History RetiredBadass / Film

* The whole premise of ''Film/{{Nobody}}'' is that seemingly cowardly and normal family man Hutch Mansell turns out to be an elite killer when some thugs messed with him. [[spoiler:It turns out [[ItRunsInTheFamily he comes from a family full of Retired Badasses]], with his father David being a former FBI-agent getting bored in an retitement home. His adoptive brother is pretty good with arms, although the audience never learns what his job is/was.]]

* ''Film/{{Transformers}}''
** Epps had retired from the military between the second and third films. [[spoiler: He comes out of retirement after ItsPersonal the Decepticons blow up the Autobot shuttle as it's leaving Earth, presumably killing them onboard.]]

* The whole premise of ''Film/{{Nobody}}'' is that seemingly cowardly and normal family man Hutch Mansell turns out to be an elite killer when some thugs messed with him. [[spoiler:It turns out [[ItRunsInTheFamily he comes from a family full of Retired Badasses]], with his father David being a former FBI-agent getting bored in an retitement home. His adoptive brother is pretty good with arms, although the audience never learns what his job is/was.

* The whole premise of ''Film/{{Nobody}}'' is that seemingly cowardly and normal family man Hutch Mansell turns out to be an elite killer when some thugs messed with him. [[spoiler: Turns out [[ItRunsInTheFamily he comes from a family full of Retired Badasses]], with his father David being a former FBI-agent getting bored in an retitement home. His adoptive brother is pretty good with arms, although the audience never learns what his job is/was.

* In the 1978 kung-fu movie ''Born Invincible,'' elderly Liu Chin [[ThouShaltNotKill swore an oath to Buddha]] never to use a sword again. But after the Chin Yin chiefs kill the Lei Ping school's teachers in retaliation for protecting him, Liu breaks his oath -- and proves so skilled that he toys with the chiefs one-on-one. He ends up being the only fighter the main villains have to work together to beat. In contrast, it takes several training montages, an [[AttackItsWeakPoint exploitable pressure point]], and straight up dirty tricks for the Lei Ping students to beat the Chin Yin chiefs separately.

* Bryan Mills, the protagonist of the ''Film/{{Taken}}'' series, is a retired American government operative who's brought back into fighting by the situations he and his family are put through. The prequel TV series that aired after the film trilogy explicitly follows Bryan's time in his former job, [[ObliquelyObscuredOccupation which is never clarified]].

!Animated

* ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'' gives us Doc Hudson the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, a former racing legend who won three Piston Cups. After suffering a crash in '54, he was forced to give up racing completely after being replaced by a rookie. Despite this, he still has a lot of racing left in him and uses his skills to tutor the protagonist Lightning [=McQueen=] and acts as his crew chief.
** In ''WesternAnimation/Cars3'', Lightning meets a quartet of very old race cars in Thomasville, three of which were old opponents to Doc, and one of them in particular being his crew chief Smokey. [[spoiler: Zig-zagged with Lightning himself near the end -- since he shared the victory with Cruz Ramirez, he chooses to continue racing, but decides to spend the rest of the current season as her crew chief first, making him sort of semi-retired.]]

!Live-Action

* The movie ''Film/{{Taken}}'' has Creator/LiamNeeson playing a retired government operative forced out of retirement to save his daughter.

* Elastigirl, Mr. Incredible and Frozone from ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', for 15 years. She and Frozone adapt pretty well; Mr. Incredible is not so happy about it. Possibly also Edna, who is apparently doing ordinary fashion design with shows in Milan when Bob comes to see her. She leaps at the chance to design for "gods" again.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' gives us Doc Hudson the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, a former racing legend who won three Piston Cups. After suffering a crash in '54, he was forced to give up racing completely after being replaced by a rookie. Despite this, he still has a lot of racing left in him and uses his skills to tutor the protagonist Lightning [=McQueen=] and acts as his crew chief.

* Aatami Korpi in ''Film/{{Sisu}}'' is an OldSoldier who fought in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Winter War]] against the USSR (it's unclear if he also fought in the 41-44 Continuation War), scoring a body count of 300+ Russians. He has since left the war behind and has become a gold digger in Lapland, but his skills haven't diminished one bit, as the retreating Nazis who try to steal his gold nuggets find out the hard way.

* Everyone in ''Film/{{RED}}''. The acronym stands for "Retired and Extremely Dangerous".
--> (''Frank and William are fighting'')
--> '''Frank Moses:''' Did Kordesky train you?

* Wylie Burp in ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest'' was formerly a legendary sheriff but when Fievel meets him he's a drunken shell of his former self, that is until he is given the task of training Tiger to be his successor.

* Mighty Eagle as depicted in ''WesternAnimation/TheangryBirdsMovie''; While he might have been might once, that was clearly a long time ago. His HeroicBuild has given away to a large gut, and when Red goes to see him, he admits, "I am retired. Mostly tired."

* Downplayed in ''Film/{{Lockout}}'', where "retired" CIA-Operative Snow is helping out a buddy who ends up dead. Snow is framed, and to regain his freedom and clear his name he gets sucked into the movie's main plotline: rescuing the president's daughter. HOWEVER, Snow takes the job in order to achieve a secondary motive, so it's all just bluster and bullshit.

* The aging James T. Kirk, during the movie ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', was, to a limited extent, semi-retired and silently dreaming to once again captain the Enterprise. [[spoiler: So he stole the ship in the next movie, earning him a demotion from admiral back down to captain again.]]
* Juni retires in ''Film/SpyKids2IslandOfLostDreams'', so he is this at the start of [[Film/SpyKids3DGameOver the third movie]].

* The movie ''Film/{{Taken}}'' has Creator/LiamNeeson playing a retired government operative forced out of retirement to save his daughter.
* The Waco Kid in ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', until befriending the main character/new sheriff.
* Yoda of the original ''Franchise/StarWars'' trilogy. And before him, Obi-Wan Kenobi. And now Luke Skywalker as well.
* Hattori Hanzo from the ''Film/KillBill'' movies.
* Anthony Hopkins' {{Franchise/Zorro}} from the 1998 ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'' is a borderline example, as he is the original Zorro that is captured for decades until training a new Zorro, his protégé, Alejandro, years later. Straddles the line with an OlderAndWiser mentor.
* In ''Film/KungFuHustle'', not only did they have five Retired Badasses living in the same slum, once they got involved with TheHero and his fight with the Axe Gang, the gang went and dug up their own Retired Badass to fight on their side. Better yet, some of these characters were played by actors who were big names in martial arts movies - in the 70s and 80s. The director called them out of retirement to be in this film, which I suppose would make them Meta Retired Badasses.

* In ''Film/HappyGilmore'', Chubbs Peterson was a legend of pro golf before he lost his hand to an alligator. [[spoiler:Even [=McGavin=] seems [[EvenEvilHasStandards noticeably upset]] when he dies in an accident.]]
* The epynomus ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' is one who is contantly dragged back into action no matter how much he tries to avoid it.
* Mr. Miyagi from ''Film/TheKarateKid'' is one, though still ''quite'' a badass more so in part 2.

* The title character in ''Film/AlexanderNevsky''.

* Richard Brown, the protagonist of ''Film/FinalScore1986'', used to be a Vietnam veteran, before deciding to settle down in Jakarta with his wife and leave his killing days behind. But when a corrupt business rival tried to have Richard killed but succeeding in only eliminating Richard's family, Richard then goes back to ass-kicking, and took nearly 90 names for the remainder of the film.
* The title character in ''Film/HarryBrown'' is an ex-Royal Marine who has become a quiet, rather meek old man until his wife and best friend die. With nothing to lose and a group of thugs plaguing his council estate, he goes back to his old ways.
* Dr. Loomis in ''Film/HalloweenTheCurseOfMichaelMyers''.
* In ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', Allan Quatermain is retired and living in Kenya, but is reluctantly summoned back to England to help prevent a world war. (This is a departure from the [[Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen source material]], in which he was located in an opium den somewhere in Asia.)
* Downplayed with Iraq War veteran Ssgt Michael Nantz from ''Film/BattleLosAngeles'' before aliens' world invasion, who is two days from retirement; however, he is called to defend Los Angeles when they do so [[spoiler: and destroy one of their command centers later on]].

* ''Film/BigJake'' has been retired so long that [[PhraseCatcher everyone thinks he is dead]].
* Captain Freedom (Jesse Ventura) from ''Film/TheRunningMan'' is a rare example of a villain who lived long enough to retire (imprisonment not being an issue in this case). His former employers try to coax him out of retirement to kill Ben Richards (Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger), but he won't have any of it, not because he fears Richards, but because...
-->'''Captain Freedom''': I was killing guys like this ten years ago with my bare hands! I'm not going for any of these tricks!
* Done with hilariously campy style in ''Film/SurfNazisMustDie''. [[spoiler: A man that would be the hero in a normal action movie (the middle-aged black guy) is murdered by a group of self-styled Surf Nazis. Cue his aged mother to leave the retirement home and [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]] the bastards.]]
* In ''Film/BubbaHotep'', the two heroes claim to be Elvis and JFK, having retired into anonymity.
* [[LastOfHisKind Joe Colton]] from ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation''. The last scene of the initial trailer features Colton kicking ass by shooting at Cobra mooks with an assault rifle while in the bed of a fishtailing [[CoolCar El Camino]]. Considering he's played by Creator/BruceWillis, this comes at no surprise.
* ''Film/PacificRim'':
** Stacker Pentecost was previously the co-pilot for Coyote Tango, before [[spoiler: he quit after his cancer worsened and was pulled from flight status by his doctors.]] And as seen in the trailers, he resumed piloting after [[spoiler: one pilot from Striker Eureka is injured]].
** Raleigh retired after [[spoiler: the death of his brother]], only to be [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive called back to duty]] by Pentecost when they are in desperate need for pilots.

* Briggs of ''Film/TheColony2013'' may be a ReasonableAuthorityFigure to his people, but anyone who attacks him learns that he hasn't forgotten his military days.
* In ''Film/DraculaUntold'', Vlad wants nothing to do with his past as the "Lord Impaler." [[spoiler: He doesn't succeed in ignoring that part of himself]].
* Double subverted in ''Film/StVincent2014''. Vincent mentions having been in Vietnam, but dismisses it as maybe having imagined it. Oliver later finds evidence that Vincent did fight in Vietnam and earned a Bronze Star for bravery.
* In ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'', Casey Ryback is a retired Navy SEAL working as the head chef for a restaurant at the start of the film.
* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', Comicbook/WonderWoman starts out like this, having been an active superhero [[Film/WonderWoman2017 during WWI]], but having retired after the [[WarIsHell horrors of war]] made her lose her faith in humanity. [[Comicbook/{{Batman}} Bruce]] reaching out to her in friendship and trust begins to restore her faith, and when [[spoiler: Comicbook/LexLuthor unleashes the unstoppable monster Doomsday]], Diana becomes [[HesBack Wonder Woman again to help save the day]].
* In ''Film/PowerRangers2017'', Zordon was not only one of the Power Rangers that stopped Rita from destroying the Earth 65 million years ago, but he was the [[TheLeader Red Ranger]] of his team. In the present day, his consciousness lives on in the spaceship which brought his team to Earth.
* The title character of ''Franchise/JohnWick'' is definitely this, being a legendarily badass assassin who had been retired for five years prior to the first film's beginning. However, now, [[MemeticMutation he's thinkin' he's back]], and is fully prepared to carve through [[OneManArmy several hundred people]].
* In ''Film/TheForeigner2017'', Mr. Quan is your typical mild-mannered, semi-elderly Chinese restaurant owner [[spoiler: until his daughter is killed in a terrorist attack]]. Then we find out why he's played by Creator/JackieChan. Another major character, Liam Hennessy, is a former IRA leader turned British politician.
* Duncan Vizla in ''Film/{{Polar}}''.
* ''Film/TheCommuter'': Michael used to be a detective with the NYPD, and uses his old skills well in the film. [[spoiler:It turns out he was chosen for them specifically. Later he comes out of retirement and tracks down Joanna, arresting her on another train.]]
* ''Film/TheEqualizer'' features Robert [=McCall=], a retired U.S. intelligence operative played by Denzel Washington, who is reluctantly drawn into conflict with the Russian Mafia in order to [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold protect a young prostitute]] whom he's recently [[IntergenerationalFriendship befriended]]. Loosely based on the [[Series/TheEqualizer 80s live-action TV series with a similar premise]].
* In the 1978 kung-fu movie ''Born Invincible,'' elderly Liu Chin [[ThouShaltNotKill swore an oath to Buddha]] never to use a sword again. But after the Chin Yin chiefs kill the Lei Ping school's teachers in retaliation for protecting him, Liu breaks his oath--and proves so skilled that he toys with the chiefs one-on-one. He ends up being the only fighter the main villains have to work together to beat. In contrast, it takes several training montages, an [[AttackItsWeakPoint exploitable pressure point]], and straight up dirty tricks for the Lei Ping students to beat the Chin Yin chiefs separately.

* Anthony Hopkins' {{Franchise/Zorro}} from the 1998 ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'' is a borderline example, as he is the original Zorro that is captured for decades until training a new Zorro, his protég&eacute, Alejandro, years later. Straddles the line with an OlderAndWiser mentor.

* Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible from the 2004 ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''. For a while. She adapts pretty well, he's not so happy about it. Possibly also Edna, who is apparently doing ordinary fashion design with shows in Milan when Bob comes to see her. She leaps at the chance to design for "gods" again.

* Anthony Hopkins' {{Franchise/Zorro}} from the 1998 ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'' is a borderline example, as he is the original Zorro that is captured for decades until training a new Zorro, his protégé Alejandro, years later. Straddles the line with an OlderAndWiser mentor.

* Captain Freedom (Jesse Ventura) from ''Film/TheRunningMan'' is a rare example of a villain who lived long enough to retire (imprisonment not being an issue in this case). His former employers try to coax him out of retirement to kill Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger), but he won't have any of it, not because he fears Richards, but because...

* In ''VideoGame/PrayForDeath'' Shô Kosugi has retired from the hectic ninja lifestyle to move to the US and open a convenience store. The local [[TheMafia mobsters]] try to muscle him. This does not end well.