Basic Trope: A work in a genre normally seen for children that is intended for older audiences opens with a scene that puts the fact that it's mature on display with lots of adult content.
- Straight: Tropes and Traps, an animated movie, opens with a gruesome murder to prove it's not for kids.
- Exaggerated: Tropes and Traps opens with a gory massacre committed by Alice in the nude with her breasts in full display, while the victims are screaming profanity as they try and escape.
- Downplayed:
- Tropes and Traps has more of a "PG-rated opening", as it opens with a character saying "God damn it!" as the first lines.
- The opening doesn't necessarily contain any outright graphic content, but is still very dramatic and intense, and is clearly put in there to let the audience know that it's not for younger kids.
- Justified: The movie is trying to prove it's not for kids, and so wants to make that fact as apparent as possible.
- Inverted:
- Tropes and Traps, a mystery story, opens with a scene of gags fit for a children's movie to prove this isn't like those "other" mystery movies for adults.
- Tropes and Traps really was a children's movie, just a little more dour than most; the last few seconds, on the other hand, pack as much gore, sex, and profanity as they can to creep the kids in the audience out.
- Knowing that the studio's previous R-rated films were apparently loved by adults and edgy tweens, Tropes and Traps opens with a spectacularly R-rated opening to bait those kids into watching.
- Tropes and Traps is a fairly gritty movie, but its opening scene is the lightest part of it.
- Subverted: The murder turns out to be an Imagine Spot of kids playing a board game.
- Double Subverted: Out of the blue, a insane serial killer breaks into the house and brutally kills the kids playing the board game, all shown in its glory.
- Parodied:
- Tropes and Traps opens with Bob, The Hero, saying "For all the kids in the audience who might be watching...", and flips them the bird to say "Get the fuck outta here and go to another movie!"
- The movie literally opens with the R-Rating, with the text changed to say "In other words, take your kids out now before bad things happen. And don't sue us!"
- The first scene has this text being on the screen, large for anyone to see: "You are fucking morons who didn't look at the fucking rating that this ain't no fucking kids' movie! Get the motherfucking fucking fuck out of here, you little pricks!"
- Zig-Zagged: Despite the R-Rated opening, the scene falls within the grounds of PG. It may not be R-Rated, but it's not strictly a movie for younger kids, either.
- Averted:
- Tropes and Traps opens with content normally appropriate to its genre. It's only later, when the kids are suckered in, that the killing starts.
- Instead of killing, Tropes and Traps opens with drama scenes that would confuse and bore most kids.
- Enforced: The company producing the movie notes the R-Rating, and moves the murder from the third scene to the first to assure the audience this ain't kids' stuff.
- Lampshaded: The murder victim's last words are "But I thought cartoons were for kids!"
- Invoked: The movie opens with a character sending the victim to die, using the word prominently.
- Exploited: Kevin the killer invades a kids' movie, knowing the characters will not be expecting him.
- Defied: The director keeps the mature content later, or doesn't add content too mature.
- Discussed: Kevin is about to kill Bob in front of his kids. He begs him to wait for the kids to go away to keep them from seeing things they shouldn't.
- Conversed:
- An internet reviewer sets up the movie to look like the cutest thing ever, then shows the horrific violence and screams in terror to it.
- "This animated film has torture, death, some nudity, strong language, and smoking all in just the first few minutes. I'm guessing they put that in there for those parents who saw that it was a cartoon and assumed it was fine for their kids without caring about the R-rating."
- Implied: In-universe, we see Adam bring his son Carl to the movie. Ten minutes later, they walk out, Adam looking annoyed and Carl looking traumatized.
- Deconstructed: The ploy doesn't work. The parents still take their kids to see it, and end up boycotting the movie when word gets out.
- Reconstructed: Of course, when word DOES get out, the intended audience shows up to salvage the movie's box office scores, just knowing not to bring their kids.
- Played for Laughs: The R rating is because the movie is a shock comedy, so it opens with a musical parody of Disney's numbers from the perspective of a brutal murderer going about his morning routine of murder like a Disney Princess would start her day.
- Played for Drama: The R rating is because the movie deals with harsh topics only adults can handle. As such, the movie opens with a funeral that plays up the drama of losing a loved one.
- Played for Horror: The murder is extremely brutal it would make a masochist cry in terror.
Back to R-Rated Opening
