Tropescilloscope: Thriller

Trope: Anticipation of action, rather than action itself. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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