Tropescilloscope: Action Prologue

An exciting beginning followed by the "real" story. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Important Haircut Beauty Is Never Tarnished Unusual Euphemism Arc Words Put on a Bus Left the Background Music On Call-Back Alas, Poor Villain The Mafia Catch-Phrase Spiteful Spit Death by Sex In Medias Res He Who Fights Monsters Bare Your Midriff Stepford Smiler Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Chekhov's Gunman Off-into-the-Distance Ending Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Mind Screw The Brute Re-Cut Cruel and Unusual Death Face–Heel Turn Does Not Like Shoes Skewed Priorities Silent Movie Straight Gay Maybe Ever After It's All About Me Meaningful Echo Becoming the Mask Double-Meaning Title The Vamp Jerk with a Heart of Gold Major Injury Underreaction Fainting Tranquil Fury Character Development Animal Title Index Bland-Name Product Wounded Gazelle Gambit Greater-Scope Villain Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy The Cavalry Ax-Crazy Evil Laugh Would Hurt a Child Fanservice Extra Eiffel Tower Effect Black Comedy Rape Humiliation Conga Have a Gay Old Time Destination Defenestration Humans Are Bastards Loads and Loads of Characters Cool Old Lady Evil Is Petty Non-Indicative Name Dual Wielding It's Personal Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Deal with the Devil Anachronic Order Chewing the Scenery Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Due to the Dead Age Lift Unreliable Narrator Laughing Mad Artistic License – Biology What Happened to the Mouse? Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Gratuitous English Plucky Comic Relief Oh, Crap! Shirtless Scene Facial Horror The '70s Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other No-Sell Foil Recycled IN SPACE! Meet Cute Guns Akimbo "Shaggy Dog" Story Romantic False Lead Happily Married Reasonable Authority Figure Auto Erotica Funny Foreigner The Ditz Intergenerational Friendship Shower Scene Canon Foreigner Parental Substitute The Load Creative Closing Credits Mythology Gag Redshirt Army Sexy Discretion Shot Vomit Indiscretion Shot Dark and Troubled Past Your Head A-Splode Super Strength Music Stories Ascended Extra Malevolent Masked Men Spell My Name with an "S" Bunny-Ears Lawyer Bound and Gagged Would Hit a Girl Bad "Bad Acting" Cluster F-Bomb Knife Nut Artistic License – Military Corrupt Corporate Executive Genre Shift As Long as It Sounds Foreign Offscreen Teleportation I Need a Freaking Drink Death Seeker Shown Their Work Superhero Reckless Gun Usage Slasher Smile Taking the Bullet Film Noir Index Ambiguous Ending Woman Scorned Horror Films Adaptation Distillation Male Frontal Nudity Star-Crossed Lovers Serious Business Affectionate Parody Framing Device Motor Mouth Frame-Up Unusually Uninteresting Sight Badass in a Nice Suit Composite Character Instant Death Bullet Love Triangle Slashed Throat Hair-Trigger Temper Better to Die than Be Killed Villain Ball Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Decoy Protagonist Demonic Possession Punch-Clock Villain Chekhov's Skill Death Glare Together in Death Evil Brit Historical Villain Upgrade Broken Bird Black Best Friend Bond Villain Stupidity The Great Depression In Name Only Big "NO!" Never My Fault Captain Obvious Wrong Genre Savvy Obfuscating Stupidity Race Lift All Just a Dream Sanity Slippage Every Car Is a Pinto The Chessmaster Canadian Movies Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Kill 'em All Cat Fight Cat Scare Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Cool Car Artistic License – Physics Stealth Pun Extreme Doormat '80s Hair Coming-of-Age Story Domestic Abuse Captain Ersatz Names to Run Away from Really Fast Token Minority Amoral Attorney A God Am I Not Quite Dead Romantic Comedy Line-of-Sight Name Smug Snake Those Wacky Nazis Creepy Child Worthy Opponent Antagonist Title Ominous Latin Chanting Boom, Headshot! Properly Paranoid Rousing Speech No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Dies Wide Open I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Hypocritical Humor NO INDOOR VOICE Throwing Your Sword Always Works Homage Nice Hat Blood from the Mouth Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Up to Eleven Rule of Funny Dwindling Party Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Crazy-Prepared Ungrateful Bastard Broken Pedestal Bottomless Magazines Military and Warfare Films She's Got Legs I Have Your Wife Cool Old Guy Five-Man Band Outrun the Fireball Pyrrhic Victory Downer Ending Love at First Sight Closed Circle Beware the Nice Ones Evil Is Hammy Evil vs. Evil Get Out! Whole Plot Reference Anguished Declaration of Love BFG Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Evil Sounds Deep Scary Black Man Man on Fire Kill It with Fire Manic Pixie Dream Girl Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Drowning My Sorrows Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Shell-Shocked Veteran All There in the Manual Adaptational Villainy Death of a Child Woman in White Flipping the Bird Guile Hero Did Not Get the Girl Artistic License – Law Abusive Parents Peek-a-Boo Corpse Insistent Terminology Camp Gay Department of Redundancy Department Mad Scientist Christmas Movies Index Anyone Can Die Translation Convention You Killed My Father Card-Carrying Villain Book-Ends Adaptation Expansion Random Events Plot Gilligan Cut Advertised Extra Authority Equals Asskicking Silence Is Golden Corpsing Anti-Hero Monumental Damage Dull Surprise Daylight Horror Index of Film Westerns Took a Level in Jerkass Fish out of Water Failed a Spot Check Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Adorkable Reality Ensues Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Obstructive Bureaucrat Ms. Fanservice Big Eater Award-Bait Song Continuity Nod Dramedy Defiant to the End Based on a True Story Heterosexual Life-Partners Butt-Monkey Eldritch Abomination Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism How We Got Here The Dreaded Gory Discretion Shot Sci-Fi Horror Red Herring The Musical Chuck Cunningham Syndrome The Bad Guy Wins Rule of Cool Bi the Way No Celebrities Were Harmed Pre-Mortem One-Liner Big Fancy House Disguised in Drag Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor The '60s Paper-Thin Disguise Here We Go Again! Same Language Dub Bolivian Army Ending Real Life Dirty Old Man Dirty Coward The '50s Stuff Blowing Up Vampire Fiction Bring My Brown Pants Disney Death N-Word Privileges Henpecked Husband Red Eyes, Take Warning Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil The Quiet One Lighter and Softer Pay Evil unto Evil Author Avatar Abhorrent Admirer Chiaroscuro Setting Update Mr. Exposition Insane Troll Logic Running Gag Distracted by the Sexy Heroic Sacrifice Our Zombies Are Different The Hero Suspiciously Similar Substitute Epic Fail Deus ex Machina Mooks Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? The Casanova Say My Name Retcon Badass Bookworm Poor Communication Kills Product Placement Spanner in the Works Freudian Excuse Reality Is Unrealistic Mercy Kill Camera Abuse Children Are Innocent Combat Pragmatist Red Shirt Accidental Murder Smoking Is Cool Damsel in Distress Easily Forgiven The Starscream Jump Scare The Sociopath The Oner Bad Boss Gold Digger Toplessness from the Back Manchild And the Adventure Continues A Date with Rosie Palms Title Drop Sequel Hook Not So Different Refuge in Audacity Adaptational Badass Drives Like Crazy Public Domain Feature Films Fun with Acronyms It Can Think Badass Boast Those Two Bad Guys Eye Scream Evil Plan Faux Affably Evil Adaptation Name Change War Is Hell Cain and Abel Affably Evil Green-Eyed Monster The Dragon There Is No Kill Like Overkill Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Naked People Are Funny My Beloved Smother Badass Longcoat Freeze-Frame Bonus Missing Mom Nice Guy Bullying a Dragon Big Bad Duumvirate Rich Bitch Credits Gag Comically Missing the Point Russian Films Scare Chord Men Are the Expendable Gender Adult Fear Hoist by His Own Petard Friend to All Children Grey and Gray Morality Determinator Artistic License – Geography Chekhov's Gun Blackmail Mama Bear Double Entendre Not So Above It All Insult Backfire Pet the Dog Revenge Rated M for Manly Sequel Escalation Apocalypse How Really Gets Around Defrosting Ice Queen Once More, with Clarity! This Is Gonna Suck In the Back Male Gaze Shout-Out Tempting Fate Ambiguously Gay Extremely Short Timespan Deliberately Monochrome Works Set in World War II The Alleged Car Ambiguous Disorder Those Two Guys Film Noir Playing Gertrude Heel Realization The Smurfette Principle Manly Tears Historical Hero Upgrade Psychopathic Manchild No-Holds-Barred Beatdown No OSHA Compliance Naïve Newcomer Bowdlerise Sports Stories After the End Never Found the Body Mistaken for Gay Not Even Bothering with the Accent Artistic License – Gun Safety Unresolved Sexual Tension Shipper on Deck Heroic BSoD Sacrificial Lion Hell Is That Noise Broken Aesop Disproportionate Retribution Depraved Bisexual Plot Hole Drill Sergeant Nasty Not Using the "Z" Word Let's Get Dangerous! Last-Name Basis Badass Grandpa Leave the Camera Running Hate Sink Casting Gag The Un-Reveal Jerkass Shoot the Shaggy Dog Mood Whiplash Awesome, but Impractical The Stinger Brainless Beauty Only a Flesh Wound Ironic Echo Batman Gambit Light Is Not Good French Films Dark Is Not Evil Action Girl Shut Up, Hannibal! Retirony Self-Deprecation Dramatic Irony Hollywood Darkness Villain with Good Publicity More Dakka Famous Last Words Serial Killer Older Than They Look Took a Level in Badass Dramatic Gun Cock Leaning on the Fourth Wall The Atoner Sir Swears-a-Lot Loophole Abuse He Knows Too Much My Greatest Failure Amusing Injuries Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Empathic Environment Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Rape as Drama Animal Motifs Immune to Bullets I'm a Humanitarian Break the Cutie Dumb Blonde Expy Big Brother Instinct Animated Credits Opening The Voiceless The Dog Bites Back Only in It for the Money Parental Neglect Nothing Is Scarier Bittersweet Ending Arch-Enemy Betty and Veronica Jitter Cam Roaring Rampage of Revenge Mystery and Detective Films I Did What I Had to Do Twist Ending The Mole Dissonant Serenity Babies Ever After Badass Normal Politically Incorrect Villain Actor Allusion Brother–Sister Incest Television Movie Index Stylistic Suck Precision F-Strike Epic Movie Big Applesauce Moment Killer Agony of the Feet Big Damn Heroes Very Loosely Based on a True Story Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Genre Throwback Death by Irony Grievous Bottley Harm Unwitting Instigator of Doom Take a Third Option Half the Man He Used to Be Funny Background Event Make It Look Like an Accident Mighty Whitey The Power of Love For Want of a Nail Fan Disservice Cassandra Truth Beard of Evil Dirty Cop Stalker with a Crush Wham Shot Small Name, Big Ego Ass Shove Groin Attack Jerk Jock Lock and Load Montage Martial Arts Movie Informed Ability Artistic License – History Berserk Button Disney Villain Death Parental Abandonment Bar Brawl Cool Shades Dropped a Bridge on Him Posthumous Character Storming the Castle Deadpan Snarker An Arm and a Leg Taking You with Me No Ending The Stoic Action Prologue Beta Couple Good Is Not Nice Jerkass Has a Point From Nobody to Nightmare Evil Counterpart Early-Bird Cameo Car Fu Rule of Three Time Skip British Films Horror Comedy The Lancer Dark Action Girl Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Arranged Marriage Australian Movies Kids Are Cruel Truth in Television Contrived Coincidence Made of Iron Adapted Out Neck Lift One-Man Army Papa Wolf Driven to Suicide 20 Minutes into the Future Catapult Nightmare Deconstruction Neck Snap Handicapped Badass Psychological Thriller Tagline Dogged Nice Guy Mugging the Monster Fat Bastard You Have Outlived Your Usefulness "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue German Films Zombie Stories Curse Cut Short Sole Survivor Final Girl It Will Never Catch On Only One Name Too Dumb to Live Eyepatch of Power Alpha Bitch Narrator No Name Given Accidental Misnaming Gainax Ending Author Appeal The Ghost Karma Houdini Film Series Mundane Made Awesome One-Word Title The Cameo Villain Protagonist My God, What Have I Done? Blatant Lies Redemption Equals Death Overly Long Gag One Steve Limit I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Logo Joke Does This Remind You of Anything? Punny Name Heel–Face Turn "Well Done, Son!" Guy The Reveal Video Credits Genre Savvy Rule of Symbolism As Himself Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Getting Crap Past the Radar Establishing Character Moment Gender Flip Take That! Hong Kong Films Lampshade Hanging Eureka Moment Eagleland Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Break the Haughty Fate Worse than Death Interrupted Suicide Black and Gray Morality Made of Explodium Brick Joke She Cleans Up Nicely No Antagonist Documentary Celebrity Paradox Laser-Guided Karma Victoria's Secret Compartment Slap-Slap-Kiss The Hero Dies Drugs Are Bad Alliterative Name Big-Bad Ensemble Stealth Hi/Bye Your Cheating Heart Science Fiction Films Fourth Date Marriage Call-Forward And I Must Scream Wretched Hive Soft Glass You Have Failed Me Match Cut Hypocrite Hidden Depths All Men Are Perverts Gone Horribly Right Ship Tease Offscreen Moment of Awesome Meaningful Background Event Foregone Conclusion A Father to His Men Expository Hairstyle Change Faking the Dead Dressing as the Enemy Aluminum Christmas Trees Kick the Son of a Bitch Back from the Dead Pimped-Out Dress Anti-Villain Armor-Piercing Question All for Nothing Big Bad Almost Kiss Sealed Evil in a Can As You Know An Axe to Grind Fire-Forged Friends Wicked Cultured B-Movie Scenery Gorn Calling the Old Man Out Costume Porn Crazy Jealous Guy Parental Incest Irony Needs Wiki Magic Love Darkest Hour Deliberate Values Dissonance Sadistic Choice Crucified Hero Shot Improvised Weapon Hooker with a Heart of Gold Mr. Fanservice Novelization The Big Guy Disappeared Dad Honor Before Reason Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Pragmatic Adaptation Bilingual Bonus Demoted to Extra Manipulative Bastard Well-Intentioned Extremist Pretty in Mink Undying Loyalty True Companions Black Comedy Annoying Younger Sibling Covers Always Lie Off with His Head! Diabolus ex Machina Pretty Little Headshots Fake Shemp Earn Your Happy Ending Asshole Victim The Bully Retired Badass You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! What You Are in the Dark Hero of Another Story Visual Pun "The Reason You Suck" Speech Cowboy Cop Exactly What It Says on the Tin From Bad to Worse Large Ham Soundtrack Dissonance Tap on the Head Fantastic Racism Sassy Black Woman Historical-Domain Character Red Right Hand Action Genre The Smart Guy Bald of Evil Pragmatic Villainy Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Stock Footage Our Vampires Are Different Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Fantasy Films The '90s folderlabel Gorn Meaningful Name timeperiod Historical In-Joke Determinator aka: The Determinator Red Oni, Blue Oni Sinister Minister Developing Doomed Characters The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Scenery Porn Suspiciously Specific Denial Cool Guns Chase Scene Obviously Evil Vacation Films Be Careful What You Wish For Bloody Hilarious The Faceless Even Evil Has Standards Hollywood Law Adaptational Attractiveness Face Death with Dignity Heroes Want Redheads The Remake Attempted Rape Italian Films Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Early Installment Weirdness Danny Peary Cult Movies List Reality Has No Subtitles Blood Knight Fanservice Despair Event Horizon A.I. Is a Crapshoot Adaptation Dye-Job Unspoken Plan Guarantee Wham Line Totally Radical Dying Moment of Awesome Never Trust a Trailer Imagine Spot Race Against the Clock "Awesome McCool" Name Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Killed Mid-Sentence Exact Words Black Dude Dies First Bond One-Liner The Chick Improbable Aiming Skills Morality Pet An Aesop Adaptational Heroism Conspicuous CG Bloodier and Gorier Kick the Dog What the Hell, Hero? Spiritual Successor The Stoner Not So Stoic Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Central Theme Market-Based Title Implacable Man Police Brutality Villainous Breakdown May–December Romance Training Montage Rasputinian Death Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds The Lost Lenore Bavarian Fire Drill Daddy's Girl Breaking the Fourth Wall Leitmotif Fatal Family Photo Ghost Fiction Bait-and-Switch The Ace Bury Your Gays Mexican Standoff Even Evil Has Loved Ones Noodle Incident Villain Song Curb-Stomp Battle Word of God Vomit Discretion Shot Vitriolic Best Buds Enemy Mine Didn't Think This Through Dutch Angle Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Married to the Job Evil-Detecting Dog World of Ham Dark Reprise The Film of the Book Hope Spot Crapsack World The '80s Madness Mantra MacGuffin Kubrick Stare Overprotective Dad O.O.C. Is Serious Business For the Evulz Villain Opening Scene The Alcoholic The End... Or Is It? Real Life Writes the Plot Cloudcuckoolander Knight Templar Country Matters Fatal Flaw Idiot Ball Protagonist Title Cold-Blooded Torture Ripped from the Headlines Improbable Weapon User Biopic Intrepid Reporter Flashback The X of Y Psycho for Hire Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Foreshadowing Show Within a Show Belligerent Sexual Tension Yandere Hero Antagonist Body Horror Karmic Death Spared by the Adaptation La Résistance Only Sane Man Fiery Redhead Action Survivor Trailers Always Spoil Four-Temperament Ensemble Air-Vent Passageway Brutal Honesty Only Known by Their Nickname Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Darker and Edgier Adults Are Useless Fingore Suddenly SHOUTING! Creator Cameo The Place A Minor Kidroduction Room Full of Crazy Everyone Has Standards Slasher Movie Anachronism Stew Bloodless Carnage Not What It Looks Like All There in the Script Japanese Films Thriller As the Good Book Says... All Girls Want Bad Boys Femme Fatale Death by Adaptation And Starring Aside Glance Rewatch Bonus Riddle for the Ages Police are Useless Actually Pretty Funny