Hes Back / Live-Action Films

• The Amazing Spider-Man 2:
  Spider-Man: (after months of mourning Gwen Stacy's death) Hey, Spider-Man. Thanks for stepping up for me.
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy:
  • Ron, after being fired, becomes a mess, grows a beard and starts drinking. He cleans up well, though.
  • In Wake Up Ron Burgundy, the DTV movie made up of deleted scenes from Anchorman, Brick Tamland snaps out of his idiocy to bark out a series of Vietnam-style attack orders, prompting Ron to remark, "Looks like the Captain's back!"
• Back to the Future Part II uses a fairly innocuous "we're back" conversation (from one of the least stressful time travels in the movie) in the trailer to announce the return of the movie series itself.
• In Blazing Saddles, Jim was the fastest gun in the West, but the stress of having every gunslinger coming for him (culminating in getting shot in the hinder by a little kid) left him with shattered confidence, a shaky hand, and a drinking problem. When he comes back better than ever, he sits tall in his saddle and confidently shoots the guns out of everybody's hands, so fast that you never see his gun leave its holster.
• The Color of Money. Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) was forced to stop hustling at the end of The Hustler — by the end of The Color of Money, Felson has a Moment of Awesome as he declares, "Hey, I'm BACK!"
• In The Color Purple (all versions), Sofia is a large-and-in-charge Sassy Black Woman, but she's arrested after punching out the white mayor of the town (after he struck her first, mind you), and is unjustly sent to prison where's she's subjected to years of horrific abuse. By the time she's released, she's a broken, traumatized shadow of her former self, never speaking and barely eating. But at Thanksgiving dinner, Sofia's friend and stepmother-in-law Celie announces that she's leaving Albert, her husband (and Sofia's father-in-law) who had abused her for over twenty years. For Sofia, who has always loathed Albert, the joy of seeing Celie finally put him in his place is enough to make her come out of her shell laughing at Albert's expense, then thank Celie for her support during the years she was locked up, and finally say "Sofia's home, Sofia's home! And there gon' be some changes around here!" while fixing herself a plate of food and continue watching Celie tell off Albert. She remains her normal opinionated self for the rest of the movie.
• In The Dark Knight Rises, this happens twice, first when Batman returns after the stock market is hacked, then after Bruce escapes the Hellhole Prison he was put in following his Curb-Stomp Battle with Bane.
  Bane: So, you came back to die with your city!
  Batman: No. I came back to stop you.
• And Days of Thunder, given as it's essentially a remake of the above...
• DC Extended Universe:
  • In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:
    • Bruce Wayne/Batman gets out of his funk when he's about to kill Clark Kent/Superman out of perceiving him as a threat to humanity when he understands that he will become just like the man who killed his own parents. A Roaring Rampage of Rescue to save Martha Kent and the fight against Doomsday ensue.
    • Diana of Themyscira/Wonder Woman ends her long exile from human affairs to fight against Doomsday.
  • In Justice League, it takes some time for a resurrected Clark Kent/Superman to join the nascent Justice League (so he can be with his loved ones again), and his Big Damn Heroes moment against Steppenwolf doesn't disappoint.
• In Dracula Untold, after insisting that That Man Is Dead, Vlad reverts back to the savage killer "Lord Impaler" to slay the Ottoman soldiers sent to take his son. He even manages to kill the last one via Impaled with Extreme Prejudice.
• The Expendables 2 has Arnold Schwarzenegger come out of a car and yell "I'm BACK!" as an Actor Allusion to his famous quote from the Terminator films.
• After Part V upset fans by replacing Jason with a random ambulance driver, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives let audiences know right away that Jason Voorhees was back (from the dead). If the title alone wasn't enough of an indication, they also commissioned Alice Cooper to do the film's theme song, "He's Back! (The Man Behind the Mask)", and made sure that Jason's resurrection happened even before the title sequence.
• Ghostbusters II:
  • Peter Venkman speaks for the whole team after catching the ghosts in the courtroom scene, with this Badass Boast:
    Venkman: We're the best... we're the beautiful... we're the only... Ghostbusters!
    Ray Stanz: We're back!
  • Janine also gets to say it triumphantly as the music kicks in and the guys return to business, confirming "yes, we're back!" on the phone.
• Hook is the Peter Pan edition of this trope. Peter Pan had left Neverland, grown up, forgotten everything and become boring, but when his Arch-Nemesis shows up for a final round, he has to spend most of the movie learning to be Peter Pan again.
  Peter Pan: Pan the Avenger is back.
  Captain Hook: And the Hook is waiting.
• The last half-hour or so of Hot Fuzz. After being nearly killed and run out of town, Angel drives most of the way to London before stopping at a convenience store, having an epiphany, buying some Cool Shades, and returning to Sandford to clean up the place via liberal application of More Dakka.
• John Wick left his life as a hitman to get married. Okay. His wife dies of illness. Shit happens. Mafiya boss' son destroys Mrs. Wick's parting gift to John, and steals his car. Wick responds by digging up all his old hitman gear and going after the fucker who did it, taking down a sizable criminal syndicate in the process. We can all agree with Winston, the owner of The Continental, that He's Back!.
  John: People keep asking if I'm back and I haven't really had an answer, but yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.
• Kaamelott: Premier Volet: King Arthur is really not keen on coming back to depose The Usurper, Lancelot, after abdicating in the sixth season of the series. Circumstances force him to anyway, and the situation dramatically improves for La Résistance when he does.
• The Lord of the Rings has Aragorn doubting himself not wanting to deal with the pressure of being a king. Elrond shakes him out of it and he saves the day with his awesome influence.
• Major League: In the second movie, Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn adopts a "corporate" image thanks to his new girlfriend and publicist, Rebecca Flannery. This includes him wearing suits and doing a commercial for Right Guard Sport Stick at a country club. He also gets rid of his trademark haircut from the first film. Unfortunately, his performance suffers as a result and he's eventually relegated to the bullpen and faces mockery from the fans and press. In the final game of the ALCS, Taylor, filling in for Lou as manager, signals for Vaughn to pitch in the final inning. Just before he comes out, Vaughn, off screen, finally tells off the obnoxious Indians fan who had been pestering him and insulting him throughout the film. The fan sees that "Wild Thing" has returned before we do and immediately shuts his mouth. Afterwards, he comes out of the bullpen wearing his leather vest from the original. Once people notice that "Wild Thing" has returned, the song "Wild Thing" is played over the stadium's P.A. system as Vaughn walks to the mound, recreating the scene from the first film. Vaughn then pitches while wearing his skull and crossbones glasses that he hadn't worn in the second film up to that point. All of this leads to him showing that he's gotten his intensity back and now remembers how to throw a fastball after apparently having forgotten how to do so.
  Phelps: Oh no! Not that damn song again!
• At the end of Men in Black, Kay retires and wipes his memory. In Men in Black II, he returns, and after being de-neuralyzed, he shoots an alien in the head (a Running Gag since that particular alien can grow it back) leading Jay to say "You're back." Kay, however, insists he isn't, until he goes outside into the alien neighborhood and begins understanding.
• A fairly brief one after Barbossa's uncharacteristic silence following Calypso's refusal to aid the pirates during the final battle of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End:
  Elizabeth: Captain Barbossa! We need you at the helm!
  *beat*
  Barbossa: *eyes widen* Aye, that be true!
• Rambo: First Blood Part II after Co dies at the hands of the Vietnamese soldiers Rambo stops holding back and releases all his fury by going on a killing spree wiping out every one of his enemies.
• From the film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim. After his band sells out and he dies at the hands of Gideon Graves (though he sort of deserved it), he mans up, uses the 1-up he received during the twins battle, and marches back in for take two: smashing the bouncer, snapping Ramona out of her trance, and tag teaming with Knives to bring Gideon down.
• This moment in Skyfall:
  M: Where the hell have you been?
  James Bond: Enjoying death. 007 reporting for duty.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), Agent Stone gets the text message "Prepare My Latte", forcing everyone out of the Mean Bean Coffee Shop and setting up the place as a base of operations, knowing that Robotnik is back from his Mushroom Planet exile.
• Spider-Man Trilogy:
  • Spider-Man 2 does it when Spidey regains his powers (after losing them due to stress) when he has to rescue Mary Jane from Doc Ock. In fact, the Daily Bugle announces his return in its headline with the exact trope name◊.
  • There's also Spider-Man 3 where he dons his trademark red and blue suit again for the first time since ditching the black one.
• Superman
  • In Superman II when Superman regains his powers after giving them up to live a normal life with Lois.
  • Superman III also does this when Superman is exposed to synthetic Kryptonite, causing him to make a Face–Heel Turn. The Kryptonite eventually splits him into Clark Kent and the evil Superman in a junkyard. After a long battle, Clark triumphs and the evil Superman disappears. Clark then rips open his shirt to reveal the iconic "S" shield and once again dons the Superman suit, his first order of business to undo the damage his evil self had caused, as the theme music thunders to life. This is probably the only truly great moment in a movie that is mediocre at best.
  • This is pretty much the whole point of Superman Returns. The part of the soundtrack when he steps onto the plane to make sure everyone is alright, after five years of absence, is even titled "He's Back".
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), Leonardo announces, "It's time to go back," after he and the other turtles receive a final message from Splinter via Astral Projection.
• In Thor, the eponymous god has spent the bulk of the movie depowered by Odin to learn a lesson. He proves he learned that lesson when he lets the Destroyer kill him to save his friends. At that moment, Mjölnir flies to his hand, breaking the sound barrier in the process, and by the time the dust clears he's back in action and a Curb-Stomp Battle ensues.
  • In the sequel, Thor: The Dark World, having hit rock bottom and suffered a serious breakdown after Frigga is killed, Loki sacrifices himself to help Thor stop Malekith. But after Thor confronts Odin and renounces his claim to the throne, Odin turns out to be a satisfied Loki in disguise.
  • In the second sequel, Thor: Ragnarok, during the final battle, Thor is being badly beaten and pinned down by his older sister Hela, after spending most of the movie Brought Down to Badass and having to rely on his combat training after Hela shattered his hammer Mjölnir, his primary weapon. But then he sees a vision of Odin reminding him that he's the god of thunder, not the god of hammers, and is able to finally fully harness and use his Shock and Awe abilities without his hammer, using these powers to blast Hela with a huge bolt of lightning and take down dozens of undead mooks, immediately turning the tide of the battle in his and his allies' favor.
• Played with in the "Weird Al" Yankovic movie UHF with Gandhi II.
  "He's back! And this time, he's mad!"
• The Waterboy:
  "Remember the time Bobby Boucher showed up at halftime and the Mud Dogs won the Bourbon Bowl, do ya?"
• In Who Framed Roger Rabbit Eddie Valiant has this moment when he decides to finally put the past behind him and go back into Toontown to look for Jessica (who he believes has just killed R.K. Maroon). When he takes out his own toon-style revolver and the toon bullets ask him where he's been, he simply responds, "Drunk". (And to drive this home, he's about to drink from a bottle, but then changes his mind, throws it in the air, and uses the gun to shoot it.)
• X-Men Film Series
  • The Wolverine:
    • This happens when Logan figures out how his healing power was suppressed and manages to regain it all, turning him back into the near-unstoppable fighter we know and love.
    • The Stinger features Magneto returning with his powers restored and Charles Xavier alive again.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past: After receiving a pep talk from his future self, Charles finally pulls himself out of his depression and is able to use his powers to their fullest extent.
  • Logan: Wolverine gets this one last time when he takes the Super Serum to restore his powers so he can help the X-23 children. One obviously panicked soldier's reaction says it all:
    "Oh shit! It's the Wolverine!"