History Main / VigilanteMan

* Night Raven

!!DC

* The ComicBook/{{Huntress}} became a vigilante after her family was murdered by rival mafiosi.

* In ''ComicBook/TheQuestion'', the Mikado was a physician who started inflicting KarmicJustice on those who caused the pain he saw every day in the ER. A man who scalded his newborn baby was boiled alive, for example.
* ComicBook/{{Superman}} was this [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness in his earliest appearances]]. For starters, he demolished an ''entire'' housing estate and left the city to deal with the damage themselves, he trapped a bunch of socialites in a mine where air was limited, he threw villains to their ''deaths'', he left criminals hogtied in the middle of nowhere and actually scared more than one mook to death.
* Creator/DCComics' Adrian Chase--a district attorney, and later judge, who hunted down and killed crooks who got off--was named simply ComicBook/{{Vigilante}}, though Chase eventually became a {{Deconstruction}} of vigilante justice, and ended up committing suicide due to his guilt over the increasing violence of his methods and actions. (He, or possibly one of his [[LegacyCharacter successors]], is the guy in the illustration with [[BroughtToYouByTheLetterS the "V" on his head]]).
* ComicBook/WildDog was a largely unknown vigilante (now better known to TV audiences as part of [[Series/{{Arrow}} Team Arrow]]). He's basically per his creator Max Allan Collins in Amazing Heroes#119, a modern version of the Shadow, Zorro, the Lone Ranger, and the Green Hornet. (He's the guy in the illustration with the hockey mask/jersey.)

!!Marvel Comics

* The Blue Knight in ''ComicBook/AstroCity''.

-->-- '''Frank Castle''', ''Film/The Punisher2004''

-->-- '''Frank Castle''', ''Film/{{The Punisher|2004}}''

* The heroes of ''VideoGame/{{Interstate 76}}'' are outright called Auto-Vigilantes - men and women taking to their {{Weaponized Car}}s in [[AlternateHistory a worse version of the 70's gas crisis]], who have to deal with criminals themselves because the police are either [[PoliceAreUseless too incompetent]] or [[DirtyCop too corrupt]] to do anything about them.

** The title character -- his motivation is ''Punisher''-like -- his family is murdered and he'll throw everything he's got at the people who did it to make sure they pay.
** According to supplementary material for ''3'', the [[HiredGuns Cracha Preto]] were originally lawmen hunting down criminals the law couldn't or wouldn't touch. [[MotiveDecay Originally.]]

* The Sally Field movie ''Film/EyeForAnEye'' has Field's character lose her daughter to a serial killer, and stumbles onto a conspiracy of Vigilante Men at a support group. They have very specific requirements: they only target killers whose guilt is obvious yet get OffOnATechnicality, and they won't make the kill for someone else. Instead, they teach newcomers how to make the hit themselves. Something of a strawman case; [[spoiler:the FBI has recognized a pattern of suspicious deaths among acquitted killers and has planted spies in support groups to ''protect those killers.'' Fields discovers the spy in time to keep from incriminating herself seriously, but the agent still threatens Fields with life in prison despite being fully aware that the killer she's after has killed again. Ultimately, the FBI is powerless to protect the killer, as Field pulls off the conspiracy's plan ''perfectly'' - make herself the killer's next target, then kill him in self-defense.]]

* The Sally Field movie ''Film/EyeForAnEye'' has Field's character lose her daughter to a serial killer, and stumble onto a conspiracy of Vigilante Men at a support group. They have very specific requirements: They only target killers whose guilt is obvious yet get OffOnATechnicality, and they won't make the kill for someone else. Instead, they teach newcomers how to make the hit themselves. Something of a strawman case; [[spoiler:the FBI has recognized a pattern of suspicious deaths among acquitted killers and has planted spies in support groups to ''protect those killers.'' Fields discovers the spy in time to keep from incriminating herself seriously, but the agent still threatens Fields with life in prison despite being fully aware that the killer she's after has killed again. Ultimately, the FBI is powerless to protect the killer, as Field pulls off the conspiracy's plan ''perfectly'' - make herself the killer's next target, then kill him in self-defense.]]

* Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man" is actually about how American workers would be attacked and beaten by the people of the towns they passed through during The Depression.

* Mafia (or TabletopGame/Werewolf1997) has the "vigilante" role: a town-aligned player with the ability to kill each night. This "vanilla" version of the role, with unlimited shots and no drawbacks, is notoriously difficult to balance due to [[DifficultButAwesome just how much difference the player's skill can make]] -- a good vigilante can singlehandedly win the game for town, and a bad one can just as easily doom them.
* The ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' 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.

* In the backstory of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', the Primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze, was this. The planet he arrived on after the scattering of the Primarchs was a crime-ridden WretchedHive named Nostramo, and ultimately Curze decided to bring justice in the most brutal, unforgiving manner possible, essentially acting as a grimdark Franchise/{{Batman}} whose body count left the sewers choked with corpses. He was so successful that he was made the planet's ruler and the entire populace toed the line out of fear that he would kill anyone who broke the law. His story also shows the logical problem with such methods: because the only thing keeping the population in line was fear of Curze, once he leaves to join the Great Crusade, Nostramo slips right back into its old ways.
%% This is pretty much the whole purpose of ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''' vigilante class.

* ''VideoGame/KnightBewitched'': During a mandatory cutscene in Westvale, Uno reveals that he kills those who use their wealth and power to escape the law. He's also willing to break people out of prison if they're unjustly arrested, as shown when he throws away King Floyd's pardon in order to free Ruth.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia''.
** Yuri Lowell grew up in the slums of TheEmpire with his friend Flynn Scifo and joined the Imperial Knights with him. After growing disgusted with the government's weakness and [[AristocratsAreEvil the cruelty of the nobles]], he left Flynn to try and reform the Empire from within while he seeks to give the commoners the justice that the current system denies them. Later on, he joins up with [[TheAlliance the Guild Union]] in the hope of eliminating injustice from the world completely. He is rather GenreSavvy; knowing that his actions are unlawful and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters may bring him closer to what he hates]], he is willing to break the law anyway if it serves the greater good.
** There is also a sidequest involving a VigilanteMan who has fewer scruples than Yuri.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has Archangel, who turns out to be a CowboyCop frustrated by being hindered by ineffectual bureaucracy. He's so good at it that three rival mercenary groups that hate each others' guts team up to take him down. He also isn't above cruel punishments, like killing criminals by sabotaging the air supply of their space suits or infecting them with their own bio-weapons. There's some {{Deconstruction}} later on; his loyalty mission involves hunting down a guy who set him up to dole out some vigilante justice, but if you take the paragon route and convince Archangel that [[CruelMercy letting him live is punishment enough]], he comments on how GreyAndGrayMorality doesn't have a lot of place for this and that he prefers to see things as [[BlackAndWhiteMorality black and white]] because it makes things easier.
* The title character in the aptly named ''VideoGame/{{Vigilante}}'' is officially this, although the focus is more on the quest to rescue his girlfriend.
* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' features Soldier 76 as a vigilante seeking to expose and bring down the conspiracy that shut down Overwatch, that he was a leader of. Overwatch itself later returns as a group of vigilantes, seeking to right the wrongs of the world while operating outside the law.
* Frost Ace has become this in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney''. It's almost like he's trying to become a HenshinHero version of Franchise/{{Batman}}.

* To a degree, Yun and Yang from the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series, as the twins strive to protect their beloved Hong Kong from all kinds of peril and use their martial arts to do so. Specially emphasized in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha III'', where Yun chases after Fei-Long when he and Yang take rumors about him being in the drug trade at face value. [[spoiler: The real culprit is Vega/Bison.]]
* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'':
** The title character -- his motivation is ''Punisher''-like -- his family is murdered and he'll throw everything he's got at the people who did it to make sure they pay.
** According to supplementary material for ''3'', the [[HiredGuns Cracha Preto]] were originally lawmen hunting down criminals the law couldn't or wouldn't touch. [[MotiveDecay Originally.]]

* The three protagonists of the original ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' were police officers, but when TheSyndicate took over the city, including the police, the three officers quit in order to take on Mr. X and company themselves.

* The 2014 game ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' features a protagonist that is a rather high-tech version of this, relying on a smartphone as much as a gun. [[LaResistance He is also trying to break free]] from the [[BigBrotherIsWatching stranglehold of information control]] while also righting some personal wrongs. It just happens that this involves going up against the Chicago mob and being against the law. Naturally, it's up to the player what kind of vigilante they make him out to be: you can be a ruthless cop-killer, or you can just outrun them.
* Deconstructed with The Fans in ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'' - despite going up against armed criminals, they do that for the sake of violence, aimlessly improvising targets for their massacres on the go and quickly finding themselves doing favors for their friends after finding out there's not many people to kill.
** The 50 Blessings project itself is deconstructed when [[spoiler:vigilantes simultaneously kill the presidents of both nations, and without leadership in either nation everything escalates. Best-case scenario, America is nuked. Worst case, everything is nuked.]]
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games have the Vigilante missions, accessed from any law enforcement or military vehicle, in which you need to kill increasing amounts of people in a time limit.
* The Vigilante is a role in ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem''. Vigilantes have three bullets and can shoot someone they suspect of being a member of the mafia at night. However, this can backfire: if he shoots a fellow town member, he kills himself the next night out of guilt. Vampire Hunters can also become Vigilantes if all the Vampires get staked, however, he only gets one bullet.

* The [[PhantomThief Phantom Thieves of Hearts]] from ''VideoGame/Persona5'' are exactly this, going outside the law in an EldritchLocation to pull HeelFaceBrainwashing tricks on those who deserve it.
* At the end of second season of ''Videogame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'' John Doe, [[spoiler:as a result of your actions throughout the game as a player, becomes either Vigilante or Villain Joker. At first when he is introduced as the Vigilante Joker, he appears to be a great ally to Batman against the unjust [[KnightTemplar Amanda Waller]]. However as the story goes on Batman and Joker's means to uphold justice are conflicting and John Doe becomes a ''WellIntentionedExtremist'', pretty much murdering anyone who stands in his way of his own justice.]]
* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'':
** Diluc protects the city of Mondstadt from monsters and criminals at night as the "Darknight Hero". He didn't choose the name for himself, however, and didn't expect to become a sort of folk hero. It's also connected to how he dislikes the Knights of Favonius because they're a SlaveToPR who's tied too much with the "diplomacy" business.
** Rosaria is technically a nun, but she only performs the bare minimum of duties required of her in that role. Her ''de facto'' occupation is protecting Mondstadt from the shadows, and for this reason the Church tolerates her behavior. That said, this was never an official part of her job description. She threatened to arrest Paimon and the Traveler for eavesdropping, and even kept a close eye on their activities with Albedo for any signs of a threat to the safety of Mondstadt. Fischl also inadvertently overhears Rosaria in the middle of her enforcement.
-->'''Rosaria:''' May you be struck down in the name of Lord Barbatos!
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', [[BlackKnight Dark Knights]] are vigilantes who harness BlackMagic with ThePowerOfHate to protect and avenge the innocent when they are made to suffer, especially if that suffering is caused by [[WhoWatchesTheWatchmen those in power and authority who should be protecting them]].
* ''VideoGame/LostJudgment''; one of the main villains is revealed to be [[spoiler: a disgraced former teacher who became a vigilante specifically targeting [[SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp bullies that had a hand in student suicides and got off scot free]]. While many of the protagonists can't fault his motives, none of them appreciate his KnightTemplar methods]].

* In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', the group learns about a Spanish vigilante called Sparkling Justice who kills corrupt people in the name of justice, leaving behind a mask as a calling card. [[spoiler:Peko Pekoyama pretends to be Sparkling Justice when cornered as the culprit for killing Mahiru Koizumi(who'd tried to dispose of evidence for a murder her friend had committed), believing that if she were convicted, she could claim that her master, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, was truly responsible, enabling him to graduate]].

* Oasis from ''Webcomic/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.

* ''Webcomic/AxeCop''. The police are after him, everyone he kills is evil, and he uses lethal force against pretty much everyone "bad". Though he switches back and forth on the killing of public servants (he beheads many FBI agents to protect Uni-Baby, but is unwilling to kill the police officers trying to arrest him).
%%* [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil Midnight]] in ''Webcomic/{{Acrobat}}''.

* Lin Beifong from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' drops her job as DaChief and goes vigilante in order to fight [[BigBad Amon]]. Though she's still a policewoman at her core and doesn't kill anyone. Korra herself gets into some trouble early on with the police when she tries to hunt down criminals: she feels she's justified in that she's the Avatar, while the police are annoyed at some naive civilian girl interfering in their work. As the show goes on and Korra gets some CharacterDevelopment, she begins to learn to cooperate and work with the police, rather than just blindly charging in on her own. More often than not though, the police and government are willing to let Korra deal with the situation as she sees fit.

* Creator/PamGrier played very similar parts as a female vigilante in a series of 1970s {{Blaxploitation}} movies:
** In ''Film/{{Coffy}}'', she plays a nurse who exacts revenge on drug dealers after her sister overdoses on heroin.
** In ''Film/FoxyBrown'' her character's boyfriend is an undercover cop who is murdered by the gang he was infiltrating. She does a DirtyHarriet to infiltrate the gang, and then exacts a bloody revenge.
** In ''Film/ShebaBaby'' she plays a PrivateInvestigator whose father is murdered by gangsters trying to take over his business.

* Creator/AgathaChristie:
** [[spoiler:Justice Wargrave]] from ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone''. [[spoiler:Although he lacks the physical prowess of a typical Vigilante Man, the idea is the same: kill people who have escaped legal justice.]]
** In ''Literature/{{Curtain}}'', [[spoiler:Literature/HerculePoirot sees himself as this when he has to kill Stephen Norton, the serial killer who committed murders-by-proxy and got away with them without getting caught.]]
* Mack Bolan, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheExecutioner'' series of novels, started out as this. The series eventually had him join the government, in a black ops organization. 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 the [[Literature/TheExecutioner Executioner]] series spawned a number of [[FollowTheLeader knock-off novel series]] all with essentially the same plot (organized crime kills the protagonist's family causing him to become a one-man army on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge). These series included:
** ''The Assassin''
** ''The Butcher''
** ''The Marksman''
** ''The Sharpshooter''
* ''The Veteran'': James Vansittart deliberately makes sure the killers are released so rogue members of the Metropolitan Police Service can strangle them to death. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Veteran]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Veteran_(short_story_collection)]]

* Literature/TheSaint is a GentlemanAdventurer version who does his vigilante thing not because of any specific need for vengeance, but because he enjoys the challenge of defeating people who believe they are untouchable. In the earlier novels, he was much more likely to kill the villain of the piece; later stories saw this toned down, and by the time the stories were no longer being written solely by Leslie Charteris, it had virtually vanished. Every so often he would remember his 'bad old days' and choose to exact fatal vengeance on someone the law couldn't touch.
* Literature/TheSpider, Radio/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 the police would arrest them for their sudden justice. Other than Doc Savage (who didn't kill his opponents except when it was completely unavoidable -- he just shipped them off to be lobotomized or the equivalent) and the 1939 introduced Literature/TheAvenger, relatively few of the serial magazine protagonists of this era worked with the open approval and admiration of the police.
* Creator/TomClancy dipped into this genre with ''[[Literature/JackRyan Without Remorse]]'', which probably owes some inspiration to ''Comicbook/ThePunisher''. Deconstructed in that the protagonist himself is a little worried by his own lack of guilt over some [[ColdBloodedTorture pretty unpleasant methods of questioning]], even on an unrepentant monster.
* The Bluejay, also known as [[spoiler: Mortimer Folchart]] in ''Literature/TheInkworldTrilogy'' shows shades of this, particularly in the third book.
* Vigilante man? Try vigilante GENERAL!!! [[http://tcrane.tripod.com/johnstn.html Ben Raines of the Ashes series]] by [[http://www.williamjohnstone.net/Ashes.html William Johnstone]]. Imagine if the Punisher saved America by being the post-apocalyptic George Washington. Imagine the rest of the world is made of alternately criminal drug-running dictators or tree-hugging communist hippies. And now imagine he's just been elected president. And you still only have a TENTH of the insanity of this world. Raines does such downright crazy and morally black shit sometimes that not even [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} The Emperor]] would approve of (like blitzing a city of war orphans being brainwashed into child soldiers just so it won't cost him a single Red-White-And-Blue-Blooded American life, or monologuing about how children who grow up in slums can never know what the good life is to reporters, then gunning them down on live television). Essentially, he commits vast atrocities on par or above standard CrapsackWorld characters simply because he is as risk-averse as a cuddly soccer mom. A cuddly soccer mom with nuclear arms, miles of artillery shells, and a fetish for napalm and fuel bombs. Small wonder anybody with any semblance of religious leaning considers him the Antichrist. (A lot of it scarily justified through 'sins of the father/brother/sister/mother' arguments.)
* In Ian [=McEwan=]'s novella ''Black Dogs'', the narrator becomes a Good Vigilante Man after he sees a man in a restaurant ''smack his kid across the face so hard the kid's chair is knocked over backwards and cracks on the floor.'' The narrator challenges the man to "fight someone his own size" and then manages to break the guy's nose and knock him out with a few punches. He is called off by a waitress and stops him just before he becomes HeWhoFightsMonsters and kicks the guy to death. This moment provides a contrast from the GreyAndGrayMorality of the rest of the book.
* ''Literature/NuklearAge'' presents The Civil Defender, a crazed vigilante hell-bent on eliminating all crime, no matter how small. Complete with machine gun and futuristic body armor, the Civil Defender took up being a vigilante when his sandwich was stolen and gives out tickets written on notebook paper when he's sane enough to have his finger off the trigger of his machine gun. He has repeatedly given out tickets for littering because of the pile of other tickets he personally threw to the ground.
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: This series is about Vigilante Women. They obey a ThouShaltNotKill code, give villains a FateWorseThanDeath, and they are usually careful to NeverHurtAnInnocent. The book ''Free Fall'' had them being arrested by the police, but that's okay, because the judge, prosecuting attorney, and defense attorney are secretly on their side, as well as them being considered heroes by a lot of people. Later on, you have a group of Vigilante Men made up of Jack Emery, Harry Wong, Bert Navarro, Ted Robinson, and Joe Espinosa.

* Creator/LeeChild's Literature/JackReacher has no problem killing the villains of each book. He doesn't even make a token attempt to call in the law. As with many of the classic Vigilante Men, he only kills those he's positive are guilty, and he does his best to avoid harming innocents. By the fifteenth book in the series, ''Worth Dying For'', there are strong implications that various law enforcement agencies know who he is and what he does and may be subtly guiding him to situations that they can't touch.
* Rose Hathaway in ''Literature/BloodPromise''. She goes on her own unsanctioned Strigoi-hunting mission, breaking a lot of guardian rules in the process.
* Marian from ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'', although not a man, loves to make herself appear as a Vigilante as to justify her sadistic nature and sell herself as the hero.
* The Christian Marines in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' start out like this, a small group of ex-servicemen banding together to take on the criminals who prey on their old neighborhoods. Then they move on to bigger fish, the corrupt politicians and officials who shelter the gangs, and things escalate from there on.
* In ''Literature/DanceOfTheButterfly'', a masked vigilante undertakes a crusade against the city's most powerful criminal organization to thwart their human trafficking operation.
* ''Literature/BlackBat'': The Black Bat is an attorney who was blinded by a perp. After having his vision restored and gaining superpowers, he began fighting crime more personally as a masked crime-fighter. However, all the Black Bat normally does is beat up or knock out criminals, stamp them with his bat emblem, and let the police arrest them.
* Daylen in ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' shortly after he gets his powers, starts slaughtering criminals as his first act of fighting evil. While there is a law in place to clear people of killing rapists and murderers that they catch in the act, he eventually is forced to turn himself and be interrogated to determine if he was truly justified or just committing murder.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1501692661040028500
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

* Wild Dog was a largely unknown vigilante (now better known to TV audiences as part of [[Series/{{Arrow}} Team Arrow]]). He's basically per his creator Max Allan Collins in Amazing Heroes#119, a modern version of the Shadow, Zorro, the Lone Ranger, and the Green Hornet. (He's the guy in the illustration with the hockey mask/jersey.)

* John Tensen from ComicBook/TheNewUniverse title ''ComicBook/{{Justice|NewUniverse}}''. In early issues, when he thinks he's a warrior from a MagicalLand, he goes after criminals in general. After a {{Retcon}} reveals that he's actually a paranormal, he devotes himself to policing his brethren, punishing the ones who use their powers for evil.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The ''Film/DeathWish'' movies. Paul Kersey becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered and his daughter is sexually assaulted by muggers. Also an UnbuiltTrope as the film pioneered the urban vigilante concept, but it also showed how dangerous it would be. By the time of ''Film/DeathWish3'', Kersey is infamous for harrying the police, who are powerless to pin any charges on him (but are happy to take credit for his crime-fighting accomplishments). Police Chief Richard [[PunnyName Shirker]] tries to contain him but ends up joining the fray when Kersey is ambushed by gangsters. Similarly, in ''Film/DeathWishII'', Detective Frank Ochoa [[InspectorJavert pursues Kersey all the way from New York City]] to try to stop his vigilantism after kicking him out of town in the first film, and decides to help Kersey during a shootout with some hoodlums (who murdered Kersey's daughter), ending up fatally wounded.
-->'''Kersey:''' ''You'' stuck your neck out for ''me''?\\
'''Detective Frank Ocha:''' ''(dying)'' It was [[BlackAndGrayMorality you or them]].
* ''Film/ContractOnCherryStreet'' (1977) has Music/FrankSinatra as the leader of a team of NYPD detectives who turn vigilante on TheMafia after one of them is killed.
* ''Film/TheStarChamber'' (1983): The father of the murdered boy, who attempts to murder the two men accused of murdering his son after they're [[OffOnATechnicality released on a technicality]], but shoots a cop accidentally who stops him instead (who had arrested the suspects earlier along with his partner in fact).
* ''Film/SavageStreets'' (1984) has Linda Blair as a tough high school girl who turns vigilante after a vicious gang called the Scars rape her deaf-mute sister and murder her best friend.
* Joey Rosso from ''Film/RollingVengeance'' (1987). His weapon of choice happens to be a Monster Truck.
* ''Film/TheBoondockSaints'' is about two brothers taking it upon themselves to rid Boston of crime by killing all criminals in the city.
* Some of the ''Film/DirtyHarry'' films feature vigilantes:
** In ''Film/MagnumForce'', Dirty Harry 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, [[MotiveDecay we can guess even Harry figures they went too far]]. This movie actually explains the difference between CowboyCop (Harry) and Vigilante Man (the vigilante policemen). Dirty Harry uses excessive force when fighting criminals who forcefully resist arrest or directly endanger innocents (his iconic ''do I feel lucky?'' speech actually taunts the criminals to give him reason to use lethal force). He doesn't hunt and kill unsuspecting criminals (when Scorpio is released on a technicality, Harry tries to scare him; when Ricca is acquitted on a legal loophole, vigilante cops immediately kill him, his lawyer, and even his driver).
** In ''Film/SuddenImpact'': [[spoiler: Jennifer Spencer]] tracks down and murders the people responsible for brutally gang-raping her and her sister (resulting in the latter's catatonia) several years before. Oddly enough, Dirty Harry doesn't arrest her once he discovers the truth, an apparent change from his actions and attitude in ''Film/MagnumForce''; possibly justified in-universe in that this vigilante kills no innocents and, in fact, spares one of the rapists who is [[LaserGuidedKarma now in the same state as her sister.]]

* Inverted in the Western movie ''Film/HangEmHigh''. Creator/ClintEastwood is the innocent victim of vigilantes who mistake him for a murderer/cattle thief (he unknowingly bought the cattle off the real killer). He then becomes a deputy to bring them to justice and must resist pressure both situational and personal to take the law into his own hands.

* In ''Film/{{Pyrokinesis}}'', the protagonist is a female example, killing criminals with the title [[PlayingWithFire psychic power]]. She manages to stay a good guy despite fighting against the police, because [[spoiler: the chief of police is also the head of the snuff ring she's been targeting.]]

* In ''Film/ManOnFire'', John Creasy takes it upon himself to track down and kill the people responsible for kidnapping and murdering a girl while he was working for her family as a bodyguard.
* In the movie ''Film/PunisherWarZone'', the "victims are always guilty" rule was notably averted: near the beginning of the movie, he discovers that one of the people he killed was actually an undercover FBI agent with a family. He feels so guilty about it that he offers the agent's widow a bag full of mafia money, as well as the chance to shoot him.

* In ''Film/MurdersAmongUs'', Hans Mertens [[spoiler:almost becomes this, but instead decides not to kill Bruckner at the insistence of Suzanne]].
* Vigilantism is attacked in the 1943 western ''Film/TheOxBowIncident'', wherein three obviously innocent men are persecuted and ultimately murdered by a [[TorchesAndPitchforks lynch mob]].

* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} with Keller Dover in ''Film/{{Prisoners}}'', who nails and brutally tortures the wrong man for kidnapping his daughter.

* The Michael Caine movie ''Film/HarryBrown'' is about an elderly veteran who decides to take justice into his own hands once his friend is murdered by the local thugs.
* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'': The various Jigsaw killers and their copycats put those who previously committed crimes without receiving any punishment for it into {{Death Trap}}s, though their manners vary a lot beyond that.
** John Kramer was the one who had the original idea of Jigsaw: rehabilitating people through death traps in order to teach them different lessons, including the general one of appreciating their lives. This is deconstructed in that his traps did nothing good for his surviving victims, often facing a downward spiral afterwards or defying his methods (the latter being the case for most of his apprentices, as listed below). Plus, it's shown in ''Film/SawIII'' that the only solution John has to this is testing the victims over and over until they either "truly rehabilitate" or die.
** Amanda Young went along with John's philosophy at first, but began doubting it by the events of ''Saw III'', when she begins rigging traps to be inescapable in the belief that people can't change. This is the reason why John secretly tests her later on, and when she realizes it, she completely disregards his philosophy just before her death.
** Mark Hoffman originally set up an inescapable Jigsaw copycat trap to avenge his dead sister when her murderer was released from prison. Then John practically forced him to become a disciple of his, so Hoffman never trusted his methods at least once; he only ran whatever "games" John had left planned to cover up that he was adhered to his philosophy. By that point, the only victims Hoffman put in a trap of his own were a group of skinheads whose leader had to do a painfully difficult task to survive. He wasn't above meddling his crimes either, as he directly killed numerous law enforcement officers (even attempting to frame one of them as a killer in his place) just to avoid getting caught or carry out his schemes.
** Logan Nelson was the first person indoctrinated into John's philosophy, and while he remained mostly faithful to it, he parted ways with John at some point before the latter got his other apprentices, only becoming a full-time killer long after all of them died. He's more motivated to make his victims confess their sins rather than rehabilitate themselves, and even still he didn't go through that method in his first scheme seen, where he sought to get revenge against Halloran and his informants when one of the latter murdered his wife. Much like Hoffman, he tries to cover himself up behind John's philosophy, though rather by attempting to [[OfCorpseHesAlive convince people that John is still alive]] and getting Halloran framed in case that doesn't work.
** William Schenk is arguably the closest one to a typical vigilante overall, only using the Jigsaw methods to murder {{Dirty Cop}}s, who comprise a large part of the Metropolitan Police Department, and trying to get out of the way once his identity is going to be exposed. He was first motivated into doing this when one of said cops murdered his father to prevent him from testifying against him.
* The Hobo in ''Film/HoboWithAShotgun''. A homeless vigilante who blows away crooked cops, pedophile Santas, and other scumbags with his trusty pump-action shotgun.

* ''Film/AssaultOnWallStreet'': Jim goes on a one-man crusade to assassinate people responsible for the 2008 financial crash.
* ''Film/VampiresKiss'': Instead of going with her to the police, [[spoiler:Alva's brother kills Peter for him raping her]].
* ''Film/ColdPursuit'' has Creator/LiamNeeson as a snowplow driver (!) turned vigilante.
* In ''Film/JuliaX'', sisters Julia and Jessica hunt and kill sexual predators. However, while Julia is careful to ensure that her targets actually deserve their fate, the AxCrazy Jessica seems to regard all males as viable targets.
* Creator/PamGrier played very similar parts as a female vigilante in a series of 1970s {{Blaxploitation}} movies:
** In ''Film/{{Coffy}}'', she plays a nurse who exacts revenge on drug dealers after her sister overdoses on heroin.
** In ''Film/FoxyBrown'' her character's boyfriend is an undercover cop who is murdered by the gang he was infiltrating. She does a DirtyHarriet to infiltrate the gang, and then exacts a bloody revenge.
** In ''Film/ShebaBaby'' she plays a PrivateInvestigator whose father is murdered by gangsters trying to take over his business.
* In ''Film/ActOfVengeance'', the five women form the Rape Squad to track down and kill the man who raped them. Along the way, they decide to exact (non-lethal) vengeance on any other rapists they encounter.

* ''Film/{{MFA}}'': After accidentally killing her own rapist, Noelle becomes a vigilante, hunting down and killing sexual predators.
* ''Film/NocturnalAnimals'': When there isn't enough admissible evidence against them, Andes leads Tony in tracking down each of their rapists/murderers and then killing them.
* ''Film/DeathWish2018'': Just as in the original film, Paul Kersey begins a one-man war against criminals after a criminal gang murders his wife and seriously wounds his daughter.
* ''Film/MissMeadows'': Miss Meadows kills violent criminals she comes across. It's implied that she'd done this before in the city where she used to live, as it's mentioned that vigilante killings occurred there too.

* ''Film/InTheFade'': After her family's murderers are acquitted, Katja decides [[spoiler:to kill both of them]].
* ''Film/{{Juncture}}'': After being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, Anna decides to spend her last three months hunting down those who have harmed children and escaped justice.
* ''Film/BigDriver'': Tess decides not to report her rape and attempted murder, knowing how rape victims often suffer both in the legal system along with the public. Instead, she tracks her rapist down, to kill both him and his accomplices.
* ''Film/AsianSchoolGirls'': After going out for a night on the town, four ethnic Asian schoolgirls are abducted, abused and gang-raped by members of a Los Angeles crime syndicate. When one of them later commits suicide out of shame of being sexually violated, her three remaining friends turn to the underworld of crime to train themselves to track down and kill all the thugs responsible.
* ''Film/DarkAngelTheAscent'': Veronica, a demoness charged with punishing sinners, starts to kill several wicked people during her time on Earth by gutting them and feeding them to her dog.
* ''Film/InTheBedroom'': Matt and an old Army buddy of his decide to forcibly make Richard leave town at gunpoint. It turns into murder as Matt then kills Richard, after which the two bury him in the woods.
* In ''Film/DeathRidesAHorse'', Bill and Ryan go vigilante to take down Walcott's gang. In fact, Bill actively refuses to become a sheriff's deputy in order to not be shackled by due process.

* ''Film/ActsOfVengeance2017'': Valera, dismayed by the inability of the police to find his wife and daughter's murderer, sets out on a quest to get vengeance on his own.
* In ''Film/BloodDebts'', Mark Collins seeks revenge for his daughter's death and hunts down the men responsible. This ends up attracting him the attention of the film's main antagonist Bill, who orders him to kill other criminals.
* ''Film/SexAndDeath101'': Death Nell seduces men who had mistreated women in different ways (ranging from date rapists to just insulting or exploiting them), drugging the guys into comas.

* New York-based app ''Vigilante'' gave people access to 911 calls in real time and encouraged users to help the police by sharing info and identifying criminals; it was banned specifically because of the concern it would give rise to real vigilantism. The app was later retooled and rereleased with the less scary name ''Citizen''.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Megumi Komatsu, a student witch who decided to enroll in the evil WizardingSchool known as Myth/TheScholomance, is a wannabe vigilante who primarily wants to learn TheDarkArts so she can turn vigilane and brutally kill the evil {{Yakuza}} gangsters and criminals who hurt her family.

* ''Series/{{Accused}}'': In "Kenny's Story" Kenny and his friends attack the man they believe violated his daughter. The plot shows why this is a very bad idea, however. [[spoiler: The man was innocent, and Kenny's convicted of murder after he dies.]]

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' - 'The Vigilante' is even one of Oliver's titles in the show... Later on, though, he faces off against someone actually called 'Vigilante', who sees nothing wrong with killing criminals and corrupt officials, with CollateralDamage not being a concern. [[spoiler:He's eventually revealed to be Dinah's ex-partner and ex-lover Vince, who now has a HealingFactor thanks to the particle accelerator explosion]]. After Oliver is unmasked and goes to prison, someone new dons a green hood and goes around dispensing vigilante justice with a bow and arrows. Eventually, the person is revealed to be [[spoiler:Oliver's other half-sister Emiko Queen, whose existence he wasn't aware of.]]

* ''Series/BlackLightning'': Black Lightning and Thunder (and later Blackbird) are often called vigilantes. Someone on TV wonders why other cities get to call their protectors "superheroes", while theirs are "vigilantes" and then claims it's because they're black. It should be noted that Black Lightning doesn't shy away from killing, though.

* The ''Film/DeathWish'' movies. Paul Kersey becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered and his daughter is sexually assaulted by muggers. Also an UnbuiltTrope as the film pioneered the urban vigilante concept, but it also showed how dangerous it would be. By the time of ''Film/DeathWish3'', Kersey is infamous for harrying the police, who are powerless to pin any charges on him (but are happy to take credit for his crime-fighting accomplishments). Police Chief Richard [[PunnyName Shirker]] tries to contain him but ends up joining the fray when Kersey is ambushed by gangsters. Similarly, in ''Film/DeathWish2'', Detective Frank Ochoa [[InspectorJavert pursues Kersey all the way from New York City]] to try to stop his vigilantism after kicking him out of town in the first film, and decides to help Kersey during a shootout with some hoodlums (who murdered Kersey's daughter), ending up fatally wounded.

* The ''Film/DeathWish'' movies. Paul Kersey becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered and his daughter is sexually assaulted by muggers. Also an UnbuiltTrope as the film pioneered the urban vigilante concept, but it also showed how dangerous it would be. By the time of ''Film/DeathWish3'', Kersey is infamous for harrying the police, who are powerless to pin any charges on him (but are happy to take credit for his crime-fighting accomplishments). Police Chief Richard [[PunnyName Shirker]] tries to contain him but ends up joining the fray when Kersey is ambushed by gangsters.

'''Shirker:''' ''(dying)'' It was [[BlackAndGrayMorality you or them]].