Tropescilloscope: Adult Fear

Threats and fears that most adults would worry about in real life. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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