Tropes Explained — Types of Tropes & the Art of Subverting Them

it happened again here we go again I did it again I did it again here we go again here we go again filmmakers are told to avoid tropes troops are often associated with unoriginality and overuse McGuffin Mr McGuffin Mr McGuffin that sounds like a McGuffin to me but contrary to popular belief they aren't all bad I'm liking this continue they can shape genres and characters that we know and love so what's the difference between a good and bad trope let's find out [Music] this is what is a trope [Music] before we get started be sure

to subscribe and click the bell for more videos on all things filmmaking thanks to John Rando for suggesting a video on tropes if you'd like to see us cover a specific topic drop it in the comments below we will be spoiling the following movies Trope comes from the Greek tropos meaning a direction today a Trope can refer to a figure of speech [Music] but in a modern storytelling context it can also refer to a narrative device or element which recurs in numerous creative works similar to a cliche this is the definition we'll be looking at

today and while these patterns May often be the subject to ridicule we'll examine certain contexts in which they may improve your film upgrades so when are tropes good and when are they bad let's begin with character tropes I think you're pretty funny aren't you free I don't want to fight and Flash I wouldn't want to fight me neither [Applause] sometimes relying on character tropes can be damaging to a film especially when they lean on harmful stereotypes sure why not I am the token black guy While others can result in two-dimensional characters who lack complexity oh

hello anybody home but when used well character tropes can quickly establish a character letting an audience know what to expect with familiar characterization apart until you found those plans and bring me the passengers I want them alive [Music] alternatively a film can subvert a character type in order to surprise or challenge an audience this common character type is the shrewd Detective established by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes this is the detective who rarely misses anything they're often a step ahead of everyone else [Music] continuing this tradition writer director Ryan Johnson gives us Benoit Blanc

Mr Blanc if you please but instead of detracting from the film it allows Johnson to quickly signal to the audience that Blanc will be an homage to classical Mysteries something is a foot with this whole affair meanwhile inherent Vice subverts the detective type doc seems to be a step behind everyone else stumbling further and further into a webbed mystery that slowly ensnares him by subverting the detective figure we can see all the ways doc fails to meet our expectations and comedy ensues Dr Rudy I'm back you're not Dr Rudy another character Trope in the detective

genre is the femme fatale a romantic interest whose seduction results in a protagonist's demise in Basic Instinct Paul verhoven brings the Femme Fatale to its furthest extreme with Catherine Trammell I thought you didn't have any cigarettes oh I found some in my pocket would you like one tremel seduces Nick in increasingly obvious ways as the film progresses it's nice and other characters in the film see her as dangerous you're dealing with someone very dangerous and very ill by making the Trope as blatant as possible verhoven is able to comment on traditional masculinities destructive relationship with

sexuality and use tramel as a red herring misdirecting the audience from the true culprit or perhaps not I'd have to be pretty stupid to write a book about killing and then kill somebody the way I described it my book I'd be announcing myself as the Killer I'm not stupid killing Eve meanwhile subverts the Femme Fatale it's not my fault you're dressed as a maid look cute by the way villanelle's queer relationship complicates the heterosexual power and Dynamics in most Femme Fatale detective pairings let's feel better soon I'll look after you additionally villanelle is portrayed with

more interiority than most femme fatals we see a vulnerability giving her a depth that goes far beyond a Trope I know I'm not [Music] the wise old man is another classic character type this is the character whose sole role is to impart knowledge onto the protagonist remember a Jedi can feel the force flowing through him in Harry Potter Dumbledore is a straightforward Wise Old Man guiding Harry as he becomes a powerful wizard it is not our abilities that show what we truly are it is our choices when Dumbledore dies Harry is thrown into adulthood now

without a mentor to give him advice [Music] in Django Unchained Dr Schultz is presented as though he will also be following this character Trope as he guides Django toward exacting his revenge when the snow melts take you to Greenville myself you will find where they sent to your wife but as the film nears its end it becomes clear Schultz isn't as all-knowing as he seemed [Music] his actions put broomhilda and Django endangered subverting his role as selfless Mentor I'm sorry resist and allowing Tarantino to avoid another character type the white savior do you have any

place to stay tonight come on come on come on there are countless character tropes out there which you choose to avoid subvert or harness depends on how you want your audience to perceive your characters and how you want to use those perceptions toward unexpected ends la [Music] this rule of thumb can also apply to plot tropes like characters plot tropes are everywhere there's no time to explain Hold Us different genres have different plot points which an audience has seen again and again no time to explain just no time to explain no time to explain follow

me but as we've seen this isn't always a bad thing a plot Trope can be subverted to catch an audience off guard bro no or it can be used as a narrative shorthand depending on a viewer's knowledge of the pattern to be able to move past it quickly no no a plot Trope which transcends genre is the love triangle [Music] in the original Star Wars Trilogy George Lucas uses the relationship as a subtle subplot no way looks like you managed to cut up for only escape room both Han and Luke seem to be interested in

Princess Leia you think a princess and a guy like me no because it's such a common pattern Lucas doesn't need to waste much screen time on it allowing for him to focus on establishing an Intergalactic world while maintaining a compelling relationship between the three main characters what is it Luke establishes a love triangle between the narrator Tyler and Marla fueling much of the conflict of the second act oh you got some the friends I'm telling you but it is subverted when it's revealed that the narrator and Tyler are one person she knows too much novelist

Chuck palahnik and screenwriter Jim owls uses the Trope to mislead the audience to assume otherwise oh my God your face even twists can be tropes like the it was all a dream reveal foreign in Inception Christopher Nolan uses this reveal repeatedly in order to destabilize the audience's sense of reality so that by the end we're left wondering if it was in fact a dream or not time-bounded meanwhile subverts the plot point [Music] after the film's climax we are led to believe Kevin dreamed up his Fantastical Adventures all right come on come on but when he

finds Polaroids of the events in his bag we realize it wasn't a dream after all allowing for one final twist another classic plot Trope is the heroic sacrifice particularly when a character Dives in front of a bullet while it could be heartbreaking it risks losing a viewer since they've likely seen it many times before dodgeball uses the ubiquity of the plot point for humor while also informing Kate's selfless nature 22 Jump Street subverts the cliche Schmidt tries to take a bullet but fails [Music] the moment epitomizes Schmidt and jenko's relationship Schmidt means well but is

frequently outmatched [Applause] a Trope which filmmakers often use to build tension is the ticking bomb I hope he has it a protagonist knows a bomb is going to go off at a certain time and they need to go through a series of obstacles to defuse it one now Carpenter heightens this plot device in Escape From New York snake has two micro explosives inserted into his arteries if he fails his mission he'll die 10 or 15 seconds by having the ticking Time Bomb only affects snake Carpenter establishes that snake is no traditional hero he only cares

about his own well-being [Music] in Richard Jewel screenwriter Billy Ray twists the bomb trope at first only the viewer knows that there is a time bomb hidden at this concert since the film is based on a true story this creates tension for the viewer while they watch concert goers enjoy themselves when Richard finds the bomb he is the only person convinced of the danger creating dramatic contrast in the scene we got ourselves a suspicious package from somebody run off drunk and forgot they left I still think we are calling Richard evacuates people with urgency while

his colleagues are more relaxed a plot Trope doesn't mean your film is automatically unoriginal Randy Randy it's so unoriginal I'm disappointed in you that distinction lies in how you use the Trope surprisingly man tropes can also be found in dialogue don't you die on me you son of a there are many lines of dialogue we've heard countless times you don't have to do this specific overused lines like these you don't have to do this are now relegated to Comedy you know you don't have to do this because I can just poop it out we can't

hear them without laughing Johnny you know you don't have to do this don't you but there are also tropes in the way dialogue is delivered which can still be used and subverted in original ways you don't have to do this people always say the same thing what do they say they say you don't have to do this you don't a classic dialogue delivery pattern is the yup that's me when a film opens on a character in a dire situation and that character begins to explain how they got there in the narration so I know what

you're thinking why is that incredibly handsome Hedgehog being chased by a Madman with a mustache from the Civil War well to be honest it feels like I've been running my whole life Emperor's New Groove uses this type of opening grabbing the audience's attention with a bizarre turn of events and then taking them back to how it all began that's right I'm that llama the name is Kuzco Emperor Kuzco look I tell you what you go back a ways you know before it was a llama and this will all make sense Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard subverts

this opening style we assume the voiceover is from an omniscient narrator since the protagonist is dead in a pool you see the body of a young man was found floating in the pool of her mansion with two shots in his back and one in his stomach nobody important really just a movie writer with a couple of B pictures to his credit then we realize that the narrator is in fact the protagonist speaking about his own death poor dope he always wanted a pool another dialogue delivery Trope is having the protagonist break the fourth wall why

is it if a man kills another man in battle it's called heroic yet if he kills a Man In the Heat of passion it's called Murder hello what do you think you're doing only me and Garth get to talk to the camera come on Ferris Bueller's Day Off uses the technique to keep the tone fun while informing ferris's self-assured personality yep I said it before and I'll say it again life moves pretty fast you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it fleabag meanwhile subverts this approach fleabag addresses the camera

but the priest notices we lost a week what was that [Music] what would you where'd you just go what by addressing her fourth wall break the priest establishes himself as a perceptive person who understands fleabag better than other people okay the letter voice over is an additional dialogue delivery trope where narration is delivered in the form of a note a character has written 25th May Budapest left Budapest early this morning in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the letter voice over provides a structure to the film while adding a feeling of wistful Nostalgia to the

narration I would listen to the house breathing all those people sleeping I felt safe the opening of her provides a subversion because of our familiarity with the technique the audience initially believes Theodore is speaking about an experience of his own possibly tell you how much you mean to me until it's revealed that he's writing a letter for someone else you make me feel like the girl I was when you first turned on the lights and woke me up and we started this adventure together this subversion introduces us to an impersonal and lonely future as well

as characterizes Theodore as an empathic and sensitive man hey Melancholy song [Music] with the right intention dialogue tropes don't have to feel contrived you just don't get it do you you don't what the character says can Trump how they're saying it do you understand what I'm saying tropes can also take the form of cinematic imagery dramatic imagery tropes can be thought of as cinematic shorthand a filmmaker can convey meaning to an audience with a familiar signifier that doesn't need to be explained for example when we see an old Victorian home with cobwebs we instantly think

it's a haunted house there are many locations which serve a similar purpose abandoned warehouses are associated with criminal activity which allows for Zoolander to make this joke 10 minutes old members only Warehouse italic suburbs are another setting trope a perfect American town with cookie cutter houses Pleasantville uses its idyllic suburb to comment on the suffocating Conformity of the 1950s blue velvet David Lynch depicts this kind of Suburbia in order to make the horror that follows even more disturbing his subversion comments on the darkness which hides under the seemingly tranquil exterior of the American suburb [Music]

but cinematic imagery patterns aren't limited to settings a common visual in action films is the character walking away from an explosion through overuse used may have lost its power but it can still be compelling in the dark night the audience expects the visual when the Joker walks away from a hospital rigged with bombs Christopher Nolan anticipates this expectation and delays the result building tension thank you dying in a character's arms is another cinematic trope allowing for characters to have one last intimate interaction hold me closer in Thor the Dark World subverts the approach Loki seems

to die in Thor's arms but it is later revealed he faked his death the subversion allows for the brothers to have a serious moment between each other while also illustrating just how manipulative Loki is willing to be I'm sorry sorry laughs a similarly popular visual Trope is the traumatic haircut when a drastic haircut represents a character's mental anguish [Music] in Lay Miserables fontaine's haircut represents a fall from respectable society and set up a tear-jerking number I dream that love would never die [Music] a Full Metal Jacket Stanley Kubrick uses the Trope more subtly his characters

all get Buzz Cuts a well-known step in the U.S military process but the haircuts represent a larger theme in the film the training is designed to break down individuals and rebuild them as part of a larger system [Music] a process which can be violent and disastrous for someone unable to fit in me pile get your ass out there do you mean to tell me that you cannot do one single pull-up troops don't have to spell disaster for a film everything will be with you the next time you identify a well-worn pattern in a movie ask

yourself why the filmmaker may have included it what is it and what is the reason is it because they were out of ideas or is something more complex at play maybe maybe not what are some of your favorite tropes there's so many of them what are some you wish filmmakers would retire for good more than a few let us know in the comments if you could just wrap it up that'd be great whether you want to use tropes or not get started on your next movie with Studio binders screenwriting software and don't forget to subscribe

to stay in the loop for more videos on filmmaking techniques at the risk of sounding like a Trope it's a Trope we'll see you next time it's a hardship that's like the classic High School Trope total Trope while she's using every Trope in the book you know what my least favorite horde Trope is to slasher trope foreign