Tropescilloscope: Meaningful Background Event

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

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