Chekhov's Gun; How to and How not to use it

Literary techniques, and their weird and wonderful names (bilsdungroman hardly rolls off the tongue) fascinate me. For one thing, it makes you sound like an absolute genius when you can comment on the use of incluing, or leitwortstil in a text. They're also incredibly interesting in how specific they can be, and sometimes in where they come from. Chekhov's Gun is an example of this; Chekhov advised that if you have a rifle on the stage in Act One, it should be fired in a later act. Otherwise, leave it out of the staging. This literary technique is both an example of foreshadowing (in that a seemingly unimportant object becomes significant later on) and minimalism, in that Chekhov advises that nothing should be mentioned that is not significant to the overall plot. Chekhov's gun is a technique that appears again and again, in film, television, literature and comic books. Sometimes the technique is used effectively - the "gun" is subtle enough so it comes as a surprise when it's involved, but noticeable enough for us to have the "Ohhhhhhh" moment when we realise we should have known all along. Sometimes it's ineffective; it's too obvious when first mentioned, or too subtle for us to even notice it at all.

Some effective uses of this technique are in 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' and in the 'Harry Potter' series. In 'The Hobbit', the Ring Bilbo obtains from Gollum is a magical novelty; in 'The Lord of the Rings', it's the most important object in the entire story and the central plot point. There are a lot of examples of Chekhov's Gun in Harry Potter. To name but a few, the Deluminator which opens the first Harry Potter book becomes a significant object in the last, and the cursed necklace which Malfoy examines in the second book is used by him as a murder weapon, four books later. The time between the first appearance of the 'gun', and its significant second appearance in these examples is particularly skilful.

In the Alex Rider books, and in several James Bond books and films, the spy is given several gadgets designed to help him. These gadgets are coincidentally EXACTLY what the spy will need in his next mission. Either the gadget designers are psychic, or this is a very poor use of Chekhov's Gun.