List of SFF Clichés

[Coolhand]

To defeat a vast, powerful, unbeatable alien army, simply find and kill the Queen/Controlship/Hive Mind.
Bob's your uncle, one quick clean and mostly painless end to the war.

 

[alicebandassassin]

Being differant alone but part of a large comunity you do not feel part of. Your bound to end up a hero and or dead

 

[jackokent]

Every explosive device has a red digital countdown display. Which is very handy.

But should you cut the green wire or the red one?

 

[alicebandassassin]

Cut them both and hedge your bets

 

[Paige Turner]

But should you cut the green wire or the red one?

Either is fine, as long as you s-l-o-w-l-y close the cutters on one wire, then rapidly switch and snip the other.

 

[chrispenycate]

The incredibly scientifically advanced alien invaders have inexplicably failed to notice they are alergic to something widely available on Earth, like salt water or no, we can make it garlic, then we can reuse the props from the son of the dust of the bride of…but I digress. This is dicovered by the cute kid (who flings his garlic sausage at the alien war machine in the first reel) but is only noticed by our hero in reel six.. Still, the entire terresrtrial war machine has been brought to its knees before the aliens, who had shrugged off tactical nuclear missiles and aircraft crashing into them, are subjected to ten volunteers with garlic sprays and retreat in confusuion (doubtless muttering “we’ll be back“ in alien as they leave the solar system)

 

[SteveR]

An alien enemy, hell bent on conquest, thousands of years more advanced than humans attacks Earth. The world is saved by a computer virus written in Java

For smegs sake!

 

[Thadlerian]

Fantasy: Pedigree is emphasized. When you have magical powers, it's always inherited. Someone in the character gallery always turns out to be your father, and for some reason, this is crucially relevant to your identity and future actions.

 

[cornelius]

little boy is horribly mistreated turns out to be hero hero man

 

[Nesacat]

It's always the third son, step-child or the seventh child of a seventh child that has some reasonable amount of insight, a good heart, gets the girl and oh yes ... saves the day.

Girl does something amazingly daft and then spends the rest of the tale hiking across the world over mountain, under sea, working as a kitchen maid to redeem herself and get the prince.

 

[mosaix]

An alien enemy, hell bent on conquest, thousands of years more advanced than humans attacks Earth. The world is saved by a computer virus written in Java

For smegs sake!

This is soooo true.

It takes ages to get two Windows PC's to talk to each other, BUT we connect instantly with an alien computer and even manage to upload a virus (LOL) that just happens to run on their machine.

They must be running Windows as well!

Everyone knows that any advanced civilisation would be running Linux!

 

[alicebandassassin]

hey any and all invaders are only going to invade USA so the rest of us should be fine

 

[SteveR]

Everyone knows that any advanced civilisation would be running Linux!

Like it!

 

[tiny99]

The government must not, I repeat not, be allowed to get thier hands on this curious but friendly alien being...for they will torture him and use him for thier own evil work.

 

[Paige Turner]

*grumble grumble* Lousy government!

 

[tiny99]

Those damn pen pushers down at city hall !!

 

[kaneda]

"I have some last minute instructions to give before you embark on your quest. Information so dangerous, so secret, so important to the fate of the entire world, I shudder to think what would happen if you set out without knowing this one vital thing -- but gosh, look at the time! I'll tell you in the morning."

haha ! and then evil guy and his gang burst down the door and kills the one with information, but before he dies he gives the protagonist enough time to escape!

 

[cornelius]

what about " a Belgian, a Dutchman , a Brit and an Aussie walk into a pub..."

oh no wait that's something else

 

[Paige Turner]

Aren't you supposed to be "it?"

 

[jackokent]

Mad old inventor, who everyone else dismisses, saves the day with his rickey flying, floating, driving machine that gets them out of trouble in the nic of time.