Line #40 BadassBookworm/LiveActionFilms


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8	* In ''Film/TheThirteenthWarrior'', Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan ("Ibn") is a poet sent into exile as an "ambassador." He's the only foreigner of fighting age in the tent when the witch says the thirteenth warrior has to be an outlander. Then a sequence of events show he's not the soft intellectual he seems to be, having expert riding skills, the ability to figure out a language just by listening to it, and, with some modifications to the design, a deft hand with a sword. And he's one of a few left standing at the end.
9	* ''Film/TheAccountant2016'' is a high-functioning autistic who does the accounting for dangerous criminal organizations. The movie shows the kind of person who can do this job and stay alive when YouKnowTooMuch; he's an expert marksman, and an incredibly tough hand-to-hand combatant thanks to his military service and the TrainingFromHell his father gave him.
10	* Norm in ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. He punches a merc on the face, suits up and fights in his avatar, and when his avatar gets killed, he grabs a rifle and proceeds to kick even more ass.
11	* [[MadScientist Doc Brown]] in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'' [[BigDamnHeroes comes to Marty's rescue]] with what looks to be an improvised SniperRifle and claims to be able to "shoot a flea off a dog's back at 500 yards." Knowing him, ''it probably can''.
12	* ''Film/BattleForThePlanetOfTheApes:'' Virgil is a gifted scientist who takes up a rifle and guns down several mutated invaders in the climax.
13	* Tsui, the titular hero from ''Film/BlackMask'', whose civilian job is a librarian. He's also a super-soldier and killing machine who can take down entire armies.
14	* Prince Tuan Yu from ''Film/TheBattleWizard'', whose father is one of the greatest martial artists that mastered the Yin Yang Finger skills intending to pass it down generations, but the prince would rather be a scholar instead. But he's still a capable fighter, and after eventually learning the Yin Yang Finger, uses it to kick copious amounts of ass when the plot demands him to.
15	* In ''Film/BrotherhoodOfTheWolf'', Grégoire de Fronsac is an 18th century French royal taxidermist, scientist, and soldier. His role in the film is half forensic detective and half ass-kicker. After [[spoiler:the torture and murder of his friend]], the mellow, charming scientist transforms into a [[DualWielding double-sword wielding]], war-painted killing machine on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
16	* Professor Chang, the Feng Shui philosopher from ''Film/BuryMeHigh'', spends most of his screentime providing exposition and Feng Shui-related mumbo-jumbo, right up until the final battle when the heroes have to battle General Ruan's army. At which point Chang reveals he probably has a doctorate in kicking ass as he grabs an AK-47 and begins taking names, and later fights one of the MookLieutenant enemies hand-to-hand.
17	* In ''Film/CrimsonTide'', Denzel Washington plays an academy-trained bookworm who Gene Hackman's seasoned submarine commander deems 'not hard enough'. Denzel proceeds to launch a mutiny, weather a counter-mutiny, and launch his own ''counter-counter-mutiny'', all while battling a Russian sub and trying to avert nuclear holocaust.
18	* General Henry Knox in ''Film/TheCrossing''. Glover (and Washington at one point) mocks him for being fat, and he ran a bookshop before the war. He's also a superb artillery officer whose skill is instrumental in winning the Battle of Trenton.
19	* Ling Ling Fat in ''Film/ForbiddenCityCop''. A member of the Emperor's personal guard due to family heritage, LLF is actually an inventor and practicing gynecologist by trade, but in the end he uses his cunning and remarkable inventions to outfight the villains.
20	* Richard Kimble in ''Film/TheFugitive'', a quiet nerd who ends up giving the ''US Marshals'' a hell of a chase.
21	* ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' -- They're a bunch of disgraced professors [[TokenMinority (and one blue-collar joe)]] sending demons, malicious ghosts, evil sorcerers, and other supernatural baddies packing on a regular basis!
22	** Winston Zeddemore does ascend to this in [[VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame the 2009 video game]], though, where he's mentioned to have gotten his degree.
23	* Lady Jaye from ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation''.
24	* [[Film/{{Gojira}} Dr. Serizawa]]. The only human to ever ''kill'' Franchise/{{Godzilla}}.
25	* Lt. Ring becomes one in the Film/HeartbreakRidge.
26	* ''Film/{{Hellboy\|2004}}'': Abe Sapien's hobbies include classical music, reading, swimming in demon-infested waters, and kicking trolls in the face. Sure, he doesn't look like much of a badass compared to his partner, but his partner is ''Hellboy''.
27	* Dr. Van Helsing in ''Film/HorrorOfDracula'': vampire hunter and has Dracula running by the end of the film.
28	* Jack Ryan, a former Marine, from ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober''. He knows tons of naval minutiae. He is not intimidated by senior officers. He can solve a world crisis. He can guess the moves of a renegade Russian sub captain with almost telepathic intuition. He can even jump out of a helicopter into the freezing North Atlantic. And after all this he remembers to bring his daughter a teddy bear when he returns home.
29	* Creator/WillSmith's character in ''Film/IAmLegend''. A brilliant research scientist who also kicks zombie ass. Handwaved by the fact he's also [[ColonelBadass an Army Lieutenant Colonel]].
30	* Jijii from ''Manga/IchiTheKiller''. A little old [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]], Jijii manipulates the underworld from the shadows until he's confronted by a Yakuza enforcer, forcing him to [[spoiler: whip off his clothes to reveal his impossibly muscular frame, then break every bone in an enforcer's body]].
31	* Arthur from ''Film/{{Inception}}''. In addition to being the team's researcher, he's smart enough to figure out how to simulate the sense of falling in zero gravity, and badass enough to pull it off, in a limited amount of time, while fighting off mooks. Again, all in zero gravity.
32	* ''Franchise/IndianaJones''.
33	** The title character, when he's not fighting Nazis and retrieving lost artifacts from booby-trapped temples, Indy earns a paycheck as a respected professor of archaeology.
34	** Likewise, though not to the same extent, [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade his father]]. The lesser display of badassery seems to be his father's gentler nature and distaste for violence, although he manages to bring down a fighter plane with nothing more than his umbrella and some conveniently located birds.
35	* ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'':
36	** Heavily implied with Roxy. She is [[BrainyBrunette very smart]] and was able to survive from drowning by understanding that [[ItMakesSenseInContext putting shower heads in the toilets]] would make breathing easier.
37	** Merlin is primarily Kingsman's MissionControl as well as the one in charge of overseeing the training of new recruits. He's still more than able to hold his own against quite a few of Valentine's mooks.
38	* ''Film/TheLibrarian'' starring Noah Wyle as a librarian who protects a secret collection of artifacts.
39	* Duncan in the penultimate scene of ''Film/MysteryTeam''.
40	* Sinbad's Andre Kimm from Film/NecessaryRoughness. A very large lineman who went to Texas State on a football and chemistry scholarship. He ended up quitting football in favor of academics, and by his third year in college he's teaching classes. He does wind up back on the field, and seems to be ''very'' good at what he does.
41	* Nadia from ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' is a biologist who knows some martial arts.
42	* ''Film/{{Paycheck}}:'' Jennings and Rachel are both physically fit scientists who are good at fighting against multitudes of assasins and security guards.
43	* John Kramer aka Jigsaw from ''Franchise/Saw''. Do not underestimate him for being an old man with cancer. He's a skilled inventor with a penchant for nasty death traps, and is still fast and strong enough to put you in said death traps.
44	* ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'':
45	** [[Film/SherlockHolmes2009 Sherlock Holmes]] fits this to a T, being a detective extraordinaire, an accomplished fighter, and a violinist. Doctor Watson does fine all on his own, both a doctor and an ex-soldier.
46	** Ditto (naturally) for Professor Moriarty in ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows''; he was a boxing champion at Oxford and more than a match for Holmes. He would have won if he hadn't discounted the possibility that Holmes was willing to sacrifice himself to stop him.
47	* ''Film/SniperTheWhiteRaven:'' Ukrainian sniper "Raven" is a former physics teacher. In one of the lessons at sniper school, the instructor says that snipers need to be good at mental arithmetic to work out distances to targets. When asked by the instructor, Raven gives the exact answer. Later in the film, he also shows himself to be very good at shooting people.
48	* [[BigBad Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious]] from ''Franchise/StarWars''. Palpatine is a very intelligent man, oftentimes getting through conflict simply by manipulating others rather than taking action himself. But when he does take action, things aren't pretty. He's also extremely well-versed in the lore of the Dark Side.
49	* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990'': Donatello is a geek who loves to invent stuff. Given reason, he can also decapitate bad guys with his bo staff.
50	* Robert Redford's character Joe Turner in ''Film/ThreeDaysOfTheCondor'', about a CIA employed bookworm who accidentally uncovers the usual Sinister Plot and spends the rest of the film using everything he's learned from his books to evade capture/death/assorted bad things.
51	* ''Film/ToySoldiers'': Joey dutifully does his own homework as well as Billy's and is a skilled sketch artist, but he's also quick to advocate fighting back against the terrorists (albeit in a LeeroyJenkins way) and eventually overpowers one hostage-taker and takes his gun away.
52	* Ram from ''Film/{{Tron}}'' crosses this with BadassNormal and BadassUnintentional. He wasn't designed as a fighter -- he was actuarial software for an insurance company. Still, he'd been able to hold his own on the Game Grid against Sark's warriors for nearly the equivalent of a ''year.'' He's also [[spoiler: the only one who figures out what Flynn is without being told.]]
53	* Quorra from ''Film/TronLegacy''. When she's not derezzing Clu's mooks, she usually reads books from Kevin Flynn's library, which includes everything from Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky to Buddhist scriptures and Creator/JulesVerne.
54	* ''Film/VictorFrankenstein'': As demonstrated by Victor's confrontations with the attackers at the circus and with Inspector Turpin (who is habituated to dealing with hardened criminals), Frankenstein can defend himself in a pinch even though he's a scientist, not a combatant.
55	* ''Film/{{Warrior}}'': Brendan's physics students see him this way when they find out about his MMA moonlighting. This one's based on the real-life history of UFC middleweight Rich Franklin, a math teacher before his fighting days.
56	* Louden Trott from ''Film/WhosThatGirl'' is a tax attorney with fencing skills, which he uses twice in the film -- once against a murderous criminal by [[ImprovisedWeapon using a car antenna as a fencing weapon]], and another time against the BigBad Simon Worthington by using a saber.

Context BadassBookworm / LiveActionFilms