Tropescilloscope: Artistic License – Military

Inaccuracies in military training, procedures, command structure, or practices are ignored in favor of telling the story. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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