History Determinator / Film

** Given the hellhole of a future he lived in, Reese himself must have been one to survive. Also, Sarah embraces her inner {{Determinator}} in the climax of the first movie, and practically ''becomes'' a Terminator in ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', to the point she's halfway to shooting a defenceless, wounded man in front of his wife and children for something he ''hasn't actually done yet''. Even after that, she's still perfectly capable of firing a 12-gauge shotgun repeatedly after minutes earlier having an inch-thick metal spike rammed straight through her shoulder. In fact, if she hadn't run out of ammo, she would have destroyed the T-1000 herself, without the T-800's help. Even more so in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles''.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDoom'':
** Batman refuses to stay down, literally punching his way out of a grave and digging himself out of six feet of Earth before continuing on with the mission without a moment's rest or medical attention.
** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} for Wonder Woman, as her refusal to give up a fight is the crux of the Legion of Doom's plan against her. [[spoiler: Cheetah's claws were laced with a drug that made Wonder Woman perceive everyone around her as Cheetah. She continues to fight, attacking innocent bystanders and police in her delusion. Cyborg speculates that the Legion intends for her to keep fighting until she [[HeroicRROD dies of exhaustion]], assuming one of the police don't get a lucky shot in first.]]

* Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. Much like his comics counterpart, the man does not know the meaning of the word "quit", whether he's being beat down by regular bullies or superhuman Nazi despots.
--->''"I can do this all day."''
** Even when Steve's undergoing the SuperSoldier transformation procedure, we have the staff telling Dr. Erskine to stop the experimentation, in fear of Steve potentially dying. However, Steve won't have any of that, actually ''yelling'' for the Doctor to keep going with it.
--->''"NOOOOOO! Don't! '''I CAN DO THIS!'''"''
** It gets one step further when dealing with Thanos, [[WorldsStrongestMan one of universe's strongest beings]] - in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelcinematicuniverse/images/9/9a/Cap_vs._Thanos.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20180810191507 he grabs Thanos by the hand]] to shortly hold him back; and in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', where he actually manages to give Thanos a fight, once the struggle leaves him wounded, disarmed, with his previously indestructible shield in pieces, and facing down not only Thanos but an army of hundreds, Steve just straps the remains of his shield tighter to his arm and get ready to take them all on.
--->''"I keep telling people to move on. Some do. But not us. Not us..."''
** If none of his post-procedure feats do anything for you, having this [[https://cap-chronism.dreamwidth.org/6115.html?thread=30435 veritable laundry list]] of ailments during TheGreatDepression, a time when employment was hardly guaranteed and most of these conditions had no effective or affordable cure yet, certainly will. Steve, the shrimpy dork from Brooklyn, had to be a supreme Determinator ''just to live long enough to be Captain America''.
* ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'': Carol never gives up, no matter how the odds are stacked against her. At one point we see flashbacks of her being repeatedly knocked to the ground, but each time she falls over, she gets back up again. [[spoiler:It's this determination that allows her to activate SuperMode at the climax of the film.]]
-->'''Kelly Sue [=DeConnick=]:''' Carol falls down all the time, but she always gets back up -- we say that about Captain America as well, but Captain America gets back up because "it's the right thing to do." Carol gets back up because "Fuck you."
* Ace Rothstein's initial description of Nicky Santoro in ''Film/{{Casino}}'' highlights exactly why you should NEVER pick a fight with him:
--> "[[TheNapoleon No matter how big a guy might be, Nicky would take him on.]] You beat Nicky with fists, he comes back with a bat. You beat him with a knife, he comes back with a gun. And if you beat him with a gun, [[AxeCrazy you better kill him]], because he'll keep comin' back and back until one of you is dead."

* In the Creator/ChristopherNolan [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Batman movies]] this seems to be Bruce Wayne's true superpower. ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' takes this to ridiculous levels as Bane pulls out all the stops to break Bruce's spirit and body and succeeds at neither.
--> '''Ducard''': The ''training'' is nothing! The ''will'' is ''everything''! The will to act.

* ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'': Wanda Maximoff. Hoo boy, Wanda Maximoff. It's definitely not a heroic example, though: she's willing to [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope sacrifice whatever morals she had left]], kill dozens if not hundreds of innocents, and endanger trillions more throughout the multiverse, all in order to reunite with her children.

* ''Film/ManOfSteel'':
** Very much Zod. [[spoiler: Even after the entire destruction of his ship, crew, terraformer, and everything he was going to use to turn Earth into Krypton 2.0 was destroyed, he still tried to do "what is best" for Krypton.]] He also overcomes the debilitating effect of his new haywire SuperSenses by concentrating really hard.

* Billy Batson from ''Film/Shazam2019'' devoted his entire life [[IWillFindYou searching for his long-long mother]] whom he got separated from at a local fair when he was 4-years-old. He constantly broke the law and ditched his foster families in order to see her again for the past ''ten years''. [[spoiler:[[AllForNothing However]], he was completely heartbroken upon realizing his mother never wanted him in her life.]]

* Scientist Jane Foster in ''Film/{{Thor}}''. It's clear from her very first scene that she's ready to do anything for her research, namely ''driving directly into a tornado'' to get the data necessary to prove her theories.

* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''
** Magneto'll do what it takes to finish his mission and... some old businesses.
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'':
*** Kitty, who must keep the link open, is at one point stabbed by Logan when his present body reacts violently to mental trauma in the past. And due to how time runs concurrently in the past and present, it's implied that it takes a few days before Logan and co. can properly stop Mystique, which means that she is slowly bleeding out and can't sleep for that period.
*** Same goes for Mystique, who throughout the film finds more and more damning evidence that Trask really needs to be killed. [[spoiler:It's not until the very end that Charles manages to talk her out of it.]]
*** The Prototype Sentinel that [[spoiler:goes after Magneto definitely is this. Even as it's being torn to pieces, it still tries to grab him.]]

** Sulley from ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' never gave up on getting Boo home safely.

--> '''Walter''': The ringer cannot look empty.

-->"I can do this all day."

-->"NOOOOOO! Don't! '''I CAN DO THIS!'''"

-->I keep telling people to move on. Some do. But not us. Not us...

* Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}} never gives up, no matter how the odds are stacked against her. At one point we see flashbacks of her being repeatedly knocked to the ground, but each time she falls over, she gets back up again. [[spoiler: It's this determination that allows her to activate GodMode at the climax of the film.]]

* Harold Abrahams in Film/ChariotsOfFire: "I'll take them all on, one by one, and run them off their feet."

** In [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda the first movie]], Po sticks around with Master [=ShiFu=] despite TrainingFromHell that is specially designed to drive him out of the temple, and he is an unfit panda with next to no kung fu training who is undergoing stuff that kung fu masters many times his level do. Not to mention the fact that he's kicked off the temple and has to climb up a few thousand steps to return. This is what earns him the respect of most of the Furious Five, and [[spoiler:he [[TookALevelInBadass Takes a Level in Badass]] when his natural kung fu abilities are discovered]].

** And Norman, in the battle. Right after getting killed as an Avatar, which was almost fully YourMindMakesItReal, he picked up a machine gun and charged back to the battle in his puny human body.

* Michael Myers from the ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' series spent fifteen years in a mental hospital, waiting for a chance to escape so that he could kill his sister. When he failed in killing her, he then spent the next ten years massacring everybody related to her. Then, depending on which canon you follow, he spent 10-20 years searching for his sister again.

* Another Kaiju example has to be Film/{{Gamera}}. The amount of punishment he takes in basically all of his movies is legitimately insane, and yet his sheer willpower to keep fighting is even more so. Impaling, losing copious amounts of blood, burning, slicing, whips, blunt force, getting his entire arm below his elbow blown clean off (By ''his own'' fireball, mind you, and intentionally at that), and literally ''dying'' ([[MessianicArchetype only to resurrect three days later]]). He just powers through all of that and ''refuses'' to give up, regardless of the odds stacked against him.

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

** {{Deconstructed}} for Wonder Woman, as her refusal to give up a fight is the crux of the Legion of Doom's plan against her. [[spoiler: Cheetah's claws were laced with a drug that made Wonder Woman perceive everyone around her as Cheetah. She continues to fight, attacking innocent bystanders and police in her delusion. Cyborg speculates that the Legion intends for her to keep fighting until she [[HeroicRROD dies of exhaustion]], assuming one of the police don't get a lucky shot in first.]]
* Po from ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' stuck around with Master [=ShiFu=] despite TrainingFromHell that was specially designed to drive him out of the temple. And he was an unfit panda with next to no kung fu training who was undergoing stuff that kung fu masters many times his level did. Not to mention the fact that he was once kicked off the temple and had to climb up a few thousand steps to return. This what earned him the respect of most of the Furious Five, and [[spoiler: he TookALevelInBadass when his natural kung fu abilities were discovered.]]
* Po continues the trend in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2''. Get shot with a cannon? Not a problem. Come back and challenge the BigBad. Get blown up? Get back up and [[spoiler:destroy the BigBad's fleet]].

-->'''Andy''': But the thing that makes Woody special is he'll never give up on you. Ever. He'll be there for you, no matter what.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]