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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open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?
openMake 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).
openGathering 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?
openNot 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.
openWhere are the keys? Film
Car keys (when needed by a hero) are usually, if not always, on top of the sun visor.
openCharacters 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
openEstablishing 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!)
resolved character named after actor Film
Hi, is there a trope for characters having a name related to the actor playing them?
openUltra-Threatening Villain Film
Is there a trope for when there is an ultra-powerful villain that threatens an entire universe, so a bunch of characters who aren't normally associated with each other have to come together in a big crossover to defeat them?
My main example here is Thanos, because in Infinity War, a bunch of characters who don't really associate with each other often have to come together in a huge crossover to try to defeat him.
Edited by KrazyKazoo2201openNot Take That Film
This example is listed under Take That! on Hitch:
- Since the studio wouldn't cast a white actress as the female lead to avoid a racial taboo; Hitch lets it slip to Sara that his college roommate married his sister and they were expecting a baby. Near the beginning of the film Hitch is talking to a "old friend" in a bar (played by white actor Michael Rapaport) who is married and expecting a baby. It's subtle, but if one thinks about it, they realize that this character was the friend in question who was married to his sister.
I know it's not Take That!, but it seems like it could fit some other trope.
openbugs under the skin Film
Is there a trope that specifically covers when one or more insects or other small bodily invaders are seen (or hallucinated by the character) to be moving under the character's skin? Often this is seen under the skin of the arms of the character. This typically causes the character to panic and to try to cut the insects out, which is likely to cause grave injury to the character and potentially death. I'm not sure, but I think examples of this might be in The Mummy (Brendan Fraser version), Constantine, A Scanner Darkly, and an X-Files episode. Sorry for the lack of specifics in each of those.
An alternative version (with an unusual invader) is at the end of "The Matrix" when Neo invades Agent Smith and Neo's energy pulsing under Smith's skin eventually causing Smith to explode.
Thanks for your insights in advance :)
openI think it was a goosebumps episode but I can’t find it Film
There’s an episode I remember where two children visit their grandfather. He’s a therapist who records his sessions with a box that he tells his grandchildren to stay away from. When he leaves/goes to sleep idk where he goes they snoop around and pretend to do a therapy session. The box turns the recordings into real life and the children talked about their worst fears. One is a demon dog I think and the other is an old woman who has a stocking over her face inside the closet. (This I remember vividly.) The only way to stop the nightmares is to close your eyes and calm down and not be scared and they go away. I cannot find this episode anywhere no matter how much I describe it. The vivid image of the old woman is burning in my mind lol that’s why It’s bothering me so much. Anything helps, thanks!!
openCasting trope? Film
Other than Dramatization, what trope would fit this scenario?:
A Lifetime Movie of the Week focuses on female protesters organizing a Women's March in 2017, and the cast of twenty-eight actors is nearly all-female, with only five male actors in the cast (out of the 28 actors) - justified since it's about the female protestors.
The men aren't a Hate Sink or antagonists, but integral to the plot.
openSolemn Antihero with Dead Mother? Film
Anyone got an idea of what the trope for a brooding antihero with mommy issues would be? Or just the brooding antihero with a troubled past?
openNo in scene edits Film
Is there a trope where a movie doesn't have any in scene edits,cuts etc? Usually due to being a really cheap and/or bad movie but some art house movies do it on purpose.
openImpactful line trope Film
Character A and B are talking, character B tells character A one really impactful/truthful phrase that shocks them. Character A stares at character B slightly shocked and confused and just stands there watching character B walk away without saying anything else, leaving character A thoughtful and alone. What’s the trope?
Edited by carollsopenFutile Attempt Film
When some kid throws a rock or shoots a slingshot against some op monster/villain and it just bounces off his face and the kid is like oh crap what have I done.
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