What specific conventions do you expect to find in a thriller?

Characters:
Like most films, thrillers do still commonly use binary opposites (Goodies vs. Baddies)
Usually, there is a hero and villain.
The heroes in most thrillers are often "hard men" drawn to danger such as law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, seamen or aviators. However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident. The Heroes have traditionally been men but women lead characters have become increasingly common.

Location:
Thrillers often take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas. At the beginning of Thriller's they occasionally show clips of settings that look wary, creepy, isolated, etc to give the audience a feel of something is going to happen. Sometimes, the location is a normal area which is busy with people so the audience will be surprised by the thrilling event when they least expect it.

Props:
Props are usually weapons used by the villian to establish who is the 'baddie'. The props are usually harmful weapons to give a thrilling effect to the audience such as axes, guns, knives, chemicals, etc.

Narrative structure: (what the storyline is)
The storylines are often shown by the hero's point of view of what is happening to him, what he feels about it, etc but sometimes it is shown by the villain's view as the audience will be able to see what the baddie has planned but the good character(s) won't.