Decoding Hollywood: Chekov's Gun

Decoding Hollywood: Chekov’s Gun

Remember in old James Bond movies, when Q was always coming up with the perfect set of gadgets for 007? This obligatory sequence in the Bond series is the perfect exemple for the narrative technique which we call “Chekov’s Gun”.

Just like any Hollywood producer, Anton Chekov believed in efficient storytelling. He thought that useful objects or pieces of information had to be mentionned a bit before they were getting used.

“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”
—Anton Chekhov (S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911.)

Hollywood producers don’t complicate their lives with useless exposition. They go straight to the point. Here’s one of the most straight forward exemple, found in Spider-Man 2:

Other great exemples:

Luke’s lightsaber.
The rifle hanging on the wall of the Winchester Pub in Shaun of the Dead.

Although it is one of the most common rule in screenwriting, some authors won’t follow it. A great exemple is Damon Lindelof (Lost, Prometheus), who will introduce a bunch of objets, locations and ideas and never really expand on them.

Next time you watch a movie, pay attention to details like that. You’ll have fun, trust me.

Source tvtropes.org