This actually happened a while ago but it has ruined many action (usually classic kids action) movies for me. In Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, the scene where the turtle are fighting the foot in the lab, I took my attention off the main action happening in the center of the screen and refocused on the background actors. They are just kind of wiggling around, moving their body parts. If the foot really wanted to, they could have just mobbed the turtles easily. I have noticed this in other movies as well. Two off the top of my head are power Rangers ( the one with Ivan Ooze) and kill bill (the scene where Uma kills like 200 people on the stairs. Though it is kind of fun to rewatch old movies and see, it does take a way from the action a bit.
TL;DR: I accidentally noticed that the background fighters in action movies are just making random body movements, waiting patiently for their turn fight.
Comments
I’m going to ignore you mentioned kill bill, they’re my fav movies , well I love them a lot , and hate to say it but if I see what you’re saying I’ll never unsee it and it’ll ruin me.
Edit: I know which scene you mean in TMNT2, and they’re just wiggling around all fired up while the others fight. It’s quite humorous.
I also noticed that with the Kill Bill fight scene lol, those guys were doing a whole lot of nothing
Im pretty sure it’s Braveheart, but you can spot two guys in the background of a fight scene barely swinging their swords at each other
Good henchmen understand the rules of a fair fight such as waiting until you’re tagged in.
This is very common in martial arts movies. There’s a name for this exact facet of fight choreography, but I can’t remember what it is.
I was just complaining about the same thing with Gladiator 2 a few hours ago. I literally said out loud a few times where are the 6 others guys to help him. In TMNT at least it makes sense being scared to fight a giant turtle with swords lol
In the Buffy movie the vampires wait their turn and just kind of wave their arms in circles while she fights them one by one
Welcome to the inverse law of ninjas.
Those ninjas in the background know to wait for their allies to be defeated so that they can have a stronger attack.