Tropescilloscope: Meaningful Background Event

Something plot-relevant happens onscreen, but not as the focus (read more at tvtropes.org)

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