Tropescilloscope: Red Herring

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

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