Chekhov's Skill: Difference between revisions

See also [[Someday This Will Come in Handy]], [[Crazy Prepared]], [[Chekhov's Classroom]].

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

 

== Fan Fic ==

* This is more like Chekhov's Habit, but there's a [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Hunting the Unicorn (Fanfic)|Hunting the Unicorn]]'' of David writing down ''everything'' relevant to the Warblers (and especially Blaine). {{spoiler|It proves useful when he has hard evidence that Blaine has a stalker.}}

* In the [[Transformers (Film)|Transformers]] fanfic series [[Black Crayons (Fanfic)|Black Crayons]], Ironhide begins teaching Annabelle how to speak Cybertronian. First, it is a cute way learn about the Twin's pranking plans. {{spoiler|Later, it becomes a life saving skill when she overhears a key piece of information from Starscream}}.

* In ''[[Dragonheart]]: A New Beginning'', Drake attempts to learn the lost dragon art of breathing ice. He never quite gets it down, but manages to pull it off in the climax of the final battle.

* ''[[Face Off|Face/Off]]'' combines this with [[Chekhov's Gun]] when the villain (who thanks to a surgical face swap is posing as the hero) gives a knife to the hero's daughter and teaches her a technique for stabbing someone. Later, after he's shown his [[True Colors]] and is now threatening her, she pulls out the knife he gave her and [[Hoist By His Own Petard|stabs him the way he taught her]].

* In ''[[Iron Man (Film)|Iron Man]]'', [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]] is testing his Mk. II armor's flight capabilities, {{spoiler|and decides to break the altitude record, just because. He fails because the suit builds up a layer of ice which shorts out its systems; Tony later [[Hand Wave|Hand Waves]] a fix for this. Later in the movie, he lures the [[Big Bad]] Iron Monger to similar altitudes, causing Iron Monger's suit to freeze up while his own suit is protected.}}

* ''[[The Karate Kid]]'': Paint the fence, paint the house, [[Wax On Wax Off]]...Danny Laruso tended to use a new [[Chekhov's Skill]] as the main means of defeating opponents at the end of a movie. He tended to get his ass kicked across the screen for the remainder of all three movies. Each film featured a Chekhovs Skill, the most famous one being the Crane Kick. When the crane kick [[So Last Season|failed in the second movie]], Daniel had to turn to the drum technique. The third movie had Daniel psych out his opponent his kata moves he learned, and in the fourth movie Julie used the praying mantis kick. The remake has Drey mimic the woman who was controlling the cobra with extreme concentration.

** Also from the fourth movie: Julie learning how to fight blindfolded. It comes in handy when she cops [[A Handful for An Eye]].

* In ''[[Quest for Camelot]]'' Kayley defeats [[Big Bad]] Ruber by dodging out of the way of his strike at the last moment, causing him to put Excalibur back in the stone, a technique she learned from Garrett earlier in the movie.

* ''[[Sky High]]'' gives us a bunch of sidekicks, each with [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway|rather strange powers]] (glowing, turning into a guinea pig, melting, [[Green Thumb|making plants grow at will]]). And they all get their own Crowning Moment of Useful during the prom invasion.

* ''[[Tenacious D]] in The Pick of Destiny'' is filled with these. The boys use their power slide to get through a closing security door and the infamous cock push-up to press a security button. While evading the police, KG uses his video game driving skills, though this point was mostly left on the cutting room floor. And, of course, they use the power of their rocking to save themselves from Satan.

* Used straight and then inverted in ''[[Yes Man]]''. Carl learns to play guitar, speak Korean, and fly a plane. The ability to speak Korean and play guitar are used to his advantage...{{spoiler|but the plane lessons and Korean get him targeted by Homeland Security.}}

* Most spells in ''[[Septimus Heap (Literature)|Septimus Heap]]'' are used in this manner: Introduced in the beginning of a book as almost random spells, then used in the climax to plot-deciding effect.

* In the ''[[A to Z Mysteries (Literature)|A to Z Mysteries]]'' book ''The Bald Bandit'', Ruth Rose's ability to scream really loudly comes in handy when the Bald Bandit tries to kidnap her.

 

 

* The ''[[Jonathan Creek (TV)|Jonathan Creek]]'' episode "The Three Gamblers" opens with Jonathan's birthday, and Maddie has given him a book called ''Cards As Weapons'' by one of his magic heroes, Ricky Jay. Later in the episode he's practicing the tricks in the book. At the climax he {{spoiler|uses a well-thrown playing card to save Maddie's life}}.

* In ''[[Leverage]]'''s "The Bottle Job," we see a flashback to Nate's dad breaking a guy's fingers while young Nate watched. {{spoiler|At the end of the episode, Nate breaks Doyle's fingers in the same way to provide a little extra emphasis to telling Doyle to get out of town and never come back.}}

* ''[[The Gates]]'': To break the ice when trying to talk to his son in "Identity Crisis", Nick performs an old sleight of hand trick, making a coin disappear from his hand. Later, he uses the same trick {{spoiler|to hide a flash drive containing info on the identities of ~10,000 vampires}}.

* In ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', Donna Noble's claim that she is 'the best temp in Chiswick' seems somewhat irrelevant, but comes in handy on several occasions: in realizing that not one member of the staff at ATMOS had ever taken a single day of sick leave, and they were in fact hypnotized drones, in noticing that the numbers throughout the underground of Messaline were datestamps, and in operating Davros' typewriter-like death ship control panel, for example.

* In "The Great Game," in [[Sherlock]], Sherlock showcases his ability to judge fluctuations in weight to the half-pound, by commenting on Molly's three pound weight gain (though she claims it's only two and a half). A similar skill helped him {{spoiler|deduce Irene Adler's exact measurements}} in "The Scandal in Belgravia."

** Inverted in the same episode: John casually mentions at the beginning of the episode, to everyone's hilarity, that Sherlock has no idea the earth revolves around the sun; near the episode's end Sherlock almost fails to solve a case in time because of his lack of knowledge about the solar system. John [[Lampshade|lampshades]] this nicely.

* ''[[The Shadow Line (TV)|The Shadow Line]]'' has {{spoiler|DS Lia Honey's sniping}}, which is demonstrated in the final episode's pre-credits sequence and ends up playing into the episode's climax in a big way.

* An episode of ''[[The Master]]'' (shown on [[MST3K]] as ''[[Master Ninja]] II'') did this TWICE, once for each main character.

** And an awful lot of what the teenagers learn in martial arts class. Aquerna learns a couple cool moves, plus [[Le Parkour]], and she uses those in every one of her own stories.

** Or else what students learn in the 'Survival' class, like what Heyoka learned, allowing her to beat Captain Canada! in their combat final.

{{quote| '''Kimo:''' Attention duelists! Those child grabbing classes were worth every penny!}}

* The [[Let's Play|Lets Player]] [[Raocow]] discusses this trope with regards to a hula-hooping [[Hero]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz1j1alkqFI&t=8m40s here.]

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]].'' After his initial Earth Bending training, the third season reveals that Toph had trained Aang to [[Your Eyes Can Deceive You|sense movement through Earth Bending]] like she does, which he used later on.

** Iroh's original technique of redirecting lightning was first demonstrated in the first season with little fanfare. In the early second season Azula demonstrates the ability to actually generate lightning, where Iroh reused that technique against her. This prompts Zuko to request to be trained in the art of lightning bending. After failing to use the regular lightning strike, Iroh teaches him the redirect technique, but refuses to help him [[Don't Try This At Home|practice with actual lightning.]] Needless to say, Zuko does have to put that training to use over a season later, though not against Azula.

*** Zuko would also pass the technique on to Aang, who uses it to avoid a fatal blow from Fire Lord Ozai in the finale.

* In ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|Thundercats 2011]]'', Young [[Hero]] Lion-O is introduced as a hobbyist [[Collector of the Strange]], acquiring and tinkering with [[Black Market]] [[Lost Technology]]. Though rudimentary, his familiarity with it helps him figure the user interface of a [[Black Box]] that he uses to blow up [[Walking Tank|Walking Tanks]] invading his city, and, as time goes on, gives him a leg up on his companions when they encounter [[Schizo Tech]].

* Christy's marble skills in ''[[Care Bears Movie IIA New Generation (Film)|Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation]]'' are used to save the Care Bears from their [[Crystal Prison]].