Trope Finder

Juxtaposed reflection shot Film

This poster trick (probably shows up in non-posters too but those are the ones I remember): staging it so that a character is reflected, but what's shown in the reflection is different to tell us something about them

• The Greatest Showman: Barnum eventually starts a successful circus◊
• Spy X Family: Loid and Yor live double lives◊
• The Curse of La Llorona: Child abductions◊
• Spider-Man 3: Venom symbiote corruption◊
• X-Men: First Class: Teaser posters show that these guys become Professor X and Magneto

Mr. Holland's Opus Film

In Mr. Holland's Opus, Glenn Holland first appears as a 30-year-old and at the end of the film, he's 60 years old. His actor, Richard Dreyfuss, was 48 years old when the film came out.

Given that, I wonder if there's a trope for this?

Chase scene stop and slam Film

One character on a motorcycle is chasing another character in a car. The car suddenly brakes, causing the motorcycle to slam into it.

No Title Film

Judge says where do you get your pants tailored because you must have some giant balls

Look there, I'm here! Film

A kind of specific visual slapstick joke: A persecutor who lost his quarry is observing a situation where he expects the subject to be. He's being joined by exactly the same subject he's looking for, who ALSO starts observing the situation, assuming that something interesting must be happening, as there is a already another person observing. Both are so distracted, that it takes them a moment (often a double take) to realise they are after one another. And on goes the chase…

I'm sure I've seen it multiple times, but I can't exactly remember… Is this a trope?

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie Film

In the second half of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, Adam Park fights one of the Putra Pods on the Ghost Galleon. After he throws it off into the waters, Adam's hands gets covered in slime due to the former beating it on the head repeatedly. Which trope fits this description?

Edited by gjjones

Is VillainOverForDinner in ''Pig''? Film

The climax of Pig involves the hero and his sidekick (who is the villain’s son) cooking a meal for the villain in order to get him to open up about the fate of the hero’s abducted pet. Does this count as the Villain Over for Dinner trope? Or perhaps a Played With variation?

Quad O' loaf of Bread Film

Tis a quarter o' bread. The last quarter reaching the end piece of bread, effectively expressing the desperation of the loaf holder who shares their last quarter o' bread. As depicted in The Little Princess and the first Hunger Games (animation demands 1/8 for animals) What is that? That bread olive branch.. that extended hand who feeds yet cannot feast. It MUST be a trope. Can it? Will it? please/.

Jeff Goldblum "You'll Catch a Cold" Idea Inspiration trope... Film

What's the name of the trope that they develop / parody in South Park "Cancelled" (the moment from Independence Day when Jeff Goldblum hears the phrase "you'll catch a cold" and gets the idea to infect the aliens with a computer virus) —

IE where one word or phrase inspires an unlikely chain of phrases or concepts that eventually leads to a brilliant solution?

(FYI I was inspired to look this up by the movie "Spectral", the scene where the protagonist "figures it all out". So bad it's good.)

Edited by dgrrr

Foiled Freakout / Tantrum Proofed Film

Trying to determine the name of a concept I'm sure I've seen before but unsure where. Basically if a character is prone to fits of rage, their room may have been trashing proofed (often by an assistant or guardian and to a comically specific extent) to prevent them from enacting their go-to acts of violence beforehand due to it being a reocurring theme. An example of a scene following this "trope" might go as follows

>Character with temper issues >Loses temper >Goes to flip table >It's nailed down >Goes to throw lamp >It's glued to the table >Kicks door >It's cushioned in area where most commonly kicked >Character sighs and regains composure as if it never happened

Another not entirely unrelated trope would be when an "enraged" character attempts to wreak havoc but fails to do any lasting damage to their surroundings or otherwise does a negligible amount in their sorry excuse for vandalism, eventually growing tired and moving onto something else to try and break said thing (may also apply to trying to break open a door or etc.)

Thanks in advance!

Edited by Jukeb0cks

Smashing Drink Film

Do we have a trope where after a drinking toast the glass is thrown at the wallor into the wall or into the fireplace? It is pretty common in the films and not nearly as common in the real life.

No mercy Film

Older sister

Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, but for children in supernatural horror. Film

Note: I selected Film as the medium, but this trope (or sub-trope?) seemingly transcends all Western genres.

Is there a name for a young Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who usually live in a Close-Knit Community that is a Town with a Dark Secret? Maybe the New Exchange Student is inducted into the group (is there a name for this as well?) much to the reluctance of one of the Misfits (who can be represented in a variety of archetypes). This is usually supernatural horror, but can be found in lots of different 80s nostalgia-baity works. Everyone (Goes) To School Together, and the kids have to work together to defeat the Dragon and/or Big Bad. Possibly distinct from the sort of teenage summer-camp-oriented slasher horror (Friday the 13th, Fear Street: 1978, etc).

Maybe I'm being too specific or haven't looked long enough, but to me it seems that this kind of story is suuuper prevalent and distinct enough to at least be a sub-trope of something. Or this might be too general.

Examples: Spooksville, films of Steven Spielberg (Goonies, ET), writing of Stephen King (namely, It), My Babysitter's a Vampire, arguably Gravity Falls or most iterations of Scooby-Doo!, the works and film/TV adaptations of RL Stine, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Stranger Things, and many, many more.

Sorry if that was too long, I'm new here hahaha

Edited by ephun

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Edited by MV89

Example Film

I wanna know if this is a trope. In GATTACA, a person is showing the hero around the facility, mentioning all of their perfect workers. Said workers are running on a treadmill in the background. The hero asks about workers not being perfect and the lady said they have hired one person with shortcomings. As soon as she says this, one of the workers on the treadmill stops running and leaves. That was such a perfect moment, I wanna know if what happened was a trope.

Is there a trope for when archive footage/audio of a deceased actor is used in a new movie? Film

Perhaps one of the most prominent (and extreme) examples of this is Trail of the Pink Panther, starring Peter Sellers. As Sellers died over a year before production began, all footage of him in the movie is recycled footage from previous movies or unused/deleted scenes. A more recent example would be Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which gave Carrie Fisher a prominent role through previously deleted scene from other movies despite her death two years before the movie's release. It was also done with Don Rickles in Toy Story 4 - he died before recording any new audio, but his character was given a role through archived recordings of his voice work. Is there a trope for this? If so, what is it called?

Cast the Expert but it’s a studio? Film

So apparently, before their involvement in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, Blur Studio was involved in making cutscenes for Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Is Cast the Expert appropriate for this or is there a more fitting trope?

While You Were Still in Diapers Film

Any media actually. I know the trope, but I need to know how it would be played in these two settings.

1. Say you have an older man named Chris and a baby, let us call him, I do not know, Alex. Chris is doing something that proves he is much more knowledgeable in an area, such as working undercover. He points to Alex, as Alex sits there giggling, and proclaims "I have been doing while you were still in diapers", only to realize at that moment, well, he still is.

2. Say you have that same man say the same thing, but to an older kid. However, for some reason, the kid becomes a baby again, and the man once again forgets this for the moment and says it.

I think both would be a parodied trope, but I wanted to know what the rest of you think.

Thank you in advance.

A powerful man punishes a woman with excessive terms Film

Two examples I've seen recently and I'm wondering if this is a trend:

• SPOILERS**

1. Foundation, on Apple TV+: "The First Crisis," Brother Day uncovers the whole plot to hijack Brother Dawn, and then confronts "Azura" (the woman who was part of the group plotting the coup with the fake Brother Dawn). He says that not only did the just kill everyone in her family and everyone she's never met/known but they're going to shroud her and put her in essentially what amounts to a casket where she'll be kept alive as long as possible without being able to do anything. Horrific.

• SPOILERS**

2. Gilded Age, on HBO Max: I think in "Tucked Up in Newport," George Russell has his day in court and confronts his secretary, who it turns out was helping her husband to frame George. He then confronts her and says that he's going to have her followed for the rest of her life and undermine her chances of doing anything but scrubbing floors.

Is there a trope about fishing with your father? Film

I've seen a lot of movies recently. And some of them include a scene where a father and a son are fishing in a lake. Is there a trope about that?