November 6, 2026
I was wondering: When we see those trite (er—tried and true)
foot chases in police shows,
Do the shows ever re-use the footage, just cutting in the
current suspect’s face now and again?
That got me thinking—Here’s another way that they could save
money:
They could take a cue from the
1927 silent movie “Souls for Sale”, which included a frame saying, “The
usual sheik crosses the usual desert with the usual captive.”
Instead of
boring audiences (OK, me) to tears, they could insert a frame saying, “The usual
foot chase follows. Two chain-link fence-climbs and one rooftop jump are
included.”
This would
apply to car chases (“3 near-misses at intersections, 1 unusually clear street,
and a drive down some steps”). If they really wanted to shake things up, it
could be “one attempt to drive down steps”, with a shot of a car stuck on the
steps for visual humor.
Or, “The
villain and the hero run along a moving train and, after some hard fighting,
somebody gets thrown off. Keep watching to see if it was the good guy or the
bad guy.”
See? Save
time, save money, save the audience from boredom.