Tropescilloscope: Blackmail

Pay up or X finds out something you want kept quiet. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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