Tropescilloscope: Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?

Villains never take the most direct approach to dealing with enemies. (read more at tvtropes.org)

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

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