Let's coin some needed movie phrases.

[lurok]

My favourite is still 'James Bond Parking': the ability of occupants of any vehicle to pull up outside of any said designated building and never have to worry about parking restrictions, meters, enforcement, etc.

 

[Melakon]

^ This is popular in television series' main title sequences. The stars' car stops in the middle of the street, then they all get out and start walking toward the camera while the theme plays.

 

[auntiehill]

My favourite is still 'James Bond Parking': the ability of occupants of any vehicle to pull up outside of any said designated building and never have to worry about parking restrictions, meters, enforcement, etc.

That's similar to "24 Traffic," wherein the hero can get anywhere in a major metropolitan area in 5 minutes or less, at any time of the day.

 

[Masiral]

Novice Educator: character they add to a movie or show who is a novice or newbie. Other characters explain what is going on to the novice but what they are REALLY doing is explaining to the audience.

A great example of this is Donna on The West Wing, as a way to explain Congressional procedure and the like to the audience.

 

[AgentCoop]

One I often use is "Cabbage Head" it's borrowed from Phil Farrand "Nitpicker's Guide" website back in the late 90s when he was doing on-line nitpicker reviews of movies and such. It refers to a character in a story is the "designated idiot" who needs technical details explained to them so that we, the audience, can understand what is going on without the experts in the story needing to explain things they already know to each other.

This character can either be used well or not used well. Probably a good example of this is Ernie Hudson's character "Winston" in the Ghostbusters movie(s). His character serves a minor purpose in the story and is largely there to have things explained to the audience (like how the containment unit works, some details of the deal with Gozer at the end.) But it's done well enough as it makes sense to have these things explained to him as he's a new hire. (Peter serves this role to a lesser degree since his area of expertise wasn't quite as deep or extensive as Ray's or Egon's when it came to paranormal activity.)

Probably an example of this type of character being used poorly is the "Melissa" character in the movie "Twister." She's the reproductive therapist fiancée of Bill Paxton's character. She tags along through the movie's events at times needing certain meteorological terms and phenomenon explained to her, as well as how "Dorothy" works. (Again, the rest of our characters would already know all of this so it wouldn't make sense for them to explain it to themselves.)

Most movies that involve some degree of real-world "technobabble" will usually have a Cabbage Head in some form or another to help the audience understand what is going on. The alternatives are to either not explain the technical jargon (which has worked well in many a military movie) or to have characters needlessly explain things to those already in the know.

I'm sure there's already a name for this trope over at TVTropes but I've always called this character a "Cabbage Head."

Along those lines I'd coin the term "The Transparent Narrative".

This is a case where we DO have two characters already involved in or aware of the situation that is going on sit down and explain what is happening for our sake. Often this will be two people in the process of committing a crime explaining the plan to one another literally moments before executing it. A time when it makes no sense to do such a thing other than to help us understand what is going on.

In one of the TNG Nitpicker books, I believe Farrand designates none other than Counselor Troi as the episode's Cabbage Head when she has to have someone explain to her how the warp core works.

 

[Brolan]

The Novice Educator and Cabbage Head seem to be the same thing. I like the term Cabbage Head a lot better.

 

[Forbin]

My favourite is still 'James Bond Parking': the ability of occupants of any vehicle to pull up outside of any said designated building and never have to worry about parking restrictions, meters, enforcement, etc.

I call that "McGarrett Parking". I rewatched the original 5-0 a few years ago, and was amazed how he always screeched to a stop in front of headquarters at a totally random angle, often diagonally across three parking spaces, and leaped out of the car to run into the building.

 

[HIjol]

"The 5-Ending Ending"

...like in LOtR where you think it is over...but no...now?...nope...surely now?...not yet...

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

The "Kansas Stretch" is actually just called "the setup." Basically we're shown the protagonist just maintaining, going through the motions of everyday life unknowingly awaiting the catalyst that will plunge him/her into the action. Some key shortcoming and/or need of the protagonist is established here.

The definition I gave of the Kansas Stretch is much more specific than that.

 

[sojourner]

Not really. Your description fits the definition of "the setup" to a T.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

No it doesn't. Go back and reread my definition. All Kansas Stretches are setups, but very few setups are Kansas Stretches.

 

[Forbin]

Boys, boys...

 

[HIjol]

"It's a breath mint!...It's a candy mint!"....it's two...two...two phrases in one!...

 

[Forbin]

The Tatooine stretch?

 

[HIjol]

And, just exactly WHERE in the hell was that "Power Station"...???...you ask me, it was a babe and a beer...or whatever the equivelent was on Tatooine...

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

I like the term "Vocational Irony Narrative" coined by TV critic Daniel Fienberg:

The time has come again to discuss one of my favorite genres of fiction, the Vocational Irony Narrative. I'm referring to the story of the travel writer who hates to leave home or the relationship guru who can't have a relationship herself or the podiatrist who suffers from horrible bunions.
It's a genre that writers adore because there's a set formula that can be reproduced in any of a hundred professions, almost in your sleep. There's the lawyer who suddenly finds himself charged with a crime! There's the doctor who gets ill and gets sucked into the morass of the American health care system. There's the fake medium who suddenly starts seeing real ghosts.

Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/the-fie...ws-shrink-and-arlen-faber#2hr6FJzTDUUoH8W3.99

 

[DarthTom]

I'm surprised the phrase, "it is what it is..." hasn't made it into Hollywood dialogue as ubiquitous as it is in today's vernacular.

 

[sojourner]

Not really the focus of the thread.

 

[Trekker4747]

I call it Saved by Achilles.

This is whenever the heroes of our story are being overwhelmed by numbers and arms by the enemies but are able to win the battle/save the day by simply destroying the enemies' ONE weak spot that happens to render all of them defeated.

(Example: Taking out the mother ship in Independence Day, Avengers, Oblivion and probably so many others.)

 

[Greg Cox]

I'm surprised the phrase, "it is what it is..." hasn't made it into Hollywood dialogue as ubiquitous as it is in today's vernacular.

Seems to me I've been hearing this a lot on TV lately, but I can't quite place where. Teen Wolf? Defiance? Dominion?