- This trope makes frequent appearances for comedic effect in martial arts movies, where the hero must fight a towering character who cannot be affected by his "weak" attacks.
- Game of Death, pitting Bruce Lee vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This was a bit of a subversion as not only did KAJ's character possess a significant height, strength, and reach advantage, but was also remarkably fast and agile for his size while being a match of Lee's character in terms of fighting ability.
- Nearly every Jackie Chan movie.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey features a confrontation between HAL, who controls the Discovery, and astronaut Dave Bowman. In a classic image, Bowman finds himself locked out of the larger ship without a space helmet in his tiny pod, which facing the larger ship head-on looks even more pitifully weak as the pod's mechanical arms are holding the lifeless body of Frank Poole in a silent, visual plea for reentry. Bowman manages to reenter the ship via a brief jump into the vacuum and use of manual access doors which HAL does not control, and silently, ruthlessly deactivates HAL, ignoring the latter's mechanical pleas.
- Subverted in Avatar, where size and power differences are generally respected. Trudy's Scorpion plane realistically loses against Quaritch's Dragon flying fortress after he manages to flush her into open air (she was holding her own when hiding in the rocks), and the bullet-proof giant rhino things absolutely crush the tiny powered armor suits the humans use. It is played straight with Jake and the toruk, though.
- Inverted at the end with Quaritch's last stand.
- Avengers: Endgame has this when Captain America, who's just a human with enhanced durability and strength, is forced to singlehandedly fight Thanos, one of the strongest beings in the universe, once his fighting partners Iron Man and Thor are taken out. However, once Cap manages to combine his borderline indestructible shield with Thor's hammer Mjölnir, he manages to stand his ground until Thanos overpowers him.
- Partly subverted in The Black Hole, where the smaller, unarmed, but more advanced USS Palomino meets the older, but larger and heavily-armed USS Cygnus, controlled by the mad scientist Reinhardt. When one crew member tries to escape in the Palomino, its greater maneuverability is of no avail, and it is summarily blasted away. However, as with the Star Wars films, the macro-confrontations between spacecraft is mirrored by micro-confrontations between individuals, in this case the older, more heavily armored robot Maximillian vs. the more advanced, smaller, but more maneuverable V.I.N.C.E.N.T. Both robots can levitate, and Maximillian's armor and weapons bring this battle to a draw. It still might be counted as a success for V.I.N.C.E.N.T. as this helps the surviving crew escape immediate death at the hands of Reinhardt, so that they manage to survive the passage through the black hole as individuals, while Reinhardt survives only by merging with Maximillian in a hellish landscape.
- A Civil Action is the story of Jan Schlichtmann, a lawyer specialized in personal injury law and his small law firm representing eight middle-class families in a civil action against two mega-corporations and their first-rate lawyers. So, in the film inspired by it, this trope is invoked almost since the beginning and even lampshaded in the main character’s v.o. monologues. It is however ultimately cruelly subverted, in that Jan’s firm is conducted on the verge of bankruptcy, one corporation (apparently) gets out scot-free and the other settles the case for next to nothing, compared to its huge profits. Remarkably, Jan loses not only because his opponents are richer and more powerful, but also because their lawyers are better.
- The documentary Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story features Bruce Lee battling a demon clad in samurai armor.
- Yin Yang vs. Gunnar Yensen in The Expendables, with Yin Yang as the David and Gunnar as the Goliath. Later, Barney vs. Paine and Toll Road vs. Paine. In those fights, Barney and Toll Road are the David and Paine is the Goliath.
- Like the title says, Facing the Giants has the Giants as the Eagle's Opposing Sports Team. Bonus points too, as the Giants contained 85 players compared to the Eagles' thirty-or-so players.
- Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter has Tommy Jarvis vs. Jason Voorhees.
- In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), relatively speaking, Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra are all significantly smaller in size compared to Ghidorah. This backfired against Rodan when he engaged in aerial combat against Ghidorah, with Ghidorah easily overpowering Rodan.
- Hoosiers is based on the true story of the tiny, country school of Milan (Hickory in the movie) defeating the big city school of Muncie Central (South Bend Central), a very rare feat given the advantages a bigger school would have. The movie even included a prayer before the championship game that featured the Bible verses of David versus Goliath.
- An inversion of this appears about halfway through The Incredible Hulk (2008 film), when the still-human SAS agent Emil Blonsky goes toe-to-toe with the Hulk in melee combat (thanks to a dose of Super-Soldier serum). Similar to the Superman example, despite being the villain, Blonsky looks much cooler simply for being able to go up against the Hulk without being instantly killed (although the point where he abandons his mobility advantage is the point he ends up in a body cast).
- Independence Day has an invincible fleet of alien spaceships proceeding to wipe out human cities, and after the world's militaries fail to stop them, the person who figures out a clever way to defeat the aliens is a nerdy Jewish cable repairman named David.
- Indiana Jones is usually the "David" in a fist-fight against a bigger opponent. It's particularly Played for Laughs in the "Arab Swordsman" scene from the first movie — Indy faces a large swordsman who pulls some Weapon Twirling with a Sinister Scimitar and calmly pulls out a gun and shoots him.
- Everyone vs the Giantess in Into the Woods.
- Ip Man versus the Twister in the second film is this very straight. The Hero may have got his badass cred down pat earlier, but the Twister is not only physically larger, he had destroyed the Old Master who fought Ip to a draw and killed him, so there is a definite underdog vibe.
- Referenced in It's a Wonderful Life, when a real estate agent warns Mr. Potter that the Bailey Building and Loan is cutting into Potter's business; "Your Potter's Field, my dear Mr. Employer, is becoming just that. And are the local yokels making with those David and Goliath wisecracks!"
- James Bond is often the David in his movies, facing a The Dragon often either stronger — Oddjob — or bigger — Jaws.
- In Jurassic World, Owen's remaining Velociraptors take on the Indominus rex near the end of the film. In the end, it takes a Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor, and Mosasaurus to finally bring the beast down. Also in the first film, with the aforementioned Tyrannosaurus taking on the last two raptors of Isla Nublar, allowing the humans to escape.
- Max vs. Rictus in the climax of Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Master and Commander: The HMS Surprise is a Unity class corvette of about 650 tons, with a nominal armament of 28 guns and an actual armament in RN service closer to 36 guns. The Acheron is based on the real USS Constitution, a 1,600 ton United States class frigate with a nominal armament of 44 guns and an actual armament of 50. But counting guns makes the fight seem fairer than it is. Acheron's guns are much larger, longer-ranged, and fire heavier shot. Surprise's broadside throws 328 pounds of metal to the Acheron's 1,408 lb broadside. Furthermore, American ships of that era were often built of live oak, an unusually dense and strong wood that gave Constitution its famous nickname. The two ships are barely in the same class, as the sailing master points out after the first engagement.
- Miracle is the story of the United States men's ice hockey team consisting of college-aged players from several very heated rivalry schools (especially Boston University and Boston College) in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid as major underdogs, especially when facing off against the Soviet Union. A Soviet Union team that had won gold at every Olympics since 1964 and less than two weeks prior had kicked their ass in an exhibition at Madison Square Garden 10-3.
- My Rebellious Son: The protagonist, a diminutive Kung fu trainee (played by the relatively short, 26-year-old Alexander Fu Sheng), have to do battle against two Western brawler brothers, Johnny and Thomson, both of them which are at least three times larger and loaded with Kevlard. The hero wins all the same.
- You would have thought the story of impoverished orphan newsboys going on strike against newspaper tycoon Joseph Pulitzer was already an obvious David Versus Goliath story, but just so we didn't miss it, one of the main characters of Newsies is named "David", another character draws his attention to the coincidence ("As in David and Goliath?"), and then there's a further reference in one of the songs ("We'll slay the giant!").
- The Predator is in a way built on this, with the original movie in particular managing the feat of making a squad of muscled men armed to the teeth the David when the opposition is a strong extraterrestrial with all sorts of advanced gadgets killing them for sport. Prey (2022) doubles for being a period piece - the Predator's equipment is slightly less advanced than the contemporary one, yet still miles ahead than whatever the Native Americans or French expeditionaries can use against him - and having the protagonist facing the alien built like a basketball player be a 5' 5¼"/1,66 m Native American girl.
- The Punisher (2004) with Frank Castle as the David. The Goliath is The Russian, a hulking brute of a man at least a head taller than Frank, who is Made of Iron and doesn't even flinch from being stabbed by Franks' switchblade or being hit by a crowbar. The battle finally, finally turns in to Frank's favour when both combatants crashes into a kitchen, and Frank managed to fling a saucepan of boiling water into the Russian's face.
- In the Hindi film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Surinder, a mild-mannered geek, engages in battle with a sumo wrestler in order to win a trip to Japan for his bride. After taking some abuse, Surinder won by hanging onto the wrestler's ankle and at just the right moment, when the wrestler had all his weight on the opposite leg, he was able to overbalance him and topple him to the ground like a ton of bricks.
- The final fight of Real Steel with Atom, a Good Old Robot built specifically as a sparring robot souped up by a young Gadgeteer Genius and Zeus, the undefeated reigning champion that has always won within two rounds. The announcers even advertise it like this; while Atom doesn't win the fight, he's still considered the moral victor as he lasted longer than any prior opponents.
- Pretty much every Rocky movie have him as the underdog, against world champion Apollo Creed, rougher fighter Clubber Lang, downright murderous Ivan Drago, and the decades younger Mason "The Line" Dixon. Creed follows suit with both a world champion and Ivan Drago's equally strong son.
- In Serenity, the small, unarmed Firefly spacecraft is threatened by the much larger and heavily armed ships of the Alliance. But the developing psychic powers of their passenger/crewmember River Tam both lead them to uncover a secret which spells the downfall of the Alliance government, and help them battle large masses of Alliance soldiers as a One-Man Army until they can broadcast the information more widely.
- Star Wars:
- Both times Luke Skywalker went against Darth Vader, who's taller, stronger, more experienced, and more powerful than him. He's more the underdog in The Empire Strikes Back than in Return of the Jedi, as by the latter film he's more or less Vader's equal in the Force, but in both cases, he's still a 5'7" man going up against a 6'7" Cyborg, living up to the name.
- Strictly going by size, 2'2", 13 kg Yoda vs 6'4", 86 kg Count Dooku, a man three times his height and seven times his weight. In terms of Force power, they're pretty even, but Dooku's greater reach gives him a distinct advantage, as Yoda has to expend tons of energy leaping around to fight him.
- Might appear subverted by the opening scene of Star Wars: A New Hope, when the small rebel ship is easily captured and boarded by the massive Imperial Star Destroyer. But of course the former carries the seeds which will strike a massive blow against the Empire in the form of the Death Star plans, which are successfully carried away by the droids and eventually reach the Rebel base. The film's final battle in which a few dozen Rebel fighters take down the massive Death Star (the size of a "small moon") is a fully successful David vs. Goliath blow, essentially completing the job begun in the opening scene by the Rebel ship.
- Taken Up to Eleven in The Force Awakens when the Resistance (who were made even smaller after the First Order destroyed the system housing the New Republic) destroys Starkiller Base, a planet converted into a star-powered superweapon, which they show in the film as many, many times bigger than the Death Stars were. Though they do lose the majority of their fleet
- In the Battle of Endor, Admiral Ackbar apparently didn't expect to destroy
the Super Star Destroyer. As its bridge tower is on fire and it careens out of control into the Death Star, his bridge crew cheers and he just flops into his chair, jaw agape in disbelief as he watches it erupt into a fireball. - In most of the movies, a macro-battle between large masses of spacecraft is paralleled by micro-battles between two individuals or small groups thereof, usually occurring on a large Empire spacecraft or an Empire-controlled planet. In the latter cases, not only are the Rebel fighters (e.g., Luke Skywalker, Yoda, etc.) either less powerful or smaller than their adversaries, but they could potentially be threatened by all the other Empire forces in their immediate vicinity. However they can either win, or bring the battle to a draw, through skillful use of The Force or other means. Even when the individuals are more evenly matched, e.g., Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader in Star Wars: A New Hope, this second factor employs this trope by, in effect, pitting Obi-Wan against the entire Death Star, both when he uses his Force powers and technical skill to reach and deactivate the tractor beam controls, and again when he sacrifices himself to Darth Vader's lightsaber to allow his friends to escape.
- Invoked in Tower Heist when Miss Iovenko states her intention to essentially blackmail the FBI- and by extension the United States Government- in order to get a favourable outcome for the rest of the Tower employees on her third day as an officially-qualified lawyer.
- Used in many different ways in the Transformers Film Series. First off it depicts the human military as having reasonable success fighting against the Decepticons and thus depicts regular soldiers going up against robots that are, on average, 20 feet tall or bigger. It is also the first time in the franchise that they actively avoided Your Size May Vary and realistically showed that the highway vehicles the Autobots typically turned into would be dwarfed by the military and construction hardware the Decepticons became. Their largest warrior, Optimus, was a massive semi-truck and was still much smaller than most of the 'Con forces.
- Highlighted in Bumblebee: with the titular character being presented as shorter than average, in line with his classic portrayal, being physically dwarfed by the Decepticons he comes up against over the course of the film, with Bumblebee relying heavily on being a Combat Pragmatist to survive.
- During the climax of TRON, the villain Sark is enlarged by the Master Control Program until he towers over the hero, re-enacting "David Versus Goliath" quite literally.
- The Verdict has a washed-up attorney representing a small family in their malpractice suit against the Archdiocese of Boston and a high-payed attorney with a large legal team.
- A recurring theme in The Woman King. Dahomey is not only a much smaller nation fighting for its independence against Oyo, but Oyo also has tributary tribes that bolster their already-larger armies, and they have some European muskets and cavalry, a rarity in sub-Saharan Africa at the time. Dahomey wins anyway by having the Agojie and by using an exploding gunpowder trap to destroy the Oyo army. More personally, this is used in Nanisca's vendetta against the brutal General Oba Ade. The Dahomey even have proverbs on the subject."Sometimes, a termite can take down an elephant."
- X-Men Film Series:
- X-Men: The Last Stand: Kitty Pryde, played by 5'1" Elliot Page, humiliates the Juggernaut, portrayed by 6'2" Vinnie Jones, by taking advantage of Leech's Power Nullifier ability. She tricks her much bigger foe into using his own momentum to knock himself out when he smacks his head against a wall.
- X-Men: Apocalypse: On a mental battlefield, Professor X faces off against a behemoth-sized Apocalypse, and unlike most other examples, this good vs. evil clash goes horribly wrong for the underdog hero. However, Xavier's situation is a little closer to the biblical tale because in the trope's description, it's stated that David admits he had won only because of Divine Intervention, so it's fitting that a "goddess" in the shape of the Phoenix comes to Charles' aid and becomes his weapon in his time of need.
