Basic Trope: Alice and Bob (who may or may not already be at odds with one another) are handcuffed or otherwise stuck together so that they have to cooperate in order to accomplish anything.
- Straight: After being handcuffed and forced to work their respective issues out, Alice and Bob gain a new understanding of one another and are able to work better as a team up until and after the cuffs come off. If the story is more romantic in nature, Alice and Bob might fall in love after understanding one another.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is handcuffed to Bob, who’s handcuffed to Charlie, who’s handcuffed to Diana, who’s handcuffed to Ethan, etc.
- After being handcuffed together for so long, Alice and Bob struggle to work ‘’without’’ one another.
- Downplayed:
- Alice and Bob are handcuffed together, but they don’t have too many issues with working around it.
- No actual handcuffs or bindings are used, but Alice and Bob might as well be cuffed together.
- Justified: Alice and Bob are criminals and chaining them together makes any attempt at escape much more difficult.
- Inverted: Alice and Bob are ‘’uncuffed’’ because of how much they can’t get along.
- Subverted:
- Alice and Bob’s relationship gets worse because they were handcuffed together.
- Alice and Bob are able to work together long enough to get the cuffs off, but their overall relationship doesn't change that much.
- Double Subverted: Alice and Bob agree that being handcuffed together is so terrible, that they agree to work together just so they can get the cuffs off.
- Zig Zagged: Alice and Bob get handcuffed together and play the trope straight, but they end up going back to their previous relationship until someone puts the cuffs back on them.
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob don’t have any problems in their relationship.
- Alice and Bob aren’t handcuffed together.
- Enforced: The writer needs an excuse to have two characters that don’t get along to work together and improve their relationship with one another.
- Lampshaded: “Have you ever heard of a story called ‘The Defiant Ones’?”
- Invoked: Charlie handcuffs Alice and Bob together hoping that this trope will play out.
- Exploited: Evil Eddie handcuffs Alice and Bob together knowing that they can’t get along.
- Defied: Alice and Bob hate each other and actively get in each other’s way to prevent this trope from playing out.
- Discussed: “Alice and Bob are more likely to kill each other than actually get along from forced time together.”
- Conversed: “This will give you two a chance to learn to work together.”
- Deconstructed: Alice and Bob just can’t put their differences aside and work together...
- Reconstructed: … Until they find something they at least both ‘’hate’’ and work together to deal with that.
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice and Bob successfully play the trope straight, but it’s revealed at the end that Charlie doesn’t actually have the key to uncuff them.
- In a rush, Alice tries to run one way while Bob tries to run another way. The chain goes taught and both of them end up falling on their butts. This is usually followed by them cursing each other, lamenting the situation entirely, or lampshading the trope.
- Played For Drama:
- In order for Alice and Bob to come uncuffed, one of them must die.
- Alice and Bob have some serious issues that they need to work out before they can start working together effectively.
- Played For Horror:
- Alice and Bob are cuffed together with special cuffs that will kill them if they pull too hard on them.
- Alice and Bob are on the run from a killer who thought it would be a fun way to slow them down.
- Implied: Alice and Bob are cuffed together and taken offscreen. When we see them next, they’re working in perfect sync.
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