Trouble's afoot!
A scary character is approaching, and the camera focuses on his/her foot crushing something, or just emphasizes the frightfulness with a closeup of the character's feet/boots, which may be adorned with Spikes of Doom or the like.
Differs from Feet-First Introduction in that it isn't necessarily the first appearance of the character. Compare Giant Foot of Stomping and Trampled Underfoot.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- The Incredible Hulk: The series and its adaptations often emphasize the Hulk's massive size and strength by showing his feet tear apart Banner's footwear, or stomp on something.
- In the Supergirl comic "The Infinite Monster!" (the first story that Kara Zor-El starred in after Superman finally allowed her to fight crime in public), Supergirl fights an interdimensional creature who looks so tall, that only its feet can fit in the panels. Until Supergirl shrinks the monster.
Films — Animated
- In Chicken Run, Mrs. Tweedy is often introduced in her black boots marching through the chicken farm during inspections, purposely parallelling the visual sight of an approaching concentration camp officer.
- Lord Shen's first real scene in Kung Fu Panda 2 opens with his metallic talons eerily scraping across the ground.
- In Beauty and the Beast, when the Beast steps into a spotlight to reveal himself to Belle, the camera shows his lupine feet before his monstrous face.
- In Turning Red, as Mei is running away from her mother in the climax, there are a couple shots of her mothers feet stomping toward her.
Films — Live-Action
- In Avatar, there's a shot of Quaritch's boots as he walks up to give his briefing to the new arrivals.
- The Chinese adventure film, The Climbers, does this for it's theatrical release poster
◊, which for some unexplained reason needs to show one of the titular climber's entire foot taking up most of the poster space.
- Jurassic Park (1993):
- The approach of the T rex is once shown by its foot coming down into the shot and sinking into the mud.
- Later on, the hook-clawed foot of a Velociraptor in the Visitor Center kitchen as two young children try desperately to hide from the predators.
- Subverted at the start of Jurassic World. What looks like a huge dinosaur's clawed feet stomp down on the ground. Then the camera pulls back to reveal that it's actually a tiny bird.
- The scene of the dinosaurs escaping into the wilderness after Masie Lockwood releases them in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is shot from Ely Mills's perspective as he huddles underneath an SUV trying not to get trampled as the feet of various large to gigantic dinosaurs parade around him.
- Shortly after this scene and Mills getting devoured by it, we see the T. rex's foot stomp down on the Indominus rex sample, putting an end to any chances of making another one.
- Jurassic World Dominion: The Pyroraptor is introduced this way with a close-up of it's foot showing that not only is it the standard sickle-clawed raptor weapon but it's also webbed as if for swimming. Sure enough, that's exactly what it does when it dives beneath an ice-covered lake while chasing Owen and Kayla.
- The last scene of The Magic Crystal, when the renegade KGB operative main baddie Karov made it to the Parthenon, and about to hijack the crystal's last vessel for unlimited power. Epic foot shot ahoy◊!
- In Predator 2, the shot of the monster approaching a doomed gang leader is taken from behind its feet.
- In the Thor film, there's a closeup of the Destroyer's foot as it enters the town on Earth.
- In the movie The Town That Dreaded Sundown, depicting the crimes of still-unidentified Serial Killer known as "The Phantom", halfway through the film, we are introduced to the killer this way, as he makes his way through town, supposeedly running random errands, but it reality, earmarking potential victims.
- Terminator:
- In The Terminator, the scene where the T-800 gets to Sarah Connor's home begins with a focus on the Terminator's booted foot crushing a toy.
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day opens with the metal foot of a skin-free Terminator crushing a skull in an After the End Los Angeles.
- In The Wolf Man (1941), the camera focuses on Larry Talbot's feet turning into wolf-like footpaws for the duration of a transformation scene. After Larry's feet become fully transformed, the camera continues to close up on then as he prowls out of the room and into the forest.
- Masterfully parodied in Top Secret!, in a scene in which Nick Rivers is trying to infiltrate a fortress by crawling on the grass. He suddenly stops at the sight of a pair of boots in front of him. Slowly looking up in fear, he then realizes... they're just boots, left alone in the grass.
- Used in If Looks Could Kill when Michael reaches the summit of the cliff attempting to infiltrate the Chateau Richelieu - only to grab hold of an ankle that turns out to belong to Zigesfeld, complete with a Scare Chord.
- Seen on one of the monitor screens during the massacre in The Cabin in the Woods, as a dinosaur-like creature creeps up on a female member of the base.
- During Davy Jones' Feet-First Introduction in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, we see his mutated crab-like right foot before his comparatively normal left. If you look carefully, you can see a plank in the ship's deck crack under his weight.
- In Godzilla (2014), Godzilla's arrival at Honolulu airport is announced by his enormous foot slamming down in front of the terminal window, turning what had been a loud, chaotic scene into shocked silence. Ladies and gentlemen, the King has reclaimed his throne.
- A burglar is climbing the outside of a glass skyscraper using large suction cups. He suddenly notices a pair of red-booted feet in front of him. (Superman can be "fearsome" — if you're a burglar.)
Literature
- Book 20 of the Animorphs series with the first official art of a Hork-Bajir in the series. This angle was copied again multiple times in the Animorphs TV adaptation.
Live-Action TV
- In the opening scene of the Mini Series The Deliberate Stranger, a pretty young woman walks through a parking lot. The camera pans down to the ground and a pair of feet enter the frame, depicting their owner as slowly stalking the girl. He catches up to her, and there's a scream as the scene fades to black. The movie was about the exploits of Serial Killer Ted Bundy and while this particular scene depicted the abduction and murder of his fifth or sixth victim, there are numerous similar scenes scattered throughout the film.
- The Animorphs TV adaptation does this multiple times with the TV adaptation. Hork-Bajir.]] This mirrors the first official artistic interpretation of the species, in Book 20 of the Animorphs, in which only his feet can be seen.
- In the dinosaur documentary Planet Dinosaur, this is how the Carcharodontosaurus◊ is properly introduced in the episode Lost World, by the camera slowly panning alongside a desert plain before the dinosaur's foot stomps down in front of the camera.
Music Videos
- Miserable: After all the other band members have been gobbled up by the giantess, A. Jay is the only member left. Then one of the woman's platform high heels slams down behind him, right before she gets down on all fours, grabs him, and makes him the last course in her meal .
Video Games
- The first time you enter battle against Idenn, the Dark Dragon and the True Final Boss of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the camera zooms in on the friendly unit, alone, before a gigantic, clawed foot stomps down and the camera scrolls to accommodate her size.
- Mixed with Feet-First Introduction in Banjo-Tooie. In Terradactyland, the top of the level features the Stomping Plains, a wide, empty expanse. There are large footprints there, but it seems relatively calm...that is, until Banjo and Kazooie step onto the plains themselves. That's when a MASSIVE foot—so big that players can't even see the creature it's attached to—crashes onto the screen, accompanied by a deafening roar. And you have to cross the plains, dodging the massive foot, three times.
- In the prelude's ending of Resident Evil 6, Leon and Helena are inspecting some dead BSAA soldiers when they notice something approaching them, and the camera shows a monstrous foot stomping hard on the floor. Subverted in the main campaign, where that's revealed to be Simmons' foot, with it not looking so monstrous.
