You Shall Not Pass/Film

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


As a Death Trope, Spoilers ahead may be unmarked. Beware.

Films -- Animation

  • In How to Train Your Dragon this trope is subverted, after being invoked, quickly subverted, then re-invoked: Stoick and Gobber see the Green Death, and together with the whole adult Viking population have a Mass "Oh Crap" moment. After the big dragon decides to kick everybody's ass, Stoick runs in to buy time for the retreating army, mainly because wiping out all the parents in the population isn't too healthy. When Stoick tells Gobber why he's doing it, Gobber joins him, to double the time. Then, just before they go in, Hiccup and his friends arrive on dragons in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • In Shrek 2, Puss-in-Boots holds off a pack of guards as Shrek rushes to stop the Fairy Godmother's evil plot to make Fiona fall in love with her son, in payment of his debt to Shrek. He wasn't honestly in much danger from them, but that makes him holding them all off no less impressive, especially for a normal-sized housecat.
  • The Big Guy from Final Fantasy the Spirits Within.
  • In The Movie of The Magic Roundabout, Zebedee apparently sacrifices himself to prevent Zeebad from going after the rest of the group, to the point of creating a landslide when they try to go back and help him.
    • All the more delicious of course because the voice of Zebedee is that of Ian McKellen, who delivered the Trope Namer.
  • Spoofed in Corpse Bride. The pastor stands at the doors of the church just before the climactic wedding, shouting at the Dead that they are not to enter the church. They merely file past him, admonishing him for shouting in a church. The fact that the character getting a You Shall Not Pass is played by Christopher Lee, who played Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings films, makes the scene even more delicious for those who recognize Lee's ultra-distinctive voice.
  • In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Brent holds off a horde of giant roast chickens while Sam and Flint go to shut down the FLDSMDFR.

"Now go, you crazy kids, and save the world!"

  • Ray the firefly put up a great fight against the evil shadows sent by Facilier, to give Tiana enough time to run away with the talisman. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop Facilier from stepping on him and killing him.


Films -- Live Action

  • The 2010 Live Action Adaptation of Space Battleship Yamato ends with this trope when Kodai stays behind on the Yamato to fire the ship's Wave Motion Gun, which is blocked and will explode if fired, in order to stop the last Meteor Bomb from falling to Earth and destroying it.
  • Much less debatable is Dillon's moment at the end of Alien 3, when he Throws Down the Gauntlet and fights the alien with his bare hands shouting "Come on! Come on! That's all you got?! Is that as hard as you fight, motherfucker?!" before both of them are buried in molten lead.
  • This is how Robin Hood survives the original escape in the first five minutes of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
  • Played straight in Predator, when Billy chooses to stop and wait for the alien hunter on a log bridge, throwing away his gun to fight with a big knife. Next thing we know, we're seeing through the Predator's eyes and he's creeping over the base of a fallen tree to confront Billy. Two seconds later the other survivors hear a horrible drawn-out scream. Then the Predator catches up with them again.
  • The movie Three Hundred depicted a (very fanciful) version of the real life Battle of Thermopylae. In it, a handful of Greek soldiers successfully defend a narrow pass against a million-strong Persian army for three days before getting killed -- and would have held out longer had they not been betrayed.
  • In Star Wars (A New Hope) Obi-Wan Kenobi distracts Darth Vader and a squad of stormtroopers so the heroes can sneak back aboard the Millennium Falcon. His "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine" comment implies he meant to sacrifice himself all along.
  • The Mummy 1999 movie had Ardeth Bey literally wade into the undead hordes to give the heroes a chance to escape. Thanks to test audience reaction, he shows up at the end, mildly wounded. It happened a second time in the movie, or rather a first time, too: the museum curator (and secret Medjai agent) guy who held off the zombified population while the heroes escaped through the sewer. The second Mummy movie had Bey leading an entire army for the same purpose.
  • In Serenity, River Tam finally demonstrates just how immensely badass she is by holding back a seemingly innumerable horde of Reavers by herself, as the rest of the crew is either dead, exhausted, out of ammo, or severely wounded by that time. They huddle behind a locked door, expecting that when they open it again she'll be dead. When it opens, however, she is standing in the middle of a horde of dead Reavers, without a scratch on her.
    • And after that, when the Alliance troops rush into the room, she is calmly and emotionlessly preparing to do it again. Considering the level of ass-kicking just demonstrated, its a safe bet that the Alliance troops would have been massacred.
      • You've always taken care of me. My turn.
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail actually has three examples, one with the Black Knight ("None shall pass!"), one with the wizard ("Answer me these questions three."). Arguably, the latter is actually more subversive. The other, of course, is the Knights of Ni.
  • The ending of the second X-Men film is an example of this trope, with Jean Grey staying behind to hold off the inevitable just long enough for the rest of the team to escape. Although everyone, including her, thinks that No One Could Survive That, she manages to survive.
  • In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Commodore Norrington, instead of following Elizabeth on a rope off of the Flying Dutchman, chooses to cut it instead to guarantee her escape. He is then killed by Bootstrap Bill.
    • This trope was oddly subverted at the end of Dead Man's Chest, when Elizabeth handcuffs Jack to the mast of the Black Pearl in order to keep the Kraken from coming after the rest of the crew, since it only wants Jack. This, after Jack chose to come back and help the crew escape rather than abandon them as he almost did.
    • Yeah, but then they go get him back. And then they only did it because he was in possession of the missing Plot Coupon.
  • Embraced and subverted in Star Trek: First Contact. Picard clearly wants to sacrifice himself and his ship; "The line must be drawn HERE!" but in the end, compassion and common sense win out and he orders the crew to safety. In an earlier scene, one of the more amusing in the film, Doctor Crusher activates the Emergency Medical Hologram as the invading Borg are approaching Sick Bay and orders it to create a diversion. As the Borg break down the door, the nonplussed Doctor attempts to prescribe them an analgesic creme to soothe the skin rashes caused by their cybernetic implants.

"I'm a doctor, not a doorstop!"

    • Pulled off in Star Trek III the Search For Spock. Kirk orders the destruction of the beloved Enterprise so that he and his crew can escape to Genesis while the explosion kills most of the enemy Klingons.
    • In the new Star Trek, Captain George Kirk of the Kelvin does this to the Narada.
    • Variation of this occurs too many times to list in Star Trek: Voyager. Janeway attempted to sacrifice Voyager on a number of occasions, and at least one version of Janeway succeeds. Dubbed a "variation" because she's also willing to claim "You Shall Not Pass" on behalf of the crew and ship, as well as herself.
  • The remake of Dawn of the Dead. Arguable, but when C.J. remains in the truck at the end and then blows himself and all of the remaining zombies up. No, I don't know why they were all killed, but they were.
  • The Matrix
    • In The Matrix, Morpheus does this in order to buy time for Neo and the others to escape. While the remaining crew members later contemplate pulling his connection in order to prevent the Agents from gaining access codes to Zion, the last human city, Neo decides instead to rescue him, which he does in stunning awesomeness.
    • The Matrix Reloaded. Neo fights against the Merovingian's Mooks so Trinity and Morpheus can escape with the Keymaker.
    • In The Matrix: Revolutions, hordes of the machines are storming Zion, one last elderly soldier stands bravely and alone, and blasts as many of them as he can before being mauled.
  • In The 13th Warrior, one of the 12 Norsemen stays behind in the tunnel to hold off the rampaging horde of cannibalistic cave-dwelling Neanderthals after uttering the tip-off phrase for a wounded soldier: "Well, I think I've gone as far as I can. Today was a GOOD day. Meet me in Valhalla!"
  • And speaking of Norsemen, the utterly forgettable Lee Majors movie The Norsemen sees this trope with a warrior named Olaf. Who later makes his way back from his sure-to-be-suicide stand. (The enemies that the Norse were fighting in this movie were native Americans Who BTW were according to the Vinland Saga an enemy too tough for Vikings.)
  • Australia: The Drover's best friend against Japanese soldiers.
  • Starship Troopers. During the showdown in the Bug hive near the end of the movie, trooper Watkins is injured and can't escape.

Watkins: Give me the nuke!
Rico: You trying to be a hero, Watkins?
Watkins: I'm trying to kill some bugs, sir!
(as the other MI escape, Watkins detonates the nuke, killing the Bugs)

    • Similar thing happened to Tom Sizemore's character in Red Planet.
  • The Last Samurai. Katsumoto's wounded son Nobutada single-handedly holds off several Japanese soldiers at a small bridge behind his father's home in Tokyo, so that Katsumoto, Algren and the rest of the samurai can make their escape.
  • Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion. The SDF is evacuating Sendai when Legion attacks. Gamera arrives in time to hold the Legion off, but is mortally wounded while the SDF leaves.
  • The robot, remote-controlled by Will Robinson, in the movie version of Lost in Space.
  • In District 9, this is the protagonist's turning out. Oh, and he's also in an armed to the teeth suit of Powered Armour. He catches a rocket propelled grenade.
  • The phrase gets spoofed in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Peter went a whole week wearing the same pair of sweat pants. Come Saturday, he says "You Shall Not Pass".
  • Inverted in Inglourious Basterds; Pvt. Zoller is a war hero to the Nazis, for taking out a large number of American soldiers.
  • In Prince of Darkness, Catherine Danforth pushes Susan Cabot, who's been possessed by The Devil, into the mirror, to prevent her from pulling the Anti-God into our world. Unfortunately, she's also pulled into the mirror, which the priest then destroys, to seal the portal.
  • Used for an Incredibly Lame Pun in one spoof of The Western -- can't remember the name but it had a Magical Native American telling the hero and his sidekick: "None shall pass." He allows them to pass when they return dressed as nuns.
  • Tron: Legacy: "Flynn, run!" Of course, this Heroic Sacrifice turns into an awful Fate Worse Than Death.
  • Papa Smurf in The Smurfs does this to save the other Smurfs from Gargamel, leading to No One Gets Left Behind.
  • Citizens of New York in Spider-Man 2 attempt this against Doctor Octopus to keep him from getting to Spiderman. It doesn't work.
  • The Lord of the Rings: Gandalf at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm in Moria, when facing the Balrog. He even screams "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!" at him. Just after he seemingly defeated the Balrog, he's pulled into the abyss with him, instructing the rest of the fellowship to "Fly, you fools!" before falling.
  • Subverted in Men in Black. After the giant cockroach alien kills two other aliens in a cafe and smashes the place up, a brave waiter blocks the doorway and says, "You're not going anywhere, pal!" only to get knocked into next week.
  • Terminator II: Judgment Day. Sarah Conner tricks John into getting onto the sliding track so he's taken to safety, then stays behind to prevent the T-1000 from following and killing him.
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