The Cliché: The veteran cop with one more day before retirement, the likeable thief tempted into one final job, the loveable sidekick fawning over a wallet-sized photograph of his wife and kids… all of them are doomed, thanks to their foolhardy attempts to plan for a life beyond the film's running time. Any time a life outside shooting things is brought into the equation, expect the character in question to buy it, sooner rather than later.
Examples: Such a hoary old gimmick, you rarely see it played straight any more, particularly after taking such a beasting from parodies like McBain (from The Simpsons) and Hot Shots! In that film, you'll recall the character of "Dead Meat" Thompson, who heads out on a training mission on the same day he is visited by his wife, whilst carrying his (unsigned) life insurance paperwork alongside some evidence concerning the Kennedy assassination.
Also a favourite trope of the war movie, with one foolhardy soul announcing his wife is set to give birth in We Were Soldiers. He doesn't last the day...
If It Was Real Life: Fortunately, showing those new baby pictures around the office isn't an invitation to the nearest villain to put a bullet in your head. Although maybe it should be…
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ASmileSoDevious
Apr 18th 2012, 7:34
Passenger 52? Is this a prequel to Passenger 57? lol :P
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Hadouken76
Apr 18th 2012, 11:03
A villain will never shoot the unarmed hero immediately, even when the hero is at his mercy, but instead choose to start blathering on... Lucius summed in this up perfectly in the 'The Incredibles' : "Yammering! I mean, the guy has me on a platter and he won't shut up! " See : Cohagen in Total Recall; "Blow this thing and be back in time for cornflakes" and every Bond villain.
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2Dglasses
Apr 18th 2012, 11:11
Obvious really, but another one is the 'usually office bound by the book j*****s boss', who hinders as much as he helps. Usually in cop movies -Lorenzo in die hard, the boss from lethal weapon..or just some weaselly politician who threatens to pull the plug on the whole thing or is universally hostile while being on the 'good' side.
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2Dglasses
Apr 18th 2012, 11:14
"yippie kay ay motherf.......r" is printed, but "jack ss" gets asterisked. This is just bizarre. Its not even a swearword. What if i wanted to talk about breeds of penguin?
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writerdave87
Apr 18th 2012, 13:09
To be fair, 'We were Soldiers' the guy that gets killed with the new baby was a real life person :p Ice Cube's speech in 21 Jump Street deconstructing the 'angry black police captain' stereotype is priceless.
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Heisenberg
Apr 18th 2012, 14:56
A Cliche i've noticed, although not only in movies, but TV shows aswell, is that if someone falls down a set of stairs, they are immediately unconscious. No matter how they fall or land, unconscious.
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2Dglasses
Apr 19th 2012, 9:06
if the brakes are cut-it only becomes apparent at the worst possible moment. Also no one ever shifts down a gear to use engine braking, the car just picks up even more speed.
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FBFPerondi
Apr 19th 2012, 15:04
Hey! "Cool guys don't look at explosions, they walk away in slow motion..."
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MrScary
Apr 19th 2012, 18:30
Similar to the Double Tap, but more of a genre cliche; how about the Killer in every horror movie jumping back up for one more scare?
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