Line #40 Recap/TintinTheBlackIsland


1	[[quoteright:247:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Black_Island_9877.jpg]]
2
3	While taking a walk in the countryside, Tintin comes across a plane with no registration number making an emergency landing. When he approaches the plane, the pilots shoot him and take off. As Tintin is hospitalized, he learns that an unregistered plane has crash-landed in Sussex, England, which prompts him to leave the hospital and go on an investigation.
4
5	On the way to Sussex, Tintin is framed for assault and robbery by the villainous Puschov, which means that while he investigates the crash landing, he has (for [[RuleOfThree the third and final time]] in the series) to evade Thomson and Thompson, who are intent on arresting him. Tintin eventually discovers that he has stumbled onto a delivery system used by a gang of money counterfeiters with a hidden base of operations on the titular Black Island.
6
7	----
8	!!Tropes:
9
10	* AdaptationDistillation: Ranko doesn't break his arm in the Belvision version.
11	* AdaptedOut: The two nameless members of the gang do not appear in the 1991 animated series.
12	* BigBadDuumvirate: Puschov and Dr. Müller.
13	* BrandishmentBluff: The exchange is:
14	-->'''Tintin:''' Hands up! (Two Mooks Tintin is standing behind put their hands up.) Put your guns down on the ground. And don't turn around, or I'll shoot... Come on, I said put your guns down!
15	-->(Mook 1 puts a gun on the ground.)
16	-->'''Mook 2:''' I... I...haven't got one.
17	-->(Snowy picks up the gun and walks toward Tintin.)
18	-->'''Tintin:''' Don't try turning round! Make just one move, either of you, and it'll be the last thing you do! (Tintin slips and falls.) Oh!
19	-->(The two Mooks turn around.)
20	-->'''Mook 1:''' Tintin! (The Mooks run toward him.) And he wasn't even armed!
21	* BreakoutVillain: Dr. Müller is just one member of the gang of counterfeiters, though he probably has the most screentime. Despite this, he is the only one to return in future stories and is even the BigBad in ''[[Recap/TintinLandOfBlackGold Land of Black Gold]]''.
22	* BuzzingTheDeck: The baddies do this to Tintin and the Thom(p)sons on the airfield.
23	* ChainedHeat: When Snowy finds the handcuff key while Thomson and Thompson are asleep, Tintin handcuffs them together. They aren't antagonistic to each other but keep getting hampered by the handcuffs.
24	* CounterfeitCash: The entirety of the bandits' operation.
25	* ConvenientCranny: Tintin manages to evade Ranko twice by fitting through an opening which the gorilla is too big to fit through.
26	* CountingToThree: A goat stops the countdown for Tintin to "jump off the cliff or be shot".
27	* DeliciousDistraction: The AngryGuardDog chasing Tintin gets distracted by Snowy's bone.
28	* DoesntLikeGuns: The guy wearing boots doesn't use a gun. He prefers to use the roller as a club.
29	* FallingIntoTheCockpit: Thomson and Thompson mistakingly order an untrained engineer to fly a plane for them, resulting in them being stuck performing various accidental flying stunts without being able to land, much to their horror, then blundering into an aerial display competition, ''which they win''.
30	* HauntedCastle: The inhabitants of Kiltoch think the castle on the Black Island is this.
31	* HeelFaceTurn: Ranko the gorilla torwards the end.
32	* HeWentThatWay: When Tintin is disguised as an old man, he misleads the Thom(p)sons this way.
33	* HypocriticalHumour:
34	** At one point, Snowy remarks how silly it is for the [[EekAMouse gorilla to be scared of a little dog]], only to run away in terror [[SpidersAreScary from a spider]] the next panel.
35	** The old man in the Scottish pub warns Tintin off the Black Island, but when the papers are interviewing him at the end, he makes it sound as though Tintin was faint-hearted and he was the one who encouraged him to go.
36	* InspectorJavert: Thomson and Thompson. You'd really think they'd have caught on by now...
37	* ISurrenderSuckers: When Tintin has him at gunpoint, Puschov [[PoseOfSupplication drops down on his knees]] and [[VillainsWantMercy begs for forgiveness]], only to use the proximity to sweep Tintin off his feet and escape.
38	* JustPlaneWrong: The airplane Thomson and Thompson commandeer stays in the air for two days. That's a pretty big fuel tank. Justified, as it's PlayedForLaughs. [[note]]There was a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_Voyager plane]] that stayed in the air for ''nine'' days... and yes, it was nearly all fuel tank.[[/note]]
39	* KillerGorilla: Ranko the gorilla is the mysterious "monster" of the island. He is trained to act like an AttackAnimal by the villains.
40	* LowClearance: Tintin has to duck a tunnel while on the train top.
41	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: The baddies intent for Tintin to jump off a cliff, prompting the latter to assume that this trope is in play.
42	* MasterForger: In his first appearance, recurring villain Dr. Muller is the forger of a counterfeiting ring, creating fake banknotes on the titular Black Island off the coast of Britain.
43	* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
44	** When Tintin disguises himself as an old man to lead Thomson and Thompson astray, Snowy chases a cat through the window, knocking Tintin's disguise off.
45	** Later Snowy incites a goat to chase him, knocking over Puschov before he can shoot Tintin. However as he continues running away from the goat it knocks over Tintin, allowing the crooks to escape.
46	* OffBridgeOntoVehicle: Tintin jumps from a bridge onto the train the counterfeiters try to escape in.
47	* RailCarSeparation: Tintin is pursuing the bad guys on a train, but they uncouple the car between him and them, allowing them to escape.
48	* RakeTake: Happens to Tintin himself, but actually works to his advantage: as he is approaching Müller's chauffeur Ivan with a gun, he steps on a rake, but as he is hit by it, he accidentally fires and shoots Ivan's hat off, scaring him into submission. Then when Ivan realizes that Tintin has been knocked out and approaches him, Tintin wakes up and uses the rake to knock ''him'' out.
49	* RightHandAttackDog: Puschov has a Right-Hand Attack ''Gorilla'' named Ranko.
50	* RisingWaterRisingTension: Downplayed. Tintin finds himself in a cave that slowly fills with water but he manages to escape in time.
51	* RunningGag: Snowy gets drunk a lot in this story.
52	* SettingUpdate: The story was originally written for ''Le Petit Vingtième'' in the late 1930s but when the English translation was colorized in 1966 it was also ''modernized'' - hence the cars and trains all come from the 60s and why Tintin is not at all surprised to see a TV. The [[Recap/TintinTheBrokenEar two]] [[Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre stories]] surrounding it are clearly still set in the 30s meaning that ''The Black Island'' can come across as jarring to a reader going through the stories in chronological order. It also means that Dr. Müller (originally ANaziByAnyOtherName) can come across as an Eastern Bloc agent instead.
53	* ShoutOut:
54	** Ranko the KillerGorilla was inspired by ''Film/KingKong1933'', which still ran in cinemas around the time Hergé drew the original magazine version of the story.
55	** When the album was redrawn in the mid-60s, Müller's unnamed, moustachioed henchman was redrawn in the likeness of Hergé's friend and Studio member Edgar P Jacobs. Which also means he's a dead ringer for ''Comicbook/BlakeAndMortimer'''s nemesis Olrik (whom Jacobs modelled on himself), down to the cigarette holder.
56	* StockFemurBone: The bone Snowy digs up in the woods.
57	* StumbledIntoThePlot: Tintin is thrown into the plot when a counterfeit money smuggler's plane crash-lands in a field near where he's taking a walk.
58	%%* SymbolSwearing: One baddie on the train does this when seeing Tintin.
59	* ThievingMagpie: There's one involved (but with a plot twist) when the firemen are desperately looking for their garage key.
60	* TimmyInAWell: Snowy alerts a fireman so he would go and look for Tintin in the burning house.
61	* TrainEscape: The counterfeiters get away on the train by unhooking the cars from the engine.
62	* VisualPun: The "sticky end" Tintin mentions comes in the form of a cane from behind.
63	* WoundedGazelleGambit: Puschov does this in order to incriminate Tintin.

Context Recap / TintinTheBlackIsland