Every action movie trailer follows the same formula in the past twenty years or so. The formula is so established that I’m often a bit confused as to whether this is a new trailer or something I’ve seen before. Red Letter Media lays out the formula.
Establishing shot of a city.
Bwaaaaaam! (often the sound familiar from Inception)
Mysterious, cryptic, and vague lines.
Make your characters look cool.
Build up to silence, then BAM!
Action Montage!
And don’t forget the powerful and/or inspiring monologue.
End montage with another cut to quiet.
Eh, throw in a laser shooting into the sky. Why not?
Title. (finally)
Clever and/or funny end tag before release date.
Each trope is illustrated with more examples than you can shake a stick at, if you were so inclined. -via Boing Boing