Tropescilloscope: Spanner in the Works

That imbecile has ruined all of my plans! (read more at tvtropes.org)

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

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