Heroic Sacrifice/Film: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[Gran Torino]]'': {{spoiler|Walt Kowalski.}}
* Perhaps include here also ANY war movie where the flawed character with the shady past calls in an air strike (or artillery barrage, etc) on his own position to save his partner or teammates and redeem himself and his reputation although it means certain death.
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** ''[[Alien|Alien 3]]'': {{spoiler|1=[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agCmezMPXqM Bye, Ripley].}}
** Also, {{spoiler|Dillon,}} who stays at the bottom of the lead mold to keep the alien from escaping, telling it [[You Shall Not Pass]]. Leads into a [[Dying Moment of Awesome]] when the alien charges him and he grabs hold of it, taunting it angrily as he is ripped to shreds.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Coraline (
* {{spoiler|[[Break the Cutie|Selma]]}} in ''[[Dancer in
* Occurs in the ''[[
* The wizard Ulrich, who sacrificed himself ''twice'' in ''Dragonslayer'' (1981). His first death {{spoiler|placed part of his life force into a gem}} and his 2nd death {{spoiler|when the gem was crushed killed the dragon, as he exploded while being carried by it}}.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Enemy
* In ''[[Event Horizon]]'', {{spoiler|Miller blows the ship in half just before the hyperspace portal opens, allowing the survivors on the other side of the ship to escape while leaving himself to an unknown, horrible fate in the Lovecraftian hyperspace dimension.}}
* The original ''[[Godzilla]]'' has Doctor Serizawa using his [[Applied Phlebotinum|Oxygen Destroyer]] to kill the titular monster, but, fearing that it will become weaponized by governments, destroys all his notes and allows himself to be killed by it as well, destroying the knowledge of its creation forever.
** In ''Mothra vs. Godzilla'', Mothra goes into battle against Godzilla knowing full well that she will die.
** And in ''Godzilla and Mothra -- The Battle for Earth'' Battra sacrifices himself to help Mothra [[Sealed Evil in
** Topping that, in ''Godzilla: Final Wars'', Mothra, {{spoiler|mortally wounded, kamikazies into Gigan's head, blowing both of them up}}
** Then there's ''Godzilla: Tokyo SOS'' in which Kiryu (A cyborg version of {{spoiler|The ORIGINAL 1954 Godzilla}} that somehow manages to gain self-awareness) {{spoiler|carries Godzilla over the ocean and sinks both of them to the bottom of a trench.}}
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* ''[[Independence Day]]'', the bit where the often drunk, semi-washed up crop duster flies his plane into the alien superweapon just before it fires, and blows the whole ship to pieces.
* ''[[The Iron Giant]]'': {{spoiler|Su...per...man...}}
* The [[Star
** And when {{spoiler|Hawkeye}} offers to be burned alive in {{spoiler|Cora's}} place, and ''then'' {{spoiler|his romantic rival Major Heyward}} deliberately mistranslates the offer so ''he'' gets killed instead....
* {{spoiler|Edmund}} in ''[[Chronicles of Narnia|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]]''; nearly everyone except the main characters that attacked Miraz's castle in ''Prince Caspian''. Averted when {{spoiler|Aslan}} sacrifices himself to save {{spoiler|Edmund}}, as he knew he would live.
* ''[[Mission to Mars]]'': The rescue mission's leader does a slightly accidental Heroic Sacrifice when he {{spoiler|purposely overshoots the satellite the [[Five
* The ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' trilogy is rife with Heroic Sacrifices and attempts at the same, including the fate of James Norrington.
* Subverted in ''[[
** [[Catch Phrase|No power in the 'verse can stop her]].
** Also subverted earlier in the same film. Mal is going to take the shuttle to meet with Inara and spring The Operative's trap. He explicitly tells Zoe that if they do not hear back from him in an hour, "You come and you rescue me".
{{quote|
* During the final assault on Ecoban at the climax of ''[[
* ''[[Space Cowboys]]'': {{spoiler|Tommy Lee Jones' character, already afflicted with cancer, volunteers to divert the Russian missile satellite, forcing him to leave the ship and lose his chance to return to Earth. He spends his last day alive on the surface of the moon, whistling Sinatra.}}
* ''[[Spider-Man]] 2'': After getting the senses smacked back into him, {{spoiler|Dr. Octavius}} pulls {{spoiler|his very unstable sun-generator}} into the water with him, saving New York City.
* ''[[Spider-Man]] 3'': {{spoiler|Venom grabs Harry's glider and tries to kill Spider-Man, but Harry intercepts and is stabbed instead, in the same manner his father was.}}
** This one can also be found on the [[Stupid Sacrifice]] page.
* [[
** ''[[Star Trek II:
*** While under Khan's [[Mind Control]], Captain Terrell is ordered to kill Admiral Kirk. Realizing he can't resist the order, he kills himself with his own phaser to save Kirk's life.
*** Spock's death at the end, when he fixes the ''Enterprise'''s warp core and enables the ship to escape the impending blast of the Genesis Device, but dies from radiation poisoning.
** Data does the same thing in ''[[Star Trek
** ''[[Star Trek (
*** And we would be very remiss to forget {{spoiler|George Kirk}} staying onboard the ''Kelvin'' to protect the escape shuttles from enemy fire. The conversation with his wife where he tells her he loves her steers this straight into [[Tear Jerker]] territory, no pun intended.
*** {{spoiler|George Kirk}} ''rams his dying starship down the throat of a many-spiked alien death fortress to save his wife and newborn son.'' If that isn't a [[Dying Moment of Awesome]], I don't know what the hell is.
**** "Your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved eight hundred lives, including your mother's, and yours. I [[Dare to Be Badass|dare you to do better]]." Crowning Line of Awesome!
*** Subverted. Spock attempts to do the same thing with the Jellyfish, but {{spoiler|he is transported out in time.}}
** In ''[[Star Trek V:
* ''[[Star Wars]] IV: [[A New Hope]]'': Obi-wan raises his lightsaber and allows Vader to kill him, so that Luke will leave immediately instead of waiting for him.
* In ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' we get a villainous example when Capt. Needa apologizes to Vader personally after losing the Falcon to [[Take Me Instead!|prevent his crew from facing any reprisals.]]
* ''[[Star Wars]] VI: [[Return of the Jedi]]'': Darth Vader stops the Emperor torturing Luke and is electrocuted in the process.
* In ''[[Terminator]] 2'', Miles Dyson -- one of the scientists primarily responsible for the development of Skynet and its technologies -- is mortally wounded by a SWAT team infiltrating Cyberdyne Systems. He stays behind while the heroes escape in order to detonate their explosives and destroy all the research on Skynet.
** The T-800 himself also gets one, when he [[I Cannot Self
** In Terminator 3, T-800 pulls out his remaining nuclear fuel cell, stuffs it into Terminatrix's mouth, says [[Pre
** Terminator: Salvation ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|absolutely takes the cake.]]'' {{spoiler|When John Connor's heart is pierced and failing, Marcus offers his own heart as a transplant.}}
* From ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': [[You Shall Not Pass|"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!"]]
* In ''[[Transformers (
** Optimus Prime himself kinda has one of these, after {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|fighting Megatron, Starscream and Grindor]] and assuming them beaten, he drops his guard to see if Sam is still alright and Megatron stabs (and shoots) him from behind, which kills him. With his last words, he tells Sam to run}}. He got better at the end of the film though by coming [[Back
*** Jazz also gets one of these in the first film. He attempts to fight [[Big Bad|Megatron]] alone, whilst the others are retreating, in order to buy them time. Given Megatron's immense size and power in comparison with Jazz, [[Kick the Dog|he was rather easily beaten]], but even when Megatron prepared to finish him off, Jazz still goaded him.
* In ''[[Volcano]]'', a train supervisor is going in with the rest of the men to save the passengers and the train operator, who have been trapped in a rail car that is being engulfed by lava. He chases the others out before they succumb to fumes or heat and goes to get last person left, the operator, dragging him out "fireman's carry" on his shoulders, and we can see the train has already gotten so hot from the approaching lava that his shoes are melting as he starts reciting the Lord's Prayer ("Our father, who art in heaven..."). As he reaches the front of the train, lava has already gotten around in front of the train. The other railroad employees, who have escaped into the clear and can't reach him, implore him to jump and save himself. With only seconds to spare, holding the man on his shoulders, he jumps, landing in the pool of lava, then, with the last of his strength, throws the other man clear.
** Also, the SWAT team/demolitions guy who gets pinned under some rubble while he and his partner place explosives critical to the survival of L.A. Knowing that they'd never get the guy out in time, they give the "all clear", leading to the explosives going off, saving L.A. Touching.
* Mongo, from ''[[Shrek|Shrek 2]]'' was a giant gingerbread cookie built by the Muffin Man (you know, the one who lives on Drury Lane?) with the intention of being a giant seige engine. While his life was regretfully short, he still bravely charged into battle on a suicide mission to help the heroes rescue Fiona. You really got to hand it to a guy who gives his life for someone he doesn't know and to save a kingdom he knew nothing about. To cinch it, his last words was to tell them, "Be good."
* Subverted in ''[[The Hunt for Red October]].'' As the Soviet sub is being evacuated following the {{spoiler|false}} reactor accident, Captain Ramius tells the ship's doctor to go with the crew in the life rafts while Ramius and the officers submerge and "scuttle the ship" (to which the doctor replies that Ramius will "receive the Order of Lenin"). Unbeknownst to the doctor and crew, Ramius intends to {{spoiler|meet up with an American sub to defect and hand over the Red October.}} The crew is rescued by a U.S. destroyer, upon whose deck they see the surface elements of an undersea battle, culminating in an explosion which they believe destroys the Red October.
* {{spoiler|Ken}} of ''[[In Bruges]]'' {{spoiler|sacrifices himself in the name of Ray's redemption by tossing himself off the top of the tower and splattering on the cobblestone pavement below. The original intention was to deliver a gun to Ray and warn him so that he could defend himself, but the gun was apparently crushed under his massive body, so he was only able to give the warning. Ken even prepares for the event by putting on a black suit, leaving his will tucked away on the dresser, and displaying an almost stoic attitude towards his boss (but getting shot in the leg still hurts like a bitch).}}
* In ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', Batman confesses to the killing of all of Harvey "Two Face" Dent's victims and takes the fall in order to protect Dent's image as the 'good guy' that the city needs. He becomes a fugitive from this point on, even though he did not kill Dent's victims.
* Nearly EVERYBODY in ''[[Damnatus]]''. Injured Oktavian stays behind and [[Taking You
** "In this universe, one is either sacrificed or sacrifices themself." [[Arc Words]] indeed.
* In the final cut of the ''[[I Am Legend]]'' movie, {{spoiler|Will Smith's character}} blows himself up with a bunch of zombies in the end so that the woman and her child can escape with the vaccine that would cure the zombies.
* In ''[[Resident Evil]] Extinction'', Betty sacrifices herself by trapping herself in a bus with a horde of undead ravens and blowing up the bus. Later in the film, {{spoiler|Carlos does the same thing. He rigs his truck with explosives and suicide bombs himself into a horde of the undead.}}
* In ''[[Sunshine (
** Heck, nearly the entire cast dies in separate heroic sacrifices: Kaneda gets obliterated by the sun repairing the solar shield, Mace dies of hypothermia repairing the mainframe, and Searle stays behind on the Icarus I in order to operate the airlock (even though he then commits suicide by subjecting himself to 100% exposure to the sun, he was only hastening his inevitable death). Even Trey arguably sacrifices himself by suicide, so the rest of the crew has enough air to survive.
* In ''[[
** {{spoiler|[[Meaningful Echo|"Sometimes, 1 must be sacrificed for the good of many."]]}}
* ''[[
* ''[[The Running Man (
{{quote|
* At the end of the classic giant-ant movie ''[[
* ''[[Jurassic Park The Lost World]]'': Eddie saves Nick, Sarah and Malcolm from falling off a cliff by securing a cable to the sliding trailer and throwing a rope to the others. {{spoiler|As he tries to pull the trailer back up with his SUV, the two T Rex that pushed the trailer in the first place come back and start to attack him. Despite the car being torn apart around him, he still keeps his foot on the accelerator trying to save the others. Ultimately though, he is plucked from the car and killed.}}
* ''[[Armageddon]]'' is a disaster film where anything that can possibly go wrong does. At the end of the movie, in order to detonate a nuke that destroys a meteor destined for Earth, one person has to stay back and manually detonate it because the remote detonator was broken (of course). Naturally they draw sticks and Ben Affleck's character drew the shortest stick. However, as he leaves the ship to fulfill his duty, Bruce Willis who had planned all along to be the one to do it immediately cuts off Affleck's oxygen supply and locks him inside the ship, taking his place and sacrificing himself to save all of humanity and the Earth.
** ''[[Deep Impact]]'', a [[Dueling Movies|similar movie]] to ''Armageddon'' has the entire shuttle crew with the nukes sacrifice themselves on the same mission.
* In ''[[Air Force One (
** Needed to stay to the end to ensure success.
* In the ''[[
* In the Hungarian animated film ''Vuk'' aka ''The Little Fox Vuk'' or Vic's (as he's known in the U.S. dub) uncle Karrack gives his life to save him and his mate Foxy from a hunter's bullet.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Last Unicorn (
* [[Uwe Boll]] seems to have an obsession with this trope...particularly when it's [[Stupid Sacrifice|completely unnecessary for the "hero" to sacrifice him or herself]].
* ''[[
* ''[[X2: X-Men
** Having survived this in X3 but also becoming the {{spoiler|Dark Phoenix, Jean}} twice regains her sanity long enough to beg {{spoiler|Logan/Wolverine to kill her}} so she won't kill anyone else. He finally relents at the movie's climax and {{spoiler|impales her on his claws.}}
* ''[[The Last Starfighter]]'' with {{spoiler|Centauri as he defends Alex from the hitman.}} Also it's a case of an inverted trope as at the end of the movie {{spoiler|Centauri comes back.}}
* In ''[[
* In the climatic battle at the end of the final movie in ''[[The Matrix]]'' series, Neo jacks himself into the virtual world once more, but not before making a deal with the Machines: {{spoiler|Destroy the rogue agent Smith and the Machines will establish peace with the humans. Powered by the code of the Matrix's "mother", The Oracle, Smith is too strong for Neo, but Neo realizes he must lose himself to win and lets Smith assimilate him. Smith gets promptly deleted by the Machines when they're able to use Neo's avatar to excise Smith's code from the Matrix once and for all.}}
** Subverted in the first film with Morpheous. He attacked Agent Smith with the full knowledge that he wasn't going to win/escape. When the surviving crew members contemplate whether or not to pull the connection on him to prevent the Agents from obtaining the access codes for Zion, the last human city, Neo instead takes [[Take a Third Option|an alternative option]]; to simply go back in and [[Big Damn Heroes|rescue]] their leader. Several [[More Dakka|gun fights]] later, he succeeds with a [[Gunship Rescue]].
* In [[
** In [[Tron
* The ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[Predator 2]]'', {{spoiler|Jerry Lambert}} blocks the Predator from following the fleeing subway passengers and pays for it with his life.
* Two deaths in ''[[Friday the
* A funny and mild version in ''[[Dirty Work]]'':
{{quote|
''dead silence''<br />
'''Mitch''': Alright, who's with me on the understanding that if this plan fails, you all get to beat the crap out of me?<br />
''crowd becomes very enthusiastic'' }}
* Near the end of the hospital battle in ''[[Hard Boiled]]'', two of the SWAT team officers charged with getting the newborns safely out of the building use their kevlar vests to protect the babies. Immediately after securing the infants inside of the vests, they're riddled with bullets that they might otherwise have survived.
* [[Captain America:
* {{spoiler|Subverted}} in ''[[Mystery Team]]'' with {{spoiler|Jason}} getting shot trying to calm down his friends and convincing the shooter to let them go.
* Buck the silverback gorilla in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. When the helicopter starts shooting down the apes, Buck knocks Caesar out of the line of fire and leaps at the aircraft, taking multiple and fatal gunshot wounds but succeeding in destroying it.
* In the movie [[Phantom of the Paradise]], the first song is about a singer who kills himself to get the money for his sisters life saving operation. Later Winslow sacrafices himself to save Phoenix.
* The two main characters Chris and Theta in ''[[
* ''[[
* In the climax of [[Cowboys and Aliens]], {{spoiler|Ella}} went into the core of the aliens' spaceship and activated the bracelet's self-destruct bomb, knowing theres only a couple of seconds for the bomb to go off.
* In [[Stranger Than Fiction]] Harold Crick discovers from his author that his fate is to {{spoiler|die by pushing a child out of the way of a car, taking its place. Accepting it as a good way to die, he does so. Subverted in that he survives the collision because his author rewrites the ending.}}
* At the end of ''[[Sherlock Holmes (
* [[Sucker Punch]] has two heroic sacrifices {{spoiler|Babydoll and Rocket sacrifice themselves for Sweet Pea, who had the best odds in the real world.}}
* The thirteen samurai who accept the suicide mission of assassinating Lord Naritsugu in ''13 Assassins''. The chances of survival are almost nil and they know this going in--they fight not for money or fame, but to kill a [[Complete Monster|monster who is a threat to all of Japan]].
* Darby in ''[[Darby O
* Yinsin sacrificing himself to buy Tony time in the first "[[Iron Man (
* In ''[[The Avengers (
* In ''[[Ted]]'', Donny attempts to kill Ted because he decided if he can't have Ted, then nobody can. Though Ted ''was'' resurrected once before (which would imply he could be resurrected again), his best friend John decides to save him. Unfortunately, he ends up being seriously injured in the process. Fortunately, it turns out John is still alive, though nobody wished upon a star to bring him back from the dead.
* In ''[[Thor: Love and Thunder]]'', {{spoiler|Jane sacrifices herself to save Thor and defeat the God Butcher. There is some consolation at the end, as her act has granted her a place in [[Warrior Heaven| Valhalla]].}}
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