Chekhov's Skill - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Chekhovs Skill

Rand: I really should be going.
Lan: Yes, you should. Another lesson?
Rand: Sure.
Lan: This move is called "Ending the Book." Use it in a climactic battle at the end of the book against a bad guy.
—The Wheel Of Time mock summaries, by ISAM

Training in any kind of skill, ability, or knowledge that will likely later come in handy. Much like Chekhov's Gun, Chekhov's Skill covers instances where a character takes time in-story to become proficient at something.

If the hero takes time to teach his sweetie a self-defense Judo throw in scene 2, expect this "Distressed Damsel" to throw the Mook holding her into a Shark Pool by scene 5.

This is a counterpoint to I Know Kung Fu, as proficiencies are gained rather than discovered, sometimes from thin air. Taken to extremes, Chekhov's Skill can be used to justify Implausible Fencing Powers or turn the Farm Boy into a gun toting Bad Ass. In frustrating cases, it might go the way of Forgotten Phlebotinum and never see use again. Used well, it can lead to some satisfying heroics from unexpected places.

Chekhov's Skill can also be used as a catalyst for other plot elements by having one character teach another, and getting some good Character Development out of it as well. Or even drive a plot as the seeker looks for a mentor to teach them Chekhov's Skill.

Examples

Anime

The very first Sound Stage of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha had Nanoha trying and failing to do a bind spell. Needless to say, she had to do one properly to catch a Jewel Seed monster by the end of the day. She would later perform this spell in the anime itself during a decisive moment in her final battle against Fate.
- The second season introduces the concept of Transformation Magic through a distraught Shamal when, after finding out how close their master was to the heroes, she makes an offhand comment of how she should have applied it to the Wolkenwritter. When The Reveal came, it turned out that certain other parties didn't forget to apply this useful spell.
- And then there's Area Search, a utility spell Nanoha created way back in the first season to solve a specific problem and has never had the chance to use again... until the last episodes of the third season, which gave the hidden Quattro a very nasty surprise.
A filler arc of Naruto has Naruto walking into a person practicing a technique (naked); we can tell it's Hinata, but he can't, because he's Naruto. She uses this at this at the end to kill a bunch insects the enemies were attacking with.

Film

In Planet Terror, Cherry literally catalogues her "useless skills" most of which involve her ability to bend and flex as a dancer. Damned if they don't come in handy at the end of the picture though.
- And 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 in one of the best car chases this editor has ever seen.
- (Looks at the editor's name, says HEH.)
Face/Off combines this with Chekhov's Gun when the villain(who thanks to a surgical face swap is posing as the hero) gives a knife to the hero's daughter and teaches her a technique for stabbing someone. Later, after he's shown his true colors and is now threatening her, she pulls out the knife he gave her and stabs him the way he taught her.
The sequel to Jurassic Park has exposition that shows that Jeff Goldblum's Malcolm is so estranged from his daughter Kelly, he doesn't even know she was cut from her school's gymnastics team. The real upshot is that, later in the movie, she uses her gymnastic skills to knock a Velociraptor out a window.
- And totally worth it, for: (1) one of the best action scenes in the movie, in a certain troper's opinion, and (2) Jeff Goldblum's one-liner afterward.
In Lethal Weapon 2, Mel Gibson's character demonstrates his ability to dislocate his shoulder to get out of a straight jacket during a bet with his colleagues. Later in the movie he gets tied up and tossed into the sea only to escape the ropes by dislocating his shoulder. He wasn't able to save his girlfriend, however.
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. A subsequent scene HandWaves a fix for this, and later, he lures Iron Monger, the Big Bad wearing a knockoff suit, to similar altitudes. Iron Man's protected from the ice and the knockoff suit is not. Note, the Big Bad survives anyway. So yeah..
The Tenacious D movie had JB learn the power slide and the infamous cock pushup from KG early in the film. Both become crucial in retrieving and escaping with the titular pick of destiny.
In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Mutt mentions that he has taken fencing classes. Later on, he has a swordfight on top of a car chase in the jungle.
Marty McFly in Back To The Future Part II shows Elijah Wood how good he is at playing a shoot 'em up game... his shooting skills sure come in handy in Back to the Future Part III.
- The first film has Marty skateboarding around in the opening scenes. Later on, he escapes Biff in 1955 by fashioning a skateboard out of a scooter. This is also done with Marty's ability at playing the guitar.
The DVD commentary for the film Gladiator says that the short scene of Commodus sparring successfully with several swordsman in the woods only exists to give the audience a sense of urgency later when Commodus fights the Hero.
The wrap-the-ropes-around-the-pole-to-climb-it trick that Mulan figured out during the "I'll Make a Man Out of You" musical number, which she and her comrades used to infiltrate the Emperor's palace.
In Quest For Camelot Kayley defeats Big Bad Ruber by dodging out of the way of his strike at the last moment, causing him to put Excalibur back in the stone, a technique she learned from Garrett earlier in the movie.
The original The Man Who Knew Too Much does it with guns.
"Come on Ginny! Use some of that psychology you've been studying!"
In Mars Attacks, the wife of the boxer guy is upset because her two kid sons are addicted to a shoot-em-up arcade game. Later, while on a school trip to the White House, they take the disintegrator guns of two fallen martians and starts blasting martians away.
In Shaun Of The Dead, the blonde girl use her experience as an actress to help Shaun and his friends act like zombies in order to fool the real zombies.
In Zoolander, Derek Zoolander is obsessed with perfecting his Magnum look. Later, in the climax, he uses Magnum to stop a shurkien aimed at the Prime Minister of Malasya.
In Batman and Robin, Barbara Pennyworth is a street bike racer. Apparently, that's all the traning she needs to become Batgirl.
Paint the fence, catch the fly, Wax On Wax Off...
In Snakes On A Plane, Troy's experience with PSP piloting games allows him save everyone by landing the plane.

Literature

Sometimes happened in Harry Potter. Ron's ability in chess was very useful at the end of the first book. And Harry's patronus helped him several times since the third.
At the beginning of the second Wheel Of Time book, Lan is giving Rand training in swordfighting, and insists to never use the "Heron Wading in the Rushes" technique— a stance lifting your sword high, that leaves yourself open to attack so that you have a chance to strike. I wonder...
Robert Heinlein is rather fond of this trope. The skill in question is usually some sort of mechanical engineering, which the main character does as a hobby, but ends up saving his life later.

Live Action TV

Jericho has Robert teach his daughter to shoot to better defend herself from the uncertainties in their After The End world. Not only does it bring this estranged father and daughter together, but six episodes later she saves his life.
The Sarah Jane Adventures Alan is established as a former Skateboard champ in the first part of one story, guess how he KOs an alien in the second part? It was even joked about as being "Chekhov's Skateboard" on Outpost Gallifrey.
In the MST3K episode Bloodlust, there is an early scene where the heroine goofily tackles the hero (for no apparent reason) causing him to jokingly remark that he shouldn't have gotten involved with "the daughter of a judo expert." Sure enough, the movie later contains a scene where the heroine uses her judo skills to dump a mook into a vat of acid.
- Not to mention Tom saying "Foreshadowing!" when the plot point comes up.
- Of course, she never uses this skill at any other times it would be helpful, such as subduing the Big Bad.
A very subtle example occurs on Pushing Daisies: Lily Charles was a professional synchronised swimmer, which comes handy when she has to hold her breath for a long time.
In Monk in one episode Monk mentions that he played Keep Away a lot when he was younger (as they guy in the middle), right until college, even mentioning his preferred time to start crying. Later on guess what happens? He uses his Keep Away skills to get Natale's car keys back...
- In another, it's revealed that his memory is so amazing that he first got Trudy's phone number when she used his back as a writing surface before giving it to someone else. Guess that scene earlier where that guy wrote something the same way is going to be important...

Video Games

This trope is essentially the basis for the Metroidvania genre of video games, where the player explores an enviroment and obtains new equipment or abilities that allow them to solve puzzles found later on the game. For example, the Metroid series which provides the former half of the genre's name has the player collect the grapple beam to cover large gaps, the Varia suit to protect them from superheat/cooled areas, and so on.
In Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, a dragon (an actual dragon not that kind) is hinted to have a weakness to something hidden in his castle, this turns out to be a badge which makes Mario use cricket sound effects as the boss once got a stomach ache after eating one.
The Legend of Zelda series typically has the boss of each dungeon's weakness based around whatever piece equipment Link finds in (and sometimes before) it. For example, if you find the Bow expect to be shooting arrows at a weak spot, if you find a hammer then expect to smash some armour and so on.
- Early on in The Ocarina Of Time, Link can learn how to use Din's Fire, a reasonably useful area-effect fire spell, but like the other magic spells, not perfectly necessary. It isn't until he gets to the Shadow Temple that Din's Fire becomes essential, as its the only way to light the torches at once and open the doorway.
In Tales Of Eternia, Rid gets the Kyokku skills (Aurora Artes) in three parts. The first two form his two-stage "Hi-Ougi", the high-powered low-HP sort of move most Tales leads get at some point. The last one is completely useless (and unusable) except as a requirement for the final Puzzle Boss.
"Try to remember some of the basics of CQC..." This line and Ocelot's hand gesture became running gags among this troper's friends after playing through Metal Gear Solid 3. The former comes up in a number of cutscenes, in addition to its use throughout the game as a few standard maneuvers.

Webcomics

From A Modest Destiny the main character learns how to control his shadow as a joke. It isn't mentioned again until he's facing down the Big Bad, when he uses this power to defeat him

Western Animation

Avatar The Last Airbender. Their case, lightning: Iroh is briefly seen redirecting a bolt in mid-first season, but it goes completely undiscussed. In the next season premiere, he saves Zuko from Azula using it again. A few episodes later, he decides to teach lighting generation to Zuko, who fails, and then decides to show him a redirection technique instead. Fast forward again to the mid-third season, with Zuko's Calling The Old Man Out sequence. If you've been on this site long enough, you know the rest.
- The first time we see Suki, in the episode "The Warriors Of Kyoshi", she and her fellow warriors capture and tie up the Gaang in rather short order. In Suki's most recent appearance, "The Boiling Rock", these lightning quick bondage skills come in handy as she demonstrates them on the warden of the Boiling Rock prison, rendering him helpless in a matter of moments.
- In the second season finale Azula is seen propelling herself forward with firebending, which she later develops into letting her fire herself around like a rocket.
- During a Breather Episode in the third season: Toph is seen training Aang to detect your enemies by the vibration they're making like her, which comes in handy during the Grand Finale when Aang uses it to block an attack from behind by Ozai.
- In "The Puppetmaster", Katara learns a particular nasty technique called Bloodbending that allows her to control someone when empowered by the full moon. She only uses it one more time in "The Southern Raiders", when she is on the hunt for her mother's killer. She uses it on the current leader of the unit that attacked when her mother died, twisting his body painfully around, and only relents when she learns he wasn't even there at the time. While not particularly useful, Katara's willingness to use this technique to torture someone does a good job of showing her vicious side.
In The Simpsons Movie, Homer has to do a stunt with a motorcycle inside of a spherical cage in order to win a new car. He then uses this same stunt at the end of the movie with the glass sphere surrounding Springfield in order to save the city from a bomb.
Similarly, Hey Arnold 's movie has Gerald showing off his crack video-game driving skills, before then later using them to drive a bus in a Speed homage.
In the series premiere of The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest, "Darkest Fathoms", Jonny is seen to be practicing how to escape from being tied up. Later in the episode, he is captured by pirates and uses this skill to get free (and save Jessie and his dad while he's at it).