Badass Boast/Film

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next."
—Maximus Decimus Meridius, Gladiator

Gomez Addams: Has the planet gone mad? My brother, passion's hostage. I seek justice! Denied. I shall not submit! I shall conquer! I shall rise! My name is Gomez Addams, and I have seen evil! I have seen horror! I have seen the unholy maggots which feast in the dark recesses of the human soul! I have seen all this, officer. But until today, I had never seen you!

  • Beowulf -- "I am Ripper... Tearer... Slasher... Gouger! I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength... and Lust... and Power! I! AM! BEOWULF!!"
  • Gene Hackman's call-and-response boast near the beginning of Crimson Tide counts.
  • Unforgiven:

Little Bill: You be William Munny outta Missouri. Killer of women and children!
Will Munny: That's right. I killed women and children. Killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned.

"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next."

  • The third Austin Powers movie had this, when Michael Caine intimidated a Mook this way.

"Oh, what is this, your first day on the job? Do you know who I am? Do you know how many anonymous henchmen I've killed? I mean, look at you, you don't even have a nametag. You've got no chance. Why don't you just fall down?"

    • And he does!
  • The Last Dragon has badass villain Sho'Nuff do a call-and-response boast with his crew, which goes something like this...

Sho'nuff: Am I the meanest?
Sho'nuff 's Goons: Sho'nuff!
Sho'nuff: Am I the prettiest?
Sho'nuff 's Goons: Sho'nuff!
Sho'nuff: Am I the baddest mofo low down around this town?
Sho'nuff 's Goons: Sho'nuff!
Sho'nuff: Well who am I?
Sho'nuff 's Goons: Sho'nuff!
Sho'nuff: Who am I?
Sho'nuff 's Goons: Sho'nuff!
Sho'nuff: I can't hear you...
Sho'nuff 's Goons: Sho'nuff!

  • In the initial training duel of When the Last Sword is Drawn, the narrator's opponent is given an armored headband in case the narrator misses and actually hits him. The opponent tells the narrator he should wear one too, but the narrator responds, "I won't need it."
  • In Secondhand Lions, Hub (played by Robert Duvall, no less!) has a speech of this type:

"I'm Hub McCann. I've fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I've seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I've won and lost a dozen fortunes, killed many men, and loved only one woman with a passion a flea like you could never begin to understand. That's who I am. NOW, GO HOME, BOY!"

    • Also in the story of Hub and Garth's adventures in Africa:

Narrator Garth: But Hub just said "Twice I have held your life in my hands. And twice I have given it back to you. The next time..."
Young Hub: "Your life... is mine."

  • In Brick, Brenden Frye offers up a pretty good one when squared off against half a dozen potheads. Notable in that this is the only time he does this.

"Throw one at me if you want, hash head. I've got all five senses and I slept last night, that puts me six up on the lot of you."

Buddy: Who are you?
Death: Death.
Buddy: Cool.
Death: If I were you, I'd run.
Buddy: If you were me, you'd be good-looking.

  • The trailer for the film Taken is built around the main character's calm threat, very effectively delivered by Liam Neeson.

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it. But if you don't, I will look for you. I will find you. And I will kill you."

    • This used to be the quote topper for the Badass Boast main page.
  • Tron: Legacy had a great example of this trope when Sam Flynn invades Clu's headquarters:

Black Guard Program: Identify yourself, program.
Sam Flynn: I am not a program. My name's Sam Flynn... (cue the off-screen ass-kicking)

  • Liam Neeson's been getting a lot of these. In the film version of The a Team, Hannibal and crew, after having broken out of various detention facilities, walk onto the rear of a C-130 and asks, "Do you know who I am?" "You're Hannibal Smith." "Do you know what that means?" "You're, uh, taking the plane?" "Bingo." Cue aircrew leaving the plane without offering any resistance.
  • V for Vendetta had a great one:

Creedy: What'cha gonna do, uh? We've swept this place, you've got nothing. Nothing but your bloody knives and your fancy karate gimmicks, we have guns!
V: No, what you have are bullets, and the hope that when your guns are empty I'll no longer be standing, because if I am... you'll all be dead before you've reloaded.

    • Don't forget the lines just before that:

Creedy: Defiant to the end, eh? You won't cry like him, will you? You're not afraid of death. You're like me.
V: The only thing that you and I have in common, Mr. Creedy, is we're both about to die.
Creedy: How do you imagine that's going to happen?
V: With my hands around your neck.

Creedy: Die! (bang) Die! (bang bang) Why won't you die!? (bang bang bang click click) Why Won't You Die?
V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.

Wyatt Earp: All right, Clanton... You called down the thunder. Well, now you've got it! You see that? It says "United States Marshal."... Take a good look at him, Ike, because that's how you're gonna end up!... The Cowboys are finished, you understand me?! I see a red sash, I kill the man wearin' it! So run, you cur... RUN! Tell all the other curs the LAW'S coming! You tell 'em I'M coming... and Hell's coming with me, you hear?! Hell's coming with me!

    • And one for Doc Holliday too.

Billy Clanton: You couldn't hit nothin.' [draws a knife.] In fact, you're probably seeing double.
Doc: {{[[[Guns Akimbo]] draws a second gun}}] I have two guns; one for each of ya.

  • Pennywise/IT in Stephen King's It is practically made of this:
    • "I'll kill you all! Hahah, I'll drive you crazy, and I'll kill you all! I'm every nightmare you've ever had. I am your worst dream come true. I'm everything you ever were afraid of!"
    • "Kill me? Oh you are a priceless brat. I am eternal, child. I am the eater of worlds... And of children! And you are next!"
    • "Silly boy. You still think you can see me? You'll never see me. You'll see only what your little mind can allow."
    • Not to mention all the variants of "They float..And when you're down here with me, you'll float too!"
  • Marv in Sin City after being electrocuted!: "Is that the best you can do, pansies?"
    • "And when his eyes go dead, the hell I send him to will seem like heaven after what I've done to him."
  • Bully Hayes in Nate and Hayes, also serves as a Badass Creed:

Hayes: Are you writing in that book that I'm a pirate?
Clerk (nervously: Yes, I suppose I am.
Hayes: Good, 'cause I am one. And a damn good one. Oh, I never flew the skull and crossbones, that's for your fictioneers. But I have sought pleasure and profit in every port known to man, without regard to any man's law. That's not to say without morals and standards. I've got morals and standards. I've never killed anyone who didn't have it coming, I've never cheated an honest man, I've never pillaged and I've never raped.

Mal: "I don't murder children."
The Operative: "I do. If I have to."

    • Matched by Mal in the climax:

Mal: Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this -- they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave.

    • A more humorous example from the beginning of the film:

Mal: We're coming down to empty that vault!
Vault Guard: I'm gonna need your authorization password!
Jayne: -fires down the stairs with his machine gun-
Vault Guard: ... Ok!

  • The Devil's Rejects
    • Otis B. Driftwood (Bill Moseley):
      • "I am the devil, and I am here to do the devil's work."
      • "Boy, the next word that come out of your mouth better be some brilliant fucking Mark Twain shit, 'cause it's definitely getting chiseled on your tombstone."
    • Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig): "If you're gonna start the killing, you best start it right here. Make sure I'm all the way dead, because I'll come back and make you my bitch!"
  • Hudson Hawk: "We blow up space shuttles for breakfast. You and your friend Tommy are nothing more than a mid-afternoon Triscuit."
  • Captain Gordon in Godzilla Final Wars: "Listen kid, there are two things you didn't know about the Earth. One is me, the other is Godzilla."
  • In Tall Tale it's no surprise there's some of these. Pecos Bill gets a particularly awesome one (done while lassoing a tornado).

Pecos Bill: I am a ring-tailed roarer! I can draw faster, shoot straighter, ride harder, and drink longer than any man alive! I'm the rip-snortingest cowboy that ever rode north, south, east, or west of the Rio Grande! I'm Pecos Bill! Yee-haw!

  • From Kill Bill: "I can tell you with no ego, this is my finest sword. If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut. "
  • Westley's To the Pain challenge in The Princess Bride. He knew Humperdinck was a coward, was too weak to stand, but still...that challenge was Badass Boast on its own.
    • "Hello. My name is Iñigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
  • Jim Malone from The Untouchables, giving advice on how to fight the mob.

You wanna get Capone? Here's how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone!

  • Aguirre, the Wrath of God: "I am the great traitor. There must be no other. Anyone who even thinks of deserting this mission will be hacked into 198 pieces. Those pieces will be trampled until what is left can be used only to paint walls. Whoever takes one grain of corn or one drop of water more than his ration will be locked up for 155 years. If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees... then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of god. The earth I pass will see me and tremble. But whoever follows me and the river will win untold riches."
  • Vincent Cacardi in True Romance: "I am the Anti-Christ. You get me in a vendetta-kind-of mood, you tell the angels in heaven you never saw evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you."
  • Last of the Mohicans: "When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat his heart. Before he dies, Magua will put his children under the knife, so the Grey Hair will know his seed is wiped out forever."
  • Aliens: Hudson attempts one using the word "badass" itself as much as possible. It is centered around the More Dakka available from the APC and the Drop Ship, which is why the loss of both due to an Alien ambush (which proves the Xenomorphs are not only inhuman and deadly, but SNEAKY!) leads straight to his Heroic BSOD.
  • Sarah in Labyrinth: "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city, for my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great....You have no power over me." Slightly subverted in that they're actually lines from a play she'd been rehearsing, but when she has her epiphany, she makes them her own and they gain true power.
  • From Chicago, the lawyer Billy Flynn:

Billy Flynn: "I don't mean to toot my own horn, but if Jesus Christ lived in Chicago today, and he had come to me and he had five thousand dollars, let's just say things would have turned out differently."

  • 300 uses the famous Spartan boast from Herodotus' Histories:

Persian Our arrows will blot out the sun!
Stelios: Then we will fight in the shade!

    • The 300 last seconds of the movie are a big badass boast by Dilios.
    • But actually, we could say the whole movie is a badass boast from Dilios to the Spartan at Platae.
  • In the 1952 version of Ivanhoe, once Cedric gets his hands on a sword:

Cedric: "Show me a Norman throat! Can Saxons fight?"
Ivanhoe: "All day and through the night!"

I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why.

  • Nada's famous line from They Live!: "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
  • Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbusters II:

"On a mountain of skulls in a castle of pain, I sat on a throne of blood. What was will be, what is will be no more. Now is the season of evil."

"I carry twenty-three great wounds, all got in battle. Seventy-five men have I killed with my own hands in battle. I scatter, I burn my enemies' tents. I take away their flocks and herds. The Turks pay me a golden treasure, yet I am poor! Because *I* am a river to my people!"

Yulaw: I am Yulaw! I am nobody's bitch! You are mine. I don't need to know you. You only need to know me. I will be The One!

  • In The Dark Knight, this is sort of done by proxy when the accountant is trying to blackmail Wayne and Fox, and Fox says:

Let me get this straight: You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands. And your plan is to blackmail this person? Good luck.

    • When Gordon comes home to his family after faking being dead, his son asks, "Did Batman save you, daddy?"

Actually, this time I saved him.

Wombosi: If they want to kill me, they'd better kill me the first time! They'd better kill me dead! They'd better kill me when I'm in my sleep!

    • Ironically, he's immediately killed by a sniper.
  • The 2008 movie Bolt

Rhino: I eat danger for breakfast!
Bolt: You hungry?
Rhino: Starving!!

Cook: "You scared mutha-fucker? This Green Beret's gonna kick yo ass!"
Arnold: "I eat Green Berets for breakfast, and right now I'm VERY hungry!"
Cindy: "I can't believe this macho bullshit!"

Lightning McQueen: I eat losers for breakfast. Breakfast? Maybe I should have had breakfast? Brekkie could be good for me. No, no, no, focus.

Shooter: I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast.
Happy: You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?
Shooter: ...No!

  • Bizarre variant in What's Up, Tiger Lily?

Woody Allen: They wanted in Hollywood to make the definitive spy picture. And they came to me to supervise the project, you know, because I think that, if you know me at all, you know that death is my bread and danger my butter - oh, no, danger's my bread, and death is my butter. No, no, wait. Danger's my bread, death - no, death is - no, I'm sorry. Death is my - death and danger are my various breads and various butters.

  • In the original, animated Transformers movie, after Unicron transforms from a predatory planet into a planet-sized robot: "For a time, I considered sparing your wretched little planet (sic), Cybertron; but now, you will witness - its dismemberment!" For extra points, delivered by Orson Welles.
  • From The Dark Knight Rises, coming from Bane.

Bane: When Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die.
Bane: I'm Gotham's reckoning.

Ron: I don't know how to put this, but...I'm kind of a big deal. People know me. I'm very important. I own many leather-bound books, and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.

  • Highlander: " I have something to say! It's better to burn out... than to fade away!" and also "Now you die!"
  • There are a few in The Magnificent Seven, but Steve McQueen as Vin gets the best one, during the seven's first confrontation with Calvera:

Vin: We deal in lead, friend.

Loki: We have an army.
Tony Stark: We have a Hulk.

    • The exchange just prior certainly counts:

Tony Stark: Let's do a headcount here: your brother, the demigod; a living legend, who kinda lives up to the legend; a man with breathtaking anger-management issues; a couple of master assassins; and you, my friend, have managed to piss off each and every one of them.
Loki: That was my plan.
Tony Stark: Yeah, not a great plan.

    • He tops it off with yet another:

Tony Stark: No, you're missing the point - there is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes, and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Cause if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it.

Rufus Shinra: So go on. Bring your Jenova's and your Sephiroth's. It won't matter. We'll do as life dictates and stop you every single time.

Merida: I am Merida! And I'll be shooting for my own hand!

Frederick Frankenstein: From that fateful day when stinking bits of slime first crawled from the sea and shouted to the cold stars, "I am Man", our greatest dread has always been the knowledge of our own mortality. But tonight we shall hurl the gauntlet of science into the frightful face of Death itself. Tonight we shall ascend into the heavens. We shall mock the earthquake. We shall command the thunders, and penetrate into the very womb of impervious Nature herself!

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