GlossaryStory structure
Setup and payoff
Also: setup · payoff · plant and payoff · Chekhov's gun
A setup is something you show early in the story: a detail, a skill, a line. The payoff is when it comes back later and matters. Done well, the ending feels both surprising and fair.
If a character mentions they can pick locks in scene three, the audience quietly files it away. When a locked door traps them in act three, the payoff feels fair because you planted it.
It works the other way too: if you set something up, pay it off. A loaded gun on the wall that never matters is a promise you broke.
Scene 3: Sam pockets a broken lighter "for luck." Scene 41: The power is out. Sam flicks the lighter. It catches.