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Don't humiliate a father in front of his child Film
Is there a trope where humiliating a man in front of his children (or family, students) is portayed as an extreme Kick the Dog moment, because the kid will lose respect for him?
I remember it being mentioned in that movie, Amélie, as something a character hated to see.
Hero Facing Villain But Can't Resist For Whatever Reason Film
I don't know how to describe this, but I'll do the best I can. Also, I apologize in advance for the long post that will undoubtedly come from me trying to describe it. Anyway, the scenario I'm thinking of is when the bad guy forces the good guy to confront him, usually through taking hostages. The good guy shows up and ends up standing rlly close to the bad guy. This is where the trope differs from anything I've been able to find. The bad guy usually ends up man-handling the good guy, typically touching his face, slowly circling, looking him up and down, etc. It's also usually male to male non-sexual. Bonus points if the bad guy throws in some belittling phrases, specifically how the hero's just a kid, or the hero's not a great as everyone thinks, or the hero's taller than the bad guy thought, or if the hero's so amazing why did he fail, etc.It's usually a quiet, tense scene, sometimes with the hostages actively being threatened by something/someone in the background. Additionally, these scenes typically end with either the good guy suddenly getting the upper hand and the bad guy being defeated, running away, or running away with a hostage, or with the good guy being forced to go somewhere and/or do something with the bad guy. The most recent example I saw of this that brought it to mind was in Shazam when Dr. Sivana has taken Billy's/Shamzam's siblings hostage. Billy and Sivana end up a foot apart and Sivana's all like "Wow okay you're not all that great. Here's the deal do the thing and I WON'T do the other thing". As for another example of the dialogue and circling the good guy that usually shows up in this scenario, earlier in the movie, when Sivana first flies down and meets Billy, he's all like, "oh okay so this is what flawless looks like. JK it's not much even tho we're both undefeatable. gimme your pwr"
Again, I apologize for the length, but I just wanted to really convey it.
Sudden Death by Loss of Soulmate Film
This is something I see quite regularly in survival and horror movies but I'm not sure if it already has a particular name or page, but if there isn't there should be. If there is a distinguished and practically inseparable couple in a group (that aren't main protagonists), once one of them gets killed, the other half is virtually always written to bite the dust later in the story. This character never ends up surviving, and is always destined by writers to be one of the next few victims. After being convinced to continue on for survival and pep talked by the films protagonists "They would want you to continue and live" once they get a hold of themselves they get killed anyway within 10-20 min or so.
Some examples of this include Anaconda, Wrong Turn, Deep Blue Sea, Hatchet, etc. of the top of my head.
Word association eureka Film
A brilliant character is trying to solve the bad guy's evil plot, or get themselves out of a pickle. He starts mumbling, thinking aloud, and suddenly, a word he only accidentally used, leads him to a eureka.
Used in The Avengers ("He's a diva! He wants a statue with *his name plastered*... son of a bitch.")
Parodied in one South Park episode.
Gangster loyalty monologue Film
Often crime boss gives long lecture about loyalty, gangsters morality and code involving braging about family, or honour of man etc before kiling traitor. It always seem too pathetic, unrealistic, hypocritic and absurd at least to me.
Skeptical authority figure has a point Film
This trope is usually found in monster movies but I assume it can appear else where. Most such movies have some scene where the hero comes to an authority figure with some evidence of the monster, only for said figure to just blow them off (Jaws being probably the best known example). However, If the movie isn't written very well the unbeliever may seem completely justified due to the heroe's "evidence" being very weak to non existent. Example in octopus 2 River Of Fear there is a giant octopus near New York eating people. The hero (who is a cop) tells his boss about it and his boss basically says he's an idiot. However, the only evidence he has is the report of a drunk and possibly crazy homeless guy, as well as a destroyed boat which could have occurred due to any number of reasons not involving a giant octopus.
Edited by Bootlebat
Does TechnologyMarchesOn work for vehicle exhaust? Film
In Haunter, one of the plot points involves carbon monoxide poisoning from a car running in a closed garage. I was going to comment on how the scene set in 2014, with a modern car, is unlikely since emissions standards have changed such that cars don't emit that level of carbon monoxide anymore. Technology Marches On seems like a decent match (possibly even noting that it might be a matter of Edgar, the possessing ghost not having kept up with the changes in technology, but the trope does seem to be more about "Wow, that sounded cutting edge... ten years ago."
They should have used this character instead of that one Film
In a show/movie/whatever, a character will take a role in the story that the fans believe should have belonged to another character.
Usually the reasoning is that they believe the other character fits better in that role, that it would have more narrative impact if another character filled that role, or that adding a new character is pointless if a character that already exists can fill the role.
For a recent example, in The Last Jedi, some fans think Admiral Ackbar or Leia should have taken the place of Admiral Holdo.
"You Need to Know the Right People" Film
I'm a little surprised I haven't been able to find this one, but I haven't yet: an underground network of people beneath notice - service professionals, homeless, taxi drivers - who use their connections to aid the hero... or the antagonist. This would be close to a Wainscot Society, except they're not on the boundary of a magical world, and close to a Milkman Conspiracy, except they're not necessarily in control of events, and definitely not concerned with much outside their immediate sphere of influence. The closest trope I've been able to find is The Almighty Janitor, except that's an individual rather than a group, and that individual is usually somehow key to the whole plot or the secret master behind everything. The group I'm thinking about - these guys just help things along. I also feel like this is not quite a case of a Weird Trade Union, because they're not always given a collective name, and usually have some ordinary job or nondescript role with unexpected perks.
Examples would include the concierges of The Order of Crossed Keys in The Grand Budapest Hotel, perhaps The Newsboy Legion from the Golden Age comics, the Blue Blaze Irregulars from Buckaroo Banzai (to a degree), the Baker Street Irregulars from Sherlock Holmes, the criminals who track down Hans Beckert to bring him before the Kangaroo Court in Fritz Lang's M, and... well... I know I've seen some 70s-era action/thrillers where, say, all the cabbies from one particular company act as a surveillance network in the city, tracking down someone. Somewhere adjacent might be The Beggars' Guild in Terry Pratchett's novels (or I think in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories - the beggars are part of that Thieves' Guild, if I'm remembering right), and maybe the mob that's formed of Greenwich Village locals/citizens' watch types that Griffin Dunne's character has to elude in After Hours.
It seems like the central element to this trope is that somebody - protagonist or antagonist - gets a little power boost by knowing "the right people" to do this one thing... and "the right people" turn out to be ordinary, apparently undistinguished, but somehow exactly in the right place, in the right numbers, with the right connections to execute the one thing with uncanny perfection.
Is this already a trope that I've missed? Does it belong somewhere that I've ruled out for the wrong reasons?
Edited by Grantimatter
ゴゴ Film
It's a camera shot you see most often in horror movies. The subject, a person about to die, is centered on screen with few to no background/foreground elements, but is pulled back a significant distance from the camera. It's used often enough that whenever I see it, I know something bad is about to happen to the character in question, but the only example I can think of off the top of my head is the one at the end of Deadpool 2, where all the protagonists are looking at the orphanage chairman, who is about to be hit by a taxi. https://imgur.com/a/Im6CLNd
for reference. It's like a half empty two shot, but distinct in that it confirms an imminent threat as opposed to creating tension, and of course the framing is different. Is there a name for it?
Make something look big by putting the camera close to the ground Film
Whats the trope for the common trick of making some creature, object etc look really big by putting the camera really close to the ground (the implication being it's a POV shot from the normal sized characters).
Gathering of Heroes? Film
Do we have the trope where the heroes gather in council to meet each other and talk about/pledge to go on their quest, a la the Council of Elrond in the Lord of the Rings or the gathering of Master Builders in The Lego Movie?
Not sure how to sum this one up neatly... Film
In the new Netflix film "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind", Chiwetel Ejiofor (who also wrote and directed the film) plays the main character's father, with the main character himself played by an actor named Maxwell Simba. Obviously Ejiofor is playing another onscreen character with an antagonistic relationship to a Simba in the new "Lion King" remake. (Granted, Ejiofor's former role is much less of a negative force in the story than Scar, although they both stand in the way of their respective Simbas' efforts to help alleviate the effects of their communities' drought-induced famines.)
Was just wondering if there's an existing trope that applies to this sort of situation.
Where are the keys? Film
Car keys (when needed by a hero) are usually, if not always, on top of the sun visor.
Characters will always answer the phone while making out Film
Hi, I'm writing an article for The Washington Post about this particular trope where characters will always answer the phone if it rings while they're making out with someone. Is there a trope on TV Tropes for that? And if not, does anyone remember any instances? Laura Linney in "Love, Actually" is a memorable example.
Thanks so much, Zach Pincus-Roth
Establishing how the audience is mean to view a thing Film
In several media, but especially the theatre, you have to establish how we're supposed to view people in suits.
In The Wizard of Oz, they quickly make it clear that in the context of the movie, the Cowardly Lion is an actual lion. But if the exact same person in the exact same outfit showed up in a serious drama set in the real world, it¨s be obvious to the audience that he's meant to be regarded as a man in a suit, and not the lion The Wizard of Oz.
Another example: In A Midsummer Night's Dream one of the characters, Snug, dresses up as a lion for a play. In an earlier scene, Snug asks that he be given the role of the lion, and the reason Shakespeare has him say that isn't just for the humorous dialogue in that scene. If not for that early dialogue about dressing up as a lion, the audience would be confused—we wouldn't know if it was meant to be the character now dressed up as a lion, or if the actor playing the role of Snug was now instead playing the role of an actual lion. Shakespeare also has Snug talk when he plays the lion, and proclaim that he's actually just Snug dressed up in a lion suit.
In short: Do we have a trope for the problem of how you make it clear to the audience whether the actor dressed up as an animal (or a monster or whatever) is meant to be portraying an animal or a person in a suit? (To say nothing of the problems you get when one actor is playing, say, a bear and another actor is playing a person dressed up as a bear, and the other characters in the play are meant to mistake the dressed-up person for an actual bear!)
Hug and Whisper Threats Film
Two people, often women but not always, are having an argument but an unwanted witness barges in or is already there and shouldn't be aware of what is said, yet it's not possible for both litigants to step outside the room without looking suspicious.
So Litigant One gives a forceful hug to Litigant Two and whispers a clear threat in their ear with the understanding that this is the last warning before things get nasty for real.
Does this exist?