Chekhov's Skill - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Chekhovs Skill

Lan: 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

As we’ve learned from all films ever made, whenever you have a special skill, it will eventually save your life, regardless of how impossibly stupid it is.
—Seanbaby

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 and learned rather than mentioned or pulled out of 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. If the skill is too complicated to be perfected so quickly, see Instant Expert.

If it is not a skill taught or otherwise demonstrated to the individual in question, then it is just a regular Chekhovs Gun.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

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 third episode of 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.
- She is shown earlier training with the technique; she activates her Byakugan, some kunai fly at her, and within moments all of them are on the ground, broken.
In Dragonball Z, King Kai teaches Goku the Spirit Bomb, and outlines exactly what kind of power this attack has. Not only that, but he says only to use it as a last resort. So of course Goku has to use it in his following battle as well as nearly every movie and future Big Bad.
A long-unnamed phenomenon called haki in One Piece was hinted at in several scenes before it was revealed to be a strong determinant of judging how powerful a character is as well as a powerful weapon when harnessed.
The fights in Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple often feature Kenichi, at a critical moment, using a technique taught to him in the last training session shown.
Negi's Axe of Lightning/Axe of Zeus spell in Mahou Sensei Negima. Taught by Evangeline at the start of Vol. 8, he was naturally forced to do it perfectly by the end of the volume to defeat the Big Bad for that Story Arc.

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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.
Dakota Block: You know, my girlfriend had a theory. She said at some point in your life, you find a use for every useless talent you ever had. It's like connecting the dots.
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.)
In Kill Bill Volume II, we learn the Bride's amazing skills were taught to her by Pai Mei. This is revealed, then effectively demonstrated, in the Texas Funeral sequence, and 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.
- Don't forget the one-inch punch, the utility of which in her current circumstance was the very reason her reminiscing triggered the flashback sequence in the first place. (Also a shout-out to Bruce lee).
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 Karate Kid: Paint the fence, paint the house, Wax On Wax Off... Danny Laruso tended to use a new Chekhovs 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.
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 Hand Waves 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. While the Big Bad survives, it knocks out his targeting systems and helps Stark get the upper hand.
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.
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.
- While reprising that same number.
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 Zoolander, Derek Zoolander is obsessed with perfecting his Magnum look. Later, in the climax, he uses Magnum to stop a shuriken aimed at the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
- No no no, he uses his new look, Blue Steel, to stop the shuriken. It still fits the Trope though, since Zoolander's been discussing since the opening scene that he's been working on Blue Steel and trying to perfect it, big hype for the reveal, blah blah blah. The hilarity is that it looks exactly the same as Magnum, as do all his looks.
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.
The Incredibles has Violet Parr only able to do tiny force fields, even failing to save her family members from an exploding plane, before finally getting the hang of it midway through and saving everyone every time she uses it.
A three-second segment of a montage in Ratatouille shows that Linguini's a good rollerskater. This skill proves vital in the climax.
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.
During a lull in the action of Aliens, 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.
Sky High gives us a bunch of sidekicks, each with rather strange powers (glowing, turning into a hamster, melting, making plants grow at will). And they all get their own Crowning Moment of Useful during the prom invasion.
Quatermain, in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, spends a very Dramatic Scene teaching impudent 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 Big Bad.
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 the Angels And Demons movie, the Camberlengo is given exactly one line describing his history. He mentions that he went into the army as a medic and learned to fly. Guess who ends up in a helicopter in the big climax? This is given a little more justification in the book, but used to exactly the same effect.
Used incredibly predictably in Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull: Early on, Mutt casually mentions that he knows how to fence. The Big Bad carries a sword at all times. Hmm, I wonder what's going to happen...?
In The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Dr. Malcolm's daughter was kicked off the gymnastics team. Said gymnastic skills later allowed her to take out a velociraptor.
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.

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Literature

Happens a few times in Harry Potter, usually in regards to an important spell they need to learn. Harry's patronus in particular.
- Not to mention that ANY specifically named spell, even from the Unforgivable Curses from the Bad Guys, eventually gets used at least once during a key event.
- Most notable in the fifth book, with "Dumbledore's Army." The skills that Harry teaches are repeatedly relevant to the other characters through the rest of the series.
  - Of course, he's deliberately teaching them pragmatic spells because their official education doesn't and won't.
- A good non-spell example is Ron's skill in chess. Sadly it isn't mentioned much after the first book.
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.
Every other Hardy Boys novel had Chet Morton take up some hilarious new hobby, such as ventriloquism or shot-putting. These skills would always come in handy by the end of the book, and would never be referenced again in any later books.
In Dan Abnett's Warhammer40000 novel Titanicus, Golla Ulduna is introduced as a midwife, to emphasize the insanity of her being called up as part of the tertiary reserve. But when they find a princeps in the ruins of his engine, Golla is able to get him breathing air again, just as she would get a baby breathing.
It's learned quite a while before the book, but in The X Wing Series Face, a former child actor, was stated to have lived on Lorrd for a while, a planet whose hat was body language and the reading of such. He uses what he picked up to Sherlock Scan how people walk. This does come up again.
Obligatory Whateley Universe example: In the novel "Ayla and the Tests", five-foot-nothing Phase is pushed by a teacher to use his particular Warper power to take over a size-Warper's power. In a different novel, "Boston Brawl 2", Phase figures out how to use this trick to beat the holy crap out of a forty-foot giant.

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Live Action TV

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.
- Though it doesn't necessarily fit, because you're usually trying to get skills for the explicit purpose of overcoming certain types of obstacles, and in the more nonlinear games (like the early Metroid games, especially Super Metroid) you'll often be looking for a specific item once you've figured out where you'll need to use it.
  - You come across the obstacle early on, but find the tool/skill to overcome it later. So perhaps this is an inversion of the trope?
  - Chekhov's Obstacle!
  - That could work...on his first time through Metroid Prime 3, this troper saw green doors and thought "Nova Beam must be coming up soon". Which, of course, it was.
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.
  - Don't forget that one room with the approaching walls of wooden spikes.
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.
Inverted in Jade Empire, where many characters comment on a mysterious seemingly unexploitable "flaw" in the protagonist's martial arts. Once the nature of the flaw is revealed it turns the plot completely upside-down.
In Trauma Center: New Blood, Valerie drags the operating team to a demonstration held by her friend. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that her friend became a veterinarian. Any attempts to salvage the situation as having learned something useful are shot down by Markus as being highly unlikely, since human doctors would never have to operate on a dog. Much later in the game, a dog that had been given to them is shot, and they decide to use the skills they learned earlier to operate on it.
Parodied in Final Fantasy IX - early in the game, Vivi, being too naive to understand how to escape a captor, is easily kidnapped from the party. With Garnet standing right next to him, Zidane explains how to successfully resist capture. Later in the game, when Garnet is about to be captured, she only remembers to yell "Let go of me, you scumbag!", to the perplexity of the villains who then proceed to grab her anyway.

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Webcomics

Web Original

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.
- After his initial Earth Bending training, the third season revealed that Toph had trained Aang to sense movement through Earth Bending like she does, which he used later on.
- In "The Puppetmaster", Katara learns a particular nasty technique called Bloodbending that allows her to control someone when empowered by the full moon. The episode made it very clear she does not like the technique. She does use it later, but her 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.
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).
Part Two of The Fairly Odd Parents TV movie trilogy "Wishology", Baby Poof is seen watching a ninja film based very loosely on what happened in Part One. Wanda proceeds to turn it off, as it is "too violent for him." During the next few minutes, Poof kicks, punches, and generally bounces around the room. Later, Timmy's friends, family and godparents have all been captured by the Eliminators, who came back from the Darkness, which apparently was only slowed down after Part One. Poof is the only one who can go through the bars of their cell, and when threatened by the Eliminators, he dons a blanket around his head and body, smears eyeliner on his face for a shadow, and proceeds to kick ass big time.