The Incredibles is one of those movies that’s always playing on ABC family, and for good reason too: it’s a damn good movie. 

Story-wise, it’s a darker brand in the Pixar filmography, penned by none other than Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille); technical-wise, the film couldn’t be a better demonstration of framing and directing action sequences. Bird not only utilizes animation’s capacity to rise above physical limits of live-action films, but also creates dynamic sequences by switching up angles and points of focus. One of my favorite scenes in The Incredibles demonstrates all of these characteristics plus a little extra – an excellent use of the natural environment. 

It happens that Dash and his sister Violet have been spotted by soldiers on a private island, and both split up they are pursued by said soldiers who are ordered to either take them in alive or dead. As his name implies, Dash can run at superspeed, which lends him an extra boost when he finds himself confronted with a body of water and rock formations. 

For numerous reasons I’ll explain below, this scene (click here for the video link) nicely executes aspects of action optimal for a animation and a natural environment: 

We start off with a reaction shot of Dash…

…and a quick camera cut reveals that there’s a body of water approaching…

He braces himself …

…still bracing himself…

…until it’s revealed that hey – apparently having superspeed enables you to run on water. 

Physics aside, this newfound discovery for Dash has comedic timing that sets off the chase scene upon the body of water. We know now his basic running abilities on water: now it’s time to see how he can really use the environment to its full potential…

(frankly, I’d be pretty stoked too if I found myself capable of running on water)

Here we begin with a aerial shot of Dash, which puts his position (as well as his pursuers) in context with the natural environment. It’s a perfect establishment shot, followed shortly by a tracking shot that zooms up towards the characters…

… to include the pursuers, as well as give the viewer another establishing shot of the natural environment from a different angle (a semi-horizontal position with a semi-dutch angle, in this case)

For a split moment, we get a close up of the pursuers tracking Dash (almost analogously to how the camera tracks Dash and the pursuers from an aerial shot only a few seconds earlier)

Here, the camera really establishes where Dash and his pursuers are in relation to one another: 

Dash in the front…

… and the pursuers in the back. We see here the pursuers opening fire (presumably after they’ve “locked” his position with their tracker): 

The camera changes angles from a front/back POV to a quarter/semi-profile view of Dash and his pursuers. It’s a excellent choice because again, it puts Dash and the soldiers in relationship to their environment and its elements. We see clearly the trail of water behind Dash as he runs full speed…

… and additionally how the soldiers/plane-thing explodes when they cannot avoid the magnificent, natural rock formations upon the water. This really establishes the elemental force of the environment’s characteristics, that it is not simply an area that action can take place: effectively, Dash and the soldiers are very actively interacting with the environment, as the trail of water and the impact upon the rock imply. 

The camera switches back to the front/back POV, and this time what’s emphasized is the bullets hitting the water as the squad fires upon Dash: 

These cuts and frames demonstrate a great use of the natural environment, again establishing that the characters on screen are very much apart of the environment they currently reside: bullets don’t simply go “puh puh puh puh!” and don’t leave a dent somewhere - they’re hitting the water, leaving a distinct trail of quick, vibrant splashes. Additionally, the quick cutting emphasizes how quickly everyone is maneuvering around the rocks: Dash sprints and uses the unique properties of water to propel himself and turn smoothly at sharp corners while the soldiers tilt their plane-things up and down, left and right (upside down?) so they don’t faceplant (explode) onto solidified sediment. 

Here, the camera becomes stationary and pans from the left to the right, again establishing Dash and the soldiers in relation to the rock-water environment, which is appropriate considering it leads up to the following: 

– the cave. For a moment here, we get a nice glimpse at what the soldier on screen (dubbed soldier A for the purposes of this scene dissection) is possibly contemplating as he hesitates to follow Dash immediately into the cave, as we’ll see why soon…

A nice cut to a front POV of Dash, highlighted by the light of the cave opening behind him as the soldier pursues him. And while the tunnel-like constrictions of the cave could possibly make the action less dynamic, Bird demonstrates again why characters interacting with their immediate environment can make anything that more interesting, and especially in an action sequence: 

We see here that Dash runs up the cave walls above his lone pursuer…

… and see this again up-the-wall run again from a different POV. While it might be hard to see solely off the screenshots, Bird actually makes a subtle directing choice by not cutting the action real-time – the up-the-wall runs overlap one another, and thus makes the sequence that more cohesive overall.  

We see how the water splashes in relation to Dash’s movements again, which is nice detail that again establishes the dynamic relationship between the cave/water environment and the characters. 

Here’s a reaction shot of Dash as he looks behind him, pleased to have gotten away from the pursuer (and indeed, quite proud of his improv)

We have a momentary FPS-like shot of the cave opening…

… we get a glimpse at Dash’s reaction (“yay!”) …

… and then we see where soldier A went to …

… and Dash realizes he may be trapped (“CRAP-!!!”)

The scene switches to another stationary camera that pans left to right, then left again as it tracks Dash’s movements between the two pursuing soldiers: 

In a split moment, when he think’s he’s trapped, Bird pulls one last trick in the water-rock action sequence: 

Since we’ve been so enthralled by Dash’s ability to run on water and interact so dynamically with the immediate natural environment, for a few seconds the basic rules and physics of his animation don’t occur to us until he stops running entirely – and then the moment of re-realization happens (“oh yeah he has to keep running in order to stay on top of water…!”)

To finish off the action sequence, we get a nice underwater shot of the explosion above us. While it’s still Dash-centric, it’s a nice visual to see balls of fire above when looking up from below a watery surface (additionally, this is a PG movie, which means no lingering moments on explosions and death are allowed in order to get this rating). 

Above all, this entire sequence shines because of one, key thing: character and environment interaction. 

It might sound obvious, but it’s rather easy to completely overlook unique characteristics of the immediate environment the characters occupy during an action sequence. In the above screenshots above, Bird takes small moments to focus on how the characters affect the environment and vice versa, even choreographing clever moments that appropriate the natural realm such as the rock formation impact, Dash running up the cave wall and then sinking below the water after a momentary pause. 

The small details are what matter since they make the action sequence that more plausible and substantial: for less skillful execution of action sequences (such as this so-bad-it’s-hilarious clip from Undeafeatable) the characters interact so minimally and so obviously with their environment that it’s mind-numbingly uncreative: 

A meat hook? Really? You’ve got an entire warehouse of boxes and equipment and - honestly, the only time a character interacts with the environment is when he gets hooked on a hook? 

In a slaughterhouse, a meat hook is much, much too obvious. Conversely, a master of environment interaction is none other than Jackie Chan himself, who famously uses everything from chairs to class, to even shirts and tables and chopsticks – anything near him that he can use to fight someone, he’ll grab it and exhaust it of its use in any action sequence. 

While I wouldn’t say this scene from The Incredibles is Chan status, it demonstrates some immaculate and skillful work under Bird’s directing hand by virtue of the dynamic character-environment interaction throughout. And by all means, it’s makes the scene that more exciting as well! 

Recommended Reading/Links

• Bond vs. Chan: Jackie shows how it’s done - David Bordwell

• Chrono Trigger and Action Movie Philosophy – Freddie Wong productions