The
Distaff Counterpart of the
Lock and Load Montage. The heroine puts on her makeup and clothes while preparing for the Big Event.
The key to the trope is that she's being just as methodical and serious as a soldier - she's all business, and her business at the moment is looking good.
Often juxtaposed with a standard
Lock and Load Montage. A
Femme Fatale might even do both simultaneously.
Female examples of this trope, as of so many other
Always Female tropes, may be
Fetish Fuel. The rare examples of a male doing this tend to be
Played for Laughs.
Examples:
Comic Books
Film
- Shoshannah before the premiere in Inglourious Basterds.
- In the film adaptation of V for Vendetta, Evie does this while V gets his gear ready to fight.
- In the reprise of "Tonight" in West Side Story, Anita has a L&LM song while the gangs prepare for the rumble.
- Early in Pretty Woman, when Vivian and her roommate are preparing to work the street.
- During the closing credits of Sucker Punch.
- In The Hairy Bird, the girls are shown getting ready for the St. Ambrose boys to visit.
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man shows the antagonist changing his hairstyle, painting his lips, and putting on eye makeup before his confrontation with the protagonist.
- Elle Woods in the opening credits of Legally Blonde.
- Gender-flipped during the opening credits of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, with Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes performing it, fabulously of course.
- In the opening sequence of a Thai movie Beautiful Boxer, juxtaposed with a Lock and Load Montage of a boxer preparing for a fight. Played with in that both sequences are performed by the same person.
Literature
- In the DaughtersOfTheMoon series, (at least in the first two) before the big showdown against the Atrox, there's a sequence of the main character putting on beautiful clothes and makeup — but rather justified in the first, Goddess of the Night, because the character is 1. Going to a club, and oughta look good anyway, and 2. Describes it as battle paint — the psychological preparation is as important as anything else.
Live-Action TV
- Belle in opening credits for Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
- On Chuck Sarah often does both simultaneously.
- Played for Laughs with Tim's 'getting ready for the disco' montage in The Goodies episode "Saturday Night Grease".
- The opening credits of Lingerie Football League.
- Sherlock: Irene Adler goes through one as she is waiting for Sherlock to arrive in "A Scandal in Belgravia". Juxtaposed with Sherlock's own, more unorthodox, preparations, which involve getting Watson to punch him in the face.
Manga and Anime
Mythology
- The Canaanite goddess Anat is said to do this. She anoints herself with henna and ambergris, puts on saffron and murex (purple) clothing...and then proceeds to slaughter her brother Ba'al's enemies so badly and messily she wades up to her thighs in the blood and gore. While laughing. Then she cleans herself off and reapplies.
Newspaper Comics
- Done in a Foxtrot Sunday strip that apparently shows Paige putting on her make-up getting ready to go out. The last panel reveals it to actually be a grounded Peter trying to sneak out of the house disguised as Paige.
Webcomics
Web Original
Western Animation
- In Sym-Bionic Titan, Ilana, Lance and Octus all go through this prior to the Homecoming Dance in "Under the Three Moons."
- The Joker gets this in an episode of Batman The Brave And The Bold. Course he's fueled by Rule of Funny.
- Used in Mulan when the soldiers are applying drag to infiltrate Shan Yu's guard in the royal palace (set to a brief reprise of "I'll Make A Man Out Of You", no less!).
Real Life
- Ask any salesperson about their morning routine.
