Tropescilloscope: Call-Back

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

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

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