The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at You Know, That Thing Where.
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openHuman drivers with cartoon passengers Film
Applying the Roger Rabbit Effect, a live action human character drives a vehicle, humans, where human characters are sitting as passengers and interact with the human. Examples here https://twitter.com/DolphinGarage/status/1232335318923214849
openComic-book movie trope? Film
Is there such a trope for this:
In a movie from Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters, one character (not a protagonist), suddenly makes a reference to an event from Avengers: Endgame (which probably hasn't happened in this continuity), and no-one In-Universe has any idea who the hell Thanos is, let alone "The Snap". Out-of-universe, it gets the reaction of "What the hell?".
Is there a trope for something like this?
openMust be here but dont know what it'd be called Film
Gist is: acknowledged happiness or contentment is a guarantee of it being taken away. (Exclusion being if it's right at the close of the story)
Eg. Go T where jaime rescues his daughter, she admits knowing of her true parentage and they share a heartfelt moment. This of course being Go T (before plot armor) her death was a certainty. Eg 2. Clash of the titans (remake) Perseus on the boat with adoptive family says he is happy/has all he could want, signing their death sentence.
It's a fairly common plot device to convey the loss the character is about to face, though telegraphs it quite heavily since it's used a LOT.
Much obliged for any help finding this one. Mostly interested in others thoughts on the device and other stories it exists in.
openTilted Camera Film
So is there a trope for when the scene appears to be tilted (for example, a listing ship) but it is obvious that the only tilt involved is with the camera?
openCultural Osmosis Failure? Film
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood takes place in late 60s Hollywood and features Charles Manson's cult (no movie spoilers).
As I understand it, the Manson murders are notorious in the US, so everyone has a big Oh, Crap! moment when one of the heroes visits Spahn ranch. However, the events (and Manson's cult) aren't so well-known (or well-remembered, I'm not sure which) overseas, resulting in confusion (who are these people, why are we following one of the main characters' neighbors during her daily routine, who's the creepy shaggy-haired dude, etc).
Is there a trope for when part of the audience is perplexed because they don't know the RL events the movie is based on?
openSame characters, different films? Film
This might be a bit too rare to have a trope, but;
Characters from the movie If, show up in O Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital, with the same name, played by the same actors, and behaving similarly. The movies, however, are not sequels since there are irreconciliable differences between each one - characters' lives change way too much between the movies for them to be sequels.
What do we call them, then? Is there a trope for it?
openIndividual battles Film
The heroes are spread out in a battle. At first they make it look easy. Then they struggle a little. The camera shows them one by one getting knocked down, pinned, about to get crushed or fall. Then the lead or a surprise characters gains strength and frees their friends.
openfinal scene echoes first scene Film
I am looking for a trope about echo as a storytelling pattern. Many works feature very similar start and end. For example, same person sitting beside a tree, but things happened and he is deeply changed. Or this guy woke up and went to work, but he is a different man. Or a film starts someone building a thing, finally he died in it.
When doing good, it has a very sublime feeling.
I am thinking about a big pattern in story at macro level, not repeating stuff in mere conversation (micro level).
Please help, thanks! I love this site.
openCured by secret identity? Film
Is there such a trope for this?
Bob is a superhero (who is human), a Composite Character Expy of Superman, Steven Universe and Venom. In his civilian identity, a criminal sets Bob on fire with gasoline. Bob turns into his superhero identity temporarily, while still on fire, then when he's back to Bob, he's as normal again, when if he wasn't a superhero, he'd have died or got serious burns.
Is there such a trope for using a superhero identity to cure yourself of something that would kill you in human form?
open*Record Scratch* *Freeze Frame* Yep, that's me Film
The "name" of the trope show in the title comes from a internet meme involving a extremely common 70's/80's movie cliche where the movie would start at the end of the end/middle of the plot and the action would suddenly freeze with a record scratch being played at the background, and the main character would start giving a snark narration while telling the viewers that they are probably thinking about how they got into that situation and them the movie suddenly rewinds to the start of the plot.
The question i have, is there a trope for this? I couldn't find anything similar anywhere even though it was practically the norm amongst the movies from these decades, specially comedy-oriented ones.
openCover identity trope? Film
Not sure if we have this one (other than Mock Millionaire):
Alice is a spy and her cover identity is a millionairess. However, she wins the lottery a few days later (under her cover identity) and actually does become a millionaire.
It's not Becoming the Mask is it, for this, or is it another trope?
openSomeone is not sexually active or involved Film
I think this may be two different tropes. One, simply someone who's not had sex for some time. Two, someone else wanting to get them involved with someone else, or at least having sex. I don't know about the first, but I'm sure I've seen the first before but can't remember the name for it. On the first-I'm not saying they're asexual either.
Edited by FirebloodopenTemporarily Getting Rid of a Character Film
Are there any tropes that involve getting rid of a character temporarily from a story until their presence is needed? For example: They are present at the beginning of the story, something happens towards the beginning of the 2nd act (called away somewhere and/or injured) where that character ends up absent during a good chunk of the story, and then they return towards the end. Does anyone have any good examples? The medium doesn't have to just be film.
openSuper Happy Ending Film
I think of an ending like Monsters Inc. that ends on an extremely and unambiguous happy note. Is there a trope like that?
openTrying to Find a Specific Exposition Trope Film
Is there a trope in Live-Action Film and/or TV where a character goes "Guys...who's that?" and one of the characters in that group explains just who exactly that person is?
openHe finally said it ! Film
Is there a trope for when, around the end of a story, a character says his or another character's motivation or interior truth out loud, which the viewer has known on some level since the beginning, but was never explicitly said, usually because it's too horrible to accept. This brings huge satisfaction and catharsis to the viewer, who finally hears the words he has been waiting for. Example [spoilers] :
-Breaking Bad : "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it..."
-the World's end : (after taking nothing seriously during the whole movie) "it never got better than that night ! That was supposed to be the beginning of my life! All that promise and fucking optimism, That feeling like we could take on the whole universe: it was a big lie! Nothing happened!
-the Big Short: "they knew... They knew the tax payers would bail tell out. They weren't being stupid. They just didn't care!"
Edited by XanderHopenVillain Who Wants Revenge on Someone Who Is Already Dead Film
These tropes that I'm looking for can also apply to Live-Action TV as well. Which tropes would fit a villain who wants revenge on someone who's already dead for the death of his own child (son or daughter)? Any tropes that any of you could point me into the direction to?
openTrope for engulfing whiteness of bright light Film
Indoor/cave setting, a long stretch of hallway, cavern or tunnel, leading into an area so contrastingly bright that it appears as pure whiteness. Any character that goes into it will be completely engulfed by the whiteness, until the camera follows them and readjusts the light exposure for a dramatic reveal. If the camera decides to not follow them then it's walking into the sunset but without the sunset. Trope also used when a character goes through a door dramatically, and during that dramatic shot the character is seemingly walking into complete whiteness, even though the other room may have similar lighting.
Do we have something for the trope often used in horror, where it turns out that there's been a person living in secret in the protagonist's home? Usually it's a previous occupant of the house who didn't want to leave, or the protagonist's stalker, etc. Examples include Housebound, Brahms: The Boy, and more recently Parasite.