Tropescilloscope: Chekhov's Skill

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

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