Tropescilloscope: Red Herring

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

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