what's going on than what he's been letting on, and he is quite strange for any ordinary Mana, and that's saying something. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Sulpher is '''''not''' a Mana''. He's just an ''ordinary house cat''. ''Vayne'', on the other hand...]]
* In ''{{Fallout}} 3]] when you first enter the Citadel laboratory you see a giant robot that some scientists are working on. At the end of the game they finally get it to work and help you in the assault on the memorial.
** The code for activating the machine at the end of the game, [[spoiler:saving the wasteland and sacrificing your life]], turns out to be [[spoiler:the numbers of your mother's favourite verse]]. Your father mentions this conspicuously so far back that you're an infant at the time.
* In ''Drawn To Life: The Next chapter'' for the ds, Mike eventually turns out to be a key character (he's the reason [[EvilAllAlong Mari turned to Wilfre]]).
* At the beginning of the ''CallOfJuarez: Bound in Blood'', Ray and Thomas kill an entire company of Union troops attacking their family estate. Later, Colonel Barnesby and his men come by and collect all the rifles off the dead troops. These rifles become a major MacGuffin later in the game's main plot.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''UnforgottenRealms'' subverts this by having Schmoopy cause his body to revert to wolf form... just because he might not get another chance.
-->'''Eluamous:''' Why the hell did you make him do that?
-->'''Schmoopy:''' Dude, I don't want to waste a perfectly good plot device we ended up spending, like, three episodes setting up just because we're not gonna end up using it!
* A MythologyGag referencing [[spoiler: OneMoreDay]] is used at the beginning of the second season of ''MarvelVsDC: Happy Hour''. It becomes an an essential plot point at the end of the season.
--->[[spoiler: Spider-man: Bats, I think I might have been married and forgot about it.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''ElGoonishShive'' is somewhat notorious for its use of Chekov's Guns, many of which have yet to go off. Perhaps the most infamous Chekov's Gun is Lord Tedd, who was first mentioned way back in the Sister Arc (and who's effects have been around since the Goo Arc, the first official arc of the series) but who's never been officially confronted.
* ''DinosaurComics'' refers to this trope in their "Literary Technique Comics" series [[http://www.qwantz.com//archive/001018.html here.]]
* ''DominicDeegan'': Luna's tusks are revealed to be [[spoiler: a consequence of a curse placed on humanity by an orc, and her overcoming the stigma of having them enables her to become the savior of their homeland,]] a full ''seven years'' after she and her tusks are originally introduced.
* Lampshaded in ''{{Narbonic}}'': [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic/series.php?view=archive&chapter=10293 Iris describes her fragile valuables and wonders why.]] Dave explains that he causes foreshadowing.
* ''TheOrderOfTheStick'' has a few examples:
** The Belt of Gender-Changing
*** This one is debatable, though, as the author himself stated in the books commentary that he decided to use it after "remembering he has introduced it". Therefore, it wasn't ''meant'' to be a Chekhov's Gun, although it could still be said that it became one.
** Belkar's Ring of Jumping +20
** Elan's Boots of Elvenkind
** Roy's Bag of Tricks
** In fact, almost all of the items the party looted from Xykon's dungeon apply. Haley's gotten ''plenty'' of use out of that Bag of Holding, and even Vaarsuvius's Ring of Wizardry was mentioned in passing. The only exception is Durkon's Amulet of Natural Armor, though to be fair, the item has a passive, "always on" type of ability.
** Subverted in at least one instance: the comic's forums were [[EpilepticTree wildly speculating]] about [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what had happened]] to a [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0435.html poisoned arrow]] that was misfired. The next comic featured the arrow, in a highly unlikely trajectory, narrowly missing all the most popular potential targets only to bounce off V's protection from arrows.
** Even the ''cast page'' has one, maybe two:
*** Until recently, Haley's panel contained a giant diamond. The cast needed 5000gp worth of diamonds to [[spoiler:resurrect Roy]], so Haley just took the diamond and replaced it with "IO Me: one big-ass diamond."
*** One that has yet to be fired is [[spoiler:the rather conspicuous absence of a last name for Elan]], because he is probably [[spoiler:the son of the warlord who's captured Haley's father]].
** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0092.html Explosive]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0173.html Runes]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0220.html were]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0221.html used]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0317.html before]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0317.html a]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0323.html sudden]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0659.html 336-episode hiatus]]
** The silver dragon shown dead in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0195.html this]] strip is likely the one he reanimated and rode into the battle at Azure City.
* In ''{{The Adventures Of Dr McNinja}}'', while the titular Doctor is visiting Count Dracula's moon base, he learns that Bruce Lee didn't die; he simply completed his career as the greatest martial artist ever by jumping to the moon. Later, when the Doctor must fight Dracula without any weapons suited for killing vampires, he slips off and gives Bruce a visit, and [[http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=43&issue=11 uses his knowledge well]].
* ''GunnerkriggCourt'' fans speculate wildly on pretty much every background object and character in the comic because of the number of Chekhov's Guns that have already popped up.
* The gold brooch that {{Garanos}} wears for the first five chapters of the comic goes unnoticed and unmentioned, but several chapters later was revealed to be the key to restoring peace in her homeland.
* Early on in ''{{AnsemRetort}}'', Zexion puts a fire cracker ''inside'' Riku. A few episodes later, Riku tries to use a fire elemental attack which backfires and causes said firecracker to ignite which ''splits Riku in half''.
** In Season 6, Axel is seen fighting a shark. The shark appears for only one panel and its only purpose at the time was to show that the characters actually know that they're world is made of pure insanity. Later on, it's revealed that sharks are the only natural predators against werepires (were-wolf vampires...yeah). Lampshaded in that the shark is actually named Checkhov.
* In ''[[EightBitTheater 8-bit Theater]]'', Thief is stated to have Ninja Lawyers. They inevitably prove useless however, since when he finally calls them, they turn out to have been dead for a long time.
** Also, [[spoiler:Black Mage's ability to absorb ambient evil, introduced at Ordeal Castle, turns out to be a vital part of the endgame, as he uses it against everyone, apparently gaining god-like powers]].
*** The Onion Kid, having been continually abused in the strip, is revealed to [[spoiler:become Sarda in a ridiculously complex StableTimeLoop.]]
**** SWORD-CHUCKS, YO!
* Lampshaded in [[http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-03-24 this]] ''{{Concerned}}'' strip.
* In ''IrregularWebcomic'', James Stud was given a literal Chekhov's Gun from Ü. Consider that in every JamesBond film, every gadgets ends up being useful in some way, this probably is the most useful thing ''ever''. And yes, there's a link to this page (and RedHerring, which the strip also talks about).
** From the same author, in ''Darths And Droids'' [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0240.html episode 240]], Morgan-Mar mentions that the would-be assassin of Padme Amidala in Episode 2 possesses shapechanging, and while it is introduced, it is never developed afterwards (in an averted [[CheckhovsGun Checkhov's Gun]]).
** For a straighter ''DarthsAndDroids'' example, see [[http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0023.html this strip]] where Qui-Gon checks his equipment list. [[http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0035.html Sometime later]]...
* [[http://www.rockpapercynic.com/index.php?date=2008-11-26 This]] ''Rock, Paper, Cynic'' comic subverts the concept with a play about pacifists in a gun shop entitled "Chekhov Was a Filthy Liar".
* In ''[[http://www.talesfromthevault.com/thunderstruck Thunderstruck]]'', there are several {{Chekhovs Skill}}s and other elements that are introduced early on and then used later. In a mild variation, there's usually a link below the comic sending readers back to the previous use of the Chekhov's Gun.
* In an early chapter of ''GirlGenius'', Gil shows Agatha a real Heterodyne device that he's trying to figure out what it does. Shortly thereafter, they have to use it to fight a swarm when a Hive is activated. During the battle, other people notice a weird effect going on. ''Years'' later, Gil pulls it out and uses the 'weird effect' brilliantly.
** That's nothing. Phil Foglio seems to be a master of this trope; if there's a detail mentioned somewhere in the story, whether a visual cue, off-hand comment or subtle hint, you can bet it's going to be brought back up later to make for either a major twist, minor gag or even both. Perfect example: when Agatha joins up with the traveling performers, she gets hooked onto the idea of equipping them with the ability to defend themselves. However, after showing Krosp plans for "a merry-go-round that can level a small town", it's never really mentioned again...[[spoiler:...until about three volumes later, when Agatha and her performer friends are about to be executed by Baron Wulfenbach's army, and Agatha gives a special signal. Cue the wagons and circus props suddenly becoming clanks Transformers-style and utterly destroying the Baron's forces.]] Then, finally, as another character is recounting an event at the end of the battle, he mentions that Captain DuPree was found wounded, and she claimed that her injuries were the results of destroying (wait for it) a merry-go-round.
* ''{{Misfile}}'' had glimpses of the Monster XR in Books [[http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=33 1]] and [[http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=195 2]] before it was fully revealed in Book 3. The liner notes for Book 3 show that invoking ChekhovsGun was intentional.
* ''{{Digger}}'' has had at least two so far;
** The Vampire Squash.
** Descending Helix of Fernfossil Clan.
* ''SluggyFreelance'' does this constantly, on a scale comparative to Harry Potter, and during a longer run of stories. Pete Abrams is also very, very good at disguising the Guns, to the point that in June 2009 he was able to reveal that [[spoiler:a character has had the often-used ability to create huge fireballs with her mind]] all along for about a decade, which ''no reader had noticed even though it had been shown several times''.
* The regular ''CyanideAndHappiness'' comics don't have these due to short-form constraints. Their [[http://www.explosm.net/movies/ movies]], however, are a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRPJh-LJq1o delightful exception]].
* Subverted in [[http://mountaincomics.com/2009/07/20/lisa-banes/ this]] ''Mountain Time'' comic, and lampshaded for good measure.
* ''MSPaintAdventures'': both candy corn and 'Sepulchritude' are introduced early in the comic, and the main character has to abstain from their use several times [[spoiler: before being used to kill the final boss.]]
* ''{{MegaTokyo}}'' invokes this several times, with perhaps the greatest example in [[http://megatokyo.com/strip/113 these]] [[http://megatokyo.com/strip/1231 strips]]. Over 8 years apart in writing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* There's an interesting anecdote about ''JohnDiesAtTheEnd'' regarding ''Camel Holocaust'', the "song" that John wrote for his band early in the book. In the original webnovel, the protagonists have to stall a group of monsters at a later date by playing ''Sweet Child O' Mine'' on a set of guitars they stole from Elton John. When the book was to be put into print, however, the issue of copyright came up. The author stared dumbly into space, scratched his butt, and realized that he had left Chekhov's Gun sitting in his back pocket. Thus, the day was saved by [[strike:Fat Jackson's Flap Wagon]] [[AGoodNameForARockBand Three Arm Sally]].
* The Whateley Weapons Fair at [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]] in the WhateleyUniverse. Phase is asked to try a forcefield disruptor by an inventor who has very little cred. It's just the thing Phase needs at the end of the Fair, when someone's weapon makes everything else go haywire. Then, much later, Phase uses another one of the forcefield disruptors in a fight, and it blows up on her.
** The Weapons Fair is turning into a ChekhovsArmoury. The attack devise in Knick-Knack's 'lava lamps'? Used to attack Phase in a much later novel. Phase's run-in with Kew and the Spy Kidz? Important in "Ayla and the Networks". There seems to be a lot of these.
* The web series ''[[http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/archive/cHustle/date/desc commodoreHustle]]'' (by the guys at {{loadingreadyrun}}) introduced Mr. Ballsmatron in episode 7, and other than a few cameos, it never played a role until the season finale, with an ultimate ball kick and its destruction. Making it possibly the first appearance of a Chekhov's Ball-kicking robot.
* ''[[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/ Boatmurdered]]'', a well-known [[LetsPlay succession game]] of ''DwarfFortress'', has an example - an early ruler builds a catapult in the souther parts of the outdoor plains to take out problem elephants, get rid of surplus stone and train siege operators. Due to a lack of manpower and constant attacks, it never sees use and isn't even mentioned again. [[spoiler:When a later ruler allows magma flow from Project Fuck The World to reach the southern parts of the map, it sets the catapult on fire. The smoke clouds and spreading blaze from that one structure ultimately lead to the fortress's downfall.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Like with JamesBond's Q, every gadget that Jerry gives the girls in ''TotallySpies'' gets used in that episode, many of them with even ''more'' ridiculously specialized uses.
* ''WinxClub'': In episode seven of the second season, a character gives a few pixies some jewels, and makes a point about how the season's BigBad is trying to get into some place called Realix by [[GottaCatchThemAll collecting]] four pieces of [[MacGuffin something]] called the Codex... and that there is another way into this Realix place. After we gradually learn what all that means, in episode 26, the season finale, it's revealed that the other way is via those jewels, which had not been seen since they were given to the pixies.
** In the original, however, she just gives them the jewels and says, "As you probably know by now, the situation is extremely critical. These must remain secret. You know what to do." We gradually learn all of the above information as the season progresses (instead of in one fell swoop early on as above), and one of the later episodes also has a flashback to that scene (which the dub cut out).
** Season 4 provides a subversion: [[spoiler: One of their smaller missions ends with them getting a power that can be used to save exactly one person from death. There was quite some [[http://magixclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4126&st=20&start=20 speculation]] over who it would save, and given this show's nature, it ''would'' be used usefully, right? Well, the next episode sees Nabu getting his life drained from him, and naturally Layla decides to use the power on him... and then the season's {{Big Bad}}s take the power from her and waste it on ''a limp flower''.]]
** The 4Kids dub provides an example of [=~Chekhov's Gun~=] being undermined via editing: An episode has Musa and Layla talking about what to perform at a concert she's having, and Layla suggests (and shows) some sort of rain dance. That information later becomes useful to defeat Stormy with. But in the dub version, they just show Musa defeating Stormy with the rain dance, and ''then'' show the scene with Musa and Layla discussing the concert, where Layla's dancing is now just her showing her dance, with any rain-related significance removed. [[http://www.dailymotion.com/SpiderBraids/video/6058724 Clip.]]
** And the reverse happened a few episodes before: While Bloom just randomly shields herself from a Trix attack, the dub has [[LullDestruction an off-screen Tecna telling her]] to use a "Griselda bubble", a shield that their teacher demonstrated in class at the start of the episode.
* This was parodied in an episode of ''{{Stripperella}}'', when the tech group gives Stripperella a penny disintegrator, and she is later trapped in a jar being filled with pennies. Unfortunately, the disintegrator takes a full minute for each penny, so she ends up having to just break the jar.
* In ''TheSimpsons Movie'', Lisa tells Homer how to ride a motorcycle up and down a curved surface, which later enables him to save Springfield.
** Within the show itself, the episode ''The Blunder Years'' has one of the most elaborate uses of this trope ever. Burly paper towels take up a good portion of the first act and then are not mentioned again until the end, when they are hastily re-introduced to resolve the main storyline. TheSimpsons writers often note that events of the first act that set the main plot in motion usually have no bearing on anything else, so the possibility of this being a self-parody or roast are equally good.
** An earlier example: in the episode Krusty Gets Busted. It seems with Krusty gone, Sideshow Bob has some ''[[IncrediblyLamePun big shoes to fill]]''.
** And don't forget ''The Dad Who Knew Too Little'', in which one of the presents Lisa gets for her eighth birthday is a Chekhov's Laser Pointer.
* The ''Codename: KidsNextDoor'' finale has Nigel's teammates tracking him down to a spaceship, thanks to a tracking device that was originally meant to be planted on the Delightful Children.
** In a previous episode, a cigar-shaped-laser that can change a person's age is used on the main villain ([[HoistByHisOwnPetard who had owned it]]). At the very end, we see the Delightful Children from Down the Lane take it. A couple of episodes later, that same device is used to age Numbuh One (and several minor plot elements from previous stories also [[ContinuityNod make a re-appearance]]). This was actually ''the'' very first significant cross-episode use of this trope in this series. Until the DC's showed up with the cigar again, the average viewer most likely would have shrugged the first episode's ending off as a generic OrIsIt ending, not expecting any follow-up whatsoever.
** One of the previous plot elements that makes a re-appearance in the above ep also provides a subversion: An episode begins with the gang training using a HumongousMecha. Later, Numbuh Three calls it in to fight a giant turnip... that promptly smashes it to bits while she's locking and loading. (In fact, [[RunningGag every single appearance]] of the training mecha ends with it [[TheWorfEffect getting smashed or whatever]]... including the one time it actually did anything useful.)
** The Boyfriend Helmet.
** Lizzie's soup in Operation: S.N.O.W.I.N.G.
** Chester's [[LotusEaterMachine Happy Headband]].
* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fans have become incredibly familiar with, and wary of, this trope, as apparently nigh-on EVERYTHING in the show eventually comes back as a major plot point later on.
** The best example is perhaps Uncle Iroh's white-lotus Pai-Sho tile: when first discussed, it is stated that most players regard it as a weak piece (though Iroh mentions that it is the most important piece to his "strategy"), making it seem like an even bigger waste of Zuko's time to go into town to look for one. However, early in the second season, it is revealed that the lotus tile is, in fact, a calling-card for a secret Illuminati organization called The Order of the White Lotus. This point comes up yet again, when, as a parting gift, Sokka's master gives him a white lotus tile, showing that, not only was Sokka's master a member, but Sokka is now an unknowing member himself.
** In the first season's finale, Admiral Zhao mentions entering a library hidden "deep beneath the sands" in his youth, where he learns how to kill the Moon God. Aang and his friends, in turn, unknowingly find ''the same Library'' in the second season, and learn how to defeat the Fire Nation: by attacking the Fire Nation Capitol on The Day of Black Sun.
** The amulet full of water from the Northern Water Tribe's spirit oasis, presented to Katara at the beginning of season two: Shortly before the season finale, Katara shows it to [[AntiVillain Prince Zuko]], explaining that she'd been saving it for something important and suggesting that it could be used to heal his [[GoodScarsEvilScars facial scarring]], by way of foreshadowing the fact that she uses it to save Aang's life at the end of the finale. Too bad that only a few episodes previous, Jet was fatally injured and the spirit oasis water [[ForgottenPhlebotinum was never mentioned]], prompting certain viewers to think that [[HesJustHiding maybe he hadn't been fatally injured after all]]. [[spoiler:They were right the first time.]]
** Zuko's swords, seen hanging on the wall in the first episode, eventually become his weapons of choice as the story progresses; unfortunately for him, it is this signature dual-wielding style which allows Zhao to uncover the truth that Zuko is The Blue Spirit.
** One that nobody saw coming was various appearance of Lion Turtles: a picture of one in "The Library", and the statue and line about one in "Sokka's Master".
** Another that even ''less'' saw coming: Iroh's ''sandal'' Zuko finds while looking for him in the first season. Used in the last episodes to track Iroh using Jun's beast, after Zuko reveals he had it all this time. This series pretty much ''defines'' this trope.
** Toph's bracelet/piece of meteoric iron is something of DoubleSubversion: she missed the time it would be really useful because she didn't have it on her, but it served a mildly useful purpose an episode later.
** During the first episode of the third season, Katara commented, while healing Aang's burn on his back, that she could feel, "a lot of energy twisted up around there". In the very last episode of the series, Aang was hit hard on the scar of said burn. It was what preventing him from using the Avatar state. Cue asskicking the firelord time.
** In a subversion, episode nine features two bizarre closeups of a creepy monkey statue for sale at a bazaar, but it never leads to anything, though the statue does appear on Zuko's ship in episode 13.
** A mild example would be when an inventor gives Aang an updated version of his glider/staff with a snack compartment, telling him it could come in handy. Sure enough, Aang later uses the snack compartment while flying, then commenting, "Wow, it really did come in handy!"
* ''InvaderZim'' "Plague of Babies": Early in the episode, we're introduced to the "Power Amplifier", a device which (evidently) "amplifies" whatever is fed into it -- hence, when its input leads are plugged into Gir's head, it begins "sending out deadly waves of stupidness" (which briefly incapacitates Zim, but his pack is able to "reboot" him). Then at the end of the episode, Zim uses this device to defeat the "baby" aliens.
* In one episode of ''BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'', the team is on an alien spaceship headed for an inhabited planet. On the bridge, they try to figure out how to stop, steer, or otherwise control the space ship, but all they find are things that activate windshield wipers and a cup holder. Later, the alien is revived, and shows them that the cup holder is actually the ship's steering mechanism.
* In Disney's film ''{{Recess}}: School's out'', TJ steals back his lucky baseball from the principal's office. At the end of the film, this baseball is used to foil the evil plan.
* Parodied in ''FamilyGuy'' with Mayor Adam West giving Quagmire a banana and cryptically telling him that "When the time is right, you'll know what to do with it". The banana ultimately proves useless in the end.
** Knowing Mayor West, the intended use hinted at in the cryptic instruction was to use it to have a nourishing snack. We are talking about the guy who swallowed a magazine and Stratego back in the eighties just in case he was ever in a hostage situation that dragged on so long he got bored. Speaking of which, a [=~Chekhov's Gun~=] there, too-in the episode where Brian holds Mayor West hostage, Stewie finds in the candy jar at his grandparents' house, a set of keys to an old model of car that isn't in production any longer. Mayor West agrees to drop all the charges incurred in the hostage situation provided they can give him a set of keys to that exact model of car. Quoth Stewie: "You're welcome."
* This is the plot basis for 95% of all ''DannyPhantom'' episodes, with their numerous Fenton devices.
* Also happens in just about every episode of ''JimmyNeutronBoyGenius''. In his most dire moment, Jimmy will have a "brain blast" and remember some trivial detail or offhand comment from earlier in the episode, and use it to save the day.
* An episode of StormHawks involved Dark Ace getting his hands on [[HumongousMecha a suit of huge robotic armor]]. At the same time, Finn gets enthralled by a transforming puzzle (like an uber Rubix). It kept being conspicuously brought up when the other characters were trying to figure out how to stop Dark Ace. In fact, both the puzzle and the armour were said to drive people insane. It was working up to some revelation that either it could be used to distract Dark Ace as he falls into dimentia (it's even mentioned that he's got diminished mental ability due to the suit) or that somehow the puzzle and suit are related.. Turned out to be mostly red herring though: An offhanded comment about powering it up when it went out of juice was key to victory. The toy itself was uncemoniously melted in the episode's denoument.
* The "No Dogs Allowed" signs in ''[[{{Peanuts}} Snoopy Come Home]]'', which had been tormenting the beagle throughout the film, [[spoiler:until the end, when one sign on Lila's apartment building got Snoopy out of his moral obligation to her, allowing him to return to Charlie Brown.]]
* In a Road Runner/Wile E Coyote cartoon, Wile E sets up a metal gate in the middle of the road that pops up from the ground with the flick of a switch. Road Runner comes by, Wile E flicks the switch...and the trap fails to go off, even when he tries to set it off manually. Frustrated, he tries other attempts to catch the Road Runner. When he finally starts to catch up, they come across the metal gate, which finally pops up, and Wile E slams right into it.
* Used extensively in ''{{Gargoyles}}'' during the Avalon World Tour [[StoryArc Arc]]. In almost every episode, somebody would relate some legend or {{fairy tale}}, and the characters would inevitably end up encountering it.
* This crops up from time to time in ''TheFairlyOddparents'', like Cosmo's thought being elevator music in "Mind Over Magic", or Poof's smile being uplifting in "Wishology: Part III".
* The Dethphone, in its first appearance in ''{{Metalocalypse}}'', a phone that the band created while they were drunk. It has spikes all over it, doesn't get nighttime minutes until 11 PM, and it's basically designed to eat up minutes. Murderface, after getting annoyed with it one last time, ends up using it to kill the troll they summoned early in the episode.
* ''JonnyQuest'' TOS episodes examples: "Mystery of the Lizard Men" (hydrofoil and mirror), "The Robot Spy" (Parapower Ray Gun).
* {{Futurama}}: In "Future Stock", That Eighties Guy mentions that he got himself cryogenically frozen because he had terminal bone-itis and there was no cure in his day. It isn't mentioned again for the rest of the episode...until the very end, where it kills him before he can take full control of Planet Express, and all his shares revert back to Fry, their original owner.
-->"My only regret...is that I have...bone-itis..."
[[/folder]]

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''Aw, come on! There's strawberry frosting all over "As You Like It"!''