Hero Insurance / Film

Films — Animated

• Megamind acknowledges this trope. After all of the destruction caused by Titan, Megamind's Brainbots are repairing all of the damage.
• The setup for The Incredibles is, roughly, that superheroes in general were forced to go into hiding specifically to avoid litigation for collateral damage. That was basically the cost of the government providing them Hero Insurance.
• Incredibles 2:
  • Discussed with regards to the damage caused by the Underminer. The money he stole from the bank was insured and there are contingencies in place that would have covered the initial damage. Mr. Incredible's failed attempt to capture the Underminer just caused more damage beyond what was expected.
  • While explaining his PR plan to the Incredibles and Frozone, Winston mentions that they have set up insurance to cover any potential damage. That being said, he decides to send Elastigirl out as the first representative since she has a history of causing the least amount of collateral damage.
    Winston: Let's not test "the insurance will pay for literally anything" right out of the gate.
• Batman Unlimited: Mechs Vs. Mutants sees a literal version of this, as Green Arrow, himself a superhero who's really rich and owns a company like Batman, decides to throw a mutated Chemo into a building he already owned and notes he's insured.
• In Superman: Doomsday, Supes throws Doomsday through a building on more than one occasion, and eventually defeats him by taking him to orbit and slamming him into the ground in the middle of Metropolis hard enough to level the entire block. In real life, Supes would've racked up a higher death toll than all the villains in the movie put together with that move. And he may well have, as this being a direct-to-DVD release rather than a TV episode, people were being explicitly killed in the show... but he was "dead" at that point, and he did stop Doomsday, who had wiped out entire worlds on his own. To put this in perspective, Metropolis is essentially in the same place as New York City. In the comic arc that this was based on the Justice League engaged Doomsday in central Ohio, and would have been completely wiped out if Superman hadn't shown up when he did. The battle between the two stretched over a third of the country, and left more than a thousand dead in its wake. The government's position was that anything that could take that kind of punishment was a serious enough threat that even losing most of Metropolis would have been a justifiable price for putting it down.

Films — Live-Action

• In Commando, John Matrix has to rescue his daughter from terrorists. During this process, he steals and/or damages several vehicles, breaks into a gun shop, steals an arsenal of firearms, escapes from police custody, beats up a bunch of mall security guards, kidnaps an innocent bystander, and murders two unarmed villains in cold blood, with one of the murders occurring in front of a witness. It's hard to imagine rescuing a family member as a sufficient legal defense to cover all of that.
• In Man on Fire, John Creasy goes on a crime rampage every bit as brutal as the criminals he's chasing in an effort to rescue Lupita. This includes several cold blooded murders. Given that we already know he has a Death Wish, it's very possible he doesn't expect to be around afterward. And he's absolutely correct.
• After watching the James Bond movies, you have to wonder how much of MI6's budget is set aside for stuff for Bond to drive through.
  • Lampshade Hanging in GoldenEye when Bond is told about his car's built-in Stinger missiles:
    James Bond: Just the thing to unwind after a long day at the office.
    Q: Need I remind you, 007, that you have a license to kill, not to break traffic laws.
  • During filming of the chase scene in The Man with the Golden Gun, they actually had a guy running following the cars with a checkbook to pay for damages. ^{Citation needed}
  • In Tomorrow Never Dies, Q makes Bond sign off on literal hero insurance for his remote-controlled car.
    Q: It's the insurance damage waiver for your beautiful new car. Now, will you need collision coverage?
    James Bond: Yes.
    Q: [stares at Bond] Fire?
    James Bond: Probably.
    Q: Property destruction?
    James Bond: Definitely.
    Q: Personal Injury?
    James Bond: I hope not, but accidents do happen.
    Q: They frequently do with you.
    James Bond: [signs the form] Well, that takes care of the "normal" wear and tear. Is there any other protection I need?
    Q: Only from me, 007, unless you bring that car back in pristine order.
  • This one is justifiable by context, as throughout the scene, Q is disguised as an Avis rental agent, going through the pretense of filling in the necessary paperwork involved in any car rental agreement. They are MI6 agents, after all.
  • Bond seems to have it in The World Is Not Enough, but his allies in the Russian underworld do not, even if he is involved. After Zukovsky's caviar factory is demolished by Elektra King's henchmen (who were trying to kill Bond), Zukovsky shouts, "The insurance company is never going to believe this!" Probably because the damage was done by a helicopter equipped with a tree-cutting buzzsaw.
• Lethal Weapon:
  • Lampshaded in Lethal Weapon 3 where they got demoted after Riggs blew up a building when he tried to defuse a bomb.
  • In Lethal Weapon 4, Riggs and Murtaugh are promoted and given desk jobs because the city lost its insurance. It didn't help-they caused even more damage.
• Fantastic Four
  • Fantastic Four (2005) featured the Thing tossing a car at Dr. Doom. We don't hear from the car's owner and he doesn't get called on it, but he did ask to borrow the car first.
  • In the sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Sue is seen disputing a report from the cops about how many cars were destroyed on a recent mission.
• Hancock has its protagonist as a Jerkass superhero whose penchant for massive collateral damage gets him a lot of flak from the residents of LA in the beginning of the movie, to the point of nearly getting him an eight-year prison term. Later, he gets asked for help by the police, who grant him a bit more lenience for collateral damage to stop the crimes.
• Demolition Man: The reason John Spartan (and thus the film) is actually called "Demolition Man" is specifically because he tends to destroy buildings on the job. Because of this the public was all too willing to believe that he's responsible for the deaths of the hostages that landed him a cryo-sentence.
  News reporter: How can you justify destroying a $7,000,000 mini-mall to rescue a girl whose ransom is only $25,000?
  Girl: Fuck you, lady!
  John Spartan: Good answer.
• In Back to the Future Part III, Doc and Marty hijack a train at gunpoint to push the DeLorean up to eighty-eight miles per hour, in the process running the train off the edge of a ravine, causing it to explode. Everyone is apparently okay with this to such an extent that they rename the ravine after Marty. Though there is a long tradition of naming or renaming landmarks after people who came to a sticky end there, like Donner Pass.
• Neo from The Matrix Reloaded destroys what looks like a good chunk of a city in his hurry to save Trinity, and before that they destroy a power plant causing a mass blackout, and before that cause numerous car accidents on a highway. And let's not forget the helicopter they smash into an office building back in the first movie. The property damage inside the virtual reality of the Matrix probably doesn't mean much, but people who get killed die for real. Of course, Neo is only the "hero" from his and his associates' point of view, while to the Matricians they are terrorists, and the justification they could provide for their destructive streaks is dubious at best, hence why they don't bother to provide it.
• Godzilla during the 1960s-1970s falls under this trope due to him becoming a good guy. This is hilariously lampshaded in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Godzilla vs. Megalon":
  Boy: Godzilla! Bye bye.
  Tom Servo: Thanks for leveling our country!
• The eponymous female lead of I Love You, Beth Cooper commits dozens of crimes during the movie, including fleeing the scene of an accident she caused by reckless driving and intentionally ramming a stolen car through a house wall in front of dozens of witnesses. Through sheer luck she doesn't actually hurt anyone but there is no suggestion at the end of the film that she is going to face any consequences at all for the thousands of dollars worth of property damage she inflicted during the film. In the book version it is mentioned that she only just gets away with it thanks to Tracee's dad being a lawyer. This blog suggests that the law might have made a legal defense difficult.
• One of many tropes lampshaded by Last Action Hero.
  Danny: He only took your badge because you destroyed more of the city than usual.
• Speed is also a nice example of this. The amount of destruction caused by keeping the bus at its required speed looks like it should cost the city at least 100 times what paying the ransom would have cost. The airplane at the end alone... Note that the bus is owned by the City of Santa Monica, but Jack Traven is a City of Los Angeles police officer, and the woman driving the bus has a suspended license and isn't even an employee of either. Interesting to see who would get sued.
• Played straight and averted in both Ghostbusters films. At the beginning of Ghostbusters II, it's explained that the damage they caused at the end of the first film got them sued by every local official in New York, but at the end of the film they're back to being heroes again.
• Averted in District 9, where the guy who hacked into MNU's databases and helped expose their illegal experiments on the aliens is arrested for his computer crimes.
• Averted in GI Joe The Riseof Cobra. The Joes are among the most responsible heroes in fiction, and cause almost no damage to public property. The problem is that Cobra MARS COBRA isn't — and guess who's still in the area when the dust settles? After the Joes save Paris, the French beat them up, wreck their gear, and slap them with a permanent travel ban. Eagleland is nicer; after Ripcord saves D.C. all they do is hold him overnight before sending him back to the Pit. Of course, the President has been replaced by Zartan; he probably didn't feel like testing the disguise.
• Played pretty straight towards the end of Fast Five, downtown Rio De Janeiro was nearly leveled by that vault... Though they're already wanted criminals, and they just leave the country.
• Played with in the Transformers Film Series. The US government is implied to cover any Cybertronian-related damage. Unfortunately, the Autobots cause a lot of collateral damage in their fights. To the point that the President sends a government official to express his concern to Prime and his team. The third film also implies that civilians are not exactly happy with all the damage inflicted on their homes and businesses (poll results show that half the world would feel safer without the Autobots; they aren't exactly in the wrong here). Additionally, Sam's dad says the government will pay for the damages to their house (caused by Bumblebee shooting at some Allspark mutations). Sam's mom decides to exploit this by demanding a hot tub to be built in the backyard.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • At the end of The Avengers, a New York City official is demanding, in an interview, that the superheroes be held responsible for the damage caused by the Chitauri invasion, claiming that it was "their fight". It's entirely possible that Tony might get sued (considering his is the only name known by the public of all the Avengers and he's the only one who can afford to pay for the damages). There's also the fact that the Stark Tower (and its ARC reactor) were used to open the portal.
    • The fact that this had repercussions like Wilson Fisk skimming on Incident reconstruction and Chitauri-based weapons flowing into New York also complicates the mess.
  • Iron Man 3 shows that Tony did in fact get sued for the damage. A lot.
  • At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, the Nova Corps gives the Guardians amnesty for all their many, many past crimes. They are very careful to emphasize that it only covers past crimes, and is no protection for any they might commit in the future.
    Rocket: Question: What if I see something that I want to take and it belongs to someone else?
    Rhomann: You would be arrested.
    Rocket: But what if I want it more than the person who has it?
    Rhomann: Still illegal.
    Rocket: That doesn't follow. No, I want it more sir! Do you understand? [is shoved away] What are you laughing at? What, I can't have a conversation with this gentleman?
    Drax: What if someone does something irksome? And I decide to remove his spine?
    Rhomann: Th-that's actually murder, one of... the worst crimes of all. So, also illegal...
    Drax: [genuinely surprised] Huh.
  • In Avengers: Age of Ultron, after Tony fights the Hulk in Johannesburg, he mentions that the Stark relief fund is already helping clean up the damage. And said battle even had Tony making sure to suplex his adversary into an unfinished building to make sure no one died in the collapse.
    Stark: How quickly can we buy this building?
  • One of the viral videos for Ant-Man shows that people are now calling for the Avengers to be held accountable for Ultron's destruction of Sokovia.
  • This is a major plot point in Captain America: Civil War. People are fed up with all the collateral damage the Avengers cause during their missions, so the governments of the world craft a series of laws called the Sokovia Accords to keep the heroes in line. Of course, the Avengers are criticized for the damage they caused to New York while fighting the Chitauri, but the fact that they were stopping an alien invasion that was trying to kill everyone they encountered (and that the Avengers prevented the World Security Council from nuking the city) goes unmentioned. Likewise, General Ross conveniently fails to mention his own involvement in the Harlem incident during the events of The Incredible Hulk. And the ensuing Civil War was due to Zemo wanting to avenge his family who died in Sokovia, framing Bucky Barnes to ensure team-destroying in-fighting would happen. However, this trope is averted when the big hero fight does happen: the Avengers duke it out in an airport tarmac far from civilians, and collateral damage is relatively light. In context, Cap's team are trying to reach a Quinjet to fly to Siberia, and Iron Man's team (not knowing the full story) come to stop them. From a writer standpoint, it's a much better option than having the heroes go at it in the middle of New York City.
    • Strangely, no one brought up that all the damage cause in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was caused by the fact that the organization that previously oversaw The Avengers was launching a murder fleet as part of a world domination plan.
• In Déjà Vu (2006) the protagonist, ATF agent Doug Carlin, drives half-blind down a busy freeway bridge to see the route their terrorist suspect took (It's a Long Story) causing multiple car wrecks by doing so, which probably result in severe injury and death. Except for helpfully saying "Send paramedics" nobody brings this up again, and he faces no legal consequences.
• The Taken trilogy:
  • Taken: Brian Mills causes considerable property destruction while trying to save his daughter. He also kills numerous bad guys, including a few captured or unarmed ones in cold blood, and shoots an innocent woman just to get her husband to give him information.
  • In Taken 2, the hero (and his daughter) cause a considerable amount of destruction in battling the vengeful surviving members of the human trafficking ring from the first film. Some of it includes police or government property. Hell, some of it includes an officer. (He was in league with the bad guys, but still.) You'd expect the number of crimes they commit would mean they'd be in prison until the next ice age, but we end with no talk of legal trouble.
  • In Taken 3, Mills again causes considerable property damage. He also escapes from police custody, breaks into a building, and abducts a motorist on the road at gunpoint to get a ride into town.
• Man of Steel:
  • The fights in Metropolis must have killed hundreds if not thousands of people and run up a repair bill in the billions (three guesses whose MegaCorp is going to end up bankrolling that?). Some time is taken to show how terrifying it would be to be a civilian on the ground with buildings collapsing in every direction. However, it's still nothing compared to the total destruction of humanity.
  • This extends to Smallville too. Its downtown is almost leveled by the fight there and includes an explosion at a gas station.
  • Superman fights Zod and/or his warriors in Smallville and later Metropolis despite being outclassed, and so a lot of damage happens. His attempts at knocking or throwing them away are invariably countered, at one point reaching Earth's orbit. Most of the time he's smashed into buildings by their attacks but sometimes he does the same (granted, into apparently empty or unfinished ones). The damage is compounded by attempts by the US military to intervene. Superman later also willfully trashes a multi-million dollar spy drone that has been snooping on him to make a point to the military to get off his back.
  • In fairness, most of the destruction is caused by Zod's forces or machines. Superman causes comparatively little damage.
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice somewhat centers around this. For one thing, Batman is pissed at Supes for destroying Metropolis—partly because Zod and his Kryptonian henchmen aren't alive to blame.
• In Pacific Rim the Jaegers cause probably billions of dollars worth of collateral damage. However, considering that it's them vs. the apocalypse, you can see why people tolerate them. And it's known that standard procedure is to intercept the Kaiju long before they make landfall. For several years, the Jaegers run a near flawless record. Fighting in and thus damaging cities is avoided and would only be a lot worse without the Jaegers, as a tactical nuclear strike is the only other effective anti-kaiju weapon.
• In The Negotiator, Roman takes several innocent people hostage during the incident as he fights to clear his name. The movie does not imply that he will ever face consequences for doing so. Even if you have been framed for murder, taking innocent people hostage is still a crime.
• The Mask: Stanley breaks out of a jail cell, assaults an officer, steals his gun, kidnaps another officer at gunpoint and steals his car, yet receives no punishment. Even worse, he committed the crime he was held for and there was good evidence of him doing so. The trope is justified because the mayor thinks Stanley is a hero who was framed by Dorian. Plus, many of those crimes Stanley committed weren't entirely his fault, and he had to escape from the cell to save Tina and stop Dorian.
  Mayor: Dorian Tyrell was "The Mask." I saw it with my own eyes.
• In Firewall, Harrison Ford's character, in the course of trying to save his kidnapped family: (1) breaks into an apartment and arrives at a murder scene, (2) gets his hands on the murder weapon, clearly leaving prints, (3) takes a bank teller hostage at gunpoint, (4) breaks into his ex-secretary's apartment and apparently forces her to help him after firing her earlier, and (5) then hacks into the bad guys' account to erase their money.
• Gone (2012): Jill isn't arrested for illegal possession of a gun or menacing on coming back, though the police had been looking for her because she'd done these over the entire day. Possibly justified as she'd shown they were wrong to disbelieve her, and charging her would make them look bad when this came out.
• It's hard to imagine Inspector Clouseau of The Pink Panther fame being able to get insurance on his home, seeing how often he destroys it while roughhousing with his servant Cato. Given that he's just as destructive with everything he crosses paths with while on the job, purely by accident, one also has to worry about the insurance liabilities of the Paris police force. Dreyfus occasionally laments how much stuff his least favorite detective breaks, but never brings up who has to pay for the damages.
• The wuxia Valley of the Fangs averts this in the hero's first fight scene; he defeats a group of corrupt inspectors in a tavern and sends them fleeing, but demolishes an entire wall in the process, the same wall he sends three enemy mooks through. The tavern's boss complains, until the hero gives the boss a massive silver yuanbao at which point the tavern boss shuts up.
• Face/Off: Archer commits a number of felonies while undercover as Castor. This includes though isn't limited to killing a couple guards and jailbreak. Here it's justified though as the only people to learn he's been disguised as Castor were his FBI colleagues, who wouldn't tell, so all this can be blamed on Castor (and he had little choice to stop Castor).
• 2 Guns: Stig and Trench seem to think they have enough luck that will enable them to get away with bank robbery, assault, arson, vandalism and all manner of other assorted crimes if they accomplish their objectives for their respective agencies. It doesn't work out that way, as neither one of them are able to get their jobs back at the end of the film. They still don't face charges though.
• Major Grom: Plague Doctor. Grom is framed for being the Plague Doctor, but escapes with the help of Eager Rookie Dubin and Intrepid Reporter Yulia and captures him. The Plague Doctor just laughs however, pointing out that Grom's broken out of prison and apparently committed several terrorist acts, and he can just claim that Grom forced him to wear the Plague Doctor costume, so all of them are going to jail. Fortunately Yulia reveals she earlier planted a bug on Grom without his knowledge, recording the Plague Doctor's Motive Rant. It's also implied that the federal officer who arrested Grom agreed to drop any charges in exchange for being allowed to take the credit for 'catching' the real Plague Doctor.

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