Tropescilloscope: Damsel in Distress

A female character is kidnapped or otherwise in danger and in need of rescue. (read more at tvtropes.org)

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

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