"Oh, that's cheating; sneaking up! Did you have your legs on silent?"
— The Doctor (regarding the Cybermen), Doctor Who, "The Next Doctor"
Our hero is walking down a corridor in the Big Bad's ship/castle/compound, and suddenly he hears *THUNK THUNK THUNK*! He has just enough time to duck down a side hallway before a squad of Mooks walk past him. And thus our hero is saved by noisy footwear.
What our hero has encountered is a group of Stompy Mooks. Stompy Mooks are basically mooks who simply cannot be quiet when they move around, even if they tried. These can include anything from Robot Soldiers, heavily armored soldiers, or just normal, everyday soldiers with noisy boots. This is usually played straight to make the viewer understand exactly what's going on and why the hero just ducked down a hallway.
Of course, when the plot requires it, Stompy Mooks can be as quiet as church-mice.
See also Bad Vibrations, With Catlike Tread.
Examples:
Fan Works
- The Bugger Anthology: The Cybermen's proclivity for loud marching is lampshaded by a caption subtitling their walking as "*stompy stompy clompy stomp*".
- Lampshaded in Robin Hood: Men in Tights when the Sheriff calls in a bunch of guards in heavy, clanky armor to surround the protagonists.
Prince John: I hope it's worth the noise!
- The Lo Pan's terracotta warriors in Big Trouble in Little China.
- The Vogon guards in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. One of them even told Ford and Arthur that he enjoyed doing that as part of his job before placing them in an airlock.
- Subverted and exploited in Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat. Jim diGriz is trying to escape from soldiers inside a building. He avoids one pursuer making noise with heavy boots, then another soldier coming from another direction with loud boots, and ends up in a meeting with the chief of the pursuers. He then learns that the soldiers had been ordered to herd him into the meeting with their stomping.
- Doctor Who:
- The Cybermen from the new series are a great example of this trope. It's even Lampshaded in "The Next Doctor", as seen in the page quote.
- "Nightmare in Silver": The new models are a little more streamlined, but still pull off the ominous march.
- Even the original ones are prone to this in "The Doctor Falls".
- Likewise the Judoon, humanoid Space Police rhinos with big boots perfect for stomping, as lampshaded by close-up shots of their feet stomping up stairs.
- The Cybermen from the new series are a great example of this trope. It's even Lampshaded in "The Next Doctor", as seen in the page quote.
- Power Rangers:
- The Cogs and Cyclobots aren't very stompy, but they must always be moving their arms at their side, creating really loud whirring noises which makes it easy for them to be avoided.
- Newer robot mooks like the Grinders and X-Borgs are played a bit more straight, but are still mostly recognized by the whirring and not the stomping.
- Jaffa, from the Stargate-verse, are so notorious for this that you can be assured that in every hallway scene on a Goa'uld ship there will be some form of clanking. The Ori Crusaders do this too, but to a much lesser extent. As a funny note, the Jaffa actually cease clanking once they are freed from the Goa'uld.
- Doom: The iconic Cyberdemon moves around with its signature ominous hoof-pounding rhythm. What's worse is when the sound stops; that's when he's about to open fire on you with rockets.
- Inverted in the Metal Gear series. Walking too fast behind a guard makes him turn around and notice you, turning you into the Stompy Mook. Most mooks themselves walk about normally, so unless they're walking on something noisy, making a status report, or wearing headphones, you won't hear them walking until you get fairly close.
- Inverted in the Thief series. Garrett, the main character, actually wears loud boots because he believes the guards to be complete idiots. Not without good reason, mind you.
- The heavier units in Warcraft III make loud thuds when moving.
- The possessed suits of armour controlled by the Tough Possessor in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon are like this. Their maces hitting the floor when they attempt to hit Luigi only make things even louder.
Western Animation
- X-Men: The Animated Series: The Sentinels stomp loudly wherever they go, being as they are twenty foot tall robots.
- Soldiers marching in formation often count as Stompy Mooks. Somewhat defied when crossing a bridge; they break step to avoid shaking it.
