33 Heroic Movie Tropes That Valiantly Dropkicked Through the Ceiling and Ruined This Fancy Ball

We brought storytelling tools to a storytelling knife fight
33 Heroic Movie Tropes That Valiantly Dropkicked Through the Ceiling and Ruined This Fancy Ball

People often confuse tropes with cliches, but they’re really just tools for plots, characters and dialogue. It’s the over-usage of tropes that turn into some eye-rolling cliches. These are the moments that we can see the storyteller’s laziness, and sometimes, it’s just unforgivable. 

Be better! Take the extra second to drum up a new trope — or at least your own original take on an old one. Here are some filmmakers who took that advice and used tropes the way they were meant to be used…

The Basement Entity

Masterfully Subverted Tropes The basement entity Parasite begins as a wacky comedy. Then it slowly starts peeling off layers, and suddenly there's a creepy basement dweller. By then it's clear Parasite is about to take a bleak turn, but is it a horror movie? Is that a ghost? The true villain is, of course, neoliberalism, but it takes a few subverted horror tropes to get there. Parasite CRACKED.COM

The Big Heist Scene Scene

Masterfully Subverted Tropes The big heist scene scene Movies centered around a heist usually show the careful planning, the setting into motion, the ensuing hiccups, the whole deal. Reservoir Dogs goes the other way, and is instead a heistless heist film. It shows the gang discussing Madonna and the ethics of tipping, and then it jumps to the bloody aftermath. This Tarantino guy knows his stuff. Reservoir Dogs CRACKED.COM

The Unrepentant Jerk

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Hot Tub Time Machine 2 The unrepentant jerk Rob Corddry's Lou Dorchen is even worse here than in the first movie. He's annoyingly selfish, cruel, and aggressive, and we have to assume that's his shtick. Surprisingly, though, after Clark Duke's Jacob tries to jump from a building, he wholeheartedly apologizes and becomes much mellower from then on. Not bad for a widely disliked comedy. CRACKED.COM

Creepy Old Men

Masterfully Subverted Tropes The creepy old man Framed through young Kevin McCallister's POV, old man Marley seisems terrifying, as everyone says he's a serial killer (and he's played by Deranged's Roberts Blossom). But unlike the actual threat of the Wet Bandits, Marley is just a sweet old man who even helps him in his Die Hard-like night. Director Chris Columbus pulls every tonal shift wonderfully. Home Alone CRACKED.COM

The Unstoppable Killer

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Tragedy Girls The unstoppable killer Tragedy Girls is no horror masterpiece, but it has some things going for it. A masked killer stalks a couple making out in a parked car in the middle of nowhere, but it immediately becomes clear that this is a set-up-by the victims. Five minutes in and this is already a whole different slasher. CRACKED.COM

Nice Guy Love Interest

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Colossal The nice guy love interest When the Colossal trailers came out, we were too busy theorizing about the kaiju to see that Jason Sudeikis' casting was a set up. Не seemed like a nice guy, a predictable love interest among the mayhem. But against character, the comedian actually plays an alcoholic ab. It's a clever bait-and-switch that Promising Young Woman would later echo. CRACKED.COM

Tender Memories As Character Motivation

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Tender memories as character motivation Throughout the film, Charlie seems to confront teenage life's challenges by relying on loving memories of his deceased aunt. The third act, however, reframes those memories as painful flashbacks. She wasn't sweet and caring, but, well, something bad. Trope: depressingly subverted. The Perks of Being a Wallflower CRACKED.COM

Romance Means Monogamy

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Romance means monogamy This pre-Code rom-com was way ahead of its time. Miriam Hopkins's Gilda is torn between two men, but instead of solving the love triangle in a monogamous choice (like every single rom-com movie ever), the three of them just choose to live together. Gregg Araki's 1999 Splendor tried the same spin, but this one did it 66 years earlier. Design for Living CRACKED.COM

Sanity Among Chaos

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Climax Sanity among chaos Gaspar Noé's Climax may have a female protagonist in Sofia Boutella's Selva, but she's not really a final girl. A more powerful genre subversion comes in the third act, as she's not really a sane victim among the bloody chaos. She's also tripping balls, and the third act of this horror film is just that: madness. CRACKED.COM

No Third-Act Resolution

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Burn After Reading No third-act resolution After all the misunderstandings and murders - nothing. The movie does have a third act, but its peculiarity is in the same banality the Coens put in A Serious Man a year later, only bureaucratic instead of existential. No climax, no comeuppance, no final exposition-just the CIA shrugging at the dumb developments and deciding to ignore them. CRACKED.COM

Mean Rich Ladies

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Big Little Lies Mean rich lady During the first season, Laura Dern's Renata is an uptight, snobbish rich lady, particularly focusing her classist scorn on Shailene Woodley's Jane. By the end of the season, however, she realizes she was wrong, apologizes, and offers friendship like an actually fallible human being. We were not ready for such emotional maturity, to be honest. CRACKED.COM

The Famous Actor Survives

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Scream The famous actor survives That Scream subverts tropes is nothing new, but it must be stressed over and over how groundbreaking that opening scene was. Drew Barrymore was the movie's biggest star, so she's obviously the final girl, right? Nope, she chose to play the opening kill, and all the bets were off. Wes Craven obviously handled it like a genius. CRACKED.COM

Leave Already!

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Why don't they just leave? The moment we see walls bleeding, we're gone. But Nope twists the usual stubborness of horror movie protagonists by giving emotional weight as to why they stay. They could just take the money and let someone else deal with the unidentified aerial phenomena, but family history prevents it. Nope CRACKED.COM

Uptight Principals

Masterfully Subverted Tropes The uptight principal Two years after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Robert Downey Jr. continued the trope subversion by playing Principal Gardner in this teen dramedy. Unlike, say, Dean Rooney in Ferris Bueller, Gardner is not a bitter villain, but a nuanced principal clearly going through some stuff. And indeed, RDJ gives this kind of character an unusual depth. Charlie Bartlett CO d CRACKED.COM

Getting Caught on Purpose

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) GETTING CAUGHT WAS THE PLAN ALL ALONG This was already tiring when Star Trek Into Darkness and Skyfall did it. In The Avengers it was kinda- sorta interesting, but nothing really compares to the Joker being captured as part of his overall plan (which he totally doesn't have, pinky swear). The Dark Knight (2008) CRACKED.COM

Mexican Standoffs

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) Face/Off(1997) MEXICAN STANDOFF You know a trope has gotten lame when friggin' Transformers movies reference it. But Sergio Leone and Quentin Tarantino have given us quality standoffs, and Face/Off (John Woo's best American actioner) is an entire movie made up of those. CRACKED.COM

Fair Play Goons

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) FAIR PLAY GOONS Overwhelm the hero with sheer numbers? No, no, that would be unsportmanslike: everyone must patiently wait for their turn to fight (and be dispatched). Yes, it's not exactly a sound tactic, but damn if it doesn't make for amazing fight scenes in Kill Bill. CRACKED.COM

Plot Twists

SANAND TERNNICAL MAINTENANCE CREW ILUNAB Tired sci-fi tropes (that still work) Plot twists Every genre can benefit from (or be harmed by) plot twists, but in sci-fi they can just hit the spot. We all love the classic examples (The Planet of the Apes, The Empire Strikes Back, 12 Monkeys), but recent awesome ones appear in Moon, Source Code, Arrival, and Ex Machina. CRACKED.COM

Rebellions

CRACKED.COM 0054 TRANS INCOM 10 34 Tired sci-fi tropes (that still work) Rebellions This is a trope that goes along with human freedom, and so it cannot possibly die. For all the mixed- feelings it has been causing us for a while, the Star Wars franchise has succeeded in grasping its nuances and counterrevolutionary responses.

Time Travel

CRACKED.COM Tired sci-fi tropes (that still work) Time travel This is one of those tropes that seem to have infinite possibilities. The Back to the Future trilogy is pretty much sacred scripture here at Cracked, but since we all know the classics, we'd just like to pause and imionately recommend 2004's Primer. It's even more awesome than Inception, and more confusing!

Edgy Theme Songs

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) The Matrix (1999) FADE TO EDGY THEME SONG The Simpsons lampooned this action movie cliché with the (historically accurate) Zorro rap. But we have to give it to The Matrix: ending a subversive action movie with Rage Against the Machine kicking in is art. CRACKED.COM

The Car Won’t Start

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) Double Indemnity (1944) THE CAR WON'T START This horror movie cliché didn't actually originate in a horror movie, but in this classic noir film. Billy Wilder was apparently inspired by something that actually happened to him. CRACKED.COM

Psychic Nosebleeds

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) Scanners (1981) PSYCHIC NOSEBLEED Stranger Things uses nose bleeding as a sign of psychic activity because it's a totally '80s thing- in fact, it almost started with the '80s, first appearing in David Cronenberg's movie. CRACKED.COM

Gun Fu

Tired action tropes that still work 0695 Gun fu From classic John Woo movies to The Matrix and Equilibrium, there's nothing like a good action scene with creative use of guns. Recent good examples have appeared in Kick-Ass or Kingsman: The Secret Service- but who are we kidding, let's just watch the home invasion scene from the first John Wick again. CRACKED.COM

Normal-Looking Future

Tired sci-fi tropes (that still work) Normal-looking future Between glossy or gritty futures, we just love the concept of our sci-fi being set five minutes ahead. This allows for whatever convenience is necessary, while also looking unnervingly similar to our own society. Face-Off is a classic action sci-fr with a normal-looking future, but the main reference is, of course, Black Mirror. Lacie 4.243 CRACKED.COM

Man Is the Real Monster

CRACKED COM TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK MAN IS THE REAL MONSTER We aren't talking mere serial killers, but the real horrors of the human soul. Sure, Creep and Creep 2 are, well, creepy, but that giant bag in Audition haunts us much more. If it comes to the most disturbing example in recent years, however, we have six words for you: the basement scene in The Road.

Creative Monsters

TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK CREATIVE MONSTERS We love when horror movies go the extra mile and come up with new types of monsters with which to scare us. We saw original monsters in recent movies such as Lamb, Sputnik, Impetigore, The Borderlands, and of course, It Follows. CRACKED.COM

Nobody Believes You

TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK NOBODY BELIEVES YOU That moment when the main character is all alone against their threat and nobody believes them is truly a pleasure of the genre. If even their sanity is doubted? Even better. The Invisible Man was already pulling this paranoid, suffocating trope very well, and then the restaurant scene happened. Well done, movie. CRACKED.COM

Mid-Film Plot Switches

TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK MID-FILM PLOT SWITCHES We're so used to established genres, that a midway change in genre, plot, or style can feel refreshing and keep us on our toes. Psycho is of course the grandaddy, and Audition and Abre los Ojos go from romcom to psychological horror. Recent examples include/See You, The Perfection, and Mother! CRACKED.COM

The Slow Burner

CRACKED.COM TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK THE SLOW BURNER Movies that take their time with the horror make the entire, anxiety-inducing trip worthwhile. 2021's Candyman reboot had a quite different pace when compared to the more conventional (if still superior) original, but the final third of 2008's French classic Martyrs is a masterclass in slow-burning dread.

Stationary Found Footage

TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK STATIONARY FOUND FOOTAGE The genre is full of tired tropes. One we really like, however, is when the camera simply stops shaking and we're left with a still image of explicit or implicit horror. Perhaps because it's based on real events, a modern example we love is the final massacre scene in Ti West's underrated 2013 movie, The Sacrament. CRACKED.COM

Final Girls

CRACKED.COM TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK FINAL GIRLS 2019's Midsommar took this trope to arthouse levels. Similarly, 2015's The Final Girls and It Follows, as well as 2017's Gerald's Game and Happy Death Day, did wonders with it, but the subversion we enjoyed the most was in the 2017 French action-horror Revenge.

Jump Scares

CRACKED.COM TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK JUMP SCARES Its overreliance by mediocre horror movies does not mean this trope is bad. Recent movies with amazing jump scares include It: Chapter 1, Hereditary, Rec, Lake Mungo, Insidious, The Descent, and We Need To Do Something. Special mention to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire - who knew even artsy directors had it in them?

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