Hard Work Montage: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Big men sticking screwdrivers into things, and '''turning''' them! And '''adjusting''' them!"''|'''Tom Servo''', on the construction of the interocitor from ''[[This Island Earth]]'', ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000 (TV)|Mystery Science Theater 3000]]: [[The Movie]]''}}

This includes the [[A -Team Montage]], the [[Training Montage]], and any montage in which somebody does a lot of construction, communication, travel, martial arts training, or scouring many books and files.

* One is used to show a normal day's work at the bathhouse in ''[[Spirited Away (Anime)|Spirited Away]]'', with Sen, of course, being completely outperformed by Lin and the other workers. It's set to a catchy beat actually called "Hard Work".

* The ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' anime likes these - lots of scenes of [[Mundane Made Awesome|frantic scribbling]] set to [[Ominous Latin Chanting]].

* The classes in ''[[Stellvia of the Universe (Anime)|Stellvia of the Universe]]''.

* Episode 9 of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' titled "Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win!" which features quite prominently a montage of Shinji and Asuka training together while also living together, accompanied by appropriately heroic(?) music.

* Tom's training in Chinese from ''[[Double Happiness (Comic Book)|Double Happiness]]''.

* In ''[[Predator (Film)|Predator]]'', the commando team works together to create a set of traps that they hope will catch the title opponent.

* Perhaps one of the most well known examples come from the ''[[Rocky (Filmfilm)|Rocky]]'' series of films, almost all of which include a training montage set to uplifting brass-heavy or eighties rock music, while the titular hero prepares to take on the impossible battle ahead of him.

* Combined with [[Lost Love Montage]] in ''[[DEBSD.E.B.S.]]'' as the villainess works hard to prove to her lover that she can change.

* In ''[[Legally Blonde (Filmfilm)|Legally Blonde]]'', Elle Woods' montage includes working out while reading law texts, visiting the library, carrying loads of books past the more judgmental law students, etc.

* Thao making amends for attempting to steal the ''[[Gran Torino (Film)|Gran Torino]]''

* Used twice in ''[[Real Genius (Film)|Real Genius]]'': Early on, when Mitch is going to classes and studying hard (this sequence ends when he walks into a big lecture hall and finds that not only have all the students disappeared and left tape recorders behind, the professor has too), and later when Chris gets serious.

* ''[[Team America: World Police]]'' had a very literal song about a montage while Gary was training to fight Kim Jong Il.

* Notoriously averted in ''[[The Matrix (Film)|The Matrix]]''. "I know kung fu!"

* ''[[Frost /Nixon]]'' - After the drunken phone call Frost realizes he's "got to work".

* ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]'' during the construction of the original suit in the cave.

* In ''[[The Bourne Series (Filmfilm)|The Bourne Supremacy]],'' Bourne embarks on a flurry of Internet factfinding while trying to uncover clues about his past and his previous assassination targets.

* [[David Weber]]'s ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|On Basilisk Station]]'' has one with most of the junior members of the [[Command Roster]] making their impact on Basilisk known.

* ''[[CSI (TV)|CSI]]'' does this to show the characters doing the hard work of forensic investigation at the lab. In the episode "I Like to Watch", they do some [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Hodges looks forward to a certain test, as he thinks it will be good material for the documentary crew currently in the lab. Nick points out that the test takes six hours, to which Hodges remarks that "When they cut it together, it'll only take thirty seconds." It takes thirty seconds.

* The doctors on ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' do this to signify they're coming up with the right diagnosis after getting it wrong for forty minutes.

* Made famous (along with signature music by Lalo Schifrin) in television by ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)||Mission Impossible]]''...

** ...For which Bruce Geller took some inspiration from the 1964 movie ''Topkapi''.

* The ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]'' episode "Ariel" has one of these as the [[Five-Man Band|crew]] prepare for their heist for that episode.

* Used in [[Once Per Episode|just about every episode]] of ''[[Myth Busters (TV)|Myth BustersMythBusters]]''.

* Appears on ''[[Top Gear]]'' as well, in much the same spirit -- usuallyspirit—usually in the context of something automotive, like prepping for a race or assembling a Caterham 7 kit car. Expect a lot of friendly (?) verbal repartee: the presenters quite like [[Vitriolic Best Buds|taking digs at each other]].

* Parodied in ''[[Harry and& Paul]]'', where the same piece of [[Stock Footage]] (sawing wood, hitting thumb with hammer, mixing cement, reading the Racing Post) serves as a [[Hard Work Montage]] for the [[Ridiculously -Fast Construction]] of all kinds of buildings.

* Parodied in ''[[Bones (TV)|Bones]]''. After finding some critical fact, two of the team members comment that Bones will now proceed to stare at the corpse until they talk to her and play Rock Paper Scissors to determine who will baby sit her while she does so.

* Referenced, of course, by ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':

{{quote| '''Buffy:''' I thought it was gonna be like in the movies. You know, inspirational music ... a montage, me sharpening my pencils, me reading, writing, falling asleep on a big pile of books with my glasses all crooked ('cause in my montage I have glasses)...}}

{{quote| '''Buffy''': I'm worried our training's gonna turn into a montage from an '80s movie.<br />

* ''[[The Big Bang Theory (TV)|The Big Bang Theory]]'' had a montage of Sheldon and Rajesh ''staring intensely at equations on a dryboard'' set to "Eye of the Tiger", with frequent angle changes and so on for the full on montage effect, and interrupted by Raj asking Sheldon where he keeps the aspirin.

* In the live action adaptation of ''[[Hana Yori Dango (Manga)|Hana Yori Dango]]'', Tsukushi gets a lot of these.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[ICarly (TV)|I CarlyiCarly]]'', we don't actually see a montage, but when Spencer sets the assembled builders loose to rebuild Carly's room ([[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|which his homemade birthday present for her destroyed]]), he yells "Montage speed!", clearly referencing this trope.

* After [[Anvilicious|showing us how shortcuts will cause your heart to stop]] [[Royal Pains (TV)|Hank and Divya]] are shown going through the more grueling and painful version of a detox instead of the instant one promised by the [[Shmuck Bait|sketchy]] [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|brochure.]]

* Done at least twice in ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (TV)|Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'', the notable first is in dual fashion as [[Made of Iron|Charlie]] gets trained by Mac and Dennis to become an underground fighter, and [[The Chick|Sweet]] [[Butt Monkey|Dee's]] montage at the gym training for an upcoming fight {{spoiler|after she started using steroids}}. The second one is in the fifth season, when Charlie tries to teach Mac how to skate(featuring a short Rocky-like segment where Mac eats a whole drink of yolk before puking vehemently through [[Gilligan Cut]])

* The Christmas special of ''[[Misfits (TV)|Misfits]]'' opens with a montage showing the team hard at work in their lives beyond community service; because they're the Misfits, none of them seem to make any progress: Kelly is stuck picking up litter and getting mocked by passers-by; Nathan works as a Santa Claus with even less success; Simon trains in [[Le Parkour|Parkour]] {{spoiler|so he can eventually become Superhoodie}}, [[Epic Fail|only to tumble off a one-story building and bounce off a dumpster]], only narrowly avoiding serious injury; even Curtis and Nikki aren't doing well, as their attempts to have sex in a pub bathroom end with Nikki [[Power Incontinence|accidentally teleporting herself away]], leaving a very frustrated Curtis to go back to bartending. Alisha meanwhile, has gotten very interested in a sign advertising "Powers For Cash..."

* In most [[Role -Playing Game|Role Playing Games]]s, Time Spent works in a similar way for long tasks and learning new skills.

* In the Broadway musical ''[[Xanadu (Film)|Xanadu]]'', there is a montage of all of the characters breaking ground and constructing the club Xanadu, set to the song "All Over The World" by ELO. Because this sequence also appears in the [[Adaptation Decay|film version]], they even [[Lampshade Hanging|hang a lampshade]] over this!

* The fan-video "Master Chief Sucks At ''[[Halo 3 (Video Game)|Halo 3]]''" features a montage of Master Chief ''making'' a montage, with the ''[[Team America: World Police]]'' montage song playing over the top. The "montage" he makes however is a parody of the many fans make of their best ''Halo'' moments, complete with shoddy editing, poor picture quality and loud, looping Linkin Park soundtrack.

{{quote| '''Master Chief:''' omg!''[sic]'' I must be teh ''[sic]'' best halo 3 player in teh''[sic]'' planet!1''[sic]'' It is decided! I shall make.......... a montage!!1!one''[sic]''}}

* One of the 2002 ''[[Bionicle (Franchise)|Bionicle]]'' flash animations showed the construction of the [[Meaningful Name|Boxor machine]] with a [[Hard Work Montage]] of preparation, welding and so forth -- wellforth—well, ''mostly'' a [[Hard Work Montage]]. [[The Ditz|Taipu]] just dances around holding a Bohrok headplate over his head, [[Paper-Thin Disguise|pretending to be a Bohrok]].

* Spoofed by ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]''. While [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0391.html training to be a Dashing Swordsman], Elan goes through what appears to be a typical training montage, but [[Lampshade Hanging|then the following exchange occurs]]:

{{quote| '''Elan:''' How come we've only been doing this for twenty minutes, but you've already changed the backdrop five times and gone through three costumes?<br />

{{quote| '''Elan:''' If there's one thing I know, it's that you can't have a good montage without an 80's-style power ballad in the background.}}

* One strip in ''[[How I Killed Your Master (Webcomic)|How I Killed Your Master]]'' covers 29 days of the narrator running to get in shape.

* [[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcd]] compares a movie science montage and a real-world one in [http://xkcd.com/683/ this strip.]

* Martial arts training montage is spoofed in [https://web.archive.org/web/20100516140613/http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1930001 a College Humour video].

* ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' satirized this in the episode "Asspen", with a montage song, played over... well, a montage. The lyrics of this song are pretty apt, but may not be appropriate to post here. The same song with minor lyric changes was later used in ''Team America: World Police''.

* Spoofed in the ''[[Sealab 2021 (Animation)|Sealab 2021]]'' episode "Sharko's Machine", where Sharko performs a variety of bizarre tasks to prepare for a citizenship test.

* Spoofed on ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' in the episode "Don't Make Me Over", in which Peter and his buddies clean up the bar to an 80's beat. ...well, they make an effort, anyway.

** Spoofed in another episode where Brian needs to study to pass a college test, so he and Stewie have a montage of ... jogging and lifting weights. When they realize there's only twenty minutes left till the test, Brian says, "Crap, all we've done is work out."

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb (Animation)|Phineas and Ferb]]'': "It usually takes us at least a montage."

* ''[[Meet the Robinsons (Disney)|Meet the Robinsons]]'' makes use of this example during the sequence in which Lewis builds the Memory Scanner.

* Subverted by ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]'' It looks like Dr. Venture, Billy Quizboy, and Pete White are working hard to fix a shrinking ray when really, {{spoiler|they're writing a top 10 guilty pleasures list.}}

* Spoofed in one episode of ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar (Animation)|The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', where they decide to fix a broken robot. After the montage, Skipper says, "Well, now that we fixed the coffee machine, let's get working on that robot."

* About halfway through the pilot episode of ''[[House of Mouse (Animation)|House of Mouse]]'' we get to see a montage of [[Donald Duck (Animation)|Donald Duck]] making an attempt to replace the sign near the entrance with one that reads "House of Duck," but instead he gets signs that end with words that rhyme with "duck." Toward the end of the montage, the sign is replaced with one that reads [[Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion|"House of Pancakes"]] before finally switching to the correct one.

* "Song of the Roustabouts" from ''[[Dumbo (Disney)|Dumbo]]''.

* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "Winter Wrap-Up" uses two of these, one as a [[Crowd Song]] and another as the climax.

* ''[[King of the Hill (Animation)|King of the Hill]]'' episode "No Bobby Left Behind" has this. The montage shows the less experienced middle school students being taught efficiently in order to get them ready for the standardized test. Before, they were sent to special needs class where they were exempt from taking the test.

* On ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' one such montage actually gets an introduction.

* The song [["I Want" Song|"When Will My Life Begin"]] from ''[[Tangled (Disney)|Tangled]]'' is actually sung during the scene when Rapunzel is shown cleaning up [[Big Bad|Mother Gothel's]] tower at the beginning of the film.

* The song "Whistle While You Work" from ''[[Snow White and Thethe Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'', which is sung during the scene where Snow White and her animal companions are shown cleaning up the Seven Dwarfs' cottage prior to their introductory scene.

* "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes (reprise 1)" from ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]]'', sung during the scene where the mice all put together Cinderella's pink dress.

* On ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Flamin' Moe", Moe's closes for renovations, with a sign outside reading "[[Lampshade Hanging|Closed for 'Hard Work' Montage]]". The montage itself is just shots of the outside while Moe [[Show, Don't Tell|talks about what he's doing]].

* ''[[Cloudy Withwith a Chance of Meatballs]]'' shows inventor Flint creating things in montages including time for taking breaks.

* ''[[Robot Chicken (Animation)|Robot Chicken]]'' has the superhero Montage. [[Time Compression Montage|He helps others do a lot in a short amount of time.]]

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