Tropescilloscope: Film Noir

A film genre involving detectives, Chiaroscuro lighting, crime, and a 1940-60s setting. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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