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| 5 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 11 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1501692661040028500 |
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| 14 | [[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Vigilante}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_vigilante_vs_wild_dog.png]]]] |
| 15 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[Franchise/{{Batman}} "Who are you?!" "I'm your worst nightmare."]]]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | ->''"In certain extreme situations, the law is inadequate. In order to shame its inadequacy, it is necessary to act outside the law."'' |
| 18 | -->-- '''Frank Castle''', ''Film/ThePunisher2004'' |
| 19 | |
| 20 | The Vigilante Man is a man who brings criminals to justice by any means necessary, even if it means killing the criminals outright. Although he is breaking the law, he is presented as the good guy. [[AntiVillain Sometimes.]] If the police are after him, expect them to secretly sympathize with his goals. Occasionally, [[InspectorJavert one officer]] is determined to catch the Vigilante Man, but you can be sure that his fellow officers aren't working very hard to help him. The "good" Vigilante Man [[WouldNotShootAGoodGuy refuses to fight the police, and if confronted, will either surrender or die before harming them]], and may even try to [[ThouShaltNotKill keep killing to zero whenever possible]]. The "bad" Vigilante Man is [[TheUnfettered willing to kill anyone who tries to stop him]]. (In such cases, compare with the CowboyCop.) |
| 21 | |
| 22 | The people the Vigilante Man is after are always guilty — or at least, [[KnightTemplar they are in his mind, especially if he's the villain]]. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Most Vigilantes will (try to) not hurt an InnocentBystander; [[NeverHurtAnInnocent he will often go out of his way to avoid killing them, if possible]]. In the rare times they do, it is only to provide some angst as the Vigilante Man wonders if he is doing the right thing. Expect a FingerInTheMail to show up and convince the Vigilante Man that his job of catching the AxCrazy PsychopathicManchild and saving [[ChildrenAreInnocent the child]] held captive makes it worth it. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | The Vigilante Man's favorite method of execution is (obviously) the VigilanteExecution. If he's also a police officer, this makes him a vigilante-driven version of the KillerCop. If he's got an (uneasy, usually unofficial) alliance with the police, then CopsNeedTheVigilante. A cop whose method towards disposing criminals is just as final but who does operate within the law goes under JudgeJuryAndExecutioner. The legal version is TheExecutioner. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | "Urban vigilante" protagonists were a staple of action movies roughly between the 1970s and the very early 1990s mainly as rising crime rates and increasing police corruption (and racism in the case of blaxploitation films) led people to lose faith in the long arm of the law and act for themselves instead. Ironically, it was these very concerns, combine with a growing distrust for justice carry by those outside the law, that eventually led to more negative views of vigilantes, and modern straight examples are often frowned upon. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | A subtrope of the AntiHero and WellIntentionedExtremist. May be NeutralGood, TrueNeutral, NeutralEvil, ChaoticGood, ChaoticNeutral, or even ChaoticEvil, [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism depending on the setting]]. If he stops discriminating between innocents and bad guys, he might end up JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters become that which he despises]]. Sometimes he can be a ReformedButNotTamed character. VigilanteInjustice does come into play when the vigilante man is clearly counterproductive and problematic for the law enforcers. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | If several vigilante men assemble into a team, you've got a VigilanteMilitia. See also SerialKillerKiller. The AssholeVictim is often this guy's target, as is someone who (deservedly or not) is ConvictedByPublicOpinion. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | ---- |
| 35 | !!Examples: |
| 36 | |
| 37 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 40 | * The SociopathicHero of the manga ''Manga/{{Akumetsu}}'' is one of these, although rather than just targeting criminals, he goes after anyone he considers bringing evil to Japan. Disturbingly, although the stories have a forward stating that the character [[MisaimedFandom should not be considered a role model]], his frequent [[CharacterFilibuster rants on what's wrong with Japanese society]] give an impression [[AuthorTract otherwise]]. |
| 41 | * ''Manga/BlackClover'': Zora Ideale, the mysterious and AmbiguouslyEvil member of Asta's team during the Royal Knights Tournament turns out to be one. After his father was killed by elitist Magic Knights and he witnessed the {{Nominal Hero}}ism of the Magic Knights, he started going around attacking the ones that committed crimes. The man he is introduced attacking was actually about to attack an old lady who bothered him by asking help to find her granddaughter and Zora defended her. |
| 42 | * ''Manga/CallOfTheNight'': Susuki cracks down on vampires who attract too much attention or threaten the {{masquerade}}. While Kiku's antics attract her attention, humans are just as likely to become her targets if she feels that they are a threat: Susuki makes an attempt to kidnap Anko so that she can help her find Kiku, but later makes it clear that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she intends to kill her]] for the Halloween incident and for knowing too much about vampires in general, along with Yamori and Akira. When Azami and Nazuna get in her way, Susuki demonstrates [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower how much stronger she is than the average vampire]] by [[CurbStompBattle defeating them within minutes]]. |
| 43 | * [[Characters/CodeGeassLelouchLamperouge Lelouch Lamperouge]] in ''Anime/CodeGeass'', in creating the terrorist group the Black Knights, is trying to overthrow Brittania's racist, [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] regime, so as to create his sister Nunnally's longed-for "beautiful world." |
| 44 | * [[Characters/DeathNoteLightYagami Light Yagami]], the VillainProtagonist of ''Manga/DeathNote''. Death is the only punishment he ''can'' dish out. Early on, he states that he's going to create a world filled with only good-hearted people he approves of. He's simply going to ''start'' with the criminals... and he quickly crosses over into "bad" vigilante man territory, when in the second chapter he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope leaps off the slippery slope]] and begins to target and kill all those who oppose Kira, including law-enforcement officials. With the exception of his family and officials he considers useful enough, he is very ruthless when dealing with his opponents. |
| 45 | * [[spoiler:Jellal]] becomes this in ''Manga/FairyTail'', forming a small independent guild that hunts down dark guilds, something the Council doesn't allow of the guilds in its jurisdiction, as it counts as illegal warring between guilds. |
| 46 | * In ''Manga/FutureDiary'', the Twelfth is a vigilante whose heart seems to be in the right place: his goal is usually just to ''capture'' criminals to help the police, not kill them outright. However, he dresses and acts so creepily that the people he's trying to help often beat him up or arrest him. [[spoiler:Then he gets involved in the Diary Game and starts killing with no remorse since he feels that "Justice" is on his side.]] |
| 47 | ** [[spoiler:In the third dimension, he manages to be far more competent and sane. He gets the Third arrested but also keeps visiting him in prison in an attempt to help him rehabilitate and eventually rejoin society]]. |
| 48 | * In ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'', Section 9 is frequently doing some work "off the record". But [[CrapsackWorld unlike most other law enforcement agencies]], they don't do it for their own gain. |
| 49 | * ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Anyone who wants to fight crime is supposed to become a government-licensed Pro Hero. Anyone who performs heroics without a license is called a vigilante. They are legally considered no different from villains and can be stopped without mercy. The SpinOff manga ''Manga/MyHeroAcademiaVigilantes'' follows a team of vigilantes consisting of Koichi Haimawari (Crawler), Kazuho Haneyama (Pop Step), and Mr. Oguro (Knuckleduster). They are mostly {{Small Steps Hero}}es who work to keep civilians safe until the Pro Heroes can arrive. Every hero they meet soon decides [[IllPretendIDidntHearThat that they didn't notice the vigilantes doing anything illegal]]. |
| 50 | * ''Anime/RageOfBahamutGenesis'' has former straight-up villain [[FallenAngel Azazel]] become a vigilante known as the "rag demon" in the second season, ''Virgin Soul''. In this guise, he stalks and murders humans who abuse his fellow demons. |
| 51 | * Kyouya Hibari from ''Manga/Reborn2004''. He rules Nanimori with an iron fist and does whatever he pleases since people are too afraid to call him out on it, but god help you if you so much as look at his hometown the wrong way. |
| 52 | * In ''Anime/RomeoXJuliet'', Juliet starts out disguising herself as one of these, nicknamed "The Red Tornado". |
| 53 | * The ''Manga/SamuraiGun'' exist to avenge the evils of the Shogunate, though in practise this means avenging the deaths of [[{{Fanservice}} large-breasted women]]. |
| 54 | * In ''Literature/ShinSakuraTaisenTheNovelHizakuraNoKoro'', Hatsuho Shinonome serves as the leader of a vigilante gang who frequently stops ruffians from causing trouble. |
| 55 | * Lunatic in ''Anime/TigerAndBunny''. As opposed to Heroes who take part in [=HeroTV=] who only seek to arrest criminals, Lunatic actually ''[[VigilanteExecution kills]]'' them. Though he tends to save this for people who REALLY deserve it. |
| 56 | * Tista from the ''Manga/{{Tista}}'' manga would probably constitute as a female example of this. She is an assassin who kills immoral people who the law cannot catch. |
| 57 | * ''Manga/TriageX'' follows an entire team of medically-themed vigilantes who kill gang leaders, mob bosses, and other menaces to society. |
| 58 | * ''Manga/YoureUnderArrest'' has Strike Man, a costumed self-proclaimed defender of justice, who uses baseball-related items to exact his brand of "justice" against (generally) minor violators of law, such as humiliating people who litter on streets or deflating tires of illegally parked vehicles. The police in Bokutou Station generally sees him as a nuisance as he tends to obstruct their duties. |
| 59 | [[/folder]] |
| 60 | |
| 61 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 62 | !!Creator/DCComics |
| 63 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': |
| 64 | ** Batman himself isn't really a cozy guy, but in his earliest comics, he was a straight-up murderer. The Golden Age Batman is legendary for using guns on criminals, letting crooks drop to a painful death in a vat of acid, and a lot more. |
| 65 | ** Jason Todd became one of these after coming BackFromTheDead, criticizing Batman for being too "soft" on criminals and wanting more than anything to kill the Joker. |
| 66 | ** The Huntress became a vigilante after her family was murdered by rival mafiosi. |
| 67 | * The Crimson Avenger, who also has the honor of being (disputably) Franchise/TheDCU's first masked superhero. |
| 68 | * The Paladin, who appeared in a ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' story where Anansi was changing all the heroes' 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 Commissioner Gordon in a MexicanStandoff. |
| 69 | * The federal prosecutor Kate Spencer, who became the vigilante assassin Comicbook/{{Manhunter}} after she got tired of criminals dodging legal justice. |
| 70 | * In ''ComicBook/TheQuestion'', the Mikado is a physician who starts inflicting karmic justice on those who caused the pain he sees every day in the ER. A man who scalded his newborn baby is boiled alive, for example. |
| 71 | * 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|s}} to death. |
| 72 | * 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]]). |
| 73 | * 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.) |
| 74 | * ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Rorschach is a {{deconstruction}} of this trope, as well as the AntiHero in general. He is not presented as a good person and the police disdain him -- in fact, they hate him almost as much as the criminals do. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | !!Creator/MarvelComics |
| 77 | * ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': Scourge is killing off Serpent Skulls and other gang members in order to incite gang warfare. |
| 78 | * ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} has a very strict ThouShallNotKill policy, but he's far from a saint. Any criminal he comes across in Hell's Kitchen ends up at the receiving end of a ''really brutal'' beat down, or a torture session (blowtorch, anyone?) |
| 79 | * 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. |
| 80 | * ComicBook/MoonKnight was a mercenary before he became a superhero, so of course his methods are extremely brutal. He even goes as far as to curve moons in his victims' faces to mark his handiwork. |
| 81 | * Perhaps the most famous example is ComicBook/ThePunisher, who kills every criminal he comes across. However, in his comics, [[PayEvilUntoEvil most of the villains he kills are depraved monsters and the lowest of scum that humanity has to offer]]. The overall result is that the rest of the superhero community doesn't like him (especially Daredevil), but keeps him around and respects him because he serves as a reminder of what they could become if they cross the line. |
| 82 | * The alternate version of Peter Parker in ''ComicBook/SpiderManNoir''. Growing up in the Great Depression and seeing first-hand how much the people suffer and how deep the corruption goes, this version of Peter operates at nights, hunting down and beating criminals, leaving [[CallingCard calling cards]] and [[SuperheroPackingHeat using firearms]]. He even guns down the Vulture and lets both Kraven and the Goblin be eaten alive by spiders. |
| 83 | ** Original Spider-Man counts as well, although his actions come from [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility a genuine desire to use his powers to help/protect others]] and not due to a desire to take the law into his own hands. |
| 84 | * Night Raven, directly homaging the Shadow and the Spider |
| 85 | |
| 86 | !!Other |
| 87 | * Victor Ray from ''ComicBook/OneHundredBullets'' kills criminals in his spare time to balance out the awful things he does on behalf of Agent Graves. |
| 88 | * John Dusk, the protagonist of ''ComicBook/{{Absolution}}''. He's a superhero in a setting where the superheroes are all legitimate law enforcement officers, which means they have to observe due process and other pesky legal restrictions. One day, he gets fed up with having his hands tied, and starts killing. |
| 89 | * ''Creator/ArchieComics'' line-up of ''Dark Circle Comics'', has Greg Hettinger, the Black Hood. Greg is a mutilated cop with a drug habit who, after a few rough spots, has taken on the identity of the Black Hood [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt ((he had previously killed the former Black Hood))]] in order to take down untouchable criminals like the mayor's brother. |
| 90 | * Although ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' is more idealistic than not, it does have its share of rough-and-tumble heroes. Examples include the Blue Knight, Hellhound, the Pale Horseman, Hollowpoint, and the Street Angel (during his DarkerAndEdgier phase). |
| 91 | * Eric Draven in ''Film/TheCrow1994''. Although, since he's already died and has resurrected as an unkillable zombie, he's technically a Vigilante ''Thing''. |
| 92 | * ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Naturally, as a brutal ByTheBookCop, Judge Dredd will crack down hard on vigilantes in Mega-City One who think they should "assist" the Justice Department in its duties. They're not the law, HE is the law. |
| 93 | * ''ComicBook/{{Pack}}'': The vigilante in question is Patience, who leads a pack of dogs in a crusade against criminal elements in Brooklyn. He is not above having them maul criminals. |
| 94 | * ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'': In the early stories, Paperinik (WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck's superhero alter ego in some Italian stories) was not actually a superhero, but an anti-hero vindicator inspired by Diabolik and Fantômas that punish bad people with terror and humiliations. The writers toned this aspect down later and turned him into a Batman-style heroic avenger instead, and he started targeting the criminal population of Duckburg, in particular the Beagle Boys. |
| 95 | * Find a hero who '''doesn't''' fit this trope in ''Comicbook/SinCity''. |
| 96 | * Mr. Dig in ''ComicBook/{{Sink}}'' is a fox-masked vigilante who dishes out his own brand of justice on those unfortunate to cross him. |
| 97 | * Casey Jones from the original ''[[Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' comics. |
| 98 | * V from ''ComicBook/VForVendetta''. While throughout the series he's seen as more of a... vengeful terrorist, he does show some (although few) signs that he started out as one of these and simply got tired of not making progress. |
| 99 | [[/folder]] |
| 100 | |
| 101 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 102 | * ''Fanfic/AllForLuz'' has Luz becomes one under the name "[[RedeemingReplacement All For One]]" who is liked by Gravesfield locals but it has put her on the cops' radar. |
| 103 | * In the ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' x ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' crossover fanfic, ''Fanfic/AChangeOfPace'', Taylor serves as this by virtue of being an independent hero, not being affiliated with the PRT. There are measures she can take because of how the setting works, but more than half walk because they can't make official arrests. |
| 104 | * In ''Fanfic/DanganronpaLastHurrah'', one of the students is said to be [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair Sparkling Justice 2.0]] (see Video Games for more). It's [[spoiler:Reyes, the Ultimate Fencer, who's from Spain]]. |
| 105 | * ''Fanfic/EntropyTheFateOfTheHeroSystem'': Momo, by necessity, for the latter half of ''The Everything Hero: Arsenal''. Though she has a hero license, people refuse to work with her hero persona due to false allegations regarding her ability in a fight. As a result, she moonlights as the titular Arsenal, using a different costume and hiding her face, and claiming Arsenal's takedowns as her own in order to up her case-solve rate. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it's not enough to escape the Heroic Contributions Act, leading to her going full vigilante and eventually pulling a FaceHeelTurn.]] |
| 106 | * Master/Traveller from the ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' fanfic ''Fanfic/FreedomDiesWithMe'' is this, across the multiverse no less, to atone for his past atrocities. He is even labeled a 'Multiverse Vigilante' by multiple characters and himself, with hints that his kind are so well-known that even Torque's people have heard of them (and that there are enough of them to be considered a 'kind' in the first place). |
| 107 | * ''Fanfic/MastermindRiseOfAnarchy'': Thanks to the events of ''[[Fanfic/MastermindStrategistForHire Strategist For Hire]]'', vigilantism is on the rise; the reputation of Pro Heroes has nosedived, and people are more inclined to take justice into their own hands. |
| 108 | ** Of particular note is [[spoiler:Bakugou Katsuki]], who turns to vigilantism as an outlet for their rage and frustration over not being able to do anything about Mastermind personally. Their BlackAndWhiteInsanity leads them to give their victims [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown No-Holds-Barred Beatdowns]], and they're ''stunned'' when this puts them on the radar of ''real'' heroes, unable to see their own cruelty for what it is. |
| 109 | ** In contrast to the above, Aizawa runs into one of his former students -- somebody he expelled from U.A. after deciding they didn't have what it took to become a Pro Hero. They've become a vigilante for the sake of helping others in the increasingly lawless society. |
| 110 | * ''Fanfic/MyHeroAcademiaUnchainedPredator'': Everyone views the Slayer as this after he brutally mauled Shigaraki. After I-Island, the HPSC is at a total loss on what to do with him. On one hand, they can't let him run free if more villains are going to be killed by him. On the other, it provides an alternate for in the event All Might loses the last embers of One for All, and they haven't found All for One yet. |
| 111 | * The [[AppropriatedAppellation Archer]] in ''Fanfic/PathOfTheKing'' is one of these. |
| 112 | * In ''Fanfic/RanmaSaotomeChiMaster'', Ranma's guru spends much of her time tackling crime in Hong Kong, using lethal force if necessary. During the time he lived with her, Ranma aided her in her activities. |
| 113 | * ''Fanfic/TheSecretReturnOfAlexMack'': When the SRI is called to hunt down a monster in Tromaville, it doesn't take long to realize that the place is thoroughly corrupt, and [[spoiler:the "Toxic Avenger" killing some of the ringleaders]] actually made some sense. Which isn't the same as saying it was the right or best choice. [[spoiler:Colonel O'Neill isn't in any hurry to bring him onto the SRI team, despite his SuperStrength and SuperToughness, because he's too much of a loose cannon.]] |
| 114 | * In ''Fanfic/ViridianTheGreenGuide'', [[PointOfDivergence Izuku Midoriya doesn't receive One-For-All]] and [[UnSorcerer remains quirkless]]. He subsequently decides to become a Vigilante, [[LoopholeAbuse taking advantage of the fact that the Quirkless technically cannot be vigilantes]] because the law defines vigilantism as using one's quirk similar to a Pro-Hero without having a hero license, so he can help save people. |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[folder:Film -- Animation]] |
| 118 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'', Raphael becomes the Nightwatcher while Leonardo is in South America. ''TMNT'' being a kids' movie, Raph doesn't kill anybody, but he doles out some major beatings to all criminals he comes across. |
| 119 | [[/folder]] |
| 120 | |
| 121 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 122 | * 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. |
| 123 | * ''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. |
| 124 | * ''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. |
| 125 | * ''Film/AssaultOnWallStreet'': Jim goes on a one-man crusade to assassinate people responsible for the 2008 financial crash. |
| 126 | * ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' |
| 127 | ** The movies by Creator/TimBurton took this to a new extreme. While Batman normally acted like your average grim and gritty crime-fighter, he had no problems with killing over 20 people in the [[Film/Batman1989 first movie]]. For example, he lit a couple of mooks on fire, he killed several mooks with his ''not''-rubber bullets and used a handgun in the [[VideoGame/BatmanSunsoft NES game]] based on the film. |
| 128 | ** Much like the Tim Burton Batman, ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' also features a Batman that kills criminals without batting an eye. He uses guns with no hesitation, runs over mooks with his batmobile, and brands criminals he deems particularly reprehensible, resulting in them getting killed in prison. He also wants to flat out ''murder'' Superman because he thinks Superman is a threat to the planet. |
| 129 | * ''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. |
| 130 | * ''Film/BillyJack'' is one of the strangest ones, a Liberal Vigilante Man. |
| 131 | * 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. |
| 132 | * ''Film/TheBoondockSaints'' is about two brothers taking it upon themselves to rid Boston of crime by killing all criminals in the city. |
| 133 | * Creator/JodieFoster in ''Film/TheBraveOne'' plays a liberal, ''female'' vigilante, in a meditation on the paranoia and isolation the life of the Vigilante Man (or Woman) would entail, especially if they used to be a "normal" person. Interesting callback to the first ''Film/DeathWish'' in her chosen method too. |
| 134 | * In ''Film/{{Coffy}}'', Creator/PamGrier plays a nurse who exacts revenge on drug dealers after her sister overdoses on heroin. |
| 135 | * ''Film/ColdPursuit'' has Creator/LiamNeeson as a snowplow driver (!) turned vigilante. |
| 136 | * ''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. |
| 137 | * ''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. |
| 138 | * 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. |
| 139 | * 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. |
| 140 | -->'''Kersey:''' ''You'' stuck your neck out for ''me''?\ |
| 141 | '''Detective Frank Ocha:''' ''(dying)'' It was [[BlackAndGrayMorality you or them]]. |
| 142 | * ''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. |
| 143 | * Some of the ''Film/DirtyHarry'' films feature vigilantes: |
| 144 | ** 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). |
| 145 | ** 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.]] |
| 146 | * ''Film/FireWithFire'': After he's nearly killed while in WitnessProtection and the brutal crime boss behind it threatens to also murder all of his loved ones, Jeremy determines that he's got to take him on his own. He goes after Hagan and his gang directly, killing several. |
| 147 | * In ''Film/FoxyBrown'' Creator/PamGrier's 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. |
| 148 | * 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. |
| 149 | * ''Film/HardCandy'': Hayley may qualify as one due to her crusade against pedophile rapists. That or she may be a budding SerialKiller. |
| 150 | * 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. |
| 151 | * The Hobo in ''Film/HoboWithAShotgun''. A homeless vigilante who blows away crooked cops, pedophile Santas, and other scumbags with his trusty pump-action shotgun. |
| 152 | * ''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. |
| 153 | * ''Film/InTheFade'': After her family's murderers are acquitted, Katja decides [[spoiler:to kill both of them]]. |
| 154 | * The eponymous ''Film/JohnDoeVigilante''. True to form, his victims are all [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims]]--child molesters, abusive husbands, culminating in the guy who killed his wife and daughter. |
| 155 | * 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. |
| 156 | * ''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. |
| 157 | * Seemingly deconstructed in ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen'', with Clyde Shelton JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. On the other hand, it also seems to portray the criminal justice system as ineffectual. |
| 158 | * 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. |
| 159 | * ''Film/{{MFA}}'': After accidentally killing her own rapist, Noelle becomes a vigilante, hunting down and killing sexual predators. |
| 160 | * ''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. |
| 161 | * In ''Film/MurdersAmongUs'', Hans Mertens [[spoiler:almost becomes this, but instead decides not to kill Bruckner at the insistence of Suzanne]]. |
| 162 | * ''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. |
| 163 | * Vigilantism is attacked in the 1943 western ''Film/TheOxBowIncident'', wherein three obviously innocent men are persecuted and ultimately murdered by a [[TorchesAndPitchforks lynch mob]]. |
| 164 | * Preacher in the movie ''Film/PaleRider'', a mysterious preacher who protects a humble prospector village from a greedy mining company trying to encroach on their land. |
| 165 | * ''Film/{{Peppermint}}'': Failed by a legal system made ineffective by corruption, Riley North takes matters into her own hands and takes on the criminals responsible for her family's death. |
| 166 | * {{Deconstructed|Trope}} with Keller Dover in ''Film/{{Prisoners}}'', who nails and brutally tortures the wrong man for kidnapping his daughter. |
| 167 | * 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. |
| 168 | * 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.]] |
| 169 | * ''{{Film/Remember}}'': Max and Zev are determined to kill the Nazi who murdered their families. The former is too feeble for action however so Zev is sent out on the hunt. |
| 170 | * Joey Rosso from ''Film/RollingVengeance'' (1987). His weapon of choice happens to be a Monster Truck. |
| 171 | * ''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. |
| 172 | * ''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. |
| 173 | ** 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. |
| 174 | ** 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. |
| 175 | ** 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. |
| 176 | ** 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. |
| 177 | ** 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. |
| 178 | * In ''Film/ShebaBaby'', Creator/PamGrier plays a PrivateInvestigator whose father is murdered by gangsters trying to take over his business. |
| 179 | * ''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. |
| 180 | * ''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). |
| 181 | * Deconstructed in ''Film/{{Trust}}''. Will's desire to hunt down and seek revenge against the man who sexually assaulted his daughter doesn't solve anything and only serves to strain his relationship with Annie, as he disregards her feelings and only hurts her even more. Also, the one time he actually tries to take the law into his own hands, it leads to him beating up an innocent man that he'd confused for a local sex offender, which just makes him look worse. |
| 182 | * ''Film/TwoFathersJustice'' (1985). A newly married couple are killed by drug dealers, and their fathers [[TeethClenchedTeamwork reluctantly team up]] to track down their killers who've fled the country. |
| 183 | * ''Film/VampiresKiss'': Instead of going with her to the police, [[spoiler:Alva's brother kills Peter for him raping her]]. |
| 184 | * In ''Film/VigilanteDiaries'', the Vigilante is a former black ops operative who has declared war on street crime. His sidekicks the Kid, and Kid 2.0, also count. |
| 185 | [[/folder]] |
| 186 | |
| 187 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 188 | * The nameless cabal in ''Already Dead'' doesn't kill their targets themselves. Instead (for a hefty fee), they offer to hunt down the person who committed the crime and turn him over to the victim -- complete with a very large table full of things like drills, knives, hammers, and blowtorches. |
| 189 | * [[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.]] |
| 190 | * Vigilante man? Try vigilante GENERAL!!! Ben Raines of Literature/TheAshesSeries'' by 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.) |
| 191 | * ''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. |
| 192 | * 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. |
| 193 | * Rose Hathaway in ''Literature/BloodPromise''. She goes on her own unsanctioned Strigoi-hunting mission, breaking a lot of guardian rules in the process. |
| 194 | * 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.]] |
| 195 | * In ''Literature/DanceOfTheButterfly'', a masked vigilante undertakes a crusade against the city's most powerful criminal organization to thwart their human trafficking operation. |
| 196 | * ''Literature/TheDinner'': Michel might consider himself to be hero who's working outside the law to bring justice to criminals: Michel had once written a school essay justifying the extra-judicial killing of heinous criminals. His attack on the homeless woman in the ATM could have been motivated in part by a desire to punish her for squatting. During the dinner itself, Paul and Claire try to mitigate the boys' actions by suggesting that the homeless woman wasn't actually an "innocent". |
| 197 | * Kyle Youngblood in the ''Dr. Death'' series of novels winds up living up to his name to his friends and family as well as his enemies, as their retribution drags them into the crossfire often. The only friend he has who never dies is Rafe, the one who accompanies him personally on missions. Everyone else? They're gonna get snapped, gunned down, or exploded sooner or later. Interestingly, he prefers to use traps whenever possible as opposed to charging in guns blazing. The mercenary known only as "Big Cherry" (due to his eye having been gouged out, and refusing treatment or a covering due to the badass points it gives him), plays the trope straighter despite being a designated antagonist. He'll take out [[EvenEvilHasStandards those he finds unpalatable]] on the way to his intended targets. Kyle usually kills his bosses, causing Cherry to once more swear revenge. |
| 198 | * ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Harry Dresden has always been more or less willing to [[PyroManiac blast]] his way out of trouble (for which he's earned a reputation in the magical community as a [[DestructiveSavior thug]]), Karrin Murphy not so much. She ''believes'' in the power of the law, and her gradual acceptance that this trope is ever okay is a large fraction of the DarkerAndEdgier path the series has taken.[[note]]Of course, a big part of this is that Harry and friends are actually fighting to protect humanity from supernatural monsters that mortal law doesn't even acknowledge exist, let alone would have a ready way to deal with. Collateral damage and suspicious-looking shenanigans do all but inevitably happen in the course of such conflicts, but this isn't strictly speaking your stock kind of vigilantism aimed at ''human'' criminals who "got away".[[/note]] |
| 199 | * 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. |
| 200 | ** 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: |
| 201 | *** ''The Assassin'' |
| 202 | *** ''The Butcher'' |
| 203 | *** ''The Marksman'' |
| 204 | *** ''The Sharpshooter'' |
| 205 | * ''Literature/GirlsDontHit'': |
| 206 | ** Joss's first murder was of the man who had raped and murdered her roommate/lover Crystal. |
| 207 | ** Echo murders an abusive husband whom she'd seen. |
| 208 | * In the third act of ''Literature/IJedi'', after some soul-searching, Corran Horn constructs a lightsaber and begins mounting night raids on the SpacePirates of Courkrus as a Jedi Knight. He pointedly avoids actually killing anyone (beating them up, causing property damage, and [[LiteralDisarming cutting off the odd gun-hand]], yes): his plan is to scare the pirates into leaving in order to weaken their boss, ex-Imperial Moff Leonia Tavira, and try to draw out the Force-users he suspects are helping her evade the New Republic. |
| 209 | * The Bluejay, also known as [[spoiler: Mortimer Folchart]] in ''Literature/TheInkworldTrilogy'' shows shades of this, particularly in the third book. |
| 210 | * 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. |
| 211 | * 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. |
| 212 | * ''Literature/MurderForTheModernGirl'': Ruby Newhouse is a vigilante who kills horrid men who abuse and take advantage of vulnerable women, knowing that said men would be able to get away scot-free and not face justice otherwise. |
| 213 | * ''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. |
| 214 | * ''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. |
| 215 | * 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. |
| 216 | * ''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. |
| 217 | * ''Literature/SolarPons'': In "The Adventure of the Troubled Magistrate", the killer murderer kills three people that they believed escaped justice due to the magistrate's lenient attitudes and sentencing. |
| 218 | * ''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 ''Literature/DocSavage'' (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. |
| 219 | * ''Literature/TheVeteran'': 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)]] |
| 220 | * ''Literature/WarsOfTheRealm'': Drew Carter enters the slums of Chicago only intending to hide there until he can find his missing friend Ben. But soon enough he becomes rather embroiled in fighting off local gangs using his [[{{Superhero}} superpowers]] and martial-arts skills in order to keep innocent civilians safe. |
| 221 | * ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Megumi Komatsu, a student witch who decided to enroll in an evil WizardingSchool, wants to learn TheDarkArts so she can become a vigilante and brutally kill the evil {{Yakuza}} gangsters and criminals who hurt her family. |
| 222 | * 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. |
| 223 | [[/folder]] |
| 224 | |
| 225 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 226 | * ''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.]] |
| 227 | * ''Series/BigSky'': Richard, an outraged father whose son died from overdosing on drugs the Bhullars sold, goes after them for revenge. |
| 228 | * ''Black Knight'' is a Korean limited series shown on Creator/{{Netflix}}. 5-8 is a legendary deliveryman for the chaebol, Cheongmyeong Logistics. He is also a vigilante who's investigating a mysterious set of murders in a post-apocalyptic Korea, along with his fellow ex-refugee deliverymen. 9 years ago, he was part of a resistance group against the plans of Cheongmyeong to only take a small part of the population into a high-tech {{Arcology}}, leaving the rest of Korea to eke out a living in a polluted wasteland. |
| 229 | * ''Series/BlackLightning2018'': 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. |
| 230 | * In ''Series/{{Bones}}'', Broadsky the rogue sniper fancied himself a vigilante but is really just a madman who will kill anyone who gets in his way and feels no guilt for [[CollateralDamage killing innocent bystanders]]. |
| 231 | * ''Series/TheBoys2019'': The Boys, whose aim is to take down superheroes (they're mostly corrupt, even criminals, in the show). |
| 232 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' |
| 233 | ** Willow Rosenberg kills Warren (whom everyone figures deserves it) and tries to kill Andrew and Jonathan, even though they're only guilty by association. |
| 234 | ** Strictly speaking, Buffy herself fits this trope, as she is acting outside of the bounds of the law by hunting vampires and demons (admittedly, the laws aren't really written with anything of the sort in mind, due to TheMasquerade). |
| 235 | * ''Series/BurdenOfTruth'': Taylor becomes determined to take a john down after she sees him beating up sex workers, and follows him despite Luna's warning against the idea. In the end, she manages to expose a blackmail scheme. She never breaks the law though, and later ends up joining the police to work legitimately against criminals. |
| 236 | * The ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'' episode "Heroes and Villains" features a vigilante that actually dresses like a superhero. While he initially used nonlethal tactics, he eventually commits a murder. [[spoiler: It turns out that the vigilante, [[SamusIsAGirl a female police officer by day]], was innocent of the murder. The real killer impersonated her.]] |
| 237 | * Deconstructed in an episode of ''Series/TheCommish''. The episode features a vigilante who tapes his acts and sends them to the press. At first, his actions are relatively innocuous (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. |
| 238 | * ''Series/ControlZ'': Alex becomes the avenger to seek justice for Luis, who was brutally murdered by Gerry, along with righting other wrongs by illegal means. |
| 239 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'': |
| 240 | ** 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 ProfessionalKiller paid to act as a vigilante) |
| 241 | ** 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. 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. [[spoiler:He killed the gang members because they raped and killed his fiancée right in front of him.]] |
| 242 | ** The priest from "Demonology" could also count, since he was killing the men believed to be responsible for the death of a fellow priest and close friend of his. |
| 243 | ** Played with in the Season Ten episode "Protection," while the killer acts like one, [[spoiler: a witness account reveals that the killer was having delusions of crimes being committed. He killed the boyfriend of the witness, who was making out with her, due to the fact that the killer was deluded into thinking that the witness was being raped ]] |
| 244 | * ''Series/DarkDesire'': Eugenia decided to murder her rapist, despite Esteban's objection. |
| 245 | * ''Series/DarkJustice'', about a judge who delivers Karmic Retribution to criminals who get off on technicalities, with the aid of various helpers, usually low-level criminals working off their 'community service' sentences. |
| 246 | * [[Characters/DexterDexterMorgan Dexter Morgan]] from ''Series/{{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 and in another, has a brief daydream where he acts as a Franchise/{{Batman}} style vigilante {{Superhero}} but quickly dismisses it as ridiculous. In his darker moments, however, he admits that he's just a monster with a little more self-control. |
| 247 | * ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'': "The Ten Million-Dollar Sheriff," where Rosco hires bounty hunter Jason Steele, who favors using vigilante tactics to capture Bo and Luke as though they were on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list. |
| 248 | * ''Series/TheEqualizer'' draws on the vigilante justice issues raised by ''Death Wish'' and the Goetz trial (as seen in the ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' spoof where Robert [=McCall=], Charles Bronson, and Bernard Goetz argue over who should shoot a subway mugger). Sometimes the case of the week involves a vigilante or [=McCall=] trying to talk of victim of crime out of becoming one. [=McCall=] however denies that he is one, presumably because he never does a VigilanteExecution, preferring to use psychological warfare to inspire a confession (though quite a few villains conveniently pull a gun so [=McCall=] can shoot them in self-defense). |
| 249 | -->'''[=McCall=]:''' A vigilante places himself above the law. I work and live within the law, and you know that. And you know damn well that I am no vigilante! |
| 250 | * ''Series/EqualJustice'': The defendant in "The Big Game and Other Crimes" (2x06) is accused of arson for burning down a crack house he felt was a threat to his neighborhood. |
| 251 | * The protagonist of the ITV series ''Series/TheFixer'' killed his aunt and uncle for molesting his sister. This apparently qualified him to work as a [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner covert government hitman]]. In one episode he's ordered to kill his predecessor, who has turned RogueAgent and started killing drug dealers and prostitutes. |
| 252 | * In ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'', there was an episode of a man going after drug dealers and ultimately the main drug lords because his brother had been killed from a drug overdose given to him by these people. |
| 253 | * In ''Series/{{Hack}}'', Mike is an ex-cop turned cab driver cum vigilante. He generally fits into the 'good vigilante' mould. |
| 254 | * ''Series/HandOfGod'': Pernell and KD become this, believing they are God's servants-the titular "[[TitleDrop Hand of God]]". |
| 255 | * ''Series/TheILand'': [[spoiler:Hayden]] was imprisoned because she went around murdering sex offenders as a vigilante killer. [[spoiler:This leads to her own death after she kills Brody for assaulting Chase and K.C.]] |
| 256 | * 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. |
| 257 | * ''Series/Liar2017'': Laura is accused of killing [[spoiler:Andrew in revenge]] when he's found dead, rather than having the police track him down. Carl ''did'' try to kill him, but failed (unbeknownst to him at first). |
| 258 | * Deconstructed in Series 3 of ''Series/{{Luther}}'', in which Luther suggests that such a person is likely driven by narcissism and entitlement rather than by grief or idealism, and sure enough, the vigilante killer Luther is looking for turns on law enforcement and suffers severe MotiveDecay when his savior complex isn't properly validated. |
| 259 | * Disgruntled cop Manny Lopez in the ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' episode "Tough Boys" decided to use his Marine skills to train a bunch of kids to become the Tough Boys of the title and crack down on drug dealers after snapping from the trauma of having a crack-addicted daughter go 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. |
| 260 | * ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS4E2 Destroying Angel]]", Evelyn organizes the murders to avenge the death of the hotel's previous owner. |
| 261 | * ''Series/Millennium1996''. The Judge is a pig farmer who uses ex-convicts to inflict KarmicDeath on people he believes have escaped justice, such as a landlord whose negligence caused the death of an elderly tenant and a detective whose false testimony sent an innocent man to prison. He invites Frank Black to join his cause, but when he refuses the Judge hits the police with a lawsuit to make them back off. Unfortunately for the Judge his ex-convict killer regards this as hypocrisy, hamstrings the Judge and [[FedToPigs throws him to his own pigs to be eaten alive]]. |
| 262 | * An episode of ''Series/NashBridges'' has the witness in a trial against three gang members recant her statement which results in the case falling apart. Afterwards, she and two of the gang members are killed by a man whose wife was killed under similar circumstances. [[spoiler:The vigilante is later killed, a fact Nash leaves out when the surviving gang member admits to threatening the witness so he can be sent to jail to be safe from the vigilante.]] |
| 263 | * ''Series/ThePassage'': Wolgast tracked down and shot his daughter's killer, rather than let him be imprisoned for life. Clarke helped clean it up, along with others of his law enforcement friends. |
| 264 | * ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. It's significant that the mysterious Mr Finch recruited a former CIA assassin to do his WeHelpTheHelpless work rather than a private detective. |
| 265 | * ''Series/ThePurge'': There's a group of women called the Matron Saints who work to protect women from rape and other violence from Purgers. Joe also rescues people from others, killing Purgers in the process. [[spoiler:It turns out he then puts them on trial for various petty "offenses" against him though.]] |
| 266 | * ''Series/ReservationDogs'': The Deer Lady spirit, [[GuardianEntity protector of women, children, and men who are good them]], appears as a beautiful young woman with cloven hooves. She takes the lives of bad men herself, wielding an antler as a knife. Were mortal laws to apply to nature spirits, her murders would be classed as vigilantism. |
| 267 | * ''Series/TheRookie2018'': Two Guatemalans seek to assassinate a Guatemalan cartel boss named La Fiera in LA for revenge because her soldiers massacred their village for defiance. Although the cops can understand the desire for revenge, they still have to protect La Fiera from them. |
| 268 | * The TV series ''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. |
| 269 | * ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': Seven of Nine became one as part of the Fenris Rangers, who were a group trying to keep order in the former Romulan Neutral Zone. |
| 270 | * ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'', James/Guardian represents the heroic version, trying to be a BadassNormal, taking care of common criminals, while Supergirl is busy with the monsters and aliens. His non-lethal reputation suffers when he's framed by Vigilante, who turns out to be a former Navy SEAL, lashing out after his wife's murder. While Guardian is content to capture criminals for the police, Vigilante just shoots them, no matter their crime. |
| 271 | * ''Series/SweetVicious'' features a college version of this with its protagonist, the sorority sister and rape survivor Jules, who dons a hoodie and ski mask to torment the sexual predators at her school since the campus' security force seems to not even care about the epidemic of rape at the university. She's joined by Ophelia, a rich kid hacker and weed dealer who runs into her at night when she's on the prowl and manages to figure out her identity. |
| 272 | * Russian 2009 series ''Меч'' (The Sword) presents a group of vigilantes hunting both criminals and corrupt officials who help criminals evade justice. Interestingly, the group consists predominantly of former or active civil servants (an ex-detective who resigned after being proposed a bribe by his own superior, an ex-cop sentenced for murder of a rapist, a young traffic police officer, and a retired FSB agent and state prosecutor). |
| 273 | * ''Series/TooOldToDieYoung'': Diana, a counselor for victims of violent or sexual crimes, offers the services of a vigilante to kill the perpetrator. Viggo, a former FBI agent, does the killing. One murder gets the attention of a young homicide detective, Martin, who ultimately joins Diana and Viggo in their assassinations. |
| 274 | * Mr. Chapel in ''Series/VengeanceUnlimited'' is the rare TechnicalPacifist VigilanteMan. Because sometimes making them [[FateWorseThanDeath wish they were dead]] is better than actually killing them. |
| 275 | * ''Series/TheWatch2021'': Sybil is one, abducting, torturing, and then killing criminals. |
| 276 | [[/folder]] |
| 277 | |
| 278 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 279 | * The Music/AbneyPark song "Victorian Vigilante" is about one of these. |
| 280 | * Music/WoodyGuthrie'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. |
| 281 | * Music/InsaneClownPosse: "To Catch a Predator" is about a guy who pretends to be a child and lures pedophiles to his house, where he kidnaps the creeps and locks them in a TortureCellar. |
| 282 | * ''To Hell and Back'' has James Vela, the main character of the song ''[[https://youtu.be/LA9i5pkavzM This Is My Heart.]]'' Because of an event in his past, James began murdering sex offenders, as he believed the victims weren't getting actual justice. He managed to kill 17 people before being caught and executed. |
| 283 | * Music/{{MILGRAM}}: Kotoko Yuzuriha has a KnightTemplar-esque sense of justice and is shown searching for and beating up criminals (at least one to death) in her music video "HARROW". |
| 284 | [[/folder]] |
| 285 | |
| 286 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 287 | * ''Radio/TheShadow'': The titular character is a psychic vigilante who has the ability to disguise himself and make himself invisible and has a group of agents working for him. He’s also certainly not above killing either, and he especially seems to like letting loose with a creepy EvilLaugh from time to time. |
| 288 | [[/folder]] |
| 289 | |
| 290 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 291 | * ''[[TabletopGame/{{Champions}} Dark Champions]]'' contains rules for several modern-day action genres, but defaults to vigilantes taking down criminals. This shouldn't be surprising, as the original 4th edition book was inspired by Steve Long's personal PC the Harbinger of Justice, who is this trope cranked to max. |
| 292 | * What ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' becomes after they are disbanded. Later a faction refuses to become official so they can keep their vigilante status. |
| 293 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 294 | ** Third edition had a Vigilante prestige class, with its iconic character being the unintimidatingly named Beasley Bigums. You couldn't take it if you were evil, and its version of the paladin's Smite ability required you to have witnessed the target committing a crime on your home turf. |
| 295 | ** One example Cult of the Dragon Below in ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' is a group of people who've grown a mutant third eye on one palm, and are convinced that this eye is a gift from Aureon to allow them to see people who are secretly hidden demons, who they carry out vigilante executions on. Of course, given the number of [[AncientConspiracy shady groups]] manipulating matters in Eberron, it's not impossible that they could really be seeing something malign and supernatural - quori possession, for example. |
| 296 | * 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. |
| 297 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Massacards}}'', there’s a role called “The Vigilante” from the Innocent Alignment. They have a Light Ability that lets them kill a player. Since Light Abilities can only be used once by default, The Vigilante has only one chance to do so. |
| 298 | * 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. |
| 299 | %% This is pretty much the whole purpose of ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''' vigilante class. |
| 300 | * 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. |
| 301 | [[/folder]] |
| 302 | |
| 303 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 304 | * The title character of ''VideoGame/AnakshaFemaleAssassin'' is a vigilante assassin who has taken it upon herself to clean up the streets of Santa Lina, one scumbag at a time. |
| 305 | * 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.]] |
| 306 | * 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]]. |
| 307 | * The protagonists of ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' are out to stop a criminal organization that took over the city and kidnapped the mayor's daughter. They include a ninja, the mayor's daughter's boyfriend, and ''the mayor, himself!'' (Helps that said mayor is a former wrestler.) |
| 308 | * ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': |
| 309 | ** 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. |
| 310 | ** 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 inadvertently overheard Rosaria in the middle of her enforcement, but thought Rosaria was [[ComicallyMissingThePoint just devoutly praying]]. |
| 311 | -->'''Rosaria:''' May you be struck down in the name of Lord Barbatos! |
| 312 | ** On the villain's side, the Fourth Harbinger of the Fatui is this. Arlecchino knows and understands how endemic the child trafficking business in Fontaine and it sickens her. Furthering her disgust is how the nobles use their status to commit such crimes under the guise of a sympathetic philanthropists. Had not for her intervention, playable characters and her agents such as [[StageMagician Lyney and Lynette]] would end up at the hands of abusive and pedophilic nobles. [[TheFagin They might be working under Arlecchino as her sleeper agents and being exposed to dangerous missions,]] but at least their lives are vastly improved under the Harbinger's care. As for the Harbinger herself, she will not hesitate to kill such individuals and expose their dirt to the media. |
| 313 | * ''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. |
| 314 | * 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. |
| 315 | ** 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.]] |
| 316 | * The heroes of ''VideoGame/Interstate76'' 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. |
| 317 | * ''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. |
| 318 | * ''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]]. |
| 319 | * ''VideoGame/LunarLux'': There are rumors of a powerful warrior, the Murk Slayer, who hunts Murks despite not being affiliated with or authorized by the Lunex Force. Although he doesn't appear to be causing problems for civilians, the Force still wants to arrest him because he's taking the anticores from the Murks, which scientists need to research. He doesn't trust the Lunex Force, so he refuses to give up the anticores or even explain his motives. |
| 320 | * ''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. |
| 321 | * ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'': |
| 322 | ** The title character's 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. |
| 323 | ** According to supplementary material for ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'', the [[HiredGuns Cracha Preto]] were originally lawmen hunting down criminals the law couldn't or wouldn't touch... [[MotiveDecay originally]]. |
| 324 | * ''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. |
| 325 | * 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. |
| 326 | * ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'' has aptly named Vigilante, a cheeseslime sheriff tricked by the BigBad into thinking that Peppino is a wanted criminal. He appears as a boss at the very heart of second floor, where he challenges Peppino to a shootout, during which he uses a multitude of weaponry, such as revolver, bazooka, flamethrower and even cow airstrike, in an effort to bring down the person he perceives as a threat. [[spoiler: In the end, he is a TokenGoodTeammate among the bosses, as he's just a misguided justice bringer and makes amends with Peppino after the tower is destroyed and he finds out Pizzahead was his actual target. ]] |
| 327 | * Julius Little from ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' starts an entire vigilante gang to put an end to the MobWar tearing the eponymous 'hood of Stilwater apart. He names said group the "3rd Street Saints", both after their home turf (particularly the Saints Row Church that serves as their base of operations), and to symbolize how they are supposed to [[NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters look after the little people]]. Much later, it is revealed that [[spoiler:the Saints are actually Julius' ''second'' attempt to CleanUpTheTown: the first time was when he and Benjamin King formed the Vice Kings in Sunnyvale to break the Lopez family's stranglehold on Stilwater. While they succeeded in pushing back the Carnales, King abandoned their initial goals and became a criminal kingpin himself, prompting Julius to drop his flags and to start again in the Row. However, just like King, the Saints end up SlowlySlippingIntoEvil as they grow in power, so Julius decides to disband the gang and is eventually killed by his right hand for betraying them.]] |
| 328 | * Frost Ace has become this in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney''. It's almost like he's trying to become a HenshinHero version of Franchise/{{Batman}}. |
| 329 | * 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.]] |
| 330 | * 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. |
| 331 | * ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia''. |
| 332 | ** 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. |
| 333 | ** There is also a sidequest involving a VigilanteMan who has fewer scruples than Yuri. |
| 334 | ** Flynn considers the second BigBad, Duke Pantarei, to be a vigilante, albeit on a larger scale than what most people would consider vigilantism. Duke stole the empire's national treasure, the Dein Nomos sword, in order to solve aer-related disasters by himself. After the planet is exposed to the Adephagos, Duke decides to be humanity's judge, jury, and executioner by using Tarqaron to sacrifice them to destroy the Adephagos. Even when the party presents an alternative solution, Duke fears that humanity will still find ways to destroy the world in their pursuit of technology. |
| 335 | * 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. |
| 336 | * The title character in the aptly named ''VideoGame/{{Vigilante}}'' is officially this, although the focus is more on the quest to rescue his girlfriend. |
| 337 | * 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. |
| 338 | [[/folder]] |
| 339 | |
| 340 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 341 | * ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'': |
| 342 | ** The Yatagarasu, a noble thief who steals information on corrupt business dealings and sends them to the media. 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 action. She's not very good at it. |
| 343 | ** In the sequel, [[spoiler:BigBad Simon Keyes is driven by both KillingInSelfDefense and {{Revenge}} against the internationally powerful [[GreaterScopeVillain fake President Huang]] and other villains who have terrorized him for most of his life. However, he's also willing to frame innocent people in the process, thus making himself the HeWhoFightsMonsters variety of this.]] |
| 344 | * 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]]. |
| 345 | * Among the ''VisualNovel/ShallWeDate'' {{visual novel}}s, two deal with groups of these: |
| 346 | ** ''VisualNovel/ShallWeDateNinjaAssassin'' begins with the murder of the PlayerCharacter's family in Edo (the old Tokyo) and her swearing revenge. She hears of a vigilante group that can carry revenges and looks for them, and after witnessing one of their assassinations, they accept her request and take her in. |
| 347 | ** The ''Ninja Assassin'' SpinOff ''VisualNovel/ShallWeDateNinjaShadow'' has the PlayerCharacter pulling a SweetPollyOliver and joining a vigilante group in Nagasaki, which her twin brother was supposed to join [[CynicismCatalyst before he was killed]] [[AngstySurvivingTwin in front of her]]. The guys from ''Ninja Assassin'', whose vigilante group has a deep bond with this one, make several appearances and are even quite vital in some of the routes. |
| 348 | [[/folder]] |
| 349 | |
| 350 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 351 | %%* [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil Midnight]] in ''Webcomic/{{Acrobat}}''. |
| 352 | * In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', Dr. [=McNinja=] is a doctor and a ninja. Who desperately wants to be Batman. The police of Cumberland know who he is and what he does, but he's made a deal with them: after any action they could arrest him for, if he can get back to his office and declare "Base!" before they catch him, he's off the hook for it. He's never shown actually doing so, and most episodes end with him back at the office and no evidence that the police even tried to catch him. |
| 353 | * ''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). |
| 354 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Terezi is pretty obsessed with this kind of justice, which funnily enough is not too different from the [[KangarooCourt actual]] [[HangingJudge court]] [[AmoralAttorney system]] in [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Troll society.]] 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.]] |
| 355 | * 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. |
| 356 | * ''Webcomic/UnOrdinary'' is about a world where everyone has powers, but the rare elite have much stronger ones. Society is dismissive of the weak whereas the strong enjoy endless privileges. A certain book changes the outlook of many high tier citizens, and they decide to become vigilantes, becoming that verse's first version of superheroes. They're a more idealistic portrayal than most, as they focus on defending the weak from stronger criminals and solving issues rather than outright murder. |
| 357 | [[/folder]] |
| 358 | |
| 359 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 360 | * ''ComicBook/LessThanThreeComics''' Shadow attacks crooks in the street and uses fear to scare them straight. It's worked pretty well so far. |
| 361 | * ''Website/TLFTravelAlerts'': The [[https://twitter.com/TlfTravelAlerts/status/672332636296192000 Signals at Earls Court]] are not going to play by your rules, but they are going to get results! Delays. |
| 362 | [[/folder]] |
| 363 | |
| 364 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 365 | * ''Film/TheFlyingMan'' is a deconstruction of the trope, depicting a scenario where a ruthless vigilante has somehow gotten FlyingBrick superpowers similar to Superman. The result is a horrifying HumanoidAbomination that brutally murders over thirty criminals in about a week, sometimes right in front of innocent civilians, simply because no one in the city has the power to stop him. Intriguingly, [[spoiler: the ending suggests he may have a more human side to him, as he spares a small-time crook upon seeing that the man has a young child.]] |
| 366 | [[/folder]] |
| 367 | |
| 368 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 369 | * 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. [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraAvatarKorra Avatar 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. |
| 370 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'': Played with here. Although one of Spider-Man's main goals in the series is to take down the organized crime in New York (which boils down to the crime bosses Tombstone, Silver Sable, Master Planner/Dr. Octopus, and the Green Goblin), he works ''with'' the police (namely [[TheCommissionerGordon Captain Stacy]]) and does his best ''not'' to severely injure the criminals he goes after. The police work with Spider-Man (despite a few of them being against him) because they know he's the only one capable of fighting the super-criminals that keep popping up. |
| 371 | * The ''WesternAnimation/SwatKats'' kinda count; although their reason is that the Enforcers aren't flexible enough to take down the supervillains who attack on a weekly basis. Indeed, they were once Enforcer pilots, but got kicked out by their Jerkass Commander, Ulysses Feral, after Feral pulled an idiotic OnlyICanKillHim move while they were trying to capture one of the chief villains, Dark Kat; after he demoted them to working in a junkyard, they promptly realized the Enforcers were throwing a lot of good stuff away and used this to build their arsenal (including their CoolPlane, the [=TurboKat=]) and handle the villains on their terms. |
| 372 | * ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'': Casey Jones is shown to be this in his debut episode (much like in the original comics). Unlike his comic version, however, he's given an AdaptationalAngstUpgrade that gives him a ([[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse somewhat]]) understandable reason to want to kill members of the Purple Dragons street gang. |
| 373 | [[/folder]] |
| 374 | |
| 375 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 376 | * Bernie Goetz was labeled the "Subway Vigilante" after he gunned down four men who were[[note]] probably, there was some dispute[[/note]] [[MuggingTheMonster mugging him.]] The incident sparked a national debate on vigilantism, though his actions do not fit into the classic mold of a vigilante. At trial, one of the men he shot admitted they planned to rob him. Goetz was acquitted of all the charges except for illegally carrying a gun, doing eight months. He was later successfully sued, however. |
| 377 | * Jack Ruby, who killed Lee Harvey Oswald to avenge his assassination of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy on live television. He himself was later convicted of the murder, dying in prison. |
| 378 | * Three-time killer [[https://web.archive.org/web/20091008020302/http://www.truecrimereport.com/2009/10/serial_killer_vigilante_willia.php William Inmon]] was a self-proclaimed vigilante. His arguments for this are unconvincing. |
| 379 | * The term comes from the ''Vigilance Committees'' set up in the old west when settlement had outrun the law. The actual behavior of these committees was more complicated than the traditional TorchesAndPitchforks angry mob, though that picture is hardly without merit. Some lawmen, for instance, found it [[CombatPragmatist useful]] to use these as material when forming posses. |
| 380 | * The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee tried to be this in the days of UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper. Tired of the police not catching the criminal, they sent out men on patrols round Whitechapel and tried to investigate the case themselves. Which didn't do a lot; the Ripper himself was confident enough he wouldn't get caught that he sent the [[FingerInTheMail letter with half a human kidney attached]] to their leader. No suspect was ever arrested, much less convicted. |
| 381 | * In Italy it was so diffused that the Italian language has the word ''giustiziere'' specifically to denote this. The fact it's derived from the Italian word for "justice" should be enough to explain ''why'' it was so diffused, and why the mindset is still there. |
| 382 | * Vigilante killings of suspected drug traffickers incited (and are still inciting) bitter [[FlameWar Flame Wars]] when Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte came to power with the promise to stamp out crime, corruption, and illegal drugs. He has publicly praised death squads behind this, and been accused of supporting them financially. |
| 383 | * New York City-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''. |
| 384 | * The [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulabi_Gang Gulabi Gang]] in India advocates for women's rights and in particular fights injustice and violence against women. To be fair, they would report incidents to the authorities first, but this can be seen as a formality due [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections to corruption.]] As a last resort, they'd lynch the perpetrator using lathis. That said, TorchesAndPitchforks is just a small fraction of their other, nonviolent, humanitarian activities. |
| 385 | * [=YouTuber=] and grey-hat hacker WebVideo/JimBrowning has been styled by mainstream news organisations as a "vigilante" following the successful infiltration and police raid of a Delhi-based scam [[OperatorFromIndia call centre]] after said establishment was found by Browning to be conning at least 40,000 people from the UK and US. Browning did not approve of this label, as he stated in a [[https://twitter.com/JimBrowning11/status/1235258081182986240 tweet]] that he was by no means a vigilante based on his methods--in no way was he racist or spiteful towards the criminals he confronts, and he has made efforts to bring scammers to the attention of Indian authorities, only for his concerns to [[CassandraTruth fall on deaf ears]] due to how woefully corrupt the country's law enforcement agencies are. |
| 386 | * Public safety group The Guardian Angels have been around since 1979, operating in New York and later expanding to cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Orlando. They're distinctively known for their red berets and tracksuits and are known to be staffed by members who're trained in CPR, Conflict Resolution, and basic Martial Arts. |
| 387 | * In 2020, two Atlanta men fatally shot a jogger whom they believed had been responsible for a string of burglaries in the neighborhood. They cited an old citizens' arrest law as their justification, which did not protect them from arrest but did bring attention to the law and led to its swift repeal. |
| 388 | * In the midst of anarchy in the High Middle Ages Westphalia, Vehmic courts were established by the Holy Roman Emperor to try and judge miscreants. Accuseds were given six weeks and three days (or 45 days) to come to be tried, and the sole verdicts available were death or acquittal. Although public order was assured starting from the 1400s, such courts were abolished only in 1811 by King Jerome of Westphalia. |
| 389 | * Inmate Steven Sandison was hailed by some for killing convicted paedophile Theodore Dyer and made no bones about doing what was perceived as an act of vigilantism, but he did maintain that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLcDskek7Zg he was by no means a hero]]. Some have expressed doubts on whether his actions were worth the praise considering his prior criminal record, though (Sandison was already doing a separate life sentence for a previous murder conviction). |
| 390 | * At least one police officer, [[https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/SAPD-officer-Stephen-Smith-vigilante-spree-16393133.php Stephen Smith]], seems to have killed multiple habitual criminals in his jurisdiction, San Antonio, during the early 1980s. His own partner Farrell Tucker ended up killing him in what some people suspected was ''also'' a vigilante shooting, to stop Smith's rampage. Further, he was linked to murder attempts on his own superiors after they disciplined him over his PoliceBrutality (that was non-lethal) against suspects, which might have had vigilante motives too. In 1991 the film ''Vigilante Cop'' (titled ''Shoot First: A Cop's Vengeance'' as well) was released about this. |
| 391 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Plauch%C3%A9 Gary Plauché]] publicly shot dead the man who'd molested his son. He served no prison time. Similarly, mothers [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Bachmeier Marianne Bachmeier]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellie_Nesler Ellie Nesler]] also publicly killed the men who'd molested their kids right in the courtroom. All three shot the men from close range. Nesler and Bachmeier served brief prison terms. [[PedoHunt As you can imagine]], the public largely sympathized with them, and none ever expressed remorse. |
| 392 | ** Nesler's case was seen somewhat less sympathetically once it came out that she was high on meth at the time of the shooting, though some still stood by her. |
| 393 | [[/folder]] |
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