In a soap opera, when a baby is born:
1-It will be born in the middle of a snow storm in a remote cabin where the mother’s ex lover or worst enemy will have to deliver the baby, and
2-Within five years, the baby will have graduated from college and will now be a doctor or CEO of a corporation.
When blood comes out of someone’s eyes, everyone’s about to die from some horrible disease.
When you see a close-up of a trigger being squeezed, that gun will not go off, usually because either someone else shoots the shooter first or there is a distraction of some sort that allows the intended target to either shoot first or otherwise disarm the shooter.
If it is announced that the top N in a competition will advance to the next round, the eventual winner will finish in the (N+1)th spot, only for someone ahead of them to be disqualified for some reason (examples: Akeelah and the Bee; Planes; Pitch Perfect).
What about Roger Ebert’s classic example:
If there is a car chase in an urban setting, somebody is going to crash into a fruit cart.
In a rural setting, substitute “hay wagon” for “fruit cart.”
I once got a call at 2 in the morning to tell me that the federal buildings in Washington DC were closed that day because of snow. Never mind that I live in California.
If the hero is fighting with someone on the ground and the camera angle is looking up at the bad guy, he will be stabbed or shot from behind at the *exact *instant he moves to give the killing blow. The body will then slump over to reveal the sidekick standing behind.
If two people are having a conversation in a car and the camera is to the side looking past the driver and out the driver’s side window, as soon as he turns his head to the passenger the car will be T-boned at the next street.
If a car is in an accident more serious than a scratched bumper, it will explode in a huge fireball like a half ton of TNT. After a suitable delay of course, long enough for the hero to walk a safe distance away from the blast. Which isn’t far, because even from five feet away they’ll be able to outrun the explosion, or else ride the shock wave to safety like some kind of sky surfer. All this also applies if instead of an accident, someone shoots the car instead.
When the camera pans over a wild landscape, a bird cry is coming – a hawky/eagley cry that was recorded in 1927 and still used.
When horses are on camera, snorts and whinnies will follow (otherwise the audience might think they are just really big dogs).
Actually I was in stuck elevator once. The doors were surprisingly easy to force open and it turned out the elevator was only about one foot above the floor. YMMV
In The Simpsons, if someone takes something out of the hands of somebody else, they will call out, “Yoink!”
Corollary: If the person who has seemed shady through the movie suddenly makes a dramatic entrance, scaring the protagonists, he will then slump forward, showing that he has been stabbed/shot in the back by the real betrayer.
And the sound of someone dropping a bag of coconuts.
People driving cars in normal weather are fine. Add some snow or rain and 9 times out of 10 they are either going to get into an accident or get lost.
If they’re driving by themselves in the rain they’re probably going to die.
When a woman. disguised as a man or not, takes off her motorcycle or other helmet, her long hair will float out beautifully, as if just washed and blown dry and styled. It will never be sweaty, matted, helmet hair.
When the climactic fight with the villain takes place on cliff, catwalk, rooftop, or other high building, either the hero, his love interest, or his sidekick will end up hanging off the edge by his or her hands. When someone attempts to save them, they will slip further until the person in danger is being held by just one hand by the rescuer before being dragged to safety.
It’s not just any hawky/eagley cry. It’s always a Red-tailed Hawk.
It used to be that jungle movies always had the call of the Laughing Kookaburra. Now it’s often the Screaming Piha.
Dawn of the Dead did the exception earlier. The original one, not the “reimagining”
Changed to gold/tan on TNG and later.
Sometimes with a “people, the bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do, now for tonight’s homework” to really rub in the assholeishness of the teacher.
Seemed to get really popular after the stunt coordinators developed a new technique to film a t-bone from inside the “victim” car.
Crows always caw during establishing shots of the nucular (it’s pronounced nucular) plant or occasionally run down parts of town (often a howling dog instead).
When people are wearing clothes by a swimming pool, someone will fall in.
However, if they’re wearing bathing suits, the odds are they won’t get wet.
When a man and a woman are stuck in an elevator together, they will start out hating each other and end up doing the nasty dance, at which point the doors will open to reveal a bunch of people.
When a character is shown off to the side, either on the phone or talking to a stranger, he’s up to no good and will turn out to be the bad guy.
ETA: watching a bad mystery while writing this and saw another one. When a character says she’s moving to Greenland or Ecuador, we’ll see her again in a diner 3 blocks away, probably with another man.
Sounds like something out of a Zucker & Abrahams movie. Leslie Nielsen would be the guy trapped in the elevator.
When the dogs ears perk up and he/she makes a little squeal or growl, run. The dog always knows first about the approaching ghost, monster, killer or hitman. It is never perked up because of a thunderstorm or the treat cabinet opening or the cat or a squirrel on the roof etc etc.
When the detective’s spouse/family member/best friend is killed, he/she can always convince the captain to make an exception and let them stay on the investigation.
When a pregnant woman goes into labor in inconvenient places, like elevators or taxi cabs, she delivers amazingly fast, and just with the help of the people on hand.
When you spot a familiar face (known character actor, for example) on a weekly show, that person will be the bad guy, no matter how unlikely.
When someone gets stabbed with a tranq dart or a syringe full of tranquilizer, we barely have time to think they’ll go unconscious before they do. And of course there is never any negative consequences to it, nor does it matter whether the stab is to the ass or into a vein. I don’t think I’ve ever seen mention of an anesthesiologist in a movie/TV series (maybe I don’t watch enough medical dramas), but if there is ever one (s)he should forget about cardiac tests and machinery: just get a tranq gun.
Eh, sometimes it’s just your Idiot Brother (any brother who calls you at 23:30 is an Idiot by definition), who’s forgotten to look at the clock.
At the 22 minute mark of any Renegade TV series episode , Lorenzo Lamas will take his shirt off.