Tropescilloscope: Film Noir

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

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