Tropescilloscope: Blackmail

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

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