Tropescilloscope: Red Herring

A misleading and distracting "clue". (read more at tvtropes.org)

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