Tropescilloscope: Deus ex Machina

A miracle that saves the heroes at the last minute. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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