Inigo Montoya: (pushing his way through a crowd) Excuse me... Excuse me... Fezzik, please?
Fezzik: EVERYBODY MOVE!
(Everybody clears a path)
Inigo Montoya: Thank you.
Fezzik: EVERYBODY MOVE!
(Everybody clears a path)
Inigo Montoya: Thank you.
This is where a fight or Chase Scene breaks out in a public area where there are a lot of witnesses. The camera will invariably cut to a scene showing people jumping back out of the way, if it's a chase scene, or just scattering in panic if it's a fight scene. This is done to highlight the awesomeness of the parties involved. If they don't move, expect to see a Mobstacle Course.
Can also be a Stock Phrase, in which case, if the speaker is in the military, he will likely shout "Make a hole!"note Not to be confused with Make Way for the Princess. Compare Ballroom Blitz when the action happens at a party or in a dance club.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- While on the run from a pursuing Spider-Man, Ricochet of the Slingers invokes the this trope with a memorable "One side people! Pregnant lady on fire coming through!"
- Subverted in the first arc of Supreme Power; Hyperion is chasing a criminal with roughly the same powerset as he, and the criminal dives flying through a mall. And everybody he comes across he throws left and right through the air with the intent that Hyperion would need to slow down to catch them, not caring if they die or not.
Films — Animated
- In Beauty and the Beast, Gaston is trying to catch up to Belle through the crowd in the opening Crowd Song "Belle." He actually makes "Please let me through" a part of the song.
- Done in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children after Cloud smites the dragon and he's chasing Kadaj on a motorcycle through Midgar. A scene is shown shortly afterwards with people dashing out of the street to get out of the way.
- Monsters, Inc.: When Sulley makes it back into his own world from a closet door in the Himalayas, he shouts this as he burst through and knocks down George Sanderson in the process.
Sulley: GANGWAY! LOOK OUT! COMING THROUGH! Sorry, George!
- Non-chase: Wilbur the albatross does this in The Rescuers Down Under when flying through a flock of seagulls while carrying the two mice. "Excuse me, pardon me, coming through, mice on board".
- In Turning Red, Mei runs through the streets of Toronto as a giant red panda on her way to the 4*Town concert with people jumping out of her way and cars swerving to avoid her.
Films — Live-Action
- Subverted in Adventures in Babysitting. In order to get through, they can't just say "Excuse me." They have to sing the blues.
- The "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb" sequence in 1966's Batman: The Movie, as seen on YouTube here, particularly between 1:20 and 1:30
. Justified as Batman is carrying a large sputtering bomb.
- The Blues Brothers. Most notably in the mall chase, shown with hood cameras.
- A pretty hilarious version happens in Canadian Bacon. During a street chase, the people being knocked out of the way say "Excuse me," and "Oops, soar-y," this being set in Canada.
- Happens in Cats & Dogs when Mr. Tinkles and his goons needed to get through Mr. Mason's factory to his office.
Tinkles: Yes that's me, your employer Mr. Mason. Not an evil cat bent on taking over the world. Out of my way.
- The Dark Knight: Batman drives through a pair of glass doors on the Batpod and proceeds to drive down a narrow (for vehicles) hallway beyond, causing the people in it to jump/run out of the way.
- In the 1987 film Gardens of Stone, James Earl Jones plays a lifer Army sergeant who when moving through a crowd is fond of saying, in that inimitable James Earl Jones way, "Make a hole and make it wide!"
- Done in The Incredible Hulk (2008) sort of, the crowd seems to be infected with a case of stupid and end up running parallel to the Hulk and his mutated nemesis as opposed to away from them.
- Mission: Impossible III: Ethan Hunt near the end of the movie, tracking the Big Bad on his phone with Benji's assistance while trying to locate his wife and rushing through the streets of downtown Shanghai, doing the classic Tom Cruise running pose while shouting in Mandarin.
Ethan Hunt: "Xiao xing! Rang kai! Rang kai!" note
- In The Princess Bride, the page quote is Fezzik the giant doing this where the much smaller Inigo fails to.
- Project A has this occurring in a chase scene where Jackie Chan is on a bicycle going down a slope through a narrow alley, while being pursued by mooks also on bicycles, where Chan periodically swerves all over the place to avoid passer-bys, cleaners, and ladies doing their laundries. There's even a The Door Slams You moment when a random civilian opens a door just as Chan sped past, and ends up taking out a pursuing mook.
- Subverted in Octopussy when James Bond cleverly throws money to the crowd so that they don't scatter before the people chasing him.
- Subverted in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy has to push his way through a Mobstacle Course to get to the truck where the Action Girl is supposedly being held hostage.
- In Se7en, Mills crashes through a couple of living rooms in his pursuit of John Doe.
- The memorable Wheelchair Race against Paul Newman through the hospital in Silent Movie. Since it's through a hospital, there are quite a few scenes of people rushing to get out of the way. The highlight being a pair of orderlies with a man on the stretcher tossing him over the side of a ledge in their haste to get out of the way.
- Subverted in the 1993 version of The Three Musketeers (1993) when D'Artagnan throws the Cardinal's gold off his coach to the crowd so the crowd blocks the Cardinal's men that are chasing them.
- Happens in the original Total Recall (1990) while Quaid is escaping from his pursuers on Earth. The crowd opens up in front of him as he's running away (justified, as he's carrying a gun).
- A more humorous moment in The Wolfman (2010) where Aberline invades a house and interrupts an in-progress violin recital in order to catch up to Lawrence during his London rampage.
Literature
- While in Sri Lanka, Able Team notice several mean-looking guys watching them and sharpening their knives. They end up running through the crowded market to get back to their van where they've got More Dakka, with their Sri Lankan liaison officer trying to apologize to everyone they've shoved aside.
- Lampshaded in Discworld where it's an important part of Theory of Narrative Causality - complete with two men carrying a pane of glass.
- Averted A Fire Upon the Deep. Skroderider cautions Pham against trying this even though he's wearing Powered Armor; instead he detours around anyone who doesn't move and cautions Pham against assuming the locals can be easily pushed around.
- In Space Viking, the host's guards are called to eject Andray Dunnan when he crashes Elaine and Lucas' wedding. The crowd of guests blocks their progress until Otto Harkaman starts shouting and shoving to clear a path, causing Lucas to briefly ponder "the uses of bad manners in an emergency".
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: in So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, Ford Prefect works his way through a crowd surrounding a giant robot who is resting on a beachnote by dressing up in a lab coat and shouting about a scientific breakthrough. When the police show up behind him shouting about a break in, he tosses Walkmen into the crowd so that they won't make way again.
- In Star Wars: New Jedi Order. Leia and Han are trying to escape Coruscant by getting to the Millenium Falcon. They are stopped by Viqi Shesh and Dab Hantaq who pretend to be seeking asylum on the Millenium Falcon. Things go sour as the two are attempting to prevent their escape and Hantaq throws a Thermal Detonator and bolts. One of Solo's Security Droids picks it up and attempts to disarm it and almost refers to this trope by name saying, "make a hole! Thermal detonator coming through!"
Live-Action TV
- In the pilot Mini Series for the Battlestar Galactica remake, Starbuck is jogging around The Battlestar, shouting "Make a hole!" whenever people are blocking the way.
- In the Community episode "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" a Chase Scene occurs that includes examples of Excuse Me, Coming Through and Mobstacle Course in the form of a Latvian Independence Parade... all within the confines of a blanket fort.
- Doctor Who: In "The Runaway Bride" the Doctor is threatened by flamethrower-toting robot Santas, so (similar to Octopussy and The Three Musketeers in Film above) he sonics a cash machine and gets away in the scramble for bank notes.
- In a Non-chase example, one episode of ER has a compressed air bottle fall off a table, pressing the nozzling making the bottle shoot down the hallway. A view from the bottle shows people diving and jumping out of the bottle's way before it hits something, flies through the air, and is embedded in a janitor closet door.
- iCarly whenever people get in Sam's way.
- Inevitable in any NCIS episode aboard a ship or submarine. "Make a hole!"
- Stargate SG-1 has used "Make a hole!", including the 3rd season opener "Into the Fire".
- Star Trek: Voyager "Survival Instinct", Naomi Wildman (a child) and Seven of Nine arrive in the mess hall and find it full of people and aliens. Naomi's quiet polite requests for people to make room are ignored...
Seven of Nine: Stand aside! (everyone moves)
Tabletop Games
- Invoked Trope in the d20 Modern Urban Arcana setting. Department 7 agents are equipped with an item called a "Synchronicity watch", casting a version of the Synchronicity spell lasting for one minute. It makes (among other things) people subconsciously step out of the way of the character equipped with the watch.
Video Games
- Any video game where you're driving and not supposed to run over people. The A.I. doesn't catch up with the real person and the pedestrians dive out in front of your car. Then the police arrive.
- Final Fantasy IX; In the final cutscene, when Zidane reveals himself, alive and well, to
Queen GarnetDagger, she runs down the stairs and tries to make her way through the crowd to be with Zidane again, even ditching her Falcon Claw pendant and crown. - Grand Theft Auto games are made of these practically.
- Inverted in [PROTOTYPE]; upon seeing you speeding down the street in a freaking TANK, most civilians in your path will simply panic and freeze up, and the ones that don't tend to actually run directly into your path. And no, firing warning shots over their heads doesn't seem to make them get out of your way.
- Not to mention how they seem to be OCD about using the freaking CROSSWALKS.
- Subverted, sort of, in the Yakuza games. Random NPCs wander the streets of Kamurocho, and running into them will cause them to either shuffle quickly aside or get knocked down.
Webcomics
- Memorably subverted in Buck Godot Zapgun For Hire's "PSmith" storyline:
PSmith: (To large crowd of shocked bystanders) Move aside and you will not be hurt! I am only after the fat man!Buck:(narrating) On any planet other than New Hong Kong it might have worked.(Next page, panel of angry, well-armed bystanders aiming at PSmith.)Buck:(narrating) But you just don't do that here.Bystanders: (unison) Right! We've heard that one before!Buck: (watching the glow as the bystanders open fire off-panel) Ahh -- social evolution in action.
- And then played straight later on, when the villain successfully uses it against PSmith (who, as it turns out, is a Hive Mind and is now there in large group of bodies),
Grispfat: (Barging through a hail of gunfire from the PSmiths) Here goes nothing. Coming through! Hot soup! Look out! Coming through!Lemuria-536: "Hot soup?" I can't believe he tried something that stupid!Asteroid Al: It's called "playing to your audience." You'll notice he got through and into the back room.
- And then played straight later on, when the villain successfully uses it against PSmith (who, as it turns out, is a Hive Mind and is now there in large group of bodies),
- Drowtales:
- Done memorably in Exterminatus Now by Lothar, who bellows "OUTTA THE WAY! ANGRY KILLER Cyborg COMING THROUGH!!"
- Hilariously used in Freefall, when Niomi is trying to teach Florence that she may need to shove through a packed crowd to get on the train. Florence suggests politeness may work; Niomi sarcastically shouts "My friend Florence would like to board the train, please make a path". And can't believe it when it works (the large robot population quite likes Florence).
- Schlock Mercenary has two examples from the "Mallcop Command" story arc:
- Used by a member of Tagon's Toughs during a Parkata Urbatsu lesson in moving quickly through a crowd. Too bad it wasn't the purpose of the lesson.
Shodan: This next drill is crowd navigation. Nick, you're first. Everybody else go down this avenue and act like shoppers.
Shodan: Nick, your job is to move through that crowd at a dead run without hitting anybody.
Nick: Right.
Nick: *running and shouting* MAKE A HOLE!
Shodan: Brilliant. It's as if you knew exactly how this "random crowd" of fellow soldiers would react.- And used earlier in the same storyline by Legs when chasing down a Parkata Urbatsu runner, along with the typical civilian reaction to the military version. Kathryn, the one who interfered with the pursuit, most likely knew exactly what it meant since she herself was retired military, but was covering for the runner.
- Used by a member of Tagon's Toughs during a Parkata Urbatsu lesson in moving quickly through a crowd. Too bad it wasn't the purpose of the lesson.
- Zebra Girl has a scene where Jack asks Wally to clear a way through the crowd, resulting in the same exchange as in the page quote, except with Wally adding the line "That was a great movie."
Western Animation
- Batman Beyond: In "Out of the Past", after exhausting what little patience he has for "Batman: The Musical", Bruce heads for the exit, getting increasingly exasperated and rude with the people in the way.
- Bugs Bunny used this a lot in the movie theatre.
- Family Guy: In the episode where Peter fattens up Lois, he brings the fat Lois to a restaurant where he announces "MAKE WAY! MAKE WAY! FAT WIFE COMING THROUGH!" and pushes tables apart to give Lois more space.
Real Life
- Whether on the road and on foot, you can get in a lot of trouble for not moving out of the way of Emergency Services vehicles or personnel as they rush past you to aid or subdue someone or something. The Excuse Me, Coming Through bit is mostly exemplified by some glaring flashing lights, an unignorable siren and optimally even a big written warning that should leave nothing to the imagination.
