7. Off-Screen Gunshot
This one's irritating because it rarely catches us off guard, even though it's usually filmed in such a way that the director clearly thinks he's got one over on us. The villain will usually be tussling with the hero for a gun, and we'll see a medium close-up of the hero's face just as a gunshot goes off. "Oh no, is the good guy dead?", we're supposed to ask, when by now we're instantly thinking, "Yup, bad guy's dead, either shot by the hero or an off-camera friend who saves the day", and 99% of the time, that is absolutely what happens. In fact, this trope is so overdone and cliched that enterprising filmmakers have a pretty good opportunity to usurp it; how galling would it be to see the scene play out as usual, except at the end the protagonist
has been shot, and dies?