Feet First Introduction

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"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man: no time to talk" —The Bee Gees, "Stayin' Alive"

The commonly used method of introducing a character by showing him from the feet and either panning or cutting to the rest of his body, ending with the face. It can be (and has been) done any number of different ways, including a character walking down stairs, putting the camera at ground level when he gets out of a car, using his feet to hide his face while reclining on a chair, etc.

It's almost always a way of telling the audience that the character is a Badass of some sort. And as you will see from many of these examples, very often used to reproduce a gaze of the male or female variety. It can also be used for shock value; one ogles the entire body but then...sudden Butter Face!

It is also used to show off a female character's very sexy shoes. A subtrope of Foot Focus.

Not to be confused with Dynamic Entry.

Examples of Feet First Introduction include:

Anime and Manga

• In Hellsing, Alexander Anderson is introduced this way, with the slight twist of it being him walking down some stairs.
• Misaki from Excel Saga is introduced this way. However, the camera keeps stopping at her breasts and her face is blurred out in various ways before finally showing what she looks like.
• Yuji's hitherto missing father, for almost half the episode, in Shakugan no Shana.
• Black Lagoon. Hansel and Gretel (also Eda in her street clothes).
• Medusa from Soul Eater. Pretty much every scene she enters.

Film

• The Saturday Night Fever example below is parodied in Madagascar with Marty the Zebra, complete with "Stayin' Alive" in the background.
• Toy Story: This is how Buzz Lightyear is actually introduced.
• Cinderella is introduced this way in Cinderella III: A Twist In Time.
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery: We first see Vanessa Kensington via a slow pan up her entire body.
• James Cameron has used this a few times. One of his trademarks is a low-angle boot coming into frame shot.
  • In Avatar, for example, it emphasizes Jake's joy (he's a paraplegic) in being able to move his toes and feel the dirt between them after linking with his Avatar. On a more subtle level, the first shots of the bare feet on Jake's Avatar are also used to show off the unprecedented level of detail in the wrinkles of the fully CGI models.
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day begins with a close up of a Terminator stepping on and crushing a human skull. After first acquiring his clothes, Arnold the T-101 gets a Standard Pre-Ass-Kicking Snippet intro this way. Sarah Connor's nightmare sequence begins with her combat boots striding across the grass.
  • Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss is introduced feet first in high heels.
• Parodied in The Naked Gun 33 1/3, where the camera just keeps going up the legs...and up the legs...and up the legs. It passes the knees twice.
• Saturday Night Fever: The first thing we see are Tony Manero's feet as he struts down the street.
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull reintroduces the titular character by having his boots walk into shot then panning up to the iconic shadow as he replaces his hat. Obviously included just for the trailer, but damn it works.
• The first appearance of Cora Smith (Lana Turner) in the 1946 film version of The Postman Always Rings Twice.
• Done cleverly in Strangers on a Train. The protagonist and antagonist are both introduced by showing their feet as they make their way to the titular train, the first of many instances of the theme of duality the movie uses.
• The Matrix. Neo's entrance to the building where Morpheus is being held prisoner.
• The shiny-shoe assassin in Jumping Jack Flash, though that was to conceal his identity from the audience.
• The titular character in the incredibly surreal Mexican B-movie Santa Claus is introduced to a forlorn child with this shot, to hilarious effect.
• The killer in the 1984 Clint Eastwood movie Tightrope is first shown via his trainers as he stalks a woman. She's aware someone is following her, but runs into a uniformed police officer who escorts her home safely. The camera then tracks down to show the 'police officer' is wearing the killer's trainers.

Live-Action TV

• The Day of the Triffids (2009). Torrence for his finale, along with the slacks of his distinctive Saville Row suit.
• In |The Flash Live Action series the first time we see Barry Allen in his Flash outfit is as a slow pan up from his feet.
• Jacqueline's male disguise is introduced this way in the first episode of Young Blades.
• In an episode of 1000 Ways to Die "Dead Before They Know It", the first death story opens up with the bare soles of Shelly as she is lying down in a tanning bed.
• Played for laughs in one episode of Police Squad! where an unknown assassin is shown this way during his attacks. When his identity is revealed, he turns out to be a woman wearing a men's shoes and suit trouser-legs reaching from knees down.
• Worf received this treatment when he first boarded Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
  • Similarly, near the end of season three of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Wesley got one of these when he was field-promoted to full ensign and got to put on the Starfleet uniform.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Entirely justified with the demon Sweet in "Once More With Feeling" as he wears a great pair of dancing shoes which he puts to good use.
• Angel. Subverted in the Cold Open of "Release" from the usual Badass or Foot Focus version—the shoes of an exhausted Wesley and a severely battered Faith slowly step into frame, then drops of blood from Faith's wounds drip onto the floor.

Music

• In the music video for "We Are the World" by USA for Africa, the camera starts at Michael Jackson's glittery socks and pans up slowly from there. Given that this was near the highest point of his career, his appearance was clearly meant to be the video's Crowning Moment of Awesome, so the suspenseful introduction makes sense.
• The video for "Tanz Mit Laibach" loves this trope, and boots, and marching.

Video Games

• This is how Yuna of Final Fantasy X is introduced before every battle she's fighting in in Dissidia 012: Duodecim. Her feet are even something of a meme, because this was how she was confirmed to be appearing in the game at all.
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess introduces Link's childhood friend and implied love interest, Ilia, this way. The camera pans up from her feet, stopping just shy of actually showing her face.

Web Comics

• In The Water Phoenix King, an interesting twist: the first glimpse we have of our unconventional hero is his bare foot as he lies sprawled on a bare wooden floor, in near-rags, not bothering to light the lamp as the sun goes down. It perfectly symbolizes his state of psychological deadness, at the bottom of Fortune's Wheel, right before everything changes and he rejoins the fray:

Gilgam: Moving furniture is a lot of work. Work is a lot of work. I'm happy to lie here. Anthem: If you had any self-respect you'd be drunk. Lying on the floor while sober smacks of indolence. Gilgam: Not indolence! A proper sense of the world's fundamental pointlessness! I have a philosophy. The philosophical are never indolent.

Western Animation

• Justice League: When Luthor and the Legion of Doom think they've resurrected Brainiac, the smoke clears to reveal the feet of... someone else. The camera pans up to reveal Darkseid, and before it can fully sink in what's happened, he starts to blow things up.
• Throughout the first season of Code Lyoko, Yumi "entered the screen" this way. Admittedly, it was never meant to be a surprise.
• Though one can see her in class, in Iron Man: Armored Adventures when Pepper Potts fully introduced herself to Tony, the camera focused on her feet first.
• In Powerpuff Girls episode Impeach Fuzz. When Miss Bellum is introduced in her new "uniform" by Fuzzy, she is introduced bare feet first. Seen here.
• Amalia in Wakfu is introduced feet first. Mainly because it was from Ruel's point of view, and his eyes were more focused on the golden foot cuff on her saddle.