Tropescilloscope: Blackmail

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

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