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 the Trope Launch Pad.
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A character demonstrates his/her knowledge of another character by spouting out a long list of completely irrelevant facts.
—-
Kaffee: You don't even know me. Ordinarily it takes someone hours to discover I'm not fit to handle a defense.
Galloway: I do know you. Daniel Alli Stair Kaffee, born June 8th, 1964 at Boston Mercy Hospital. Your father's Lionel Kaffee, former Navy Judge Advocate and Attorney General, of the United States, died 1985. You went to Harvard Law on a Navy scholarship, probably because that's what your father wanted you to do, and now you're just treading water for the three years you've gotta serve in the JAG Corps, just kinda layin' low til you can get out and get a real job.
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Is there a trope for a situation when a villain (or an anti-hero) comments on someone else's quality item, only to be shown using it later, the violent acquisition having happened off-screen? For example, T-1000 says, "Say... That's a nice bike..." Or "Slash" from Six-String Samurai: "You've failed me for the last... oh, nice shoes."
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Is there a Trope:
- Where a particular actor becomes ludicrously famous in one role, and they're in EVERY major movie that comes out for the next few years? Generally in a starring role, but even if the actor has no business being in that role? I'm Thinking it overlaps with WTH, Casting Agency?, but isn't exclusive to it.
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A character is giving a Rousing Speech. A large version of their national flag, usually American, appears behind them, making the background behind them nothing but stars and stripes. It adds to the general heroicness and sincerity of the speech. I've seen a few examples ,but I know there's more. It happened in Toy Story 2, with Buzz and in the Phineas and Ferb episode "The Lizard Whisperer" with Ferb.
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Recently I've been fleshing out the page for The Manhattan Project film with John Lithgow. I used the trope Blatant Lies, possibly incorrectly. I guess I'm looking for a trope which might be named "Government Half Truth" or something. A case where someone is lying, but puts just enough truth into it so that someone won't look deeply enough to find the lie.
Maybe like Embarrassing Cover-Up, but without the embarrassing part?
Case in point: In the film, a lab is purifying plutonium for use in weapons. While this specific work is top secret, the name of the lab "Medatomics" and the tour that a scientist gives inside the lab shows that they're not hiding the fact that they're working with nuclear material.
It would be as if the people in the lab would be willing to say, "Yes, we do nuclear research, and yes we have some pretty nasty stuff in there, but no, we are not enriching plutonium for atomic bombs."
Now, if they went ahead and openly denied it without anyone asking, then I understand it might fall under Suspiciously Specific Denial, but that's not what happens here. More like, "What's that green stuff?"
The truthful answer would be "extremely enriched weapons-grade plutonium."
The actual answer given is "That's Americium-241, just one of the things we make around here." Americium-241 is a common isotope in many types of nuclear waste.
A comparable example might be the old conspiracy theory of the US Air Force reverse-engineering alien spacecraft and testing them out in the Nevada desert. "Yes, we do test top-secret highly experimental aircraft out there, and some of their designs are rather unorthodox to say the least. But crashed alien spacecraft? That's just crazy."
Would this even be considered a trope at all outside of Blatant Lies?
Edited by bluecevaopenNo Title Film
When protagonist is just about to solve the riddle or mystery but a small coincidence makes them not success. For example on Twin Peaks when agent Cooper wants to see Leland's golf sticks he doesn't know the body of Maddy Ferguson is lying next to the sticks and he never realises it because of sudden call from police radio. It's very upsetting trope I think;) But how is it called?
Edited by 77.115.128.241openNo Title Film
At the very end of a film, various titles tell us what happened to each of the characters, eg, "Sarah lost the lawsuit, married Joe, and became a folk singer." The popularizer would be Animal House. It's almost mandatory in any Bio Pic whose subject is still alive.
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So a major character dies, off-screen, in an accident, others are informed post factum. Natural disbelief ensues - but no, the dead guy has really been Killed Off for Real, they will have Finally Found the Body soon after. With Really Dead Montage properly convincing the viewers that the character is dead dead, this one leaves a weird "uh buh what?? that was a major character!" feeling. Do We Have This One?
Edited by SinusPiopenNo Title Film
I'm looking for a trope where an actor is used obviously as a substitute for another actor. In particular, I'm thinking of Josh Duhamel in When in Rome, who not only sounds a lot like Tom Hanks, but plays the same sort of character that I'm used to seeing Hanks play.
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Unstopable martial arts techniques. Do we have this one? I'm thinking of any move, whether in swordplay, martial arts or whatever, that is meant to be an ultimate, unblockable, unstopable technique. Someone who masters is becomes the perfect warrior, basically. Naturally, this is impossible in real life, but I've seen it referred to a few times in fiction.
- Hero (2002 film): The nameless Hero is supposed to have an unstopable technique that can strike with great speed and accuracy. - Highlander: Engame: Duncan is taught a supposedly unstopable fencing techique that there is no way to counter, but it actually doesn't work when he uses it on Kell, the Big Bad.
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Pretty common, probably overlooking it, but what's the trope for when a character has a strong emotional revelation to something watched on a television/monitor/screen? I'm thinking of scenes like this one
in The Fifth Element, or this one
from Sex Lies And Videotape, or even this classic
from American Beauty?
I know it crosses over with tropes like Thousand-Yard Stare or Heroic BSoD, but those more describes the character's cathartic reaction (and is too specific; said reaction could be joyous) rather than what inspired it — namely, a video screen.
Edited by tomthanksopenNo Title Film
The technique of cutting quickly back and forth between shots with two very different tempos, for instance, the hero running down the street with hard-pounding music, juxtaposed with some other character taking a nap. An example would be in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, when we cut back and forth between the knights charging at the swamp castle from way in the distance, and the very nonchalant guards. Generally a comedy trope; what is it?
Edited by LenoxusopenNo Title Film
Something bad is threatening to happen — say, a big mess because of a stack of pies is falling over. A character puts in a heroic effort to prevent it, wheeling about here and there. He's successful! Crisis averted! Oh, wait, he missed that one thing happening over there. No… no… no… Ka-rash! A failure.
An example of this would be in the film of Prince of Persia: the hero has to keep any and all rocks from touching the floor, he makes a big show of catching a big one, and another small one immediately comes down. Is there a page for this?
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Is there a trope for that scene when a hero or villain sets off or only just escapes from a massive explosion but just keeps walking all casual and doesn't look back at it because they are either too cool for school or just to bad arse?
In the last couple of weeks I've seen it in Bond, Green Hornet, No Country for Old Men, Futurama (where Bender hangs a light shade on it) its basically happening all over the place.
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Do we have one for the Awesome Kitchen Fight?
Like, when the hero confronts the villain, it will often be in a hotel or restaurant. So they HAVE to move their fight to the kitchen, because there's all kinds of awesome weapons and other methods to get hurt badly there. At the very least, there are innocent bystanders to be shocked in a most comedic way.

Is there a name for films on DVD/video that come out at the same time as famous/popular films are released, that are obviously a cheap attempt to cash in? For example the film 'iron hero' (Iron man), transmogrifiers (transformers) and cyber tracker (Terminator)