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Played out tropes in TV and Film


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Security guard notices a glitch but conveniently passes it off as nothing to worry about.

 

People over-explaining things for the benefit of the audience. Noticed this on the Matrix the other day when Neo (the guy who works with computers) says "AI? You mean artificial intelligence?".

 

Bad guys must take on the good guy one-to-one, even if they're part of a large group.

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The recent Invisible Man remake just reminded me of another one: protagonist in thriller establishes that bad people mean them harm. Protagonist then finds a random knife/gun they've never seen before in an unexpected place. Protagonist immediately picks up the weapon and quizzically examines it. Have a guess what the bad people used to murder another character, and is now covered in the protagonist's fingerprints?

Bonus points if the protagonist actually finds the corpse, sees the murder weapon at the scene, and decides to pick it up. Full house if the knife is covered in blood, or otherwise deeply unappealing, but still gets picked up anyway.

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A character’s credentials as a genius, child protégé or scientific authority can be established by their ability to solve a Rubik’s Cube. 
I learned how to solve a Rubik’s Cube from a book in the early 1980s and I suspect that there are now countless YouTube videos showing you how to do it.
 

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The recent Invisible Man remake just reminded me of another one: protagonist in thriller establishes that bad people mean them harm. Protagonist then finds a random knife/gun they've never seen before in an unexpected place. Protagonist immediately picks up the weapon and quizzically examines it. Have a guess what the bad people used to murder another character, and is now covered in the protagonist's fingerprints?
Bonus points if the protagonist actually finds the corpse, sees the murder weapon at the scene, and decides to pick it up. Full house if the knife is covered in blood, or otherwise deeply unappealing, but still gets picked up anyway.
I thought you were going to go for the 'Person alone in house with a crazed maniac on the loose. Person hears a noise in the house (mobile phone in The Invisible Man case) that shouldn't be there. Rather than get the f**k out and call the police, said idiotic person goes towards sound and inevitably runs into trouble'.
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4 hours ago, 19QOS19 said:
On 11/04/2021 at 03:45, BFTD said:
The recent Invisible Man remake just reminded me of another one: protagonist in thriller establishes that bad people mean them harm. Protagonist then finds a random knife/gun they've never seen before in an unexpected place. Protagonist immediately picks up the weapon and quizzically examines it. Have a guess what the bad people used to murder another character, and is now covered in the protagonist's fingerprints?
Bonus points if the protagonist actually finds the corpse, sees the murder weapon at the scene, and decides to pick it up. Full house if the knife is covered in blood, or otherwise deeply unappealing, but still gets picked up anyway.

I thought you were going to go for the 'Person alone in house with a crazed maniac on the loose. Person hears a noise in the house (mobile phone in The Invisible Man case) that shouldn't be there. Rather than get the f**k out and call the police, said idiotic person goes towards sound and inevitably runs into trouble'.

The two actually go hand-in-hand in that film!

Spoiler

Our heroine is convinced she's being stalked by her husband, who's somehow invisible. She sets herself up with her back to the wall in a room, then gets the idea that he might actually be stupid enough to be carrying his mobile phone, so she calls it...and hears the phone vibrating from above the room!

Considering he's supposed to be dead, being able to prove his old number has been connecting to cell phone masts in the area might be a good start in proving something's going on, so obviously you'd leave the house to get help at this point. No, she decides to climb up into the loft and discovers the phone lying on the floor next to a carving knife sealed in a zip-loc bag. She then proceeds to pick up the knife, take it out of the bag, and handle it with her bare hands...for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

I really do quite like that film, and think it's generally a clever and well-made reimagining of the story, but there are a few plot elements that somebody should've taken a good slapping for.

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In fairness if a lot of these tropes were eliminated from movies they would be absolutely shite. Imagining a Bruce Lee movie where 40 guys immediately swarm him and shoot him. Done in 10 minutes. Or a Terminator where Arnie just snaps Sarah Connor in half like a twig the first time they clash. Then again, that would've prevented the latter day Terminators from happening so who's to say if it's a bad idea?

Edited by NotThePars
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On 11/04/2021 at 09:01, Funky Nosejob said:

A character’s credentials as a genius, child protégé or scientific authority can be established by their ability to solve a Rubik’s Cube. 
I learned how to solve a Rubik’s Cube from a book in the early 1980s and I suspect that there are now countless YouTube videos showing you how to do it.
 

Take the stickers off and put them back on in the right order.

Edited by Bully Wee Villa
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Machine guns with unlimited bullets. 

Bullets which reverse Newton's first law, specifically for shooting people on balconies or first floor galleries. 

Uniformed police/soldiers die instantly without anyone caring.  Named characters usually have time for a wee chat after being shot through the thorax. 

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30 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

In fairness if a lot of these tropes were eliminated from movies they would be absolutely shite. Imagining a Bruce Lee movie where 40 guys immediately swarm him and shoot him. Done in 10 minutes. Or a Terminator where Arnie just snaps Sarah Connor in half like a twig the first time they clash. Then again, that would've prevented the latter day Terminators from happening so who's to say if it's a bad idea?

Bruce Lee battering f**k out of everyone is logically explained in-universe by the fact that he's an absolute badass  :P

The main problem with the Terminator sequels is that they've essentially established that there's no barrier to continually sending people back in time, so there are no stakes anymore. In the first film, it's entirely fair that Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese can manage to avoid being killed by a single robot; it's not like there are continual scenes where Arnie shoots like he's in the A-Team purely because the protagonists need to survive.

That's what pisses me off; the lazy stuff, where nobody can shoot straight because the writers couldn't be arsed to come up with a reason to keep them alive. Or, apparently common, because they had to re-write the script at the last minute and weren't given enough time, by people who don't care.

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18 hours ago, NotThePars said:

In fairness if a lot of these tropes were eliminated from movies they would be absolutely shite. Imagining a Bruce Lee movie where 40 guys immediately swarm him and shoot him. Done in 10 minutes. Or a Terminator where Arnie just snaps Sarah Connor in half like a twig the first time they clash. Then again, that would've prevented the latter day Terminators from happening so who's to say if it's a bad idea?

This is exactly what happens to Kung fu Joe in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. Except it was 57 cops. 

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On 12/04/2021 at 15:07, BFTD said:

That's what pisses me off; the lazy stuff, where nobody can shoot straight because the writers couldn't be arsed to come up with a reason to keep them alive. 

Supposedly expert marksmen who cannot hit a slow-moving car in the first ten minutes of a programme tend to become capable of shooting the bollocks off a sparrow several miles away in the final action scene. As evidenced in nearly every episode of The Professionals.

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A ridiculous amount of events happen during a storm. Everyone is out and about doing something and thus are in danger, except for one person who is home alone and also in danger cause some is attacking them or they are scared cause of some noises. In reality, everyone would be at home doing f**k all and they certainly wouldn't be climbing on top of the house trying to fix the power and slipping off.

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