It’s among the most reliable tropes in cinema: if Our Hero is heading into a Final Fight with the Bad Guys, he must first take a moment to Gear Up. Guns are loaded and holstered, utility belts are buckled, masks are donned, capes are tied off — or, for a certain kind of protagonist, a neat glass of whiskey is drunk and a cigarette smoked. Here’s a five minute montage of these equipment-gathering scenes, in films from Batman to The Matrix to Shaun of the Dead, providing all of the tension-building of a good action flick and none of the payoff. Now go do battle!
