Tropescilloscope: Blackmail

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

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