Guile Heroes in Live-Action Films.
- Assassin's Creed (2016): Michael Williams has stated that Moussa would prefer to use trickery or magic to defeat his enemies than hand-to-hand combat. Indeed, in the film itself, Moussa starts the prison riot with the "pick a hand" trick and revealing smoke bombs in both so his allies can swarm the guards.
- Bart in Blazing Saddles. Of particular note is the incident in which he escaped from an entire town of people with guns aimed at him by taking himself hostage and using himself as a human shield to get to safety. It has to be seen
to be believed. - Bone, of Blood and Bone appears to be an action hero at first but is really using his guile so in the end it really does not matter if he wins the battles at the climax.
- Attorney James Donovan from Bridge of Spies, who repeatedly uses his cunning and intellect to manipulate his opponents in order to achieve his idealistic goals. The centerpiece of the movie has Donovan boxing East Germany into releasing an American student — and getting nothing in return — as part of a spy exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union.
- Shy, the protagonist of By Hook or By Crook, scams people, robs a vending machine, and hotwires several cars in his quest to get rich and help out his friends.
- John McClane from Die Hard may be considered an Action Hero at first sight, but he doubles as this. He kills one man, gains a radio, a machine gun, and a whole LOT of information about the guys he's fighting. Uses the radio to call for help, uses the machine gun and the next guy he kills to get police attention, and spoon-feeds them everything he found out.
- Frailty: Adam's entire scheme depends on revealing his family history to an FBI agent in a manner that obscures his real identity, in order to lure the demon inhabiting the agent to its doom.
- From Paris with Love: Wax manipulates everyone around him and loves to keep his partner James in the dark about his plans or intentions, but ultimately he's clearly on the side of good and trying to stop a terrorist attack.
- Gleahan and the Knaves of Industry: Mark, a pre-law school dropout, uses his knowledge of the law to do some really awesome things.
- Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit prefers to use his brain to get him and the others out of tight situations rather than with force or violence. Most of the film shows him using his skills with words from distracting the trolls long enough for Gandalf to get into position to his "game of riddles" with Gollum.
- Hotel Rwanda: Paul Rusesebangena is definitely this. He manipulates genocidal merchants into supplying his guests, corrupt generals into beating up The Mole, bribes genocidaires into sparing his friends and family, and even saves the Hotel from destruction by phoning the owner, who in turn telephones the French who supply the bad guys with arms. Truth in Television.
- The Hunger Games:
- The Hunger Games has Katniss manipulating the emotions of the citizens of the evil empire to gain their support by pretending to be in love with Peeta. Peeta himself is even better at manipulating them and is very charming to the population.
- In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Peeta drives his manipulative skill Up to Eleven by pretending that Katniss is pregnant with his child.
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay has the good guys and the bad guys battling each other with very emotional political advertisement (and other things).
- Fraizer from Inside Man. Magnificent Bastard Russel even lampshades this by saying that Fraizer is "too smart to be a cop".
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Nick Fury: he constantly lies and manipulates everyone around him, and he's good enough at it that even when they don't like working with him, they still end up helping him in the way he wants them to. In fact, if it wasn't for him, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier Hydra would have successfully eradicated S.H.I.E.L.D. and launched Project Insight. Although his tendencies to do this were deconstructed, as it showed that no one really trusted him and sometimes they outright refused to follow his plan... except that he also anticipates this and counteracts accordingly to adapt to their behavior, or at least offers a reasonable explanation. He is just that good.
- Thor: Ragnarok: Thor losing his Mjolnir forced him to depend more on his cunning escaping Sakaar and fighting Hela, ultimately evolving into this. He even ends up outsmarting Loki, the God of Mischief himself.
- Any character played by Groucho Marx. To give some idea, he was at least a partial influence on Sheriff Bart, mentioned above, and the main inspiration for Bugs Bunny, mentioned below. In Real Life, Groucho himself had this mindset. His method was pure speed and he made jokes so quickly that anybody who might try to stop him just couldn't keep pace.
- Mission: Impossible Film Series: Ethan frigging Hunt is pretty much the poster boy for a heroic chessmater. Just about every movie has him pull off some intricate plan to outmaneuver the villains, usually by seizing the Macguffin of the film and then acting like he's playing into the villain's hands in order to draw them out.
- João, the main protagonist in the Brazilian comedy O Auto da Compadecida, is a scammer who makes use of his wits to just barely survive in the harsh Brazilian hinterlands.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: While he externally comes off as just an eccentric, perpetually drunk loser, Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea, has shades of this in his character, though they tend to get mixed in and muddled with his Manipulative Bastard tendencies as well. Though he is notorious for flip-flopping his allegiance depending on whoever presents the best odds for him escaping a dangerous situation, Sparrow's ultimate loyalty is to his ship, the Black Pearl and to the freedom of sailing the seas. His reputation is so strong that even Davy Jones, witnessing firsthand the sinking of the Pearl and Jack's descending to the Locker still felt an intense paranoia that the Sparrow had managed to trick him one last time.
- Prey: Naru beats the Predator not by frontal assaults, like her brother and the rest of the male hunters tried to disastrous results, instead using a trick and ambush based on her keen observation of its behavior along with the equipment it uses which reveals weaknesses she capitalizes on.
- Revenge (2017): For someone who initially comes across as a shallow blond cutie, Jen shows remarkable resourcefulness and quick thinking in an extremely traumatic situation she is unlikely to have any experience with.
- Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List uses bribery and convincing lies to stuff his factories with as many Jews as possible, and thereby save their lives. None of the factories produced one shell that worked.
- Sound of Freedom: Tim Ballard is very good at weaving people into doing what he wants and setting up complicated plans that lead to him arresting child traffickers and saving their victims. He starts by pretending to be a closeted pedophile himself and playing to the interests of one who was just arrested so that he can "buy" the services of a boy he intends to rescue, and eventually moves on to a massive sting operation that involves getting multiple traffickers, clients, and 54 children onto a single island.
- Mattie Ross in the 2010 version of True Grit. Upon first meeting her, all anybody sees is an unaccompanied 14-year-old girl in pigtails... an impression which lasts about as long as it takes for her to bludgeon them into submission with her intellect, her business acumen, and her sheer, gimlet-eyed stubbornness.
- The Shawshank Redemption: Andy Dufresne. Upon discovering the deteriorating condition of the wall of his cell, he slowly (as in over the course of twenty years) carves an escape tunnel through it. Meanwhile, he works his way into the trust of the Warden, who is under the mistaken assumption that he is the Chess Master. Twenty years later, Andy escapes from the prison, taking a new identity — that he happened to create for the purposes of laundering the Warden's embezzled money, thus making himself a millionaire — and having the Warden and sadistic guard both arrested...all without mentioning a single word of his plan to anyone...not even his best friend. Andy is like the heroic version of Keyzer Soze and gives us one of the most satisfying endings in film history.
- Star Wars: The Jedi of the franchise are expected to be this, taught to use diplomacy first, and violence only as a last resort. Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope overcame most hurdles with either trickery, both Force-assisted and not, or just smooth-talking. Luke Skywalker eventually evolves into one himself by Return of the Jedi — His repeated attempts to negotiate with Jabba the Hutt and placate him with "gifts" also hides multiple infiltrations of his gang by Luke's friends. By the time Jabba attempts to execute everyone, all of Luke's allies (and his new lightsaber) are already in place to retaliate.
- Wonder Woman (2017): While Steve is capable in combat and is an ace pilot, he is a spy first and foremost and he seems to be a clever one. He's shown to be remarkably adept at mingling among Germans and getting the enemy to trust him and even charms Doctor Poison and his assignments in infiltration definitely play to his strengths.
- X-Men Film Series:
- Professor X's manipulative side is hinted at in X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand, where Magneto and the Phoenix suggest that Xavier has been doing whatever he can to keep Wolverine at the school. Magneto even directly asks him this, something Charles never directly refutes, instead changing the topic.Professor X: I've put him on the path. Logan's mind is still fragile.
Magneto: Is it? Or are you just afraid of losing one of your precious X-Men?- This is the Phoenix's observation:Phoenix: What, you think [the Professor's] not in your head, too? Look at you, Logan. He's tamed you.
- This is the Phoenix's observation:
- X-Men: Apocalypse: Xavier's psychic powers are useless against En Sabah Nur's mental shields, so the former exercises his smarts to undermine and delay the latter's Evil Plan as much as possible. Apocalypse's New Era Speech was intended to stir planet-wide panic, but Charles mitigates this somewhat by altering the last sentence with a slightly hopeful note, and it no doubt saves some lives. Meanwhile, he stealthily embeds a telepathic message for Jean so that the X-Men know where to find him. When Apocalypse imposes a Sadistic Choice on his escaped prisoner, Professor X takes a third option by diverting his foe's attention with a psychic duel, and he thus avoids having to sacrifice the world or Mystique and Quicksilver. Xavier knows that he can't win the fight on the astral plane, but what ultimately secures his victory is his emotional connection to his daughter figure Jean. He learns from his mistake in the original timeline, and he understands that the only way the Phoenix can be "tamed" is for him to love Jean for all that she is — and not fear what she's capable of by locking away a part of her mind — so that she develops the confidence to accept herself and her abilities. What Charles lacks in raw power in comparison to Apocalypse, he makes up for it with his psychological insight and exploiting The Power of Love.
- Professor X's manipulative side is hinted at in X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand, where Magneto and the Phoenix suggest that Xavier has been doing whatever he can to keep Wolverine at the school. Magneto even directly asks him this, something Charles never directly refutes, instead changing the topic.
- Yojimbo: Although Sanjuro is a highly capable fighter, his greatest asset is his skill with Batman Gambits. His ultimate victory comes from his ability to expertly play both sides of the main conflict against each other.
