Basic Trope: A character is unconscious and it seems like they will die, but then their finger starts twitching and then they wake up.
- Straight: Alice was in a serious accident and is lying unconscious. Bob, her boyfriend, thinks she's done for and bursts into tears, but then Alice's finger starts twitching. Moments later, she awakens and Bob happily calls an ambulance.
- Exaggerated: Bob not only thought there was no hope; he thought she was actually dead. Then, all ten of her fingers started twitching rapidly.
- Downplayed: Alice is legally dead for a few minutes. It takes much effort to revive her before her finger starts twitching.
- Justified: ???
- Inverted:
- Alice has some sort of seizure or similar, in which her fingers twitch and then she passes out and/or dies.
- When Alice awakens from unconsciousness, her whole body twitches, except her fingers.
- Subverted:
- Alice twitches her finger, but she still never wakes up and dies in her coma.
- Alice appears to be waking up after twitching her finger, but she's actually coming back as a zombie.
- Double Subverted: Alice appears to have died because there was a Flatline but it turns out the electrocardiogram was malfunctioning and she wakes up after all.
- Parodied: ???
- Zigzagged: Alice keeps slipping in and out of her coma, with an uncertainty as to whether she'll die, and sometimes her finger twitches and sometimes it doesn't.
- Averted:
- Alice doesn't fall unconscious.
- Alice dies.
- Alice does fall unconscious and survive, but different body parts move before her fingers.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "It's always the fingers."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice's train of thought returns before her body completely wakes up and she decides to open her eyes before moving her fingers.
- Discussed: "So, like, when you're unconscious, what part of you wakes up first? Is it your fingers?"
- Conversed: "Why do unconscious characters always wiggle their fingers first?!"
- Implied: ???
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
- Played for Laughs: The finger that Alice twitches is her middle finger.
- Played for Drama: Alice is the villain, so her waking up is a bad sign.
- Played for Horror: Alice is a demon and her finger twitching is the Sequel Hook for the next installment in a horror series.
Back to Finger-Twitching Revival.
