Lester 's fantasies are emphasized by slow- and repetitive @-@ motion shots ; Mendes uses double @-@ and @-@ triple cutbacks in several sequences , and the score alters to make the audience aware that it is entering a fantasy . One example is the gymnasium scene — Lester 's first encounter with Angela . While the cheerleaders perform their half @-@ time routine to " On Broadway " , Lester becomes increasingly fixated on Angela . Time slows to represent his " voyeuristic hypnosis " and Lester begins to fantasize that Angela 's performance is for him alone . " On Broadway " — which provides a conventional underscore to the onscreen action — is replaced by discordant , percussive music that lacks melody or progression . This nondiegetic score is important to creating the narrative stasis in the sequence ; it conveys a moment for Lester that is stretched to an indeterminate length . The effect is one that Stan Link likens to " vertical time " , described by the composer and music theorist Jonathan Kramer as music that imparts " a single present stretched out into an enormous duration , a potentially infinite ' now ' that nonetheless feels like an instant " . The music is used like a visual cue , so that Lester and the score are staring at Angela . The sequence ends with the sudden reintroduction of " On Broadway " and teleological time .