Big Damn Heroes/Real Life

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Benito Juárez, one of the most remembered presidents in Mexico, was about to be executed along with his whole cabinet by a traitor, when his friend Guillermo Prieto, then Minister of Finance, barged in. Prieto then put himself between the firing squad and Juárez and began a passionate speech include the words: "Put down your weapons! Brave men don't murder!". He spoke until the firing squad retreated after he convinced them to spare their honor as soldiers and not betray the republic.
  • King Jan Sobieski of Poland and the Holy League at the Siege of Vienna in 1683. The Ottoman forces have had the city under siege for month and have finally managed to place the underground charges to breach the walls when the relief forces arrive and...launch the largest cavalry charge in history, spearheaded by the Polish Winged Hussars. King Jan was considered a Big Damn Hero for that.
  • Against all probability, infamously bumbling mayor of London Boris Johnson recently[when?] pulled one of these when he intervened to stop a woman being attacked whilst out on his bicycle. Makes you wonder...
  • The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, rescuing the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry in the Vosges Mountains on October 30th, 1944.
    • Ironically enough the rescue resulted in MORE casualties then there would have been if the Hero Moment didnt happen.
  • United Flight 93. The plane has been hijacked by kamikaze terrorists and is 15 minutes out of DC, where its target is located. The crew is dead. The passengers' only hope for survival is to retake the plane and land it themselves. At the sound of "Let's roll," the passengers charge the cockpit using the service tray as a battering ram. Knowing their defeat is imminent, the terrorists crash the plane rather than allow themselves to lose control of the airplane.
  • These guys.
  • Indonesian general Gajah Mada started his career with this.
  • There's a video of a fan running onto the field of a soccer match waving a flag, pursued by four police officers. After the four officers pin the fan, one of the officers starts repeatedly hitting the immobilized fan with his baton. This caused several members of the soccer teams playing as well as a significant portion of the audience to stop what they were doing and charge the officers, resulting in said officers immediately running for their lives before being beaten by the mob and escorted off of the field.
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