Can Subtlety Work in Action Tropes?

Orangutan thinks about action tropes and writing exciting stories. Image swiped from HuffPo.

On Storymonger’s blog, I read a thought-provoking post: Four Action Tropes that Need to be Revolutionized in fiction. Could I come up with a subtle blend of tropes that revolutionized the action sequences in question? There’s only one way to find out.

In addition, this post holds the significant honor of launching a new category – And Now for Something Completely Different. Inspired by the Monty Python’s Flying Circus interludes of the same name, this category will include story ideas, re-blogs, and things that interest me that are not specifically Oz-related. On that note, let’s go back to the action tropes.

In response to the question above, these are the thoughts that were provoked:

In a world where action is its own middle name: one wheel-man – a cyborg orangutan bus driver – must evade the alien-possessed Thought Police in order to provide time for his unlikely teammates to unlock a mysterious brain wave and save humanity.

On this high-speed bus chase, fear matters – if the frequency of the beeping bomb drops below the driver’s heart rate…ka-boom.

Meanwhile, in the back of the bus, the embittered ex-Army Ranger trucker hero battles for his life against his brainwashed-and-evil martial arts nemesis – his former best friend and partner thought missing-in-action in the last big war. The grizzled hero must provide enough time for his genius girlfriend ex-whitehat Intelligence Agency hacker to hotwire outdated technology and cybernetically fire the digital silver bullet that will drive the demon out of the possessed llama-borg and provide the secret key for humanity to stop the unseen alien brain invasion.

Humanity’s only hope rests in a high-speed bus on a one-way trip to Armageddon.

Reserve your tickets for BEEP.BANG.BOOM. Coming soon.

In the wake of such over-the-top hits as Kung Fury, I worry that this story might be considered too subtle or nuanced to find an audience. What do you think, is this a workable story idea?