# Your favorite 80's movie trope? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 25, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521 "2020-09-25T18:10:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/1 "2020-09-25T18:10:07Z")
I don’t really know why, but I’ve been on an 80s kick lately. Maybe it’s the lamest mid-life crisis ever. The 80s do remind me of a time when life was full of promise, and I had much more to look forward to than gradually breaking down body parts and maybe a grandchild or two someday. I started an 80s song thread awhile back, and I’ve found a trove of 80s horror movies on Amazon Prime I’ve been having fun working my way through-- some I’m rewatching through older eyes, some I never caught the first time around. I watched one the other day I had never even heard of before, though it seems like it was a reasonably big budget production with a couple fairly big names-- “Nomads” with Pierce Brosnan and Lesley-Anne Down. Nomads is a little different than the typical “bunch of horny teens getting slaughtered one at a time” 80s horror genre, it’s a bit more of a grownup’s version of a horror movie. And without getting into spoilers, its central horror premise was somewhat interesting. But it does show its 80s colors by having a delightfully cheesy 80s soundtrack, and my favorite 80s trope of all time, the Gang of Evil Punks. I swear, every 80s movie had that trope. Mainstream America must have been terrified of them. I remember punkers first-hand-- they used to hang out on Main Street in Royal Oak, Michigan where I used to live. They were harmless, Mohawk haired, army jacketed teens who hung around smoking but not really bothering anybody. So I always laugh when I see scary gangs of punks causing all kinds of mayhem in movies. Hey, in addition to sharing your favorite 80s trope (doesn’t have to be just horror-related), feel free to recommend any 80s movies you’ve seen on the streaming channels (Prime, Netflix, Hulu) that are classics of the genre but may have been overlooked (I’ve seen most of them). ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/2 "2020-09-25T18:31:40Z")
I don’t know about “favorite” but I can think of tropes so ubiquitous that they nearly become rules in the art of film making. A trope not limited to the 80s, but it seemed to begin there ( I lost my teen-hood in the early 80s ) was of well-heeled high school teens possessing whopping amounts of autonomy. Expensive automobiles, either the teen’s own, or a parent’s, involving hijinks thereof, with swimming pools being one of the favored ends of an out-of-control ride. Also involves out-of-control parties that utterly trash upscale homes. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/3 "2020-09-25T18:44:52Z")
Seems like every Eighties movie featuring high school/college students had William Zabka or a lookalike as the villain. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/4 "2020-09-25T18:47:32Z")
There was the Vietnam veteran who spent years living in Asia to become a martial arts master. A subset of this trope was the Ninja, who became invisible by dressing like an 18th-Century Japanese (in public, in broad daylight), and carrying a 3-foot sword (usually in a city where a 6-inch pocketknife was illegal as hell). Speaking of knives, I think it was in the 1980s when Bad Guys stopped carrying switchblades, and started carrying balisong knives. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/5 "2020-09-25T18:47:35Z")
> [@solost](#): > > my favorite 80s trope of all time, the Gang of Evil Punks This is the trope you’re looking for: > **[The Quincy Punk - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheQuincyPunk)** > > Every youth subculture gets its moment to be The New Rock & Roll — greasers, mods, hippies, skinheads, goths; hell, Mystery Science Theater 3000 proves that even the beatniks got a good round of it. And when the late '70s and early '80s … ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/6 "2020-09-25T18:50:01Z")
> [@solost](#): > > my favorite 80s trope of all time, the Gang of Evil Punks. Carried to an extreme in the Mad Max movies, with the Gang of Evil Gay Punk Bikers. ---
**Author:** ![Airbeck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/airbeck/32/6574_2.png) [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/7 "2020-09-25T19:02:03Z")
The training montage. Set some clips of a person doing something to some awesome 80s tune and boom, instant expert. If only it was so easy in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/8 "2020-09-25T19:09:12Z")
Redlettermedia listed one that I think was very common in the 80’s. They called it the “No-Look Look” trope. I have never seen the exact thing on Tvtropes. It’s specific. An officer arrives back on the crime scene, but he finds the FBI or another federal agency there. The federal officer is looking at the crime scene and does not turn to see the police officer. He shows his badge over his shoulder and says something like, “FBI. We’re taking over now.” \<----that is the “no-look look” moment, the insulting no-look and flash of badge to the inferior officer. I can’t pinpoint an example, but Redlettermedia acted it out and it seemed super familiar. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/9 "2020-09-25T19:19:20Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > He shows his badge over his shoulder and says something like, “FBI. We’re taking over now.” \<----that is the “no-look look” moment, the insulting no-look and flash of badge to the inferior officer. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/HY_nkgJG3oE/hqdefault.jpg ""Agent Johnson and Special Agent Johnson" scene from Die Hard (1988)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY_nkgJG3oE) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/10 "2020-09-25T19:31:37Z")
Yes, I think that is the most famous example. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/11 "2020-09-25T19:45:21Z")
May not be specifically 80s, but these happened a lot that decade of movies/TV: “I dated you on a dare/bet/pity/experiment, but now I really do love you!” Jumping away from an explosion Smart chick takes off glasses and becomes a Penthouse Pet “I’ll be right back!” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/12 "2020-09-25T20:00:54Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > my favorite 80s trope of all time, the Gang of Evil Punks. > > Carried to an extreme in the Mad Max movies, with the Gang of Evil Gay Punk Bikers. Oddly, that TV Trope entry fails to explain why they call that particular trope “The Quincy Punk” other than to say “…nothing to do with President John Quincy Adams”. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/13 "2020-09-25T20:07:23Z")
Oops, I replied to the wrong post in my last post. I meant this one, of course: > [@Skywatcher](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > my favorite 80s trope of all time, the Gang of Evil Punks > > This is the trope you’re looking for: > > [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheQuincyPunk](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheQuincyPunk) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/14 "2020-09-25T23:04:29Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > my favorite 80s trope of all time, the Gang of Evil Punks. > > Carried to an extreme in the Mad Max movies, with the Gang of Evil Gay Punk Bikers. I kind of feel like when Larry pulled that gun on Wez and his friends and called them “faggots” in Weird Science, that was kind of a “hate crime”. It was certainly a dick move. I mean so they were riding motorcycles in the house and being rowdy? There was already a Pershing missile in the bedroom, the kitchen has magically turned blue and most of the furniture was blown out the chimney. That said, the wild out of control teenager party where hundreds of randoms show up was definitely an 80s trope. Most problems could ultimately be resolved through martial arts - Karate Kid, Rocky II and IV, Road House, Norris, Segal, JCVD, etc. Right eventually makes might. The best job in the world is a circa 1980s Wall Street trader or investment banker. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/15 "2020-09-26T01:27:26Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Oddly, that TV Trope entry fails to explain why they call that particular trope “The Quincy Punk” other than to say “…nothing to do with President John Quincy Adams”. The name refers to a 1982 episode of “Quincy M.E.”, in which punks were prominently featured. > **["Quincy M.E." Next Stop, Nowhere (TV Episode 1982) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0681811/reference)** > > "Quincy M.E." Next Stop, Nowhere (TV Episode 1982) Reference View ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/16 "2020-09-26T04:46:45Z")
My favourite trope is a bunch of kids on bicycles ride around a small town and accidentally stumble on: - A gang of bank robbers - A crashed alien spacecraft - A bigfoot - A dinosaur - A plot to kidnap the President - A haunted house - A crazy old man with an aggressive dog - A wacky inventor - A treasure map - A mysterious glowing egg - A portal to another time …or combinations thereof. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/17 "2020-09-26T13:10:47Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > My favourite trope is a bunch of kids on bicycles ride around a small town and accidentally stumble on: > > - A gang of bank robbers > - A crashed alien spacecraft > - A bigfoot > - A dinosaur > - A plot to kidnap the President > - A haunted house > - A crazy old man with an aggressive dog > - A wacky inventor > - A treasure map > - A mysterious glowing egg > - A portal to another time That’s some crazy day those kids had! ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/18 "2020-09-26T13:16:57Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > The name refers to a 1982 episode of “Quincy M.E.”, in which punks were prominently featured. Thanks, I thought of “Quincy M.E.” But had a hard time imagining punks being so prominent on the show that its name become a TV Trope. Would love to watch that episode if I could get access to it somehow. Maybe YouTube? I’ll have to investigate. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/19 "2020-09-26T16:52:39Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Thanks, I thought of “Quincy M.E.” But had a hard time imagining punks being so prominent on the show that its name become a TV Trope. I’m guessing it’s the first instance of such punks that Tropers are aware of. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521/20 "2020-09-26T17:02:45Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I’m guessing it’s the first instance of such punks that Tropers are aware of. If IMDB is to be believed, the CHIPS [battle of the bands episode](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0534425/) was released earlier in the year than the [Quincy episode](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0681811/). I’m not interested enough in TV Tropes to find out if the Quincy episode was thought to be the first or became more iconic for some other reason. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-80s-movie-trope/921521.md?page=2)