The Magnificent Seven Samurai: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''Chris''': There's a job for six men, watching over a village, south of the border.
▲{{quote|'''Chris''': There's a job for six men, watching over a village, south of the border.<br />
▲'''O'Reilly''': How big's the opposition?<br />
▲'''Chris''': Thirty guns.<br />
'''O'Reilly''': I admire your notion of fair odds, mister.|''[[The Magnificent Seven]]''}}
So you're one of a group of farmers whose village is [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|under attack]] by a gang of remorseless bandits. None of you know how to fight, so you leave to hire a group of warriors who are willing to defend you for the pittance you can pay, plus meals. So you come back with seven guys and... hey, Wait a minute, haven't we seen this somewhere before?
No, you haven't been reading
Because ''[[The Seven Samurai]]'' contains many plot elements which are not exclusive to Japanese culture, it's easy to shift the basic narrative around and still get a workable movie angle. In fact, it's such a classically popular example of a narrative that many filmmakers don't even bother being subtle in the process of [[Homage]]- there's a lot more movies out there [[Cast Calculus|with exactly seven heroes]] doing this kind of plot than you'd expect.
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The trope title and [[Trope Namer|namers]] are ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' (''Shichinin no samurai'') and ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'', the latter of which is famous for both transferring the Kurosawa classic to the Old West (with Kurosawa's blessing) and being a classic in its own right. (A trivial note: ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' was originally released in the USA as ''The Magnificent Seven''; the English title was changed to a direct translation of the Japanese title later to avoid confusion with the remake.)
[[File:
The plot is [[Strictly Formula|pretty predictable]], but [[Tropes Are Not Bad|always fun]].
:* [[Plucky Comic Relief|The Funny Guy]]
:** At least one will die [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroically]]
See also [[Training the Peaceful Villagers]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Samurai
* A three-part story arc in the anime version of ''[[Fist of the North Star]] 2'' featured Kenshiro teaming up with a gang of post-apocalyptic cowboys clearly modeled after ''The Magnificent Seven''. Even the group's name, "The Wasteland Seven", is taken from the Japanese title of ''The Magnificent Seven''.
* ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' was like this, if one considers each Chosen/Digimon partnership to count as a single member of the seven (functionally, that's the case), [[Subverted Trope|until]] [[It Was His Sled|Hikari turned up in the second half of the series]].
* The third ''[[Crossbone Gundam]]'' manga, ''Steel Seven'', has this built into it: remnants of [[The Empire|the Jupiter Empire]] are building a [[Kill Sat|super-massive colony laser]] in Jovian orbit with the intent of blasting Earth. The only method of getting to Jupiter in time to stop the weapon is a flying wing that can only carry roughly seven [[Humongous Mecha|Mobile Suits]], so [[The Hero]] goes around trying to recruit the best pilots he can find.
** One of the good guys explicitly makes the reference, commenting "I love Kurosawa movies!" when the plan is discussed.
* Inverted in ''[[
* ''[[Kinnikuman]]'', the Planet Rakka mini-arc. The child-like Choujin Beansman comes to Earth to recruit Choujin to help save his people from the Space Samurai, and teams up with Terryman, Ramenman, Brocken Jr., Puyo Puyo, and Crystalman, with Kin forcing himself into the group. Together, they are the Magnificent Choujin 6!
{{quote|
* In ''[[Naruto]]'' the first major arc, the Land of Waves, quickly turns into this plot. Team 7 is hired to act as bodyguards for a cantakerous old man named Tazuna but instead of protecting him from ordinary bandits on the journey home, they discover he has been marked for death by Gatou, a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|shipping magnate and crime lord]], who has taken over his impoverished country and wants to stop Tazuna from building a bridge to the mainland and thus break his economic tyranny, and has hired dangerous ninja assassin [[Dragon-in-Chief|Momochi Zabuza]] and his gang of missing-nin to take him out. It ends with the people of Tazuna's village being inspired to make a stand against Gatou's army of hoodlums.
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* ''[[Marvel Star Wars]]'' (the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' comic book), where immediately after they finished with the movie, the plot moves on to Han and Chewie leading six other fighters (including wanna-be Jedi [[Meaningful Name|Don Wan Kihotay]] and green carnivorous rabbit-man Jaxxom) in defense of a small village.
* ''Marvel Adventures: Avengers'' had an issue like this. In accordance with the series's early title theme of altering famous movie titles, this was called The Avenging Seven. It actually did include a little village beset by raiders, had someone travel far with the village's single most precious treasure, had an extended sequence of [[Training the Peaceful Villagers]], and at the end the heroes were paid in three tons of food.
* Although [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Ben Templesmith]]'s ''[[Singularity Seven]]''
* [[Chris Claremont]]'s ''[[Sovereign Seven]]''. The seven in question were aliens, each a prince or princess of his or her homeworld, and each the sole survivor of that world. They banded together to protect the universe (and Earth in particular) from 'the Rapture'; the event that destroyed their homeworlds.
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== Film ==
* The [[Trope Namer
* ''[[Battle Beyond the Stars]]'' is ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'' [[In Space]]. In fact Robert Vaughn played essentially the same character that he did in ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]''
* ''The Seven Magnificent Gladiators''
* ''Seven Swords''
* ''Dune Warriors''
* Russian movie ''Dikiy vostok'' a.k.a. ''The Wild East''
* The comedy film ''[[¡Three Amigos
* In ''[[
* ''[[A Bug's Life
* Arthur and his six Sarmatian knights in the 2004 ''[[King Arthur]]'' movie, with the Britons and the "Woads" as the villagers and the Saxons as the bandits. The scene after the battle of Badon Hill with the graves of the knights who fell is lifted straight from Kurosawa.
* In the 1979 movie ''Seven'' (not be confused with the [[Se7en|1995 serial killer movie]]), seven hitmen are hired to kill seven mob bosses who planning a criminal takeover of Hawaii.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Hibiki]]'' used this for its [[Non
* ''[[Chopper Chicks In Zombietown]]''!
* ''[[The
* ''[[Star Trek: Insurrection]]''
* George Clooney and the Weinstien company are remaking the film yet again, but with mercenaries in present day Thailand.
* ''[[World Gone Wild]]'', starring Bruce Dern, Michael Pare, and Adam Ant, is ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' but without the fantastic script, amazing direction, or brilliant acting, set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where water is the most precious commodity on earth.
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Blake's
* ''[[The Seven Swordsmen]]'' TV series
* The ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' episode "The Magnificent Warriors"
* [[
* The ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' episode "Marauders" (especially given that there're seven main characters in this series) with a human mining colony being taught to fight against Klingons who are extorting their [[Applied Phlebotinum|deuterium]].
* Even more obviously, ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' had "
* The "Heart of Gold" episode from ''[[Firefly]]''. An interesting twist is that the "Village" to be defended is a whorehouse.
* Inverted in ''[[
* Obviously, ''[[The Magnificent Seven (TV series)|The Magnificent Seven]]''.
* ''[[Kung Fu]]: The Legend Continues'' had an episode called "Dragonswing", where Caine and Peter assemble a team of Shao Lin alumni to help a friend rescue his girlfriend from the thugs who've taken over his Northwestern town. Robert Vaughn guest-starred as Rykker, a mercenary [[Actor Allusion|very similar]] to his ''Magnificent Seven'' character.
* The ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' episode "The Moment of Truth".
* The ''[[Robin of Sherwood]]'' episode "The Swords of Wayland" - at least at first. The plot soon took the outlaws away from the village and in search of the stolen [[McGuffin]].
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* An old 1991 article from ''Roleplayer'', the long-defunct [[GURPS]] newsletter, [http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/Roleplayer/Roleplayer23/SevenHeros.html covered this trope] and its applications to the [[Tabletop RPG]].
* "A Fistful of Dwarfs", an article in the short-lived gaming magazine ''Visions'' detailing a "spaghetti Western" area of the [[Discworld]], included this scenario. This being Discworld, of course, the villagers have a cast-iron contract for the warriors to sign, which specifies that warriors who die don't get paid and exempts the villagers themselves from the nastier bits of the movie.
* The Fifth Edition ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' rulebook included suggestions for a 'Seven Knights' scenario, in which one player took seven [[Hero Unit
** In that edition of the game this amounted to a ''ridiculously'' easy win for the heroes unless the other player got lucky with the artillery.
** The Scenario was revived in Sixth Edition in a much harder version TWICE. Once for the [[The War to End All Wars|Storm of Chaos]] called Seven Sigmarites which is so unbalanced against the seven (due in great part to the relative weakness of the Empire army book's heroes at the time since the Empire was mainly a gunline army) your goal isnt to win, [[Do Not Go Gentle|just to kill enough of the oncoming horde]]. The second scenario features a group of [[Aguirre, the Wrath of God
== Theatre ==
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*** Also, Knights of the Old Republic 2 wasn't made by Bioware.
** Correction: Three (or four in ''[[Dragon Age]]'') save the galaxy/world, the rest patiently slack in the base.
*** There are some all-out NPC battles in Dragon Age, and the NPC character types still (partially) fit. Alistair is, arguably, [[The Hero]] who makes the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] {{spoiler|either by giving his life to kill the archedemon, or giving up his freedom to become king}}, The Lancer is [[Token Evil Teammate]] Morrigan, Sten is [[The Stoic]] and thus, also, [[The Quiet One]] who is also a [[Jerk
** Bioware likes this trope so much that they built the party members of ''[[
*** If you see Tali and Liara as both being Smart Guys in different fields, then Garrus could be the Young Guy. Shepard becomes his mentor, after all, and his character development reflects what he picks up from your own behavior as a Paragon or Renegade.
*** The bulk of ''[[
* ''[[Halo
*** Carter - [[The Hero]]
*** Noble Six - [[The Lancer]]/[[The Sixth Ranger]]
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*** Jun - [[Friendly Sniper]]
*** Auntie Dot - [[Smart Guy]]
* ''[[Metal Gear
* [[The Western]] chapter in ''[[Live a Live]]'' has a few elements of this.
* ''[[Throne of Darkness]]'' was inspired by the concept.
* The Greil Mercenaries of the ''[[
* During the "That Which Redeems" [[Story Arc]] from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Torg tries to set one of these up after the Dimension of Lame summons/kidnaps him into protecting them from [[Demonic Invaders]]. Unfortunately, all the people he recruits ''come from'' the Dimension of Lame and ... well, [[Exactly What It Says
▲== Webcomics ==
▲* During the "That Which Redeems" [[Story Arc]] from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Torg tries to set one of these up after the Dimension of Lame summons/kidnaps him into protecting them from [[Demonic Invaders]]. Unfortunately, all the people he recruits ''come from'' the Dimension of Lame and ... well, [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|it's called that for a reason]].
* ''[[No Need for Bushido]]'' does this and specifically points out that they have seven samurai (if you count [[Those Two Guys]])
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
▲* ''[[Re Boot]]'' uses this in the post-[[Time Skip]] episode "Icons". Matrix and Andraia find themselves in a rundown computer system and have to [[Training the Peaceful Villagers|teach the inhabitants to win games]] to ensure the system's survival. When Matrix finds that the [[Tagalong Kid]] has brought their makeshift team to seven, he utters a sarcastic "[[Lampshade Hanging|magnificent]]".
* ''[[Star Wars:
▲* ''[[Wakfu (Animation)|Wakfu]]'s'' fifth episode does exactly this, down to the title ("''The Magnificent Five''"). Though, to be honest, it actually is more of a parody of this trope, subverting most plot points common to other examples (the ending, for one).
* ''[[Justice League: Crisis
▲* ''[[Star Wars the Clone Wars]]'' has the episode "Bounty Hunters". It even mentions Kurosawa in the opening.
* ''[[
▲* ''[[Justice League Crisis On Two Earths]]'' involves the six 'core' Leaguers (the same from the series, less Hawkgirl, and with Hal Jordan as [[Green Lantern]]) join an alternate universe Luthor to save said alternate universe from evil versions of themselves.
▲* ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]'' had a very deliberate [[Shout Out]] to this in the form of "The Magnificent Kiwi." When you're dealing with a [[Space Western]], this plot's going to show up.
** Also, according to [[Word of God|series creator Robert Mandell]], this trope was also the inspiration for the series' entire premise, in the form of Waldo and Zozo contacting Earth to help them defeat [[God Save Us From the Queen|the Queen of the Crown]] and her [[Evil Empire]].
* ''[[Kappa Mikey]]'' has an episode where the five crew members are called by a little boy to save their playground from a garbage man intent on turning it into a landfill. The boy is under the impression that they are heroes instead of actors, and the LilyMu crew is under the impression that it's all a publicity gig!
* ''[[A Bug's
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