Any detail in a story should have a purpose in the overall narrative.
Chekhov's Gun is a narrative principle where an element introduced into a story first seems unimportant but will later take on great significance. The principle postulates that any seemingly unimportant element introduced into a story - an object, a character trait, a backstory, an allergy - should later have relevance.
Chekhov liked to use guns to illustrate his point, but his advice is not about the weapons at all. Writers create a sort of unspoken contract with readers, according to this principle. That contract states that we include details because they’re important. Readers can trust that if we’ve drawn attention to something, it has significance.
Examples from Movies and TV (warning spoilers):
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, Daenerys receives three dragon eggs as a wedding gift. They are supposed to be fossils. Later, they hatch in Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre, and Daenerys becomes the Mother of Dragons.
- Aliens in 1986. Due to her toughness, intelligence, and ability to think quickly on her feet, Ellen Ripley was the only survivor. People scoff when she offers to assist a crew of guys in loading the ship they will be traveling in soon. Instead, Ripley climbs into a power loader and effortlessly maneuvers around important things to demonstrate her abilities. The scene’s apparent objective is to reaffirm her competency while also providing a laugh by showing how she corrects the boys. Cut to the end of the film, a gigantic, towering Xenomorph is threatening Little Newt. Ripley jumps into the power loader, warns the creature to stay away from the girl, and then beats it with the machine.
- Egon Spengler issues a stern warning when the proton packs are first presented in Ghostbusters: “Do not cross the streams.” Egon makes it plain that this is not a good idea. The movie’s final act pits them against an unusual foe: a 100-foot-tall incarnation of the Stay-Puft marshmallow man. They have tried everything to stop it, so they decide to break the single most crucial proton pack rule. The crossing streams hit the marshmallow man, causing him to explode.
- M. Night Shyamalan had a good one in the film Signs, where it is mentioned that Phoenix's character used to be a baseball star and you see a bat in the corner in a shot. All works out.
- Kill Bill: Volume 2 - Beatrix Kiddo is on a mission to find Bill, the man who attempted to murder her on her wedding day with his team of assassins, in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. She works her way through those assassins throughout two flicks, brutally executing them as she comes closer to her ultimate victim. In one flashback sequence, Bill cites Pai Mei’s supposed Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. It is a death blow in which someone uses his fingertips to strike you at five different pressure spots on your body and then walks away. After five steps, though, your heart explodes inside your body, and you collapse to the floor, dead. Beatrix finally reaches Bill after much bloodshed, realizing that the girl they conceived is still alive. For a brief time, it appears as if she would forego her vengeance mission to form a family with him. However, this is only a decoy. In the end, Beatrix uses the Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique on Bill, causing him to collapse and die a short time later.
- Nearly all James Bond films - when Q introduces the latest gadgets and weapons to Bond, each of which inevitably come into play at a critical point later in the film.
- Home Alone (1990) Kevin watches TV, consumes junk food, and snoops through his brother’s room when his family leaves for vacation without him. He discovers Buzz’s pet tarantula, Axl, inside. After failing to ascend a shelf, Kevin unintentionally releases it from its tank and crashes to the ground. Marv and Harry, two novice burglars, later break into the house. Kevin foils their disastrous plans with a series of improvised booby traps. Both males are severely beaten and bruised as a result of the incident. However, when Marv grips Kevin’s leg, the tables are about to turn. When the child notices Axl wandering around, he grabs the tarantula and places it directly on Marv’s face. The thief cries in terror, and Harry tries to smash it with a crowbar but ends up hitting his partner.
- The ferret in Kindergarten Cop. Shows up in the first act, you think that it’s purpose is to help teach the kids by being the classroom pet in the second act, then it bites the bad guys hand in the climax of the third act which distracts him long enough for Arnie to pickup his gun and shoot him.
- The Shawshank Redemption written by Stephen King. The film follows Andy, played by Tim Robbins, who is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and is sentenced to life imprisonment in Shawshank State Penitentiary. He is befriended by Red, played by Morgan Freeman, who also serves a life sentence in the same prison. Andy is regularly harassed by his prison mates and finds solace in his friendship with Andy. Red arranges a poster and a rock hammer for Andy, which becomes integral to Andy’s life in prison, revealed in the third act of the film.
- Austin Powers' Swedish Made Penis Enlarger Pump. It ends up getting used to defeat 'Random Task' at the end of the movie!
Chekhov’s Gun is all about making and honoring promises to the audience. It all boils down to plant and payback. When a writer draws the audience’s attention to something, such as a gun, the expectation is that the character will use the gun at some point during the story. If the pistol is not utilized, viewers will be upset, wondering why there were so many close-up shots if it was unnecessary to the plot.
Chekhov’s gun works for viewers because it builds and meets expectations.
