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When just blowing something up isn't enough, proof of one's apparent badass bombing technique can be seen when the bomber leaves himself barely enough time to escape the blast radius, usually just enough so that as he's walking away, he's silhouetted by the explosion itself. The exploding object can be anything: a building, a car, a space ship...anything large enough with plot-relevance that must simply, absolutely be erased in a fireball. Bonus points if the target's not the object detonated itself, but the person or people inside. One has to really want someone dead to bother setting up such a considerable kaboom when several bullets to the head would do just as well. Regardless of the explosion's size, badasses of this stamp will rarely need to worry about shrapnel, flying masonry, or getting blasted off their feet by shock waves. The shock waves can be useful for blowing about that cool cloak or longcoat the badass may be wearing..

While this tends to happen in isolated locations, with the bomber slipping away into the crowd the explosion attracts, there are some true Rule Of Cool situations where the bomber can exit the target just before it explodes, and no one will notice the fact he's the only one not rushing towards or even reacting to explosion.

Can be combined with a Power Walk (as in the Smallville picture in the Power Walk trope) for extra badassitude.

When the character was in the fireball, and still pulls this off, that's usually a sign that they're an Implacable Man or The Juggernaut.

The opposite of the Unflinching Walk is when the hero stands completely still and has Unflinching Faith In The Brakes.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Grand Theft Auto commercials are made of this trope.
• This Quantum Of Solace / Sony advert involves James Bond unflinchingly flailing around.
• This Guitar Hero: Metallica commercial.

Anime and Manga

• Pip, The Good Captain from Hellsing does this in the OVA, casually lighting up a cigarette as the communications tent (and the Millenium dupes inside) go up in a fireball.
• While nothing explodes, Kenshiro of Fist Of The North Star has the most overexaggerated example of the Unflinching Walk ever. He walks through a skyscraper that falls on his head without even seeming to notice it.
• Vash and Wolfwood walk unflinchingly through a hail of bullets in the Trigun anime episode Goodbye for Now.
• Cinque of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha calmly walks away as a raging inferno starts behind her after she blows up one of the Ground Forces HQ's shield generators.
• Lelouch gets one in Code Geass R2 episode 20 when, after all the horrible things that have happened to him and his loved ones, he finally starts acting like the demon everyone seems to think he is and turns what most people would consider Wangst into a Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
• Vincent does one of these after setting off a biological weapon near the start of the Cowboy Bebop movie. It makes for a rather effective introduction.
• Done several times in Monster, usually by the extraordinarily calm Johan, but once or twice by other characters.
  • Of note because it's unexpected for the character, Eva does this after setting her own mansion ablaze in a rage.
• Dekoppa here from Majin Devildoes one with a bundle of pipes while striding towards an ancient devil who produces soundwaves that reduces concrete down to its very atoms.He is also a Badass Bookworm.

Comic Books

• In the Transformers fandom, there is an infamous picture of Pat Lee and the other Dreamwave founders doing this while walking away from an explosion. Dreamwave imploded after not paying its employees. On many sites, the mere mention of Pat Lee or Dreamwave will cause the picture to be posted.
• Warren Ellis loves this trope (see Thunderbolts) and loves subverting it (see Nextwave).

Film

• A classic example of this would be Connor MacLeod's regeneration at the beginning of Highlander II - The Quickening.
• Frank Castle, better known as the Punisher, did this twice in the live action movie of the same name. The first time is when he leaves a tripwire mine with the wire stretched tight in the hand of a mafia boss's son, with the implication that eventually he'll drop the heavy explosive, and sure enough it happens just in time to frame Frank's exit. The second time is even more over the top as Frank kills the mafia boss responsible for the death of his family by detonating car fuel tanks in a pre-programmed sequence, all of which light up behind him as he walks away. As if this weren't enough, the burning wrecks trace out his trademark skull logo when viewed from the air.
• The Transporter.
• Parodied in Windstruck. As the heroine drags a criminal from an overturned car, her partner just happens to drop his lit cigarette into the leaking gasoline. Cue explosion as she poses on the criminal Captain Morgan style.
• Hot Fuzz parodied this twice: the poster and DVD cover featured Danny and Nick calmly walking away from an explosion (which didn't happen). The movie itself subverts it: they run away from what they think will explode and leap through the air dramatically, only to discover it doesn't go off. But it does later.
  • The movie poster is Unflinching Walk played straight (except for the fact that it wasn't IN the movie); the movie event is only a subversion of Outrun The Fireball.
• Less of an Unflinching Walk so much as an unflinching-sitting-at-the-bar-sipping-his-martini: The pre-credits sequence of the James Bond film Goldfinger, where Bond is the only one at the bar not to react to the huge explosion he planted earlier.
  • The Golden Eye video game has this after the Streets level.
  • A rather good HDTV advert around the time of the insanely merchandised Quantum of Solace was nothing but Daniel Craig doing this in slow motion. Slightly subverted as he actually was getting pummelled by flying debris, but continued to walk grimly towards the camera.
• Anton Chigurh does this after casually blowing up a car in No Country For Old Men.
• Subverted by the hypothetical 2063 sequel to Jackass: The Movie: Son of Jackass.
• Also subverted in The Dark Knight: The Joker does something like an unflinching walk out of the hospital, then stops as the explosion peters out. He then stands there fiddling with the detonator until the rest of the bombs go off, visibly startling him, and he hightails it out of there (all of which, it should be noted, were adlibbed by Ledger after a special effects failure).
• In the trailers to the film Iron Man (retained in the film itself). Iron Man dodges a tank shell and then fires a rocket at the tank. He doesn't even wait for the rocket to explode before turning around to begin his Unflinching Walk. Combine that imagery with the opening riff of the Black Sabbath song of the same name and you have the ultimate in superhero badassery.
  • The same trailer also shows an "Unflinching Stand" when Stark casually addresses a crowd with his back to the oncoming shockwave of a cluster bomb explosion.
• Used and averted in Con Air. After setting up an explosion by lighting a pool of gasoline leading back to a gas station, Cyrus and his buddies walk off. Once the explosion happens, all of them are framed by the blast, but the only one who doesn't react is Cyrus.
• Accidentally subverted during the big mansion shootout from the finale of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow 2. Chow Yun Fat's character, Ken Gor, tosses a grenade into the mansion and turns to nonchalantly stand in front of the ensuing explosion. But Chow was standing a few inches too close to the pyrotechnics when they went off, and he flinched away as his hair was singed. Seen here at the 1:20 mark.
• Slightly subverted in From Dusk Till Dawn. Seth and Richie Gecko are bickering with each other while walking out of the exploding store. Richie had been shot in the hand, and Seth is annoyed that Richie is unable to keep a "low profile." Neither plays attention to the store they just blew up.
• Evil-possessed Spider-Man does it in the third movie, after throwing one of Harry's pumpkin bombs back at him.
• The villain The Tall Man does this in one of the Phantasm movies.
• Used in Black Hawk Down; every time Mc Knight's convoy stops, he gets out of his truck and strolls around, apparently oblivious to the bullets/RP Gs flying all around him, to find out what's going on.
• Shown in some of the print ads for the DVD of Hancock, with the title character looking all badass with his love interest beside him, whose super powers are supposed to be part of The Reveal. Good going Wal*Mart/Red Box.
• In X-Men Origins: Wolverine Wolverine does this away from an exploding helicopter.
  • Stephen Colbert included in a list of Wolverine's powers the ability to "Make things explode behind him"
• In Desperado El Mariachi and Carolina toss a couple of grenades into the bookstore, then stride away. An impressive calm for an unremarkable bookstore owner.
• In Law Abiding Citizen, Jamie Foxx doesn't even glance at the huge explosion he helps set up.
• Tony Anthony's character does this in the barely-a-western Get Mean.

Live Action TV

• In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Princess Moon throws around fireballs, igniting the scenery, with nothing but a cold glare on her face and a cool walk towards her enemy.
• Ronald Sandoval from Earth: Final Conflict was fond of this trope, with much evidence regarding his undercover dirty work for the Taelons vanishing in appropriately timed fireballs. He even liked it so much he did it AFTER leaving their employ.
• Smallville, in the aptly-titled episode Justice, did this with the above shot of the proto-Justice League. This is both an example of the Power Walk subset and a Shout Out to the Justice League series's original opening.
• Doctor Who: "Greatest Show in the Galaxy"
  • (Though it's worth noting that Sylvester McCoy didn't actually get quite far enough and was slightly caught in the heat blast.) Fortunately, his earliest stage days had involved a lot of "don't try this at home" high-jinks with pyrotechnics.
    • In fact, he was told not to expect a massive explosion, and that most of it would be put in with special effects afterwards. When the whole tent set exploded behind him, he had to end up doing the Unflinching Walk for real, because he knew they couldn't afford a second take.
  • Rose Tyler, of all people, got to do one in "The Stolen Earth".
  • The Tenth Doctor's slo-mo walk in "Voyage of the Damned".
  • In "The End of Time", when the Doctor is finally able to speak to the Master. The Master is able to fire lightning from his hands. He misses twice, and not only does the Doctor not stop or even slow down, he doesn't even change his facial expression.
• In an episode of Stargate Atlantis, Ronon Dex is forced to fight several enemies. In one case he casually turns away from a foe who is down but not out. He then tosses a grenade over his shoulder without breaking stride.
  • Also done in the StargateSG-1 episode "Talion," as Teal'c, who is in full Roaring Rampage Of Revenge mode, walks away from a Jaffa traitor, who he's tied to a car and wired to a bomb, Man On Fire style.
  Traitor: Where are you going?
  Teal'c: I am leaving. You are about to explode.
• While they don't exactly walk away, Super Sentai and Power Rangers often wrap up roll calls with an explosion of flame and/or colored smoke going off behind the team while they strike an Ass Kicking Pose or Super Sentai Stance. These scenes are known in some fan communities as the "Exploding Fart Shot". They and their Humongous Mecha would also often turn away from their enemies just having dealt the killing blow, which would result in an explosion behind them.
  • In one memorable instance, the heroes of Power Rangers Dino Thunder turn around for the badass monster destruction pose... but the monster was Not Quite Dead, and blasts them while their backs are turned. Can a Monster Of The Week have a Crowning Moment Of Awesome?
  • One better: The Turbo Megazord/RV Robo actually had a special pose - on the left knee, sword pointed towards the camera, BOOM in the background. Actually not so surprising, given that the attack in question involves a lot of spinning.
  • Subverted in one episode of Boukenger where the Red Ranger was afflicted with bad luck, so wore various lucky charms into battle. The Exploding Fart set the charms on fire, and the other Rangers had to take a minute to put Red out while the villains laughed their asses off. (Pity the scene wasn't carried over into Operation Overdrive; the villains had to make do with laughing their asses off at the ridiculous charms.)
  • But Power Rangers RPM makes up for it. Not only does one episode lampshade such explosions, but the Blue Ranger's attempt at fixing a glitch in his morpher runs the risk of cranking the blast Up To Eleven... so he aims the Exploding Fart at The Dragon and her Mooks and fires away. Needless to say, the bad guys aren't so unflinching.
• Used on Burn Notice in the Season 1 finale, when Michael and Sam were running off a boat, After Mike rescues Sam, they cross the gangplank Mike rigged with a bomb, and kept on running as the gangplank exploded. Michael had the unflinching...er...run, but Sam, having not been told about the bomb, was freaking out in glorious slow motion. And they put it in the opening sequence.
  • Also somewhat subverted in an earlier episode, when Michael demonstrates the C4 that he is trying to sell (of course, the rest of it is fake). He walks slowly away, waits until after he is outside the blast radius, stops, and then detonates it. He never flinches; just says "Are we in business?"
• In one episode of CSI Miami, badass CSI agent Horatio Caine finds a bomb in a car they have impounded. Realizing he has only minutes until it detonates, he jumps in, drives the car out of the garage, through the streets of Miami (with appropriate roaring engine noises, weaving in and out of traffic, etc.) and races to a deserted stretch of beach. He then calmly takes his sunglasses off, gets out of the car, puts his sunglasses back on and executes an Unflinching Walk, complete with badass black clothes and sunglasses.
  Horatio Caine: Burn baby burn.
• Doubly subverted in The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Corrupt Corporate Executive Catherine Weaver unflinchingly walks away from an exploding warehouse, is engulfed in flames, and unflinchingly walks out.
• Mr. White pulls one of these in Breaking Bad when he loses his patience with a rude, obnoxious businessman and puts a squeegee on his car battery, shorting it out. At first the viewer is amazed at how much White's morals have slipped as he walks away, AND THEN THE CAR EXPLODES. Mr. White, of course, does not flinch.
• Subverted in Spooks. In the first episode of the seventh series lead character Adam is speeding through the streets of London in car set to explode. Just as he finds a sufficiently empty spot and gets out of the car for what you expect to be an awesome unflinching walk away, the bomb goes off taking him with it.
• In the pilot episode of The Visitor, The hero Adam McArthur does that after self-destructing his crashed stolen spaceship.
• In the pilot episode of Smith, although the protagonists are doing an Unflinching Walk away from their exploding getaway boat, the scene is rendered decidedly more depressing than Bad Ass by the choice of background music (Imogen Heap 's "Hide and Seek") and the fact that the boat contained the corpse of a colleague who didn't survive the heist.
• Heroes: After a corrupt cop kills another evolved human, Magneto-esque Volume 5 Big Bad Samuel gets his revenge by using his earth controlling powers to destroy the police station. As the station crumbles to the ground (complete with mushroom cloud-like plume of smoke), Samuel walks away with arguably one of the most badass faces ever seen.

Music

• This is the subject of the song "Cool Guys Don't Look At Explosions".
• Mentioned in the chorus of Lemon Demon's song "Action Movie Hero Boy"
  Hey, look at me, casually
  Walking away like Action Movie Hero Boy
  In slow-mo, everything glowing
  And blowing to bits right behind me
• The video for "Prayer" by Disturbed has the singer continue walking slowly and speaking with God while explosions and car accidents happen all around him.

Real Life

• Ludmilla Tourischeva, galactically successful Soviet gymnast in the early-mid '70s, executing her uneven bars routine for the World Cup in 1975. As she is wrapping it up and just about to dismount, the bars suddenly start collapsing. She flies off the apparatus and hits her dismount as the bars collapse completely. Tourischeva salutes the judges and strolls away without batting an eyelid or looking behind her. And then goes on to sweep the All-Around and all four event finals.
• During an attack by pro-fascist snipers following the liberation of Paris, witnesses recalled seeing General Charles De Gaulle striding unflinchingly through a hail of bullets "as if he led a charmed life."
• Audie fricking Murphy.

Video Games

• One of these happens after every major boss in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
  • Another occurs on Elysia, where you can drop a bridge out from under a crowd of Tinbots by grappling out the support gates. As the bridge collapses, the camera focuses on Samus' back as she calmly walks away. The whole sequence earns you a "Stylish Kill" token voucher.
• Subverted in the first Metal Gear Solid, when Snake starts to do this after blowing up a helicopter he was fighting, but then turns around and runs to the railing to watch the explosion. He then walks away once the explosion is over, followed up with "Looks like I don't have to worry about the cremation".
• Mega Man does this as Wily's fortress explodes (again) at the end of Megaman 7.
• Of all people, Princess Peach does this in the Subspace Emissary mode (one-player story mode) of Super Smash Bros Brawl. Fox is up on his Arwing, blowing up the deck of the Halberd (on which Peach and Sheik are standing) and the glorious explosions blooming behind her seem to affect her as much as a warm breeze.
  • DK and Diddy Kong get one in their introduction. The last Bullet Bill goes off with the two of them standing between it and the camera striking an Ass Kicking Pose.
• In Red Faction: Guerilla, this can be done to ludicrous extremes combined with actual cool building destruction.
• In Call Of Duty 4, during the mission "One Shot, One Kill" Captain MacMillian and then-Lieutenant Price take down a Hind helicopter with their sniper rifles. The Captain then turns away fromt he crashing helicopter, quips "Good night, ya bastard," and does an Unflinching Walk away from it as it crashes. On top of him. Price has to carry the Captain all the way to the extraction point. But the Bad Ass-ness of that scene was so worth it.
• Sonic got one or two of these in Sonic X.
• Done in one of the trailers (''Deceived'') for the new Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic MMO, The Old Republic. Unflinching Walks appear to be a Sith trademark.
• At the end of Jak X, Jak shoots the car being driven by crime boss Mizo, who's been out to get him for the whole game, and takes the poison antidote from him. They exchange a short chat, then Jak just walks away as Mizo's car is reduced to smoking wreckage, with Mizo still inside.
• Every game in the Hitman series allows the player to do this, and it is unimaginably satisfying.

Webcomics

• This strip of The Adventures of Doctor McNinja lampshades the Unflinching Walk as a ninjitsu technique.

Western Animation

• Parodied on Home Movies when Melissa sets fire to the "Little Fairy Princesses" building so she could escape.

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Trashcan Bonfire

Spectacle

Unsound Effect