Tropescilloscope: Film Noir

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

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