Tropescilloscope: Chekhov's Skill

A previously noted skill or talent becomes essential to the plot. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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