Chekhovs Skill / Live-Action Films

• In Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, Alan mentions his skill with air rifles in shooting galleries. This comes into play during the final showdown on the pier.
• In Alice Through the Looking Glass , Alice is easily able to pilot the Chronosphere due to her experience as a ship captain.
• Aliens:
  • "Well, I can drive that loader." Ripley uses it to battle the Alien Queen in the climax.
  • During a lull in the action, Cpl. Hicks takes the time to teach Ripley how to use the Marines' weapons. This allow her to go on her Mama Bear rampage at the end.
• Aquaman (2018):
  • Vulko's spinning defensive maneuver against a regular trident/quindent attack is later employed by Aquaman himself in his final duel with Ocean Master.
  • Arthur's ability to talk to undersea creatures as shown in one of his opening scenes ends up being an almost ludicrously powerful ability when we get to see just what kind of monsters dwell in the deep, including the Trench and especially the Karathen. It even allows him to turn his enemy's mounts against them, simultaneously greatly reducing their effectiveness, while swelling his own ranks.
  • The blade-catch that Vulko taught Arthur is an inversion, as he employed it against his future arch-nemesis before we get a flashback of him learning it.
• The Archer: Lauren is established at the beginning as a champion archer. This is used multiple times later in the film for her to defend herself or Rebecca.
• The Assignment (1997). As part of his training in espionage, the protagonist has to enter a room and work out from what he sees if the woman who owns it is having an affair. Later in the movie he uses similar clues to establish that the woman he's meeting has slipped out to make contact with a hostile surveillance team.
• Black Widow's introduction in The Avengers has her "interrogating" an arms dealer by making him think he's outsmarted her, has her at his mercy, and is free to monologue, thus revealing information. She later uses this same strategy against Loki when he thinks he's caused her to have a Heroic BSoD .
• The Avengers (1998). The beginning of the movie is an Unwinnable Training Simulation in which Steed is practising his hand-to-hand combat skills. Later in the film he fights several opponents using those skills, including some "umbrella-fu" with his Parasol of Pain.
• The Laurel and Hardy version of Babes in Toyland: At the beginning, Stan plays a game that ends up being his main means of attack in the final battle.
• In Back to the Future trilogy:
  • Marty holds onto cars while skateboarding in Part I in 1985. He uses the same trick in 1955 to escape Biff's gang on a plank with wheels, then on a hoverboard in Part II to steal the Almanac from Biff, and then to travel along a train in Part III.
  • Similarly, Marty shows off his ability to play guitar at the beginning of Part I. This just seems to be establishing his character and what type of person he is. This doesn't seem like it will be a useful skill in helping to resolve either of the two main problems of the movie (returning to his own time and getting his parents to fall in love). That is, until the guitarist at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance hurts his hand, and Marty has to fill in as the band's new guitarist to get his parents on to the dance floor together.
  • In Part II Marty shows off his sharp-shooting skills on the 'retro' video arcade game 'Wild Gunman' to two (thoroughly unimpressed) kids. In Part III uses this skill to show off to a Colt salesman who had been teasing him about being afraid to - or not knowing how to - shoot a gun.
  Salesman (shocked): Just tell me one thing, where'd you learn to shoot like that?
  Marty: 7-Eleven.
• In Bandits, Harvey is learning special effects when Joe and Terry first meet him. They will become handy in the last scene.
• Big Game has two, both coming in handy in the same scene:
  • In the beginning, Oskari is shown learning how to mimic a deer calling sound. It comes in handy when he needs something to distract Hazar.
  • During their confrontation, Morris taunts Moore that you have to cock a gun before firing it. Moore uses this newfound knowledge to finish Hazar off.
• In Big Trouble in Little China, Jack catches a bottle as it hurtles toward his face. Later he displays the same skill by catching a knife thrown at him. After both feats, he casually says, "All in the reflexes."
• Parodied in Billy Madison when one of the trivia categories in the final decathlon challenge is "Burning Dog Poo and the Human Response." Billy, who loves the old bag-on-the-doorstep prank, crosses his fingers and mutters "Oh please, oh please..." Naturally, his nemesis Eric doesn't pick it.
• In The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Sam's friend Carlo is an ornithologist, who helped Sam get a job writing a book on the preservation of birds. Carlo's knowledge of birds allows him to identify the cry of a rare bird heard in the background of a tape of the killer's phone call to the police.
• In Birthday Girl, the protagonist is shown rigorously jogging every morning. Later, he is able to catch up to a slow-moving car.
• Cherry Falls: Jodie's self defense lessons that her father taught to her which allow her to toss the killer off the balcony during the climax.
• In Cinderella (2015), Cinderella learns the song Lavender's Blue from her mother.It allows her to be found by the royal search party just as they are about to leave, realizing another female lives on the residence.
• in Conspiracy Theory, Jerry regurlarly observes Alive in her apartment training on an stepper exercising machine. Later, when they get attacked by CIA goons, Jonas gloats that they will get her, but Jerry knows better and tells him "you've never seen her run", and she indeed escapes the scene.
• In Cowboys & Aliens, Meacham spends time teaching "Doc" how to shoot a rifle. Later, Doc uses that rifle to pick off an alien that's about to take down Colonel Dolarhyde.
• Cruel Story of Youth: Makoto's sister Yuki has an old boyfriend, Akimoto—who is a doctor. And a doctor who isn't doing very well, based on his slovenly appearance and his shabby clinic. That proves crucial to the plot later on, when Makoto needs an illegal abortion.
• Dance of the Dead: Gwen uses her cheerleading flips to get through a crowd of zombies in one scene.
• In Dragonheart: A New Beginning, Drake attempts to learn the lost dragon art of breathing ice. He never quite gets it down, but manages to pull it off in the climax of the final battle.
• In the Brazilian film Estômago, the cooking skills that Nonato picks up in his life as a free man later help him after his incarceration to become the prison's cook and to take Bujiú's place at the top.
• Executive Decision: In his very first scene, David Grant lands a small airplane during a flying lesson. He is very nervous about his first solo flight and remarks, "God, why am I doing this?" At the end of the film, both pilots of the hijacked 747 are shot dead and David must land the plane.
• In Ex Machina, Nathan has a regular exercise regimen and is seen using a punching bag more than once in the film; he's quite muscular in stark contrast to the skinny Caleb. When Caleb's plan to free Ava succeeds, Nathan knocks him out with one punch before going to confront Ava.
• Face/Off combines this with Chekhov's Gun when Castor Troy (who thanks to a surgical face swap is posing as Sean Archer) gives a knife to Archer's daughter and teaches her a technique for stabbing someone. Later, after Castor has shown what's Beneath the Mask and is now threatening her, Jamie pulls out the knife he gave her and stabs him the way he taught her.
• One The Flintstones movie subverts it has Fred bowl a perfect game at the beginning. Then later own the villain has kidnapped Wilma and is standing on a bridge over a volcano, Fred picks up a round rock and bowls it at him and completely misses.
• Forrest Gump: Forrest's ability to run very fast. It allows him to escape from bullies and gets him a place on the football team, but it really pays off in Vietnam when he saves the members of his platoon, but especially Bubba as he has to outrun a friendly airstrike.
• Griff's famed ability to shoot to wound in Forty Guns. This allows him to change the outcome of a Shoot the Hostage situation during the final showdown.
• Early on in Frankenstein Island, the protagonists witness the Amazon priestess' ability to control snakes and spiders. During the final battle, she uses spiders to terrify one of the zombie guards. (Exactly why a zombie would be scared of spiders is never addressed.)
• Friday the 13th Part 2: "Come on Ginny! Use some of that child psychology you've been studying!"
• In Galaxy Quest, Jason Nesmith decides to try doing his signature "forward-roll" maneuver (that he hadn't done since the show ended) when the crew first lands on the rock planet. Gwen DeMarco asks Nesmith why he's doing it, and Nesmith remarks that he hasn't done it in many years and wanted to try it out. It comes in handy during the second-last scene where, after Sarris emerges from the wreckage of the ship, Nesmith grabs Tommy Webber's gun before using the forward-roll maneuver and gets in place to shoot him.
• In Gambit, PJ Puznowski is shown early on roping a steer. This comes in handy later when she's facing a guard-lion...
• Inverted in Glass Onion: Miles Bron presents himself as a very clever Techbro with a lot of knowledge, but the more the film goes, the more Benoit Blanc figures out that he is just a very stupid (and murderous) Know-Nothing Know-It-All because of the endless barrage of malapropisms.
• Subverted in Godzilla (2014). Despite repeatedly establishing Ford's EOD tech abilities, the bomb is too damaged to be defused and goes off, though out of range.
• In Godzilla Minus One, Akitsu was initially dismissive of Shikishima as the sniper of their four-man minesweeper crew aboard Shinsei Maru, thinking that someone who used to fly in the air wouldn't be as useful on a naval activity. However, Shikishima's experience as a former fighter pilot means he's able to compensate for the movements of both their boat and the mine when detonating it on the first try. He even explains it partly in effect for Mizushima after the younger man fails to detonate the mine twice.
• Green Room: When Reece shoves Tad into a door, Tiger says, "Ease up, Jiu-Jitsu!" Reece later uses his jiu-jitsu to put the bouncer in an armbar and a rear-naked choke.
• Grindhouse:
  • In Death Proof, it's established early on that two of the four heroines are stunt drivers, just like Stuntman Mike, which comes in handy during the car chase.
  • Planet Terror lampshades the trope, with Cherry listing off a number of her many "useless talents", all of which become quite useful during the final gunfight.
• A Guy Named Joe: The early scenes establish that Dorinda is herself a pretty talented pilot, serving the army in a non-combat role. This sets up the ending where Dorinda commandeers a plane and goes on the bombing raid to the Japanese island by herself, rather than let Ted risk his life.
• The main page quote by Seanbaby ends thusly: "...and it has never been more stupid than in Gymkata." It's hard to argue, given that our hero is trained in a bizarre gymnastics-based martial art, and throughout the film he keeps happening upon scenery perfectly conducive to using it on his foes. It comes to a head of silliness when he blunders into a village filled with dangerous psychos. For whatever reason, there's a pommel horse sitting in the middle of the town square, perfect for using graceful flying splits that the evil villagers can stupidly run face-first into (which they do).
• Hacksaw Ridge: During basic training, Doss fails to tie a knot correctly, instead ending up with a knot that has a double-looped end. He's taunted by his commanding officer for failing. This particular knot ends up being extremely important as it is perfect for lowering injured soldiers off of a cliff, which ends up being exactly what he needs to do. Including his injured commanding officer.
• The Heat: Mullins' groin Russian Roulette on a perp ends up being a subversion: she never had bullets in the gun...which Ashburn only learns after actually shooting a guy in the crotch.
• The Hollow: During fencing practice, Ian demonstrates an unconventional (and illegal) move. He later uses this same move in his final battle against the Horseman.
• In Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, Wayne Szalinski’s 2-year-old son Adam is quite the little escape artist. No matter what his parents try, he always finds a way to escape from his playpen. It becomes an ever greater hassle after he gets zapped by Wayne’s growth ray. Not even Hendrickson could keep him contained in the back of a truck for very long.
  Nick: You can't keep him in that truck!
  Soldier: Don't worry. It's all fixed up. As far as your brother's concerned, it's one big playpen.
  Nick: That's what I mean.
• The Host (2006) has Nam-joo, an archer who tends to hesitate too much. Obviously, both parts of this come into play by the end of the film.
• In Hostel, it's established in early scenes that Paxton speaks German. Later on, he uses it to plead for his life to his German torturer. It doesn't help much — he just ends up with a gag in his mouth as a result — but the torturer is visibly rattled by it.
• In Hot Rod, Rod learns a Tai Chi move that makes the target lose control of their bowels from Denise. In the ending, he uses this technique on his stepfather as a finishing move.
• The Hunger Games:
  • Katniss' hunting skills (via Gale's remark that she "practically lives in the forest") and familiarity with surviving in the wild.
  • Katniss is told early on in training that the Careers can be very arrogant. It comes back to bite them when Clove decides to torture and mock Katniss instead of killing her, which leads to Thresh overhearing that Rue was killed, so he kills Clove in retaliation.
  • Peeta's camouflage skills and strength.
  • Rue stealing a knife from one of the competitors and hiding in the rafters while they fight during training comes back later in the game.
  • Early on in the game, Katniss sees a girl get killed after lighting a fire in the forest (which led the Careers to her position). She later uses the same tactic to draw the Careers away from their supplies.
  • Cato showcases his ability to swiftly break necks after one of his partners fails to protect the food supply. At the climax he threatens to use it again on Peeta.
  • Katniss shoots an apple out of a roasted pig's mouth. She later shoots a sack of apples to set off the alliance's mines.
• Husk: While trying to fix his SUV after the crash, Chris demonstrates that he knows how to hot-wire a car. He later uses this talent to start the truck at the farm.
• Julia Roberts' character in I Love Trouble can palm small objects like coins. This comes in handy at the end of the movie.
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: On board Renaldo's boat, Teddy says that he doesn't know how to swim. Renaldo tells that everyone can swim; it is just a matter of "reach and pull, reach and pull". Later, after Teddy falls into the underground river,he can be heard repeating "reach and pull" to himself as he swims away.
• Early on in Into the Woods, Jack has excellent aim with his rock slingshot, which comes in handy when taking down the giantess. As does Cinderella's ability to talk to birds, which also reveals her Prince's infidelity.
• Early on in I, Robot, Sonny notices Detective Spooner winking at his chief, who then explains that it's a sign of reassurance. Later on, Sonny takes Dr. Calvin hostage after learning about VIKI's plan and threatens Spooner before giving him a wink.
• In Iron Man, Tony Stark is testing his Mk. II armor's flight capabilities, and decides to break the altitude record, just because. He fails because the suit builds up a layer of ice which shorts out its systems; Tony later Hand Waves a fix for this. Later in the movie, he lures the Big Bad Iron Monger to similar altitudes, causing Iron Monger's suit to freeze up while his own suit is protected.
  • In Iron Man 2, a similar thing happens during the fight at his birthday, Tony and Rhodey connect repulsor blasts and cause an explosion, they later use the same technique to defeat Whiplash.
  • Another, more villainous example is Ivan's computer hacking skills.
  • Natasha Romanoff's martial arts skills also come in handy.
• When they arrive in New Orleans in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Sam begs Turner to teach her some moves to defend herself as she's seen Turner and Reacher are both badasses, and so Turner teaches her how to disarm an opponent holding her at gunpoint. Reacher initially dismisses the move as useless, but at the end of the film he signals her to do it when the Hunter is holding her hostage, and doing it allows her to get free, disarm him, and gives Reacher an opening to attack.
• Near the beginning of The Jungle Book (2016), Bagheera explains to Mowgli that Elephants built the jungle, by using their tusks and girth to alter the landscape and direct the rivers. When Mowgli accidentally sets the jungle on fire at the end of the movie, the elephants are seen to redirect the rivers to put out the flames.
• Jasonandthe Argonauts 2000has a textbook example of this trope. When Jason meets him, Laertes is shown bull-vaulting (serious props to them for figuring out how someone actually does this just from a few pictures from Crete). Yes that's a real thing, and yes it's as stupidly dangerous as it sounds. Then about midway through the movie Laertes is shown coaching Jason on the technique on the Argo, in the setup of a scene. Finally, 3/4 of the way through the movie Jason uses the technique to vault onto the back of the fire-breathing bull.
• The Karate Kid (1984): Paint the fence, paint the house, Wax On, Wax Off... Danny Laruso tended to use a new Chekhov's Skill as the main means of defeating opponents at the end of a movie. He tended to get his ass kicked across the screen for the remainder of all three movies. Each film featured a Chekhovs Skill, the most famous one being the Crane Kick. When the crane kick failed in the second movie, Daniel had to turn to the drum technique. The third movie had Daniel psych out his opponent his kata moves he learned, and in the fourth movie Julie used the praying mantis kick. The remake has Drey mimic the woman who was controlling the cobra with extreme concentration.
  • Also from the fourth movie: Julie learning how to fight blindfolded. It comes in handy when she cops A Handful for an Eye.
• In Kill Bill Vol 2, we learn in flashback that the Bride's amazing skills were taught to her by Pai Mei. This is effectively demonstrated in the Texas Funeral sequence (in which the utility of the one-inch punch triggered the flashback in the first place - also a Shout-Out to Bruce Lee). Then she uses the eye-pluck to permanently disable Elle Driver (foreshadowed thrice: a Crazy 88 henchman in Vol. I, Bill mentions it when he delivers her to Pai Mei, then Elle herself, in flashback, suffers it). Later, during the final duel with Bill, we finally see the Bride use Pai Mei's final secret, that he taught no one else: the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.
• In Kingsman: The Secret Service, Eggsy's light fingers — seen early on when he pickpockets the keys to a gangster's car — which he uses late in the movie to swap his poisoned brandy with Arthur's.
• In Knight and Day, Tom Cruise gives Cameron Diaz a patient onscreen lesson on how to break free when an attacker grabs you from behind. She needs that skill a ridiculously short time later.
• Inverted in Knives Out. Harlan says about Ransom, “There is so much of me in that kid: confident, stupid, protected. Playing life like a game without consequences. Until you can’t tell the difference between a stage prop and a real knife.” This precise (lack of) skill on Ransom's part is what ultimately saves Marta.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Allan Quatermain spends a scene teaching Secret Service agent Tom Sawyer how to shoot his elephant gun, counseling him on taking his time and feeling the shot. This is vitally important at the climax, when this skill is needed to take down the escaping Diabolical Mastermind.
• Legally Blonde: Elle has two particular skills which are foreshadowed.
  • Essentially, the entire movie playing Elle's fashionista traits off as comedy acts as this. Not only is she able to identify a gay man with obscure fashion trivia but her information about hair care proves that Chutney was lying during her testimony as someone who has gotten a perm multiple times would avoid taking a shower like Chutney claimed.
  • Early on, during class, Elle is asked to determine an argument either for or against a sperm donor in a theoretical case and instantly comes up with a case based on how it could possibly affect everyone, showing that Elle has a particular knack towards making larger leaps in logic to help her case. This, with the information that Chutney lied about during her trial, is enough to pressure a confession out of the witness.
• Lethal Weapon 2. Riggs wins a bet early in the movie by getting out of a straitjacket because he can dislocate his shoulder. This comes in handy when he is thrown in the ocean in a straitjacket.
• Lone Hero: In the cowboy show where John, Pablo and Tim perform as outlaws, Pablo stages a Railing Kill when shot by the marshal, landing in a hay wagon that conceals a crash mat. After the show, Pablo complains that one of the other two can do the fall next time as he is sick of getting bruised. During the final shootout, Tim is shot by one of the bikers and falls off the roof and lands in the wagon: it having been established that all three of them know how to stage the fall.
• In an early scene in The Loved Ones, Brent is shown rock-climbing without any equipment, including a shot where he pulls himself up almost by his fingertips. This is how he escapes the basement, once Lola heads out and leaves the trapdoor open.
• Similarly, in The Lovely Bones, Lindsey's regular jogging allows her to outrun and escape Harvey.
• Madame Web (2024):
  • Played Straight with Cassie training the girls on how to do CPR, which they use to save her life at the end of the movie.
  • Subverted with Julia's claim that she knows how to fight because she took Tae Kwon Do lessons. She never uses those skills in the film.
• During his magic act at the start of The Mad Magician, Gallico the Great does his own tricks in the style of The Great Rinaldi—a rival Stage Magician—while dressed as, and sounding like, Rinaldi. This hints at the Master of Disguise abilities he will later use to impersonate Ormond and Rinaldi.
• The Korean film The Man from Nowhere builds the plot around an anti-social pawn shop owner who is an ex-Special Forces member who was presumed dead, which explains how he manages to beat the crap out of everyone in the movie.
• The original The Man Who Knew Too Much does it with guns.
• Marathon Man. Dustin Hoffman character's training as a marathon runner comes in handy when he escapes from ex-Nazi Szell and outruns his henchmen.
• In The Martian, the fact that Mark Watney could survive on Mars was strictly connected to his botanist skills and ability to plant potatoes on prepared martian ground. Any other crew member wouldn't be able to survive.
• Near the beginning of The Marvels,Goose, the Flerkin, is shown to devour two Kree soldiers many times her size without gaining size or mass, and to then spit them out unharmed. This ability is used gloriously later on when Fury needs to evacuate the satellite, but doesn't have enough shuttles or escape pods. He orders his staff to let Goose's kittens eat them - that way he only has to find space for the kittens, with the people safely stored inside them.
• In Master and Commander Stephen Maturin's interest in science is a constant thorn in Jack Aubrey's side; right up until one of his zoo specimen's gives him the necessary strategy to take down the enemy ship.
• In Militia, ATF agent Ethan Carter is able to read his partner's email as she's typing it without looking at the screen by simply watching her fingers. Later, when Right Wing Militia Fanatics have hijacked a missile and loaded it with anthrax, he sees one of them type in the abort code (once again, without seeing the screen). Of course, when the time comes, and there are seconds left on the clock, he remembers the code and enters it.
• Mission: Impossible Film Series:
  • Mission: Impossible (1996): Krieger sarcastically mentions he could fly a helicopter into Fort Knox when Ethan explains he wants to break into CIA HQ halfway through the film. In the climax, he actually pilots a helicopter.
  • It's established early on in Mission: Impossible III that Ethan can read lips; one of his superiors later has to silently mouth orders to him, so as not to arouse suspicion from a mole in IMF (except said superior later turns out to be the mole). Also, Ethan's wife is a nurse; the climax of the film has Ethan stopping his heart with an improvised defibrilator, his wife revives him with CPR.
  • At one point in Mission: Impossible II, Ethan free-solos up a mountain. Four movies later, this comes in handy when Ethan has to climb up a ledge to reach a detonator to stop a nuclear bomb from going off.
• In Mortal Engines, Tom's aborted desire to become an aviator becomes crucial in the climax when he pilots the Jenny Haniver into London itself, destroying the city's engine to stop it ramming the shield wall.
• The Mule. Main character Ray is seen early on in the film being a television repairman. This actually saves himself and gets corrupt police officer Paris arrested when he figures how how to hide the heroin that's been in his stomach for 13 days: hiding it inside the hotel room's television.
• In The Mummy (1999) Jonathan's pickpocketing skills are shown off early on when he gets key that opens seemingly every locked Egyptian artifact in existence out of Rick's pocket before the start of the film. He manages to swipe the same key out of Imhotep's robes during a struggle near the end.
• The Mummy Returns: Jonathan and Alex are seen practicing reading hieroglyphics together at the O'Connell residence. Much later in the film, Evy is stabbed to death by Anck-su-namun. Guess who ends up bringing Evy back using the Book of the Dead?
• Mystery Men: It's a Running Gag throughout the film that Invisible Boy can only turn invisible when there are no people watching. Consequently, we never get to see him use his power; he is merely told "your time will come". In the climactic assault on Big Bad Casanova Frankenstein's lair, Invisible Boy is able to turn invisible in front of a camera-operated laser and thus circumvent it.
• No Name on the Bullet: When Gant first meets Luke Canfield, Luke demonstrates his perfect aim with a maul by tossing the hammer so it hangs itself on a hook on the smithy wall. In their final confrontation, Luke uses a thrown maul to shatter the shoulder of Gant's gun arm; destroying his career as a gunfighter.
• Nope: OJ's knowledge as a horse trainer comes in handy because he realizes the reason the UFO is attacking is because it's a living animal that hates being looked at directly and only gets aggressive when its boundaries aren't respected. OJ and his sister are then able to get the better of the alien in the climax by using their knowledge of animal behaviour to predict how it will act.
• Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre: Danny Francesco's throwaway comment about doing his own stunt driving becomes very important when it is time to make a getaway from Greg Simmonds' Turkish compound.
• Our Man Flint. Early in the movie:
  • Flint is shown putting himself in suspended animation and later waking himself up when his watch alarm goes off. He later uses this ability to put himself in suspended animation and appear to be dead so Galaxy will take him to its Island Base.
  • Flint is shown fencing with several men and defeating them. Late in the movie he fences with Rodney.
• In Like Flint. Flint's ability to speak dolphin comes in handy during the aquatic infiltration of the Fabulous Face resort.
• In Outlander, Wulfren challenges Kainen to a friendly contest of shield-jumping, and Kainen turns out to be the first person to match Wulfren's skill. Kainen later volunteers himself and Wulfren to serve as bait to trap a monster: they use shields atop posts as stepping-stones over the pit, and when the monster tries to follow, it falls in.
• Early in Paddington (2014), Judy is shown to be rather good at speaking Bear. This is useful when Paddington roars through a shaft to tell them he's going up to the roof.
• Dugar, a Mongolian nomad in A Pearl in the Forest, can make intricate carvings in wood. After he's arrested and seemingly doomed to execution by Communist State Sec, one of his interrogators notices the carving and asks if he made it. The film ends with Dugar having returned home seven years later, his life apparently saved by his craftsmanship.
• The Perfect Weapon (1991): Jeff is proficient in pole vaulting and uses this skill to get over a high fence when infiltrating Yung's factory.
• Skip is established as an expert pickpocket in the opening scene of Pickup on South Street. This skill later allows him to lift Joey's gun off him before their final confrontation.
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: Will Turner demonstrates his skill at throwing swords in his fight with Jack Sparrow at the beginning. This skill ends up saving Jack's life during the climax, as Will throws his sword to prevent Jack from falling too far when he is hanged.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: Jack escapes from the Dutchman's jail by using the same trick that Will used in the first film to free him.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: while you might not notice it when watching it for the first time, Scrum plays and sings "My Jolly Sailor Bold" at the Captain's Daughter. Later, he has to sing that song in order to attract mermaids.
  • Elizabeth's childhood obsession with pirates comes in handy a few times:
    • In The Curse of the Black Pearl, her knowledge of the Pirate Code allows her to negotiate a Parley with Barbossa and her knowledge of piracy and sailing in general inspires her last-second stunt while the Interceptor is being pursued by the Pearl.
    • In At World's End, she becomes a Pirate Lord, and then Pirate King. She also inspires the troops with a speech about the power of piracy.
• The entire point of Pixels is that main characters' mastery of arcade games, considered useless in twenty first century, suddenly becomes the most demanded skill in the world when aliens attack using old arcade games. On a smaller scale, Bill used to be master of crane games. As it turns out, he still is one.
• In Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Detective Pikachu warns Tim that letting Psyduck's headaches get out of control is not a good idea. He eventually forces Psyduck to get a major headache in order for him to release a mighty Psychic attack that blows away the Greninja squad chasing them.
  • When Detective Pikachu battles Charizard, Tim suggests using Pikachu's strongest move, Volt Tackle. However, it turns out that Pikachu doesn't remember how to use his moves at all, preventing him from pulling it off. Towards the end of the film, when Pikachu has figured out his powers, he remembers this advice and uses Volt Tackle to send Mewtwo, who is being possessed by Big Bad Howard Clifford, crashing into a building.
• In Preservation, Sean shows off to Mike and Wit at the start by sneakily hanging upside-down from a tree. Wit later mimics this in the climax to get the jump on the hunter leader.
• Royal Rendezvous: Cat casually mentions she's a great mechanic during dinner with the Covingtons, and this comes up later when Rory needs her help sabotaging the Duchess' car so she can't drive and hurt herself.
• The Sabata Trilogy: In the first film, Sabata has a habit of flicking silver dollars to people, and is accurate enough to toss one into the coin slot of a player piano from across the room. At the end of the film, he flicks one so it hits the trigger of Stengel's sword gun as it is lying on the table: killing him with his own weapon.
• In The Satan Bug, it is mentioned when the hero Lee Barrett is having is bio sheet read to him that he flew a rescue helicopter while he was in the Army during the Vietnam War, which justifies how he is able to take over the controls of a helicopter after he throws out the pilot who tried to kill him.
• Early in Sister Act, Deloris's backup singers wonder what will happen to the act without Deloris to "pick all the music and tell us where to stand and everything"; i.e., she is the group's music arranger as well as its lead singer, which comes in handy in the convent choir as well.
• Sky High (2005) gives us a bunch of sidekicks, each with rather strange powers (glowing, turning into a guinea pig, melting, making plants grow at will). And they all get their own Crowning Moment of Useful during the prom invasion.
• In Small Time Crooks, several characters comment on Frenchy's cookies before she sets up the shop and becomes successful.
• In A New Hope, Obi-Wan began teaching Luke about how to sense things out with the force and not rely on sight. This was used in a lightsaber training exercise, but a voice from beyond Obi-Wan gives Luke the same advice when it came to making the Million to One Chance of hitting the Death Star's Achilles' Heel, instead of relying on targeting computers that had failed another pilot before.
• In Stick It Wei Wei's dance moves earn her a reprimand early on but win the crowd at nationals; Haley's Buttahara trick is used to protest both her coach's authority and the nationals judges'.
• Throughout Stripped to Kill, Heineman is attempting to to teach Cody that the way to defend yourself against an attacker with a knife is to watch their eyes, not the blade. Guess what saves her life when the confronts the killer?
• In Summer Rental, Jack Chester's experience as an air traffic controller allows him to recognize a microburst of wind when it affects a passing plane. He then uses it to his advantage to overtake Captain Pellet's boat and win the Regatta.
• Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is filled with these. The boys use their power slide to get through a closing security door and the infamous cock push-up to press a security button. While evading the police, KG uses his video game driving skills, though this point was mostly left on the cutting room floor. They use the power of their rocking to save themselves from Satan.
• Tetris (2023):
  • While unsuccessfully trying to get a taxi on his first day in Russian, Henk notices a Russian guy raising a pack of Russian cigarettes easily stopping a taxi. After his Chance Meeting Between Antagonists with Robert Stein, he uses the same trick to quickly get a cab.
  • Henk and Alexey's spatial arrangement skills, developed through playing Tetris allows them to quickly calculate that Alexey's small car is just small enough to slip through the space beside a big truck that's coming their way allowing them to significantly increase the distance between them and the KGB. There is even a Sudden Video-Game Moment before they doing so, displaying Alexey's car, the KGB vehicles and the road as "Tetris Blocks".
• In the South African comedy There's a Zulu On My Stoep (AKA Yankee Zulu), Zulu Mashebela was known as "the champion mud slinger of the world", able to throw mud (or anything mud-like) from a stick with deadly accuracy. In the end, this is not only used to defeat the Big Bad but also to reveal to his daughter that he is her father, who only knew this one fact about him.
• In Thor, Jane Foster's area of research is the creation of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. After the Bifrost Bridge was destroyed, Jane attempts to create a bridge from Earth in order to reach Asgard.
  • Also Loki's ability to create illusionary duplicates of himself. And his knowledge of pathways between the worlds other than the Bifrost.
• In Titanic (1997), Jack teaches Rose how to "spit like a man," and she later uses it to get away from Cal when she distracts him by spitting in his eye.
• Early in the 2008 horror film, Train, when the protagonist is having doubts about her future in wrestling, her boyfriend, who's on the men's team, teaches her a move he calls the "Todd Patterson invincible double leg double hook throw". In the end, she uses this move to take out the last antagonist.
• TRON: Legacy:
  • Sam displays athleticism as he evades Encom security and the police, which he uses to survive the games.
  • Sam's motorcycle skills come in handy when he is in the light cycle games. His BASE-jumping skills, shown as he escapes from the Encom tower, help him and Quorra escape from Clu's quarters. Sam even lampshades this to Kevin.
• In the Serbian film Underground, we learn that the electrician Blacky is completely immune to electric shocks. He can bite a live wire with no discomfort at all. Later, he easily resists Nazi Electric Torture to the point that a confused Nazi captor incapacitates himself trying to test the equipment for malfunction.
• Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. Bobby Zach is taken out with a judo move used on him by Sarah Ryback (humorously). He is soon after shown practicing the move on himself. He finally puts it to some use when he throws skilled mercenary Afifi from a helicopter with the same move.
• Welcome to the Jungle has Chris's status as an Eagle Scout who has earned the Silver Beaver, as well as specifically his hang-gliding merit badge.
• Emily's flag-twirling in White House Down. She uses her flag-twirling skills to wave off the air strike using the presidential flag.
• X-Men Film Series
  • Almost doubles as Fridge Brilliance in X-Men: First Class:
    [Erik asks Charles to help him train by shooting him point-blank]
    Erik: You know I can deflect it!
  • The Wolverine:
    • Japanese swords need to be held with two hands.
    • Mariko mentions while looking at photographs that she's a champion with knives. Her knife-throwing expertise does come in handy.
    • Shingen is introduced kicking ass in kendo.
• Wonder Woman (2017):
  • During the beach battle between the Amazons and the Germans, an Amazon named Melanippe lifts up a shield for Antiope to use as a platform to leap behind some Germans covering behind a large rock before shooting them with her arrows. This is witnessed by Steve and he decides to have Diana do the same trick to eliminate a German sniper hiding in the church tower in Veld later in the movie, with Steve, Sameer, and Chief lifting a large metal panel for Diana to leap off it into the tower.
  • In the beach battle, Diana is shown to be easily avoiding and following a bullet with her eyes, just before it hits and kills an Amazon. This shows that Diana can see incoming bullets and eventually she'll start blocking them.
  • Sameer mentions that he wanted to be an actor but his skin was the wrong color and he then uses his acting ability to pretend to be a stereotypical bumbling servant to get past a German guard.
• Used straight and then inverted in Yes-Man. Carl learns to play guitar, speak Korean, and fly a plane. The ability to speak Korean and play guitar are used to his advantage...but the plane lessons and Korean get him targeted by Homeland Security.
• In Zoolander, Derek Zoolander is obsessed with perfecting his new "Magnum" expression. Later, in the climax, he uses it to stop a shuriken aimed at the Prime Minister of Malaysia, halting the projectile in midair.

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