Tropescilloscope: Blackmail

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

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