Movie Tropes

There is a shorthand to movies, if we really think about it…is really dumb. For instance, a really cheap joke is when a woman does something dumb in a movie, the guy will shrug and mutter “Women.” Implying, only a woman would do something stupid (but we love them anyway). Hardee-har-har.

Imagine if another bro-buddy did something stupid. We wouldn’t say (assuming his name is correct) “Carl.” We’d give him the third degree about his stupidity. But we let it go, because we live in MovieWorld as we watch it.

I guess you would consider these movie tropes. The bomb that has a digital counter (what purpose would this serve, other than to tell us how much time we have before it blows). The one that I watched recently was in a Bond movie.

In “ The Living Daylights” James Bond (Timothy Dalton…very underrated 007) has just fake assassinated someone. And he’s on the run. As the police close in on him, he is approached by a couple of women who appear to be hookers (what American hookers are doing in Tangiers should be a tip off, especially to Bond). He accepts a ride with these hookers to dodge cops. Along the way he needs to separate from these girls. To which one pulls a gun on him, the other relieves him of his Walter PPK. He cracks wise. End of scene.

The girl take him to a yacht, and there he sees a familiar face…Felix Leiter, American C.I.A. operative who has been monitoring Bond and his activities. The girls give his gun back and it’s the moment of recognition. In other words, pretty elaborate just to get Bond to show up to the boat. Having been friends with Leiter for a long time, this is that moment in movies where you think he’s being captured but they’re actually friends. The biggest offender is in “Empire Strikes Back” where Lando Calrissian dupes Han Solo’s friends when they meet up again. It’s corny, cheap and really effective. The best is in “Predator” when Arnold and Carl Weathers lock hands and flex. You think they’re enemies, but in reality have a complicated history. “Predator” is great because it’s so shameless.

The ones I can’t stand, are the ones done so obviously. The example I think of is when one person ask a question in one location, but then answers it somewhere else. This is clearly done for time compression. It’s really silly in action movies.

Warden: “Who is this guy?”

montage of man being released from prison as the warden looks on.

Then they rattle off the offenses.

Like they asked a question…then everyone went quiet, as they re-located to the jail scene. Then picked up the conversation. Basically leaves us asking “what the fuck did they talk about in between?” That’s how movies work. You have to find clever ways, however sometimes illogical…in order to maintain interest. Or, in order to shorten the movie. A lot of the times we don’t even realize it. We seem to accept this trope. Or at least should if the story works at a nice clip.

A recent trope really throws me off. Assuming you hire skilled mercenaries, how the fuck, in “Commando”, is Arnold able to mow through an army, assuming they’re paid specialist? He’s good, but even a Navy SeAL doesn’t do it in broad daylight.

Here are some more: Cracked presents Movie Tropes