Believe it or not, the
Badass and
Action Survivor are not so different that they can't share the spotlight in the same story together.
When both are paired they create an Action Duo similar to
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man and
Red Oni, Blue Oni; only these two will be practically opposites in just about every possible trait, most notably combat skill. The
Badass is of course
Made of Iron, skilled at brawling and shooting, and (though maybe
"getting too old for this shit") brave enough to wade through any firefight. However, he will often be saddled by the plot with baby-sitting the
Action Survivor, who can
(at best) run and dodge extremely well, through endless firefights that may be targeted at
him. If the
Non-Action Guy at least manages to compensate by being
The Smart Guy, you have
Brains and Brawn. On the other hand, if the
Badass sacrificed a basic skill for their awesome training, the Action Survivor will help
round them out. Expect these disparities and constant action to make them
Vitriolic Best Buds.
The plot usually requires the
Badass either protect the
Action Survivor as they try to escape a
Closed Circle, or with an
Escort Mission with the Survivor as a
Living MacGuffin. Occasionally, the Survivor takes up the role of
Side Kick and "sells"
his skills as useful to the
Badass on his mission. They usually form a working partnership, even becoming friends.
Examples:
Anime
Comic Books
Film
- Jack Traven and Annie Porter in Speed.
- John McClane and Matthew Farrell in Live Free or Die Hard
- Tallahassee and Columbus in Zombieland
- Beck and Travis Walker from The Rundown
- Neville Flynn and Sean Jones (you know, the two male leads) in Snakes on a Plane. Sean does shape up, though, when the snakes threaten the remaining passengers while Neville is off fixing the plane.
- Col. Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson have some elements of this in the original Stargate movie. O'Neill spent most of the film just wanting to blow everything to hell, while Jackson was basically wondering what the hell was going on. They avert this in the series, however, when Daniel took a level.
- Edward and Bella during the action sequences in the Twilight movie.
- Jimmy 'The Tulip' Tudeski and Nicholas 'Oz' Ozeransky, The Whole Nine Yards
- John Mason and Stanley Goodspeed in The Rock
- Roy Miller and June Havens, Knight and Day
- Optimus Prime (or basically every other Autobot) and
SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM Sam in the Transformers films.
- In Real Men CIA agent James Belushi shanghais insurance agent John Ritter as a stand-in for an identical agent who was assassinated en route to communicate with aliens. They switch roles to some extent by the end of the film.
- Pedro and Nico from Rio.
Literature
- Clear and Present Danger has Jack Ryan as the Action Survivor. Towards the end he teams up with a soldier who's more of an Action Hero.
- In several of the Vorkosigan Saga novels, Miles Vorkosigan and his cousin Ivan Vorpatril make up this team: Miles does the stratetic thinking while Ivan is dragooned into helping him and doing the physical stuff which the brittle-boned Miles can't.
Live-Action TV
Video Games
- Agents Archer and Kestrel in Splinter Cell: Conviction.
- Snake and Meryl in Metal Gear Solid. Or Snake and Otacon in the final level if you let Meryl die.
Webcomics
Western Animation
