Chekhovs Gun / Animated Films

---

• 10+2: The Big Secret:
  • Early on, Infinity discovers a secret passage hidden in the school's basement, leading to a tunnel with a locked door at the end. Later in the movie, Milessima discovers a key that her uncle Aristotle seems very secretive of. When Infinity and Milessima share each of their discoveries, Milessima quickly realizes that the key might open the locked door Infinity found, and waits for an oppurtunity to get the key so they can investigate it. They later do so, and discover the secret library hidden beneath the school.
  • Additionally, when Infinity first opens the Book of Virtues, he takes out the Sapphire clasp keeping it locked and puts it in his pocket so he doesn't lose it. When he and Milessima close the book at Aristotle's insistance, Infinity forgets to put the clasp back. When Miss Zenobia later opens the book, causing it to go berserk, Aristotle is unable to close the book. Milessima remembers that Infinity (who at this point has left the school after Zenobia told him his services were no longer required) still has the clasp, and must contact him and get him to return to the school with the clasp so they can close the book before it destroys the school.
• Arlo the Alligator Boy: The seashell, or "best friend rock", that Arlo shares with Bertie as a friendship present following the "Follow Me Home" number. Arlo's half of the shell washes up on the beach of Seaside by the Seashore along with him after the BSoD Song, which Bertie finds and in turn, uses it to detect where Arlo ended up.
• Barbie movies:
  • In Barbie as Rapunzel, Rapunzel paints a portrait on a door in a nearby kingdom of her tower so she can return without being detected by Gothel. When Gothel finds out where Rapunzel's been going, she casts a spell on the tower forbidding anyone "with a lying heart" from leaving. Rapunzel, who never lied to Gothel, is able to escape. Gothel again tries to imprison Rapunzel but accidentally enters the tower when Rapunzel tricks her into going through the door portrait. Since Gothel lied about Rapunzel's origins and how she had kidnapped the missing princess, Gothel is trapped in the tower by the very spell she made to punish Rapunzel.
  • In Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, Anneliese comments that Julian knows rose is her favorite scent. Later, when Anneliese is kidnapped and her captors forge a note from her saying she's run away, Julian can tell it's fake because the letter is scented with lilac rather than rose.
    • When Anneliese and Erika first meet, they note they're identical appearance to each other aside from their hair color and Erika's lack of the royal birthmark. When Anneliese goes missing and Erika has to impersonate her (complete with a blonde wig), Preminger is able to prove to the Queen that she is an imposter by pulling down her sleeve and showing that she has no birthmark. Even later in the film, Anneliese shows her birthmark to the Queen and Preminger to prove that she is the real princess.
    • The geode mine where Preminger and his henchmen imprison Anneliese and Julian ends up being a precious resource that Anneliese uses to save her kingdom from bankruptcy.
  • In Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses, Rowena has the princesses practice fanning themselves as part of their etiquette training. When the princesses attempt to stop her from poisoning their father King Randolph and taking over the kingdom, Rowena tries to cast a spell on Princess Genevieve to make her dance forever. However, Genevieve pulls out the fan Rowena gave her and uses it to blow the spell dust back onto Rowena instead.
• Big Hero 6 - Upon meeting Baymax for the first time it is stated that the robot can only cease function when the phrase "I am satisfied with my care" is used. This then returns in the final film sequence as the setup for the emotional interaction between Hiro and Baymax where Hiro must leave Baymax behind in the portal.
• BIONICLE: Mask of Light: The Kolhii game shown in the beginning of the movie is the challenge Makuta picks for the climatic duel. Takua even uses the same jump-flip trick.
• Bolt makes masterful use of this trope, in conjunction with the Rule of Three. The beginning of the movie sets up one of Bolt's fictional superpowers, the Super Bark, by giving him a specific ritual to perform before making it. In the middle of the movie, he tries the ritual / Super Bark again to prove to Mittens that he's a superhero; he just barks normally. Finally, when Bolt and his owner Penny are trapped in a fire at the studio, Bolt manages to lead her to an air duct ... and then performs his Super Bark ritual again to bark as loudly as he can down the duct. The echo of his bark along the ducts allows the firemen to locate and rescue them.
  • Additionally, Mittens is shown at the beginning of the movie bullying pigeons to get food for her. One would most likely assume that this behavior (as well as the great lengths she goes to talk about her claws, but never use them) is simply a throwback to her acting like a mob boss, but we later find out it's because she's declawed.
• Brave: The triplets love their desserts. The spell Merida receives from the witch comes in the form of a cake. Not hard to see where this is going.
• A Bug's Life: P.T. Flea's "Flaming Death" trick. Used early on to try and save the show, then used later to expose the bird as a fake, as he was unaware of the plot to use it to scare the grasshoppers away.
• Subverted in The Care Bears Movie, as the key to seal the evil book is brought up, but in the climax is destroyed. Yet one of the Care Bears uses magic to remake the key.
• Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
  • Molly climbs into one of the buckets the chickens use when they're farming as a younger chick. She ends up climbing into one of the fast-food buckets on an upwards conveyor belt to reach the mind-control-collar remote.
  • Rocky introduces popcorn-making early in the film, and it is the key to an improvised escape by the end.
  • Babs brings her knitting, as always. She ends up knitting bindings for a guard who spots her, Mac, and Bunty so that the chickens can check the security camera feed for Molly undisturbed.
  • Rocky lassoes the villain's axe when he swings onto the catwalk to save Ginger and Molly. Later, Rocky is stuck holding on to his wife and daughter as Mrs. Tweedy encroaches on them, and the axe swings back and hits her in the face, saving the chickens.
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Flint's indestructible Spray-On Shoes, which he uses to plug up and deactivate the FLDSMDFR. In the Creative Closing Credits, he repurposes it as a roofing sealant.
• Coco:
  • Imelda's picture is knocked off the ofrenda, and we later find her berating a customs official because the lack of a photo means she can't go to the Land of the Living.
  • At first Héctor's letters to Coco are simply revealed as a Tragic Keepsake, showing that Coco never stopped loving or missing her father, and bringing the family around to embracing music again. Then, a year later, it turns out the letters were instrumental in exposing Ernesto's misdeeds (leaving him condemned in the world of the living as well as the Land of the Dead and his punishment thus complete) and Héctor's reputation restored.
• There were several in Coraline.
  • Coraline finds and almost falls into a well. Later, she uses it to get rid of the key and the Other Mother's hand.
  • It was subtle but the ghost eyes: the little ball that one of the mice was playing with during the circus scene; the pearl ring that the Other Forcible wears during the theatre scene; and the part of the Other Father's tractor during the garden scene.
  • Another subtle one is the Detroit Zoo snowglobe.
  • In a way, the stale taffy after Spink breaks it to reveal the green stone that would later help Coraline find the eyes of the ghost children.
  • The green stone was a (somewhat) obvious Chekhov's Gun. What is less obvious however is how it became one. Just before the second visit to the Otherworld, Coraline baits the jumping mice with a piece of cheese. Once she gets there, it has been transformed into fine cheddar.
• Despicable Me:
  • The stolen pyramid. It's Hidden in Plain Sight for much of the film and seen a few times. At the end, as Vector makes off with the girls in the escape pod, Gru runs up the side of the pyramid to the top in order to grab on to the pod.
  • The girls' dance recital. The girls have to go to dance class so they can practise for it, and it turns out to be on the same day as Gru stealing the moon. Vector then kidnaps the girls so as to get Gru to give him the moon.
  • The piggy bank that the girls later give to Gru is earlier seen when they're packing before meeting Gru face-to-face.
  • Vector cuts a hole in Gru's ship to steal the shrink ray from him. In the climax, Gru loses his grip on Vector's escape pod and avoid falling to his death... by landing in his ship after falling through the same hole.
• Despicable Me 2 has Dr. Nefario's terrible-tasting jelly that he made by combining every berry in the world, which he mixes with the PX-41 antidote to cure Gru's mutated minions. Later on there's Lucy's lipstick taser that she gave to Gru, which he uses to defeat El Macho.
• Epic (2013): The bat sounds MK's father keeps on his phone.
  • The pinned bug armor that's on display.
• The Incredibles:
  • 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.
  • It's also implied that the jet plane from the cape-death montage was put back in danger after the superhero in question, Stratogale, was killed by its engine. Considering that jet engines sometimes do fail when birds hit them, this implication effectively turns this into a nested Chekhov's gun once you see that Syndrome's death, being yanked into its turbine by his cape, was what caused the Manta Plane to explode.
  • Edna fires two missiles into Helen's suit to showcase its invulnerability. This probably explains why Helen was able to protect her kids when her plane took those anti-air missiles.
  • When facing the Omnidroid 10,000, Mr. Incredible recalls his battle with the 9,000 model and remembers its only weakness: "The only thing strong enough to penetrate it is...itself."
  • Dash and Mr. Incredible playing football comes back when Mr. Incredible throws the remote to Dash.
  • The "Kronos" carving in the cavern where Mr. Incredible discovers the skeletal remains of Gazerbeam. It's the password to Syndrome's computer and the name of Syndrome's evil plan.
  • The lava wall in Syndrome's base. Seen first after Mr. Incredible defeats the first Omnidroid, then seen again when he later infiltrates Syndrome's base. Behind the wall is Syndrome's computer, where Mr. Incredible discovers Syndrome's plan.
  • Bob's black car. To stop Syndrome from escaping at the end, Mr. Incredible throws it at him.
• Incredibles 2:
  • The Incredibile from Bob's Glory Days is revealed to be intact and functional halfway through the movie. Later, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack use it to escape from the hypnotized supers that have come to kidnap them.
  • The flare gun Elastigirl uses against Evelyn can be seen briefly moments before when it pops out of the emergency kit.
• Kubo and the Two Strings:
  • You know that bell in the village? Turns out that it's the Helmet Invulnerable, the final item Kubo needs to battle the evil Moon King.
  • The bracelet of his mother's hair Kubo wears and the one he makes out of Beetle's bow string. Both are used to restring his shamisen to defeat his grandfather. Monkey telling him about the power of memories also is one, as Kubo invokes that power in doing so.
  • The lanterns of the deceased which are introduced early on later return during the Final Battle.
• Kung Fu Panda is full of these. In particular, the Final Battle has them come up all the time in rapid succession, referencing everything from Po's sucking in his stomach to specific training he got from Shifu, from what the characters said right before the battle to things right at the beginning of the movie. Basically, they spend the whole movie establishing how the Butt-Monkey can believably fight China's biggest badass.
  • The scene where Mantis is giving Po acupuncture and reveals that it is very hard to find his pressure points under all the fur and fat—this becomes a key plot point during the final battle.
  • At the prison, what seems like a 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."
• Kung Fu Panda 2:
  • In the first movie, Po remarks how Mantis is the same size as his action figure. In the second movie, Po swaps Mantis for his action figure while they were being locked up in chains so Mantis could save them after.
  • Also in the second movie, Po comes across Master Shifu mastering the concept of inner peace by catching a dew drop, rolling it along his arms and shoulders, and depositing it on a nearby leaf. This comes in very handy later when Lord Shen is firing fireworks at Po; he catches them and sends them back at the bad guys, blowing up the battlefleet.
• Leroy & Stitch: With her alien friends leaving the planet, Lilo gives each of them a present to remember her by: a classic Elvis record for Jumba, a simple rock for Pleakley, and a special tiki necklace for Stitch. All three presents have a crucial part in stopping Hämsterviel's plot. Pleakley's rock allows him, Jumba, and Stitch to escape Hämsterviel's black hole deathtrap by redirecting the warp to Planet Turo. Lilo tried calling Stitch earlier, but seeing him not wearing her tiki necklace tipped her off that it was an impostor, leading to her heading to space with 625/Reuben and finally managing to Heel–Face Turn Gantu, as well as meeting Jumba's group when they come from the black hole. Most of all, Jumba used the recording of Aloha Oe to implant a Self-Destruct Mechanism into the experiment of mass destruction that Hämsterviel forced him to create; when the final battle comes and Jumba remembers as much, all they have to do is play the song and Leroy shuts down.
• In The Lion King, there's a cute scene where Simba and his best friend Nala get into two play fights, which Nala easily wins by flipping Simba over while he's on top of her then pinning him down once she's on top. When they end up fighting again years later as adults Nala uses the same move on Simba again and he recognizes her, with the two happily reuniting as lovers. Simba later uses this technique himself to defeat his Evil Uncle Scar during their battle
  Nala: Pinned ya again.
• The Little Mermaid (1989): Comically, Ursula's butt is actually this. When Ariel goes to Ursula early on in the film, Ursula uses many arguments to convince Ariel to give up her voice, including telling Ariel to use her "body language" while Shaking the Rump in what seems like the silliest example. However, near the end of the film, Max the Sheepdog biting Ursula's butt is actually the direct cause of Ursula dropping and breaking her shell necklace, returning Ariel's voice to her. In other words, what seemed like a minor gag about Ursula having a large butt ended up being important to Ariel's victory after all.
• Mavka: The Forest Song: Lukash's flute music has effects on Mavka as he finds out when he plays for her at the village festival. In the climax, when Mavka turns into a fiery being of pure destruction that rejects compassion and love doesn't listen to anyone, Lukash has the idea of playing his flute, which causes Mavka to become her previous self again.
• My Little Pony: A New Generation:
  • The lamp Sunny's father gave her turns out to contain the last gemstone needed to bring magic back to Equestria.
  • In the A Minor Kidroduction segment, Sunny and her father send an invitation out using a paper lantern. After the characters leave Zephyr Heights, Izzy reveals she found the invitation and decided to act on it, hence why she came to Maretime Bay in the first place.
  • The heroes find out soon after reaching Bridlewood that the unicorns are superstitious enough that if they hear certain words note they're forced to perform rituals to un-jinx themselves, with a different ritual for each one. When they're cornered later on by the unicorns Hitch says all four forbidden words at once. This forces every superstitious unicorn there to start going through all four rituals simultaneously, distracting them enough for the protagonists to escape.
• Penguins of Madagascar:
  • The paperclip that Rico coughed up earlier is later used by Private.
  • Similarly, Rico eating Dave's snow globes becomes useful when the penguins need to figure out where he will attack next. They are also used to enhance the ray gun when it is set to return the penguins back to normal.
  • Private's cuteness works like this: it starts off as an obstacle for him to be respected by the others, but eventually powers Dave's gun to reverse the effects of the Medusa Serum.
• Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension features plenty of these:
  • Perry has a reflex where his tail springs up when his neck is scratched. This is something his 2nd dimension counterpart also shares.
  • His hat is also revealed to actually contain a scanner that is used to scan each of Dr. Doof's -inators. He turns out to also have been doing this with Phineas and Ferb's inventions.
  • Doof-2 turned to evil after losing his Choo-Choo train...and ONLY that. When Doof-1 rants about how his childhood was so much worse, he mentions that he never lost his.
• Similariy, Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe has one: Super Super Big Doctor mentions to Candace that her species tend to explode when they get excited, especially if they get free stuff. Candace finds out at the baseball field where the climax takes place that it's free T-shirt day, which she shoots at the aliens.
• The fine folk at Pixar are masters of this, and most of their films have at least a few examples.
  • Finding Nemo alone has at least a dozen. "All drains lead to the ocean." "Sandy says that sea turtles live to a hundred!" "Swim down!"
  • Also, the mine field surrounding Bruce's boat.
    Dory: Hey look! Balloons! It is a party!
    Bruce: Mind your distance, though. Those balloons can be a bit dodgy. You wouldn't want one of them to pop.
  • 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.
  • Andrew Stanton states that the landing pads for the cruise ships serve as one, and the Axiom lands on one at the end.
  • Chekhov most have written Up himself, as it's full of these; 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 holster which he later pulls out to light a rocket that will let him and Buzz catch up to their moving owner...only for a passing car to immediately blow it out. The scene then immediately plays it straight when 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.
  • Toy Story 2 plays this trope straight a few times:
    • Buzz and company thought that the green baggage they were after in the baggage conveyor area carried Woody, but all they find is a camera set. A couple of scenes later, they catch up with Woody at the mercy of Stinky Pete with that camera set. Cue a temporarily blinded Stinky Pete.
    • The first commercial for Al's Toy Barn, and Al's licence plate. Put together, Buzz is able to work out that it was Al that stole Woody, and as a result of that, where he has been taken.
    • A cross-movie one: during the Take Care of the Kids moment from Toy Story (where Woody, clinging to a strap from the moving truck, is being yanked away by Scud), you can clearly hear what sounds like Woody's arm beginning to tear. Now, what happens at the start of this movie?
    • Toy Story 3 also has a straight example. Prior to the film's events, Mrs. Potato Head lost one of her eyes, though she can still see through it when she covers her other eye, or when both eyes are removed. Later in the film, when the toys are at Sunnyside Daycare, Mrs. Potato Head sees Andy frantically looking for them through her missing eye, convincing the toys to return home.
  • Also done for Cars 2, as an aspect of the film is Tow Mater's habit of fanciful storytelling. Since this was a trait not shown in the first film, it was feared that the sudden appearance would look like an Ass Pull, so the "Mater's Tall Tales" shorts were created to establish this two years in advance.
    • Mater's gatling guns which he uses to escape from being tied up in Big Bentley, also count.
  • Turning Red:
    • The red panda Goofy Suit Mei wears during her temple work in the opening is brought back for Tyler's party, where she dons it again to avoid actually becoming the panda.
    • In the first sealing ceremony, Gao mentions in a throwaway line to Mei that any song will work for the ritual so long as it comes from the heart. Later on, Mei's friends get 4*Town and the entire crowd to sing one of 4*Town's songs so that the ritual will work on Ming.
  • Pixar studios likes to put Easter eggs into their movies that turn out to be a reference to their next movie. Anything in the background of any scene can be this. For example, Dug's shadow can be seen as the dog that barks at Remy, and in Up, Lotso-Huggin' Bear can be seen in the little girl's room when Carl floats by. Andy's room in Toy Story 3 features a poster of the same model car as Finn McMissile. And a stuffed Nemo toy is present during one of the final scenes of Monsters, Inc..
• In Robin Hood (1973), Tagalong Rabbit sister can't run as fast as the other children, usually lagging behind. This becomes important in the mass jailbreak as she struggles to keep up with the evacuating villagers and Robin Hood has to double back to retrieve her, leaving him trapped on the opposite side of the gate.
• In The Snow Queen (2012), Orm's ability to turn into a polar bear plays a pivotal role in the climax.
• In Space Jam, early on the Monstars squish Michael Jordan into a basketball in order to humiliate him. During the final seconds of the game, Michael stretches his arm out in order to make a slam dunk from half-court while the Monstars are holding him down.
• Subverted in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, in which he and Patrick are too stupid to properly use the bag of winds that Princess Mindy had given them.
• The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water: One of the seagulls rips off a page of the magic book and drops it into the ocean...which ends up on top of Sandy's treedome. Later, when the gang are stranded on an island by Burger-Beard, SpongeBob uses the page to transform the gang into superheroes.
• In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Cartman is outfitted with a V-Chip that electrocutes him whenever he cusses. At the end of the movie, it malfunctions, allowing Cartman to sling lightning when he cusses.
• In Tangled:
  • Rapunzel's hair glows when its magic is invoked. This comes in handy when she and Flynn/Eugene need light to find their way out of a watery death.
  • At one point in the movie, Rapunzel shoves Gothel into her mirror, causing the mirror to break. Flynn/Eugene would later use a broken glass shard to cut Rapunzel's hair.
  • Rapunzel's painted walls and the hankie Flynn buys from the marketplace are what causes Rapunzel to realize she is the lost princess.
• In Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the official trailer showed a scene where Wallace got stuck coming through the trapdoor to the kitchen and Gromit needed to use a mechanized hammer to get him through. This at first seemed like an amusing gag, but it turned out to be the very driving part of the film concerning Wallace's diet and his unfortunate transformation.
• A Matter of Loaf and Death features the crocodile pit at the zoo, and the fact that Piella was dropped as the Bake-o-Lite girl when she became too fat to fly in the balloon used for the promotions, which combine at the climax to gruesome effect.
• The letter Rat finds in The Willows in Winter (1996) ends up being Toad's salvation during his Darkest Hour.
• Wreck-It Ralph has a few. "Going Turbo", Cy-Bugs becoming what they eat, the volcano, the Code Room (and the fact King Candy can edit it...)
• Beauty and the Beast
  • Maurice's wood-chopping contraption comes in handy during the climax when Chip uses it to free him and Belle when Gaston locks them in the cellar.
  • The Magic Mirror. The first two times it’s mentioned, it doesn’t have any importance to the plot. The third time, however, it’s the reason the Beast lets Belle go. It also proves the Beast exists to Gaston, which starts the climax of the film.
• Zootopia
  • The blueberries grown by Judy's family which she brought along. They look just like the Night Howler-extract pellets which fool Bellwether into gloating and publicly confessing being behind everything.
  • In a darker sense, the fox-repellent spray Judy's parents give her. While she never uses it in the film, during the press conference when Nick asks "Do you think I might try to eat you" and lunges toward her, she instinctively reaches for it. This hurts Nick's feeling and leads to their Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure.

---