Tropescilloscope: Shoot the Shaggy Dog

A tragic ending where the protagonist's efforts are All for Nothing. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Cold-Blooded Torture The X of Y Mr. Exposition Animal Motifs Meaningful Name Music Stories And the Adventure Continues Four-Temperament Ensemble Bloodier and Gorier Brutal Honesty Red Right Hand Parental Neglect Rape as Drama Slashed Throat Bait-and-Switch Captain Obvious Death by Sex Laughing Mad Dissonant Serenity Time Skip Crucified Hero Shot Adaptational Heroism The Big Guy Peek-a-Boo Corpse Authority Equals Asskicking Calling the Old Man Out Animated Credits Opening Tempting Fate Title Drop Australian Movies Big Applesauce Back from the Dead Accidental Misnaming Slasher Smile Villain with Good Publicity Blood from the Mouth Revenge Villain Song Setting Update All Men Are Perverts Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Video Credits The Dreaded Badass Bookworm Hidden Depths Combat Pragmatist Big Brother Instinct Affectionate Parody Mystery and Detective Films Cool Old Lady Closed Circle MacGuffin Bad Boss Badass Longcoat Faking the Dead Lock and Load Montage Whole Plot Reference The Remake Leitmotif Homage Evil Is Petty Madness Mantra Narrator Pre-Mortem One-Liner Offscreen Moment of Awesome The Great Depression NO INDOOR VOICE The Smurfette Principle Ax-Crazy Mooks And I Must Scream Be Careful What You Wish For No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Sadistic Choice Action Survivor Darker and Edgier Defiant to the End Malevolent Masked Men Covers Always Lie No OSHA Compliance Age Lift 20 Minutes into the Future Alliterative Name Dirty Cop Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? I Need a Freaking Drink Loads and Loads of Characters Not So Different Fanservice Extra Neck Lift Sci-Fi Horror Loophole Abuse Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Man on Fire Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Adaptational Badass Bi the Way Redshirt Army Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Drowning My Sorrows Not What It Looks Like Yandere Names to Run Away from Really Fast Affably Evil It's All About Me Translation Convention The Cameo Crazy-Prepared No Ending Nice Hat Up to Eleven Those Two Bad Guys Happily Married Refuge in Audacity Guns Akimbo And Starring Rewatch Bonus Unwitting Instigator of Doom Properly Paranoid My Beloved Smother What the Hell, Hero? Rule of Three Drill Sergeant Nasty Adorkable Big Bad Children Are Innocent Rated M for Manly Logo Joke Disney Villain Death Fanservice Gone Horribly Right Final Girl French Films An Aesop It's Personal Betty and Veronica Reality Is Unrealistic Race Against the Clock The Brute Maybe Ever After Pay Evil unto Evil Dramatic Gun Cock Throwing Your Sword Always Works It Can Think Fainting Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Parental Incest Idiot Ball Riddle for the Ages In Medias Res The Vamp She Cleans Up Nicely Hair-Trigger Temper Casting Gag Berserk Button Gender Flip Serious Business Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome One Steve Limit Brainless Beauty Heroic BSoD Early Installment Weirdness Shirtless Scene Works Set in World War II Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Product Placement Smug Snake Camp Gay Hong Kong Films Stalker with a Crush As Long as It Sounds Foreign Death by Adaptation Same Language Dub Death by Irony Dressing as the Enemy Vitriolic Best Buds Adaptation Distillation Insistent Terminology Deconstruction Cool Shades Central Theme Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Psychopathic Manchild Evil Is Hammy Index of Film Westerns Gratuitous English Shell-Shocked Veteran Straight Gay Badass in a Nice Suit The Bully Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! My God, What Have I Done? Even Evil Has Loved Ones Hypocrite Crapsack World Anachronism Stew Important Haircut Wicked Cultured Silent Movie Imagine Spot Italian Films Every Car Is a Pinto Arch-Enemy Let's Get Dangerous! Parental Abandonment Ambiguously Gay Bitch in Sheep's Clothing The Atoner Better to Die than Be Killed Sanity Slippage Dual Wielding Wham Shot Offscreen Teleportation Fan Disservice Black Best Friend Training Montage Adaptational Villainy Obstructive Bureaucrat Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Chiaroscuro Evil Sounds Deep Based on a True Story The Mafia Noodle Incident Public Domain Feature Films Kids Are Cruel Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Only a Flesh Wound He Knows Too Much Chekhov's Skill Costume Porn Evil Plan Taking the Bullet The Reveal Our Zombies Are Different Skewed Priorities Horror Films Suddenly SHOUTING! Broken Pedestal Car Fu Toplessness from the Back Police Brutality Undying Loyalty Immune to Bullets Grievous Bottley Harm Foreshadowing Handicapped Badass Ambiguous Ending Thriller Death Glare Improbable Aiming Skills Chekhov's Gun Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Killed Mid-Sentence Missing Mom Attempted Rape Kubrick Stare Market-Based Title Unspoken Plan Guarantee Mugging the Monster Shut Up, Hannibal! Body Horror Made of Iron Roaring Rampage of Revenge Hollywood Darkness Department of Redundancy Department Eye Scream Implacable Man Monumental Damage Rich Bitch Grey and Gray Morality The Casanova Television Movie Index Spell My Name with an "S" Instant Death Bullet Chase Scene Scary Black Man N-Word Privileges Beware the Nice Ones Mind Screw Stepford Smiler A.I. Is a Crapshoot Hope Spot Five-Man Band The Stoner Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Bland-Name Product Contrived Coincidence Deliberately Monochrome Naked People Are Funny An Axe to Grind The '60s Reality Has No Subtitles Blood Knight Bad "Bad Acting" Actually Pretty Funny Despair Event Horizon Heroic Sacrifice Tap on the Head Creepy Child Corrupt Corporate Executive Adaptation Expansion Sexy Discretion Shot Sole Survivor The '80s Dutch Angle Lampshade Hanging One-Man Army Big "NO!" Rule of Cool Martial Arts Movie Anti-Villain Dies Wide Open Author Avatar Funny Background Event Broken Bird Annoying Younger Sibling Faux Affably Evil I'm a Humanitarian The Sociopath Knife Nut Red Herring Jerk with a Heart of Gold Artistic License – Physics Cool Guns Romantic Comedy Ominous Latin Chanting Dull Surprise Decoy Protagonist Spared by the Adaptation Air-Vent Passageway Epic Fail Asshole Victim Action Prologue Cowboy Cop Karmic Death Trailers Always Spoil The End... Or Is It? Heel–Face Turn Bond One-Liner All Just a Dream Determinator Bring My Brown Pants Villainous Breakdown Damsel in Distress Precision F-Strike Ship Tease Mighty Whitey Token Minority Took a Level in Jerkass Award-Bait Song Ghost Fiction Face Death with Dignity Artistic License – Geography Stock Footage Antagonist Title Extremely Short Timespan Conspicuous CG "Awesome McCool" Name Punny Name Animal Title Index Extreme Doormat Random Events Plot Bald of Evil Deal with the Devil Have a Gay Old Time Show Within a Show Epic Movie Danny Peary Cult Movies List Shown Their Work Cool Old Guy Rousing Speech Slap-Slap-Kiss Those Two Guys Babies Ever After Cluster F-Bomb Your Head A-Splode Dramedy The Bad Guy Wins Visual Pun All for Nothing Breaking the Fourth Wall Kill It with Fire Camera Abuse Jerkass Has a Point Didn't Think This Through Horror Comedy Moment Killer No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Henpecked Husband Not Using the "Z" Word Unresolved Sexual Tension Mama Bear The Quiet One Irony I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Curse Cut Short Punch-Clock Villain In the Back Twist Ending Not Even Bothering with the Accent Love Triangle Vomit Discretion Shot Oh, Crap! Adaptation Name Change Jerk Jock Soundtrack Dissonance The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Death of a Child Woman Scorned Well-Intentioned Extremist Ripped from the Headlines Plot Hole Overly Long Gag Humiliation Conga Sealed Evil in a Can The Mole Tranquil Fury Biopic Credits Gag Dying Moment of Awesome Freeze-Frame Bonus Domestic Abuse Artistic License – Military Canadian Movies Worthy Opponent Driven to Suicide Creator Cameo Reasonable Authority Figure Dark Reprise Truth in Television Motor Mouth Male Gaze Eureka Moment "Shaggy Dog" Story Flipping the Bird Big Eater Real Life Writes the Plot Ass Shove Superhero Easily Forgiven Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Manipulative Bastard Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking The Musical Shower Scene Break the Cutie Exactly What It Says on the Tin Star-Crossed Lovers Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Documentary Getting Crap Past the Radar Historical In-Joke Soft Glass May–December Romance Darkest Hour Amoral Attorney '80s Hair Not So Above It All British Films Guile Hero Fire-Forged Friends The Place Mood Whiplash Shout-Out Becoming the Mask Male Frontal Nudity Action Genre Bloody Hilarious Historical Hero Upgrade Cain and Abel Historical Villain Upgrade Composite Character Real Life Groin Attack Good Is Not Nice Non-Indicative Name Those Wacky Nazis Adaptation Dye-Job Make It Look Like an Accident Pimped-Out Dress Dogged Nice Guy The Faceless Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Genre Savvy Small Name, Big Ego The Lancer The Alleged Car Black and Gray Morality Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Light Is Not Good Politically Incorrect Villain Due to the Dead Armor-Piercing Question Brother–Sister Incest Beard of Evil Cat Scare The '90s Wretched Hive Flashback Running Gag No Antagonist Only Sane Man Reckless Gun Usage Catapult Nightmare Our Vampires Are Different The Dragon Rasputinian Death Totally Radical "The Reason You Suck" Speech Married to the Job Aluminum Christmas Trees Bare Your Midriff Zombie Stories Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Sinister Minister Psycho for Hire Black Dude Dies First Hero of Another Story Badass Normal Pragmatic Villainy Awesome, but Impractical More Dakka Impaled with Extreme Prejudice folderlabel Pragmatic Adaptation Fourth Date Marriage Here We Go Again! Naïve Newcomer Vacation Films You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Daddy's Girl Knight Templar Kick the Dog Hollywood Law Red Eyes, Take Warning Chekhov's Gunman Arc Words Film Series The Stinger Anyone Can Die From Nobody to Nightmare Dirty Old Man Disproportionate Retribution Wham Line The Dog Bites Back Red Shirt Karma Houdini Villain Protagonist For the Evulz Informed Ability Humans Are Bastards Mad Scientist Race Lift Blackmail Corpsing Ungrateful Bastard Evil-Detecting Dog Captain Ersatz Evil Brit Daylight Horror Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Black Comedy Rape World of Ham Vampire Fiction Coming-of-Age Story Improbable Weapon User Poor Communication Kills Dark and Troubled Past Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality The Starscream Would Hurt a Child A Minor Kidroduction She's Got Legs Evil vs. Evil As You Know What You Are in the Dark "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Silence Is Golden A Date with Rosie Palms The '70s Hoist by His Own Petard Jitter Cam I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Historical-Domain Character Action Girl My Greatest Failure Line-of-Sight Name Fatal Family Photo Leave the Camera Running Screw This, I'm Outta Here! A Father to His Men Sassy Black Woman The Oner Needs Wiki Magic Love Break the Haughty Beta Couple Big Damn Heroes Science Fiction Films Military and Warfare Films Retirony Interrupted Suicide Aside Glance Take That! Large Ham Meaningful Echo Russian Films Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Developing Doomed Characters Adults Are Useless Taking You with Me Artistic License – Biology The Load No Name Given Take a Third Option Off-into-the-Distance Ending Papa Wolf From Bad to Worse What Happened to the Mouse? Alpha Bitch The Smart Guy Author Appeal Death Seeker Honor Before Reason Match Cut Broken Aesop Bar Brawl Only Known by Their Nickname War Is Hell Card-Carrying Villain Genre Shift Funny Foreigner Defrosting Ice Queen Meaningful Background Event Playing Gertrude Apocalypse How Bolivian Army Ending Greater-Scope Villain Dramatic Irony All Girls Want Bad Boys Serial Killer True Companions Butt-Monkey Say My Name Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Not So Stoic Hate Sink Abusive Parents I Did What I Had to Do Only One Name Artistic License – Law Fun with Acronyms Call-Forward Manchild Drives Like Crazy Mythology Gag Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Older Than They Look Wrong Genre Savvy Frame-Up Fantasy Films Kill 'em All Celebrity Paradox Suspiciously Specific Denial The Ghost A God Am I Mundane Made Awesome Together in Death Establishing Character Moment Japanese Films As Himself La Résistance Not Quite Dead Major Injury Underreaction Disney Death Word of God Bond Villain Stupidity Pretty Little Headshots Red Oni, Blue Oni Heterosexual Life-Partners The Film of the Book Disappeared Dad Friend to All Children Demonic Possession Framing Device Kick the Son of a Bitch Scenery Gorn Spanner in the Works Dirty Coward Fantastic Racism Pretty in Mink Posthumous Character Ascended Extra Outrun the Fireball Off with His Head! Unusually Uninteresting Sight Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Put on a Bus After the End Artistic License – Gun Safety Police are Useless Eagleland Really Gets Around Christmas Movies Index Foil Gory Discretion Shot Brick Joke Dark Action Girl Intrepid Reporter Men Are the Expendable Gender Insult Backfire Made of Explodium Accidental Murder Enemy Mine Fate Worse than Death Neck Snap Spiteful Spit Only in It for the Money Catch-Phrase Fiery Redhead Did Not Get the Girl Artistic License – History The Voiceless Manic Pixie Dream Girl Depraved Bisexual Intergenerational Friendship The Power of Love Nothing Is Scarier Too Dumb to Live Slasher Movie The Un-Reveal Big Bad Duumvirate Bowdlerise One-Word Title Face–Heel Turn Destination Defenestration Mistaken for Gay The Hero Retired Badass Stuff Blowing Up The Lost Lenore Sir Swears-a-Lot B-Movie Facial Horror Sacrificial Lion Dumb Blonde Curb-Stomp Battle Amusing Injuries The Alcoholic Freudian Excuse Villain Opening Scene Badass Grandpa Parental Substitute "Well Done, Son!" Guy Arranged Marriage Shoot the Shaggy Dog Country Matters Crazy Jealous Guy Early-Bird Cameo Call-Back Redemption Equals Death Earn Your Happy Ending Bottomless Magazines Character Development Chewing the Scenery Film Noir Stealth Pun Unreliable Narrator Obviously Evil Took a Level in Badass Fingore Everyone Has Standards Demoted to Extra Fake Shemp Left the Background Music On Jump Scare Agony of the Feet Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Advertised Extra Black Comedy Tagline Actor Allusion The '50s Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Your Cheating Heart Hooker with a Heart of Gold Nice Guy Ironic Echo Cool Car The Stoic It Will Never Catch On Recycled IN SPACE! Does Not Like Shoes Half the Man He Used to Be Disguised in Drag Wounded Gazelle Gambit Cassandra Truth Alas, Poor Villain Jerkass Beauty Is Never Tarnished Bavarian Fire Drill Gainax Ending Heroes Want Redheads Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Dwindling Party Batman Gambit Foregone Conclusion Book-Ends Big-Bad Ensemble Fatal Flaw All There in the Manual Bittersweet Ending Almost Kiss timeperiod An Arm and a Leg You Killed My Father Canon Foreigner Never Trust a Trailer Manly Tears Spiritual Successor Chuck Cunningham Syndrome BFG Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Super Strength Double-Meaning Title Leaning on the Fourth Wall Blatant Lies Badass Boast The Ace Storming the Castle As the Good Book Says... Morality Pet Vomit Indiscretion Shot Stealth Hi/Bye Obfuscating Stupidity The Hero Dies Reality Ensues In Name Only Room Full of Crazy Genre Throwback Rule of Symbolism There Is No Kill Like Overkill Mercy Kill This Is Gonna Suck Gilligan Cut Romantic False Lead Continuity Nod Novelization German Films Victoria's Secret Compartment No-Sell Bound and Gagged Ambiguous Disorder Deus ex Machina Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Failed a Spot Check Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Diabolus ex Machina Distracted by the Sexy You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Pet the Dog Downer Ending Adapted Out Get Out! Lighter and Softer Cat Fight Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Belligerent Sexual Tension Anti-Hero Femme Fatale The Ditz Pyrrhic Victory Deliberate Values Dissonance The Cavalry Stylistic Suck Anguished Declaration of Love Gorn Famous Last Words Green-Eyed Monster Suspiciously Similar Substitute Deadpan Snarker Big Fancy House Hell Is That Noise Fish out of Water The Chessmaster Adult Fear Determinator aka: The Determinator Laser-Guided Karma Insane Troll Logic Fat Bastard Bilingual Bonus He Who Fights Monsters Never My Fault Bloodless Carnage Scenery Porn Paper-Thin Disguise Very Loosely Based on a True Story Evil Counterpart Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Dropped a Bridge on Him Scare Chord Exact Words Hypocritical Humor The Chick How We Got Here Bunny-Ears Lawyer Expy Drugs Are Bad Meet Cute Evil Laugh Mexican Standoff Psychological Thriller Eyepatch of Power Eldritch Abomination O.O.C. Is Serious Business Protagonist Title Auto Erotica Ms. Fanservice All There in the Script Comically Missing the Point Adaptational Attractiveness Would Hit a Girl Cloudcuckoolander Bullying a Dragon Smoking Is Cool Once More, with Clarity! Re-Cut Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Bury Your Gays Self-Deprecation Love at First Sight Shipper on Deck Even Evil Has Standards Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Abhorrent Admirer Cruel and Unusual Death Empathic Environment Rule of Funny No Celebrities Were Harmed Expository Hairstyle Change Plucky Comic Relief Sports Stories I Have Your Wife Last-Name Basis Never Found the Body Retcon Film Noir Index Boom, Headshot! Double Entendre Unusual Euphemism Anachronic Order Villain Ball Creative Closing Credits You Have Failed Me Sequel Escalation Mr. Fanservice Overprotective Dad Hero Antagonist For Want of a Nail Heel Realization Eiffel Tower Effect Does This Remind You of Anything? Gold Digger Sequel Hook Improvised Weapon Woman in White Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Dark Is Not Evil