Time for a
quick discussion on one of my favorite movie clichés, the topic for the day ...
“Teams Walking in a Straight Line.” This shows that the group is united and is
ready to fight or die together. It may not be a cliché you notice too often,
but it always looks hard core.
Maybe it’s a team of Superhero’s like “The Avengers”, perhaps a massive team
of Spartan soldiers like in “300”, or
heck even a team of astronauts can look awesome walking in a strait like in the
1983 film “The Right Stuff”. If you
want a group shot to look really cool, have a big explosion in the background,
like in the 1997 film “Con Air”. Even
independent YouTube video’s no how to utilize this cliché to the fullest. Originally
I was just going to put together a typical top 10 list, but then I said, “nah”,
let’s do something different, something bigger! For this post, in no specific order,
I’ll just be listing stand out awesome movie moments of different teams looking
bad ass while walking in a straight line.
Let’s kick things off right with a scene
from the 1969 western “The Wild Bunch”.
When the comrade of a group of desperados is being held captive, the team pull
out their guns and take this long quiet walk up to where the friend is being
held. It’s a nice long scene with no dialog and little to no music, yet it gets
me hyped. We know this is building up to a big action scene, which it most definitely
does, and a cool team shot like this really helps set the bar high for what you’re
about to see next. Another great western to utilize this cliché is the 1993
movie “Tombstone”. Without going into too much detail, we get yet
another memorable scene with our lead characters marching themselves through the
town to the historical “ok corral”.
Even
some of the lesser movie teams look really cool with a nice group shot. Heck,
even the “Ghostbusters” look awesome
when they’re about to take on the main villain of the film, all while standing
in a strait line. Does anyone else other than me remember those animated “Bionicle” movies from the early 2000’s,
no, just me ... well, okay. The “Bionicle” movies actually make a point
that a team means nothing if they don’t stand and fight as one, so they exploit
this cliché like made, and they honestly have some really cool scenes when they
make an entrance walking in a strait line.
Now let’s take a look at the “Star Wars” franchise, because this
series really knows how to do this cliché justice.
For example, “Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith” has a
very memorable moment in which the main hero turns evil, and leads an army of
troops to massacre the people were once his allies. This scene works really
well to build up this horrific event, the music is big, and just seeing a group
of emotionless troops marching to this execution is very intimidating.
Back in
2009 there was a “Star Wars” parody
called “Fan Boys”, and even this silly
film had a fun scene with this group of nerds stepping out of their car,
marching to a place they’ve be trying desperately to get to. The TV series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” has some
stand out moments that have always stood out as some of my favorite’s to utilize
this cliché. The episode “Carnage of Krell” has a moment that’s on opposite grounds
of the scene from the previously mentioned “Revenge of the Sith”. This time a team of troops march off to apprehend
a general that betrayed them. What makes this moment especially cool is the valiant
Captain Rex in the center of the group while he puts on his helmet, it’s just
bad ass. There was also a cool promo for season 2 of “Star Wars: The Clone
Wars”, with a team of Bounty Hunters walking together, which was especially
cool.
Now let’s cover the obvious, superhero
teams know how to milk this cliché for all it’s good worth.
The “X-Men” more than any other superhero can’t
go a single movie or TV series without a stand out group shot. Even a film like
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, which just
revolves around a single hero can somehow fit in a group walking shot. The bad
guys also have some cool looking group walks. A stand out moment for me is from
the recent 2016 movie “Deadpool”, in
which our team of anti hero’s march out of a cab and have an awesome march set
to a rock song, and has a sense of hummer to boot. My favorite example is at the
end of “X-Men 3: The Last Stand”, when we see the small team of 6 hero’s
stand in a straight line against hundreds of powerful enemies, it’s actually
one of my favorite moments of the whole series.
Other great superhero teams shots include “Guardians of the Galaxy”, which makes a
very amusing tweak on the gimmick, and “Blade
2” had an equally awesome group moment.
I’ve also noticed that a few
animated shows use this cliché, like in that fantastic opening sequence to “The
Justice League” TV show. Finally, my personal favorite portrayal of this cliché
by far is in the 1999 film “Mystery Men”.
I’ll never forget that moment
when the team all got suited up, we see a random bolt of lightning hit the
ground, and then we see the hero’s walking out of a fog together matched to
some awesome music. It’s clichéd as hell, the costumes look ridicules, but it
was still an awesome scene, and it’s always the first thing that comes to mind
when I think of a team walking united. It looks tuff, intimidating and it’s a
solid indication that a group means business, one of the all time greatest
movie clichés ever.
Fin.
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