The New Movie Trailer Trend: Percussion Sound Effects
Are movie trailer editors big Stomp fans?
You know Stomp: The long-running theatrical show where performers make music out of everyday objects like garbage cans, brooms, and matchsticks. More and more, movie trailers — particularly for action films and big blockbusters — resemble movie adaptations of Stomp, with the actors and their props (most often guns, but also knives, cars, bombs, and a variety of other stuff) providing percussive sound effects in perfect rhythm with the soundtrack.
This trend really started to take off last year with trailers for films like John Wick: Chapter 2 and Atomic Blonde. Baby Driver not only had percussive sound effects in its trailer, it had them in the film itself. A few months later, it’s practically obligatory for any Hollywood trailer with people punching each other for those punches to be synced up to music. If things keep trending this way, percussive sound effects will quickly supplant sad covers of pop songs as the top movie trailer trick. Here are 15 recent examples.
1. John Wick: Chapter 2
Used as Percussion Instruments: An alarm clock, a rubber stamp, loading guns, gunshots, punches.
2. Atomic Blonde
Used as Percussion Instruments: Ice cubes, punches, kicks, gunshots, a woman’s shoe, gasps, car gears, a knife.
3. Baby Driver
Used as Percussion Instruments: A jukebox, coffee cup, revving engines, screeching tires, elevator buttons, the sound your car makes when you leave the keys in the ignition, a helicopter, gunshots.
4. The Foreigner
Used as Percussion Instruments: A knife, punches, kicks, gunshots, explosions, breaking glass.
5. Proud Mary
Used as Percussion Instruments: Guns loading, a car door, gunshots, explosions, a bottle of alcohol, bullet shells.
6. Death Wish (2018)
Used as Percussion Instruments: Gunshots, guns loading, a wrench that sounds like a sword for some reason.
7. Tomb Raider
Used as Percussion Instruments: A child’s puzzle toy, a gun loading, a bow and arrow, gunshots, an ice axe, a bell, money.
8. Deadpool 2
Used as Percussion Instruments: Swords, double middle fingers, a gun, spit, punches, cocaine, gunshots, a man getting run over by a car, crime-scene tape, breaking glass.
9. Ant-Man and the Wasp
Used as Percussion Instruments: Kicks, shrinking technology, punches, a frying pan, a human skull bouncing off a giant salt shaker, breaking glass, a meat tenderizer, bricks.
10. Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Used as Percussion Instruments: Gunshots, footsteps, a slamming car door, punches, kicks, car gears, motorcycle gears, motorcycle brakes, Henry Cavill’s arms.
11. Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Objects Used as Percussion Instruments: Gunshots, guns loading, a ticking clock, helicopters, footsteps, explosions.
12. Skyscraper
Used as Percussion Instruments: Ticking clocks, guns cocking, punches, kicks, gunshots, bombs stuck to walls, explosions, duct tape.
13. Bad Times at the El Royale
Used as Percussion Instruments: Gunshots, ticking clocks, a lockpick, thunder, a tape recorder, poker chips, drops of liquid in a cup of water, hand claps, money, a camera flash.
14. Creed II
Used as Percussion Instruments: Punches, a speed bag, additional punches.
15. The Equalizer II
Used as Percussion Instruments: Gas pedal, coughs, spare change, a smartphone, punches, guns loading, gunshots, ticking clocks, elevator bells, footsteps, knocks on a door, wristwatch alarm, spoon clinking on a teapot, the sound of a human being swallowing a beverage.
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