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"Then where's the gang? Avengers Assemble! Let's get it going!"

A Dream Team is needed for The Con, The Caper, or to Save the World. Each teammember is contacted in a short scene revealing their specialty, their free time hobby, or some other activity that defines him. This sequence culminates with all the members being in the same room together.

For the animated TV series that uses this phrase a lot, see Avengers Assemble. For the film known by this name in the UK and Ireland, see The Avengers.

Compare with A-Team Montage, Everyone Meets Everyone, Intro Dump, Lock-and-Load Montage, Misfit Mobilization Moment, The Order, & Putting the Band Back Together.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • This Hyundai commercial.
  • An advert by Nissan UK for the Almera GTi took the form of a spoof of The Professionals. Doyle is about to bed a beautiful blonde, while Bodie is boxing with a Scary Black Man. They get the call from their boss Cowley; Doyle leaves the girl with puckered lips poised while Bodie backflips out of the ring just as the boxer takes a swing — as Bodie is not longer there, he flips over the ropes and onto the floor.
  • The commercials for Call of Duty: WWII featured this trope. The leader of a group of friends hunts down the members of his gaming squadron to recruit them to help him play this newest installment. In the American version, it's implied that the things most of them are doing are somehow related to the role they play on the team; most notably, the sharpshooter - a young woman with a new baby - is crushing the competition on a dartboard at an arcade.

    Anime and Manga 
  • The manga based on the Galaxy Angel gameverse begins with one of these, but (since there are almost no battles) the montage is more about the girls' individual quirks.
  • Spoofed in the final episode of Irresponsible Captain Tylor when Yamamoto calls back the Soyokaze's crew from their absolutely ridiculous journeys to find themselves (such as Lt. Andressen's stint as a nude life-drawing model).
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist, Roy's group has a scene where each of them is shown displaying what their specialty is, culminating in everyone being on board with the long hard slog that is being the rebel group in a corrupt military.
  • Voltron, (and, obviously, its original incarnation, GoLion) both Lions and Vehicle Force versions, practically defines this trope, particularly Lion which showed each Lion emerging from its specific hiding place to enter battle. The hiding places reflected the powers and abilities of their respective Lions (Red emerging from a Volcano, Blue from a lake etc.) While it is true that the Voltron team members themselves are usually in the same place when this happens, they must immediately separate to get to their Lion or Vehicle before coming together again. It's a little different in Vehicle Voltron as the main team is separated into smaller teams that are always together in getting to their vehicles.
  • The first episode of Transformers: Robots in Disguise has the Autobots issue a battle protocol, and Optimus Prime requests that the Autobot Brothers be sent in to stop the Predacons. T-AI goes over the Autobot Brothers' abilities and personalities.
  • My Hero Academia's hideout raid arc features a sequence where several high-ranking and/or powerful heroes are contacted to help out with the raid. Endeavor is seen in alone in his office, Best Jeanist gives out farewell advice to his sidekicks, Edgeshot is seen roaming around the roofs of the city, and so on. At the end, they're all in a room at police headquarters discussing the plan.
  • Heroes in One-Punch Man usually operate on their own, but in the season 1 finale of the anime all S-class heroes are called to the Hero Association headquarters to discuss an unprecedented global threat.

    Comic Books 
  • Named for the rallying cry of Marvel's most prominent superhero team. On those occasions where the roster changes, The Avengers tend to assemble in a more haphazard fashion.
    • Amusingly, JLA/Avengers had the two teams charging into battle, with a mixture of Leaguers and Avengers roaring the traditional battle-cry... and Janet Van Dyne going, "Justice League... uh, lambaste!"
  • In Fantastic Four #1, Reed Richards first summons the group together by creating a huge cloud above Manhattan that bears the words "Fantastic Four" before morphing into a "4." The other three show off their abilities because it's symbolic or something: The Invisible Girl vanishes in public, and being quite a ways away has to take a cab while invisible. (This actually works, though it scares the pants off the driver.) The Thing ditches his disguise, causing traffic accidents and drawing fire from the NYPD before he opts for the sewers. The Human Torch flames inside the car he was fixing, melting it, and while in flight is intercepted by jet fighters and ultimately a nuclear missile — still over Manhattan — requiring Reed to use his stretchiness to save the day.
  • This occurs after the team has been assembled in the first issue of the next-to-most-recent Suicide Squad, where the Terrible Trio Injustice League is put to work doing dangerous missions for the government. As they land on the island their mission is to take place on, it becomes clear what everyone's role is quickly: Big Sir hauls a gigantic watercraft on his back with ease, Clock King calculates the exact amount of time the task will take, Major Disaster barks orders and coordinates the team, Multi-Man frets about what his ever-changing powers are right now, and Cluemaster proves to be astonishingly perceptive.
  • The Teen Titans in the comic book had an Avengers Assemble (or rather, Titans Together) gathering. When the Justice League refused to help Raven with her demon father, thinking it a trap, she appeared in the dreams of various teen heroes and rallied them to help her fight Trigon. Starfire just so happened to be escaping to Earth from her captors in time to help them.
  • Contest of Champions does this with pretty much every living hero who existed at the time in the Marvel Universe, plus a few new ones they spotted on the way. Though instead of a call, they were teleported (without choice) by a weird red light.
  • Showed up in a few issues of G.I. Joe, like issue #2.
  • Appeared in Issue #28 of The Brave and the Bold, the debut of the Justice League of America, where Aquaman learns of a monster called Starro and uses his belt to signal the rest of the League for an emergency meeting. Most of the remaining Big Seven responds, as is typical of the trope (Wonder Woman breaks a date with Steve Trevor, Green Lantern sets his test plane on autopilot, The Flash takes care of a tornado, and the Martian Manhunter had just received vacation time for his human guise when he got the call), though Superman and Batman had commitments too important for them to abandon (Superman is fighting off a meteor storm about to enter the planet's atmosphere, and Batman is overwhelmed by a crime wave in Gotham City).
  • The Defenders in most incarnations are loners, so many a Defenders story begins with someone, often Doctor Strange, visiting each potential member on his or her home turf and issuing the Call to Adventure.
    • The four original Defenders — Strange, the Silver Surfer, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and the The Incredible Hulk — were afflicted temporarily with a plot device in form of a curse that would "assemble" them for every major threat, whether they wanted to be there or not. They were freed at last when it proved to be the work of an enemy who was feeding on their anger and resentment.
  • Essentially the premise of The Multiversity. With Nix Uotan captured and corrupted by the Gentry, the greatest heroes of the fifty-two Earths are summoned into the Multiversity itself to stop them. The key plot device in the series is the Transmatter cube, existing in each Earth as a creation of that Earth's villain who is influenced by the Gentry. It is responsible for bringing each Earth's heroes to the Multiversity.
  • Ultimate Marvel
  • My Little Pony: Nightmare Knights: The second issue primarily involves Luna and Stygian recruiting a band of former villains for their unique talents. They all sign on more for the challenge than out of any sense of obligation.

    Fan Works 
  • In Avengers: Infinite Wars, when the Avengers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are scattered across the Star Wars galaxy, a key plot element is their quest to find their missing members;
    • Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson and Scott Lang all arrive on Naboo in time to fight off a Separatist invasion in Chapter 2, James Rhodes rejoins them in Chapter 5, Hope is found in Chapter 11, Pietro returns in Chapter 15 (after the reader learns where he arrived in Chapter 8), and Natasha meets the team once again in Chapter 18.
    • Back on Earth, as of Chapter 19, Tony and Clint begin to put together a new team to protect Earth while looking for the missing Avengers, with their first recruits being Hank Pym (as a non-field consultant), Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Matt Murdock/Daredevil.
    • In chapter 22, Spider-Man is revealed to have been sent to the Star Wars galaxy, while Daredevil is found in Chapter 28, and Chapter 29 reveals that Brock Rumlow is also in this galaxy; the exact moment of transportation is depicted in Chapter 31, which confirms that Black Panther and Ulysses Klaue have also been displaced. Chapter 46 reveals that T'Challa has been sent to Kashykk, and Chapter 47 establishes that the Vision and Wanda are on Atollon and Dathomir respectively (Vision had previously been revealed to be on a barren but initially-unidentified planet in Chapter 23).
    • Chapters 53 to 55 essentially look at the Earth-bound heroes dealing with the events of Doctor Strange (2016), with the team now including Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, lost Jedi Shadow Celeste Morne, and Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider joining the Masters of the Mystic Arts to face the dual threats of Kaecilius and Karness Muur. The first battle in New York draws in the current Avengers of Iron Man, Hawkeye, Shuri/Black Pantheress and Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, along with the 'Defenders' in the form of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Danny Rand/Iron Fist and Hector Ayala/White Tiger.
    • Chapter 68 sees the Vision rejoin the other Avengers, and also introduces Earth's Mightiest Heroes to the Guardians of the Galaxy; Chapter 71 concludes the reunions as Anakin, Obi-Wan, Matt and Pietro come to Dathomir and run into Wanda.
  • In Child of the Storm, chapter 76 is actually named "Avengers Assemble" and has the Avengers re- assemble, and the chapter ends with Steve giving his best (magically enhanced) parade ground roar of those words, effectively signifying that the tide has very much turned.
    • The climax of the spinoff story Unfinished Business has Carol utter the words right before using her Green Lantern powers to gather together all the defending heroes at the Battle of New Orleans in order to properly strategize a counterattack against Nimue's rampage against the city.
  • In Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover, this is expanded on beyond Samantha Shepard's usual squad to include people from other galaxies such as Vault Hunters or the Master Chief. The phrase is also a chapter title, relating to various components, people, and technologies needed to create ships to fight off an Alien Invasion. The ships are even called Avenger-class!
  • In The Undesirables, each member of the team gets an introductory chapter showcasing their current whereabouts before they all start to come together over the course of the story.
  • With This Ring: When the Justice League is mind-controlled by the Light, the Team gathers the Frees, Firebrand, Alan Scott, Hardware, Teth Adom, John Constantine and Brainwave to help them take back the League and fight the Light.
  • Ashes of the Past has this happen as part of chapter 100. Faced with a Fossil Pokémon Apocalypse in Altomere, Ash has only this to say (which cues a lot of awesome):
    Ash: Dexter, we need my entire team - everyone who's available.
  • Earth's Alien History: In order to stop Faction Paradox from perverting history for their own gain, and being unable to intervene himself, the Doctor brings together a version of the Legends of Tomorrow — composed of Rip Hunter, Future Trunks, Tali, Blackarachnia, Silverbolt, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Galen Marek — to fight them.
  • The Last Son: When Graydon Creed and the Friends of Humanity kidnap Professor Xavier and prepare to launch a Sentinel attack on Genosha, Superman and the X-Men contact the Avengers for help. Some of them in turn in touch with other heroes like the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Wonder Woman. Once the first Sentinel is deployed, a few others like Green Lantern, the Flash, Hawkgirl and Aquaman end up joining them later.
  • Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee has the members of various Pokémon Trainer's Clubs at various schools team up here and there to battle various villains.

    Films — Animation 
  • Rise of the Guardians has an epic scene at the beginning in which Santa calls the other Guardians, consisting of the Easter Bunny, the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy, in order to fight the Boogeyman.
  • Batman: Assault on Arkham. Amanda Waller orders the 'recruitment' of another Task Force X. Cue a montage of the various criminals carrying out crimes using their skills or superpowers, and getting captured in the process (though a couple are already in jail).
  • In Turning Red, Mei calls her friends to her side like this with a yell of "Besties assemble!"

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Ocean's Eleven starts slow with Danny having to convince two of the eleven to come out of retirement — Rusty due to sheer boredom, and Reuben for revenge — but once he does, the rest happens very quickly, all with Danny or Rusty explaining in voiceover what each member's specialty is. They also go through a bunch of alternatives, before learning that they either retired or died, while Danny was in prison.
  • Armageddon (1998) has an awesome one. Bruce Willis needs to assemble his Magnificent Team of Ragtag Roughnecks, but "once they get off the rig, they scatter." The ensuing montage shows FBI agents tracking each member to his natural habitat: Bear (Michael Clarke Duncan) is on a motorcycle in South Dakota. Max (Ken Hudson Campbell) is in a tattoo parlor with his mama. Rockhound (Steve Buscemi) is sleazing on girls in New Orleans. Oscar (Owen Wilson) is on his horse ranch in Texas. Chick (Will Patton) is at Caesar's Palace playing craps. A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck) is running his own oil field somewhere on the Middle-of-Nowhere Street. Just about everyone looks up from whatever they're doing to see soldiers and resigns themselves to the inevitable. Affleck is so smug at Willis swallowing his pride to come see him personally that he comes without (much) complaint. Bear starts up a Chase Scene, yelling "COME AND GET PAPA BEAR!"
  • Tweaked a bit in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The crew needs no introduction; nevertheless, following the scene in which Kirk decides he's going to disobey Starfleet and steal the Enterprise, we get a Mission: Impossible-esque montage of each crew member doing their part to execute the heist. Each person's part is related to their skill. Kirk breaks out McCoy, Scotty sabotages the Excelsior's engines, Sulu kicks a guard's butt, and Uhura famously shows a cadet "some adventure". Chekov, meanwhile, is already on the Enterprise, coordinating the operation and getting the ship's engines warmed up.
    Kirk: Unit Two, this is Unit One. The Kobayashi Maru has set sail for the promised land. Acknowledge.
    Chekov: Acknowledged. All units will be informed.
  • Seven Samurai may be the Trope Maker. The leader of the eponymous warriors is recruited by some villagers to protect a village from bandits, and he goes about convincing six others to join him.
  • Its American adaptation, The Magnificent Seven, has Steve McQueen's character Vin hold up fingers to count the members of their group when each new man joins.
  • Spoofed in the film Return of the Killer Tomatoes!; each new team member is revealed to have a stranger special skill than the last.
  • This was a rehash of the sequence in the first film, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!. It was explained there that the team was being set up to fail.
  • Most of the cast of the film version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are introduced in this fashion in one scene. Extra scenes are needed to introduce Jekyll/Hyde, Sawyer, and Gray.
  • In The Usual Suspects, it's done through the team's arrests. In lock-up, one of them suggests they get back together to do another job.
  • The Bourne Identity. Treadstone headquarters orders all their field agents to go active. Cue the montage of each agent in the middle of some civilian activity—each in a different European country—and dropping it upon receiving instructions from HQ.
  • The Guns of Navarone: The officers planning the operation have a Mission: Impossible-style set of photographs of the soldiers who will be taking part, and list their specialties (lucky, genius with explosives, mechanical expert, born killer etc.)
  • This happens in Eddie and the Cruisers 2: Eddie Lives!, while Eddie is assembling a new band; We get to see each prospective member play to get a feel for their, you know, style. But, like everything else in the movie, it's retarded; Among other things, Eddie picks a repressed concert pianist to play keyboard in his blues rock band, and also gives a spot to a guy he absolutely hates for no real reason.
  • Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy:
  • The original script for Monty Python and the Holy Grail had this as a sequence, but it was shortened greatly in the final film, probably due to budget constraints. Arthur finds Galahad building a chicken coop for an elderly couple; there were (would have been?) similar scenes for each of the knights.
  • Stanley Kubrick's The Killing has a couple scenes along these lines; although the main heist team is already assembled, ringleader Johnny Clay is shown recruiting sniper Nikkie Arcane (Timothy Carey) and Maurice, a chess-playing wrestler.
  • The 1971 version of The Andromeda Strain uses this trope for the scientists near the beginning, although it takes a while to get them in the same room because two of the scientists take a detour to investigate the plagued town.
  • Extreme Prejudice (1987) begins with the special forces team arriving at an airport in civilian clothes, interspaced with shots of each man's military photo ID and a statement of how they 'died' in action or from training accidents.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    Captain America: "Avengers!" [*summons Mjolnir into his grasp*] "Assemble."
  • The DC Extended Universe has heroic and villainous examples thus far:
    • Suicide Squad has Amanda Waller forming a team of metahumans (not entirely unlike what Bruce and Diana are working on in Justice League) largely composed of convicted criminals. Her plan is to use them as her own pocket black ops team to counter superpowered threats like Superman, but her inability to control the most powerful member leads directly to everything going Off the Rails and the team being used to contain the rogue member and rescue Waller. Things get even worse when Mistah J decides to get involved and bust loose his girl Harley Quinn.
    • Justice League has Batman and Wonder Woman assembling various metahumans, building off the Sequel Hook of Dawn of Justice. Bruce finds Aquaman at a fishing village he protects and surprises the Flash in his own apartment. Diana approaches Victor Stone / Cyborg, who's been hiding from the world since his transformation.
    • Wonder Woman (2017) similarly has Steve Trevor gathering a team of particularly skilled men to help him and Diana find where the Germans are building their chemical weapons (and where Diana thinks Ares will be). This team includes Samir, a North African actor and fast-talker, Charlie, a deeply troubled Scottish sniper, and Chief, a Native American smuggler. Similarly to the Suicide Squad, this team is a bit of a Dysfunction Junction and thrive on a shared outsider-ness.
  • In Fast Five, Dom and Brian bring together a Caper Crew dream team made up of characters from the past few films for One Last Job, describing their roles (Con Artist, The Social Expert, Gadgeteer Genius, burglars, The Big Guy and the drivers) in a montage.
  • The Professionals includes a sequence where each character is named and briefly described in voice-over while being seen doing what they do.
  • In Reversal of Fortune, there's a sequence of Alan Dershowitz separately calling on former students of his, as well as colleagues and opponents, and telling them why he needs them (a prosecutor he's opposed who is better than the one who tried Claus Von Bulow, two former students who are great at assimilating details) for Von Bulow's appeal.

    Literature 
  • A large part of Water Margin is how the heroes came to join the band at the Liangshan Marsh. Lengthily drawn out due to there being so many characters.
  • Played with in The Three Musketeers. Losing his companions en route of a dangerous mission, D'Artagnan must spend three chapters collecting them back up and extricating them from the situations their particular personality quirks have gotten them into.
  • In William Gibson's Neuromancer, Armitage gathers a team of specialists for his mission to unite the artificial-intelligence entities Wintermute and Neuromancer.
  • In Geoph Essex's Jackrabbit Messiah, the heroes are very deliberately assembled by Indra... though the first hero (Jack) never meets him, the next two (Amity Sheridan and Lieutenant Springer) think they've run into him by accident, and one (Duffy) doesn't seem to be part of the original plan. Maggie and Caleb fit the trope perfectly, of course, and by the end of the story, there's a grand total of eight (or nine!) heroes, including a character who isn't even introduced until after The Climax (though he's shown to have been in on the action far longer than most of the others).
  • Wars Of The Realm: In Light of the Last, both of the deuteragonists (the human Drew Carter and the angel Validus) form special teams with the best talent in their respective realms—Drew to save America from a terrorist plot and Validus to keep Drew alive.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Leverage does this twice. Once, in the second episode, it showed the team members in the midst of various solo jobs, dropping what they were doing (Eliot had a gun pointed at him and took the guy out, Parker was hanging from a ceiling during a heist, Sophie is attempting to get a job on a soap commerical) to answer their phones.
  • The failed pilot for a parody of Mission: Impossible, Inside O.U.T. had a such a sequence for members of the Office of Unusual Tasks. The most memorable was the agent whose cover was as a civilian flying instructor. When he got the call, he told his student something along the lines of, "You're going to solo a bit ahead of schedule," and bailed out of the plane.
  • The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Magnificent Ferengi", complete with holding up fingers as each new member joins the team (referencing The Magnificent Seven).
  • Doctor Who
    • "A Good Man Goes to War" has a sequence of the Doctor rounding up his allies for a mission. There are quick scenes of them all going about their business (nursing soldiers on a battlefield, KILLING JACK THE RIPPER, etc.), only to come home and discover a big blue box on their doorstep.
    • "Day of the Moon" begins with 3 of the main characters being killed one-by-one by another character. Only afterwards do we find out this was all an elaborate plan to gather the team together.
    • "The Stolen Earth" and the first section of "Journey's End" function as this too, as Rose, Martha, Jack, Gwen, Ianto, Sarah Jane and Luke, Mickey, and Jackie come together into the Doctor's "secret army"
  • Blackadder: The episode "The Black Seal" parodies the sequence from The Magnificent Seven when Prince Edmund rounds up the most evil men in the kingdom.
  • The West Wing does this in the very first episode. Toby, C.J., Josh and Sam each appears in a short character-establishing scene, receiving a text message at the end that says, "POTUS in a bicycle accident." The final scene reveals that POTUS stands for "President of the United States," and that the characters we've just seen all work for him.
  • Parodied in Scrubs with Ted's band the Worthless Peons. Whenever he yells "Peons assemble!" the other members of the band sprint in from all directions and stand with him. Ted notes that they have to perpetually be within earshot so that they can assemble at the drop of a hat.
  • The Angel episode "Judgment" begins with the Power Trio at Angel Investigations dropping their various off-duty activities to stop a Human Sacrifice. A sign of Character Development is Cordelia walking out of an acting class to do so, just after she's been paid a compliment (in the first season her desperation to get into Horrible Hollywood despite her Bad "Bad Acting" is a Running Gag).
  • The epic Arrowverse crossover event "Invasion!" has Barry bringing together his team, Team Arrow, the Legends, and Supergirl in order to fight off the Dominators. Subverted in Crisis on Earth-X crossover, where everyone is already there for Barry and Iris's wedding when the Earth-X Nazis arrive. There is, however, a scene at the beginning where the various characters discuss RSVPing for the wedding.
  • The Andromeda Strain: When the government fails to control The Plague's outbreak, they order team Wildfire (a group of specialists scientists to deal with an epidemic) to assemble, and we get scenes showing the military coming to collect each of the five scientists.

    Poetry 

    Radio 
  • In an analysis of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the BBC's USA political editor Mark Mardell compared the DNC to one of these, with Obama as The Hero, gathering the old gang (i.e, the Democrat's core vote) and the swing states together for one last hurrah.

    Video Games 
  • The introduction videos in the Sly Cooper video games have these, such as Bently: The Brains, Murray: The Brawn and so forth.
  • An ad for Spyro: A Hero's Tail does this.
  • In the Mass Effect series:
    • A heroic, galactic-scale Big Damn Heroes version of this trope provides much of the plot for Mass Effect 2, with The Con or The Caper in this case being a Suicide Mission through a relay from whom no-one has returned against an unknown alien threat. Lovely. Most of the game is actually an extended Avengers Assemble sequence, with each character getting a recruitment mission (except the ones you start with or download) and a loyalty mission that play to their specialties (e.g. Garrus the Friendly Sniper has a recruitment mission involving holding a fortified position and a loyalty mission that involves lots of foes that are particularly vulnerable to his tech powers, Tali's recruitment and loyalty missions both involve fighting Geth that are particularly vulnerable to her epic hacking skills, Mordin's recruitment and loyalty missions involve fighting Vorcha and Krogan that fall easily to massed Incinerate powers, etc.).
    • Also played with when Shepard initially rejects the Illusive Man suggestion to put together a new team, stating that they already have one that they trust. The Illusive Man counters that with the destruction of the Normandy, Shepard's death and the two years it took to bring them back to life, their team has since been scattered; either being reassigned, unavailable, or having fallen completely off the grid. In the end, Joker, Dr Chakwas, Garrus, and Tali are the only faces from the original Normandy to join them on the suicide mission.
    • Basically the entire point of Mass Effect 3: Citadel. Shepard brings together his/her entire (surviving) team from the first two games to assist him/her in taking out an unknown group with designs to end his/her life.
      Vega: What about the rest of the crew?
      Shepard: All hands on deck for this one.
  • Team Fortress 2:
    • Capture the Point and Payload maps have one or both teams assemble in wait behind an impenetrable door until the round starts.
    • "Meet the Soldier" seems to take place during a Rousing Speech for an assembly, but then the camera angle switches and we see that The Soldier has actually been lecturing the severed heads of his enemies.
    • "Meet the Spy" have the BLU Soldier, Spy, Heavy, and Scout (or so we're led to believe) assembling in the Intelligence room to discuss the fact that a RED Spy is in the base.
    • "Meet the Medic" is a two-man assembly, but since these two men are the Medic and the Heavy, much ass-kicking ensues.
    • In the promotion video for Mann vs. Machine mode, what's implied to be left of RED and BLU assemble to battle the robots.
  • In the RuneScape quest While Guthix Sleeps, the player must assemble a group of 8 warriors, slayer masters and legendary adventurers in order to take on the Big Bad, which results in the player traipsing round Gielinor to recruit the warriors.
    • This also happens at the start of the quest Dishonour Among Thieves, where you have to assemble a team to steal the Stone of Jas.
  • In Kingdom Hearts III, on at least three fronts. We have Sora, Donald, and Goofy fighting together for the first time since Kingdom Hearts II, with Sora attempting to gain the power of Waking somehow, Riku teaming up with King Mickey to search for Aqua, and Kairi and Lea training to become proper Keyblade wielders. After Aqua is found, the first group team up with her to find Ventus, after which all nine of them regroup in Mysterious Tower to prepare for the final confrontation against the Seekers of Darkness.
  • In the True Final Boss of the Live A Live remake, the boss will perform an attack that will disable the active heroes, causing the ones not chosen to step in as back-up. After dealing enough damage the other heroes will recover, allowing you to control all seven of the heroes.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Channel Awesome annual specials seem to be fueled by this trope:
    • The Brawl began with the reviewers converging on a conference room in a Chicago hotel.
    • Kickassia has The Nostalgia Critic summoning each member via telephone and telling them to rendezvous in Nevada for the takeover of Molossia.
    Nostalgia Critic: It's time.
    The Spoony One: Yeah, it's 3:22 PM.
    Nostalgia Critic: What?
    The Spoony One: I thought you were asking what time it was.
    Nostalgia Critic: No, I'm telling you it is time.
    The Spoony One: Yeah, and that time is 3:22 PM.
    Linkara: I got 3:24 here, but I think Spoony's watch is more accurate.
  • In SF Debris's Star Trek reviews, one of the recurring gags is the "League of Starship Captains", that consists of his interpretations of Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, and for whatever reason, Archer. They are usually brought together if one of them faces a dire situation:
    • In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "The Visitor" Sisko's son Jake talks to the league after his father is seemingly killed by a time anomaly. Picard offers his condolences, Archer blabs how his father was killed by the Vulcans and Janeway snidely talks about her alibi saves her from suspicion of her own father's death. New Kirk even steps in to talk about his father, but is promptly kicked out of the meeting by Prime Kirk.
    • In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "A Call to Arms", Sisko talks with the league about the incoming Dominion invasion and asks for suggestions. Kirk suggests espousing the superiority of humanity and punching them, Picard suggests technobabble, Janeway suggests genocide, and Archer blubbers at how the Vulcans are to blame and their secret Mind Bomb weapon. Janeway loves that answer and changes her mind.
      • This culminates in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'''s "A Sacrifice of Angels", showing that Janeway activated the Mind Bomb to destroy the Dominion reinforcements. At this, Picard suggests using it on the Borg and Archer suggests using it on the Vulcans, leading to Janeway rejecting both.
    • In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", Doctor Bashir talks with the league to discuss Section 31. While Kirk is at a loss and Archer rants about the Vulcans, Picard and Janeway argue about their lines and how Picard is always given the stupid ones to make Janeway look better. This eventually results in Picard snapping and Janeway falling madly in love with him, to Picard's dismay. Sisko later asks Bashir how the meeting went, and the Doctor mumbles how Khan was right all along.
    • In Voyager's "Unimatrix Zero", Janeway talks with the league about a Borg civil war. Kirk, Picard and Sisko all quote the sanctity of the Prime Directive, and Archer even shows his support after admitting that the directive only came about after one of his own genocides. Janeway agrees not to push through with it, but later does so anyway by instead calling it "a resistance movement".
    • In Enterprise's "In A Mirror, Darkly", we instead see the Mirror Universe League of Starship Captains. In this version, Mirror Archer is the leader and demands suggestions for dealing with mutiny on his ship. Mirrors Kirk, Picard and Sisko (sporting goatees), all say to ruthlessly kill them, while Mirror Janeway (also sporting a goatee) is the nicest of them all and suggests gifts of goodwill. It's later discovered though that even Mirror Janeway can be just as ruthless if pushed too far.

    Western Animation 
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: In the pilot, when Gaia sends out the rings, the viewer sees a brief montage of how the future team members find them, presumably from her perspective, which doubles as a shorthand to introduce the Planeteers' personalities and interests to the viewer.
    • Kwame, who wields the power of Earth, accidentally puts his staff through his ring while planting saplings in Africa, establishing his passion for preventing deforestation.
    • Wheeler, who wields the power of Fire, gets his catapulted into his hand by a Trashcan Bonfire after saving a man from a mugger, showing his more confrontational personality and fundamentally heroic nature.
    • Linka, who wields the power of Wind, gets her ring delivered by a bird while mimicking its song on her keyboard, foreshadowing her status as a friend to all flying things.
    • Gi, who wields the power of Water, receives her ring from a dolphin with which she's playing catch, establishing the love for creatures of the ocean that drives her for most of the series.
    • Ma-Ti, who wields the power of Heart, gets his ring handed to him by his future pet monkey Suchi after protecting him from a jaguar, establishing his status as a Friend to All Living Things.
  • The Animated Series M.A.S.K. did this. Once an Episode, Matt Trakker (and once, Alex Sector when Trakker was MIA) would contact M.A.S.K.'s computer to review the specifics of the upcoming mission and select the appropriate operatives for the job based on their helmets (Masks) which gave them their powers, their natural skill sets, and their vehicles. These were accompanied by short vignettes of being interrupted in their day jobs and dropping everything to go save the world.
    "Personnel approved. Assembling Mobile Armored Strike Kommand."
  • In the Teen Titans (2003) episode "Calling All Titans," Robin contacts every single member — and there are about thirty! — to let them know to stand by for further instructions.
  • The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes:
    • Prior to release, a teaser showed the trope used along with the Trope Namer: When Iron Man calls "Avengers Assemble!" and activates a signal, each Avenger is doing something until hearing the signal; Captain America is training, Thor is meditating in the sky, and Giant-Man and the Wasp are making a son (that is, they are building Ultron).
    • In the eighth episode of the show, we learn that the Avengers order each other to gather with communicators that double as ID cards.
    • Lampshaded in "Living Legend".
      Iron Man: Avengers, Assemble!
      Ant-Man: We're all right here.
      Iron Man: ...
    • And Inverted in "This Hostage Earth" when they split up to investigate the different anomalies.
      Iron Man: Avengers Assemble! ...Well, actually, Avengers Disassemble!
    • The official series finale even has this phrase in its title.
  • "THUNDERCATS, HO!" and a beacon in the sky would bring all of the ThunderCats running to Lion-o, whatever they were doing at the time.
  • A villainous example appears in the first episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), when Skeletor magically summons his henchmen.
  • The first episode of Invincible (2021) ends with the various members of the Guardians of the Globe called away from their lives to assemble at their headquarters, where they are all killed by Omniman.
  • The short The Justice Friends in Dexter's Laboratory does this every time in the intro, and when Major Glory calls on his teammates. Justice Friends, Assssssembllllllle!
  • Jackie Chan Adventures does this whenever Jade calls together the J-Team, but it's only a two person montage since Viper and El Toro are the only ones not in Uncle's shop/Section 13 at the time. And of course, when they arrive Jackie tells them that Jade wasn't supposed to have called them and they should just go home.
  • In Codename: Kids Next Door, whenever Numbuh One orders Sector V into attack formation, he gives the command "Kids Next Door...BATTLE STATIONS!"
  • Darkwing Duck has a reference to this, in the "Just Us Justice Ducks" two parter, Darkwing rallies his newly formed team for the final battle against the Fearsome Five with "Justice Ducks! ASSEMBLE!" Evil Counterpart Nega Duck just yells "Fearsome Five, get over here!"
  • The Simpsons: There is a funny one in the episode "The Book Job" where Homie and Bart get their writing team together.
  • One episode of Young Justice (2010) has Klarion the Witchboy summoning various evil magicians for a scheme. Extra style points for bringing them in on the corners of a big pentagram.
  • The Mighty Heroes: In each cartoon "the call goes out to the Mighty Heroes" — a kind of fireworks display, which each member sees while at his secret-identity job.
  • PAW Patrol: In some episode Ryder receives a call from someone and then slides a function and called "PAW PATROL! To the Lookout/PAW Patroller/ Air Patroller/ Beach Tower" then the pups see on their free time during the call and run from their activity all the way to the place. Marshall bumps on something and hits the pups, making a joke about it or getting a reaction, then they ascend to the middle area to gear up for the rescue and they rallied on the observatory with Chase saying: Paw Patrol ready for action Ryder SIR! then Ryder briefs picks 2 or more pups for the emergency and they deploy from the Lookout to the danger zone in their vehicles.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "The Ending of the End", while the main characters fight the villains, the School of Friendship recruits almost every character who'd appeared in the series for the Final Battle.

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