Stock Ominous Signs

This is an index of tropes that makes audiences think, "Uh-oh!" When one of these tropes happens, it tells the audience that something bad is either going to happen or is already happening. See Portent of Doom for the in-universe version. Also compare Trope Telegraphing.

See also This Index Will Be Important Later.

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Medical

• Agonizing Stomach Wound: An injury (typically a gunshot) to the stomach means that someone will die slowly and painfully.
• Appetite Equals Health: If someone's lost their appetite, they must be sick.
• Bad Black Barf: Someone pukes up black goo, indicating that they have a dreadful condition.
• Bedhead-itis: Messy hair indicates illness.
• Bizarre Belching: Burping as a sign that something weird and possibly dangerous is afoot.
• Blood from the Mouth: Someone bleeds from the mouth to emphasize that they're gravely injured or ill.
• Bury Your Disabled: If someone is disabled, they will be killed off.
• Chunky Salsa Rule: If somebody's head has been ground to a pulp, they're not coming back.
• Dangerous Drowsiness: Being tired means someone has a serious illness, or an existing illness is becoming serious.
• The Darkness Before Death: Someone's vision is starting to fade to indicate that they don't have much time left to live.
• Deadly Nosebleed: A bloody nose means that someone's dying, ill, or seriously injured.
• Death Is Gray: Someone turns gray upon death.
• Headache of Doom: A headache is a sign of something serious and/or supernatural.
• I Can't Feel My Legs!: If someone's legs are numb, they're going to wind up paralyzed soon enough.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: If someone feels cold, they're seriously ill and probably dying, if not already a ghost.
• Incurable Cough of Death: If someone has a cough, they're probably dying.
• Lethal Diagnosis: Once a disease is diagnosed, it instantly becomes a lot more serious.
• Ominous Hair Loss: Losing one's hair is a sign of something serious.
• Reduced to Dust: If there's nothing left but a pile of dust after a person's injury, they're gone forever.
• Sickness Equals Redness: A red nose or face is a sign of illness.
• Tainted Veins: If someone looks veiny, there's something seriously amiss with them.
• Virus-Victim Symptoms: Classic signs that someone has a supernatural disease.

Environmental

• Bad Moon Rising: When the epic struggle is just around the corner, ominous portents are going to come out of the woodwork. Well, what portent more ominous than the heavens themselves?
• Chekhov's Volcano: If there's a volcano around, it will definitely erupt.
• Comet of Doom: If a comet shows up in the sky, something really bad is about to happen.
• Crack in the Sky: An often-jagged rift in the sky means a disaster is afoot (typically space being torn apart).
• Creepy Cleanliness: A place is so clean that it's unnerving, and it usually means something is not right.
• Darkness Equals Death: If it's very dark, someone will meet their impending doom.
• Dramatic Thunder: Thunder and lightning signify something scary or evil.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: If a place is dimly-lit, evil most likely lurks there.
• Fire Means Chaos: If the scenery is on fire, that's a sign everything's going south.
• Gray Rain of Depression: It's raining, which signifies that something terrible is happening.
• Inevitable Waterfall: If people are boating on a river, there will definitely be a dangerous waterfall.
• It Always Rains at Funerals: Sub-trope of Gray Rain of Depression for when the sad event is a funeral.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: If the surroundings are quiet, that means something bad silenced them.
• Ominous Clouds: Those dark skies are a portent of danger
• Ominous Fog: Fog obscures vision, allowing monsters to creep close and increasing tension in viewers.
• Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Death: If it's a partly cloudy day, someone will die.
• Portent of Doom: There's an omen of something awful to come.
• Red Sky, Take Warning: Red skies are used as omens of terrible supernatural events.
• Signs of the End Times: There are warning signs of the world ending.
• Snow Means Death: If it's snowy, someone will die.
• The Stars Are Going Out: Stars either fall from the sky or stop sparkling as a sign of an upcoming disaster (typically an Apocalypse How).
• Stars Are Souls: Stars are seen after a dangerous incident befalls a character, indicating that they've passed on.
• A Storm Is Coming: A storm or other inclement weather heralds the arrival of some disaster.

Behavioural

• Ankle Drag: Someone is dragged to their doom by the ankle(s).
• Assassin Outclassin': A professional (or team of professionals) was sent to kill the villain or evil monster. Not only did they fail, they got beaten pretty badly. The heroes usually find out by either being told or finding the body.
• Burp of Finality: If someone has been Eaten Alive, they're done for if the eater burps.
• Creepy Good: A good/noble character can be quite nightmarish in their actions/personality.
• Dead Man's Trigger Finger: Someone shoots off their gun one last time just as they fall over when they die.
• Death by Transceiver: When characters are having a conversation by radio, one of the characters will get killed while the others can do nothing but listen as their final words or screams get Lost in Transmission by Walkie-Talkie Static.
• Deep Breath Reveals Tension: A character takes a few deep breaths, revealing how stressed they really are.
• Deranged Dance: Someone dances as a sure sign that they're not right in the head.
• Disconnected by Death: When two or more characters are having a conversation during a phone call, one of them will die during the call. Rarely, the killer will get on the phone and give a Bond One-Liner about the murder or to mock the listener.
• Finger-Twitching Revival: After the No One Could Survive That! the sure sign that they did is when a finger starts twitching (for non-human antagonists any body part will do). Can be used to indicate that the story is not over or set up The End... Or Is It?.
• Helpless Kicking: Someone who is being Eaten Alive, killed, or dragged to their doom kicks or flails their legs in the empty air.
• Knee Fold Fall of Defeat: Someone falling to their knees indicates that they're dead or defeated.
• Lying Finger Cross: A character makes some kind of promise, and then we see that their fingers are crossed, indicating that they're not telling the truth.
• Madness Makeover: If someone looks a lot messier or cleaner than usual, it means they've lost their mind.
• Not Himself: A change in behaviour signifies something like possession.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If someone is behaving out of character, that's a very bad sign.
• Pretty Spry for a Dead Guy: Someone appears to have come back to life? Don't be fooled, that's just a hallucination or an illusion.
• Redemption Equals Death: If somebody redeems themselves, they will die.
• Sacrificial Lion: A character that the audience relates to and expects to survive is killed to show that the antagonist means business.
• Sex Signals Death: If a young couple has sex, they will both die later on.
• Suspicious Missed Messages: If somebody doesn't reply to texts/letters/etc, they're in danger or dead.
• Traitor Shot: When a character's status as a traitor is hinted at in their expression.
• Tuneless Song of Madness: A character sings in a non-musical work to indicate that they've gone insane.
• The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): Sister trope to The Worf Effect, a specific character is an expert knows more about the threat than anyone, be it the antagonist or the Monster of the Week. Expect this character to die. See also Assassin Outclassin' when this keeps happening to experts or professionals hired to deal with the antagonist.
• The Worf Effect: When the toughest character on show gets thrashed by the new antagonist.
• Zipping Up the Bodybag: There's a shot of someone zipping up a corpse in a bag, signifying that they're dead for real.

Words, names, and symbols

• Ace Of Spades: The ace card is a symbol of death or danger.
• Creepy Crosses: Crosses used as symbols of death and/or the occult.
• Four Is Death: In Eastern media, if the number four pops up, expect death to be around the corner.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: A place with a name that is explicitly dangerous/evil or alludes to something else that is will be a location in which all manners of death, chaos, and evil will manifest.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: A character with a name that either is explicitly dangerous/evil or alludes to something else that is will cause discord and chaos for the rest of the characters.
• Number of the Beast: In Western media, if the number "666" appears, expect something evil or demonic to occur.
• Skeleton Motif: Skulls (or optionally, skull and crossbones) used as a symbol for danger and/or death).
• 13 Is Unlucky: In Western media, if the number "13" shows up, expect something bad or unlucky to follow.

Objects

• Bad Bedroom, Bad Life: If somebody's bedroom is subpar, that means they're poor and/or abused.
• Blood-Stained Letter: A letter or note has bloodstains on it, hinting at a dark story behind it (typically someone's death and/or injury).
• Bring My Red Jacket: The non-character version of Red Shirt; if a character wears red, expect them to get bloodied up.
• Cannibal Larder: A room or freezer full of body parts. Typically it'll feature bloody butchers' tools, red spatters on the walls, buzzing flies on the soundtrack, and possibly a Peek-a-Boo Corpse of someone known to the hapless victim who stumbles into the place. The finding of a Cannibal Larder is usually staged as The Reveal, although it frequently only confirms what the audience already suspected was going on.
• Dark Is Evil: A character with a dark color scheme is cruel.
• Dead Hat Shot: If we only see this character's hat after a disaster, it's safe to say they're doomed.
• Dead Man's Hand: A poker hand with two black aces and two black eights symbolizes death.
• Dying Candle: When a candle's flame is no longer burning, someone's done for.
• Empathy Doll Shot: If a toy is lying on the ground, that means either a child died or a child's innocence was lost during an evacuation.
• Empty Fridge, Empty Life: An empty fridge is a sign of poverty.
• Empty Piles of Clothing: All that's left of someone is just their clothes, meaning that they're gone.
• Fatal Family Photo: If somebody shows their family photo, they will die.
• Flatline: If someone is hooked up to an electrocardiogram, the line will go flat, which means they have no pulse and so are in serious danger or dead.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Done by either the Big Bad or one of the main antagonists either during their death scene or afterward. They have left behind clues (or an outright note) that while they are dead, their plans have just gotten started.
• Ominous Crack: A crack means that some type of protection isn't going to hold up for much longer.
• Ominously Open Door: A door left mysteriously ajar means that whoever's inside the door has been killed.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: Black, oily goo is bad news.
• Psycho Pink: Pink clothes signify a demented villain.
• Putting on the Reich: Need a quick and easy way to suggest a group of people or faction are evil and mean business? During The Reveal or the introduction, give them uniforms that resemble those worn by the Third Reich.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: If the color scheme consists of red and black, this character is a villain.
• Red Is Violent: This character has red colors and it's for the best that you don't piss them off.
• Red Shirt: If someone is wearing a red shirt, they are disposable and therefore likely to die.
• Room Full of Crazy: When a character has written all over every surface of the room or covered them in paper with lots of ramblings. If the Room Full of Crazy is specific enough, for example, only part of a wall is covered with photos of the same subject, it may be a Stalker Shrine. A Shrine to Self may likewise double as a Room Full Of Crazy for Omnicidal Maniacs and the like.
• Soulless Bedroom: Someone who lacks emotions has an unnaturally clean bedroom with few or no personal possessions.
• Spit Out a Shoe: When someone is Eaten Alive and the creature that ate them spits out one of their belongings, that person has been digested.
• Stab the Picture: If a picture of someone is seen with a knife or some other form of damage, it means that either an attempt is going to be made on their life or that they're otherwise about to die.
• Tarot Troubles: Tarot cards are synonymous with prophetic signs of danger.
• White and Red and Eerie All Over: A character with white and red in their color scheme to make them look extra-creepy.
• White Shirt of Death: Wearing all white is one way to ensure you end up a bloody mess.

Music and Sound Effects

• Creepy Children Singing: Singing kids in the background highlights a spooky scene.
• Creepy Circus Music: Circus music used for scary scenes, often involving a Monster Clown or Circus of Fear.
• Creepy Jazz Music: Jazz music plays in the background, often to make a scene scarier or to indicate that there's an evil character afoot.
• Critical Annoyance: A sound that plays on a video game when you're either low on health or fouling up.
• Dead Man Honking: Hearing a car's horn honking when someone crashes their car indicates that they've lurched forward and died.
• Deathly Dies Irae: The Standard Snippet of the original Dies Irae, Dies Illa melody that signifies death and doom impending.
• Drone of Dread: A long sustained sound that creates an unsettling, uncomfortable atmosphere.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: Tolling bells indicate death or something deadly.
• Freaky Electronic Music: Electronic music is heard to signify the appearance of a villain.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: When a heartbeat is heard during a moment of fear, danger, or impending doom.
• Hell Is That Noise: Whenever something or someone is revealed to the audience there is a noise, leitmotif or sound. It's something odd and unnatural. When the sound is heard once, it may not be that terrifying, but as time passes, the heroes and the audience become more and more frightened. The sound gets scarier as it gains more and more relevance. Can be used by itself to indicate that there is a danger in the distance.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: A nursery rhyme is heard to make a scene even more disturbing.
• Moment of Silence: The Background Music goes silent over a death.
• Moody Trailer Cover Song: When the trailer of a movie or tv show uses a famous song or a song from the source material but re-purposes it into something slower and moodier to indicate that work is going to be Darker and Edgier. May have added Previews Pulse to heighten the tension.
• Ominous Knocking: Knocking from an unknown source will normally mean the one knocking is dangerous.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: Latin (or dog Latin) chanting in the background signifies a suspenseful or creepy scene.
• Ominous Music Box Tune: A music box tune plays over a scary scene.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: Pipe organ music often accompanies evil things, and the music may actually be played by a villain at a pipe organ.
• One-Woman Wail: A woman (or a boy soprano) singing a wordless wail in the Background Music signifies something serious is going on.
• "Psycho" Strings: Sharp notes on string instruments indicate insanity and/or evil.
• Scare Chord: A startling crescendo of music suddenly plays to complement a scene's creepiness.
• Sickening "Crunch!": A loud crunching noise means that somebody has broken a bone.
• Sinister Tango Music: Tango music is heard during a creepy scene.
• Songs in the Key of Panic: Video game music that lets you know you're running out of time, nearing a (usually drastic) ending to the level, or are running low on health.
• Theremin: A theremin plays to make a scene even creepier.
• Tick Tock Terror: The sound of a clock chiming is heard in a creepy area, making the atmosphere even more ominous.

Animals

• Bugs Herald Evil: The presence of insects or arachnids indicates someone evil.
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: If butterflies are involved in some kind of symbolism, someone's gonna die.
• Circling Vultures: Vultures circling in the sky means that either someone has died, or is near death.
• Creepy Crows: Crows and/or ravens appear in a spooky place.
• *Drool* Hello: Someone feels the drool of a monster dripping onto their head from up above, and they know they better get ready to run.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: A dog will sense danger before the human characters and try to alert them.
• Flies Equals Evil: Flies swarming around someone means they're evil.
• Foreboding Fleeing Flock: Large groups of birds and other animals fleeing the scene means that disaster is about to happen.
• Horse Returns Without Rider: Person sets out riding a horse, and then the horse returns alone, implying something bad happened to the rider.
• Macabre Moth Motif: Moths are seen as a supernatural omen of disaster.
• Ominous Owl: Owls have long been viewed as harbingers of disease, death, destruction, evil and bad luck. Either actual owls (or their calls) will be seen and heard or the villains will use an owl motif.

Cinematic

• Everything Fades: In a video game, enemies often fade away when they're killed or defeated.
• Expressive Health Bar: A sound or visual in a video game that lets you know that a stat is running low.
• Impending Doom P.O.V.: The camera shows the perspective of something stalking or about to attack a character.
• Menacing Hand Shot: Framing shot that dramatically shows that one character means to threaten or attack another.
• Plummet Perspective: A character is standing or hanging at a great height. An object near them falls or is dropped by them, showing from the character's perspective just how dangerously high they are.
• Really Dead Montage: If a montage plays after someone dies, they ain't coming back.
• Red Filter of Doom: A red-colored filter indicates malice or danger.
• Shaky P.O.V. Cam: The camera shows the perspective of something (usually something evil or dangerous) moving really fast, often coupled with Jitter Cam.
• Snowy Screen of Death: The screen(s) giving visual feed go full of static, indicating that something horrible happening disabled the cameras.
• Stalker Shot: The moment we find out a character's being watched by someone (typically someone dangerous).

Body parts

• Black Eyes of Crazy: A character's sclera is black to signify that they've gone off the deep end.
• Black Eyes of Evil: A character has black eyes to indicate that they're as scary as they appear.
• Bloody Handprint: A handprint in thick blood is visible on a wall, floor, or some other surface, indicating that the person who left it is seriously injured and possibly dying. The fresher the blood, the stronger the terror.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: An unusually wide smile indicates that the smiler is mischievous or up to no good.
• Dead-Hand Shot: If we only see someone's hand when they're in some kind of lethal situation, they're gone for good.
• Eye Lights Out: A robotic or magical person's bright eyes lose their glow when they die.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: When a good looking character is shown doing horrible things or acting in a ghastly manner.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: If a character's eyes are glowing, it's a safe bet that they're dangerous.
• Psychotic Smirk: A small, subtle smile indicates a manipulative schemer.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Red eyes on a character means that you'd better beware of them.
• Red Right Hand: Someone has a physical quirk that cements them as a villain.
• Slasher Smile: If someone does a large, deranged grin, they almost certainly have evil or violent intentions.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: If a character has yellow eyes, they're probably unscrupulous in some way.

Characteristics

• Black Dude Dies First: If someone is black, they will be killed off.
• Bury Your Gays: LGBT+ people always die.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: If there are Good Parents around, they will die.
• Gay Guy Dies First: If several people are killed off in succession, the first to die is LGBT+.
• Kill the Cutie: The friendliest and/or cutest characters always die.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: If the jokey characters aren't present, that's a sign things are getting serious.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: If a character is categorized as pure-hearted, kind, or innocent, you can expect that their story won't end well.
• Vasquez Always Dies: In a Tomboy and Girly Girl situation, the "tomboy" always dies.

Narrative

• Back for the Dead: If a character who was Put on a Bus returns, it means they've come back to officially die on screen.
• Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Someone managed to avoid death? They'll meet their demise through different circumstances soon afterwards.
• A Death in the Limelight: If a side or background character suddenly becomes the main focus of an episode in a TV series, it's likely to be their final episode alive.
• Deadly Deferred Conversation: When two characters with an important conversation to have are unable to have it due to a long bout of separation, expect one (or both) of them to die before they get the chance.
• Distress Call: This refers to the plot structure wherein the heroes are summoned to respond to a distress call, or occasionally, a non-emergency yet still foreboding request for assistance from an expedition. Equally often, the heroes are investigating the abrupt stoppage of all communications from the site.
• The End... Or Is It?: The ending appears to be a happy one, but then it's revealed that the villain or some other threat is still out there.
• Late to the Tragedy: Something bad has happened in the setting. Something very bad. The main characters arrive some time later ? days, perhaps, but possibly years, even centuries afterward. The characters find out that the cause of this tragedy is still there and still as dangerous.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Mentors always die.
• Oh, and X Dies: The narration outright tells you that a character will die.
• Retirony: A character who is a few days from retirement taking one last job is sure to die doing that job.
• Sacrificial Lamb: The moment this relatively minor character is killed off, everything becomes darker.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: In a film genre where Anyone Can Die, if a character survives a film but shows up in the sequel, expect them to not survive until the end.
• Tempting Fate: When a character says something bad or unlucky won't happen or is not likely to happen, the universe will ensure that thing will happen.
• Tonight, Someone Dies: A series announces that a character is going to be killed off.
• Too Good to Be True: When the main conflict seems to be resolved almost too perfectly and is noted In-Universe by a character, expect it all to unravel in the following scenes.
• Vasquez Always Dies: In a Tomboy and Girly Girl due, the tomboy is the first to die.
• The Worf Barrage: Much like The Worf Effect, The Worf Barrage is that attack that's supposedly all-powerful, ultra-destructive, and super-awesome, but in reality only serves as the "that" in No One Could Survive That! because the antagonist just did.

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