Excuse Me, Coming Through

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    Inigo Montoya: (pushing his way through a crowd) Excuse me... Excuse me... Fezzik, please?
    Fezzik: EVERYBODY MOVE!
    (Everybody clears a path)

    Inigo Montoya: Thank you.
    —The Princess Bride

    This is where a fight or Chase Scene breaks out in a public area where there are a lot of witnesses. The camera will invariably cut to a scene showing people jumping back out of the way, if it's a chase scene, or just scattering in panic if it's a fight scene. This is done to highlight the awesomeness of the parties involved. If they don't move, expect to see a Mobstacle Course.

    Can also be a Stock Phrase, in which case, if the speaker is in the military, he will likely shout "Make a hole!"[1]

    Examples of Excuse Me, Coming Through include:

    Comic Books

    • While on the run from a pursuing Spider-Man, Ricochet of the Slingers invokes the this trope with a memorable "One side people! Pregnant lady on fire coming through!"

    Film

    • Done in Advent Children after Cloud smites the dragon and he's chasing Kadaj on a motorcycle through Midgar. A scene is shown shortly afterwards with people dashing out of the street to get out of the way.
    • Done in The Incredible Hulk sort of, the crowd seems to be infected with a case of stupid and end up running parallel to the Hulk and his mutated nemesis as opposed to away from them.
    • Subverted in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy has to push his way through a Mobstacle Course to get to the truck where the Action Girl is supposedly being held hostage.
    • Subverted in Octopussy when James Bond cleverly throws money to the crowd so that they don't scatter before the people chasing him.
    • Subverted in the 1993 version of The Three Musketeers 1993 when D'Artagnan throws the Cardinal's gold off his coach to the crowd so the crowd blocks the Cardinal's men that are chasing them.
    • In The Princess Bride, Andre the Giant splits the crowd because... well, he's Andre the Giant.
    • Happens in Total Recall while Quaid is escaping from his pursuers on Earth. The crowd opens up in front of him as he's running away (justified, as he's carrying a gun).
    • The Dark Knight: Batman drives through a pair of glass doors on the Batpod and proceeds to drive down a narrow (for vehicles) hallway beyond, causing the people in it to jump/run out of the way.
    • The "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb" sequence in the 1966 Batman movie, as seen on YouTube here, particularly between 1:20 and 1:30. Justified as Batman is carrying a large sputtering bomb.
    • |Mission Impossible 3 does this near the end of the movie.
    • The Blues Brothers. Most notably in the mall chase, shown with hood cameras.
    • In the 1987 film Gardens of Stone, James Earl Jones plays a lifer Army sergeant who when moving through a crowd is fond of saying, in that inimitable James Earl Jones way, "Make a hole and make it wide!"
    • Happens in Cats and Dogs when Mr. Tinkles and his goons needed to get through Mr. Mason's factory to his office.

    Tinkles: Yes that's me, your employer Mr. Mason. Not an evil cat bent on taking over the world. Out of my way.

    Literature

    • In Star Wars: The New Jedi Order. Leia and Han are trying to escape Coruscant by getting to the Millenium Falcon. They are stopped by Viqi Shesh and Dab Hantaq who pretend to be seeking asylum on the Millenium Falcon. Things go sour as the two are attempting to prevent their escape and Hantaq throws a Thermal Detonator and bolts. One of Solo's Security Droids picks it up and attempts to disarm it and almost refers to this trope by name saying, "make a hole! Thermal detonator coming through!"
    • Lampshaded in Discworld where its an important part of Theory of Narrative Causality - complete with two men carrying a pane of glass.
    • In Space Viking, the host's guards are called to eject Andray Dunnan when he crashes Elaine and Lucas' wedding. The crowd of guests blocks their progress until Otto Harkaman starts shouting and shoving to clear a path, causing Lucas to briefly ponder "the uses of bad manners in an emergency".

    Live Action TV

    • In a Non-chase example, one episode of ER has a compressed air bottle fall off a table, pressing the nozzling making the bottle shoot down the hallway. A view from the bottle shows people diving and jumping out of the bottle's way before it hits something, flies through the air, and is embedded in a janitor closet door.
    • Inevitable in any NCIS episode aboard a ship or submarine. "Make a hole!"
    • In the Pilot Miniseries for the Battlestar Galactica Reimagined remake, Starbuck is jogging around The Battlestar, shouting "Make a hole!" whenever people are blocking the way.
    • iCarly whenever people get in Sam's way.
    • In the Community episode "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" a Chase Scene occurs that includes examples of Excuse Me, Coming Through and Mobstacle Course in the form of a Latvian Independence Parade... all within the confines of a blanket fort.

    Video Games

    • Grand Theft Auto games are made of these practically.
    • Inverted in Prototype; upon seeing you speeding down the street in a freaking TANK, most civilians in your path will simply panic and freeze up, and the ones that don't tend to actually run directly into your path. And no, firing warning shots over their heads doesn't seem to make them get out of your way.
      • Not to mention how they seem to be OCD about using the freaking CROSSWALKS.
    • Final Fantasy IX; In the final cutscene, when Zidane reveals himself, alive and well, to Queen Garnet Dagger, she runs down the stairs and tries to make her way through the crowd to be with Zidane again, even ditching her Falcon Claw pendant and crown.
    • Any video game where you're driving and not supposed to run over people. The A.I. doesn't catch up with the real person and the pedestrians dive out in front of your car. Then the police arrive.
    • Subverted, sort of, in the Yakuza games. Random NPCs wander the streets of Kamurocho, and running into them will cause them to either shuffle quickly aside or get knocked down.

    Web Comic

    PSmith: (To large crowd of shocked bystanders) Move aside and you will not be hurt! I am only after the fat man!
    Buck:(narrating) On any planet other than New Hong Kong it might have worked.

    (Next page, a crowd of angry, well-armed bystanders aiming at PSmith)

    Buck:(narrating) But you just don't do that here.
    Bystanders: (in unison) Right! We've heard that one before!
    Buck: (watching the glow as the bystanders open fire off-panel) Ahh -- social evolution in action.

    • Hilariously used in Freefall, when Niomi is trying to teach Florence that she may need to shove through a packed crowd to get on the train. Florence suggests politeness may work; Niomi sarcastically shouts "My friend Florence would like to board the train, please make a path". And can't believe it when it works (the large robot population quite likes Florence).
    • Zebra Girl has a scene where Jack asks Wally to clear a way through the crowd, resulting in the same exchange as in the page quote, except with Wally adding the line "That was a great movie."
    • Done memorably in Exterminatus Now by Lothar, who bellows "OUTTA THE WAY! ANGRY KILLER Cyborg COMING THROUGH!!"
    • Schlock Mercenary had it as a training exercise:

    Shodan: Brilliant. It's as if you knew exactly how this "random crowd" of fellow soldiers would react.

      • Used earlier in the same storyline, along with the typical civilian reaction to the military version. Except Kathryn probably knew exactly what it meant, but was covering for the runner

    Western Animation

    • Family Guy: In the episode where Peter fattens up Lois, he brings the fat Lois to a restaurant where he announces "MAKE WAY! MAKE WAY! FAT WIFE COMING THROUGH!" and pushes tables apart to give Lois more space.
    • And then there's Bugs Bunny in 1949's The Grey Hounded Hare, running past a pack of racing greyhounds and whipping them with the greens of his carrot:

    Gangway, gangway! One side, one side, let a rabbit through!

    1. ↑ particularly older servicepeople, as nowadays the phrase is considered offensive with the increasing integration of women into the armed services
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