Follow TV Tropes

Following

Lock-and-Load Montage

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lock_and_load_montage.png

"Barry got back to his feet inside the Bright Falls General Store and dusted himself off. Right next to the cans of baked beans was a locked case filled with flare guns. And yet, here was a conveniently placed barrel of crowbars! Barry's smile widened as he realized that this was the classic movie scene where the hero had to gear up and arm himself to the teeth. He threw himself into the role."

Similar to the Training Montage, it consists of the hero (and his optional team) gearing up for the big fight, preparing a multitude of weapons in anticipation of the need for More Dakka, usually taken from a Wall of Weapons. Usually features close-up shots of guns being loaded, knives being sheathed, headbands being tied, etc. If it's a Period Piece, the heroes will strap on swords, daggers, and a few hidden "backup" blades. If it's from the modern era, the heroes put on holsters with pistols, pouches with extra magazines, and maybe a hidden backup gun on an ankle. Never complete without a veritable symphony of metallic clicking noises. If a gun has a scope attached, the character is obliged to put their eye up to it to test it out.

Whether or not all the weapons are used or whether the hero is held to the limits of what is shown is up for grabs.

Frequently there will be one "special" weapon, a small and somewhat unusual one normally, which will play a critical role in the upcoming battle.

As the use of firearms is a modern contrivance, works such as The Iliad and Beowulf often depicted warriors' squires helping their masters don their arms, including legendary named swords and richly decorated armor in scenes heavy with ceremony and ritual.

The A-Team Montage might be seen as a variant. The Transformation Sequence is a close cousin, and the Extended Disarming the opposite. Sometimes ends up as Technology Porn, and in military or law enforcement-themed media it frequently happens during Red Alert. The Activation Sequence could be considered a technological equivalent.

A Sister Trope to Fighter-Launching Sequence, Lipstick-and-Load Montage (the Distaff Counterpart). Contrast Lock and Load, which is going through a proper-use routine to show that character does know how to use a gun.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Parodied in the Parazone sponsorship thingies for The Bill. The cop-show obsessed character does this with cleaning products.
  • Kevin Butler: "Two words for you: Mon Tage."

    Anime & Manga 
  • The second season opening of Attack on Titan features members of the Scout Regiment gearing up for battle interposed with shots of advancing titans.
  • Lyrical Nanoha devotes an inordinate proportion of its Transformation Sequences to shots of the characters' magical armaments, which include a surprisingly large number of moving parts. These evolved into Lock And Load Montages by the second season, when the characters began literally loading their weapons with "cartridges" for extra oomph.
  • Misato in End of Evangelion, when preparing her pistol to go rescue Shinji from his Heroic BSoD. Misato's H&K USP makes some pretty satisfying metallic clicks.
  • The Cowboy Bebop episode "Toys in the Attic" parodies Ripley's Lock and Load Montage in Aliens, with Spike equipping himself with a blowtorch, among other things. The whole episode, as a matter of fact, was one big Shout-Out to the original Alien.
  • Yoko does this in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, though she ends up removing her clothes in favor of her flame-patterned bikini. Did we mention that she's the show's go-to girl for fanservice?
  • It's "during" the battle rather than "before", but Kaze's Magun from Final Fantasy: Unlimited has a pretty awesome pre-fire sequence: whenever he wants to take down a baddie with it, he loads three bullets full of "Soil" into it and fires — summoning a Final Fantasy monster.
  • Done in chapter 15/episode 18 of Soul Eater where, having been at a party, the students put on their usual outfits in order to face Medusa and her followers in battle.
  • Gundam series tend to feature these in the booting up format. If the Gundam is unused and being prepped for the debut battle, it will inevitably take much longer to suit up to give you the rundown. This comes complete with the interface completely opening up before your eyes. If the Gundam has weapons, they will be manually equipped.
  • At the beginning of the Title Sequence for Samurai Gun.
  • Fate/Zero has Kiritsugu and Maiya preparing themselves for combat, which usually involves at least one gun each (usually rifle and pistol, plus attachments like scopes and silencers), ammunition, knives, a couple of varieties of grenade and a few kilos of C4. Finally, there will always be Kiritsugu's Contender and its case of Depleted Phlebotinum Shells.

    Comic Books 
  • Present in most Punisher stories.
    O Brien: Holy shit, did he just put an M-60 into the trunk of a Subaru?
  • A frequent occurrence in the various G.I. Joe comics. The Baroness gets one in IDW's G.I. Joe: Cobra #1 in contrast to a Lipstick-and-Load Montage she undertook at the start of the issue.
  • Jon gearing up for a mission was a standard scene in Jon Sable, Freelance. If the mission was something out of the ordinary, he would be shown packing something unusual in the way of armament.
  • The Ultimates: The Ultimates get ready to fight Hulk at the end of issue 4.
  • Ernie undergoes one at the end of Sachs & Violens #1 when he realises that J.J. is in over her head and in real danger. He opens his old footlocker and brings out all of his old weapons and gear: once again assuming the "Violens" persona he thought he had left behind in Vietnam.

    Fan Works 
  • In chapter 70 of A Growing Affection, Hinata gears up after Naruto is kidnapped while they are swimming.
  • In the Parody Fic ALIEN!!! by Odon, the heroine gears up to fight the alien by strapping on all kinds of equipment, picks up her pulse rifle/grenade launcher/flamethrower and falls flat on her face. She's then told the idea is actually to let the alien wear all that stuff so it drops dead of exhaustion.

    Films — Animation 
  • The final story in the film Heavy Metal combines this with some heavy Fanservice as Taarna, the last Tarakian, prepares to fight her zombie-like enemies, in a leather bikini and stripper boots.
  • Appears in Disney's Mulan as she puts on her father's armor and leaves home to join the army in disguise.
  • The teaser trailer for The Incredibles spoofed this, with Mr. Incredible suiting up. It's when the belt fails to buckle that the audience discovers that he's let himself go.
  • In Home (2015), Tip laying out her make-up kit before disguising Oh is treated as one.
  • In Pocahontas, the song "Savages" doubles as this as both Pocahontas's people and the settlers prepare to "sound the drums of war".
  • In The Iron Giant Hogarth prepares to look for the titular Giant by grabbing his B.B. Gun, his late dad's pilot helmet, a pair of hiking boots and a bomber jacket.
  • Gnomeo gets one before his first raid into the Red yard in Gnomeo & Juliet.
  • Up: Carl deciding to go after Russell. After tossing all of his possessions out of the house to make it light enough to float with the remaining balloons, he puts on Russell's Wilderness Explorer sash, shoulders his cane, and steers the house himself.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Edge of Tomorrow. A scene of J Squad gearing up in their Powered Armor cuts to Rita Vrataski gearing up in hers, to contrast The Ace with the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits William Cage is stuck with.
  • The Interview has one, which ends with a sudden sex scene between Aaron and Sook. Justified, as they were trying to have sex earlier, but were interrupted.
  • The Rambo movie series features a number of iconic example, especially the one from Rambo: First Blood Part II, the most frequently parodied.
    • Rambo: Last Blood has one of these at the start of the second half, when Rambo booby traps his ranch to prepare for a final showdown with Hugo Martinez and his men.
  • Commando: There's two of them; one when Arnie's stealing the weapons and equipment from a surplus store (except he's loading them on a shopping trolley), the other when he's gearing up to go One-Man Army on the enemy base.
  • The Punisher (2004) has a great one as Frank gets ready to storm the castle, complete with Thomas Jane's broody narration.
    This is not vengeance. Revenge is not a valid motive, it's an emotional response. No, not vengeance. Punishment.
  • I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. A parody version occurs as the team prepares to attack Mr. Big's hideout. Slammer preps for the final battle by holstering more than a dozen guns under his long coat. He then slips and falls while leaving the building, causing all the guns inside his coat to go off.
  • Another famous parody, this time with Charlie's brother Emilio Estevez, is in Loaded Weapon 1, when Colt straps on so many weapons that he can't stand up. When we cut to the next scene, he's decided to storm the villain's hideout with just the one gun.
  • The Blade Trilogy has one of these per film. All of them show Blade loading guns, sheathing knives and his sword, and putting on various other weapons. In the second movie, Whistler and the Blood Pack suit up alongside Blade. In the third film, it's Blade and Abigail Whistler who are loading up.
  • Shows up several times in The Lord of the Rings in the ceremonial donning of armour style.
    • Théoden has his armour put on for him by Gamling and uses the free time to recite some (presumably traditional) poetry over a montage of the other men and boys of Rohan despondently taking up old weapons and putting on ill fitting armour.
    • By contrast, Aragorn puts on all his own clothing and gear without a word, and looks very much the workman rapidly and methodically preparing for a hard day's work. (He has at least two decades on Théoden, and so might be expected to have more thoroughly put away childish things.)
    • An earlier scene has a villainous example: goblins strapping armour onto Uruks, pressing weapons into their hands, and marking them with the White Hand of Saruman.
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan had a good one in Act 3 when the Enterprise makes its run for the Mutara Nebula and the big showdown with the starship Reliant. As James Horner's navy music plays, we see repair teams deploying to all sensitive areas of the ship, activity in engineering, and the now-famous shot of actual torpedoes being loaded. Considering the crew is primarily made up of cadets, they have passed their trial by fire and perform with the efficiency you'd expect students of Starfleet Academy to achieve. A callback to this scene appears in Star Trek (2009) after Captain Pike gives the order to "prepare to fire all weapons" with crew members scrambling for their places and two six-round quick-loads of torpedoes being slammed shut.
  • Star Trek: Nemesis has a scene very similar to the Mutara Nebula scene as well, with keycode-locked wall panels that rotate to reveal stored phasers.
  • The Batman movies often have a sequence where Bruce dons the batsuit, punctuated with dramatic angles, closeups, and movements. This convention has since trickled down into some of the animated series.
  • This is subverted in Batman Returns, as while Bruce breaks off a date with Selina Kyle to suit up as Batman, it's intercut with Selina frantically trying to get into her catsuit while still driving.
  • Played Straight in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, where both films open with the titular heroes suiting up to face the movies' villains. The latter also has one for Batgirl when she suits up.
  • Hot Fuzz features a seriously amped-up version of this montage, as Nicholas Angel straps several gun racks' worth of pistols, shotguns and rifles to his body, then stomps out with thudding footsteps from the extra weight, and walks right past the main villain, who is too busy eating ice cream to notice...
  • Both Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness feature Ash tooling up, complete with whooshes and zooms. "Groovy."
  • Every single montage in Shaun of the Dead. Hell, Edgar Wright even does Lock and Load Montages for "getting ready for work" or "going down the pub". Take that, banality!
  • In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Scott gets one of these. Which pauses for several seconds while he ties his shoes. The original purpose of the scene was to get Scott into a new T-shirt for the final battle; the whole sequence, complete with shoelace gag, was worked out in only a few minutes on the set.
  • Ripley locks, loads and duct tapes near the end of Aliens in order to rescue Newt from the Alien Queen. Earlier in the film the entire crew of the Sulaco has a Lock and Load Montage preparing for the drop.
  • Raw Deal (1986), another Schwarzenegger film, except Arnie stuffs the guns into a nylon bag instead of strapping them on.
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Alice suits herself up with articles of clothing that belonged to her dead friends before going off to fight Freddy.
  • Phantasm:
    • The second film has two: one where Reggie and Mike break into a hardware store to get any weapons they can improvise (and Mike makes a makeshift flamethrower while Reggie makes his now-iconic four-barreled shotgun) and later on grab the weapons from their car's trunk to storm the Tall Man's base.
    • In the fourth film, when Reggie loads his guns and straightens his bow tie before going off to guard the hearse.
  • Predator series
    • In Predator, Dutch prepares primitive weapons and covers himself with mud prior to fighting the title opponent.
    • In Predator 2, Harrigan strapping on and preparing his weapons before confronting the Predator in the slaughterhouse.
  • The Matrix: "So what do you need? Besides a miracle." "Guns. Lots of guns." We do not see the actual tooling up, just the racks of virtual weapons and Neo slapping down the cocking lever on an MP5K-PDW.
  • Parodied in The Pacifier, when Vin Diesel's SEAL-turned-babysitter character gears up with baby bottles, diapers, and the like for a walk in the park.
  • Short Circuit 2 had robot Johnny 5 "suit" up for revenge in a Radio Shack after getting essentially pounded into scrap by a pair of crooks and having to rebuild himself. With random electronic components. To turn himself into a Punk Rock Android. Complete with Mohawk.
  • Done in The Last Samurai, with Katsumoto's whole village abuzz with training, meditating, and making arms, armor, and incendiaries. Algren's suiting up near the end is particularly contemplative.
  • Though the protagonist hitman in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai does not decorate himself with tons of metal; he always meticulously checks his guns (but then, there are "meditative" scenes when he cleans barrels and even assembles a silencer).
  • Parodied in Spy Hard. When the protagonists are finally finished with gearing up, they are surrounded by mooks and get captured.
  • The Hebrew Hammer: The Kwanzaa Liberation Front has one of these every time they show up — only it's made entirely of them cocking their guns.
  • The Sylvester Stallone movie Cobra had a different take on this; scenes of the bikers approaching the small town where he's hiding are intercut with Stallone slowly assembling his Jatimatic submachinegun which had been carried stripped down in a suitcase.
  • The Kevin Bacon film, Death Sentence, features such a montage where Kevin Bacon is in his shed shaving his head à la Taxi Driver and fooling around with his newly bought weapons (up until this point of the film, Kevin Bacon plays a family man who has most likely never used a gun before in his life so he is most likely trying to figure out how the guns operate) before embarking on his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • The action flick Supreme Sanction subverts it (technically): during the opening, we see someone prepare a sniper rifle, but when the actual shooting occurs, the protagonist uses completely different weapon: an Austrian Steyr AUG assault rifle (and she uses it like a sniper rifle).
  • Parodied in Raising Arizona. H.I. is going back and forth speechifying, putting another handgun in his pants every time he reappears on screen. Finally, he appears with a shotgun.
    "So let's go, honey! (cocks gun) Let's go get Nathan Jr.!"
  • Used in Malcolm X, where we see several men sitting around a table, loading numerous weapons. Inverted in that it's not a heroic moment—they're preparing to assassinate the title character.
  • At the Opera Tonight of Repo! The Genetic Opera consists of characters getting ready for the titular event. The Repo Man just can't help packing a couple of scalpels.
  • In the Spy Kids films, this is seen quite a bit with the gadgets and such.
  • Done to the tune of 'Zorba's Dance' in Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels when Dog's gang are getting ready to ambush the main characters, while at the same time Rory Breaker's crew are on their way to attack said main characters — who are themselves heading back to their place. As is Big Chris, who's being followed there by the Scousers.
  • Split Second (1992) (the 1992 movie) had one of those near the end when the two cops prepare for their showdown with the monster.
  • The 1984 vigilante movie Savage Streets has Linda Blair's character Brenda, after the death of her friend Francine at the hands of the Scars, suiting up in black leather and grabbing a switchblade as John Farnham's "Justice for One" plays. The real weapons she uses against the gang (a crossbow and some bear traps) come later.
  • In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, there is a montage of the pirate fleet hoisting their colours just before battle, after a Rousing Speech by the Pirate King Elizabeth Swann.
  • Sin City has one when Marv goes in for a rematch against Kevin.
  • Gladiator has the opening sequence of the Romans preparing for battle against the Germanic tribe. Arrows are nocked, ballistas are wound, to much clicking and clacking.
  • Eraser. Arnie has a brief one when he's with a group of federal agents gearing up to raid a house. It serves as a Chekhov's Gun by showing the belt knife Arnie uses to escape The Mole later on.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Tony Stark suiting up before he takes the fight to the Afghan warlords in Iron Man is Technology Porn, a Lock-and-Load Montage, and a Moment of Awesome mixed into one.
    • In Captain America: The First Avenger, there's a brief sequence with Captain America arming his motorcycle with weapons and wielding his shield right before the proper montage of him and his team in action against the forces of HYDRA.
    • In The Avengers, once our heroes decide to collectively start, erm, avenging, we're treated to a montage of Iron Man making repairs to his armor (prepping the new one comes later), Captain America suiting up, Black Widow arming her gauntlets, Thor grabbing Mjölnir and donning his full armor, and Hawkeye checking his bow.
    • In Guardians of the Galaxy, before taking on the Big Bad. The montage exhibits the style of each character: knife in the boot for Gamora, no vest for Drax The Destroyer, and Rocket Racoon's BFG.
    • In Doctor Strange, after the Ancient One dies, there's a scene of Strange putting his (sentient) cloak on and setting the collar upright. The moment is then completely ruined when the cloak (who noticed Strange's face was still wet from crying) starts wiping his tears off.
      Strange: [irritated] Stop.
    • In Thor: Ragnarok, the montage is of Valkyrie putting her old valkyrie armor on and preparing her weapons before the climactic battle. It's a also quite symbolic of her accepting back her role as protector of Asgard after centuries of hiding.
  • In The Wild Hunt, one occurs as Bjorn, Erik and their allies prepare a raid into the Celts' camp. Tamara even "equips" her cleavage.
  • In Black Hawk Down, there's a montage of the Rangers gearing up for their mission, complete with rock music blaring in the background.
  • The trailer of Skyfall features one. This also occurs before the final battle at the titular household of the same name, complete with training with the weapons and setting up booby traps.
    • In Spectre, Bond and M get a low-key for the trope but epic one as they prepare to go rogue in order to bring down C. Madeleine, the audience surrogate, watches on in a mix of awe and shock as they lock and load.
  • Tank features a "lock and load montage" as the protagonist fires up his Sherman tank to rescue his son.
  • In G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the Joes (and Storm Shadow) go to General Joe Colton's house to arm themselves. We are greeted to a montage showcasing his over-the-top stockpile of weaponry concealed in his suburban kitchen.
  • Hooper starts with a long scene of the stuntman Sonney Hooper (played by Burt Reynolds) donning protective gear.
  • The short film parody Night of the Living Bread has the male protagonists attaching extension cords and turning on electric toasters before taking on the zombie bread slices.
  • Man on Fire has a variation. We see John Creasy buy the guns alongside other pieces of equipment (like additional cell phones presumably for calling without being traced), most of which get used at some point afterwards in the movie. Set to Nine Inch Nails' "The Mark Has Been Made".
  • Dredd opens with the titular Judge suiting up for work. It's the only scene in the movie where Dredd doesn't wear his helmet, but since he spends the entire scene in shadow with his back to the camera, you still can't see his face.
  • Dom, Brian, and Shaw go through one before the Final Battle in Furious 7. Set to "Tempest" by Deftones.
  • Happens in The Heat, where Sarah and Shannon are gearing up as they prepare to infiltrate Larkin's warehouse.
  • Lampshaded in Cooties.
    Wade: Remember that suiting-up montage in every action film? This is that scene!
  • The Mummy Returns shared between Ardeth Bay and Rick O'connell as they prepare to rescue Evelyn close to the beginning of the film
  • Kick-Ass. Hit Girl arming for her Roaring Rampage of Revenge from a Wall of Weapons is intercut with Kick Ass in the adjourning bathroom, cleaning blood off his face after being tortured.
  • The opening scene of Jack Reacher, with emphasis on the load part. Scenes of the killer using a reloading press to handload his ammunition are intercut with the sniper carrying out the murders that set forth the plot.
  • Happens in Suicide Squad (2016), when the Squad gears up at the airport before entering Midway City. Probably also counts as a Lipstick-and-Load Montage for Harley Quinn.
  • Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves shows the Sherwood gang making themselves into a fighting force. Including casting metal arrowheads, attaching them to shafts, and fletching them. It turns out casting metal is something you can do camped deep in the woods, with just a hot enough fire and simple equipment.
  • From the John Wick series:
    • John Wick has two - the first is his "suiting up" sequence where he digs up his old hitman gear and prepares to defend himself against another home invasion. Afterwards, he spends his first night at the Continental loading up for the Red Circle shootout.
    • John Wick: Chapter 2 has another one set at the Continental in Rome, where Wick buys up all the gear he'll need for the mission. In the second movie, the process of getting his equipment is treated like preparing for a formal event: John going to a tailor to get his suit measured, and visiting a Sommelier for a "tasting" - in which the Sommelier recommends various weapons for different roles, treating each one like a fine vintage of wine, and even offers up a set of freshly-ground knives for "dessert."
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum has John and Charon load up for a confrontation with the High Table. Charon explains the special ammunition they'll be using while John puts spare magazines in every available space on his belt. Later, the two do another hasty load up with heavier weapons, with Charon bluntly presenting John with solid metal slugs for their shotguns.
  • Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman: Santiago undergoes a lock-and-load montage when he decides to return to the Tango Club and rescue the Machine Gun Woman. He straps on all of the weapons he finds in the back of the Machine Gun Woman's jeep; transforming himself into a skinny version of Rambo.
  • Night of the Demons (2009): Once Maddie is the last human standing, there is a scene of her gearing up as she prepares to take on the six demons.
  • In Gang of Roses, Rachel undergoes one as she takes her old outlaw gear out of storage and starps her guns back on in the first time in years.
  • In A Low Down Dirty Shame, used to demonstrate that Shame is back in a good head space when he not only equips with weapons and his nice car, he shaves.
  • This is a staple of Home Alone, with Kevin McCallister turning his home into an obstacle course of booby traps.
  • In Hobo With a Shotgun, Rip and Grinder get a lock and load montage after The Drake calls them and hires them to take out the Hobo. Later, Abby gets one when she breaks into the pawn shop and arms herself with items from its stock, including the lawnmower.
  • In Ten Dead Men, there is an extended sequence of Ryan gearing up before he storms the tower where the Projects manager has holed up with Franklin's gang. Viewers now learn that holdall Ryan retrieved much earlier in the film is filled with military grade hardware. And every weapon he takes from the bag gets used in the ensuing firefight.
  • Serial Killing 4 Dummys: When Casey prepares to go and kill his neighbor's dog, there is a scene of him gearing up and hanging the power tools he bought all over himself.
  • Witness has a downplayed version as befits the rest of the movie. The car driven by the villains appears on the crest above the Amish village, then quietly reverses out of sight. Three men then exit the car, remove shotguns from the trunk and load them from a box of shotgun shells, then enter the village on foot.
  • Parodied at the start of Dial Code Santa Claus when Thomas, an adolescent boy who's a huge fan of '80s action movies, "gears up" for a play session in a scene that directly homages the example from Commando, only with a scrawny kid in the place of Ahnold. Then the house gets broken into by a psychopath, and Thomas does it again for real.
  • The Princess: Linh, Violet, and the Princess get one of these before the final battle, gearing up in preparation with weapons. Or at least, Linh and the Princess gear up, Violet just puts on armor that's too big for her.
  • Conan the Barbarian (1982) has two examples:
    • The first one has the heroes prepare themselves before sneaking into the Temple of Doom — they sharpen their weapons, blacken them over fire to avoid giving off light reflexes, prepare and then cover themselves with body paint (also apparently for camouflage), then perform the obligatory round of sheathing the weapons.
    • The second straddles the line between this trope and the sister ones — in anticipation of the battle of the Mounds, they set up traps, carefully prepare the battleground, and finally gear up with arms taken from the dead.

    Literature 
  • Older Than Feudalism: The gearing up scene is one of the most frequent formulae (that is, groups of lines periodically repeated almost identically with a few significant variations) of The Iliad. Several heroes get one and each one reveals something about them: while Menelaus has the "standard" scene, Paris is seen donning borrowed armour (which marks him as not a real warrior), and Patroclus puts on Achilles' but is unable to lift his great spear, a foreshadowing of him being ultimately unable to fill Achilles' shoes and dying because of it. Later, when Achilles has his own Lock and Load Montage and is seen grabbing said spear, you know He's Back! and arse is going to be kicked.
  • Beowulf also includes a scene in which the character donning his armor is described as an almost religious ritual.
  • The Discworld novel Pyramids begins with Teppic the student assassin preparing for his final exam by loading up an arsenal of knives, poison darts, climbing gear, piano cheesewire, etc. He then puts on his hat, stands up to look in the mirror, and falls over backward. With echo scenes later, involving crazy symbolic ceremonial gear or being ordered to throw down all weapons.
    • Also done in Wyrd Sisters when Granny Weatherwax puts on her black cloak and secures her pointy witch hat with hairpins.
      [The pins] slid on one by one, as unstoppable as the wrath of God. No samurai, no questing knight, was ever dressed with as much ceremony. Finally she surveyed herself in the mirror, gave a thin little smile of satisfaction, and left via the back door. The air of menace was only slightly dispelled by the sound of her running up and down outside, trying to get her broomstick started.
  • In A Brother's Price, Jerin decides that man or not, he is still a Whistler and must do everything he can to protect his wives from the impending threat, so he puts on his old walking-robe with the pockets, goes to his wedding chest, and straps on his lockpicks, knife, and derringer - a tiny pistol. He is then promptly kidnapped.
  • Long running action/adventure book series The Executioner frequently features scenes with the protagonist Mack Bolan(and sometimes his allies) loading assault rifles, holstering pistols, sheathing blades, and putting grenades into pouches. This is often accompanied by a description of the caliber and features of the various guns and sometimes giving specific reasons why Bolan chose a particular weapon or weapons.
  • The first chapter of Trail of Lightning features one where Maggie runs down her equipment before going on the mission: shotgun, special shells, handgun, hunting knife, and two flavors of throwing knives.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • The station itself gets one in "The Way of the Warrior" after revealing that Deep Space Nine now sports a complement of 5000 photon torpedoes, there's a sequence of the photon launchers deploying from various parts of the station.
    • "Valiant" features one before the ill-fated battle.
  • Star Trek: Voyager:
    • In "Macrocosm", Captain Janeway gets to do her own Ripley impression as she girds for battle with giant flying one-celled organisms.
    • Another one occurs in "Scorpion (Part 1)" as Voyager approaches Borg space (specifically, a Borg-free corridor running through the region) and the crew prepares for a possible confrontation.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise features one in "Countdown" before the battle to rescue Hoshi Sato and destroy the superweapon.
  • Chuck:
    • The entire series starts with one of these. It turns out to be a subversion, as it's actually Morgan trying to sneak Chuck out of the house. Even funnier is that Morgan has a grappling hook to "climb down" from Chuck's window... Chuck lives on the first floor.
    • A mild spoof: as Chuck and Sarah prepare for their first date, we see a montage of Sarah strapping on body armor, prepping poisoned darts, checking throwing knives, and loading her gun, intercut with Chuck combing his hair, choosing a shirt, tying his shoes, etc.
  • The Babylon 5 episode "No Surrender, No Retreat" combines this with Captain's Log; the log is read over shots of fighters launching, White Stars flying in formation, etc.
  • Supernatural liked using these in the first season, though they're common enough to be understated when they happen now.
  • Parodied in Misfits, where several of the characters are shown "gearing-up" for their confrontation with the Virtue organization. Their "gear" consists of ipods and rubber gloves (it sort of makes sense in context, but still looks really silly).
  • Firefly:
  • Appears in Kamen Rider Agito while Agito, Gills, and Another Agito get the usual Transformation Sequence, G3/G3-X has to manually don his armor and weapons in a dramatic fashion.
  • Spoofed in the Doctor Who episode "Dalek" when the Doctor goes through van Statten's collection of alien weaponry tossing them aside with comments like "broken... broken... hairdryer". When he finds one that he thinks is suitable, he says "Lock and load!" just in case we missed the point.
  • Parodied in Spaced — Mike pulls a Commando-style montage (with knife/grenades) getting kitted up for paintballing before dropping in Ash's 'Groovy'.
  • Teen Wolf:
    • Chris Argent and his associates preparing to hunt down Derek, Scott, and the Season 1 Alpha.
    • Allison's preparations to hunt down Derek for the death of her mother.
  • The Aquabats! Super Show! episode "ShowTime!" has a musical number appropriately titled "Showtime!" in which the band gears up to stop a downtown menace.
  • Full Metal Jousting: Several times during the series, we are shown scenes of the contestants suiting up in modern versions of 16th century jousting armor.
  • NCIS features one when Team Gibbs prepares to defend an abandoned naval black-ops ship from Russian pirates.
  • The Defenders (2017): The fifth episode, "Take Shelter", opens with such a montage as the Hand leaders Madame Gao, Murakami and Sowande plus their henchmen gear up to assault the heroes at the Royal Dragon Restaurant, accompanied by orchestral music. Much of the lock-and-load element of the montage is of Sowande and his men riding in the back of a van, with the men on the passenger's side sharpening knives while the men seated on the driver's side load bullets into assault rifles.
  • The Arrowverse has a suit-up trailer that features many of the heroes from its four live-action series (with Black Lightning making a cameo despite not being a part of the Arrowverse at the time). There are some humorous moments, such as almost everyone being ready when Barry walks in, clearly unprepared (not even shaven) and munching on a Big Belly Burger. Then again, it takes him only a second to get ready and speed out the door, once again annoying Oliver, who likes the more deliberate approach. He turns to Kara and sees that she also managed to change in her costume in only a second.

    Music 
  • "Jerusalem", of all things.
    Bring me my bow of burning gold!
    Bring me my arrows of desire!
    Bring me my spear, o clouds, unfold!
    Bring me my chariot of fire!
  • Dethklok uses an absolutely lovely one in Murmaider, illustrated in the song's official music video:
    There are no fingerprints underwater
    Nothing to tie one to your crime
    And if you seek vengeance,
    You will need your instruments of pain
    You'll need your:
    Knivesves, check
    Rope, check
    Dagger, check
    Chains, check
    Rocks, check
    Laser beams, check
    Acid, check
    Bodybag, check
    But beware, for when you quench your bloodthirst,
    Others will seek vengeance on you
    And they won't rest until you're dead.
    They'll have their:
    Shiv, check
    Pipe, check
    Hammer, check
    Axe, check
    Subject, check
    Location, check
    Desire, check
    Vengeance, check
  • "Cop Killer" by Ice T and Body Count
    I got my black shirt on
    I got my black gloves on
    I got my ski mask on
    This shit's been too long
    I got my twelve gauge sawed off
    I got my headlights turned off
    I'm 'bout to bust some shots off
    I'm 'bout to dust some cops off

    Mythology & Religion 
  • Before The Achilleid switches to Ulysses perspective, the narrator describes how each Greek city-state is preparing for the Trojan War. Highlights include mentions of the peaceful Arcadia shearing all their sheep to provide soldiers with clothing and the legendary Mount Othrys being stripped for its steel and stone.

    Theater 
  • The Black Prince gets an elaborate arming scene before the Battle of Poitiers in Shakespeare-and-unknown-writing-partner's Edward III.
  • The surviving fragment of Sophocles' The Progeny was apparently part of one:
Speaker A: ... gobbling the whole, sharpening the flashing iron.
Speaker B: And the helmets are shaking their purple-dyed crests, and for the wearers of breast-plates the weavers are striking up the wise shuttle's songs, that wakes up those who are asleep.
Speaker A: And he is gluing together the chariot's rail.

    Video Games 
  • Generally speaking, most shooter games where the player can carry more than two guns will tend to have in-game moments like this, although they are most common after big shootouts, as once the player has emptied all their guns clearing a large area of mooks they'll have to sit down for a moment and reload all of them.
  • Mass Effect 2 has a lock and load montage right before you take the Normandy through the Omega-4 Relay. From a story perspective, the entire freaking game is this, as everything you do (recruiting and getting squad members loyal to you, upgrading the ship and weapons, etc.) is in preparation for the final mission.
  • Body Harvest for the N64 features an opening cinematic where the protagonist suits up while the aliens invade his space station. It looks bad ass up until the part where he gets shot.
  • Similarly, the first Worms game starts by showing one of the worm soldiers loading and strapping on everything from pistols to a bazooka, readying them to rock and roll. After a moment of standing there looking like a badass, he topples over. This itself was a parody of the intro sequence to Operation Wolf.
  • In the Xbox remake of Ninja Gaiden, Ryu Hayabusa is shown tightening the straps on his outfit and putting three kunai into holders.
  • Although the player starts with only one weapon, the demo for the video game Dark Forces began with a sequence of Player Character Kyle Katarn strapping on his equipment. Strangely, this montage was absent from the full version of the game, though fan-created mods put it back in.
  • Done every time you make a major kill in Assassin's Creed, but with the most notable being Altair's preparation for the final assassination target, in which he does the most well-recognized form of the montage (swinging his swords to test the balance, tightening straps etc.).
  • The 1987 arcade shooting gallery game Operation Wolf began with a Lock and Load montage sequence based loosely on a similar sequence from the 1985 action film Rambo: First Blood Part II.
  • The Trauma Center games always show a quick sequence of the main surgeon dramatically donning surgical gear and striking a pose just before each operation.
  • The beginning of the first Splinter Cell game features Sam Fisher gearing up en route to his first mission to The Crystal Method's "Name of the Game".
  • The Witcher's opening sequence features a prolonged montage as Geralt prepares his monster-hunting tools, his swords, a knife, a silver chain, drinks potions etc...
  • Happens to Barry in episode 4 of Alan Wake. It's off-screen, but we learn about it via a manuscript page, which also lampshades it.
  • Armored Core series love this. Even the very first game feature an Armored Core being constructed, from each individual parts starting from the Core selected, attached, briefly tested before finally the head is attached and the mecha is activated. Several variations exist like in Master of Arena's powerup opening or more recently, For Answer's White Glint being armed by having a rifle airlifted using an AH-64.
  • The openning cutscene of Halo: Combat Evolved features the Pillar of Autumn's Marine complement gearing up to repel boarders.
  • Team Fortress 2's Medic gets one of these in his Meet the Team video, where he prepares to set out to the battlefield with the Heavy.(Not that other heavy.)
  • At the end of Policenauts, Jonathan Ingram has one near the beginning of the climactic final act of the game.
  • In Perfect Dark, the cutscene before the last level shows Joanna loading a series of guns while preparing for an assault on the Skedar homeworld.
  • Sgt. Rex Power Colt does this in the opening cutscene of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, and finishes it off by grabbing his crotch.
  • The intro video of Warcraft II has soldiers running past a rack of spears and swords, each grabbing one as they go past, along with shots of cannon crews loading their pieces and running them out the gun ports of the fortress.
  • The intro video of XCOM: Enemy Unknown features a brief montage of a squad of XCOM operatives gearing up for their first mission, interspersed by shots of the Council's spokesperson explaining your (and their) goals in the game. In a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, the squad in the intro consists of five soldiers, while in the actual first mission of the game, you are limited to just four, and won't unlock the fifth party slot for several more hours of gameplay.

    Webcomics 
  • Cry 'Havoc' features a page of the mercenaries loading machine guns and swords before setting off across the jungle.
  • The "Let's kick fang!" sequence in Sluggy Freelance, when Riff, Aylee, Kiki and Bun-bun prepare to rescue Torg and Zoë from vampires. Featured weapons include sharpened stakes, a stake-launcher, a Star of David, high-power lamps, a whoopee cushion filled with holy water, a ferret flying device, Bun-bun's switchblade (now with silver-plating) and Aylee's claws (which really don't need any improving).
  • Spoofed in this Sam & Fuzzy strip, adding in (for no apparent reason) pouring a fizzy solution into a test tube and building a snowman to the more standard montage fare. A part of the strip currently provides the page image.
  • The Order of the Stick has a variety of these, getting lengthier as the strip developed a plot and the battles got bigger. The most elaborate one to date was when Azure City was about to be invaded, and the characters' preparations included writing new spell scrolls, forging a new sword, and making out.
  • The Senkari has one whenever Freija dons her armor.
  • The Non-Adventures of Wonderella has one for Wonderella (kind of combined with Lipstick-and-Load Montage because it's also about changing into costume) after she hears there's an Alien Invasion near the Newberg Mall. She even prepares a shotgun, which certainly isn't something she uses or needs. She doesn't go to fight the alien invasion, though; the news just reminded her that she's supposed to be at the opening ceremony for the mall.

    Web Original 
  • A standard feature of FIGHT THE PATRIARCHY photosets on Tumblr.

    Web Videos 
  • In Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the Doctor converting his Stun Ray into a Death Ray in Act III. Also at the end of Act III, the Doctor changes the color scheme of his Mad Scientist getup.
  • The Street Fighters have this in Street Fighter: The Later Years complete with a cheap imitation of the song Battle Without Honor Or Humanity and ending with Zangief wearing a too short speedo.
  • Parodied in the first part of Kickassia. The Nostalgia Critic's team is loading up for battle, with characters like Eight-Bit Mickey having 300-style muscles drawn onto his chest, Paw putting on a pair of headphones dramatically, the Cinema Snob taking off his glasses, spinning around, and putting them back on, and Handsome Tom simply standing there, having changed to a red "Villain" shirt off screen, and shrugging.
  • The Blood Gulch Crew get one in the season 13 finale of Red vs. Blue as they prepare to go out swinging against Hargrove's destroyer full of Space Pirates, using the various equipment stored in his trophy room. Specifically, Grif takes back his Brute Shot, Donut dual wields his magnum with the one The Director killed himself with and Tucker dons The Meta's armor. We never actually see these weapons in use, however as Church enters bullet time and records one final message to his friends, telling them that the Meta's armor will get them through the fight, but he will have to fragment himself to make it happen. The screen cuts to black right as the Space Pirates breach the door.

    Western Animation 
  • Done in every episode of Abby Hatcher as Abby and Bozzly are suiting up to help the Fuzzly in trouble.
  • The penultimate episode of Kim Possible has Kim suiting up in battle armor, then picking up Ron in her Cool Car, making it seem like she's going to take down Drakken for good. Turns out it's for a puma in a tree.
  • Rambo: The Force of Freedom had a stock version of this montage, ending with Rambo tying his headband, that appeared in every episode.
  • Ricky Zoom does this often whenever Ricky and her parents gear up, in the form of a Transformation Sequence.
  • The Venture Brothers heavily parodies the scene from Batman (1989), as Monarch henchman Number 21 puts on his minion uniform while singing "Mars, Bringer Of War".
  • Dexter's Laboratory loved this one, naming it the "suit up" sequence which made DeeDee squeal with glee whenever it happened.
  • SWAT Kats used a "suit up" sequence for the characters, especially in the later episodes. A long "suit-up, get in plane, have plane lower on its elevator for takeoff, engage engines, fly through tunnel to surface" sequence more like. Looked cool of course, most things on that show did, but it was a little long.
  • When The Tick and Arthur are in the lair of the otherwise unassuming Sewer Urchin, they watch as the underground superhero undergoes one of these, strapping up with such objects as lemons, guns that shoot melted butter, large claw-crackers, and soap. All of these items prove indispensable.
  • Star Wars: Clone Wars "Chapter 21" has a montage of the ARC Troopers arming themselves just before they swoop in to rescue the Jedi.
  • Spoofed in an episode of The Powerpuff Girls (1998), also of the Old Superhero variety. Captain Righteous and his sidekick suit-up, but as they're already quite old, the montage takes around ten times as long as it would have if they were younger.
  • Beast Wars had a few. The episode "Coming of the Fuzors Part 1" had a subversion: as Rattrap summarizes the current dire situation to Dinobot, Dinobot loads up on weapons and ammunition out of sight. The next time Dinobot's on-screen, he's more than ready to meet the enemy.
    • Transformers: Prime has one for both the second and third season finales displaying the Autobots checking and equipping powerful weaponry before teleporting to the respective climatic battles.
  • Family Guy had Lois do this in order to kill her son Stewie for the sake of the whole world. Luckily, the whole episode turned out to be a computer simulation being seen by Stewie himself, to the dismay and relief of fans.
  • A SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon has SpongeBob and Patrick going through one as they prepare for a day of jellyfishing.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender had a very dramatic one before the Day of Black Sun invasion. Katara loads up on four pouches of water, Sokka puts on his sword and cool wolf armor, Toph gets Earthbender gear and a helmet, Appa gets some badass armor made by Sokka, Aang dramatically shaves his head and Zuko takes off his armor and unfixes his hair in preparation for his Heel–Face Turn.
  • The Legend of Korra: Toph's daughter Lin gets one in "Out of the Past", metalbending her armor onto herself from across the room. Tony Stark would be impressed.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "Dragonshy" features a montage of Twilight's friends getting ready to track down a hibernating dragon and convince him to sleep elsewhere so his smoke will stop fouling up the air over Equestria.
  • Invoked for intimidation purposes, lampshaded and parodied all at once on Archer;
    Archer: Do you get it? Because I swear to god, I will strip back down and show you all over again-
    Pharmacist: Yeah I get it, I get it! You have a lot of guns!
    Archer: And a knife!
    • In Archer 1999, Archer dons power armour and a massive gun to hunt down an unknown alien on the ship... and can barely move so he takes it off.
  • The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes has a scene like this in the series finale, after the Avengers decide to call their other superhero friends (Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Black Widow, Wolverine, etc.) for help.
  • The Grand Finale of Justice League Unlimited has a sequence where all of the members of the extended League (and Hawkman) gear up for the fight with Darkseid and his army.

Alternative Title(s): Arming Montage, Arming Scene

Top

True Getting the Wishes

How well does it match the trope?

4 (2 votes)

Example of:

Main / LockAndLoadMontage

Media sources:

Report