Dynamic Entry

Eat your heart out, Kool-Aid Man.

Therkla: Elan, I left the door open for you, you know.
Elan: Right, that's why I had to go around and find another way to crash dramatically into the scene.

— The Order of the Stick

Something's going on in the plot, and it's not good. Maybe there's a dramatic confrontation, maybe your best bud is losing a fight, but whatever the case, you need to get in there, fast, dramatically, and — *THUMPCRASH!*

All of you, listen up! For these cases, you need the Dynamic Entry!

The Dynamic Entry has three main elements:

1. Speed — It has to be fast.
2. Surprise — They can't see it coming until it's too late.
3. Violence — It's gotta hurt.

The most common form is a diving kick from off screen, usually directed mostly horizontally, hitting whoever happens to be on-screen at the time. Most of the time, it's not clear how exactly they launched themselves thusly. Often suggests a Large Ham or some-such (in which case the Dynamic Entry indicates an Incoming Ham as well). May overlap with Big Damn Heroes.

Contrast Diving Save. The "Hey, You!" Haymaker is a subtrope of this. See Your Door Was Open for the not-dynamic-but-just-as-sudden-or-unexplained entry. Sometimes combined with There Was a Door or Super Window Jump, for when the Dynamic Entry comes through a wall or window to increase the surprise factor. Can overlap with Attack Hello.

If the entry kills someone, it is probably a Surprisingly Sudden Death. If somebody else throws you, then it's a Fastball Special. If you need a rope, it's Fast-Roping. It's almost always a key part of a Big Damn Heroes moment, and frequently a Big Entrance.

Compare Chandler's Law. See also Stealth Hi/Bye and *Click* Hello which are equally surprising but not immediately violent. In the Back can be used this way if the attacker isn't seen until he strikes.

This should not be confused with Feet-First Introduction.

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Examples:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Fan Works
• Films — Live-Action
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Western Animation

Advertising

• The Kool-Aid Man's preferred method of dispensing Kool-Aid to thirsty kids: Bursting through a brick wall and shouting ''OH YEAH!''
• Several Stride commercials use this, with Stride executives or something else suddenly appearing and attacking people for not spitting out their gum, since it's "ridiculously long lasting."
• One of the Old Spice commercials with Terry Crews involves him interrupting a Bounce commercial by smashing through the wall on a jet ski before shouting "OLD SPICE MAKES YOU SMELL LIKE POWEEEEEEEEER! It's so powerful it sells itself in other people's commercials!"
• Some of the Ladbrokes commercials are disguised as commercials for items that don't exist, like made-up energy drinks. However, these get interrupted by an Italian commentator by him kicking a soccer ball into the actor's face.
• Shemar Moore's 'Unnecessary Action Hero!' commercials for Paycom (sadly, there seems to only be a couple of them) lovingly - yet thoroughly - parody this trope.

Comic Strips

• Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes looks at it kinda sideways as he pounces Calvin almost every time the boy tries to get into his house.

Films — Animation

• Near the end of Don Bluth 's 1989 classic, All Dogs Go to Heaven, provided by the Big-Lipped Alligator himself, King Gator. As Carface, the gangster pug, corners Charlie at the edge of a burning pier in an attempt to murder him for stealing Anne Marie, a little girl who can communicate with animals, and exploit her gift at Carface's expense to win it big at animal-related sporting events, King Gator, who was last seen in a very bizarre, show-stopping musical number, comes charging out of nowhere, reprising the aforementioned song as he barrels into the support beams, causing the dock to sway and Carface to sink and be at the mercy of King Gator.
  King Gator: [singing] AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH~! Let's make MUSIC TOGETH-AAAAHHHHHHH~! [rams headfirst into dock, causing dock to sway and Carface to fall in the water]
• Discussed at the beginning of Kung Fu Panda 3 and lampshaded by Shifu:
  Po: You guys aren't doing the dramatic pose, are you?
  Mantis: Do we have to strike a pose every time we land?
  Po: You guys, never underestimate the power of a dramatic entrance. I've heard about some masters who can win a fight just by throwing open a door. Oh-
  [Shifu opens the door, and stops Po from accidentally kicking him in the face]
  Shifu: Dramatic entrance?
  Po: Master Shifu.
  Shifu: The Dragon Warrior is correct.
  Po: Really? I was just making.. Uh, I mean, yeah, I am.
  Shifu: Before the battle of the fist comes the battle of the mind; hence the Dramatic Entrance.

Two rows of goose archers illuminate the room by shooting a number of flaming arrows, lighting up the cauldrons.

• The Lion King:
  • The hyenas chased Simba and Nala into a corner, where Simba attempted to chase them off with his "roar". They laughed and encouraged him to do it again. Only this time, it was someone they didn't expect.
  • Simba later gets one himself when he rescues Timon and Pumbaa from Nala as an adult. As Nala charges towards the duo ready to eat them, Simba suddenly leaps over them and lunges at Nala with a mighty roar. His sudden appearance actually gets Nala to pause for a moment, with a look of shock visible on her face, and Simba tackles her to the ground, managing to pin her under him for a moment before she begins fighting back.
• Megamind's epic entrance when challenged by Titan. Remember folks, it's all about PRESENTATION! Followed by Metro Man saving Roxanne from a bus thrown at her. However, it's actually Megamind in disguise.
• Leon S. Kennedy appears to save Chris Redfield from Arias in Resident Evil: Vendetta on a motorbike.
• In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Prowler is introduced when he tackles Peter from the other side of the Super-Collider.
• In Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Captain Marvel strikes Superman in such a manner.
• Tigger from Winnie the Pooh enters like this all the time.

Pro Wrestling

• High Flyers love to do this in a large number of ways.
• Christopher Daniels made his return to TNA by doing this to Immortal.
• Many, many backstage brawls start this way. One wrestler will be either conducting an interview or be involved in a (usually unrelated) conversation with another wrestler when he/she will suddenly be ambushed by the wrestler with whom he or she is currently feuding. This is often combined with Behind the Black, as the ambushing wrestler will often come from behind the camera, and logically in full view of the interviewee.

Roleplay

• In Roll to Roll to Dodge, Frelock fails to do this to the goblin tower; Derm succeeds, with the comment, "Pyrotechnics will be heavily involved."

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition:
  • The 'Flying Kick' feat, which turns any unarmed charge attack into this, along with an additional 1d12 damage.
  • There's also the Leap Attack feat, which allows a player to combine a Power Attack with a jumping charge to do up to three times their normal damage.
  • There's also the Blood Magus from Complete arcane, who can be called the King of this trope. His "Blood Walk" ability allows him to enter any creature with blood's bloodstream then essentially teleport to any other creature in range (which is a long way, basically a teleport spell). Upon arrival you burst out of the target, forcing a fortitude save and huge damage (though you can choose not to if you're going to an ally). So his dynamic entry is BURSTING out of an enemy's body in a shower of blood from miles away.
  • Umber hulks in general are really bad about this. Due to their ability to burrow through rock easily and their tremorsense, along with their deceptive intelligence, most encounters with umber hulks begin with the creature bursting through a nearby wall without warning.
• Fudge Firefight presents us with the following: Glass Dancer: You're a master of leaping through plate glass windows, guns blazing, grim determination spread across your face. Apparently the glass protects you by disorientating enemies, or maybe it deflects incoming bullets, but regardless of its actual function it makes you completely immune to incoming attacks while you smash through it.
• GURPS has the Flying Kick and Pole-Vault Kick skills. Flying Kick can be combined with Flying Leap for spectacular entries.
• Interstitial: Our Hearts Intertwined has the move "If There's No Door, Then I'll make One" from The Prodigy lets you create your own path forward, be that metaphorical or literal.
• Kossite Woodsmen in Iron Kingdoms use this as their primary tactic, stalking an enemy and ambushing them when they least expect it.
• Magic: The Gathering just so happens to have a card for this exact purpose, aptly named "Dramatic Entrance". Combos with this tend to err towards the ridiculous.
  • Any "enters the battlefield" effect arguably counts as this — Rakdos, the Showstopper is a particularly good example.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • During the animated cinematic trailer for the game's 9th Edition, a Ultramarines Assault Intercessor Sergeant makes his entry into the scene by impaling a Necron through the chest with his chainsword, saving the Sororitas Sister Superior that it had been duelling with.

• The Tau have it as potential rule for their leader characters, allowing them to deep strike without the chance of scattering off target. This is the signature tactic of Commander Farsight, who'll drop in with a dozen other battle suits obliterate everything in sight.
• Ork Stormboyz led by Boss Zagstruk can.
• Tyranid Mawlocs can enter play on top of units already on the tabletop, symbolizing them burrowing underground and eating whatever poor sod happens to be standing where it exits.
• Space Marines usually specialize with this as they usually act as shock troops. However, they usually do it from orbit.
• Pretty much any case of a unit arriving on the battlefield via Deep Strike, which can involve teleportation, airdrops, burrowing, or a myriad array of other more outlandish methods. Special mention, however, goes to the Deathwing, designed to arrive en masse and shred the enemy in a hail of More Dakka, and Space Marine Vanguard Veterans, whose Descent Of Angels rule allows them to fall out of the sky and start stabbing people right away without giving them a chance to shoot back.
• Wazdakka Gutsmek did this in his background story: this Ork biker drove his TANK SIZED WARBIKE off an overlooking mesa at full speed and slammed directly into the cockpit of a Warlord Titan, through its void shields (which set him on fire). Needless to say, he slaughtered the entire crew in seconds. He also kept 3 skulls from this encounter as throphies and they are still on fire, decades later!
• As of 6th Edition (or before?) there is a special rule, Hammer of Wrath, which is mostly used by jump infantry to bump their first melee attack up to initiative 10 (normally the maximum possible under the rules) when they... jump into the fray. To put this into perspective, even the Eldar don't usually go above 6 except with their fastest units when those are buffed.
• Dawn of War 2: Retribution based on the franchise loves the trope as well. Several melee units have passive ability "Leap into combat" allowing them to jump on top of the enemy instead of charging them.^note Which only gives a small speed buff. It ignores suppression, knockbacks and speed debuffs and sends the opponent (and everything that happen too stand close to him) flying. Some melee jump troops ^note ASM, Raptors, Interceptors with Justicar present, Autarch and Lictor/Lictor Alpha. Raveners and Ravener Alpha do it as well, but from below. create violent disruption upon landing/telepotring. The top prize goes to Eldar Autarchs. They can do everything listed above and only arrive on the field from the stratosphere via global ability in a hail of plasma grenades and stunning everything around with massive Ground Pound.
  • Space marine player can request Battle Barge to send a drop pod on the field. Aiming the thing on top of enemy mob can be quite rewarding. Even more so if it carries Venerable Dreadnought instead of mere super soldier reinforcements.

• Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition has a few versions of this. The ambush rule, if it goes off right, allows you to place a unit where ever you want (like behind the enemies' precious cannons); scouts can now be deployed as close as 12 inches from an enemy unit; assassins' hidden rule allows them to hide in their unit then pop out at any time. Because assassins always strike first, they hit hard first.
• Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Brokk Grungsson, one of the more powerful up-and-coming political figures among the Kharadron Overlords and also an ace combatant clad in Steampunk Power Armor and armed heavily enough to take on a Bloodthirster, has this as one of his rules; whenever he charges into the fray, one unit (not model; entire squads are vulnerable) can be picked for him to land right into, and since he is a very large dwarf in a very heavy suit they will take plenty of damage from it.

Web Animation

• In Bionicle Adventures, during "The Kid Torturing Bionicle At Wal-Mart":
  Brandon: [drawing their assassination plan on a piece of paper] So this is the guy — this is the strange guy at Wal-Mart. And this guy is gonna be Paul... and this guy is gonna be me. And we're both distracting—
  [Daniel takes the pen and draws himself doing a Dynamic Entry, hitting the Torturing Guy]
  Daniel: AND THEN I COME IN AND KILL HIM! AND HE'S GONNA BE LIKE "AAH MY HEAD! I HATE YOU!"
• A scene in The Lazer Collection 3 has Detective Randall coming out of nowhere, hitting Dr. Octogonapus with a flying side kick — a rare case of a Dynamic Entry being countered by another Dynamic Entry.

• Red vs. Blue:
  • In Revelation, Chapter 3:
    Washington: Do I hear a...
    [Grif drives a Warthog jeep through the wall]
    Washington: CAR?!?
  • In the same series, Chapter 9, after a three season absence, Tex proceeds to make her return by smashing up a metal door in front of a terrified group of Reds not knowing who's on the other side, before she kicks it completely clear of the frame. The next episode is a 7-minute long Curb-Stomp Battle.
    Tex: Okay, so who's first.
• Super Mario Bros. Z:
  • In Episode 7, Metal Sonic at first ambushes Mario and Sonic in the tunnels this way (or he would have, if Mario hadn't heard him), but then in his appearance in the Minus World he delivers a standard villainous speech before attacking. Then invoked again when Shadow suddenly appears and pummels Metal Sonic before stealing his Chaos Emerald.
  • Luigi sort of gets one of these in the short clip from the unfinished Episode 9, when he uses his Tanooki Suit powers to break out of his petrification offscreen, before wallopping Basilisx with his hammer to save the weakened Mario.

Webcomics

• Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: Jason and Cass accompany Duke for a night trying to convince him to spend more time breaking into places for a fight by smashing through windows, skylights, walls and the floor. In the end he talks them into just walking through the door to stop Penguin's latest plan since their reputation ensures that that will take the villain by surprise.
• Beyond the Canopy. The first time Glenn met Glade, she was delivering a flying kick to the face of someone bullying him.
• In EATATAU!!!, a webcomic that is totally not based on Warhammer 40k, Kor'la made one of these on the totally-not-dark-eldar who he thought here holding Sha'shiva captive.
• El Goonish Shive: Ellen tackle hugs Grace while she's looking the other way and not paying attention to her surroundings.
• Girl Genius: Higgs makes one of these with a stomp to Big Bad Zola's kneecap, made more impressive by his doing this after following up through the Castle after having been stabbed in the chest.
• Homestuck:
  • During the Intermission, Cans smashes through a wall in a direct Shout-Out to the Kool-Aid Man.
    All of a sudden Cans plows through the wall Kool-Aid Man style.
  • Kanaya Maryam announces their resurrection by taking a running kick to Gamzee Makara's groin.
  • The post-Scratch White Queen debuts by storming in and beating Jack senseless just as he's about to kill Jane's dreamself.
• It's Walky!: In a possible lampshade-hanging, Sal makes a point of jumping through windows and walls at every opportunity, even if there's a perfectly good door available. Backfires comedically one time when a villain installs Sal-proof glass in the penthouse windows.
• Kill Six Billion Demons:
  • 6 Juggernaut Star Scours the Universe does this in page six of the comic by showing up out of nowhere to decapitate the helmeted stranger, bursting out of a portal in Allison's dorm room to do so.
  • Later, Pankrator Jagganoth gets a Dynamic Entry that puts all the others on this page to shame through sheer scale and insanity; he teleports into the exact middle of Solomon's arena, and is so ludicrously powerful that doing so causes a low-yield nuclear explosion that atomizes every non-superpowered being in the immediate area. Then he caps it off by making a snarky Bond One-Liner about what a beautiful day it is as he casually strides out of the ruins.
• Toyed with in A Loonatic's Tale. Tiny Doctor Qubert bursts into the scene shortly after a (very efficient; just two words!) verbal drubbing from an ill-tempered coworker declaring that "DREAMS LIIIIIIVE!" In the panel prior, easily missed, is the tiny "click" of him tripping the latch. The authors missed the opportunity for the "thump" of his first attempt.
• In MegaTokyo Junpei smashes through a locked door shouting "KEYLESS ENTER!"
• In Ménage à 3, Yuki makes her first appearance with a dynamic Glomp on her old girlfriend Zii. This being a sex comedy, in the process, she unintentionally panty-flashes Gary and ends up sitting on his face.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Belkar, of all people, does this in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • Elan did during his return from Cliffport, after taking a level in Dashing Swordsman. In fact, his prestige class gets reduced damage from leaping through windows for this explicit purpose. He uses this again when attacking Kubota — Therkla bemusedly points out that she left the door open for him, to which he points out that that's why he had to find a different way to crash dramatically into the scene.
• UKball from Polandball has an example of this when he begins The British Raj in "The End of the Indiasaurs◊".
  'AFTERNOON CHAPS WILL SOMEONE MAKE ME A CUP OF TEA ALREADY
• In Saffron And Sage the assassin Cinnamon is introduced by shooting an arrow into Sage.
• The Sanity Circus:
  • When she arrives at Attley's house, Posey first tries knocking. When Attley's mother shouts to not let her in, Posey blows the door in in a giant burst of red magic that throws Attley into the wall.
  • Fletch and Attley first meet when Fletch is in seagull form, flying outside Attley's safehouse. When she steps outside he turns back — and in the process of doing so kicks her in the head, knocking her to the ground.
• Schlock Mercenary has a couple of dynamic entries, such as the one where Lieutenant Sorlie manages to briefly shut Schlock up.
• Tower of God: Yuri introduces herself to Bam by jumping down on his face.
• Lampshaded in Weak Hero when Gray arrives at the Eunjan vs. Yoosun fight by violently headbutting one of the guards, causing him to stumble into the middle of the field.
  Jimmy: Did some hero make his entrance or something?

Web Videos

• In Jerma985's "Jermania 2014", The Turkey, The Chicken's long lost rival, made his debut into Jermania by doing a splash body slam on The Chicken during The Chicken's entrance from on top of the titantron.
• LoadingReadyRun: In the "Meatshroom" episode of Man Cooking, Morgan opens the segment by very calmly saying "Hello, and welcome to another edition of Man Cooking.", at which point Paul runs in from off-camera and slaps him while shouting "MANLY!"

Real Life

• Dynamic Entry performed in a football game. Bonus for the voice-overs, straight lifted from the Trope Namer.
  • Made worse for the recipient (Podolski) because of where the cleats appear to end up. OUCH!
  • Similar is the infamous Eric Cantona Kung-Fu Kick.
• Bruce Bowen's foot, meet Wally Szczerbiak's face.
• Sometimes, wall aren't that hard.
• In an IRC channel, a Dynamic Entry can be performed by an op that enters a room and immediately kicks someone.
• The usual tactic for ambush predators such as big cats and crocodiles. The animal uses stealth to get as close as possible to its prey to minimize its escape. At the right moment, it bursts forward for the kill.
  • Similarly, fast-moving predators hide their approach behind cover, so when they suddenly loom into view, charging at high speeds, it is all the more unexpected.
  • Not just big cats. Your domestic moggy stalking a mouse. Or your ankle.
  • The peregrine falcon is an expert at this with it's famous 200 mph dive. If it's going up against something too big that it can't take out with its claws alone, it will curl its talons into a fist and hit them with a diving "punch" hard enough to shatter bone.
• A useful strategy for military or police forces who need to enter a building occupied by bad guys. Often preceded by a "flashbang" (a kind of grenade that makes a lot of noise and a bright flash to disorient your enemies) or sometimes just by blowing a hole in the wall using explosives, a technique known as "mouseholing". Everything mentioned as criteria for Dynamic Entry is also vital to military and police success, since a defensive position is pretty much always at an advantage over the attackers, thus properly utilizing speed, surprise and violence is necessary for a clean and effective sweep.
  • More mundane methods of pulling off a dynamic entry can also be used, including taking doors off their hinges and separating glass from windowpanes, as well as employing customized sledgehammers and prybars and man-portable battering rams.
  • This video of SAS entry techniques, which include more examples of the above. Skip to 2:00 for the appropriately named "Dynamic Hammer". And at 1:26 this trope is mentioned by name.
    • This is not quite how it's done.
    • Another how not to do it, but rather more effective!
• This man is not having a good day.◊
  • Neither is this one.◊
• This◊ isn't one way to end a fight. It is THE way to end a fight.

...Can someone check and see if that first guy's okay?

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