Tropescilloscope: Thriller

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

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