Chekhovs Gun / Live-Action Films: S to Z

Chekhov's Gun Main Live-Action Films Subpage
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S

• In the 1963 movie The Sadist, one of the characters is scared by a snake skin she mistook for a rattlesnake. This doesn't have any significance until the climax, where the main villain of the movie dies by falling into a pit full of rattlesnakes.
• In Salt starring Angelina Jolie, there was a brief scene where she took some venom from a spider, putting it into a needle. We find out that she used it to temporarily render the Russian Prime Minister unconscious and paralyzed, giving the illusion that she shot and killed him.
• The wild boar tooth fitted with an LED that Frank gives to his son Josh in Sanctum. With no other light source, Josh uses the special torch to light his way as he swims to freedom at the end of the film.
• Saw:
  • At the beginning of Saw, we can see a key get sucked down the drain of the tub that Adam awakens in. At the end of the movie, we learn that that this was the key to the shackle he was in.
  • Jigsaw sets up quite a few of these. Notable ones include the wax tape from Saw III (whose purpose is shown in Saw IV) and the Glass Coffin from Saw IV (which is used by Hoffman in Saw V).
  • Don't forget the note that Amanda read in Saw III. We don't find out what was in it until Saw VI.
  • The black box John left Jill in his will at the beginning of Saw V, which we aren't shown the contents of until Saw VI.
  • In Saw V, when John is talking to Hoffman after kidnapping him from the elevator, he mentions that Hoffman's pendulum was made of inferior steel, and that tempered steel makes a cleaner cut. In Saw VI, Perez and Erickson find that Eddie's jigsaw piece was cut with a serrated knife, and not Jigsaw's usual tempered scalpel. This is the thread that begins to unravel Hoffman's attempts to cover his tracks.
  • The note to Hoffman saying "I know who you are" in Saw V. At that point, it looks like it's from Jill; Saw 3D reveals it was from Dr. Gordon.
  • And, of course, the note that Jill brought to an office at the St. Eustace Hospital in Saw VI, revealed to be for Dr. Gordon in Saw 3D.
• Scarecrow Slayer: When they first sneak into the field to steal the scarecrow, Dave and Karl pass a large piece of agricultural machinery. One of them comments that it looks like a giant shredder. Guess what plays an important part in the final battle?
• In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, after the battle with the Katayanagi Twins, Scott gets an extra life, which would be later used when he's killed by Gideon. This is different from the original comic book, where Scott gets the extra life earlier after fighting Todd, though it's still used at the same point.
• Teased and subverted in Secret Honor. At the start of the movie, former President Richard Nixon takes out a pistol in his study and makes sure that it's loaded. By the end, he's waved it around a bit, but not fired it.
• In The Seeker, Will gets a digital watch for his birthday, which he later uses to amaze a Viking.
• Serenity. Captain Mal orders Jayne not to take any grenades when they go to rob the payroll shipment. During the robbery the Reavers attack and Jayne sarcastically points out how nice it would be to have grenades available. Late in the movie the Reavers attack again and Mal asks Jayne if he brought any grenades. Jayne just pulls open his coat and shows him the grenades he's wearing.
  • Jayne's comment that it "sure would be nice to have some grenades, HUH" is a hybrid lampshade/inversion at the time.
• The music conservatory in A Song Is Born contains Chekhov's Drum. Early in the film, the drum falls while the professors are playing The Anvil Chorus. Later, they get the idea to literally get the drop on one of the mooks by making it resonate and fall again.
• The A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) movie does this in a kind of creepy way. In the Wide Window segment, Aunt Josephine explains her various paranoias about using household appliances. As unrealistic as these fears sound at the time, they all happen for real when the house starts to fall off the cliff.
  • Some of these include a doorknob that could shatter into a thousand pieces (which it did by becoming super-heated), a fridge that could fall on someone (nearly falling on the siblings as the house began to tumble) and the radiator, which might explode. Her fear of the Lake Lachrymose and the Lachrymose leeches can also count, too, because she ends up falling in the lake and getting eaten by them.
  • The series also had a tendency to introduce the strange things in the various settings, having them be useful or significant later. Usually this was out of necessity (Violet using things like the crabs in the Orphan Shack to make a gadget they needed), but other things like horseradish, the Incredibly Deadly Viper, the Quagmire's notebooks, the Snow Scout masks, and the harpoon all are significant later in their books (or the entire series).
• Subverted in Se7en. All through the movie we get to see Detective Summerset show exceptional skill with a switchblade, particularly with throwing it. At one point, his partner, Detective Mills even calls attention to the fact that he even has one on him at all. However, he gets almost no practical use out of it unless you count opening boxes and cutting evidence tape.
• A perfect example of Chekhov's Gun can be found in Shaun of the Dead. While getting drunk in the Winchester, Shaun and Ed discuss whether the gun behind the counter is real. Later, while dealing with a rather unexpected zombie problem, they discover that the gun is in fact genuine (and apparently kept loaded).
• The Shawshank Redemption uses the trope masterfully when a simple poster of Rita Hayworth, requested for his cell by Andy Dufresne, turns out to be the means by which Andy was covering up his escape tunnel. Really, the whole ending was an entire movie's worth of Chekov's Guns going off one after another in rapid-fire succession. The rock-hammer he asked Red for? Used to dig a tunnel. The Bible the warden gave him? Hollowed out to hide his rock hammer. The poster he got from Red? Hid the tunnel. The fake identity he used to launder the warden's money? He used it to steal the money to fund his new life, while also exposing the warden. Andy was way more of a Magnificent Bastard than you would initially believe.
• Signs has a few. Which was precisely the point of the movie. Everything happens for a reason.
  • Merrill's baseball bat. His basebaal career is discussed throughout the film, and his dead sister in law's last words were about swinging it hard. It saves the family from the aliens.
  • Bo leaves abandoned glasses of water in the house everywhere because she's afraid of germs. The water is poison for the aliens
  • Morgan's asthma. He didn't breathe in the poisonous gas.
• In The Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Chilton warns Clarice not to leave anything in Hannibal Lecter's cell and mentions several objects, among other pens. He himself leaves one there, and there is a long shot of it. He later cannot find it for signin a document. Hannibal Lecter is then seen with a part of it in hands... He unlocks the cuffs with it and can kill his guards.
• The 2004 Hong Kong film Silver Hawk (no, no relation to these guys) has the titular heroine's Love Interest, a cop who's ironically chasing her masked alter ego, displaying a very weird martial arts stance that dates back to their childhood days in martial arts training (shown via flashbacks): he'd raise his arms above his head, then bring them down slowly to his sides with the hands still pointing upward, while sucking in his stomach and making growling noises—only to frequently get punched in the face for his trouble. Turns out it's a core-strengthening stance that allows him to take a Megaton Punch from the Big Bad's cybernetic fist with no ill-effects.
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. The two metal tubes that Polly Perkins received from Dr. Jennings. They turn out to be the human DNA Dr. Totenkpf need to complete his plan.

• Slither:
  • Subverted. A grenade is shown in the police station's gun cabinet, and a minor character explains what it's doing there. The main character goes back for it, planning to use it to blow up the Big Bad. During the climax, the Big Bad knocks it out of his hand, twice, and it finally explodes uselessly in a swimming pool.
  • Kylie's nails are discussed during dinner with her family for some reason, later they save her by being able to stab the worm and pull it out of her mouth.
• In Slumdog Millionaire, as soon as we see the flashback where Jamal mentions he doesn't know the name of the third musketeer, we know that it will be the final question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
• An interesting subversion is in Snake Eyes, where the huge ball that has been lying on the ground for most of the movie doesn't roll over anyone (read: Gary Sinise). However, this was only because test audiences didn't like the originally-planned ending in which it does roll over Sinise.
• Early in Snatched (2017), Linda gives Emily a "rape whistle" that's actually a dog whistle. When she blows it, a dog charges the taxi and barks. When Morgado is about to kill Linda, Emily blows it again. A dog attacks Morgado, allowing Emily to take his gun.
• Sneakers
  • After the team steals the black box, they have a party to celebrate. During the party they talk about what they're going to do with the money they'll be paid: Crease wants a vacation with his wife, Mother plans to buy a Winnebago, Whistler wants peace on Earth, etc. At the end of the film they demand certain things from the NSA in return for the box: the same things they had mentioned at the party.
  • The murder of Janek is later tied to the murder of Gregor by "an anonymous tip" as seen in a newscast.
  • Mother's shell case for the Little Black Box that he gives Martin to use as "practice" for the recovery of the Black Box from Cosmo's office. Martin uses it to trick Cosmo at the end.
• The title of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It's inevitable that somewhere along the line the title character will cast an ill-advised spell on some brooms and hilarity will ensue.
• In Spaceballs, the fortune cookie Yogurt gives Lonestar contains his translation of the Orphan's Plot Trinket that Lonestar has carried his whole life.
• In The Spanish Prisoner, there are usually groups of camera-wielding Japanese tourists in the background, and their presence is noted by the characters. At the end, the protagonist is on a ferry with two villains about to kill him. He appeals to the only other passengers, two of the ubiquitous tourists. They're actually US Marshals, have been staking him out the whole time, and arrest the villains. Virtually everything in the movie is a Chekhov's Gun. Watch it five times and you'll still be noticing new ones.
• Subverted slightly in Speed Racer. Speed is presented with the modified Mach 5, with 7 different gadgets for him to use. While 6 of them come in handy, the last one is never used, apparently only being included because it was there in the original anime version. The last one remaining unused is fitting, since it was very rarely used in the show and often didn't work right.
• In Spy Game, Agent Nathan Muir receives a framed award for his service, signed by the Director himself. At the climax of the film, he breaks it open and uses the signature to forge a directive.
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
  • Early in the film Spock appears using Jet Boots to fly. Later in the film, when he, Kirk and McCoy need to travel up a long turbolift shaft he dons the same boots and uses them to fly the whole group up to the top of the shaft.
  • Klingon Captain Klaa shoots an old Earth space probe with one of the cannons of his Bird of Prey. Late in the movie, Spock uses the same weapon to shoot "God" and save Captain Kirk from an early grave.
• Subverted in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country which the opening lines are (now) Captain Sulu dictating the Captain's Log that his ship USS Excelsior has just completed cataloging gaseous and planetary anomalies in the Beta Quadrant. But, at the end of the film Uhura mentions that the USS Enterprise also just happens to be carrying a load of equipment for cataloging gaseous anomalies which turns out to be handy in tracking and destroying the Big Bad.
  • Shatner purportedly complained that Kirk and the Enterprise wouldn’t need to be saved. So, late in filming the gaseous cataloging equipment was swapped from the Excelsior to the Enterprise. So, in effect- at the start of the film Chekhov’s gun is mentioned to be on the Excelsior. At the end of the film an exact duplicate is fired from the Enterprise.
• Star Trek Into Darkness:
  • Harrison's blood, used to save a comatose girl in the film's opening, also gets used to revive a dead Tribble and then save Kirk in the film's ending.
  • The 72 advanced torpedoes, which get used to threaten Harrison and later disable the Vengeance.
  • Chekhov's Chekov, when Ensign Chekov is assigned to Engineering and manages to be in just the right place to rescue Kirk and Scotty and help save the day. This is the only time in the franchise so far that this trope applies to the character Chekov.
• Southland Tales: The ground-to-air missile, which is used to destroy the Mega-Zeppelin the climax, killing most of the main characters, including the Decoy Protagonist Boxer Santoros. Also all that other stuff that made no sense.
• Jon's video camera in Stag. He is shooting footage of the party in the early scenes and only puts the camera away when situation goes to hell and Kelly and Stoker die. However, the viewer is certainly aware of it (and, if they are paying attention, it even remains in plain sight in scenes in the lounge), so it does not come out of nowhere when it plays a roll in the denouement.
• In Stay Tuned, Roy's fencing swords from Junior College (mentioned early in the movie) are used to save his life in the climax, when he needs a sword to fight Mr. Spike.
• In Steps Trodden Black, Ryan's phone falling out of his pocket before he is killed and Oliver picking it up is given a lot of attention. The creature later uses the phone to pick up Oliver's scent.
• In the Will Ferrell movie Stranger Than Fiction his actions are being dictated by a writer controlling his life. The author mentions his watch repeatedly throughout the film. It turns out that the writer intended to have him be hit by a bus, breaking the watch and having a shard of the face cut through an artery and killing him, due to him accidentally having his watch set early. The writer, upon learning that she's killing a real man, rewrites the ending so that the fragment of the watch sticks in the artery, stopping him from death by watch. It makes the ending less ironic than the ending she planned, but oh-so-heartwarming.
• In Straw Dogs, David and Amy Sumner get trapped in their own house surrounded by Charlie Venner and his boys. While setting traps, they quickly set a bear trap. After David uses many other objects and tactics he ends up in a fist fight with David who is the only one left moving. After Charlie has nearly killed David but doesn't kill him which is his intention Why Isn't It Attacking?, he proceeds to mock Amy, only for David to (expectedly) kill him with the bear trap that they spent so long earlier preparing.
• In Sunset Boulevard - the swimming pool. The following is not even a spoiler, technically, but: the audience knows from the start that the victim is found dead in the swimming pool, and attention is drawn to the swimming pool throughout the film - the victim even goes so far as to obligingly turn on the pool lights, really to make his own death scene play better for the cameras! - and STILL it is a surprise ending...
• Superman II
  • The French hydrogen bomb, which Supes hurls into space, accidentally causing it to shatter the Phantom Zone and free the Terrible Trio.
  • In the Donner cut, the eastbound missile Superman stopped in the first movie is what causes the Phantom Zone to shatter when he hurls it into open space.
  • Kal shows Lois the green crystal that built the Fortress of Solitude. She later leaves it lying on the seat when he calls her to dinner, the camera lingering on it for a second or two. After Kal uses the Red Crystal chamber to turn into Clark permanently, he soon regrets it. When he makes it back to the Fortress, the green crystal starts glowing again, almost saying "Hey! I'm over here!!"
  • The molecular chamber which Superman uses to become mortal in order to fall in love with Lois, plays a crucial part in the climax when he's forced to enter it again after Luthor lets the cat out of the bag. Fortunately, Superman manages to turn the tables on Zod and his mooks.
• In Super Mario Bros. (1993), a Bob-omb is introduced fairly early in and is finally activated near the end and walks around harmlessly for a long time, only to come to rest and explode under the Big Bad at the climax.

T

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014):
  • Michelangelo's "Buck-Buck" game which actually comes in handy during the final battle with Shredder.
  • Eric mentions the regenerative powers of the mutagen in his conversation with April. These properties are what save Raphael and Splinter.
  • The 'Hashi' punishment Splinter puts the turtles through becomes more of a training exercise for when they have to hold up the tower near the end of the film, with Shredder beating on Leo to try and make him break focus. Good thing he didn't have a cheese pizza on hand.
• In Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny the main character has to exercise to do "cock pushups", which comes in handy later on.
• Terminator
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
    • John Connor has a laptop computer that determines ATM PINs. It comes in handy later on when he needs to open a safe with an ATM style locking system.
    • When the protagonists need to steal a car the Terminator rips open the steering column in order to start the engine. John pulls down the sun blind and a set of keys drops down. John asks the Terminator "Are we learning yet?" Later on when the Terminator is trying to steal the SWAT van he's about to use force again, remembers what he learned earlier and pulls down the sun blind. The van's keys fall down.
  • Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
    • Relatively early in the film, we are informed that Ahnold runs on a pair of nuclear power cells that violently explode if damaged; the one he discards after a firefight explodes with enough force to create a mushroom cloud. At the end of the film, he takes out his other one, stuffs it into the T-X's mouth and uppercuts the T-X, crushing the cell between its jaws. Boom.
  • Terminator Salvation details a method for crippling the T-600s. It too comes in handy later on.
• The store of dynamite Bat keeps in his cabin In The Terror of Tiny Town. He tell one of his mooks not to smoke next to it. At the end of the film, Nita uses it to blow Bat to kingdom come.
• Theatre of Death: The Trap Door in the stage which is used in the voodoo sketch to simululate a stabbing plays a vital rule in the story's resolution. Nicole is hiding beneath the stage and is fatally stabbed when the spear is thrust through the Trap Door.
• Things Change: A mobster gives Jerry a quarter and tells him that if he should ever need help to give him a call. At the end of the film, when things look their darkest, Jerry pulls a quarter from his pocket and announces that he's going to make a phone call.
• Tiger House has a two-part one consisting of:
  • The crossbow Mark shoots Kelly in the leg with during the prologue; and
  • The quarrel the doctors removed from Kelly's leg, which Mark finds when he searches her bag. She describes it as her 'bad luck charm'.
• Timber Falls has two main ones, along with several Red Herrings to disguise which are the true guns:
  • The jar of moonshine Brody, Lonnie and Darryl coerce Mike into buying, which Sheryl uses to make a Molotov Cocktail.
  • The cell phone Sheryl insists on taking with despite there being no cell signal on the mountain. Turns out there is a signal in Ida and Clyde's cabin.

• Total Recall (1990).
  • The hologram wristwatch that Quaid finds in the briefcase is later used to defeat some of Cohaagen's troops.
  • The drilling machine appears twice while Benny is driving Quaid to the Last Resort. Later on several break into rebel headquarters and Benny tries to kill Quaid using one.
• In Training Day, Hoyt comes across two drug addicts trying to rape a teenage girl. He fights them off, and later picks up the girl's wallet. Later in the movie, Alonzo hires some gangbangers to kill Hoyt. They are about to execute him when they find the girl's wallet in his pocket. The girl he saved was the cousin of one of the gangbangers, and they let him go.
• Transcendence: The copper Faraday cage Will installs to keep cell phones from working in his and Evelyn's garden also protects a single sample of the Transcendence Nanomachines from Max's shutdown virus.
• Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen does this in reverse, with the more significant use coming before the minor appearance. Part of the plan for getting into a museum involved tasers; Sam's college roommate, who was dragged along more or less by accident, showed his incompetence by shocking himself with one and becoming completely paralyzed. The tasers were then forgotten. Later, the same roommate was freaking out in the back of the car, and wouldn't stop until he was shocked into unconsciousness.
  • The first film had an example that perfectly fits the Chekhov heading quote: the camera shows a motorcycle in the ground. 5 minutes later, Capt. Lennox rides it to attack a Decepticon.
    • And the glasses Sam tries to auction off on ebay.
    • As an example of Chekhov's Hobby, it is stated that Mikaela had a criminal record for helping her dad steal cars. In The Climax, she uses this knowledge to hotwire a tow truck when Bumblebee is seriously injured.
• Trick 'r Treat: The candy bar Mr. Keeg takes a single bite out of and tosses away. It later stops Sam from stabbing him and becomes an accidental offering to Sam.
• The flamethrower that Cody was testing early in Tropic Thunder was really helpful against the enemy in the final action scene.
  • to a lesser extent the Tivo box used to stop the RPG round aimed at the helecopter.
• From Wolfgang Petersen's Troy: Briseis's virginity. Established early for the sole purpose of ensuring that Achilles takes it later.
• In Turner and Hooch, attention is drawn to the fact that Turner always buckles his seat belt and refuses to start his car unless all of his passengers are also buckled up. This comes in handy when a crook takes him hostage while in the passenger seat. Turner rams the car into a lamp post, causing the crook to fly out of the windshield because he didn't buckle up.

U

• In the Zombie Apocalypse comedy-western flick Undead or Alive, a Native American woman named Sue remembers a legend stating that the zombification curse can be removed by consuming the living flesh of the person who placed it in the first place. Since that person, her uncle, is dead, this information is brushed off as useless. Once the other two protagonists become infected near the end, however, it comes into play as they realize that Sue herself would count as her uncle's "still living flesh." This doesn't turn out so well for Sue.
• The 2005 action-comedy flick Underclassman has the main character (played by Nick Cannon), a young undercover cop at a preppy private school, taking after-school language lessons from the school's Spanish teacher (played by Roselyn Sánchez of Without a Trace fame). This later comes in handy during the final confrontation with the Big Bad, who's got her in a tense hostage situation when the protagonist informs her in Spanish that the bullets in his gun are rubber bullets and that they'll sting, following which he shoots her to free her from the Big Bad's grasp.
• Undercover Brother has several.
  • In the introduction there's file footage of James Brown. Later on James Brown appears As Himself, but turns out to be Undercover Brother in disguise.
  • When Undercover Brother first drives his car we see the two black pool balls hanging from the rear-view mirror. This sets up the later joke where Undercover Brother refers to his "big, black, fuzzy balls".
  • Several times during the movie Undercover Brother tells people "Don't touch the 'fro" (his Afro hairdo). This anticipates his Berserk Button being set off later on by Mr. Feather cutting off part of his hair.
• Upstream Color: An early scene reveals that Kris has a pistol in her home. We see it a few more times before the end, when she uses it to kill the Sampler.

V

• In Van Helsing, in the scene where Carl shows Van Helsing his diverse gadgets one is a small glass globe with some weird things inside that produces sun-like light. This comes in handy when they have to escape from hordes of vampires in the masquerade ball.
• Vigilante Diaries: There is a brief scene where Barrington is inflicting Cold-Blooded Torture on someone and asking him questions about a shipment of uranium when he receives a phone call telling him that the Vigilante has escaped. It initially appears that the purpose of this scene is to establish Barrington as ruthless bastard and show the type of assignments he undertakes when he is not chasing the Vigilante. However, during the climax, it is revealed that the uranium was actually a key component in his Evil Plan and was used to make the dirty bombs he planted across the globe.
• A literal example in The Villain. Handsome has a seven-shot six shooter, which is established early on with a bit of dialog. At one point later, Cactus Jack empties the bullets from the gun onto a table while counting them. Then, assuming the gun is now unloaded, accidentally shoots himself.

W

• Waiting...: There's a part where Ramirez is showing Mitch the rules and general "moves" in "The Game". The last move he lists is treated like somewhat of a Limit Break by him as he talks about it before the scene cuts to something else before we see what it entails. Guess what Mitch uses in his Moment of Awesome.
• In Walking Tall (2004), the main character returns to his hometown after some time away in the military, only to learn that the local saw-mill—the town's primary source of income when he was young—has been shut down, with a casino now bringing in revenue for the citizens. Of course, he gradually learns that drugs are being peddled out of the casino, but he's basically told that nothing can be done about it because the casino's money-making capacity is the only thing keeping the town going since the mill's closure. It's revealed that the mill itself is where the Big Bad has his main drug base—that's why he had it shut down.
• Several in Warcraft (2016):
  • The golem Medivh is building in his first scene. It's activated when Medivh goes full-on demonic and Khadgar and Lothar have to fight it to get to him.
  • The dagger Taria gives Garona to show her trust is later used by her to kill Taria's husband, and is how Lothar recognizes who did the deed.
  • The book Khadgar finds in Medivh's library is later discovered to contain a clue as to Portal's functioning and Medivh's true loyalties.
  • The boomstick Lothar is given in his first scene saves his life when he's pinned down by Blackhand in the first ambush.
• In Warlock (1989), Kassandra is diabetic and used a syringe to inject herself with insulin. At the end of the film she uses it to inject the warlock with salt water which is fatal to witches.
• In Wayne's World, Wayne and Garth meet up with a security guard after coming out the stage exit during a rock concert, and this guard just so happens to have a lot of information about the big-wig record producer's travel itinerary, including the fact he drives everywhere in his expensive limo with a big satellite dish right on top. Lampshaded by Wayne when Garth figures out a way to use this to further the plot.
• We Were Soldiers has Chekhov's Gatling Gun: Lt.Col. Moore first meets his new battalion's officer in a hangar where they've just been checking out an M134 Minigun... weapons which play a prominent role in the movie's climactic Gunship Rescue moment.
• We're No Angels (1989): Jimmy picks up a brochure for a gun in Harry's store and ends up using the flowery ad as the opening of an impromptu sermon that he's forced to give in front of a crowd.
• A literal case in West Side Story (2021). Riff buys a gun for the rumble and then gives it to Tony. When everyone else flees, he loses it and it ends up in Chino's hands, who ultimately uses it to kill Tony.
• A very literal example in the Bill Murray film, What About Bob?. Near the end of the first act, the psychologist main character has a rifle on the mantle for an interview photo op, but takes it off in favor of a bust. At the climax, he holds Bill Murray's character up with it. The only the thing keeping this from being a perfect Chekhov's Gun is that the rifle isn't actually fired.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit:
  • During the scene where Eddie visits the scene of Marvin Acme's murder, some of the cops on the site are seen fooling around with a portable hole and a mallet with a spring-loaded boxing glove in it. Both these props come in handy during Eddie's confrontation with Judge Doom at the end of the movie.
  • Roger's literally explosive reaction to alcohol is seen by accident earlier in the movie when he's offered a drink. When Roger's caught by Judge Doom, Eddie gets a chance to exploit this and offers Roger a shot of bourbon to invoke a chaos and escape safely.
  • Also a more explicit example that has some crossover with MacGuffin in the recurring love letter that is actually the will written in invisible ink.
  • The emphasis on laughs could count.
  Judge Doom: Have you forgotten what happened last time? If you don't stop that laughing, you're going to end up dead just like your idiot hyena cousins!
• The Widow (2020): Near the start of the movie, the rescue team reveals to Kristina that they have a Flare Gun as part of their equipment. Later, Zoya uses the flare gun to make Vika kill her by shooting her in the head with it.

• The World's End:
  • The "Out of Order" sign from the disabled toilet, which Sam gives to Gary as a jibe, later comes in handy when the guys need to make sure no-one goes into the men's room and finds the five teenage Blanks they just destroyed in there.

• In Written on the Wind, Kyle's father keeps a gun in his desk, and Mitch hides it in a bookcase. Kyle finds it and decides to kill Mitch with it when he thinks that Mitch and Lucy had an affair.

X

• X-Men Film Series:
  • X-Men: First Class: The coin that Dr. Schmidt gives to Erik, which Magneto later forces through Sebastian Shaw's head. Also foreshadowed when Erik impales a drawing of Shaw's head with it earlier in the film.
  • The Wolverine:
    • Ichirō Yashida's life support equipment is used to discover the machine suppressing Logan's healing factor.
    • In the beginning, a bear is shot by a poisoned arrow, then in the climax, Logan is taken down with Harada's poisoned arrows.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past:
    • The Power Nullifier that both Charles and Hank have been using to suppress their powers is useful when dealing with robots that can detect mutant powers.
    • Magneto is accused of using his powers to curve the bullet which killed JFK. He later uses this power to try and kill Mystique when a gun is knocked from his hand after firing a single bullet.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse:
    • The business card for Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters that Quicksilver received (or stole) in the last movie helps him find the mansion.
    • The fact that electrical fields interfere with teleportation comes into play during the cage fight and on Stryker's helicopter. Near the end, when Apocalypse tries to teleport away, Storm's lightning attacks disrupt him and gets him killed.

Y

• The 1940 Kay Keyser comedy You'll Find Out has two — early on after Keyser's big band has arrived at the Haunted House that they've been hired to play at for an heiress' 21st birthday (unbeknownst to her, when she turns 21, her Grande Dame aunt is going to turn her entire fortune over to the young lady), Kay and his band manager are looking at the museum pieces in the mansion. Amongst them is a Malaysian blowgun coated with an instant-kill poison and that leaves an imperceptible mark on the victim. It's not a shock when the weapon turns up used in a failed attempt to kill the heiress. Later, a quack seance is sealed by Tesla Coils which are shown to be instantly destructive of anything that comes between them. At the climax of the film, Peter Lorre, playing one of the villains, maneuvers two of the coils so that they will kill the heiress. He's stopped before he can turn the device on again.

Z

• In Zoom: Academy for Superheroes, it's mentioned that if Mr. Zoom still had his powers, he could create a vortex that would negate the gamma rays' effects, turning his brother back to the good. Sure enough, he gets them back at the film's climax and does just that.

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