History Main / RetiredBadassRoundup

* An episode of ''[[Series/KungFu Kung Fu: the Legend Continues]]'' has the Cains bring in [[TheEqualizer the Equalizer]] and [[TheManFromUNCLE the Man from UNCLE]] to lend their particular skills to help rescue a kidnap victim.

* Happens at the end of the book ''CountBelisarius'' by Robert Graves (of ''Literature/IClaudius'' fame), when the titular character has to defend Constantinople with literally no army. So he gathers his former soldiers, now old bureaucrats and retired commanders. And they still win.

* Happens at the end of the book ''Belisarius'' by Robert Graves (of ''Literature/IClaudius'' fame), when the titular character has to defend Constantinople with literally no army. So he gathers his former soldiers, now old bureaucrats and retired commanders. And they still win.

* In ''GunXSword'', there was that fan-favorite episode featuring the El Dorado Five - a bunch of former Hot Blooded Super Robot pilots, now octogenarians who do nothign but hang around the local bar chatting 'bout the glory-days. Untill suddenly, a Monsterof The Week appears, (as always happens when Van is around), only this time, the old coots decide to pull their Combining Mecha out of mothballs for one last fight... Van, out of respect for the pride of these old warriors, decides to sit out the fight, only providing a bit of timely aid from the sidelines. It was popular enough that the El Dorado team came back as the collective [[TheBigGuy Big Guy]] for Van's RagtagBunchOfMisfits in the second half of the series. And when Gun X Sword was finally featured in a SuperRobotWars game, the El Dorado V was a recruitable, permanent mecha for your team.

* This is also the entire plot of the movie ''{{Red}}''.

* An episode of ''{{Psych}}'' has Henry call in two RetiredBadass colleagues to solve a case; these men turn out to be [[CounterpartComparison strikingly similar]] to Shawn and Gus, which is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] multiple times.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': In the optional quest "For Auld Lang Syne", you recruit five retired Enclave soldiers to fight on your side. In the epilogue, it's stated that they go down in legend for how much ass they kick, reminding people just how scary the Enclave can be.

* ''TheVentureBrothers'': In the episode "Past Tense", when both Brock and Dr. Venture are kidnapped, Hank and Dean recruit the original Team Venture to help rescue them. HilarityEnsues.

* An episode of ''{{Kung Fu: the Legend Continues}}'' has the Cains bring in the Equalizer and the Man from UNCLE to lend their particular skills to help rescue a kidnap victim.

* The ''[[Film/TheExpendables Expendables]]'' films run on this, what with them being teamups of many of the big {{action hero}}es of the '80s and early '90s (SylvesterStallone, ArnoldSchwarzenegger, DolphLundgren, BruceWillis, et cetera). They're both a cinematic example and (sort of) a RealLife example.

* ''BuckRogersInThe25thCentury'' had a squad of old retired fighters led by Peter Graves come back for OneLastJob.

* Happens at the end of the book ''Belisarius'' by Robert Graves (of ''IClaudius'' fame), when the titular character has to defend Constantinople with literally no army. So he gathers his former soldiers, now old bureaucrats and retired commanders. And they still win.

* ''ThePowerPuffGirls'' parodies this in the episode "Fallen Arches": the leader of a legendary team of villains, the "Ministry of Pain" decides out of the blue to get his team back together and resume operations despite all of them having gotten ''really'' old. Blossom [[IdiotBall for whatever reason]] stops the other girls from doing something since they must "respect the elderly" so they trick the heroes who stopped them in the old days, Captain Righteous and his sidekick Lefty to fight them, despite them having had a falling out. The "battle" ends with all the elderly in intensive care and Blossom being chewed out by the news anchor about the fact that direct intervention would have stopped the problem before it started.
* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' had the Order of the White Lotus and their battle to retake the Earth Capital of Ba Sing Se.
* ''SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' had WorldWarII superheroes come out of retirement to aid CaptainAmerica against a newly risen RedSkull and his son [[PsychoElectro Electro]] (alternate continuity) and their army of robots.

* ''ThePowerPuffGirls'' parodies this in the episode "Fallen Arches": the leader of a legendary team of villains, the "Ministry of Pain" decides out of the blue to get his team back together and resume operations despite all of them having gotten ''really'' old. Blossom [[IdiotBall for whatever reason]] stops the other girls from doing something since they must "respect the elderly" so they trick the heroes who stopped them in the old days, Captain Righteous and his sidekick Lefty to fight them, despite them having had a falling out. The "battle" ends with all the elderly in intensive care and Blossom being chewed out by the news anchor about the fact that WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis if only they had intervened directly.

* ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'': has all of them meeting for one last time. There was supposed to be a bunch of recruitment scenes of picking them all up from different places, but was cut for budget reasons.

* Terry Pratchett's {{Discworld}} novels ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'' and ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' feature Cohen The Barbarian and the Silver Horde. Their entire schtick is this trope.

* Terry Pratchett's {{Discworld}} novels Discworld/InterestingTimes and Discworld/TheLastHero feature Cohen The Barbarian and the Silver Horde. Their entire schtick is this trope.

* SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries had WorldWarII superheroes come out of retirement to aid CaptainAmerica against a newly rissen RedSkull and his son [[PsychoElectro Electro]] (alternate continuity) and their army of robots.

[[AC:{{Mythology}}]]
* The Argonauts, making this Trope OlderThanFeudalism.

[[quoteright:349:[[FalloutNewVegas http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Remnants_bunker_command_room_7559.jpg]]]]

* ''FalloutNewVegas'': In the optional quest "For Auld Lang Syne", you recruit five retired Enclave soldiers to fight on your side. In the epilogue, it's stated that they go down in legend for how much ass they kick, reminding people just how scary the Enclave can be.

* An episode of ''{{Psych}}'' has Henry call in two RetiredBadass colleagues to solve a case; these men turn out to be [[CounterpartComparison strikingly similar]] to Shawn and Gus, which is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] multiple time.

* ''StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'': has all of them meeting for one last time. There was supposed to be a bunch of recruitment scenes of picking them all up from different places, but was cut for budget reasons.

* ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': the episode Blood Oath where Kang, Kor, and Koloth, all Klingons from StarTrek meet for one last quest to fight against the murderer of children, the Albino.

* Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Interesting Times and The Last Hero feature Cohen The Barbarian and the Silver Horde. Their entire schtick is this trope.

* ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeGhostbusters'': While Egon was leading the new team of Ghostbusters, the old gang would occasionally come back.

* ''ExtremeGhostbusters'': While Egon was leading the new team of Ghostbusters, the old gang would occasionally come back.

* ''ThePowerPuffGirls'' parodies this in the episode "Fallen Arches": the leader of a legendary team of villains, the "Ministry of Pain" decides out of the blue to get his team back together and resume operations despite all of them having gotten ''really'' old. Blossom [[IdiotBall for whatever reason]] stops the other girls from doing something since they must "respect the elderly" so they trick the heroes who stopped them in the old days, Captain Righteous and his sidekick Lefty to fight them, despite them having had a falling out. The "battle" ends with all the elderly in intensive care and Blossom being chewed out the news anchor about the fact that WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis if only they had intervened directly.

* ''ThePowerPuffGirls'' parodies this in one episode.

* The Argonauts, making this Trope OlderThanDirt.

* Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Interesting Times and The Last Hero feature Cohen The Barbarian (five foot three in his surgical sandals, with a LIFETIME'S EXPERIENCE NOT DIEING) and the Silver Horde (a group of equally elderly Barbarian Heroes). Their entire schtick is this trope, BOTH times.