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Bad Ass
alt title(s): Gar
When I need to find something out, I just go out and find somebody that knows more than me, and I go and I ask them. Sometimes I ask pretty hard.
"Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world... Hiro used to feel this way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this was liberating. He no longer has to worry about being the baddest motherfucker in the world. The position is taken."
- Snow Crash

The Rule Of Cool personified.

A character who gets away with outright insane stunts (defusing a bomb with their teeth, conning a mob boss, getting into a firefight with the entire US army, etc.) that would never work in real life. A Bad Ass is a fantasy figure who the audience roots for precisely because they break the Willing Suspension Of Disbelief - or, between Refuge In Audacity and Rule Of Cool, barely manage to maintain it.

Fandom is very forgiving of this, because the stunts are so cool that they don't care. In fact, it's notable that fans are more likely to tolerate a violent monster of a "hero" than a befuddled, cowardly Type I Anti Hero. For example, in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji and Asuka each whine just as much as the other, but Asuka was more popular with the fans because she had guts, despite her being a complete and utter... um... Well, let's just say that she's one of the few characters in Evangelion to even come close to deserving what happens to them.

Most attempts to parody or subvert the Badass have turned into Misaimed Fandom - no matter how nutty the character gets (like Rorschach from Watchmen), the fans just cheer on how Badass the character is. This has led to a new trope: the Heroic Sociopath.

Anime fans often use the word "GAR◊" (yes, all UPPERCASE) as a synonym of "badassitude", particularly when the badasses in question are Hot Blooded.

Subtropes include:

See also: All Girls Want Bad Boys, Darker And Edgier, Nineties Anti Hero, Memetic Badass.

For many outstanding examples of badassness see: Crowning Moment of Awesome

Examples

Anime
  • Kiba, Gaara and Neji of Naruto In fact, most of the cast would qualify as badasses, due to the simple fact that they're ninja.
  • Alucard, from Hellsing. In fact, many Friendly Neighborhood Vampires are Badasses. Then again, consider the origin of BadassDecay.
    • Alucard, a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire? That's like saying a rabid pitbull is a nice dog for kids.
    • Did you seriously just call Alucard a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire? I anything, he's as bad as the psycho Nazi vampires he fights. Look no further than his brutal massacre of the innocent policemen in Rio de Janeiro or when he brutally raped (well, not quite, but it's really hard to describe as anything else) and tortured Rip before devouring her.
  • Pretty much everyone in Bakuretsu Tenshi, especially Jo, and to a lesser degree, Takane and Sei.
  • Zaraki Kenpachi from the anime Bleach is perhaps the greatest example of this, relying solely on brute force and his insanely powerful Battle Aura while all others in the anime rely on magic and/or special fighting techniques. In one memorable scene, he allows an opponent he can't see or hear to stab him in the chest just so that Kenpachi can then grab him.
    • Zaraki's 3rd seat officer Ikkaku Madarame also fits this trope. The fact that Zaraki was the one person he could find who was a bigger badass than himself is the main reason he even joined the 11th squad in the first place.
    • Really, just about any of the Shinigami Captains count as badasses; there is a good reason that Ichigo is told to run if he ever encounters one.
    • Hachigen Ushoda. Yeah, that big, fat Vizard. How Bad Ass is he? Well, in the recent flashback arc, he one-shotted both the Captain and Lieutenant of the Ninth Squad (now turned into monsters). With binding spells. One of which was Level 99, without an incantation. And, he was the only one of the Vizards to really make any progress during that fight.
  • Makoto Shishio, one of the main villains from Rurouni Kenshin, seems to be a combination of a Badass and a Diabolical Mastermind. The man single-handedly and effortlessly defeated (and made fools of) several of the most powerful swordsmen imaginable, despite having been burned alive and shot in the head. Hajime Saitou and Kenshin (when he sheds off his Obfuscating Stupidity) are pretty badass on their own, too.
    • Obfuscating Stupidity might work for Kenshin, but hardly Saitou. The guy is a badass of the first order.
  • However, in Peacemaker Kurogane it is Toshizou Hijikata and Souji Okita who get to be the baddest badasses in The Shinsengumi.
  • Mugen from Samurai Champloo is very clearly a badass. He literally lives for battle, and has performed such feats as cutting a thrown toothpick in half blindfolded, defeating countless highly trained and armed ninjas barehanded, and surviving numerous experiences that would have easily killed anybody else. His badassery is to the point where after double-crossing a dangerous gang leader, he tells him, "If you're gonna send somebody to kill me, make sure it's the toughest bastard you can find." When the gang leader refuses, Mugen actually comes after HIM. Jin from the same series is also a badass, and their interactions are mainly focused on their badassery.
  • Cowboy Bebop's Spike Spiegel is one of the baddest asses around, in spite of the fact that he somehow always loses his bounty.
  • Broly from Dragonball Z takes this trope to absurd levels, effortlessly defeating the most powerful warriors in the universe single handedly at the same time.
  • Fist Of The North Star makes it a main priority to showcase just how much of a badass Kenshiro is. He is a walking death machine with an almost instinctual knowledge of every pressure point on the body, which he uses to annihilate entire armies in some of the most spectacular and gruesome ways possible. Don't even get me started on his Made Of Iron qualities as well.
  • Guts from Berserk is an example (I don't think that it's possible for a character named "Guts" to not be badass). The Brand of Sacrifice on the back of his neck acts as a beacon for The Legions Of Hell. He's had it for two years and counting, and he's still alive. And despite losing an eye and having to have his left arm replaced with a mechanical one after having to cut off the original himself (and that's not even counting his ridiculous number of scars), he's not going to lay down and die anytime soon. The man's nickname is "The Hundred-Man Slayer", and he earned it honestly.
    • Also qualifying is the Skull Knight from the manga series. This guy has been fighting the Godhand for years CENTURIES, is more than a match for the Apostles himself, and can even face down a monstered-out Zodd on equal footing. And anyone who can defy the Godhand themselves to save Guts and Casca from a horrible death during the Eclipse qualifies as a serious badass.
  • Domon Kasshu and Master Asia from G Gundam - they can defeat giant mechas with their bare hands (or sash/bandana), but they reach true badass levels when they have to escape a tunnel that is covered by a building, they summon all their strength and just kick the building out of the way.
    • The building in this case was a small skyscraper.
  • Maki from Airmaster - built like a brick outhouse, able to defeat 90% of the series' antagonists, capable of learning from all of them so she can beat the other 10%, and female. Don't try to bring up her past in front of her friends, though. You'll be pulverized.
  • Akagi. Breaks minds and bones with ease. Just don't fuck with him. It's even said that you should not look him in the eye if you're in a group of less than five people.
  • If you have a name in Black Lagoon, you will, at some point or other, be a badass. Yes, even if you're the Non Action Guy, or the twelve-year old kid. And if you're female, odds are good you'll do even better.
  • Jotaro Kujo, (young) Joseph Joestar, and pretty much the whole Joestar family in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Jotaro is the most memorable example, who often beat his opponents with his brains more often than his fists (although he does enjoy enjoy wailing on the enemy any chance he gets).
    • Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure is arguably the most GAR anime/manga series there is. Other badasses include Dio, Stroheim, Gyro Zeppeli (or any other Zeppeli for that matter), Weather Report, and many, many more. In fact, nearly every major character has at least one Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
  • The Major from Ghost in the Shell, also an example of a female badass.
    • The brutal efficiency of the group enables any Section 9 member to be badassed. Batou does get the lion's share that isn't Motoko's.
  • Leona from Dominion Tank Police. A female police officer that drives a tank and thinks its completely viable to blow up half a city to catch a jaywalker if needed. Also commander Britian from the same anime classifies here, having a lifetime subscription to "How to kill" magazine and all.
  • Simon and Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are the most GAR-badass couple ever created by man: thanks to Simon's massive power and Kamina's unstoppable bravado, they both manage to pull the strongest, most awesome moves ever seen in anime. Of course, for keeping Simon on the ropes throughout their whole fight and continuing to prevail even without his 'mech, Lord Genome clearly has a spot in GAR-halla too. In fact, pretty much every character that goes out with a Heroic Sacrifice Takes A Level In Badass as his last act.
  • Vash the Stampede from Trigun acts as goofy as all hell... but this is Obfuscating Stupidity. When something draws his wrath and he puts on the Scary Shiny Glasses, all hell is about to break loose. One of the few Technical Pacifist badasses. As well as Nicholas D. Wolfwood, only without the pacifism.
    • And while he's more sensitive to pain than most of the other male characters, Knives has one hell of a macho complex, which is partly the origin of the problem. Add some steroids, overly huge canons 'n blades and a fierce hatred for humanity and you have a badasser than badass son of a bitch version of Vash. Members of the Gung-ho Guns such as Legato (the man who can slaughter a whole gang through the power of his mind over a food incident and bend a guy into two or three while being tetraplegic and eating a steak with his chin in his plate) and Elendira the Crimsonnail have their own special flavour of badassery too.
  • Bean Bandit, in both Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats.
  • Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha. If you can shrug off having your arm brutally sliced off, than you are surely a Bad Ass.
  • Gen Shishio of Kekkaishi.
  • Numerous characters from One Piece, most notably Sanji, Luffy, and Zoro.
  • Akasaka is the badass in Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, even if he sure took his sweet time to level up. Just watch.
    • Just to set the record straight, the people Akasaka beats up are a group of highly trained counter-intelligence mercenaries. Akasaka is that tough.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist has quite a few; Ed pulls off the most blatant feats of badassery through the series, though Hohenheim and Roy Mustang make a strong case. However, the reigning champion Bad Ass for the series is Izumi, who routinely wallops everyone she meets even though she is missing large chunks of her internal organs.
    • Let's not forget Greed, who's a piece of pure Badass, and Bradley, whose seven-swords technique oozes Impossible Manga Feats. Of course, they owe a lot of this to Father. Kimblee is one badass psychopath. Lin/Ling and Ran Fan/Lan Fan got trained since childhood to be kick-ass fighters. Sig/Sigu is Izumi's counterpart, the one and only man who can survive being her husband (heck, they routinely throw knives at each other casually while working). Riza Hawkeye is also so skilled and fierce with firearms that she terrifies her fellow soldiers including Roy. In the manga, Olivia Armstrong could easily rival with Izumi. And Alex Louis Armstrong is... well, badass in his own very peculiar way.
    • i'm truly disappointed in all of you... You. Left. Out. Scar.
      • Please don't kill us!...
  • In the Pokemon anime, Ash usually ends up with Pokemon that perform at least one Crowning Moment Of Awesome (yes, even Pikachu). Sceptile probably took the top spot in Hoenn, having been a Clint Eastwood-like loner for all three stages; but Charizard has always been a classic badass since his final evolution and Buizel is quickly proving to be one hell of a successor to the previous two despite the cute looks.
  • As for that other monster show, the cast of Digimon Savers is probably the baddest of the badass. Both Masaru and Ikuto will fight Digimon barehanded, Satsuma is a big damn hero and it's up for debate whether Touma is a Genius Bruiser or Badass Bookworm. Even The Chick gets one really good moment where she smashes an evil pseudo-Digimon with a barrel, and the Bridge Bunnies have motorcycles.
  • Tsukihime's Nanaya Shiki. For one thing, he's an amoral sociopathic killer split personality of the protagonist, which is just cool. But then, he has insanely skilled killing abilities and instincts, and the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, which let him kill virtually anything with a fruit knife. To top it off, he easily slaughters some of the most powerful beings on the planet (who are nigh-unbeatable) while laughing, speaking poetically, and only feeling a mixture of amused enthusiasm and contempt.
    • Tohno Shiki, the protagonist, is only slightly less badass. His utter pwnage of Nrvnqsr has yet to be topped by anything, ANYTHING this troper has ever seen.
    • There are, however, a lot of other badasses around Tsukihime. Arcueid's normal badassitude is much hurt in the main story because she's regenerating from a brutal backstabbing by the aforementioned Nanaya, but it should still be remembered that this is a girl who slaughtered what amounted to the most powerful supernatural race on Earth singlehandedly. And then there's also Akiha Tohno, whose badassitude is mostly off-camera in the original novel... but then showed (and how!) in the manga, driving the point home that the head of the Tohno might be a young girl, but she's not someone you should fuck with.
  • A goodly chunk of the cast from Baccano could qualify- but in particular, Ladd Russo, who has a woman infatuated with him despite an oft-repeated promise to kill her, and is in perfect mental health (well, as far as Ladd Russo goes) after losing a good chunk of his arm (the frigging bone was showing through!).
  • Absolutely every single character in Vinland Saga is GAR personified.
    • Even Father Waribald, a priest, is pretty hard core. You'd have to be to drink an entire hall full of Vikings under the table.
  • Nanoha Takamachi from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Do not let the "Magical Girl" part fool you. This is a lady who casually walks Out Of The Inferno, grabs energy blades with one unprotected hand, and frequently instills the very fear of God into her enemies with the sheer power she possesses. Her most popular name amongst fans is "The White Devil" and you'd be hard-pressed not to think it as fitting while watching her in action.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima has tons, Takamichi, Rakan, Nagi, Kaede, Setsuna, and Mana all qualify, but the most extreme example is Badass Lolita Evangeline, who has taken down a superpowerful demon god in one (massive) shot.
  • Code Geass has several, most notably Kallen, Toudou, and, Suzaku.
  • Chiyoko from the Akira manga - she specializes in Foe Tossing Charges and can take down a small army all by her lonesome. While badly wounded.
  • Yankumi from Gokusen personifies this, when she's not pretending to be a floozy ditz to keep her students in the dark about the fact that she is the sole heir to the feared Ooedo Yakuza group. Single handedly takes on Yakuza gangsters, thieves and at one point her entire class of punkass gakuran. Also takes down Man Mountain Tetsuru with two fingers straight up the nose to prove a point about strength. Combined with her tendency to go into yakuza mode at the slightest and most inappropriate provocation she is a 24/7 badass who will surely hold all of Tokyo in her iron grip when her grandfather finally croaks.
  • Asuka Langley Soryu from Neon Genesis Evangelion could be considered a deconstruction of the Badass, fighting fiercely and acting all Tsundere to hide her vulnerability and insecurity.
  • Natsuki Kuga from Mai-HiME, this trope is you. That sweet ride of yours certainly helps your image. Now, if you'd only come to school more than once in a while...
  • Mikura from Mezzo DSA and Mezzo Forte is almost insanely badass. Just watch the bowling alley fight from episode one of Forte, and be amazed.
  • Samurai 7's Kyuuzo masterfully wields two katana, wears red and black, and fits the criteria for "nosebleed-inducing male character" with his damn good looks and icy personality. Not to be confused with his mildly friendlier movie incarnation, though that Kyuuzo is just as badass.

Comic Books
  • Sergeant Rock. The man beat BATMAN in a "most badass man in comics" contest. He kills tanks with his hands. And he has no powers other than a dedication to kicking Nazi ass.
  • Blade.
  • Wolverine of the X-Men.
    • Most of the X-Men maintain some degree of badass. It helps that Cyclops makes them train without their powers to functional Badass Normal skill levels. By way of a few examples...
      • Cyclops beating up six men at once with his eyes shut. Oh, and then there was the time when the X-Men were brainwashed into trying to kill him. He managed not to hurt any of them too badly...
      • Storm losing her powers and still being badass enough to lead the team for a couple of years. Including beating Cyclops in a one-on-one duel.
      • Beast can pull your arms off with his feet. He's also a Badass Bookworm.
      • Nightcrawler once fought his way through several dozen superhumans without using his powers. Oh, and with a broken leg.
      • Cannonball vs Gladiator. 'Nuff said.
      • Jubilee can dropkick two men in the balls at once. After blowing their guns up just by thinking about it.
      • Rachel Summers fought Galactus. It was a draw.
  • The Punisher.
  • And again with Spartans, most of the Spartans in 300. In fact, the narration makes a point of mentioning how badass they are. Repeatedly. It's not a Take Our Word For It, though; the narrator himself is one of the warriors.
  • Venom and Carnage became popular among Spider-Man readers in the Dark Age, thanks to their Badass if not often outright psychopathic natures. Then came the even more insane marketing schemes.
  • Marv from Sin City is a walking personification of the concept. He is a near invulnerable man who at various points in the story shrugs off multiple gunshot wounds (including one to the head), being hit by a speeding car three times in succession, taking a blow to the head from a sledgehammer, massive blood loss, all while mowing down countless fully armed enemies using only his fists and whatever he can find. Even taking a jolt via electric chair only prompts him to tell his executioners, "Is that the best you can do you pansies?"
    • Of course, Sin City is rife with badasses. Let's not forget Dwight McCarthy, John Hartigan, Wallace, or deadly little Miho. Or Kevin and Manute for that matter.
      • Basically every major male and most female characters ever written by Frank Miller.
  • Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is infamous for the bad-assedness young Scrooge pulls off. In "The Raider of Copper Hill", he fights off a small army of claim jumpers bare-handed. In "Terror of the Transvaal", after getting double-crossed and left in the African savanna by a young Flintheart Glomgold, he's so mad he cows several angry wild animals on his way back to civilization. And in "King of the Klondike", Scrooge goes into an Unstoppable Rage after unscrupulous businessman Soapy Slick kidnaps him, chains him up, tries to steal his claim, and to top off the Kick The Dog list, makes fun of Scrooge's late mother.
  • Midnighter of The Authority. Add Captain America's origin to Batman's skill and throw in Punisher's attitude, then square the result.
    • What's even more impressive is that, crazy as his fighting skills are, he doesn't even have to hit you to destroy you. At one point, he basically analyzed and demolished a super-soldier's psyche, forcing him to question his life and leave the fight a broken man.
  • Various characters in Preacher, especially the Saint of Killers. The special sidestory "The Good Old Boys" parodies the idea with a character who's all tough talk but no actual worth.
  • Parodied by Ruben Bolling; The Impossible Squad! All members are clench-jawed hard smokin' macho sergeants and almost all of them solve things with explosives.
  • How the hell did we miss Batman? Probably the original Badass Normal of superhero comics, not only does he nightly take on the psychotic criminals of Gotham City, but he is and always has been a premiere member of the Justice League - with no superpowers - and unflinchingly enters battle with alien overlords, dimension-eating demons and cyborg mutants - again with no superpowers. He's on par with and widely respected by even the most godlike metas in DC's mythos, and he's managed this by simply by keeping his mental and physical fitness superbly honed, utmost dedication to his Mission, and sheer willpower...
  • Ogami Itto of Lone Wolf and Cub is Japan's greatest badass, although there is a justification. As the former Executioner of the Shogun, he was expected to fight for the right to get such a cushy job, presumably besting every other swordsman in Japan for the right to be "the Shogun's right hand". Consequently, when he goes rogue, no man/woman/ninja hit squad can stand against him. At one point in the series he literally fights off an entire crowd of female assassins while being drugged unconscious. Despite this, the series is fantastic for trying to find new, creative ways for the bad guys to provide some challenge worthy of him. His enemies, acknowledging him as the greatest swordsman in Japan, will attempt to send, say, the greatest rifleman in Japan against him, or some such.
  • Can't leave Rorschach off list. Might get upset.
  • Jon Sable Freelance
  • Manji, from Blade of the Immortal. But then, it's kinda hard NOT to be a badass when you're infected with a parasite that will reattach your limbs and rebuild organs in order to keep a viable host.
    • Manji earned his reputation for killing a hundred men before his infestation. If anything, the parasites made him less of a threat, since he couldn't be bothered to fight as hard as he used to.
  • King Mob of The Invisibles turned himself into his hero, Jerry Cornelius, becoming not only a successful writer and accomplished magician but a master assassin capable of killing people in every conceivable way including inside his mind.
  • Nextwave counts too. Even the Butt Monkey managed to make the lord of a hellish dimension wish he was dead... Using the contents of a restroom. Starting at the toilet, and finishing ith the toilet brush.
  • Agent 355. She once won a fight with both arms broken, by ripping her opponent's throat out with her teeth.
  • Deadpool, feebs! He's fought Wolverine to a standstill, and in one issue escaped from being crushed by a giant stuffed teddy bear by snapping both wrists and ankles while talking the whole time...even though talking was what was making the bear fall. He also fought The Incredible Hulk and managed to steal his blood. Also, in one of the Marvel Alternate Universes, he was commissioned to kill all mutants. At the end of the story, there were four left, and they were hiding from him in Japan. FOUR. I could go on forever on this one.

Film
  • Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction. Samuel L Jackson has been a badass for most of his career, of course. One good example is Formula51 (a.k.a The 51st State), in which he wears a kilt for most of the movie, hangs out with Robert Carlyle, and beats up skinheads with a golf club.
  • Anton Chigurh, "the ultimate badass", from No Country For Old Men.
  • The titular character of the Terminator movies.
  • Darth Vader, of Star Wars.
    • The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of his prequel alter-ego Anakin, but try to look on the bright The Dark Side of it.
      • This troper (recognizing that this is the extreme minority viewpoint being expressed) begs to differ.
    • The other Sith Lords of the series also qualify, with Darth Sidious, Count Dooku and in particular Darth Maul each having plenty of Badass moments.
    • On the Jedi side, there's Mace Windu (Sam Jackson again), at least until Anakin takes off his hand.
      • This troper strongly reccomends Matthew Stover's Shatterpoint to ease the pain. It's pretty much solid awesome from start to end.
    • There is also Kyle Katarn, As displayed in Jedi Academy, Kyle would use grapple attacks on Jaden like putting him in a head lock then throwing, or holding him with one hand and punching him with the other. During a lightsaber duel.
    • Yoda, after Attack of the Clones.
  • Riddick, of The Chronicles Of Riddick and Pitch Black.
    • Riddick is so Badass he can actually physically transform a fragile tin teacup into a weapon able to penetrate a human sternum.
  • Xander Cage, of XXX. In fact, just about every action movie role played by The Rock or Vin Diesel.
  • Beatrix Kiddo, a.k.a. Black Mamba, a.k.a. The Bride in Kill Bill.
  • The odious Captain Vidal from Pan's Labyrinth. Despite being a total and unrelenting bastard, he leads from the front, never even flinches as his men are mowed down around him, beats at least one man to death with a wine bottle, fights off the effects of heavy sedatives, and, in one particularly painful-looking scene, stitches up his own face with a needle and thread.
  • Doug Gordon, Captain of the Gotengo, from Godzilla: Final Wars: "Listen, kid, there are two things you don't know about Earth. One is me; the other is Godzilla." This, to an alien who's just destroyed human civilization. Then he comes up against two heavily-armed aliens with just a katana...and puts down the katana by sticking it into a stone pillar.
    • We'd be lying if we didn't say Godzilla himself is badass, damn it.
  • Vasquez, in Aliens.
    • For that matter, most of the marines in Aliens. ( With the notable exception of Lieutenant Gorman, the guy in charge.).
  • Lieutenant Ellen Ripley throughout the entire Alien series, but especially in the climactic fight in Aliens: "Get away from her, you bitch."
  • How has Indiana Jones not been mentioned?
  • Captain Barbossa in Pirates Of The Caribbean.
    • Agreed. He was a true badass, whereas Jack was more of a lucky trickster. Of course, Elizabeth turned into a budding little badass too.
  • As of Evil Dead 2, and even more so in Army Of Darkness, Bruce Campbell's character Ashley Williams is equal parts Badass and Jerkass. At one point, he replaces his left hand with a chainsaw. Note that these movies lead to an apparent Law of Story: If you replace the lead of a horror movie with a Bad Ass, it becomes an action movie.
  • Sean Connery. Always. Exhibit A: James Bond. Exhibit B: The Rock. Exhibit C: The Untouchables.
    • Exception: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
  • On that note, James Bond.
  • Chow Yun-Fat in just about any movie made by John Woo.
  • Every single one of the Spartans in 300 fitted this, but in particular King Leonidas. Considering The Spartan Way was the real life training method used in Sparta of Ancient Greece, anybody who survived would have to have been a Bad Ass.
  • Chev Chelios from Crank. The entire movie revolves around the fact that if he stops doing absolute feats of badassery for more than a few minutes, he will literally keel over dead from poison. Really, just Jason Statham in all his roles.
  • Any character portrayed by, or based on, Bruce Lee (who was truly a badass in Real Life).
  • River Tam turns badass in the Firefly movie Serenity. She also had some badass moments during the series as well, such as taking out three of Niska's men with her eyes closed during Mal's rescue in "War Stories".
    • Heck, Mal, Book, and Zoe are pretty badass in that one as well. Ripping a torture device out of your chest shortly after dying and stabbing The Dragon of the villain with it? Badass defined.
    • Not to mention The Operative, who fights both Mal and Inara to a standstill in the Companion Training Hall and gives Mal a hell of a fight on Mr. Universe's moon in the movie's final showdown.
  • Clint Eastwood in almost every movie he was in including and before Unforgiven.
  • Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez's half of the Grindhouse double feature) takes the insane stunts aspect of Badass to the limit, especially in the characters of El Wray (especially when he fights his way through an army of The Infected with a pair of butterfly knives) and, later, Cherry Darling, who loses her leg to a zombie and has it replaced with various weapons, including an M-16 assault rifle with attached grenade launcher, and even a minigun!
    • Hey, don't forget the three women in "Death Proof"! Especially the driver. They managed to turn the initial psychopathic badass into a snivelling grease stain on the highway. Hooray, ladies!
  • Nearly everyone in the movie Dog Soldiers, Spoon and Sarge especially. Spoon, for example, fistfights a werewolf - and almost wins.
    • To hell with "almost", he is winning until a second werewolf shows up.
  • By the same director as Dog Soldiers we have The Descent- this guy must like badasses, because again in this film almost everybody is one. If one considers that the ENTIRE CAST IS FEMALE, this becomes a wonderful thing- there really aren't enough women on this list. The story is: six extreme sportswomen go into a cave, and find themselves trapped when Juno reveals she lead them deliberately into an unexplored cave (read: Death Trap.) They soon realise that They Are Not Alone. It's fortunate then, that Juno is a raging, mother-frikking badass, who breaks all sorts of tropes by overpowering the people-eating humanoid cave monster that attacks her and killing it with an ice pick. She then goes on a rampage of destruction with so many Crowning Moments Of Awesome that it actually left this troper feeling sorry for the cannibals. She is matched only by Sarah, who after finding out her dead husband cheated on her and granting her best friend's request for I Cannot Self Terminate, primally kills the cave people in such charming manners as shoving her thumbs in through their eyes and biting out their throats. LEGENDARY.
    • Right after the I Cannot Self Terminate, when a crawler is literally on top of Sarah without knowing she's there and her face remains completely emotionless, it's actually a little freaky in it's badassery. Normal people don't behave like that! Of course, she is crazy.
    • Besides the obvious two, This Troper would like to nominate Sam, who didn't do much in the way of Bad Ass for most of the film, but went out hanging from the ceiling, climbing onto a fighting crawler's back in midair and stabbing its ass off the cave roof, all with her fucking throat slashed.
  • Because Neil Marshall doesm't just like his badasses, he loves them, Doomsday. Bloody Doomsday. The movie itself and damn near everyone in it. Have you SEEN this car chase? It's insane.
  • Minor league compared to some of these others, but Mel Gibson's character, the titular Maverick in the 1994 film, steps up to several moments of badassery. Near the beginning of the film, he's approached by several aggressive men with melee weapons: he responds by handing his coat and gun-belt, gun included, to a bystander. He then requests to be shot if it looks like he's losing on the grounds that he wouldn't deserve to live if he lets incompetents like them defeat him. Of course he wins.
    • That's because the whole fight was staged - he paid them to lose beforehand. Badass averted.
  • Toshiro Mifune in most of his films, especially when he plays Ronin characters. Subverted in Rashomon.
    • Even the shoe company executive he plays in Tengoku to jigoku (AKA High and Low) is a badass. When colleagues try to persuade him that they should make cheap, fashionable shoes, he responds by tearing up their shoddy sample with his bare hands.
  • The masterful and quiet Kyuuzo, from the movie Seven Samurai. In his first scene he coolly cuts down an arrogant challenger with a single sword stroke. He also, at one point, volunteers to steal a gun from the bandits during the night, and comes back the next morning unharmed and successful, although a little tired. As his starry-eyed admirer Katsushiro said, "It was like he had just gone on a picnic!"
  • John McClane, from the Die Hard movies. In fact, most of Bruce Willis's roles qualify. John McClane has in fact gotten more and more badass with each film, going from "Everyman in extreme situations triumphs against improbable odds" to "middle-aged-man power fantasy".
  • In the movie Shoot 'Em Up, in which Clive Owen's character, Mr. Smith, kills hundreds of people while skydiving, having sex, and delivering a woman's baby (although not all at the same time). Oh, and eating carrots, too.
    • And he also kills people with carrots.
  • Who can forget most of Jean Reno roles in films? He is usually portrayed as a high profile mercenary with just over-the-top competence.
    • In his french-language movies he's most often a cop; still utterly Badass, though.
  • The character of Zatoichi, played by Shintaro Katsu in 26 films and 100 television episodes, certainly qualifies. Not only is he a fantastically skilled swordsman, he's also blind. About once a movie they have some spectacular set-piece in order to show just how very badass he is. For example, from the very first film of the series: Zatoichi, kneeling on the floor, reaches up and takes a lit candle from a stand. He balances it in his hand for a moment, tosses it up in the air, then whips out his sword and resheathes it in an instant. The candle falls to the floor. It's been cut in half lengthwise. The wick in both halves is still burning.
    • The newer iteration, played by Takeshi Kitano, is also nine kinds of awesome.
  • Aragorn and Boromir from Lord Of The Rings: The latter was so tough he actually managed to get hit by 4-6 annoying arrows by the end of the first movie and still had enough strength to pretty much single-handedly take out an entire division of Uruk-Hai, while the former managed to hold off wave after wave of Uruk-Hai near the end of the second film.
    • Annoying arrows? From Boromir's expression, the very first hit alone was lethal. He just decided not to die yet.
  • El Mariachi from the titular film, Desperado and Once Upon A Time In Mexico is one of the best examples of such.
    • Another example is Agent Sands from the third movie, who develops a Disability Superpower after getting his eyes gouged out by Dr. Guevara, proceeding to take out no fewer than five people, including his ex Ajedrez.
  • Charles Bronson was a badass even in old age. In his later movies (Death Wish 4 for example) even though Bronson was in his 60s or 70s, he still manages to defeat bad guys half his age. In Real Life, he was mining coal at the age of ten.
  • Snake Plissken from Escape From New York & LA
  • Ricky from 'The Story of Ricky' (aka Riki-Oh, aka Lik Wong), takes this to ludicrous levels for live action. There are really too many things to mention, but how about the time he is being tortured by the bad guys? They fill his mouth with razorblades, tape up his mouth and then beat him round the head. Then, when they take the tape off, he says nothing, merely spits the razorblades into his questioners face. He is also, strangely for the trope, a genuine, kind-hearted hero.
    • Some bad guys are pretty Bad Ass too, even though they get their asses handed to them by Ricky; of particular note is Oscar, who, after realizing just how outclassed he is, slashes open his gut, grabs his intestines and tries to strangle Ricky with them.
  • Bill "The Butcher" Cutting from Gangs of New York may very well be this trope incarnate. The reason he has a glass eye is because in a brutal battle against his rival and fellow Bad Ass Priest Vallon, he couldn't look him in the eye while the Priest gave what Bill called "the finest beating he ever took". In order to compensate, he cut out the eye that looked away and sent it to Vallon in wrapping paper. What's more at one point he gets shot in a theater, then proceeds to torture the man who did it (and takes his vest as a souvenir).
  • Every character with a name in the film Hero... Until the end. Lame.
  • Sam Gerard in U. S. Marshalls. Say what you will, a man bold enough to wear chicken suit in public is badass.
  • John Rambo is a classical example of a one man army getting more badass with every movie of the series.
  • Quite a bit of the main cast from 28 Days Later. Selena in particular is better off here than among Badass Normal characters, as the only ones who are anything other than normal are psychotically infected pseudo-zombies. Major West is just a big, angry male Mama Bear.
  • Buddy from Six String Samurai.
  • Burt Gummer from the movie Tremors.
  • Tony "You fuck with me, YOU FUCKIN' WITH THE BEST!" Montana.
  • Though Tony Stark needs a suit of Bad Ass to do his feats of physical Bad Ass-ness, the fact that he's able to construct a suit powered by a miniaturized reactor that thirty years of research hasn't been able to shrink down, using science and engineering that a fully equipped team of engineers in a state of the art laboratory all agree ''does not exist yet'' in a CAVE, with a box of SCRAPS, pretty much defines how much of a complete Bad Ass he is.
  • Tony Jaa. Seriously.
  • Hannibal Lecter. Supergenius Wicked Cultured Affably Evil Magnifient and Manipulative Bastard Heroic Sociopath . . . the list just never ends!!!
  • Pretty much everyone in Wanted, but definitely the best examples belong to the most unassuming of the cast - Wesley Gibson, played by James Mc Avoy ("What the f*** have you done with your life?"), and Sloan, played by Morgan Freeman.
  • Lawless, from "The One". He travels through dimensions killing alternate versions of himself in order to become more powerful.
  • While The Dark Knight is about Batman, one of the most iconic Badass Normals in fiction, it is his nemesis, The Joker that is more often viewed as this. Whether it's his frequent Crowning Moment Of Awesome moments, his full time Magnificent Bastard status, or just his pants-crappingly insane persona, The Joker is a memorably awesome character.

Literature
  • Sent up in Terry Pratchett's The Truth, where one of the villains carries a wallet which says "Not A Very Nice Person At All." That said, Vimes is a badass.
    • And don't forget Genghiz Cohen. Cohen the Barbarian. A very, very old barbarian. Think about how one manages to become a very old barbarian when you're a barbarian hero 24/7.
    • The town of Badass on the other hand is anything but.
      • It's Granny Weatherwax's hometown, what do you mean she's not Bad Ass?
      • Granny Weatherwax could give lessons in being badass. After a few months of living with her, a kitten took down Nanny Ogg's lecherous cat Greebo, a serious badass in his own right.
      • How much of a badass is Greebo, you ask? He doesn't just molest female cats (although a lot of it may be consensual) he goes after wolves and at least one she-bear. He's also killed two vampires at current date. The generally accepted wisdom by the people in the series is that it would take a direct meteorite strike just to slow him down.
    • Many of Pratchett's characters count. Death's granddaughter Susan for one. Tiffany Aching for another. She took on the entire Fairy realm with a frying pan at the age of nine. And the Feegles, too. They got kicked out of the netherworld for being too rowdy. Even Rincewind is a Badass coward. Whereas his Luggage is just straightforward Badass.
      • You forgot Lord Vetinari, arguably the most badass of them all. A Magnificent Bastard Xanatos Gambit wielding BADASS.
      • And Darktan, a talking rat who, after getting caught in a trap and getting so close to dying that he saw the Grim Squeaker, promptly pulled himself back together and got down to some serious being the leader and giving inspirational speeches. In which he smeared blood from his open wounds on the foreheads of his underlings. And he, in conjunction with fellow badass rodent Hamnpork, also managed to take out a terrier much larger than him... with a Groin Attack.
  • Many characters from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, especially Raven, as described in the page-quote above.
  • Conan, from the various Conan The Barbarian publications and movies, is one the oldest and most well-known badasses in modern American culture. In addition to serving as the inspiration of many other badass characters (including Sin City's Marv and Korgoth of Barbaria, who is an obvious parody of Conan), the original stories by Robert E. Howard also make a point of demonstrating formidable cunning alongside near-indestructability and the strength to kill absolutely anything he encounters. This is true about every one of Howard's heroes.
  • Pick an ancient hero from mythology. Any ancient hero:
    • Gilgamesh. And Enkidu, for that matter. Not just bad asses — the first recorded bad asses ever.
    • Beowulf tore Grendel's arm off with his bare hands, and later wields a sword made by (and for) the giants. And then he broke the sword by swinging it too hard. If we believe his boasting, he also swam for five days in chainmail and carrying a sword, and killed nine sea monsters during the last night.
    • Samson from the "Tanakh" (the Old Testament, to Jews) is one of the greatest examples of a true Badass. He was an angry, unstoppable man who over the course of his life had performed such feats as pulling apart an enraged lion with his bare hands, killing an entire army with a donkey's jawbone, and tearing down an entire building after having his eyes gouged out.
      • Incidentally, and as the name suggests, Brock Samson from "The Venture Brothers" is based off of Samson.
    • David is pretty badass, too. Sure he killed Goliath, but he also killed Goliath's giant brothers, and got his start as a shepherd... who killed lions and bears on a day to day basis. Later on, before he became the King of Israel after Saul's death, the Israelites sang his praises saying that he had "slain his ten thousands."
      • And he's got a Special Operations unit of sorts, called "David's Mighty Men," each of which are definitely badasses. Leading the Thirty were the Three, who each had done individual badass things (like killing 300 men in a single battle) but gained the most fame from breaking through the Philistine lines just to get David some water from his father's well. The Thirty had some stand-outs, like Benaiah, who is casually described as having slain a lion in a pit on a snowy day, and killing two "lion-like" heroes of Moab, and a seven and a half foot tall Egyptian, disarmed and then killed with his own weapon.
    • Cuchulainn, the Irish mythological hero/pimp is an all around Badass. Some of his feats defy logic and he has examples of an Unstoppable Rage that are Older Than Dirt. Seen 300? Where the 300 guys fight millions of guys, and they lose? When Cuchulainn did that sort of thing, he won. And he didn't have 299 guys behind him. That was all Cuchulainn, baby.
      • The above troper forgot to mention that in his death throes, he tied hiself to a rock to remain upright, and his enemies refused to believe he was dead until a bird landed on him.
    • And before Cuchulainn, there was Fionn mac Cumhaill. Ireland's version of King Arthur, complete with his own band of Bad Asses, the Fianna.
    • Coming in from China, the Eight Immortals who, according to legend, founded a kung fu style had a number of stories about how Bad Ass they were. For example, one got so drunk that he passed out and got mauled by a tiger for a while before waking up and punching the tiger to death.
  • Roland Deschain, of Stephen King's The Dark Tower novels. In the events before the first novel, Roland shot and killed every man, woman and child in Tull, while they were trying to kill him. 58-1 odds should qualify. And he only shows himself to be more so as the series progresses. Of course, the ka-tet he gathers starts to work their way to his level as well...
  • Another Roland, from the Older Than Print epic poem, The Song of Roland, is certainly a Bad Ass. The Battle of Roncevaux Pass is a testament to this, as Roland and the other legendary Twelve Peers (considered the greatest warriors of their time) led an army of 20,000 men against an ambush of 100,000-150,000 men. While the other warriors hesitated against this onslaught, Roland showed absolutely no fear or hesitation, even refusing help for the sake of battle and honor. He does eventually call for assistance, not in the expectation of rescue, but hoping that the others will bury their dead bodies and take revenge. In the end, through sheer badassery, Roland manages to be victorious, but unfortunately, he is mortally wounded in the process. Thus, after bludgeoning a thief to death for trying to steal his legendary sword, Roland dies holding his sword and his olifant.
  • Túrin Turambar from The Silmarillion was the greatest Badass human ever seen by man. Even though he's just a Badass Normal compared with the elves, he was so goddamn powerful he single-handedly managed to slay Glaurung the dragon, when not even an entire army could do the job!
    • Considering that his father Hurin's last battle involved holding off an entire army so his allies could escape, fighting until his axe melted in his hands, and then continuing to fight until buried under the bodies of his enemies, it's pretty clear that in Middle Earth badassery is genetic.
    • It certainly is: Turin's cousin Tuor organised the resistance to the Siege of Gondolin, the escape tunnel through rock "like to forged steel", hurled a traitor from the walls, and killed a bunch of Balrogs (they were all over the place, like flies). For Karmic compensation for his Badassitude, he not only bedded an elf but became one himself. Yes, he was so Badass he leveled himself up an entire species.
    • Just about all of the Elven High kings were incredibly badass. They are so strong that they're only killed By Gothmog, Sauron, or, in one case, Morgoth himself.
    • In addition Ecthelion, the person who killed Gothmog was also quite badass. After getting both of his arms disabled while fighting he procedes to leap at Gothmog (the Lord of the Balrogs) and stab him through the chest with the spike that was on his helm. This is after having fought non stop for hours against orcs, trolls, dragons, and even other Balrogs.
    • Speaking of Balrog-slayers, there's also Glorfindel who fought and killed one at the cost of his own life. Then, after resurrecting in the Undying Lands, as elves are wont to do, decided he wasn't done being a Bad Ass yet and hopping a boat and sailed back over to Middle Earth where he amused himself making the Nazgul flee from him in terror.
    • This troper would like to propose the oft-overlooked Mirkwood Elves. Without the aid of a Ring of Power, they still managed to defend their realm against the forces of Sauron for centuries.
  • Karsa Orlong from Steven Erikson's Malazan Book Of The Fallen, a giant barbarian warrior, is immensely Badass, beating the shit out of pretty much everyone and everything he faces, almost without breaking a sweat. In House Of Chains, he holds his own against Icarium, a feared warrior whose rage has destroyed entire civilizations, and slays not one but two of the dreaded Deragoth, the ancient Hounds of Darkness.
  • Another Badass character from Malazan Book Of The Fallen is Anomander Rake, who battles against terrible demons and entire cadres of enemy High Mages. In Memories Of Ice, Rake singlehandedly takes on a horde of three hundred thousand (300,000) Tenescowri warriors (although, to be fair to the Tenescowri, Rake flies, so they can't really fight back).
  • Molly Millions, of William Gibson's Sprawl series. A female badass armed with implanted razorblades beneath her fingernails.
  • Richard Cypher in The Sword of Truth books two, four and especially six. He rips out an enemy's spine out trough the poor man's stomach. While inflicted with the Plague. And severely wounded. And when the enemy was using the series' titular Magical Sword.
  • There's Grettir, the strongest man Iceland (and probably the world) has ever seen, who killed not one, but two GHOSTS, one of which was the height of a small house. Before that, his sheer badassery impressed numerous kings around europe. After he was ki