Contrast Montage

A specific kind of Montage or montage element: the subject of the montage is contrasted with a different character or situation, to maximize the drama.

Can be applied to another montage; in particular, a Good and Sad Times Montage, an A-Team Montage, and a Training Montage. The Medley Exit (aka Montage Out) is partly built on this.

Examples of Contrast Montage include:

Anime and Manga

• Death Note
  • Episode 30 of has a montage towards the beginning that highlights Kira's adverse effects on ordinary people—then we cut the sound early to Demegawa's "I am here to tell you that Kira is justice!" Even moreso when we see Sachiko collapse into tears after receiving Soichiro's ashes.
  • There's also one very early, when Light starts scheduling people to die at a specific time. He gets happily on with his day while people die out of sight.
• Breath of Fire IV have the contrasting experiences of both Ryu and his counterpart, Fou-lu.
  • For Ryu, almost everything he saw have humanity being positive and a good influence from his True Companions with The Power of Friendship. This was shown when Nina gives him a Cooldown Hug to calm down his Unstoppable Rage and first transformation into the Kaiser Dragon.
  • Fou-lu, however, was a Subverted King in the Mountain, who was seen as an Unwanted Revival by the corrupted Fou Empire and was actively pursued to be killed by them. He ultimately snaps after his love interest was tortured and sacrificed to be used as fuel for the Hex Cannon against him, upon which he decides to Kill'Em All because Humans Are Bastards.

Films — Animated

• Team America: World Police: The "Montage" sequence, which is mainly a Training Montage, also features the Big Bad's preparations to complete his evil scheme.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas had one contrasting how Christmastown and Halloweentown prepared for Christmas.

Films — Live-Action

• Rocky III: The opening montage explicitly contrasts Rocky's rich lifestyle with Clubber Lang's rough and tumble rise to the top.
  • Rocky IV: The Training Montage was all about this: Rocky's Training From Hell is contrasted with Ivan Drago's scientific, regimented, and all in all Soviet training regimen.
• Repo! The Genetic Opera has a great one during the song At The Opera Tonight. It cuts between the Repo Man suiting up and Blind Mag lamenting her future, while they sing similar lines in tandem.
• From Hell has a montage contrasting the life of Dr. William Gull (the Queen's surgeon) and Mary Jane Kelly (a prostitute), showing how unfair Victorian life is.
• A Corner in Wheat offers a very early example. This 1909 film intercuts between poor people in a bread line and the lavish parties of the speculator who caused their misery.
• The Karate Kid has a battle montage contrasting Daniel's style—tentative, but growing in confidence—with the Cobra Kai's ruthless and calculated style.
• Downfall. Eva Braun typing out her irrelevant and frivilous last will against a background of mass destruction and Child Soldiers Driven to Suicide.
• In Forbidden City Cop, the Cop's peaceful picnic with his wife is contrasted with the brutal deaths of the other Cops. Especially jarring since the cops' demises are immediately followed by events at the picnic that mirror their deaths as a creepy form of Relax-O-Vision.
• Titanic cuts between scenes of the fun and raucous party in steerage and the boring rich folks sitting around gossiping over brandy and cigars.

Live Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In a fourth-season episode we cut back and forth between Buffy's team and the Initiative, both planning to capture the same monster. Buffy's Ragtag Bunch of Misfits brainstorms together, checks the books, and works things out, while the Initiative gives orders from superior to inferior, checks the (inaccurate) data files, and sticks to rigid orders.
• A humorous version exists in the Myth Busters Demolition Derby Special, where Jamie and Adam are preparing a bus for a series of possibly dangerous stunt driving maneuvers. The show cuts back and forth between Jamie very calmly, meticulously putting together parts of a rollcage while Adam is frantically cutting pipe and tearing things up to make room for the cage.
• Supernatural 5x03 has one, juxtaposing the temporarily separated Dean and Sam, with Dean doing his usual business of icing monsters intercut with Sam's attempts to hold down a normal job and life.
• Misfits:
  • Used in episode 1 of the sci-fi series to create a juxtaposition between a tense scene during which Kelly fights for her life against her Ax Crazy zombie probation worker, and an entirely ridiculous scene in which Alisha performs oral sex on a bottle for her gawping male companions.
  • Also used in episode 5: the opening scene features a montage of the gang's reactions to Sally's interview about their community service programme, which highlights their different personalities - Simon is shy and terrified, Alisha ignores Sally altogether and starts texting, Kelly complains loudly, Curtis looks bored and aggravated, and Nathan says something sarcastic then breaks randomly into song.
  • Used again in the first episode of the second series, when the team are shown going about their business before another day at community service begins: Alisha and Curtis gently tease one another; Kelly mourns Nathan's death; Simon returns to his upstairs hideaway to mourn Sally's death- for good measure, he's got her body stored in a freezer in this same hideout. And all throughout this montage, a figure in a black jumpsuit, mask and hood is seen dashing across rooftops towards the community centre...
• Femme Fatales:
  • In “Bad Science,” it’s actually the same character but from two different universes. Meet Matilda West an ambitious and young scientist who ignores danger and is determined to prove dimensional travel by tacking the risk to use her machine. Using the machine she arrives naked to a environmentally damaged and militarized Earth. Her nakedness is not an issue as she is alone, though does cover her chest up out of habit. But when she is immediately captured by soldiers with guns pointed at her modesty is the least of her problems so hands are up. The heroine is shocked to see that the men are led by none other than her own alternate, Dark Matilda West, who is a ruthless soldier. Good Matilda now given a blanket tries to joke a bit and explain who she is but Dark Matilda thinks she is lying and crazy. Things get physical between the woman, with the aggressive dark counterpart grabbing the good one. It proves to be the trigger to snap Matilda back to her home dimension. Appearing naked while kneeling and the gracefully rising up in the lab her team greets her out of concern as what she did was dangerous especially without telling them. Things gets interesting when Matilda’s return brings along a strangler, Dark Matilda who looks like her transport just dumped her naked on a table. The authoritative figure is confused and freaking out of being naked and her surroundings like a deer in the headlights. In contrast her good twin now clothed and who just minutes ago she was interrogating moments ago appears to have all the cards, with the latter now a specimen for her lab to study. Though in contrast Dark Matilda, despite being a prisoner, her treatment is more humane and dignified to what she gave to good Matilda. Ironically when the women make love to the same man, the difference is seen where Dark Matilda appears to like it rough and wants to be spanked, while Matilda is more vanilla sex.

Web Original

• Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: The song "So They Say" juxtaposes Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible as they gear up for the events of Act 3.
  • Likewise "On the Rise" contrasts Penny's optimism with Dr. Horrible's pessimism about the world.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons in "The President Wore Pearls" had Lisa preform a musical montage of her becoming popular and manipulated with Principal Skinner singing about his evil scheme to cut Music, Art and Gym.
• Total Drama Island has one juxtaposing the Screaming Gophers' well co-ordinated teamwork as they build their team's hot tub with the Killer Bass' conflicts and problems as they try to build theirs.