The most common trope in movies?

[Graham Kennedy]

So there's a trope that appears in - well maybe not every movie out there, but certainly a massive percentage of them. I'm not sure if it's got a name, so I'll call it "the link between self belief and physical performance."

I got thinking about this because I saw a forum discussion about Star Wars (not this forum), whist a show about movies on TV in the background was talking about Dirty Dancing, and it occurred to me that even though these films could hardly be more different, both have this trope.

Dirty Dancing : Baby cannot do the big lift in her dance with Johnny. The movie makes a big point of it - she practices in the lake and fails, over and over again, and when they do the dance in public she is too scared to even try. Why? Because she's in denial about being in love with him, she's scared to live her own life, and has no confidence. Once she admits that she loves Johnny and stands up to her parents, suddenly she can do the lift no problem.

Star Wars : Luke struggles to use the force. He has flashes of ability with it, being able to intercept a few lasers from the floaty ball thing, but that's about it. Why? Because he hasn't matured yet, he's still in the shadow of his life on Tattooine. Not until the final battle does he learn to grow up and trust his own instincts. Once he does, he is able to pull off the impossible shot and destroy the Death Star.

Another one comes to mind - The Matrix. Neo never does believe he is the one, and as a result he is never able to defeat an Agent. But when Trinity says she believes it, he is able to transcend death itself, and take on and defeat an agent.

There must be thousands of examples of this. Now it's occurred to me, I guess I will always notice it in future!

Are there any movie tropes you always notice being used over and over, even in very different films?