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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"
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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 in many 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...or feet if that's what they prefer. A subtrope of Foot Focus.

Not to be confused with Dynamic Entry.

Examples of Feet First Introduction include:


Anime & Manga[]


Films — Animation[]

  • 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.


Films — Live-Action[]


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 DS9.
    • 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 Videos[]

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Nuwa from Shin Megami Tensei V is introduced this way. And yes, she walks around the Tokyo Diet Building like she owns the place, without any shoes on. But yes, Nuwa is one powerful demon. She doesn't necessarily have to be your enemy though.


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:
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 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.

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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.