Big Damn Heroes/Film: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* ''[[Batman Begins]]'': After the Scarecrow's fear toxin has engulfed the Narrows, Gordon is the only unaffected man left on the island. The Commissioner, by radio on the outside, breaks it to him that all the reinforcements he's asking for are already on the island there with him, just as helpless as everyone else and he's on his own.

The Batmobile ''roars'' past him, flies over the raised bridge and to the rescue. }}

** ''[[The Dark Knight]]'': The Joker's thugs spring a trap on the police truck carrying Harvey Dent. Just as Dent and the cops are worried that the Joker may actually kill them all, Batman enters with the Tumbler Batmobile and evens the odds against the Joker.

* Subversion: In ''[[El Mariachi]]'', the prequel to ''Desperado'', the titular character (played by Carlos Gallardo instead of Antonio Banderas) arrives too late to prevent bad guy Moco from gunning down Domino, his love interest, in a fit of jealousy.

* ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]''. In a scene lasting about three to four minutes, there are three Big Damn Heroes moments, one from each of the Three Heroes. The first is easily the most impressive, involving a lighter being caught by a coolie in a scene that would make the aforementioned Firefly crew green with envy, and the hero facing off against something on the order of a hundred gangsters. The others are less impressive, but only by comparison, involving a gay tailor sending a man through and beating the crap out of the gangsters swarming the first man, and a donut-making baker taking on three men armed with thompson machine guns with a pair of blunt sticks meant to roll out dough. Ain't they just Three Big Damn Heroes?

'''Helmsman''': "[[Oh Crap|Main power is offline, we've lost shields and our weapons are gone...]]"<br />

'''Worf''': "Perhaps today IS a good day to die. Prepare for [[Ramming Always Works|ramming speed]]!"<br />

'''Helsman''': "Sir, there's another ship coming in...'''it's the Enterprise!'''"<br />

* The first ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' had one of these at the very end where {{spoiler|Jack is about to be hanged and Will saves him just in the nick of time}}.

** The third also has one at the very end when {{spoiler|Will, now the new captain of the Flying Dutchman,}} erupts from the sea to help the Black Pearl drive off the East India Trading Co.'s fleet.

* ''[[The Lion King]]'': Mufasa rescuing Simba from the hyenas.

** Aragorn has this moment in the first film. The Ringwraith stabs Frodo, and just as he is reaching out (likely to get the Ring that Frodo still wears), Aragorn jumps in, torch and sword at hand and battles the five Ringwraiths, setting most of them on fire.

** Sam when he saves Frodo from Shelob (even if he doesn't know at the time).

** When the Witch-king and his fell-beast are about to kill an incapacitated King Theoden, and then Eowyn jumps in the way, hacked the beast's head off in merely a few strikes.

* ''[[Ip Man]]'': [[Training the Peaceful Villagers]] has been subverted, the factory workers are still getting their asses handed to them by the bandits - until Ip Man shows up and gives them the old what-for.

* ''[[Brother Bear]] 2'': Rutt and Tuke pull off a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|truly awesome]] BDH moment near the end when they help Kenai and Nita stave Edka off.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Road To|Road to Rio]]'', where Jerry Colonna leads a cavalry charge to save the day, to be still riding there long after everything is settled. "Exciting though, wasn't it?"

* [[Double Subversion]] in ''[[Independence Day]]'': Russel Case gives the line "Sorry I'm late, Mr. President!" ...and then his missile jams. ...and then he makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to destroy the alien ship anyway.

* In the ''[[Transformers Film Series]]'', these are somewhat plentiful and frequently awesome. Film 1 has Bumblebee saving Sam from a pack of [[Angry Guard Dog|angry guard dogs]], Bumblebee saving Sam & Mikaela from Barricade, Optimus saving Sam & Mikaela from corrupt government officials (though this one doesn't work out so well), and Bumblebee & Mikaela saving the soldiers from Brawl. Film 2 has Bumblebee saving Sam & his parents from the kitchen appliances brought to life by the Allspark shard, Optimus & Bumblebee saving Sam & Mikaela from {{spoiler|the revived Megatron}}, Jetfire showing up in the final battle to kill Mixmaster {{spoiler|and Scorponok}}, and Bumblebee saving Sam & co. from {{spoiler|Rampage & Ravage}}. ...Bumblebee gets to do a lot of these, doesn't he?

* ''[[Plunkett and Macleane]]'': The former of the two protagonists saves the latter from the gallows in a [[Awesome Moments|truly awesome scene]] with a [[Crowning Music of Awesome|truly awesome score]] to go with it.

* Subverted in the short film ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYDquzEPLsw Pyrates]''. Just as a pirate is about to be hanged, his captain and crew arrive to effect a daring rescue, {{spoiler|only to find out at the end of the film that they just wanted his part of the treasure map.}}

* [[The Matrix|Neo]] shows up to save Morpheus and the Keymaker toward the end of the freeway scene in ''The Matrix Reloaded''.

** A indirect version of this trope example happens in ''The Matrix Revolutions''. Just as the humans in Zion are about to make their last stand, the encroaching Sentinels suddenly stand down thanks to Neo, who fought his way to the Machine city to negotiate peace in exchange for him killing Smith.

* ''[[A Fistful of Dynamite]]'''s John Mallory shows up at [[Just in Time|the last minute]] to save his friend Juan Miranda, from a firing squad, in typical explosive fashion.

* Brutally subverted in ''[[Land of the Dead]]'' {{spoiler|as the heroes rush to join the final battle against the zombie horde, it appears this will be played straight and they will arrive just in time to save the terrified people trapped between the electric fence and the zombies. They actually arrive just in time to watch as the zombies feast on the people and all they can do is give those still alive a somewhat quicker death.}}

* [[Dogma]] serves us up a good one. Our heroine, Bethany, is about to be beaten to death by some wicked teenage hockey-playing demons. Just as they're about to strike, [[Jay and Silent Bob]] leap into action to save the day by beating the crap out of them. "Snooch to the muthafuckin' Noooooooch!"

* In [[The Terminator|Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines]], after crashing a helicopter into a hanger, the T-X advances on John Connor and Kate Brewster, who are powerless to stop it. Then, an '''even bigger''' helicopter slams into the hanger, grinding the T-X into dust, and setting the hanger on fire. Guess who pops out?

* ''[[Terminator]] 2'' has The Terminator make no less than five Big Damn Heroic entrances:

** With the T-1000 chasing after John and drawing a gun, everything looks bleak... until a door busts open and in walks the Terminator, pulling a shotgun from a box of roses.

** On a pithy 50cc bike and being chased down by the T-1000 in a truck, John has no idea that help is coming, until the Terminator jumps his bike off a 30-foot ledge and into the aqueduct they're driving in.

** The abusive staff of the Pescadero Mental Institute thought it'd be easy doping up Sarah for the millionth time. They didn't bank on the massive shotgun-toting biker cyborg.

** Sarah's trapped in a dead-end room surrounded by riot police who are shooting to kill. There's no way out of there, until the Terminator simply bashes the wall in and pulls her out.

** John and Sarah are unarmed and cornered by the T-1000 with the Terminator nowhere in sight, until he appears over a steel processing conveyor with his trusty [[Cool Guns|M79 grenade launcher]].