History Main / RetiredBadassRoundup

* ''{{Dragonball}}'': Buu Saga

* ''Series/DadsArmy'' is based on the Home Guard in WW2, the desperation measure Britain employed in 1940 to bring back older men with previous military experience to do whatever was within their capabilities. The Walmington-On-Sea platoon is formed of men of average age sixty, veterans of older British wars, who all, while having retired from active service, ''wish'' they'd been Badasses. Corporal Jones, for instance, is over eighty and a veteran of ''four'' previous wars going back to 1881. The only real Badass among them is octogenarian Private Godfrey - the platoon's medical orderly. Who as a CombatMedic won bravery medals in [=WW1=] for retrieving wounded men under enemy fire.

* ''Series/DadsArmy'' is based on the Home Guard in WW2, the desperation measure Britain employed in 1940 to bring back older men with previous military experience to do whatever was within their capabilities. The Walmington-On-Sea platoon is formed of men of average age sixty, veterans of older British wars, who all, while having retired from active service, ''wish'' they'd been Badasses. Corporal Jones, for instance, is over eighty and a veteran of ''four'' previous wars going back to 1881. The only real Badass among them is octogenarian Private Godfrey - the platoon's medical orderly. Who as a CombatMedic won bravery medals in WW1 for retrieving wounded men under enemy fire.

* In ''Twenty Years After'', the first sequel to Creator/AlexandreDumas's {{Literature/The Three Musketeers}}, D'Artagnan tries to reunite his old friends on the orders of Cardinal Mazarino. Porthos, now a wealthy widower, accepts but Athos, who regained his title and estate as the ''Comte de la Fère'' and Aramis, now a priest, refuse. [[spoiler: Athos and Aramis are members of the ''Fronde'', the anti-Mazarin rebellion.]] After a few chapters, they are kicking ass together again.

* Happens at the end of the book ''CountBelisarius'' by Robert Graves (of ''Literature/IClaudius'' fame), when [[UsefulNotes/FlaviusBelisarius 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.
* Terry Pratchett's Literature/{{Discworld}} novels ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'' and ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' feature Cohen The Barbarian and the Silver Horde. Their entire schtick is this trope.
* In ''Twenty years after'', the first sequel to Creator/AlexandreDumas's {{Literature/The Three Musketeers}}, D'Artagnan tries to reunite his old friends on the orders of Cardinal Mazarino. Porthos, now a wealthy widower, accepts but Athos, who regained his title and estate as the ''Comte de la Fère'' and Aramis, now a priest, refuse. [[spoiler: Athos and Aramis are members of the ''Fronde'', the anti-Mazarin rebellion.]] After a few chapters, they are kicking ass together again.

* ''SpaceCowboys'': a movie in which a Russian satellite is falling to Earth and so four retired astronauts that never got into space go up because no one else is old enough to remember how to fix it.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' has [[spoiler:a group resembling the original ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' team (namely: Starhawk, Lady Starhawk, Martinex, Krugarr, Mainframe and Charlie- 27), depicted as senior Ravagers, getting together after Yondu's death]].

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' has [[spoiler:the 'original' team of Guardians of the Galaxy, depicted as senior Ravagers, getting together after Yondu's death, and planning a new job after years of not seeing each other]].

* In ''Anime/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 nothing 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 ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsK'', the El Dorado V was a recruitable, permanent mecha for your team.

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* In ''Twenty years after'', the first sequel to Creator/AlexandreDumas's {{Literature/The Three Musketeers}}, D'Artagnan tries to reunite his old friends on the orders of Cardinal Mazarino. Porthos, now a wealthy widower, accepts but Athos, who regained his title and estate as the ''Comte de la Fère'' and Aramis, now a priest, refuse. [[spoiler: Athos and Aramis are members of the ''Fronde'', the anti-Mazarin rebellion.]] After a few chapters, they are kicking ass together again.

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* ''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.

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

* 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, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/DolphLundgren, Creator/BruceWillis, et cetera). They're both a cinematic example and (sort of) a RealLife example.

* Within the 1980 version of ''{{Zorro}}'', a bandit troupe threatens the town and Don Diego's father calls in the badass crew he used to work with. Their skills have noticeably degraded in the time they've been retired, so Zorro has to do their job behind the scenes without letting them realize their failure.

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

* The {{Elseworlds}} mini-series ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' may be the UrExample. Set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, it features ''dozens'' of retired heroes (or in some cases, brand new adoptions of old names) joining two factions, one led by Franchise/{{Batman}} and another by {{Superman}}, to combat the superpowered "metahumans" such as Magog, who are causing just as much loss of life and destruction as the villains do. Sadly, while the two factions share a common goal, they oppose each other as well due to distrust and disagreement over methods, leaving them vulnerable to the true villains of the story.

* Pretty much the entire plot of ''Film/OnceUponATexasTrain''. A train robber is released after twenty years in prison and recruits his old gang to try and rob the same train that he was originally caught trying to rob. The man who caught him rounds up his band of retired Texas Rangers to go after him.

* The {{Elseworlds}} mini-series ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' may be the UrExample. Set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, it features ''dozens'' of retired heroes (or in some cases, brand new adoptions of old names) joining two factions, one led by {{Batman}} and another by {{Superman}}, to combat the superpowered "metahumans" such as Magog, who are causing just as much loss of life and destruction as the villains do. Sadly, while the two factions share a common goal, they oppose each other as well due to distrust and disagreement over methods, leaving them vulnerable to the true villains of the story.

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

Compare to PuttingTheBandBackTogether, when its any kind of group. Or to the MagnificentSevenSamurai, when its about any group of people who are Badass. What makes this different from those tropes is that this trope is about those who are old and have had their turn coming back.

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

* Pretty much the entire plot of ''OnceUponATexasTrain''. A train robber is released after twenty years in prison and recruits his old gang to try and rob the same train that he was originally caught trying to rob. The man who caught him rounds up his band of retired Texas Rangers to go after him.

* The climax of ''Film/{{Battleship}}'' has [[spoiler:the former crewmen of the battleship ''USS Missouri'', some of whom are veterans of TheKoreanWar, being called back into service to man the ''Missouri'' against the alien invaders]].

* ''WesternAnimation/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.

* ''Film/TheWildBunch'' focuses on a group of aging outlaws coming together for one last job during the TwilightOfTheWildWest.

* ''TheManInTheIronMask'': The three Musketeers meet to try and replace the king with his twin brother.

* 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, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, DolphLundgren, BruceWillis, et cetera). They're both a cinematic example and (sort of) a RealLife example.