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  • In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Ned Land as played by Kirk Douglas pulls a truly impressive one- we see him break out of a flooding holding cell as the Nautilus is taking on water, break through a glass window with his feet to unlock the door from outside, makes it to the bridge to find the ship under attack by a giant squid — a creature he's never seen before in his life — grabs a harpoon, throws the harpoon right in the monster's eye, then dives into the water to save Captain Nemo, a man he hates. It turns into a funny moment with this dialogue afterwards;
    Captain Nemo: Mr. Land, you saved my life. Why?
    Ned Land: That's a good question. Well there's only one thing a fella can do when he's made a mistake as big as this... get drunk!
  • The main characters in Aliens have a habit of doing this periodically, with special mention going to Ripley for performing most of them. One of the most notable instances sees Ripley save the remaining Marines from the ambush in the hive by, after getting fed up with Lt. Gorman's incompetence and inability to command properly when the lives of his men are on the line, taking the wheel of the squad's APC and driving to the rescue to evac the survivors.
  • Ajnabee: During the climax in the cruise ship, Raj arrives just in time to rescue his wife Priya as she's about to be killed by Vicky.
  • Played with in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Ron tries this, utterly failing ("I immediately regret this decision!"), the rest of the news team does pretty well, but it's Baxter who saves the day.
  • In Armageddon (1998), right when everything seems lost, seeing as though the first giant drilling machine was lost, AJ shows up with the (previously thought lost) second giant drilling machine to save the day.
  • In Angel (1984), Cool Old Guy Kit Carson arrives with his sixguns blazing like a one man cavalry to save both both Angel and Lt. Andrews: firing eight shots from his twin .45's into The Killer's body.
  • During the climax of Are You Being Served?, when the Grace Brothers staff are caught in a shoot-out between the revolutionaries and the Spanish government, Young Mr. Grace comes to their rescue smashing through a wall in an armoured car.
  • Avatar: The Way of Water: Colonel Quaritch has Jake's kids and a couple of their friends, and Jake ends up surrendering himself to him... but just before the kill order is relayed, Payakan the Tulkun leaps out of the water and attacks the RDA personnel, giving Jake and the Metkayina Clan enough time to regroup and initiate a charge against the humans.
  • Batman:
    • Every single time Batman smashes through a window involves a Big Damn Hero entrance. The classic example is the scene in the 1989 Batman movie where Bats smashes through a skylight to save Vicki Vale who is being menaced by the Joker in the museum.
    • The Dark Knight Trilogy:
      • Batman Begins: After the Scarecrow's fear toxin has engulfed the Narrows, Gordon is the only unaffected man left on the island. The Commissioner, by radio on the outside, breaks it to him that all the reinforcements he's asking for are already on the island there with him, just as helpless as everyone else and he's on his own.
        Commissioner: Gordon... there's nobody left to send in.
        [The Batmobile roars past him, flies over the raised bridge and to the rescue]
      • The Dark Knight: The Joker's thugs spring a trap on the police truck carrying Harvey Dent. Just as Dent and the cops are worried that the Joker may actually kill them all, Batman enters with the Batmobile and evens the odds against the Joker.
      • The Dark Knight Rises: The police are about to take on Bane's army, despite being hopelessly outgunned. Then the Bat swoops in and blows up one of Bane's Tumblers.
  • In Big Game, just as Hazar is about to take the president away for seven days of torture and death, Oskari runs, jumps on the refrigator Moore's in and manages to save him yet again.
  • Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure: Bill and Ted are about to be executed in medieval times. The axes swing and hit the blocks instead of their necks. Turns out Billy the Kid and Socrates, who Bill and Ted had picked up on an earlier trip through time, switched places with the executioners to rescue our heroes.
  • In The Birth of a Nation, the Ku Klux Klan rides to the rescue of the Cameron family when they're attacked by Black Union Soldiers (mostly played by white actors in blackface).
  • In the horror anthology film Body Bags at the end of "The Gas Station" segment, an early customer named Pete suddenly returns to help Anne beat the killer when he remembered he left his credit card behind.
  • Lampshaded in A Bridge Too Far when Michael Caine's character quips that it would be bad form for The Cavalry to arrive ahead of schedule. "In the nick of time would do nicely." However the trope is averted when, just as it looks as though XXX Corps is going to break through to relieve the besieged paratroopers and make the plan a success, the Allied offensive runs out of steam just a mile short of Arnhem.
  • The film Chasing Christmas opens with the Ghost of Christmas Past going rogue and deciding to live in the past, putting the existence of current ‘job’ Jack Cameron at risk as his future Christmases will be wiped out along with his life if he isn’t returned to the present by midnight. After Present and Jack Cameron have failed to catch up with Past and time is now running out before Jack will be erased, Christmas Future shows up with the ghosts’ supervisor to capture and officially ‘demote’ Christmas Past to an elf while Present takes on Past’s previous role and Jack is sent home.
  • Circus has a subversion; Leo is being threatened by a pair of Loan Sharks, when Leo's buddy Moose intervenes and beats up the sharks... because he blames Leo for the death of his mistress and wants to kill Leo himself.
  • Dad's Army (1971): When the three Nazis have the church hall held hostage and are threatening to shoot The Vicar, Captain Mainwaring and his platoon bravely disguise themselves as choir singers to sneak in and disarm the Nazis:
    Captain Mainwaring: If you shoot me, there are seven men to take my place.
  • In Das Finstere Tal, Greider is this for Luzi (and, by extension, the entire village).
  • Used in the finale of Daybreakers, when Willem Dafoe's character shows up to save the day.
  • DC Extended Universe:
  • Devotion (2022): The 1st Marine Division—including some of the jarheads that Jesse and Tom clashed with earlier in the film—are pinned down by the People's Liberation Army at the Chosin Reservoir and one of them prays for "angels". Not a moment later, they hear the drone of VF-32's engines, and the Corsairs swoop out of the sky and unload rockets and machine guns on the Chinese army, breaking the back of the attack.
  • In District 9 it looks like Wikus, in his Power Armor, is going to run off and abandon Christopher to certain death. Just as Chris is about to be shot, Wikus has a change of heart and charges back in, using the alien weapons to kill the soldiers in a shower of Ludicrous Gibs.
  • Doctor in Trouble:
    • When Ophelia falls overboard, everyone clamors over the railing to see her, and Dr. Burke is knocked overboard too. As Dr. Burke is unable to swim, Ophelia comes to his rescue and manages to get them both back on the ship, where she attempts to give him the kiss of life.
    • When a Russian trawlerman on the Drobny requires a lifesaving appendicectomy, Dr. Burke is sent over to the ship risking his own life travelling via breeches buoy despite the fact he cannot swim, and performs the operation to great success.
  • Dogma serves up a good one. The heroine, Bethany, is about to be beaten to death by some wicked teenage hockey-playing demons. Just as they're about to strike, Jay and Silent Bob leap into action to save the day by beating the crap out of them. "Snooch to the muthafuckin' Noooooooch!"
  • This exchange from Dredd, as Dredd lies badly wounded:
    Dredd: Wait...
    Judge Lex: 'Wait'? Are you kidding me? Did you say 'wait'? Judge Dredd... the Judge Dredd, finally gets on the wrong end of a gun, and what he says... is 'wait'. You know what? I expected more of you. I mean, wait for what? Wait for me to change my mind? Wait for another two or three seconds of life because you're so fucking weak you just can't stand to see it end?
    Dredd: No.
    (Anderson blasts Lex multiple times from behind.)
    Dredd: Wait for her to shoot you.
  • In Dumb and Dumber Harry pulls this twice. First, he smashes through a gas station bathroom stall to put out the fire on his foot, which happened to be the same bathroom stall Lloyd was about to get raped by Sea-Bass in. The second time was a subversion when Harry fails to shoot the BigBad, but distracts him long enough for the FBI to come in.
  • A Fistful of Dynamite's John Mallory shows up at the last minute to save his friend Juan Miranda, from a firing squad, in typical explosive fashion.
  • Happens more than once in GI Joe The Rise Of Cobra.
  • Godzilla:
    • Terror of Mechagodzilla features what is largely considered to be Godzilla's coolest entrance, with him showing up by blasting Titanosaurus during their first battle in Tokyo.
    • Godzilla (2014):
      • The Mutos seem unstoppable until Godzilla pimps into town to show them who's boss. The big reveal in the Honolulu airport suggests this trope, but really it's the final showdown in the San Francisco Bay that best captures it, after Ford blows up the Female Muto's egg, she attempts to kill him. Cue atomic breath, allowing Ford to escape.
      • Ford to Godzilla, ironically enough. When both Mutos were pummeling the snot out of Godzilla, the explosion that Ford caused to destroy all the Muto eggs drew their attention, freeing Godzilla.
    • Godzilla pulls this off multiple times in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). First, he bursts through the ice in Antarctica just in time to save most of the main cast from being toyed with and then killed by Ghidorah. Then in the middle of the movie, he jumps out of the sea and tackles Ghidorah just as the latter was about to destroy the Airborne Aircraft Carrier which most of the cast and hundreds of evacuees were on. Then just before the Final Battle, the very first sign of Godzilla's arrival is his atomic breath slamming into King Ghidorah's chest and driving him back, when Ghidorah was literally a split second away from disintegrating the movie's kid hero with his gravity beams.
    • In the climax of Godzilla vs. Kong, Big G is backed into a corner and is seconds away from being killed by Mechagodzilla, when Kong jumps on the metal beast's back to save his life.
  • GoldenEye: Three words: Big Damn TANK.
  • A Good Woman Is Hard To Find: The bin men who see Sarah is being harassed stop and intervene, so she can run off with her kids.
  • In The Goonies, Sloth's Shout-Out/Entrance at the climax: "Hey, you guys!" Cue heroic theme music and happy ending ahoy!
  • Gizmo may be a little guy, but he played the Trope to a T in Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Near the conclusion, Kate and Marla were cornered — with Marla partially webbed up — by the Spider-Gremlin, when all of a sudden, Gizmo, who had gotten sick of being bullied by the gremlins all through the entire film, appeared from out of an air duct dressed up like Rambo, and killed the thing with an makeshift bow and arrow tipped with an ignited bottle of white-out.
  • At the end of Hannie Caulder, when it seems that Hannie will meet the same fate as Price, the Preacher appears to shoot the knife out from Emmett's hand, allowing Hannie to kill him.
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1:
    • Dobby arrives to save Harry and co from Malfoy Manor minutes before Voldemort is due to arrive.
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2:
    • Aberforth Dumbledore shows up just as things are getting dicey.
    • Neville of all people ends up saving Ron and Hermione from Nagini.
  • In Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai, Daigo of the Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger and the Ressha Sentai ToQger race in to save the day when the Generalissimo of Badan finally rises.
  • Home Alone: In the first movie, Old Man Marley saves Kevin by knocking out Marv and Harry with a shovel, leaving them for the police. In the second movie, just when the two are about to shoot Kevin, the Pigeon Lady distracts them so Kevin can run to safety, then throws birdseed all over Marv and Harry so the pigeons will attack them; again, the police arrive to arrest them shortly after.
  • Double Subversion in Independence Day: Russel Casse gives the line "Sorry I'm late, Mr. President!" ...and then his missile jams. ...and then he makes a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the alien ship anyway.
  • Ip Man: Training the Peaceful Villagers has been subverted, the factory workers are still getting their asses handed to them by the bandits - until Ip Man shows up and gives them the old what-for. (However, the factory workers were able to keep the bandits separated so he wouldn't have to take on all of them at once.)
  • Iron Eagle is entirely about a kid pilot and his Cool Old Guy mentor playing this trope to rescue the kid's shot down father from an anonymous Middle Eastern dictatorship.
    • Used in the film itself. After Doug has rescued his father, he's faced with the prospect of having to take on a pair of MiGs with only 80 rounds left in his chaingun. Cue a squad of F15's showing up and scaring off the enemy fighters.
  • Jason Bourne: When Dewey has Bourne at his mercy following a Breaking Speech, Heather arrives and quickly shoots Dewey down, saving Bourne.
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: Twice.
    • First, when Van Pelt and his mooks have the four pinned down at the bazaar, Alex launches a smoke bomb and comes to their rescue, getting them out of there safely.
    • In the climax, Van Pelt has a gun to Bethany's head and demands the jewel from Spencer who protests that he doesn't have it. Suddenly, Fridge rides in on an elephant, yelling "Zoology, bitch!" as his ride takes out all the jaguars and distracts Van Pelt long enough to for Bethany to free herself.
  • Jumanji: The Next Level: When it looks like the gang is about to be killed by mandrills, Alex and Bethany (as "Seaplane" and Cyclone the horse, respectively) show up and scare them off.
  • The Jungle Book (2016):
    • Shere Khan pounces at Mowgli while hiding in the tall grass. However, Bagheera the panther tackles the tiger out of the way, and they fight while Mowgli tries to get away.
    • Not long after that, Kaa has Mowgli in her coils, ready to eat him. But just then, Baloo arrives and fights off the snake, chasing her away.
    • During the final battle against Shere Khan, Bagheera once again fights Shere Khan to protect Mowgli. He gets wounded, and Shere Khan is ready to bite his throat when Raksha and her wolf pack arrive, Raksha shouting a Big "NO!" while tackling the tiger to save Bagheera.
  • Jurassic Park:
    • In Jurassic Park, the Tyrannosaurus rex of all creatures gets one when she shows up to attack the raptors that have the human characters surrounded.
    • That same T. rex gets another, even bigger damn hero moment in Jurassic World, when Claire lets her out of her paddock and leads her to the rampaging new dinosaur Indominus rex, allowing "Rexy" to ultimately save yet another cast of characters.
      • In the latter incident, the Raptor pack-leader "Blue" gets one when she comes to the aid of the downed Rexy, stopping the Indominus from finishing her off, letting the old girl get back on her feet and work with Blue to double-team the monster. Then the Mosasaurus outdoes them both when she lunges out of her tank to chomp down on the Indominus before the latter can resume the fight, dragging her to a watery death.
    • In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, a Carnotaurus has cornered our three human heroes who are trying to save the dinosaurs from the volcanic destruction of Isla Nublar. With Claire and Franklin stuck in the gyrosphere, the beast closes in on Owen — and Rexy promptly lunges in from the side and knocks it flat with a single bite, then poses triumphantly and lets out her iconic roar as the volcano explodes behind her.
  • Kung Fu Hustle. In a scene lasting about three to four minutes, there are three Big Damn Heroes moments, one from each of the Three Heroes. The first is easily the most impressive, involving a lighter being caught by a coolie in a scene that would make the aforementioned Firefly crew green with envy, and the hero facing off against something on the order of a hundred gangsters. The others are less impressive, but only by comparison, involving a gay tailor sending a man through and beating the crap out of the gangsters swarming the first man, and a donut-making baker taking on three men armed with thompson machine guns with a pair of blunt sticks meant to roll out dough. Ain't they just Three Big Damn Heroes?
  • Subverted in Land of the Dead as the heroes rush to join the final battle against the zombie horde, it appears this will be played straight and they will arrive just in time to save the terrified people trapped between the electric fence and the zombies. They actually arrive just in time to watch as the zombies feast on the people and all they can do is give those still alive a somewhat quicker death.
  • In Lethal Weapon, Murtaugh is about to be killed by the Big Bad, who pauses to give his Evil Gloating, ending with the line "There are no more heroes." At that exact moment, Riggs bursts in and dispatches him and his minions.
    "Get down!"
  • In De Lift, the CEO of Rising Sun shows up at the last minute to destroy the malfunctioning bio-computer controlling the titular elevator.
  • In The Longest Day, when the German sentry sees the Allied ships come out of the mist, and openly panics: "You know all of those ships that the Allies don't have? Well, they have them!". The Allies were rescuing a continent, and ultimately a world, even if none of people being rescued were on those beaches.
  • In The Lord of the Rings:
    • Aragorn has this moment in The Fellowship of the Ring. The Ringwraith stabs Frodo, and just as he is reaching out (likely to get the Ring that Frodo still wears), Aragorn jumps in, torch and sword at hand and battles the five Ringwraiths, setting most of them on fire.
    • End of Helm's Deep in The Two Towers. All is lost, Aragorn looks to the East, and then... Gandalf and Éomer, mother-fucker. With a full army of Rohirrim.
    • Sam pulls one in The Return of the King when he saves Frodo from Shelob (even if he doesn't know at the time).
      • When the Witch-King and his fell-beast are about to kill an incapacitated King Théoden, and then Éowyn jumps in the way, hacking the beast's head off in merely a few strikes.
      • The Battle of Minas Tirith was essentially a series of dueling Big Damn Heroes moments for each side. First, the Rohirrim appear when all seems lost, then Mordor reinforcements arrive with oliphants, then Aragorn shows up leading an army of ghosts...
  • Subversion: In El Mariachi, the prequel to Desperado, the titular character (played by Carlos Gallardo instead of Antonio Banderas) arrives too late to prevent bad guy Moco from gunning down Domino, his love interest, in a fit of jealousy.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Iron Man: Just as the head thug is about to execute an innocent villager in Afghanistan as his wife and children scream for them to stop, Iron Man falls out the sky and proceeds to lay the smackdown on all the terrorists in short order.
    • The Avengers:
      • Cap dives in at the last minute to save a defiant old German man from being vaporized by a blast from Loki's staff.
      • Iron Man intervenes to aid Captain America against Loki in Stuttgart, Germany. He even hacks the Quinjet's PA system to blast out some AC/DC as he makes his rescue.
      Iron Man: Make your move, Reindeer Games.
      • In the third act of the film, Bruce Banner arrives to bring muscle to the fight. On a scooter.
    • Iron Man 3:
      • When the "House Party Protocol" is invoked, an entire legion of Iron Man armors come in for the assist against the Extremis soldiers.
      • Pepper gets her spot by punching a remote controlled armor in the chest and throwing a missile straight into Killian's face.
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron:
      • Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch come to aid Captain America against Ultron after their Heel–Face Turn.
      • When the Avengers can't evacuate the city that has been turned into a Floating Continent by Ultron, Nick Fury arrives with the old helicarrier to help.
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming: An Iron Man drone piloted by Tony saves Spider-Man from drowning when a parachute malfunctions. Later Spider-Man webs up the ferry to keep it together, and Iron Man arrives to give Peter the support he needs. Even Ned gets his moment when he uses Peter's web shooters to save him from being killed by The Shocker.
    • Thor: Ragnarok: When the Asgardians are about to be overwhelmed on the Rainbow Bridge, Loki arrives with Korg, Miek and the rest of the rebel gladiators to save the day.
    • Black Panther: In the climax of the film, M'Baku arrives with troops to help T'Challa in his hour of need.
    • Avengers: Infinity War:
      • When Vision and Scarlet Witch come under attack by Thanos's forces, Captain America and his team of Secret Avengers eventually show up to help them.
      • When Thor arrives in Wakanda wielding Stormbreaker. Bruce Banner even yells out, "You guys are screwed!" at the invading army the second he sees his fellow Avenger...and he's not wrong.
      • When Black Widow and Okoye are about to be shredded by one of the Black Order’s giant death wheels, Scarlet Witch joins the fight just in time to save them, tearing the machine a part and crushing a bunch of enemy monsters.
    • Avengers: Endgame has possibly the most epic one ever: Captain America stands alone against Thanos' forces, and then Doctor Strange's portals open and EVERY living hero from the past decade of MCU movies (along with thousands of extras) show up. Captain America utters the words that we have been waiting 12 years to hear: "Avengers, assemble" and an epic final battle ensues.
      • Thanos is about to catch up to Black Panther and take the Infinity Stones, when Scarlet Witch intervenes. She proceeds to deliver a truly epic Curb-Stomp Battle on the purple meanie, only halted when he orders a missile strike on the Battlefield.
      • Carol Danvers does this pretty well, too. Thanos' flagship is raining hell down on the heroes when suddenly, they all realize that the guns have stopped. Cut to every single one of Thanos's big guns turning away from the battle and firing on something huge and terrible descending rapidly from the sky. Captain Marvel shrugs off the energy blasts, before punching through the ship without breaking stride, sinking it into the lake with one shot.
    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Just as Dweller-In-Darkness had almost absorbed the Great Protector's soul, Katy shoots a Dragon Scale arrow at the Dweller-In-Darkness' neck, weakening him, allowing the Great Protector, Shang-Chi, and Xialing to defeat him.
  • The Matrix franchise:
    • In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo shows up to save Morpheus and the Keymaker toward the end of the freeway scene. Morpheus even invokes the trope when the situation looks hopeless.
      Morpheus: Neo, if you're out there I could use some help.
    • In The Matrix Revolutions, an indirect version happens. Just as the humans in Zion are about to make their last stand, the encroaching Sentinels suddenly stand down thanks to Neo, who fought his way to the Machine city to negotiate peace in exchange for him killing Smith.
  • The New Guy has Gil Harris unmasked by his enemies at Homecoming. Certain social destruction is imminent — and then Luther and the prison guards show up to save the day.
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas: "Hello, Oogie!" Badass. It's unusual that you have a BDH moment where the bad situation is the hero's fault in the first place, but even so.
  • Oblivion (2013) :
    • The drone coming to Jack's rescue during the Scavs' ambush on the remains of the New York Public Library, and the drones sent to intimidate the Scavengers when they capture Jack and Julia. Although considering The Reveal that follows, they could be considered more of a Villainous Rescue in action.
    • When the drone on Tower 49 is reactivated, killing Victoria and getting ready to shoot Jack, Julia saves him by blowing away the drone with the Bubble Ship's guns. The fact that the later Aerial Canyon Chase has the drones getting shot repeatedly with the same guns with little damage making it also an example of Worf Had the Flu, is justified by Harper mentioning earlier that the drone isn't worth much without its armor.
    • During the final shootout between the drones and the Scavengers on the bunker, one of the drones is about to shoot Julia and some human civilians. Julia picks up a gun and shoots the drone ineffectively... but is enough of a diversion for Sykes to be able to shoot it In the Back with no problem. Beech also mans a turret and shoots it out with one of the drones, destroying it although he ends up injured because of it.
  • OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders has Kamen Rider V3 rescue OOO, the Den-O team and the Double Riders with the aid of the other main Riders. Soon after, Kamen Rider Birth arrives, leading the Secondary and Extra Riders to help with the final atack.
  • Operation: Dumbo Drop: H.A. gets a moment when the crew finally gets the elephant to the village, but are caught by V.C.s, except him, since he caught his parachute in a tree. He drops down and rushes in.
  • Pacific Rim: Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha are down, Striker Eureka is disabled, and the Hansons have only just managed to piss off the Kaiju by shooting at it with flare guns. And then Gipsy Danger appears.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean:
    • The first movie had one of these at the very end where Jack is about to be hanged and Will saves him just in the nick of time.
    • The third also has one at the very end when Will, now the new captain of the Flying Dutchman, erupts from the sea to help the Black Pearl drive off the East India Trading Co.'s fleet.
  • Plunkett & Macleane: The former of the two protagonists saves the latter from the gallows after Chance lures him into a trap and tries to make Rebecca watch him die. Plunkett blows right through the hangman's rope, using a smoke screen and liberal use of his flintlocks in order to clean house.
  • The Promise (2016): The French navy at Musa Dagh rescues thousands of Armenians trapped by many Turkish soldiers, covering their escape to the ships with artillery fire and marines before spiriting them away.
  • The Purge: Election Year has three of them.
    • Joe and Marcos shooting a gang of Russian Purgers dead and saving Barnes and Roan.
    • Laney and Dawn running down Kimmy's friends, then Laney shooting Kimmy in the head.
    • Marcos shooting Warrens in the head, then La Résistance killing the rest of the NFFA members.
  • Subverted in the short film Pyrates. Just as a pirate is about to be hanged, his captain and crew arrive to effect a daring rescue, only to find out at the end of the film that they just wanted his part of the treasure map.
  • In Rambo, the Burmese soldiers have captured both the missionaries and their mercenary rescuers, and are lining them up for execution. They ready their weapons, prepare to fire...and then John Rambo rises up into view behind the soldier manning the Burmese troops' .50 caliber machinegun.
  • Lampshaded in Road to Rio, where Jerry Colonna leads a cavalry charge to save the day, to be still riding there long after everything is settled. "Exciting though, wasn't it?"
  • Saving Private Ryan: Harrowingly subverted in an infamous scene where Mellish is losing a tense tussle with a German soldier, who takes the knife out of his hands and pins him down on the floor. Upham is outside on the stairs, sobbing and clearly afraid. In a more idealistic war movie, Upham would have went upstairs and saved his comrade in arms. Instead what happens is Upham's fear gets the best of him and Mellish has a slow and painful Nightmare Fuel death from the bayonet sinking down into his chest.
  • The Serpent and the Rainbow: When Alan is Buried Alive and seemingly has no escape from a horrible, delusion-filled death, Christophe digs him out of the ground.
  • Shanghai Noon: Early in the movie Chon Wang finds himself accidentally married to the daughter of a Sioux chief. Falling Leaves spends the rest of the movie showing up just in time to rescue Chon and Roy from whatever danger they've found themselves in such as pulling the wall off the side of their jail cell or freeing them from a gallows.
  • In Smokey and the Bandit part 2, Sheriff Buford T. Justice succeeds in trapping our hero between two whole armies of police officers. The Bandit all but admits it's all over for him and urges Snowman to forget about him and complete the job they set out to do. What does Snowman do? Arrive with an entire convoy of trucks to rescue the Bandit, complete with The Cavalry theme and all.
    • Not even the first time he's done it. Towards the end of the first film, the Bandit is being pursued by more police than he anticipated, with air support and everything. He admits defeat, accepts the inevitable, and urges Snowman to escape because the police don't even know he exists. Cue Snowman (who has spent the whole film lamenting that the job can't be done and they're both going to end up in jail) to start smashing cop cars and get them across the finish line. Ahead of schedule, at that!
      Bandit: It's me they're after, they don't even know Cletus Snow exists.
      Snowman: Oh, they don't? Well I'll tell you what we're gonna do. We're just gonna introduce them to the boy...
  • The Smurfs, where the entire Smurf village comes to rescue Papa from Gargamel. They brought forks,gold balls, and other things. Too bad this doesn't last long until Gargamel uses his dragon wand to trap the entire Smurf village. The soundtrack for that scene starts out like an old tribe about to fight. But later gets fun and exciting.
  • Space Jam, Bill Murray's arrival just when it seems that the TuneSquad is on the verge of forfeit. Swackhammer ends up calling him Dan Aykroyd, though...
  • In Spider-Man 3 ol' Web Head is getting the living shit kicked out of him by Venom and Sandman. Literal seconds before he can be finished off, cue one of the New Goblin's Pumpkin Bombs blasting a hole in Sandman's head and Harry rushing in to even the odds.
  • From the perspective of Starfleet Command, Kirk does this in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
    • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. When they beam down to the Khitomer Conference. Kirk shoves the blind president out of the assassin's line of fire. McCoy grabs the Romulan ambassador at gunpoint. Spock shouts down Admiral Cartwright after showing Valeris was found out. Scotty sneaks in behind the sniper and defenestrates him with lethal phaser fire. And Sulu and his crew beam into the exits just as Cartwright's about to book it.
    • Excelsior just showing up take the heat off the beleaguered Enterprise also qualifies:
      Captain Sulu: Alright, now we've given them something else to shoot at.
    • In Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg are back and are slaughtering the Federation starships standing between it and Earth, including the Defiant, being commanded by Worf. The Borg lock on and begin crippling the ship...
      Worf: Report!
      Helmsman: Main power is offline, we've lost shields, our weapons are gone...
      Worf: Perhaps today IS a good day to die! Prepare for ramming speed!
      Helsman: Sir, there's another starship coming in...it's the Enterprise!
      • Cue two torpedoes destroying the Borg cutting beam as the massive Enterprise swoops between the two ships (while the TNG theme pounds away in the background), drawing the cube's fire and suffering no damage! Picard then tops this by taking command of the fleet and ordering them to concentrate their fire on a single, non-vital spot, which opens up its secondary power relay to a direct assault from the Enterprise's quantum torpedoes. The formerly "invincible" Borg cube is destroyed within seconds.
    • In Star Trek: Nemesis, two Romulan Warbirds unexpectedly de-cloak and join Enterprise in a battle that they were losing badly. They were taken out of the fight embarrassingly quickly but like with the Excelsior, they at least managed to take some of the heat off the Enterprise.
    • The Star Trek (2009) has a great moment near the end, after Nero orders a "FIRE EVERYTHING!" at Spock's ship... and the Enterprise drops out of warp with all guns blazing furiously, picking off all of the Romulan torpedoes.
      • Bonus Big Damn Heroes because the entire reason the technology of the reboot focuses on volume of fire over individual high-power phaser attacks is because of Nero's attack on the Kelvin in the beginning of the film. Making Enterprise`s entire ability to destroy Nero's assault the result of George Kirk's sacrifice, and the data on the Kelvin`s destruction able to reach Starfleet.
    • Star Trek Into Darkness:
      • Scotty, of all people, saves the Enterprise from being finished off by rebooting all the Vengeance's systems.
      • And when it looked like Khan was about to kill Spock, Uhura beams in and distracts him with a stunner long enough for Spock to knock him out.
      • Chekov saves Kirk and Scotty from falling to certain death when the Enterprise is falling, and they end up hanging onto a rail for dear life.
    • Star Trek Beyond:
      • Kirk creates a diversion on a motorcycle using holographic versions of himself to distract Krall's minions so Spock and Bones can get the rest of the crew to safety. Jaylah also gets her moment by defeating Manas, who killed her father.
      • Bones and Spock save Kirk in one of Krall's swarm ships before he gets sucked into space.
  • Star Wars:
    • A classic example occurs during the trench run scene in A New Hope. Just when Darth Vader has Luke's fighter in his crosshairs, the Millennium Falcon comes flying out of the sun, piloted by Han Solo, blasting one of Vader's two wingmen, surprising the last one who bumps into Vader, crashing and sending Vader spinning out of control, giving Luke a clear shot at the target needed to destroy the Death Star.
    • Yoda plays the part to a T in Attack of the Clones, despite not being very big at all.
    • The Force Awakens: Happens quite a bit, but the Biggest Damn Heroes moment is when Han, Chewie, and Finn are taken prisoner by the Stormtrooper unit on Takodana, only to have an opportunity to escape when Poe Dameron and a squadron of Resistance X-wings blast onto the scene with dramatic fanfare.
    • Rey, Chewbacca, and eventually Luke Skywalker all show up on Crait just in time to come through in the clutch for the dying Resistance in The Last Jedi.
    • Two big ones in The Rise of Skywalker, both during the climax. First there’s Ben Solo arriving after his Heel–Face Turn to save Rey, and soon after, Lando and Chewie bringing the cavalry in time to save the Resistance from certain defeat. Cue Theme Music Power-Up.
  • Steps Trodden Black: Right when the creature is closing in on Fletcher and Sam, Jack and Oliver burst out of the forest with laser guns.
  • Street Fighter: Zangief, the Husky Russkie who's so damned stupid he's been duped into working for M. Bison without even being paid, has a Heel Realization just in time to use his massive Russian muscles to hold a blast door open long enough for everyone else to escape.
  • Superman: The Movie has one for Superman when he flies to rescue Lois Lane from the helicopter which got caught on the roof.
  • In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, after crashing a helicopter into a hanger, the T-X advances on John Connor and Kate Brewster, who are powerless to stop it. Then, an even bigger helicopter slams into the hanger, grinding the T-X into dust, and setting the hanger on fire. Guess who pops out?
    Terminator: I'm back..
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day has The Terminator make no less than five Big Damn Heroic entrances:
    • With the T-1000 chasing after John and drawing a gun, everything looks bleak... until a door busts open and in walks the Terminator, pulling a shotgun from a box of roses.
    "Get down!"
    • On a pithy 50cc bike and being chased down by the T-1000 in a truck, John has no idea that help is coming, until the Terminator jumps his bike off a 30-foot ledge and into the aqueduct they're driving in.
    • The abusive staff of the Pescadero Mental Institute thought it'd be easy doping up Sarah for the millionth time. They didn't bank on the massive shotgun-toting biker cyborg.
    • Sarah's trapped in a dead-end room surrounded by riot police who are shooting to kill. There's no way out of there, until the Terminator simply bashes the wall in and pulls her out.
    "Get down!"
    • John and Sarah are unarmed and cornered by the T-1000 with the Terminator nowhere in sight, until he appears over a steel processing conveyor with his trusty M79 grenade launcher.
  • Tom Cruise's return to the scene of the final aerial battle in Top Gun.
    • Hangman swooping down and shooting down the final Felon just as it's about to shoot down Maverick and Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick.
  • In the Transformers Film Series, these are somewhat plentiful and frequently awesome. Film 1 has Bumblebee saving Sam from a pack of angry guard dogs, Bumblebee saving Sam & Mikaela from Barricade, Optimus saving Sam & Mikaela from corrupt government officials (though this one doesn't work out so well), and Bumblebee & Mikaela saving the soldiers from Brawl. Film 2 has Bumblebee saving Sam & his parents from the kitchen appliances brought to life by the Allspark shard, Optimus & Bumblebee saving Sam & Mikaela from the revived Megatron, Jetfire showing up in the final battle to kill Mixmaster and Scorponok, and Bumblebee saving Sam & co. from Rampage & Ravage. Bumblebee gets to do a lot of these, doesn't he?
    • The warehouse one is the best, especially if you don't see it coming. Sam is pinned down, the last several minutes have been very dark, culminating in a sadistic little bot centimeters away from cutting Sam's head open, with no apparent hope...and CRASH! Optimus busts through the ceiling, the heroic music instantly starting at full swing, immediately followed by Bumblebee making an entryway through a wall, and what was 15 seconds ago a quiet and disturbing scene is now a scene full of roaring weapons fire, shots flying everywhere, and hectic action. Oh, and Optimus kicking ass.
    • This is Optimus's job at NEST. While the human soldiers and smaller Autobots hit the field first, Optimus hangs out in the main NEST cargo plane. If the ground troops aren't cutting it, he's airdropped directly into the thick of things to start kicking ass.
  • Tricky People's Reginald Charming has Lyric right where he wants her up until Yello Dyno busts into his office and rescues Lyric from Charming's dastardly photo shoot.
  • In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Eddie Valiant and Jessica Rabbit see the Toon Patrol in their black truck barreling at them when they're in Toontown. Jessica grabs Eddie's arm and tries to drag him off in one direction to flee, while Eddie tries to drag her in the other, jerking his thumb in that direction in the process. Suddenly, Benny the Cab races up and they climb in and they escape being mowed down by the truck in the nick of time.
    Benny the Cab: So, Valiant, you called a cab or what?
    • Later, in the Acme Factory, as Doom tells Eddie and Jessica his plans to wipe out Toontown and replace it with a freeway, Roger blasts into the warehouse through a drainage grate and tries to hold Doom and the Toon Patrol at gunpoint. In this case, this trope is subverted in that one of the Toon Patrol weasels also gets blasted up onto a Ton-of-Bricks hanging from the ceiling that he uses to bury the rabbit, giving Doom the upper hand.
  • Would You Rather: Dr. Barden show up just in time to stop Julian's Attempted Rape of Iris. Averted when Bevan shoots him dead.
  • X-Men Film Series
    • Magneto, of all people — when the Blackbird is about to crash into the forest in X2: X-Men United.
    • Gambit and Sabretooth both save Wolverine at different points in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
    • In X-Men: First Class: The boat just has a few meters left to go before total war between USA and USSR, and then the X-Men jet appears.
  • XXX Return Of Xander Cage has Darius Stone coming out of nowhere and blowing up mooks with a grenade launcher in the final battle.

Alternative Title(s): Film

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