Potato is yum

One of my favorite scenes in almost any form of media is the classic suit up scene. There are countless videos on youtube and other places that talk about some really good examples like Ironman, Halo, and many others. However, I wanted to just make a post today to gush over my personal favorite which is the Wings of Liberty trailer teaser which was made in 2007. Dang. That’s almost as old as me. Anyway, here we go.

So as with all my posts I’m gonna try and break down why I really really really like this piece of media aside from the fact that it’s scifi, it’s starcraft, and it’s just really really cool. The first minute of the cinematic has no face and slowly builds up by going from darker tones to lighter tones. We can make note of the camera angles that try to emphasize the strength of the container the unknown prisoner is in.

Once the actual “suit up” part of the cinematic starts, the details of each plate of armor and each turn of a mechanical part seems much more impactful because of the work done in the first minute to build up to the guy standing in the middle of the room. To add to this, the words spoken throughout the cinematic add to the atmosphere by indicating that the prisoner isn’t being set free but rather simply being moved to a different kind of prison. It feels almost poetic that the armor that protects someone would also be a wall that imprisons them especially in the context of starcraft where the dominion is literally the wall that imprisons and protects.

This kind of hidden message adds a ton to this specific cinematic and is probably why I like it over others. The way the audio effects are done makes the addition of each plate feel like a significant addition of weight. And from the messages we can imply that every piece of armor that is added onto him is part of his prison that will weigh him down.

The final shot where Tychus finally speaks “It’s about time” after the obviously false promise of “Your freedom awaits” only adds to the anticipation of what Tychus is going to do. There’s a lot of cinematic stuff that goes on to make this scene great but I’m really not good at that. I’m only okay at analyzing stories so I’ll stick with what I’m alright at.

From looking at the way suit up scenes are used, they are almost always used as a way to build up anticipation for some kind of big event. In the case of Halo they are always used before combat sequences. In Ironman they are always before combat sequences. In basically every form of media the “suit up” is meant to build anticipation for the action. In many other examples of the “suit up” scene the scene is made to be part of a greater whole where this trailer has the scene as an isolated piece of media that is basically an advertisement to get someone to want to buy the game.

I think the trailer is a perfect example of a “suit up” scene with the addition of story elements that add deeper meaning that is necessary for the cinematic to hold up on it’s own.