Tropescilloscope: Chekhov's Gun

A plot device that isn't significant until later in the story. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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