Tropescilloscope: Diabolus ex Machina

Suddenly, unanticipated tragedy strikes. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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