Basic Trope: In a situation with emergency drills, such as the military, announcements in actual emergencies come with a disclaimer that this particular situation isn't a drill.
- Straight: When an army station is being attacked, the captain says over a loudspeaker, "Action stations! This is not a drill!".
- Exaggerated: The captain puts more emphasis on the situation's not being a drill than the actual instructions.
- Downplayed: The announcements only have the "this is not a drill" message if an emergency happens during a drill. Otherwise, drills come with a disclaimer and any other emergency announcements are presumed to be real.
- Justified:
- The captain doesn't want anyone to think the situation is a drill, because if they did, they might be too casual about the situation or even ignore the siren.
- If it were just a drill, the troops would be using simulated ordnance and nobody would die. The captain needs to make it clear that they're fighting with real weapons and they could really die.
- Inverted: During a drill, the captain makes an announcement saying, "This is a drill!".
- Subverted: The sergeant makes an announcement saying it isn't a drill, but then the captain reveals that the sergeant got it wrong and it is indeed a drill.
- Double Subverted: Then, the station does get attacked, prompting the captain to say, "OK, now it's a real emergency!".
- Parodied: The attack is very obvious, so the captain says, "This is not a drill, but you can probably see that already. Action Stations!"
- Zigzagged: Nobody, not even the captain, is sure whether the situation is a drill or not, so various officers make conflicting announcements.
- Averted: There aren't any disclaimers to any of the captain's announcements, so the soldiers never know when it's a drill or not.
- Enforced: The announcement comes on before the reveal that the station's being attacked, so the "this is not a drill" disclaimer is there to let the audience know things are serious as well as the characters.
- Lampshaded: "Yeah, we know it's not a drill."
- Invoked: The captain puts a sergeant in charge of making announcements and says, "If the situation is not a drill, say so. We can't afford any misunderstandings."
- Defied: The captain considers letting the others know it isn't a drill, but then decides not to for fear of coming across as a literal Captain Obvious.
- Discussed: "If it wasn't a drill, they'd say so, right?"
- Conversed: "Do military announcements always let people know when it's not a drill, like in the movies?"
- Implied:
- We hear the announcement, "This is not—-" but then the captain dies or the loudspeaker stops working or the scene changes.
- All other announcements begin with "Exercise! Exercise! Exercise!", this one goes straight to the message itself.
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs: A snowball fight is treated like a war and one kid says, "Action stations! This is not a drill!" as a joke.
- Played for Drama: The station being attacked is a serious situation.
- Played for Horror: It's zombies who are attacking the station.
Emergency! Back to the main page! This Is Not a Drill!
