History HonorBeforeReason / FIlm

--> '''Spooner:''' That was somebody's ''baby''. 11%'s more than enough. A human being would have known that. Robots, (claps his hand over his heart) nothing in here, just lights and clockwork.

* ''[[http://bluebehemoth.com/album/52866/ The Sword]]'', a short film by Pointy Stick Productions, appears to be built entirely around this idea. It features a boy with hundreds of opportunities to [[FlawExploitation exploit flaws]] in the strategies of the Muslim invaders outside his castle wall, and an able-bodied monk in the castle that, with the boy's help, could at least match the invaders' fighting skills and shut the gate long before [[BigDamnVillains help could arrive]] [[BigDamnHeroes for either side]]. This is made worse when the boy's father [[ValuesDissonance thinks it okay]] to go off and fight in the Crusades; but doesn't think it important to teach anyone how to practically defend a castle, nor work as a team. The fact that the castle is so [[GenreBlindness oblivious]] how to defend itself save for its gate and that the villains in the forest, with all the accessible wood, [[IdiotPlot don't think]] to build a flaming battering ram to take down that gate illustrates that the short film's producers [[TheyJustDidntCare really weren't all that concerned]] with [[YouFailHistoryForever historical realism]]. The one saving grace is perhaps that the monk successfully averts some films' [[AllMonksKnowKungFu certain beliefs about monks]].

* The most noble live-action example would have to be Indiana Jones in ''Film/TempleOfDoom'', who could have escaped with fortune and glory, instead got captured to save a helpless little boy from being whipped to death. Not the smartest of moves, yes; but '''any''' illusions of him being a heartless and cynical mercenary disappears at this point, and we cheer for him all the way as he saves '''all''' of the children and defeats the evil of Kali-Ma.

* John Connor of ''Terminator2JudgmentDay'' is another admirable example of this trope: he stops Sarah from killing Dyson even if it meant preventing Judgment Day, and his idealism allowed a war for humanity's future to be waged and '''won''' ''without murdering a single innocent human being''.

** Clint Eastwood's character uses a rather warped version of this in ''Film/ForAFewDollarsMore''. He allows three resting bandits to get to their feet so that they have a fair chance to go for their guns before he dispatches them with his ImprobableAimingSkills. The odd thing is that these men only try to attack him because he just declared his intention to shoot them all, and they otherwise would have continued to regard him as an ally. He planned to kill three men in cold blood no matter what happened so why even give them the chance?

* This trope is the source of Detective Spooner's TragicBigot tendencies towards robots in ''Film/IRobot''. He was involved in a car accident where his car and a car carrying an 11-year-old girl were sinking into a pond. A robot came by and, only having enough time to save one of them, saved Spooner instead of the child, despite Spooner's protests and insistence on saving the girl. Spooner lives and the girl drowns, solely because he had a 45% chance of survival, whereas her chances were only 11%, making Spooner the "logical choice". Spooner vehemently believes that the robot's calculation didn't justify leaving a child to die, and that robots don't have the emotional capacity to understand the weight of that kind of decision.

* In ''Film/{{Wanted}}'',[[spoiler: When Wesley returns to the Fraternity to kill Sloan, and Sloan said everybody's name had come up for assassination. Fox does the honorable and kills everybody with a curving bullet including herself in order to honor the code. The "before reason" part comes from the fact that Sloan has admitted to previously faking names in order to further his own agenda. She sees evidence that the other assassins don't share her commitment to the code so killing them is logical but killing yourself because a confessed liar told you that's what fate wanted is what makes it this trope.]]

* In ''Film/TheLastSamurai,'' the samurai refuse to use firearms and technology as they considered them "dishonorable." But in real life, the samurai were more than willing to use firearms.

* The 1962 JidaiGeki film ''Harakiri'' spends its entire run time tearing this trope to pieces in regards to the code of Bushido. A samurai is meant to accept HonorBeforeReason as his entire way of life, and when a ronin who claims to want to commit seppuku but is actually looking for a handout arrives at the gates of the Ii clan they treat him with contempt and force him to go through with it instead. The rest of the film centers on the revenge of his father-in-law, who at once reveals the hypocrisy of the Ii clan while calling into question an approach to life that values honor above ''feeding your own children''.

* ''{{The Beast of War}}'' (1988). The Pashtun rebels spare the life of the protagonist (a Soviet tank driver) when he appeals to their traditional code of Pashtunwali, which requires even an enemy to be given sanctuary if he asks. Though some of the rebels argue that the rules shouldn't apply to DirtyCommunists who've learnt a single word of their language (nanawatai - sanctuary), the fact that he'd been left for dead by his comrades (and is willing to repair an RPG in order to blow them up in payback) is a significant factor in his defense.

* In ''Film/{{Wanted}}'',[[spoiler: When Wesley returns to the Fraternity to kill Sloan, and Sloan said everybody's name had come up for assassination. Fox does the honorable and kills everybody with a curving bullet including herself in order to honor the code.]]

** Furthermore, Wayne also vows to fight evil his way. Even though he is in this den of villainy, surrounded and outnumbered 100-1, he doesn't hesitate for an instant to start his war on crime on the clan.
** Wayne takes this to even greater extremes in the 2008 sequel ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' where he refuses to kill the Joker despite how much easier it would make his life and how much safer it would make Gotham, just to prove that the Joker can't corrupt him.

* General Zod in ''Film/ManOfSteel''.

* ''{{The Beast of War}}'' (1988). The Pashtun rebels spare the life of the protagonist (a Soviet tank driver) when he appeals to their traditional code of Pashtunwali, which requires even an enemy to be given sanctuary if he asks. Though some of the rebels argue that the rules shouldn't apply to DirtyCommunists who've learnt a single word of their language (nanawatai - sanctuary), the fact that he'd been left for dead by his comrades (and is willing to repair an RPG in order to blow them up in payback) is a significant factor in his defence.

* Possibly Pride Before Reason would be a better description, but in ''Film/RobinHood1991'' Daguerre setences Robert to recieve one stroke of the lash; the minimum punishment he could allow under the law. If Robert had accepted this, everything would have quickly returned to normal. But Robert feels betrayed, insults Daguerre and, in a rapid escalation events, ends getting himself outlawed.

* Captain Kirk and his crew decide that court-martial is a better alternative than not trying to rescue their friend in ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock''. This wouldn't necessarily be an example of the trope if they had just gone and never come back, but in the next film they all willingly go back to face that court-martial. They then save the Earth on upon their return, so the actual court-martial involves nothing more serious than Kirk being demoted to Captain and handed a shiny new Enterprise.

* In ''Film/Wanted'',[[spoiler: When Wesley returns to the Fraternity to kill Sloan, and Sloan said everybody's name had come up for assassination. Fox does the honorable and kills everybody with a curving bullet including herself in order to honor the code.]]

* In ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', Doctor Schultz has been repeatedly shown to be an honorable, but prideful, man. [[spoiler:Toward the end of the film, the only thing Schultz has to do to allow himself, Django, and Broomhilda to leave the plantation alive is shake the reprehensible Calvin Candie's hand. Ultimately, Schultz cannot bring himself to degrade himself by shaking this monster's hand, and fatally shoots Candie, knowing full well it will ensure his own death and endanger Django and Broomhilda. He even apologizes before he's blown away.]]

* In ''Film/TenaciousDInThePickOfDestiny'', turns out that even the Devil must abide by the Demon Code, meaning he simply cannot refuse anyone who declares a rock-off challenge. Keep in mind, he presumably ''wrote'' this code in the first place!

* In ''Film/Wanted'', When Wesley returns to the Fraternity to kill Sloan, and Sloan said everybody's name had come up for assassination. Fox does the honorable and kills everybody with a curving bullet including herself in order to honor the code.

** There's a similar plot and illustration of this trope in the film FirstKnight. After catching Lancelot and Guinevere in an embrace (ironically, she had been completely faithful to Arthur and was merely giving Lancelot a good-bye kiss), Arthur bluntly declares, "As a man, I may forgive. As a king. . .", then declares that two will be tried for treason, in public, lest the people think that he is showing favoritism or leniency that he would never have extended to anyone else.

* In WarrenBeatty's ''Film/DickTracy'', Tracy is kidnapped and taken to his girlfriend's apartment building's boiler room where Big Boy Caprice tries to bribe him. Although the smart thing for Tracy would be to pretend to accept the money and then turn it in to the Police Department as soon as he's let go, Tracy decides to throw it back in Caprice's face on principle. The Kid is watching all of this in hiding, waiting for an opportunity to help, and is really impressed at the detective's fearless honor, but there is no way Tracy could have known he had an audience.

* In ''TheLastSamurai,'' the samurai refuse to use firearms and technology as they considered them "dishonorable." But in real life, the samurai were more than willing to use firearms.