Tropescilloscope: Call-Back

A reference to an earlier event in a series that's relevant for the plot. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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