The
Menacing Stroll is the lithe, athletic walk of the perennial
Badass,
Determinator, or
Implacable Man. Not quite a strut, it is a subtle, confident gait that lets everyone know that the walker could kick the collective ass of everyone in the room without breaking a sweat, because they are
just that awesome. The
Menacing Stroll was first observed in the
Castlevania games (
dubbed the Pimp Walk by fans), but it can also be found in assassins, thieves, and the leaner species of badass. It's all in the shoulders.
Compare
Unflinching Walk,
Power Walk.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Major Motoko Kusanagi. It helps that she can walk through walls and anyone stupid enough to stand in her path.
Comics
Film
- Captain Barbossa. Captain Jack Sparrow, not so much.
- The various models of Terminator can pull this off even when buck naked.
- Robert Patrick was cast as the T-1000 for his ability to do this at a very brisk pace.
- Aragorn.
- Used Narmfully in the already So Bad, It's Good Silent Night Deadly Night 2
- Michael Myers of the Halloween series' highest level of speed, at least when the camera isn't on him. Even when his victims are running away from him, Michael manages to keep up with them with nothing more than a Menacing Stroll.
- Deconstructed by Behindthe Mask, where Leslie reveals that he runs full-tilt when the victim isn't looking and switches to a power walk when they are. He does a lot of cardio to make the illusion work.
- Ivan Vanko in Iron Man 2 has a moment like this in the beginning, moseying on over to Tony Stark in his Whiplash rig while racecars crash and explode behind him.
Literature
Live-Action Television
Video Games