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America Saves the Day: Difference between revisions
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== Comics ==
* Though ''[[Tintin]]'' was a Belgian comic, it had already become considerably popular in America by the time ''The Red Sea Sharks'' was written. This has been offered as an explanation for why the plot culminates with the USS Los Angeles coming in to rescue the heroes from submarine attack.
** As a reversal of their being the bad guys of The Shooting Star, perhaps... later editions replace the stars and stripes of the rival ship with an anonymous white star on black. The villain is still a gangster stereotype with [[Unfortunate Implications]] given later world events (fat, balding, black suit, little glasses, big nose and lips), but now is not explicitly identified as American.
* [[DCU|DC]] and [[Marvel]] comics. Dozens upon dozens of examples. For example, the most recent Checkmate series has everyone making snarky comments on how the United Nations operational task force is filled with -Americans-.
** Played out rather jarring in the ''[[Squadron Supreme]]'' limited series. The Earth is on the brink of total collapse, but the Squadron is composed entirely of either Americans or otherworldly beings. [[Creator Provincialism]] also results in all of the story's events taking place in the United States, with problems elsewhere barely mentioned at all.
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{{quote|'''America, ''fuck yeah!'' '''
'''Coming again to''' '''[[America Saves the Day|save the motherfucking day]], yeah!''' }}
* U-571 is [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story|vaguely based on]] events that really happened. The USN did indeed capture a Kriegsmarine Enigma code machine and books from a U-Boat in 1944. They did deliver it and the resulting intelligence did aid the Allied cause materially. However, the movie was based on real life incidents where the British Royal Navy had captured Kriegsmarine Enigma code machines and books in 1941 and 1942, enabling the more efficient decoding of enemy transmissions to begin, and the code had already been cracked by Bletchley Park building off of Polish prewar work.
* [[James Bond]] movies tend to subvert this trope, with the CIA more often than not being absent or impotent while Bond saves the day. (Quite often set in America, at least in the older movies.) Examples include (but aren't limited to):
** ''[[Dr. No]]'' (where all Leiter does is pick Bond up after he escapes the [[Collapsing Lair]])
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* Painfully subverted in ''28 Weeks Later'' in which US troops help reinhabit a small portion of London amidst a previously rage infested United Kingdom. Needless to say {{spoiler|a sane rage host inadvertently infects her husband, resulting in a mass reintroduction of rage to the ''barricaded'' refugee population.}}
** {{spoiler|Of course it's played straight if you realize their plan would've worked perfectly if the woman and her husband didn't carry a planet sized [[Idiot Ball]].}}
*** Every action taken for human reasons is mercilessly punished with more death. The message of the film: the virus doesn't care.
** But also, it makes some sense in why America doesn't save everybody as {{spoiler|they do immediately switch their plans at the first signs of a real infection. As soon as more than about 50 British are infected, they kill everyone, evacuate their forces, firebomb the city into a giant heap of ash, then go back, burn whatever is left, then leave again.}}
*** The only sane response to another outbreak was extermination according to plan. The opportunity to detect and cure was lost due to human failings.
* Parodied in ''A World Gone Mad''. After the American military suffers almost total defeat at the hands of an [[Alien Invasion]], the entire crisis is resolved off-screen, with the solution only being mentioned in a brief newscast as having been "A clever scheme by the Australians involving their local frog population".
** The 'War of the Worlds' solution?
* [[Michael Bay]] employs this trope in his films, most notably in ''[[Armageddon]]'' and ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]: Revenge of the Fallen''.
** The trope's presence in ''Armageddon'' is sensible (but also ''heavily'' [[Lampshaded]]). As one of the few space faring nations, only America has the necessary technology and infrastructure to build the equipment necessary to destroy the asteroid. The Russians do provide support in the form of a refueling station. The team NASA sends is purely American, except for the Russian cosmonaut from said station.
*** It's explicitly said in the movie that American, Russian, Japanese (and I think Indian) space agencies "are working together on this." The European Space Agency doesn't get a mention, despite having a launch capability.
** Its use in ''Revenge of the Fallen'', however, grates on many ''[[Transformers]]'' fans since it gets in the way of the core theme of the show. The American military almost seems to be better at fighting the Decepticons (a threat completely alien to Earth) than the Autobots (said alien threat's ancient enemies)!
* Averted in ''[[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra|GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra]]'', where GI Joe, originally a single American marine backed up by other Americans, becomes an entire multi-national team thanks to international audiences not being too fond of our military ''or'' our country at the moment. That's right, folks: ''GI Joe'' doesn't have [[G.I. Joe]] in it. No "All-American Heroes" here!
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== Literature ==
* Subverted in John Wyndham's [[Cosy Catastrophe]] novels ''[[The Day of the Triffids]]'' and ''The Kraken Wakes'' in which blaming Russia for the disaster and waiting for America to save the day when you could be planning survival strategies is a ''bad'' idea.
** Lampshading the popular belief that as that's what happened last time, that's what should happen this time...
* [[Tom Clancy]], being a fan of [[Eagle Land]], loves this trope.
** Fully half of the novels in his [[Jack Ryan|Ryanverse]] feature American firepower saving the day. In the other half, it's American know-how, American hard work, or American honesty, as long as they aren't sabotaged by [[Strawman Political|Strawman Liberals]]. Sometimes a combination of these is thrown in for the sake of variety, and in fairness, other countries do get to help out from time to time.
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== Live Action Television ==
* If you look at [[YouTube]], besides hating the [[Theme Song]], another issue some fans had with the opening credits of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' was that, in its attempt to highlight human enterprise and vessels similarly named "Enterprise", it seemed to only detail American achievements in naval, aerial, and space exploration (excepting the H.M.S. Enterprise). No mention of Sputnik, or even a glimpse of Yuri Gagarin.
* Generally played straight with the ''[[Stargate]]'' franchise, with the US Air Force gathering alien technology and allies to fight in defense of the Earth. At the same time, it justifies this by acknowledging the mistrust, politicking, and power struggles that would occur if other nations learned about it... which is exactly what happens when the Russians start running their own program, and together they let other major world powers in on the secret. Eventually the Stargate program goes international, but it's still supervised by the US, and most of the characters are Americans. Specifically, going from [http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Main_characters the Stargate Wiki's list of main characters]:
** In ''[[Stargate SG-1|SG-1]]'', six main characters were Americans and three were aliens.
** In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', six main characters were Americans, one was Canadian, one was Scottish, and two were aliens.
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* Also averted in ''[[Red Alert]] 2''; the Soviet Union, bearing a grudge against the United States, unleashes a full-out assault on the country. The President is quick to seek the help of America's allies in fighting off the Soviets (to which General Carville does ''not'' take kindly: "It just ain't right! We shouldn't have to beg for help from anyone!").
** The [[Expansion Pack]], ''Yuri's Revenge,'' also has campaign missions that showcase each of the special units given to each country in multplayer mode.
* Subverted in ''[[Command
** All that and it still wasn't enough to keep it from getting banned in China.
* Averted in ''[[World in Conflict]]'', as it's more like America Saves Its Own Butt. Though they did wind up saving France and Europe, that was as part of a greater NATO operation.
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* Played so straight in ''[[America's Army|Americas Army]]'', to the point that your team ''always'' appears as U.S. Army infantry while the opposing team appears to be European terrorists; players on the other team see themselves/their team's in-game characters as being U.S. Army, while your team and your avatars appear to be said Islamic terrorists. Then again, you ''are'' playing an official United States Army game, authorized and funded by the United States government.
* Subverted in ''[[X-COM]]'', where the manual to the game specifically notes that several national governments attempted to confront the alien threat individually and were ineffective; the X-Com project controlled by the player is therefore, at least initially, an international organization funded and supported by every nation on Earth (and keeping their support is a major part of the game.) The United States does realistically (or at least, realistically in terms of what would likely be possible in such a scenario) contribute more money than any other nation, though.
** Given the similarity of X-Com to Gerry Anderson's UFO, it's not surprising the accents are American.
** Also in novelizion ([[wikipedia:X-COM : UFO Defense - A Novel|Yes, there is one]]) one of the main X-Com bases is in Morocco.
** Americans aren't even the most successful: Whole X-Com is modeled after Japanese combat unit(can't remember the name)
* ''Heavily'' subverted in the [[Modern Warfare]] series of games:
** In [[Call of Duty]] 4: [[Modern Warfare]], it's the {{spoiler|Americans who get screwed over by their "no man left behind" policy. Your character's chopper is turned around to rescue a fellow pilot, which means that your squadron isn't out the blast range when a nuclear bomb goes off. It's the British SAS who save the day, though the American military does help some near the end - a joint Marines/SAS mission to avoid nuclear strikes on both Moscow and Washington D.C. The Brits still fire the final shot of the conflict though.}}
*** The Spectre gunship is not normally available to the British armed forces. Fortunately we have allies with a big stick, and leaders who know a good weapon when they borrow one.
** In [[Modern Warfare]] 2, it's the {{spoiler|British again, this time working on taking down a ''rogue American general'' who was in command of the troops that got nuked from the first game. That's right, not only is it American Doesn't Save The Day, it's The British Save The Day From America. Granted, General Shepherd's plan has more-or-less succeeded, and the open war between the US and Russia that he wanted is pretty much a guarantee, but still...}}
* ''[[Call of Duty]]'': ''World at War'' also subverts this, with the final mission of the Americans being more of a portrayal of rest of the Marines being fortunate enough to survive and go home after a final massive assault against; whilst they spend their missions clearly struggling and being grinded down by the resilient and fanatical Japanese defenders. The final mission of the game which better evokes a feeling of victory is won by the Russians taking the Reichstag in Germany. [[Anachronic Order|To be technical though, the American Marines chronologically finish the war.]] On the other hand, the Russians' missions themselves make their [[War Is Hell|front seem pointlessly brutal]].
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== Western Animation ==
* Parodied in the ''[[American Dad]]'' episode "Tearjerker" where Stan tries to fulfill this trope, even shouting "America to the rescue!" as he does it, but instead ends up crushing the [[James Bond]] style British agent with a snowmobile:
{{quote|'''British dude''': Smith! I don't need your help!
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