r/MovieTropes

This is a trope that’s mostly in action movies especially when it’s a war movie based on reality. At least in America the trope is mostly applied to Nazis and Jihadists. Pretty much in the trope the main characters will kill many of the bad guys who are part of some evil army or something. The thing this trope ignores through is how many of the people killed are likely conscripts who do not want to be there or support that group. The Star Wars sequels very heavily abused this trope especially because we learn the Empire uses child soldiers. My problem with such a trope is it is used to just skip over any moral dilemmas that would arise from any action scenes. Keep in mind 95% of the German Army during WWII were conscripts meaning a healthy bit didn’t want to be there and even more of them likely didn’t support Hitler but didn’t have a choice. I’m not sure if this is a trope outside of America but if anyone would like to speak on this matter we can.

This is the scene where a character is making an important well rehearsed speech or eulogy or presentation of some kind. In the middle of the speech they stop...awkward silence.

Then the person makes a point of throwing away the script and starts speaking from the heart. The crowd is confused. The character's friends/co-workers, etc are horrified or panicked. But it was the right thing to do!

There is literally no beer drinker on planet Earth who says this when there are obviously several or many brands of beer from which to choose. And the frumpy yet cooperative barkeep simply states, “You got it,” as he serves the strangely-already-opened brown bottles with their labels facing away from the camera.

... And of course they get out of the car ASAP and put themselves in a dangerous situation.

Hey Henchmen. How about you all gang up and attack our hero at one time instead of lining up like your buying concert tickets. Next!

You know this scene. Two characters meet and start exchanging insults and threats. And just when it looks like they are about to fight, one of them smiles and says "you old rascal" or some other warm greeting. They were just old buddies having fun!

All the sneezes in movies are fake.

Have you noticed that? It's because if the actor actually sneezes while shooting, and that it's not in the script, they would cut and retake. Why?

We humans sneeze on a regular basis. Why must all characters on the screen never sneeze out of just... being normal human beings?

Ah, I can hear it already. Random events like a sneeze would be a distraction for the audience. Why? You hear people sneeze, the most you would do is say bless you. Less than 5 seconds later you'd probably completely forgotten about that whole event. Why is it that when a character sneezes on screen, everyone will infer some cause and effect that sneeze would have with the central plot? When in real life, you never do that. You'd never ponder if that person who just sneezed is about to die of a horrible disease, or signal the coming of a disaster. It's just a fucking sneeze.

There is no random event in a movie. Everything *has to* have a reason to exist. Every event, even a sneeze, must have a cause and effect, relevant to the plot. Real life is not like that. Some stuff just happens for no reason and have no consequences whatsoever.

Why do we *expect* such "cleanliness" with regards to the plot? It's because we've been *trained* to see everything in movies having a reason to exist. We are taught that Chekov's gun that *must* be used. We are conditioned to expect a squeaky clean, ultra high SNR with the movie's plot and message. Any randomness and happenstance is a blemish that must be removed. And we still call it "realistic".

I think we should as audience tolerate some level of "noise" in the plot. Some things in life just happen with no particular relevance to the plot. Just let it be. Don't think too hard on a sneeze.

Have you noticed that in some car chase or high-speed scenes from movies and TV shows (live-action or animated) there are some semi-truck trailers or barriers that block the path of drivers? Cars may pass under those or, in same cases breaking barriers, but in many times they lose their roof if they're too low turning vehicles into convertibles! It happened frequently on action and comedy productions. And those scenes are often memorable! What are your favorite instant convertible scenes?

Whenever there's a group of people camping or hiking, one of them decides to go to the bathroom. Buy instead of just going behind the nearest tree or shrub, they decide the best spot to go is 100 yards away and the inevitably get killed by the monster or serial killer. Hiking through areas known to have man-eating dinosaurs? Let's go take a leak by that tree we passed 10 minutes ago!

Thinking of two movies in particular: the wrath of Kahn starts with what looks like Spock, dr McCoy and others being killed on the bridge during a battle with Klingons. But it turns out it was a test, the lighting changes, Kirk, unseen, is heard saying something like that's enough, open her up. And the bridge opens up revealing that the bridge is just a simulator and the acting captain is being tested. But the character who pretended to be dead are still just laying around until the camera focuses on them one by one and then they reveal themselves to be ok.

I just watched truly horrible movie called Mindhunters. The beginning is two FBI agents looking for a killer in an old house....they catch or "kill" the killer and then let their guard down. Another person appears out of nowhere and holds one of the agents in front of him as a shield. I forget the exact series of events but they all wind up getting shot, they fall down, etc etc. and just lay there.....until the head FBI agent comes in and ends the rest. They really put a lot into their performances too. Not just shot with airsoft bullets or whatever and say you got me. No, they grab the part of their body where they got shot and stumble backwards and fall down dramatically. Like they are putting on a play or something.

Is this a trend? When a psychological show features a depressed comedian depicted in the story as not funny while doing a stand up, arguably to show secondhand embarrassment and also the comedian's depressed state.

It's just boring and tropey and not very interesting.

I'm looking at you: Joker, Baby Reindeer, and some others.