Basic Trope: An arrested person is granted the right to call someone.
- Straight:
- Bob is arrested for jaywalking. He is offered one phone call, and uses it to call his wife Alice.
- Bob calls his lawyer, Charles.
- Exaggerated: Bob is required to make his phone call. And once he finishes it, he won't be able to contact the outside world in any kind of way until he serves his sentence.
- Downplayed: Bob is allowed to make a second phone call after Alice (or Charles) doesn't answer the first time.
- Justified: While this may not be Truth in Television, it is how the law works in Bob's setting.
- Inverted:
- Bob is on the receiving end of such a call.
- Bob is allowed to make unlimited phone calls (including long-distance calls) and talk for any length of time.
- Subverted:
- Bob asks if he can make a phone call and the arresting officer says no.
- Bob was lying about being under arrest; he's really a con-artist using the call-forwarding scam
, banking that his mark will believe it's Bob's only call and forward him to another number.
- Double Subverted:
- But when Bob explains that it's important and that he otherwise will cooperate with the officer, he is allowed to make the call, or the officer makes it for him.
- However, Bob's friend David is under arrest and gets one phone call.
- Parodied:
- Bob dials the wrong number and calls a total stranger, who somehow knows that Bob is in prison and it's his One Phone Call.
- Instead of using the call wisely, Bob casually chats with a friend on the phone.
- Bob orders a pizza.
- Bob calls a phone sex line.
- Zig Zagged: The rules regarding phone calls are complex and arbitrary.
- Averted: No one gets arrested.
- Enforced: Hollywood Law
- Lampshaded: "You get One Phone Call. Use it wisely."
- Invoked: Bob mentions that he needs to call his wife to let her know about the situation and have her pick up Timmy from soccer practice.
- Exploited: Bob tries the aforementioned call-forwarding scam, because he is smart to know that most people believe this.
- Defied:
- Bob is allowed to make multiple calls.
- Bob is not allowed to make a phone call.
- Bob does not make a call.
- Discussed: "Don't I get a phone call?" "No, that's a Hollywood myth. Clearly, you watch too many police movies."
- Conversed: "Why does every prisoner on this show get to make One Phone Call? There's no law anywhere guaranteeing that."
- Implied: Alice mentions that Bob called her earlier. Bob is later shown in prison.
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob uses his one chance to perform a Prank Call.
- Bob calls Alice at home, but she's Cheating with the Milkman, or listening to music, or absorbed in her soap opera, and doesn't pick up.
- Played For Drama: After it looks like Bob is about to be put away for a very long time, he calls his wife and tells her good bye, telling her to take care of the kids and to be sure to feed his dog every day. He then apologizes to her for not always being there for her or for being a good husband or a good father for their kids. They then end their call by saying "I love you".
- Deconstructed:
- Criminals use their phone calls to instruct their accomplices to attack the station.
- Bob attempts to use his one phone call to contact his lawyer (as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment), but nobody is home. The Dirty Cop in charge of his interrogation refuses to allow him another call in order to deny him counsel.
- Reconstructed: Phone calls are monitored closely, and incriminating evidence is punished accordingly.
Back to One Phone Call
