Tropescilloscope: Diabolus ex Machina

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

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