Chekhovs Gun / Live Action Films G To L

Chekhov's Gun Main Live-Action Films Subpage
A - F | G - L | M - R | S - Z

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G

• Galaxy Quest. The time-machine device that allows the user to go back 13 seconds into the past, just enough time to correct a mistake. It's mentioned early in the film but then dismissed and not used until the end.
• The incinerator in Gattaca- in the final scene, as Vincent finally leaves Earth, Eugene crawls into it to commit suicide.
• Almost averted in Get Carter. In the first act Jack Carter finds his brother's double-barreled shotgun, which he then carries on and off for the rest of the film — but never actually fires. He does kill a man with it, though — he beats him to death with the stock.
• Ghost Note: While Mallory and Rodney are treading old ground while getting reacquainted, they find Mr. Torres' old well, which is covered in old wooden boards and is going to be filled with cement. Mallory remembers the well during the climax and realizes that it's the best place to put Eugene Burns and his guitar where they'll never get out.
• Early in The Giant Gila Monster Chase frets about nitroglycerine transported unsafely in a vehicle. In the end he destroys the giant gila monster with a vehicle unsafely loaded with nitro.
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: The flames device is seen a couple of times being used to burn things for no apparent reason before it scorches off the Big Bad's face.

• The Golden Child. While Chandler Jarrell is in Tibet, Kee Nang's father (masquerading as a beggar) sells him a medallion. Near the end of the movie a demon tries to stab Chandler with the Ajanti Dagger and the medallion deflects the blow.
• A Good Woman is Hard to Find: Several, though they're not always obvious. Sarah uses both her vibrator and the knife she used earlier to retrieve batteries to defend herself when Tito tries to rape her. She then uses the gun she finds on his dead body to kill Leo and his men, then uses Leo's hammer to finish one of them off.
• The safe deposit box Carl gets when he opens an account at the bank in Graduation: Jackson hides the stolen cash in it, allowing Carl to walk in after the robbery, open his safe deposit box, and walk out with the cash.
• Averted and subverted in Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood's character threatens people with guns several times but only fires a gun once, by accident and early in the movie. Additionally Eastwood's character in the finale mimics movements that he made earlier where he pulled a gun, but he isn't carrying one at the time, which he does for the purpose of tricking the gangbangers who raped Sue into killing him and getting them all arrested for murder.
• The Gravedancers: The axe being used to split firewood when Harris, Allison and Sid first arrive at the mansion. During the final confrontation, Emma summons it to her hand and uses it to go on a rampage.
• Subverted in The Green Hornet with all of the cars in the garage; the only one that ends up being driven is the Black Beauty.

• In Gremlins, the Peltzer family keeps a shield and two swords in their living room. At least one of the swords is still a very functional weapon.
• Early in Grindhouse's first film, Death Proof, the characters have a conversation about whether or not carrying a gun is necessary to protect oneself. Near the climax, the character who carries one shoots the Big Bad with it.
• In Grosse Pointe Blank, Martin Blank is given a pen with the business details of an old schoolfriend at a reunion. He later uses this to stab a would-be assassin to death.
• In the live-action adaptation of The Guyver, Fulton Balcus keeps and uses the old toaster Dr. Segawa swapped the Guyver out with. Much to his annoyance, though, it burns his toast.

H

• In Hangmen Also Die!, the bribe Czaka pays Inspector Gruber for police protection becomes additional circumstantial evidence against him after Gruber is killed by the Resistance.
• The Hangover has several Chekhov's Guns that are used by the three friends trying to find the groom. Some are noticed immediately while others are forgotten about until later. There is the tiger that leads Mike Tyson to them, the card counting book that leads to the Chekhov's Skill, the Holocaust ring that winds up in the hands of a stripper. But probably the most important one is the mattress that was thrown out of Caesar's Palace. Since the windows are locked, it could have only been thrown from the roof, where the groom is.
• In Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, while searching a car, the titular characters come across a huge stash of pepper spray. Later in the film, after they're arrested by the FBI, they manage to escape after it's revealed that Harold managed to hide a can of pepper spray in his pants and uses it to disable their captors.
  • Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle also had a number of Chekhov's Guns. For example, the cheetah is mentioned on a number of news reports before the protagonists find it, but the news reports are just treated as background noise. The hangglider on top of the car they steal from the extreme sports enthusiasts ends up being the vehicle that carries them to their final destination.
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Snape threatens Harry with the truth-telling potion that he later uses on Moody.

• In Heathers, Veronica's talent for handwriting forgery that is used later in the film is introduced early on with the prank on Big Martha.
• The Hidden: Early on, one policeman shows the two main characters a flamethrower he grabbed from some kids who just happened to carry one in the street. Because it has nothing to do with the scene and disappears just after, it's pretty obvious it will be used against the body-snatcher alien.
• Hidden in Silence: When Fusia and the others move into the new house she bought, they find a discarded photo of a German soldier. Later, they leave it out so Fusia's suitor Lubek will assume she has a German boyfriend and stop coming around.
• Holidays: In Christmas, Reggie's gun misfires when he first tries to kill his girlfriend, and he has to pull the trigger a couple times before it fires. Later, when he is fighting his Axe-Crazy date, he grabs his gun from his coat, points it at her, and pulls the trigger, only for it to misfire. Before he can fire again, she buries an axe in his skull.
• In Hook, the eponymous captain reveals in a victory speech to his underlings that he is finally getting his revenge on the now-adult Peter Pan. Prior to kidnapping Peter's kids, Hook killed the crocodile that had been pursuing him all these years and turned it into a Clock Tower. It winds up killing Hook in the final battle when it's accidentally brought back to life.
• The Home Alone movies are full of this. Everything from gifts given, to things said, to items seen briefly in a bedroom come back in some way, shape or form.
  • Home Alone
    • You just knew that Buzz's tarantula Axl crawling around through the entire movie is going to save Kevin's hide in the end...
    • The Angels with Filthy Souls movie. Kevin later uses it on the pizza man and again on Marv.
    • The firecrackers from Buzz's room.
    Kevin: Cool, firecrackers! I'll save these for later.
    • A literal one. Buzz's BB gun.
    • In the first basement scene you can see some mannequins before we see the furnace. The ones that Kevin later uses to fool Harry and Marv into thinking the rest of the family have come home after he first encounters them. The Michael Jordan poster from Buzz's room fulfills the same purpose.
    • The laundry chute. Kevin shoots sports figurines down it early on, then it's used for the iron trap.
    • Peter telling Kevin to pick up his micro machines because his Aunt Leslie stepped on one and almost broke her neck. These come back later as one of the booby traps.
    • The morning flight home from Paris. Kate doesn't want to wait for it, but in the end, the rest of the family used it to get home.
    • The Murphy house. Harry and Marv break into it, and it's where they almost run Kevin down with their van shortly after. Finally, Kevin leads Harry and Marv there at the end and it's where they are arrested.
    • Old Man Marley's snow shovel.
    • Averted when Peter warns Kevin to stop making ornaments out of fishhooks with his glue gun. It seems like the setup for a boobytrap, but the fishhooks are never used, and the glue gun is only used for easily the mildest booby trap in the series (the fan blasting feathers onto Harry). This scene does serve as an Establishing Character Moment, however, as it shows Kevin as being resourceful and capable of using tools.
  • Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
    • The inflatable Bozo the Clown. It’s given to Kevin at the start of the film as a gift from his grandmother, then he uses it in the hotel to fool the concierge that there’s someone in the shower.
    • "Angels With Even Filthier Souls." Kevin watches it before the concierge shows up at his room, then he uses it to scare off the hotel staff before he flees.
    • The fireworks Kevin buys in Chinatown. He sets them off in Central Park at the end to alert to police as to where Harry and Marv are.
    • The "Monster Soap" Kevin buys at the toy store. He uses it for two of the traps in Uncle Rob's house (smearing it on a ladder and dumping it on the basement floor).
    • The birds in the park. The bird lady sics them on Harry and Marv before the police show up to arrest them.
    • Most (if not all) of the stuff Kevin records on his Talkboy ends up being used later.
    • The conspicuously-shown Plaza Hotel commercial that Kevin watches. When he ends up in New York, he winds up getting a room there.
    • The varnish which falls on the crooks and causes birdseed to stick to them and jams Harry's gun, preventing him from shooting Kevin and the pigeon lady.
    • Uncle Rob's house. Early on, he notes that Uncle Rob lives in New York and decides to drop in, but the house is empty because it’s undergoing renovation. It’s where Kevin sets his traps later.
    • Kevin's love of Christmas trees. It's how Kate knows where to find him at the end.
    • Peter's credit card, which helped the Miami police to find Kevin when it was used.
  • Home Alone 3
    • The pet parrot and rat were clearly there to assist Alex in his battle against the spies.
    • Stan's firecrackers. Possibly also a Shout-Out to the way they are used in the first film by Kevin.
    • Played for Laughs with Beaupre eating a single cracker from a pack of two and slips the other in his pocket. When the parrot begins to light the firecrackers and give him away, he offers it the cracker as a bribe, but the parrot has been trained to respond to treats with "double or nothing." When Beaupre admits he only has one, "we have ignition!"
• Hot Fuzz, aka "Chekhov's Gun: The Movie." Nearly everything seen, done, or said in the first half of the film becomes an important plot point in the second. Watch it twice then make a checklist. It's uncanny. The DVD feature Fuzz Facts points out every single one of them. And there are a lot.
  • The sea mine, which fails to go off when it's first discovered in a farmer's barn ... so that it can be detonated in the police station right at the end of the movie.
  • There's constant mention of a missing swan. Near the end of the film, it finally appears.
• House of the Dead had one girl who is blatantly pointed out as being on the fencing team. This is of absolutely no importance to the plot until the climax where the Big Bad picks up a sword and a rather dull sword fight ensues.

• In The Hunt for Red October, Jack Ryan consults with a submarine expert in his factory. One of his side projects is a "daughter-ship" mini-submarine capable of docking with other submarines. Later, the mini-submarine permits the American protagonists and the Russian defectors to commune and collaborate aboard Red October, unbeknownst to the crew adrift.
  • Also the (seemingly random) introduction of 'Chef's assistant Loganov' to witness Ramius take possession of both Missile Keys. He is later revealed to be The Mole for the KGB.
• Hush: The smoke detector that goes off at the beginning of the movie is used later by the protagonist to disorient her attacker.
• Husk: After murdering Alex, Corey tosses the pitchfork aside and walks back to the house. During the final fight, Scott realizes the pitchfork must still be lying where Corey dropped it.

I

• Averted in In the Loop. One character keeps a live grenade in his office as a paperweight — several other characters mention this fact, and we even get to see the grenade, but it's never in any danger of detonating.
• Indiana Jones:
  • In the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indy finds a snake in the plane. The Ark of the Covenant is hidden in a giant pit filled with snakes. And then Belloq seals him in there...
  • Also in Raiders, Marion is first introduced as a competitive drinker who can hold massive amounts of alcohol. Later, when held captive by Belloq, she gets him drunk so she can attempt to escape.
  • Early in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Indy asks Willie to hold his gun during the car chase and she throws it out the window. Near the end he's confronted by two swordsmen, reaches for his gun and... oops!
  • See also Mutt's knife in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was established mere minutes after we first see him, in keeping with the "greaser" persona. Too bad none of the Soviets thought it might be a good idea to search him.
• I Shot Jesse James features a literal example in the Sawed-Off Shotgun that John Kelley always carries around with him. One scene heavily features Kelley cleaning it, and he uses it to shoot Robert Ford in the final scene.

J

• Jack the Giant Slayer: Jack saved that one last bean... and then uses it to kill Fallon at the climax.
• In the beginning of a James Bond film, Q briefs 007 on all the new clever gadgets. Not only will every single one get used at some point, but every aspect of each item will be relevant. You know that a Bond movie will never end unless every named gadget from the Q scene has either been used or deliberately written off. This was referenced in an Eddie Izzard bit where he points out that Bond never returns and says "Q, I've got a lot of stuff I didn't even fucking use!" Similarly, the series itself lampshades this at one point when Q is giving Bond his set of gadgets for the film, and at the end says, "do try to bring some of it back this time..."
  • The first example was not a Q device (the character of Q had not even been invented yet): In Casino Royale (1954)^note The first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel, released in 1954 as a television movie/episode of the anthology series Climax!, we are told early on that Le Chiffre always carries three razor blades: one in his hat, one in his cigarette case, and one in his left shoe.
    • The one in his cigarette case is used by Bond to escape from his restraints after Le Chiffre has captured and tortured him.
    • The one in his hat is used by Le Chiffre to hold Valerie hostage at the very end.
  • One early example involved something other than Q Branch devices: In Goldfinger, the giant laser is first used as a threat to execute Bond. It is later used to cut through the outer door of Fort Knox.
  • Thunderball has an interesting bit where a device has an ability Q specifically assigned to another device. When going over the devices, he mentions the watch was a Geiger counter Bond could use to find the stolen bombs. The camera was said to be able to take pictures under water in the dark with an infrared film. Later, Bond gives the camera to Domino and tells her it's the Geiger counter.
  • Diamonds Are Forever. When Bond first meets Tiffany Case she goes through several wigs. Later in the movie she says "What's my black wig doing in the pool?" It turns out to be the hair of Plenty O'Toole, a brunette that Bond met earlier - she was drowned by Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd off-camera.
  • Live and Let Die both utilized and subverted this.
    • Bond is given special "shark pellets" that are capsules full of compressed gas. He never uses them on any sharks, instead using them as a quick way of dispatching the villain by force feeding him one and making him swell up like a blimp and pop.
    • The subversion is practically the opposite of the GoldenEye subversion example mentioned below; instead of not using a gadget that has been introduced earlier, he more or less produces a gadget out of nowhere with no build-up or foreshadowing whatsoever, in this case being a miniature buzz-saw blade in his watch that he uses to saw through rope. The watch has another subversion earlier, as it was introduced as a powerful magnet, which Bond tries to use to pull a metal canoe toward him when he's stranded in the middle of a bunch of alligators. After moving a few inches, the canoe is revealed to be securely tied to the shore.
  • At the beginning of The Man with the Golden Gun, we see a wax figure of Bond in the villain's funhouse. At the end of the film, Bond takes the place of the dummy and is able to catch the villain off guard and kill him.
  • Moonraker has three of them, including two of Q's devices.
    • Q gives Bond a wrist-activated dart gun that he uses to escape the gravity trainer and shoot Drax near the end.
    • Dr. Goodhead's "poison pen" (standard CIA equipment). Bond takes it in Venice and later uses to kill the python in the jungle.
    • When Bond meets Q at the Brazilian temporary HQ, one of Q's men is firing a laser rifle that's later used by the U.S space Marines assaulting Drax's orbiting station.
  • Not involving Q, but a really horrible one. In For Your Eyes Only Bond and Melina are taking a SCUBA diving break when, for no good reason at all, she takes her tanks off and ascends sharing Bond's mouthpiece. Later the two are being dragged back and forth over coral by the villain, Bond breaks the rope used to pull them, and they dive to the exact spot where they had previously left Melina's tanks. Lame!
  • GoldenEye
    • An exception to this is in this film, where Q explains all the gadgets in Bond's new BMW, none of which are used at all in the film. Instead, a tank Bond spots in St. Petersburg ends up being comandeered by him. This is because the BMW Product Placement came really late into development, so a scene using the car couldn't be created.
    • An especially good example also comes from this film, however. At one point, Boris the hacker's nervous habit of spinning and clicking a pen in one hand while typing with the other is conspicuously shown. When combined with Q's earlier scene, in which Q introduces a pen that acts as a grenade (with three clicks arming the grenade and another three disarming it), you just know Boris will be spinning Bond's pen-grenade near the end, with explosive consequences. Sure enough ...
  • Tomorrow Never Dies has the usual Q gadgets, including a remote-controlled car. It also has a whole host of gadgets that we aren't told about ahead of time, including a wire cutter underneath the BMW emblem, just in case Bond needs to sever a wire at a very specific height. Conveniently, the bad guys put a wire across Bond's path at exactly that height.
  • Another bizarre example is Q's "Ultra-high frequency single-digit sonic agitator unit" in Die Another Day. It's a ring that can shatter any glass. That's it. Bond uses it twice, once to escape the bad guys, and another to rescue Jinx.
  • When exploring the car in Casino Royale, Bond accidentally finds the defibrillator that he will later have to use to treat himself when he gets poisoned.
  • The car chase at the beginning of Quantum of Solace ends when James Bond pulls out a machine gun and blasts the bad guys off a cliff. We had not seen this gun in the movie before Bond uses it... but we do see him with the gun at the end of Casino Royale, in a scene that takes place about an hour before Solace begins.
  • There's also a semi-subversion in Skyfall: near the beginning, 007's sum total of equipment received from Q is "a gun and a radio" (actually a "signature gun" which only Bond can fire, and a homing beacon). While 007 later uses the homing beacon in a more-or-less expected manner, the gun is never fired, though a mook does try to use it against him, and the pause while the thug fruitlessly attempted to fire the weapon gave 007 the moment he needed to dispatch him.
• Jaws
  • Brody accidentally pulls the wrong knot and causes an accident involving Hooper's scuba tank.
    Hooper: Dammit, Martin! This is compressed air! If you fool around with it, it'll blow up!
    • They are explosive if shot (in the movie, anyway). At the end the shark has one in its mouth and Brody shoots it.
    • Even better, before they leave port Brody briefly sees a * picture* of a shark with such a tank in its mouth, but only for a flash as he's flipping through a book. Blink and you'll miss it.
  • During the shark's night attack on the boat Quint takes several shots at it with a rifle, the same rifle Brody uses to shoot the scuba tank at the end of the movie.

• Judge Dredd.
  • When Dredd and Fergie have to escape the building after Rico kills the Council of Judges, he's forced to use the defective Lawmaster he demonstrated to the cadets as a getaway vehicle.
  • Ferguson's hacking skills allow him to hack and shut down the ABC during the Final Battle.
  • There's also the signal flare feature on the Judges' gun that Dredd demonstrates to the cadets, and later uses to distract Rico before throwing him off the Statue of Liberty.
• Jumper has one. Griffin makes a passing mention of how much the average jumper can jump with. About twelve minutes before the end of the film, that knowledge comes in handy to the main character.
• A couple in the Jurassic Park movie; a considerable number in the second novel; the most egregious being Kelly's gymnastics in the second film. The frog DNA is the most consistent one across the literature and film.
  • The model of the raptor voice box in the third film is one of the most straight-forward examples of this trope in any of the films.
  • From the first film: When Dr. Grant is trying to intimidate the child who mocked the raptor, he mentions that he'll be attacked not by the one he sees in front of him, but by the one to the side that he doesn't see. The raptors later set up this exact trap to kill Muldoon.
  • The mosasaurus in Jurassic World that's introduced early in the film doesn't seem to have much to do through most of the movie until the Indominous Rex needed eating. That she eats Clare's PA during the pterosaur attack sequence cannily serves to remind the audience that she's hanging around in the lagoon for the third act of the movie.

K

• Kaamelott: Premier Volet: The Burgundians' impressive Siege Engines appears fairly early on in the movie, but the moronic Burgundians have no clue on how to operate them properly. They only become relevant when Arthur finds out how to coordinate the Burgundians enough to attack Kaamelott.
• Played straight in Kick-Ass. Halfway through the film, the bodyguard steals a bazooka off of a wall of guns. It's used in the final scene of the movie to kill the Big Bad.
• Kid Detective (2020): Caroline (the client) talks about her boyfriend (the murder victim) leaving origami roses in her locker, although when pressed she admits she just assumed it was him and never talked to him about it. When the roses continue to show up after his death she hands one to Abe, the detective, who recognizes the style of paper as identical to a clue in an earlier unsolved case.
• The church which serves as The Killer (1989)'s primary place of peace and sanctuary throughout the movie is the setting of the movie's final Bloodstained Glass Windows shootout.
• In Killer Crocodile, two unscrupulous gentlemen attempt to destroy the evidence about barrels of radioactive toxic waste that were dumped into the river where the movie takes place. One brought dynamite for this task, but he manages to plant only one piece of it before things go south and both men end up croc-chew. Main characters pass the the explosive, but decide to deal with it later. Using dynamite to kill the crocodile in the inevitable climax ends up averted when they instead use something else that was featured prominently: the outboard motor on their boat.
• Killer Under the Bed: When Kilee first finds the doll in the tool shed, it has a necklace around it, which she removes. In the film's climax, Kilee remembers the necklace and goes to get it so they can bind the doll back up. Then she remembers that she has to use something personal for it to work, and gets the name tag off of her dad's jacket.
• In King of Thieves, Brian comments on how distinctive Ken's car (a two-toned Mercedes) is when he is using it conduct surveillance on the safety deposit building. Guess what the police home in on when studying the CCTV footage from before the robbery?
• Kingsman films:
  • In Kingsman: The Secret Service, ironically enough it ends up being Valentine's own Neural Chips. They're implanted in all of his men and fellow elite, and rigged to explode if they reveal his plans. Merlin hacks into his systems and sets them off.
  • Also in Kingsman: The Secret Service, Harry shows Eggsy various weapons and tools in the Kingsman arsenal, including some dress shoes featuring retractable blades coated with "one of the fastest acting neurotoxins known to man". Harry uses these shoes to defeat Gazelle with a simple cut to her arm, which is enough to kill her.
  • Kingsman: The Golden Circle: Poppy's robotic dogs are programmed to recognize Elton John as a friend and not attack him. This ends up saving Harry's life when Elton gets between him and one of the dogs, giving them enough time to fight back until Poppy overrides the program.
• Viciously lampshaded by Narrator!Harry in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: "Ooo-kay... I apologize, that was a terrible scene. It's like, why was that in the movie? Gee, do you think it'll come back later, maybe? I hate it when movies do that. TV's on, talking about the new power plant — hm, I wonder where the big climax will happen."
• In Kiss of the Tarantula, Nancy's airtight glass coffin ends up being shared by Susan's creeper uncle, Walter. She stuffs him in underneath Nancy's body, after he attacked Susan and ended up paralyzed after getting shoved down a flight of stairs.

L

• The Last Witch Hunter has a well-stocked armoury:
  • Hexenbane, Kaulder's sword from the prologue, comes back for the final fight against the Witch Queen.
  • Glaeser's bug, controlling the Prison Sentry, activates again when Kaulder, Chloe and 37th Dolan have to break into prison, giving them some trouble.
  • Witch Queen's heart, as mentioned by First Dolan in the prologue, is later used to revive her.
  • The notebook 36th Dolan uses to record Kaulder's history is where the man leaves his final message.
  • The three weather runes Kaulder confiscates at the start of movie's present day part are later used by him as flashbangs to blind the Witch Queen.
    • For that matter, we also get to learn why he told the young witch he took them from to never, ever, put weather runes in water.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
  • When the League members first enter Dorian Gray's house, Allan Quatermain notices that one of the paintings on the wall is missing (leaving an obvious painting-shaped splotch). Anyone who knows the story of The Picture of Dorian Gray knows how important it is to Mr. Gray, but what isn't revealed until late in the movie is that the Diabolical Mastermind the Fantom stole the painting to extort Dorian Gray into working for him as The Mole.
  • Anyone who watched the movie carefully enough saw all of the actions of The Mole Dorian Gray that were later revealed to be his tricks to obtain the League's super powers and Nemo's technology.
• Late Phases: The tombstone, which is rigged to a pulley to drop on the werewolf.
• Lethal Weapon 2 features Chekhov's Nailgun. Sgt. Murtaugh is having his house expanded, and as he and Riggs go into the construction area, they hear a noise like a shot going off, hit the deck and pull out their pistols. It turns out that the construction worker was using a nail gun. "Don't you use a hammer?" "What's a hammer?" Later in the movie, Murtaugh is at home alone when he's attacked. He leads his attacker into the construction area and uses the nail gun to kill him with one nail to the head— and then kill a second enemy with three to the chest. "Nailed 'em both."
• Lights of New York has a literal gun that Eddie gives Kitty for self-defense. Later Hawk is killed with this pistol either by Kitty or by Molly who claims she had stolen it from Kitty's dressing room.

• A fairly subtle one in The Long Kiss Goodnight. Samantha Caine slips a matchbook into her daughter's sling, so that she can keep a candle lit while her mother's away. Once Sam has her memory back and is Charly Baltimore, she and her daughter are Locked in a Freezer, where the matches (along with some gasoline) allow her to blow up the freezer door and escape.
  • There's a slightly more obvious one, if only because the setup and the payoff occur closer to each other. When Samantha and Mitch are driving away with Waldman, he tells them that he carries three guns on him, including one in his crotch since males are reluctant to check that area while frisking. A few scenes later, Samantha sees Waldman's drowned corpse while she is being tortured, reaches into his pants, and pulls out that third gun. A rare case where the Chekhov's Gun is a literal gun.
• Looper has telekinesis, which is introduced early and dismissed as not being that big of a deal besides cheap parlor tricks. Cid, the future Rainmaker, turns out to have the power to make people explode with it, crush vehicles, and flatten entire areas. Foreshadowed by his mother hiding in an old safe when Cid gets angry.

• The Lost Boys:
  • Early in the movie, Michael and Sam deride their grandfather's taxidermy collection. In the third act, Michael defeats David by impaling him on deer antlers from one of his grandfather's mounted animal heads.
  • At one point during the movie, Grandpa is making a fence with huge wooden posts. The head vampire is killed and the day is saved when Grandpa unexpectedly crashes through a wall with his Jeep and one of the huge fence posts come flying off the hood of the vehicle, impaling the head vampire.
• The alien spiders in Lost in Space are seen eating their wounded at an early point in the movie. When Dr. Smith betrays the Robinson family and becomes a giant spider himself, John Robinson defeats him by wounding him, which draws the creatures to Smith to eat him alive.
• The Loved Ones:
  • The opening scene where Brent is driving in the car with his father, and has a crash in which his father dies. It's initially used to explain why Brent's in such a depressed frame of mind. During his torture, Brent has a flashback to the crash, realizing it wasn't his driving at fault; Brent actually swerved to avoid one of Lola's 'past boyfriends', who she later mentions somehow escaped from the basement.
  • The razor blade Brent uses in an early scene for Self-Harm. He uses it to cut himself free of his bonds, making his first, ultimately unsuccessful escape attempt.
• Low Tide: Peter trades the Cuban cigars from the heist for a boat ride back home after the robbery. Later, Red sees one of the sailors smoking one of the cigars and realizes that Alan and Peter are lying about having lost the loot.
• The rattlesnake that nearly bites Barry when he is searching for the mine in Lust for Gold. During the climax, Barry is saved when a rattlesnake bites Ray as he is about to kill him.

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