History Main / VigilanteMan

* Vigilanteism is attacked in ''TheOxBowIncident'', wherein three obviously innocent men are persecuted by a [[TorchesAndPitchforks lynch mob]].

* Jigsaw, Amanda and Hoffman in {{Saw}} are a twisted, ''twisted'' version of this.

** She also used to partner up with Vriska in [[LARP FLARP]] session to kill off other players, but only the ones that really deserved to be punished. She leaves when Vriska starts [[KillerGameMaster murdering indiscriminately.]]

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* [[http://www.onemanga.com/Tista/ Tista]] from the ''{{Tista}}'' manga would probably constitute as a female example of this. She is an assassin who kills immoral people who the law cannot catch.

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* The movie ''The Star Chamber'' is about a judge who decides to join a group of judges who are disgusted with the system and become vigilante men. After they [[spoiler:make a mistake and send a hitman after someone who didn't commit the crime, the hero decides that becoming a vigilante man was a mistake. But rather than show us that vigilante justice is wrong, they have the "innocent" man decide to kill the judge for stumbling across his illegal drug operation]].

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* Dexter Morgan from ''{{Dexter}}'' sometimes sees himself as a vigilante for killing murderers, and in one episode fantasizes about being a superhero who is applauded by the public. In his darker moments, however, he admits that he's just a monster with a little more self-control.

* Disgruntled cop Manny Lopez in the ''{{MacGyver}}'' episode "Tough Boys" decided to use his Marine skills to train a bunch of kids to become the titular Tough Boys and crack down on drug dealers after snapping from the trauma of having a crack addicted daughter that went missing without a trace leaving him with his drug-addled baby granddaughter. Predictably, the episode ends with Mac having to save the Tough Boys from being nearly killed in a shoot-out and preventing Lopez from blowing himself up along with a major drug dealer.

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* The ''WorldOfDarkness'' sourcebook ''Slasher'', which is all about serial killers who rise above the cut, has an entire [[{{Splat}} Undertaking]] dedicated to this -- the Avenger. They get the ability to take on multiple foes at once without being overwhelmed, but have to actively make the effort to break from their pursuit.

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* ''MassEffect 2'' has Archangel, who turns out to be a CowboyCop frustrated by being hindered by ineffectual bureaucracy.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Bernie Goetz was labeled the "Subway Vigilante" after he [[MuggingTheMonster gunned down four men he claimed were mugging him.]] The incident sparked a national debate on vigilantism, though his actions do not fit into the classic mold of a vigilante.

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* Light in ''DeathNote''. Though to be fair, death is the only punishment he ''can'' dish out. Of course, [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready everyone knows]] that he eventually [[AGodAmI gains a God-complex]] and starts killing the members of law enforcement trying to find him.
** 'Eventually'? Right at the beginning he states that when he's out of criminals, he'll go after 'immoral' people, next.
*** Not to mention the ''lazy''.
** What he originally says is that he's going to create a world filled with only good-hearted people he approves of. This should be enough to show anyone that this guy's trouble.

* [[http://www.onemanga.com/Tista/ Tista]] from the ''{{Tista}}'' manga would probably constitute as a female example of this. She is an assassin who kills immoral people who the law cannot catch. [[spoiler:She gets caught eventually and ends up serving quite the sentence for her murders]].

* Weiss in ''WeissKreuz''.

* {{Batman}} is frequently called a vigilante, and he'll even beat crooks up to an inch of their life, but his MoralCode prevents him from killing outright. It's often stated that Batman's ThouShaltNotKill adherence is specifically to ''avoid'' becoming this trope incarnate.
** He ''Is'' a vigilante, just one that doesn't kill.
** The Paladin, who appeared in a ''JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' story where Anansi was changing all the hero's stories, is an alternate Bruce Wayne who picked up Joe Chill's gun while he was running off, and shot him. He became a gun-toting vigilante in a cowboy hat, whose story (until Vixen interferes) ends with him and CommissionerGordon in a MexicanStandoff.

* The movie ''The Star Chamber'' is about a judge who decides to join a group of judges who are disgusted with the system and become vigilante men. After they [[spoiler:make a mistake and send a hitman after someone who didn't commit the crime, the hero decides that becoming a vigilante man was a mistake. But rather than show us that vigilante justice is wrong, they have the "innocent" man decide to kill the judge for stumbling across his illegal drug operation]]. It seems Hollywood can't ever make vigilante justice seem like it is something wrong, even if it does make mistakes.
** I think you're CompletelyMissingThePoint of the movie, which is that vigilante justice ''is'' wrong, even if the System frees guilty people. [[spoiler:It would have been a typical Hollywood cop-out to have the alleged childkillers be completely innocent. The fact that Michael Douglas character tries to warn them ''even though he already knows they're criminals'' (their prior convictions were part of the evidence used for their 'verdict') shows that he realises the law must be based on higher principles than whether or not a person is 'bad'.]]

* Mack Bolan, the protagonist of ''TheExecutioner'' series of novels.
** This only lasts until his similarities with The Punisher ended, and he joined the government, however, and ironically the same methods he used before were still successful abroad, as the black ops division he was inserted into specifically revolved around stopping terrorists and communist revivals. He did have a [[HeroicBSOD moral dilemma breakdown]] during one mission in China however, when he was forced to strangle a 14 year old girl to death because she was a gun-toting fanatic. From that novel onwards he's one of the more restrained members of the Stony Man Farm.
* The success of ''TheExecutioner'' series spawned a number of [[FollowTheLeader knock-off novel series]] all with essentially the same plot (organised crime kills the protagonist's family causing him to become a one man army on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge). These series included:

* TheSaint is a GentlemanAdventurer version who does his vigilante thing not because of any specific need for vengeance, but because he enjoys it and is kind enough to stick to murdering only those who deserve it. Kind of like a more amiable version of Dexter Morgan.
** He was certainly a VigilanteMan in the early novels. In the later stories, this aspect of his character was toned down to the point of almost vanishing. Every so often he would remember his 'bad old days' and choose to extract fatal vengence someone the law could't touch.
* TheSpider, TheShadow, and numerous literary adventurers of the pre-World War II era fit this trope. In fact, these personages adopted secret identities due to the fact that they knew that they police would arrest them for their sudden justice. Other than Doc Savage (and the 1939 introduced TheAvenger), relatively few of the serial magazine protagonists of this era worked with the open approval and admiration of the police.

* Jack Reacher is the epitome of this trope.

* The TV series ''TheShield'' is about a cop who is a Vigilante Man.
** Interestingly, the series constantly shows that Mackey's vigilantism is a bad thing, always for his own self-interest, and never in the interests of justice. ''Then'', it goes on to show his CowboyCop side, where he bends or outright breaks the law to serve the greater good (a criminal will go free, but the young girl he kidnapped will be saved from being raped and murdered). Notably, the series never specifically casts judgment on Mackey's karma directly, leaving it to the viewer to decide whether he has overall good karma or bad.

* Disgruntled cop Manny Lopez in the ''{{MacGyver}}'' episode "Tough Boys" decided to use his Marine skills to train a bunch of kids to become the titular Tough Boys and crack down on drug dealers after snapping from the trauma of having a crack addicted daughter that went missing without a trace leaving him with his drug addled baby granddaughter. Predictably, the episode ends with Mac having to save the Tough Boys from being nearly killed in a shoot out and preventing Lopez from blowing himself up along with a major drug dealer.

* In {{Series/Justified}}, [[spoiler:Boyd Crowder seems very much this after he apparently gets religion, but the series leaves it ambiguous as to whether he really is or is just faking it an attempt to erect his own criminal empire. Unlike most vigilante men, he doesn't seem to prefer lethal force, and at one point kills someone innocent even by his WellIntentionedExtremist standards. Rayland harries him the entire season, but when the chips come down, he is revealed to actually be a vigilante man after all, and at the end of the season he goes off apparently to basically become Batman.]]

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* Woody Guthrie's ''Vigilante Man'' is actually, despite being the trope namer, not about this trope. The song is about poor people during the Depression who are looking for work who are attacked and beaten by the people of the towns they travel through.

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* Bernie Goetz was labeled the "Subway Vigilante" after he [[MuggingTheMonster gunned down four men he claimed were mugging him.]] The incident sparked a national debate on vigilantism, though his actions do not fit into the classic mold of a vigilante.

** As further proof, he even gets the title "Vigilante" [[spoiler: after he kills Ragou.]]
*** Naturally, his execution of [[spoiler:Ragou and Cumore]] [[WhatTheHellHero does not sit well with]] [[LawfulGood Flynn]].
* ''MassEffect 2'' has Archangel, [[spoiler: who turns out to be Garrus from the previous game, tired of being a CowboyCop hindered by ineffectual bureaucracy. Oddly, if you managed to rein in his CowboyCop attitude in the previous game through the Paragon resolution to his sidequest, this ''still'' happens, with no explanation of how his outlook suddenly changed back from your improvement -- and no-one who knew him before seems to find this strange, either.]]
** [[spoiler: Citadel Security has changed a bit since then. His old attitude wouldn't cause anyone to bat an eye in the wards area you visit in the second game, other than being a bit conservative.]]
*** And there actually ''is'' an explanation as to why he's like this: [[spoiler:Being stabbed in the back by a man you trusted and having the rest of your team die as a result tends to [[KnightInSourArmor make one a bit bitter]] about "trust".]]
*** Not to mention the change wasn't necessarily sudden. Sure, we don't see him slowly change, but Shepard [[spoiler:was dead for two years. A lot can change a man in two years.]]
* The Yatagarasu in ''AceAttorney Investigations'', a noble thief who steals information on corrupt business dealings and sends them to the media. [[spoiler: The Yatagarasu is actually ''three'' people--a defense attorney whose sister was shot by a member of a smuggling ring (supposedly, she was actually lying), the detective who worked the case, and the prosecutor who would have convicted the murderer had evidence not been stolen before the trial. They joined forces to trap those who were above the law.]] Establishing the identity and motivations of the Yatagarasu and its target are a big part of the game's plot.
** Kay Faraday tries to pick up the tradition after the first Yatagarasu is put out of actions. She's not very good at it.

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* Oasis from ''SluggyFreelance'' took on this role when she lived in Podunkton, killing pretty much the entire mafia establishment in town, as well as any miscellaneous crooks who pass through. She seems to do this largely out of boredom.
** However, since she had previously been an AxCrazy assassin who'd [[{{Yandere}} kill anyone who came between her and Torg]], this vigilante justice is actually a sign of Oasis becoming ''less'' violent.
* DrMcNinja is [[CaptainObvious a doctor and a ninja.]] Who desperately wants to be Batman.

* The Bluejay, also known as [[spoiler: Mortimer Folchart]] in [[TheInkworldTrilogy]] shows shades of this, particularly in the third book.

* In ''MagnumForce'', DirtyHarry finds he is actually on the opposite side of some vigilante men. It might be considered impossible that he would object but when the vigilante men kill a police officer, I guess even Harry figures they went too far.

* ''CriminalMinds'' had three: the ones from "A Real Rain" and "Reckoner" were fairly standard, killing people who'd been acquitted of crimes or who got lesser sentences (though the one from the latter was actually a ContractKiller paid to act as a vigilante) while the one from "True Night" killed off members of a brutal street gang, but was psychotic and didn't even know what he was doing. In the latter case, the BAU mentioned that because he was so severely ill, it was only a matter of time before he became a danger to ordinary people as well.

* ''CriminalMinds'' had three: the ones from "A Real Rain" and "Reckoner" were fairly standard, killing people who'd been acquitted of crimes or who got lesser sentences, while the one from "True Night" killed off members of a brutal street gang, but was psychotic and didn't even know what he was doing. In the latter case, the BAU mentioned that because he was so severely ill, it was only a matter of time before he became a danger to ordinary people as well, and indeed, he does kill an innocent person partway through.

* ''CriminalMinds'' had three: the ones from "A Real Rain" and "Reckoner" were fairly standard, killing people who'd been acquitted of crimes or who got lesser sentences, while the one from "True Night" killed off members of a brutal street gang, but was psychotic and didn't even know what he was doing. In the latter case, the BAU mentioned that because he was so severely ill, it was only a matter of time before he came a danger to ordinary people as well, and indeed, he does kill an innocent person partway through.

** In the movie ''Punisher: Warzone'', the "victims are always guilty" rule was notably subverted: near the beginning of the movie, he discovers that one of the people he killed was actually an undercover FBI agent with a family.

* TomClancy dipped into this genre with ''Without Remorse'', which probably owes some inspiration to ThePunisher. Slightly subverted in that the protagonist himself is a little worried by his own lack of guilt over some [[ColdBloodedTorture pretty]] [[NightmareFuel unpleasant]] methods of questioning, even on an unrepentant CompleteMonster.

* Subverted in an episode of Michael Chiklis' previous series, ''TheCommish''. The episode features a vigilante who tapes his acts and sends them to the press. At first, his actions are relatively innoculous (running criminals off the road, then humiliating them), and even the cops are cheering him on. Commissioner Tony, however, thinks the guy is bad news. He's proven correct later when the police arrest a man for a brutal rape/murder, then release him after realizing he's innocent. The vigilante, wrongly believing the innocent man got OffOnATechnicality, goes to the guy's home and [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope clubs him to death]]. The vigilante then becomes the cops' target for the rest of the episode.

->-- Woody Guthrie, "Vigilante Man"