# walking in slo-mo = I'm a badass **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2003, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326 "2003-06-12T14:30:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_E_Dec_Esq)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/1 "2003-06-12T14:30:34Z")
Showing a film character walking in slow motion minus sound effects and often accompanied by appropriate music was an effective way to communicate visually that a character is a badass without ever even showing him doing anything to actually qualify as a badass. Why this works is somewhat of a mystery to me, but it works. It is even more effective if used with a group of badasses. It’s been done to death now and is now horribly cliche. and Pixar’s **Monsters, Inc** parodied it quite amusingly, btw I had for some time thought that the opening credits scene of Tarantino’s **Reservoir Dogs** was the first instance of this technique, but I should have known better than that. I have since noticed it was used extensively for the Tall Man in **Phantasm** (1979) and in the scene along the river bank in **A Clockwork Orange** (1971) right before Alex teaches his droogs a lesson. Any other early instances? I know Sam Peckinpah used a lot of slow motion so I wouldn’t be surprised if he invented it, but I’m not familiar enough with his films to know. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/2 "2003-06-12T14:56:52Z")
I always thought Taratino stole it from Martin Scorsese. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_E_Dec_Esq)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/3 "2003-06-12T15:00:13Z")
Where did Scorsese use it? ---
**Author:** ![green\_bladder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/4 "2003-06-12T15:07:32Z")
John Woo uses slo-mo walking quite a bit, doesn’t he? I can remember at least a few instances in **Face/Off** involving both Travolta and Cage (not at the same time, though). ---
**Author:** ![evilhomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/43a26b/32.png) [@evilhomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhomer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/5 "2003-06-12T15:15:21Z")
I don’t know who used it first but I think it’s great, if only because in real life, I can claim to be a “bad-ass” instead of a “lazy-ass” 😃 [sub]Walk faster? No way, I’m a bad-ass. It’s in the rules…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/6 "2003-06-12T15:19:45Z")
And you, exactly, are _you_ to question established movie conventions? ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/7 "2003-06-12T16:19:01Z")
I guess you never saw the opening of _Inherit The Wind,_ eh? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/8 "2003-06-12T16:38:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Francis E Dec, Esq \* > **It’s been done to death now and is now horribly cliche. and Pixar’s _Monsters, Inc_ parodied it quite amusingly, btw** Dunno how that’s a spoiler, but I’ll play along.It was a spoof all right, but from _The Right Stuff_, the slo-mo shot of the astronauts. After all, the Scarers were heroes in Monstropolis. [Monster’s, Inc.](http://us.imdb.com/Mlinks?0198781) DD ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/9 "2003-06-12T17:16:36Z")
Peckinpah tended to use slo-mo in his action scenes, but in _The Wild Bunch_, the walk to retrieve Angel while martial marching music plays maybe what your thinking of. Toshiro Mifune’s leisurely pace in _Yojimbo_ might also work although no slo-mo is used. The characters Don Logan and Teddy Bass at different times in the movie _Sexy Beast_. You may not be looking for counterarguments, but I’d like to offer up: Lee Marvin as Walker in the 1967 thriller _Point Blank_. There’s a scene early in the film of him walking rapidly through an airport terminal with his footsteps echoing loudly with eerie music building in the background. His fast walk helps to punctuate the determination and menace of the character, who is definitely a badass. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/10 "2003-06-12T17:23:27Z")
The _Face/Off_ scene where Nic Cage gets out of the car with the guns and the overcoat and the birds (doves?) really struck me as cool when I saw it in the theater. Need to rent that one again. **Francis E Dec, Esq** , now I can’t remember. A quick look at IMDB didn’t help me either. I guess I take it back. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/11 "2003-06-12T17:24:28Z")
Oh, and that damn Neo uses it all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_E_Dec_Esq)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/12 "2003-06-12T19:14:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AskNott \* > \*\*I guess you never saw the opening of _Inherit The Wind,_ eh? \*\* I haven’t seen it for a long time. Are you joking, or is there a really a slo-mo walk in it? ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/13 "2003-06-12T19:29:41Z")
Perhaps the best use of this was in _The Right Stuff_ with the Mercury astronauts in their silver spacesuits walking down a long hallway toward the camera with the heroic music swelling in the background. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/14 "2003-06-12T19:38:54Z")
There’s a great moment that parodies this ‘tactic’ in an episode of Coupling. The gents are doing the slo-mo walk, and the girls yell at them for it, finally showing that it’s not a camera effect- the guys are actually walking really slowly down the street to look cool. I believe the line is “Stop doing ‘Resivoir Dogs’!” ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/15 "2003-06-12T19:43:07Z")
I always find it particularly amusing when people try to imitate it in real life. One case that comes to mind was when an instructor from a local ninja school\* did a demonstration on my college campus. He wore mirrored aviator glasses and a leather jacket. And walked in slomo. He, and his students, also sucked on rocks. Big time. A drunken brownie scout could have taken them. [wildly off-topic]I have no idea if he’s still teaching. I hope not. If there’s any justice in the world, he isn’t. Incompetents teaching self defense really make me angry…particularly since people could get hurt trying to use what they teach.[/wildly off-topic] - Yes, ninjas. I’m not making that up. Ninjas. _snicker_ ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/16 "2003-06-12T20:10:10Z")
I think that psychologically, on some level we tend to interpret things that are photographed in slow motion as somehow being larger-than-life. Sort of the reverse of the way that the real-life movement of really massive objects appears to be much slower than it actually is. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/17 "2003-06-12T20:48:17Z")
Godzilla’s been moving in slo-mo since the 1950s. You don’t get any more bad-ass than Godzilla. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_E_Dec_Esq)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/18 "2003-06-12T21:42:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness \* > \*\*Godzilla’s been moving in slo-mo since the 1950s. You don’t get any more bad-ass than Godzilla. \*\* I think we’re onto something here. This fits nicely with Larry’s observation, too. ---
**Author:** ![cleops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/19 "2003-06-12T23:02:56Z")
The first time I really noticed it was when Bob Hoskins and his entourage get off the plane and are walking across the tarmac in The Long Good Friday, the English gangster movie. It was really effective, and one of the few things about that movie I remember; the other is that I really liked it, but haven’t seen it since it came to the theatres, in '81 or '82? ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326/20 "2003-06-12T23:27:12Z")
> [@](#): > > I always thought Taratino stole it from Martin Scorsese. > [@](#): > > Where did Scorsese use it? [Mean Streets](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0070379). Specifically, in the scene where Charlie meets up with Johnny Boy in the bar and “Jumping Jack Flash” is playing in the background. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walking-in-slo-mo-im-a-badass/181326.md?page=2)