Alucard: I take enthusiastic walks through the woods.
Integra: And kill homicidal vampire priests.
Alucard: Very enthusiastic walks.
Integra: And kill homicidal vampire priests.
Alucard: Very enthusiastic walks.
The Menacing Stroll is the lithe, athletic walk of the perennial badass. 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. It is a message expressed in Body Language, an unspoken but clear statement that they are just that awesome. It can be found in assassins, thieves, and the leaner species of badass. A Feet-First Introduction can ensure that the first detail revealed about a character is the powerful way they walk.
Compare Unflinching Walk when it's coupled with Stuff Blowing Up. Team Power Walk is when multiple heroes do this together. A little bit faster than the Slow Walk. Compare Ominous Walk, which is more monstrous and predatory.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Cell from Dragon Ball Z practically oozes evil as he walks.
- Ghost in the Shell's Major Motoko Kusanagi. It helps that she can walk through walls and anyone stupid enough to stand in her path.
- As part of his thrill in screwing with every single person's head, Alucard from Hellsing tends to do this instead of just rushing forward and ending a fight instantly. Even when being shot by about 10,000 bullets he barely breaks stride. Bonus points for once doing it down the side of a high-rise hotel.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- The series tends to put the "Menacing" in menacing stroll. To the point where whenever it happens (or anything "Menacing" for that matter), Japanese onomatopoeia "ゴゴゴゴ" begins to float around the character in question, which roughly translate into "Menacing". To be more specific...
- Part 3 of the manga/anime Stardust Crusaders features a scene where Jotaro confronts Dio. They both begin to walk toward each other slowly before attacking
◊, which has been parodied too many times to count.
Fanfiction
- This, in addition to their larger size, is what separates soldiers from the workers in the Kalash93 story, You Obey.
- Child of the Storm sometimes has Harry do this in the sequel, particularly when looking to make a point. However, it usually manifests as a menacing, predatory stalk that's a bit too graceful to be human, and promptly makes the observer's instincts stand up and scream.
- In the Discworld, the Shades of Anhk-Morpork are a place where normally no woman would dare to walk alone by night. Given sufficient reason and fired by anger, Miss Alice Band conveys via body language that of all the dangerous scary things that could be encountered by night in a dark badly-lit Wretched Hive, a Lady Assassin with vengeance on her mind and anger to burn off is pretty much the scariest. Other denizens of the night notice this and give her a wide berth and lots of personal space.
- When You Love It (Here Are My Upturned Hands) by RayShippouUchiha, Ichigo comes home from the store to find Kisuke has been taken. He takes the time to collect the dirty tea cups and put away the ice cream(to enjoy when they return) before calmly annihilating everyone who gets in his way when he goes to get him back.
Film
- Deconstructed by Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, 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.
- In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Winter Soldier often walks like this, most notably during the highway ambush.
- Godzilla often thunders forth at a slow, ominous pace as he destroys any and everything close and clashes with any monsters in his way.
- The Grand Budapest Hotel: Dmitri attempts this while stalking Agatha down a hotel hallway, but when he rounds a corner he realizes that she started running as soon as she was out of sight, forcing him to start frantically sprinting after her.
- 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.
- 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.
- Logan: Laura pulls an epic one combined with Decapitation Presentation, The Gloves Come Off, and Kubrick Stare. After Pierce sends a couple mooks into Logan's home to retrieve her, Laura emerges alone and tosses the head of one of the Reavers at Pierce's feet. Then she throws away the cuffs the guy had been carrying. And casts aside her backpack. Then the claws come out. All while stalking towards Pierce and an army of men twice her size with murder in her eyes. It's made even more badass by the fact it's being done by an eleven year-old girl, and that her actress, Dafne Keen, completely sells it.
- No Name on the Bullet manages to have a killer stroll menacingly away from his victim: an old man whose daughter he is threatening, goading the man into following him.
- Pirates of the Caribbean's Captain Barbossa, when looking to make an entrance - he even manages it after losing his leg. Captain Jack Sparrow, not so much.
- Used narmfully in the already So Bad, It's Good Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2.
- Due to his poor (but surprisingly strong) physical condition, Ricky can only walk in a Menacing Stroll in Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out!.
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie: In the opening scene, Bowser's Castle lands in front of the penguin's castle and Kamek introduces Bowser, the King of the Koopas, followed by Bowser slowly walking out of the statue of his head attached to the front of his castle while being backed by fire.
- Sword Of Doom Ryunosuke never moves faster than a sedate walk, even while fighting his way through a horde of enemies.
- The various models of Terminator can pull this off even when buck naked. Robert Patrick was even cast as the T-1000 for his ability to do this at a very brisk pace.
- Valkyrie does an impressive example in Thor: Ragnarok as she prepares to join battle with Hela's forces on the bridge.
- Lockdown of Transformers: Age of Extinction has this down pat.
Literature
- The Wheel of Time calls this "Cat Crossing The Courtyard". In New Spring, Lan does one of these unconsciously when agitated called "Leopard in High Grass". A horse groom who sees this runs away.
- The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden walks like he's "heading to tear someone's face off" when he is in a bad neighborhood to avoid looking like a good target for some mugger. Granted, he most certainly is not a good target for mugging, usually being outfitted with a variety of magical defenses, but having a gun shoved in his face is still a liability.
Live-Action Television
- Done very well multiple times in the miniseries The Deliberate Stranger, about the exploits of Serial Killer Ted Bundy. A happy-go-lucky unsuspecting victim would walk past, the camera would pan down to the ground, and the viewer would get a shot of Bundy's feet as he slowly stalked her.
Video Games
- Altair in Assassin's Creed. It's genetic - Ezio, Connor, and Desmond walk the same way. Altair's traditional robes make it the most obvious out of the four though. Alternatively, it's only Desmond that has the walk, and he's projecting it into the others when he's in the Animus.
- Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. Particularly notable when Shepard walks into the Shadow Broker's lair despite knowing that he is "very large" and that anyone who has gone in there has never come back out. And then Shepard points a gun at the Broker's head from 10 feet away.
- How we are introduced to the Pyro of Team Fortress 2 in the video Meet The Pyro. His menacing stroll sends the others running. Of course, s/he assumes s/he's just skipping in a Sugar Bowl world.
- Kingdom Hearts has Master Xehanort and his various selves. When he's not invoking Power Floats, he's usually just walking slowly. And it's terrifying.
- In Dragon Age: Origins, during the Fade portion of the Circle quest, the Spirit transformation engages in this when you're walking. It's a very slow way of moving, but damn if it doesn't look awesome. When you move faster or enter combat, it switches over to Power Floats.
- The Burnt Ivory King from Dark Souls II is introduced as an ominous silhouette quickly walking out of the massive Hellgate that appears in the middle of your fight against the Charred Loyce Knights in the Old Chaos. As soon as he completely emerges from it, his boss theme starts blaring and he joins the fray by sprinting towards you and your allies. He is by far the biggest threat in this boss battle.
- Wesker moves with a menacing, confident stride when he isn't Flash Stepping in Resident Evil 5's The Mercenaries mode.
- Resident Evil 2 (Remake): Mr. X's main form of locomotion; neither concentrated gunfire, nor zombies, nor walls can halt his slow, but constant stride towards you, and he searches the area in much the same speed if he loses you. He will only sprint after you if you make the mistake of blasting his hat off.
Western Animation
- Amon in the first season finale of The Legend of Korra where he comes off like someone from a slasher movie.
- TRON: Uprising: One of Tesler's trademarks. Dyson also has one, albeit slightly understated.
- Nightmare Moon from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic does a brief one in the second half of the season 4 premier episode.
- Katz is known for this among fans. Most of all in his debut episode on Courage the Cowardly Dog where it cuts between Courage frantically running as far away as he can, set to the panic theme, and a shot of Katz' feet strolling casually as his jazzy leitmotif plays.
Real Life
