Line #76 Main/DramaticChaseOpening


1	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1595883674047917800
2	%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
3	%%
4	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pokemon_moon_combo_2.png]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:"Help, we're being chased by the title logo!"]]
6	%%
7	%% Caption selected per above IP thread. Please do not replace or remove without discussion in the Caption Repair thread:
8	%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900
9	%%
10	->''"Frank Pollard wakes up in an alley at night, filled with confusion and fear. He knows nothing but his name, and that he must escape fast, or else he will be killed. Pursued by a mysterious assailant, Frank barely escapes with his life."''
11	-->-- ''Literature/TheBadPlace'', Website/{{Wikipedia}} [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Place synopsis]]
12
13	It's dark, and possibly rainy. The faint streetlights get reflected on the small puddles on the street. A shadow appears on the brick wall, and a foot disturbs the reflections: Someone's running, possibly wounded but always unarmed, and he's desperate to find somewhere to hide. The same puddle is stepped on by two or more armed agents, or perhaps an unseen terror. A few moments later, the scene comes to a conclusion, and the Opening Credits roll.
14
15	The Dramatic Chase Opening is more than just a ChaseScene: It's specifically PlayedForDrama, and designed to introduce the good guy and/or the bad guy(s) quickly. The circumstances strongly favor the pursuers: The pursued person has no vehicle; the illumination is poor; the weather can be foggy, snowy or raining. If the chase is in the streets, it's often played in a ghetto filled with dark alleys (bonus points if the chase continues in [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer the sewers]]). The person being chased could be a civilian with an average or bad physical condition. Since it's the beginning of the movie/series and AnyoneCanDie, a BrokenHeel has a stronger effect on the viewer. Visual effects can include {{Chiaroscuro}} to evoke a FilmNoir look and feel.
16
17	To increase the drama, the victim often ''looks'' vulnerable: Scared to death; always underpowered and outnumbered; little or no experience in hand-to-hand combat, or otherwise at great disadvantage (i.e. wounded or with just a few bullets left); and very probably the last survivor of an evil experiment TestedOnHumans, an ethnic cleansing, or the witness to a crime. Frequently it's a child, a DamselInDistress, or someone carrying a young child. In a school setting, expect TheWoobie to be chased by a GangOfBullies. It could also be a common burglar fleeing justice or something worse.
18
19	The Dramatic Chase Opening doesn't necessarily need to the the first scene in a movie or series. It can be delayed a couple of scenes so we get a brief intro on the victim or hero.
20
21	Possible scene endings include, but are not limited to:
22
23	* He is shot and killed (common in CrimeAndPunishmentSeries)
24	* He is shot and [[SurvivedTheBeginning survived]]
25	* He found somewhere to hide
26	* He gets rescued by a partner
27	* He gets rescued by someone else (common in martial arts movies)
28	* He gets rescued by ''something'' else
29	* He gets ''killed'' by something else (common in horror movies)
30	* He gets captured
31	* He falls off a cliff and dies
32	* He is ''thrown'' off a cliff and dies
33	* He falls off a cliff and the bad guys think him dead
34	* He finds a vehicle, turning this into a high speed chase.
35	* He finds a weapon or [[AppliedPhlebotinum mysterious device to survive]]
36	* He ''is'' the weapon (see MuggingTheMonster)
37	* and so on...
38
39	(Note that this trope '''does not apply''' when the chase is a vehicle pursuit, e.g. the ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'' beginning pursuit. That belongs to a different category.)
40
41	Subtrope of ActionPrologue (itself a subtrope of ColdOpen) and ChaseScene. Can lead into PursuedProtagonist (a ChaseScene where the protagonist gives an item or message to the ''real'' Hero), but not always. Can overlap with BrokenHeel and BlindAlley.
42
43	----
44	!!Examples
45	[[foldercontrol]]
46
47	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
48	* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has several examples of this.
49	** The first scene of episode 1 shows Touma being chased by a gang of crooks, before he narrates a brief summary of his unfortunate life.
50	** In episode 10, we see Misaka [[spoiler: well, one of her clones]] trying to snipe a level 5 criminal. When she fails miserably, she panics and runs away a few blocks, but he's already blocking her exit, and he's got an [[PsychoticSmirk evil grin]] on his face.
51	* In episode 1 of Season 2 of ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'', we have a crook running away from Kuroko (a Judgment officer agent) right before he's captured.
52	* ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' has a mutant child running away from the military until he has a high speed collision with Tetsuo.
53	* ''Anime/TheBigO'' episode "Hydra" begins with a female agent of the Union being pursued through the streets of Paradigm City by members of the Military Police.
54	* The ''Manga/BirdyTheMighty'' OVA starts with an evil alien running away (and taking Tsutomu as hostage) before being confronted by Birdy.
55	* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' anime
56	** The little ghost girl in episode 1 is running from a giant Hollow. Just when she [[BrokenHeel trips and falls]], Rukia appears and vanquishes the monster.
57	** Episode 260. The episode starts with Shuhei Hisagi running through a forest being pursued and attacked by his rogue zanpakuto spirit Kazeshini.
58	* In ''Anime/BloodTheLastVampire'', an old man in a subway is pursued by a mysterious girl holding a Katana, just as the subway lights begin to flicker. He runs wagon after wagon until he's cornered and finally killed. [[spoiler: Turns out he was a vampire in disguise and the girl's a vampire hunter.]]
59	* ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' opens up with a Contractor (a superpowered human) being chased by a bunch of cops. This being the first time the officers had seen a Contractor, they are no match for him.
60	* The ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'' anime episode "Anarchy" starts with Anri desperately running away from members of the Yellow Scarves gang and trying to hide in an alley.
61	* ''Anime/InnocentVenus'' is such a textbook example that it was used for the trope image. Venus and her older companion are running away from a totalitarian government, first in street alleys, and then in subway tunnels. They're about to get killed until a mysterious hero comes to the rescue. The scene includes puddle splashing, TwistedAnkle, ConvenientDecoyCat, and underground chase.
62	* ''Anime/{{Mnemosyne}}'' [[RRatedOpening opens]] with Rin, wearing nothing but an unbuttoned dress shirt ([[{{Meganekko}} and glasses]]), being chased over the streets, a stairwell, and a rooftop before finally getting killed by Laura. This is used to establish both Rin's {{immortality}} and the [[{{Gorn}} gory]] [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence and]] [[{{Fanservice}} sexy]] style of the series.
63	* ''Anime/OccultAcademy'' begins with an agent being chased by a monster in the middle of the forest under a full moon. The flying monster is about to catch him when he gets to a teleport gate he just requested via cellphone. The teleporter receives... his right arm.
64	* The manga adaptation of ''Literature/RebuildWorld'' opens with Akira sprinting to the Kuzusuhara Ruins, all while evading other hunters who either wanted to take the pistol he found or anything of salable value.
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Comic Books]]
68	* The entire ''ComicBook/SinCity'' series opens with a dramatic chase as a SWAT team tries to bring Marv in for a murder he didn't commit.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
72	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' starts his movie running from the guards of Agrabah after stealing a loaf of bread.
73	* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'' opens with a mother fox and her kit being chased by hunters. The mother hides her child (our hero, Tod) and leads the hunters away, eventually being shot dead.
74	* Another Disney movie, ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame\|Disney}}'', opens with a band of gypsies being led into a trap and Quasimodo's mother being pursued on horseback by Judge Claude Frollo. She is killed by a concussion and her baby, Quasimodo, is about to be killed too when the Archdeacon convinces him to raise the little boy as his own.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
78	* ''Film/TheBody2012'' opens with a night guard fleeing from some unknown danger. He ends up run over by a car.
79	* ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'' opens with Defender Strange accompanying America Chavez to the Book of the Vishanti as a demonic monster chases after them. After Defender Strange is killed, America hops to the "main" universe.
80	* ''Film/EnolaHolmes2'': The film begins with teenage girl Enola making a mad dash to escape the cops through the streets of London. She then takes the viewer back to when the whole adventure began.
81	* ''Film/HardTarget'' opens with a homeless veteran being persued by a group who offers wealthy men the chance of HuntingTheMostDangerousGame.
82	* The opening chase with Trinity and the agents in ''Film/TheMatrix''.
83	* The movie ''Film/TheNeverendingStory'' has a brief intro before this. Then the chase scene ends up with Bastian seeking refuge in a bookstore and finding the Neverending Story book.
84	* Common for ''Film/JamesBond'' movies, as seen in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' (where an 00-agent is on the run from the knife-throwing twins-[[spoiler:he fails]]) and ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' (Bond tries to outdrive QUANTUM agents on his heels-he succeeds).
85	* In the Italian movie ''Padre Pio'', an agonizing Pio starts narrating his life. The first scene in the flashback shows him as a child running away from the devil - who took form of a {{Hellhound}} - and taking refuge in a church.
86	* In the 1926 ''Our Gang'' film Shivering Spooks has two kids, Farina and Skooter caught between being chased by cop and armed crook.
87	* In the 2009 film ''Film/StateOfPlay'', a thief is fleeing through Washington, D.C. and is shot by a man carrying a briefcase. A pizza delivery man who witnesses the incident is also shot by the killer and is left in a coma.
88	* One of the main characters in ''Film/TheTerminator'' has to evade police almost as soon as he appears in the picture.
89	* The opening of ''Film/{{Trainspotting}}'' shows a later scene with two of the characters, Renton and Spud, running down the street dropping the items they've stolen.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Literature]]
93	* ''Literature/TheBadPlace'' begins with Frank awakening in an alley with no memory of who he is or why he's there. If that wasn't enough to make him uneasy, he instinctively feels that he's in danger; there's an eerie whisper in the wind and strange, half-forgotten thought about "''Fireflies in a windstorm''" accompanying it. Frank begins his escape down the alley shortly after stealing a car he's attacked by a powerful entity that starts tearing the car to pieces with an unseen force. This initial chase makes up Frank's first few chapters of the back, in between chapters setting the main protagonists Bobby and Julie Dakota.
94	* ''Literature/BloodRites'' of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' opens with Harry being chased by demonic chimps that fling incendiary poo.
95	* ''Literature/{{Firestarter}}'' starts with Andy and Charlie chased by the Shop agents in New York. The movie replicates this, only transferring the scene from New York to Washington, D.C.
96	* The opening chapter of ''Literature/BookOfTheNewSun'' is one of these.
97	* ''Literature/TheAngelExperiment'' opens this way, with Max getting chased by Erasers (half-wolf, super-strong men). Turns out it's AllJustADream.
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
101	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': It has been known to open with Buffy running away from vamps, but it's always to get somewhere private so she can stake them without an audience. Subverted in that we already know who's going to get killed.
102	%%* ''Series/{{CSI}}'', quite often.
103	* ''{{Series/CSINY}}'': "[[Recap/CSINYS06E22 Point of View]]" opens with Mac chasing a murder suspect inside a building. Mac gets knocked down a flight of stairs, setting up the episode’s premise of him being stuck at home watching his neighbors in the next apartment building over while he recovers, in an homage to ''Film/RearWindow''.
104	* ''Series/TheEqualizer'': The intro is a collection of dramatic chase openings, but they're so many that they get switched ''before'' the actual chases begin.
105	* In ''Series/{{Helix}},'' the opening scene of the pilot takes place in a ResearchInc. It intercuts the slow, walking pursuit of HazmatSuit-clad lead scientist Dr. Hatake and head of security Daniel Aerov with the panicked running of research scientist Dr. Peter Farragut, infected with TheVirus and presumably escaped from isolation, barreling down hallways and trying to hide in a lab, only to be dragged off screen by a fellow infected. Hatake and Aerov eventually discover a prone, exhausted Peter a short distance away from two infected human corpses.
106	* The opening of the first episode of the BBC MiniSeries Literature/{{Neverwhere}} has Door badly injured and running from Mr Croup and Mr Vandamar.
107	* ''{{Series/Probe}}'''s "[[Recap/ProbeComputerLogic Computer Logic]]": It's late at night and David Hofstadter is being chased by someone with control of electronic devices; neon lights flicker on and explode, power lines crackle with electricity, and [[HackTheTrafficLights traffic lights show green for all traffic]].
108	* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Return of The Archons": It starts with Lieutenant Sulu and another crewman running from some pursuers in a city street. Sulu contacts the Enterprise for an emergency beam-up but the Enterprise crew takes too long and Sulu is affected by one of the aliens' weapons. The other crewman gets away, but is later caught and affected as well.
109	* The prologue of ''Series/StrangerThings'', in which a scientist is desperately running through the empty hallways, trying to escape from something. When he gets inside the elevator we hear a sound from above him, and then an unseen being pulls him up...
110	* The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Ghost Machine", starts with a running chase across Cardiff.
111	* ''Series/TheWheelOfTime2021'''s first episode, "Leavetaking". After Moiraine's OpeningMonologue about the Dragon, the scene cuts to a man being chased by the Red Ajah.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114
115	[[folder:Video Games]]
116	* The very first chapter of ''VideoGame/AstralChain'' opens up with the protagonist in a police motorcycle en route to an emergency scene, using their weapons to clear out hostile alien entities that used to be humans along the way.
117	* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'' begins with monsters attacking the kingdom of Dundrasil and the queen running away with TheHero and a young girl, while being chased by monsters.
118	* ''[[VideoGame/{{Flashback}} Flashback: The Quest for Identity]]'' starts with the camera focusing on the feet of the fleeing protagonist and his captors. This is followed by a flying bike chase.
119	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' starts with Link's Prophetic Dream about Zelda fleeing from Ganondorf.
120	* ''VideoGame/MegaManZero1'' starts with Ciel and her LaResistance running away from the Neo Arcadian troops to a secret lab which contains the sealed Zero.
121	* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' starts with the player character having a vision of a Munna (a small, cute and not fully evolved Pokemonémon) being pursued by a Hydreigon (a very powerful and intimidating Pokémon). [[spoiler:[[BaitAndSwitch Subverting the normal expectations with this trope]], the Munna turns out to be a villain trying to manipulate the protagonist into helping her and the Hydreigon turns out to be one of the heroes.]]
122	* ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' opens with Lillie, carrying Nebby, being pursued by Aether Foundation employees.
123	* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin'' starts with the Prince running away from the Dahaka.
124	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' begins with Claire Redfield being introduced as a prisoner of Umbrella and knocked out. As she loses consciousness, it fades back to earlier in the timeline, with Claire having infiltrated an Umbrella lab and subsequently escaping from their security forces in a chase scene.
125
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Web Animation]]
129
130	* The beginning of Monty Oum's ''WebAnimation/DeadFantasy'' has Yuna being pursued by Kasumi and Ayane.
131
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:Webcomics]]
135
136	* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' begins with main character Bam chasing his childhood friend Rachel and stops her by roughly pinning her to the floor. When she manages to escape the world they live in by entering the Tower, he vows to follow her till he dies. Actually pretty creepy in hindsight.
137
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Western Animation]]
141	* ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest''
142	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_v8FrXi9co "Dragons of Ashida"]] starts with a native running away from the title monsters.
143	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H6flTlW2S0 "The Fraudulent Volcano"]] starts with a man escaping from an underground installation and being pursued by armed guards in hovercraft.
144	* ''WesternAnimation/PlutosJudgementDay'' begins with [[WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup Pluto]] chasing a cat into WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse's house and making his floor dirty, causing Mickey to scold the dog for being mean to the cat, and therefore prompting Pluto to have a nightmare about him going to Hell.
145	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'' episode "Guess Who's Going to be Dinner?" starts with Fiskerton running through a forest while being threatened by dangerous plants. It turns out to be just a game he's playing with Zak Saturday.
146	* The first season finale of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' opens with Red Arrow on the run in the subway from [[spoiler:The mind controlled ComicBook/GreenArrow, Flash and Aquaman]] despite getting a brutal beating, he is able to use a passing train as cover to escape.
147
148	[[/folder]]

Context Main / DramaticChaseOpening