Once you’re aware of the concept of Chekhov’s gun, you start to instinctively spot devices that are meant to be called back later in the script and subconsciously anticipate them, making it a Pavlov-Chekhov gun.
But if the initial introduction of the Pavlov-Chekhov gun is too forced/obvious, you might feel compelled to turn off such a predictable movie before the device is recalled and you’ll never know if it was actually brought back. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, maybe it exists in an unobserved quantum state… a Schrödinger-Pavlov-Chekhov gun.
My son and I love to spot Chekhov’s Guns. My favorite is the flame-thrower in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. When he pulled it out at the end, my son and I both looked at each other and laughed. We didn’t see that coming.
A few games do that from what I remember. Spec Ops: The Line is the first that comes to my mind.
spoiler
At the end of the game there is a cutscene that basically tells you that most things your player character was seeing were delusions, and going back to those points in the game you can actually see how your crew members notice something is wrong with you
It’s a tough road to walk. Maybe the main difference between real life and stories is that with real life, things just exist for no reason, things happen for thematically incoherent reasons all the time, there’s just too much stuff happening all the time to weave it all into a single coherent narrative. With stories, every element of the story exists because the author decided to add it. The reason may not be essential to the central theme of of the story, but everything exists for some narrative-centric reason. Once you notice that economy of reality, you start thinking about why any particular element of a story was put in, and most of the time there’s a… if not good reason, then at least some reason for every tiny detail of a story. Some authors are careless with their details, but for the most part authors are very particular about what details they use.
Chekov’s Gun is another way of saying that, at least for stories, everything really does happen for a reason. Sometimes people over-generalize this principle from stories to life.
I wanna see more people randomly coughing or sneezing in movies/shows.
100% of the time, a cough or sneeze is Chekov’s Sick. It’s boring. I want some character to pause in the middle of a rant, cough, go back into their rant, and attention never to be brought to it.
Once you’re aware of the concept of Chekhov’s gun, you start to instinctively spot devices that are meant to be called back later in the script and subconsciously anticipate them, making it a Pavlov-Chekhov gun.
But if the initial introduction of the Pavlov-Chekhov gun is too forced/obvious, you might feel compelled to turn off such a predictable movie before the device is recalled and you’ll never know if it was actually brought back. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, maybe it exists in an unobserved quantum state… a Schrödinger-Pavlov-Chekhov gun.
My son and I love to spot Chekhov’s Guns. My favorite is the flame-thrower in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. When he pulled it out at the end, my son and I both looked at each other and laughed. We didn’t see that coming.
Is there an opposite to this, where a detail is revealed later that makes you rethink the stuff from before?
I say it’s an opposite because you notice the gun and infer the ending, and what I mean is a reveal makes you notice the beginning.
I’m very tired, so I hope this makes sense.
Those are the best ones, where it sneaks by you early, and you don’t even think about it until it gets pulled out at the end.
The Prestige
Spoiler
The reveal makes you think of the title card.
Spoiler
:::
The Prestige remains the best Nolan movie, in my opinion. It’s so good.
A few games do that from what I remember. Spec Ops: The Line is the first that comes to my mind.
spoiler
At the end of the game there is a cutscene that basically tells you that most things your player character was seeing were delusions, and going back to those points in the game you can actually see how your crew members notice something is wrong with you
It’s a tough road to walk. Maybe the main difference between real life and stories is that with real life, things just exist for no reason, things happen for thematically incoherent reasons all the time, there’s just too much stuff happening all the time to weave it all into a single coherent narrative. With stories, every element of the story exists because the author decided to add it. The reason may not be essential to the central theme of of the story, but everything exists for some narrative-centric reason. Once you notice that economy of reality, you start thinking about why any particular element of a story was put in, and most of the time there’s a… if not good reason, then at least some reason for every tiny detail of a story. Some authors are careless with their details, but for the most part authors are very particular about what details they use.
Chekov’s Gun is another way of saying that, at least for stories, everything really does happen for a reason. Sometimes people over-generalize this principle from stories to life.
I wanna see more people randomly coughing or sneezing in movies/shows.
100% of the time, a cough or sneeze is Chekov’s Sick. It’s boring. I want some character to pause in the middle of a rant, cough, go back into their rant, and attention never to be brought to it.