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Just try and guess who saves the day.
Mal: Well, look at this! Appears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us? Zoe: Big damn heroes, sir! Mal: Ain't we just?
The poor Damsel In Distress is looking her fate dead in the face, and is resigned to it, because she knows that Nothing Can Save Us Now... and then, boom! Here come the heroes. " Sorry I'm Late!"
Big Damn Heroes is the heroic swoop to save the day just in the nick of time. Generally this is because the heroes had to fight through a swarm of baddies, or had to figure out just where their friends are before the clock ran out. Or sometimes the hero is just being a real jerk and likes to see the Distressed Damsel suffer a little.
A Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits will often have a Misfit Mobilization Moment before becoming the Big Damn Heroes.
Changed My Mind, Kid is a subtype where the Big Damn Heroes should have been there in the first place and are only redeeming themselves now. When the Big Damn Heroes come in with a massive gunship or other vehicle with intimidating firepower (see BFG), it is a Big Damn Gunship. In the event that the Big Damn Heroes just show up in some relatively dramatic manner and clear a path for the Hero to get to whatever they need to go, usually during an air battle, it's the I Got You Covered subtype. Commonly precedes or constitutes awesome. Sometimes involves a Dynamic Entry. May be a Deus Ex Machina.
May take the form of Horseback Heroism. May double as a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming if the heroes had previously emphasized the fact that they wouldn't be showing — proving they aren't the jerkasses we thought they were. If they were busy with something else, but saw the crisis and dropped whatever they were doing in order to save the day, it's a case of Dudley Do Right Stops To Help.
Compare The Cavalry, when it's the heroes being rescued by the suddenly competent Redshirt Army. See also Contrived Coincidence. Polar opposite to Big Damn Villains. However, beware. Villain may declare You Are Too Late.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
Cue the reappearance of Great Mazinger (who had been out since episode 2) and shows how powerful he is with a Double Thunder Break.
- The Fullmetal Alchemist manga just had an incredibly awesome one from Ran Fan complete with new automail arm in chapter 86.
- Not to mention Izumi and Sig in chapter 96, with their heroic apperance just in the nick of time to save the Armstrong siblings from being killed by Sloth, with Izumi literaly throwing him in the air after it took a dozen trained men to hold him back.
- Roy gets one as well when he destroys all the Cyclops army in one page. Keep in mind, Ed and Scar were having a lot of trouble with these same guys for the entire previous chapter. T'was awesome.
- Lampshaded by Hoenheim in Chapter 88. When putting Alphonse's plan into action, he nonchalantly says "A hero always waits until the last minute to save the day, right?" Ed was not amused.
- And again in chapter 101 when Mei and the Chimeras appear just in the nick of time to save Roy, Riza and Scar from the creepy doctor, and heal Riza's neck wound.
- Suzumiya Haruhi - When Kyon was about to get killed by Ryoko Asakura, Yuki arrives to the rescue by breaking through the wall/into the space and catches the knife with her hands.
- In the 4th novel Disappearance, Yuki gets another Big Damn Heroes moment. Again, catches Asakura's knife.
- And then when Kyon himself mobilizes Mikuru, Yuki and the older Mikuru to save himself and shoot the changed Yuki with the program Yuki(non-changed one) gave him.
- Played straight in episode 19 of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The Angel Of The Week is trashing Central Dogma and suddenly Unit One crashes through the wall and Shinji kicks arse!
- And again in the lava episode (which one was it?) where Asuka, having killed the Angel of the Week, begins to sink into the magma, sure to die of either starvation, overheating or suffocation. Shinji, without specialised armor or orders, dives headfirst into the magma and catches her.
- While we're on the subject, I'd like to bring up Rei during the fight with Ramiel. I can't remember if this happens in the original series, so feel free to edit this if it does, but in the first Rebuild of Evangelion movie, just when it seems the Angel Ramiel is about to kill Shinji with a super powered laser, Rei comes to the rescue at the last second, blocking the energy blast with a frickin' space shuttle!
- In End Of Evangelion, Shinji is being held at gunpoint by three JSSDF soldiers, one pressing a gun barrel directly on his head. Just before he pulls the trigger, Misato bursts in at the last minute, gunning down all the soldiers and saving Shinji in a manner most impressive. Keep in mind that these are all trained, hardened soldiers, and Misato has likely never seen an actual battle her whole life, making it more awesome.
- This happens fairly often in Chrono Crusade. Two scenes that come to mind is Remington suddenly appearing to chase off Aion as he looms over a weakened Rosette and a badly injured Chrono, and Satella who comes flying in on a summoned beast to save Chrono and Rosette from a long fall.
- Berserk pulls a big one of these off in the manga when the Skull Knight saves the lives of Guts and Casca at the end of the Eclipse just as the two of them are about to be finished off by Griffith and the Godhand.
- Sailors Uranus and Neptune do this all the time in the anime adaptation of SailorMoon. Likewise, Sailor Pluto comes to their rescue at one point in Sailor Stars. In the movies, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are the de facto Reinforcements.
- At one point in the manga of Flame Of Recca, Recca suffers a serious Heroic BSOD. Apparently, not only that he found out that Mikagami picked up a Distress Ball and is now a hostage to the enemy, then he learns that Domon can't survive his Jumping Off The Cliff stunt way back, and Fuuko is currently getting drained of her personality. Who came to snap him out of it? DOMON, Not Quite Dead, instantly gives out a rallying speech that raises everyone's morale back. And you thought he's just a Dumb Muscle Joke Character...
- The second season of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni does this twice, a great indicator of the gradual mood change.
- First is towards the end of Minagoroshi-hen, with Keiichi, Rena, and the Sonozaki Twins saving Rika and Satoko from the Yamainu, only to be brutally subverted by the main villain showing up and personally murdering them all.
- Second, in Matsuribayashi-hen, Akasaka saves Rika by way of his new martial arts mastery.
- In Hellsing, Alexander Anderson and his monk/nun army, of all people, shows up to save Integra from an horde of vampires in a manner most awesome.
- Aya ends a Ten Minute Retirement with one of these in Weiss Kreuz. Yoji, Ken, and Omi are cornered, outnumbered, and out of ideas - until Aya arrives, standing on top of a speeding car and packing a machine gun.
- In the Black Cat manga, Train goes and saves Rinslet just before Creed is about to kill Naizer, making this example slightly different in that the person whose life was in immediate danger wasn't the Damsel In Distress. What follows after this, however, certainly makes this instance also a Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
- Train also does it the jerk-way when soldiers of the Apostle of Stars show up and corner Sven, Even, and Dr. Tearju; Train saves them with a newly acquired ability that forces the soldiers to retreat. Train later reveals that he had actually been watching for a while, and thought it would be funner if he showed up at the very last second. Sven comically punched him in the face for his trouble.
- During the Seven Devils arc in Kinnikuman, Mr. Khamen is about to suck out Brocken Jr.'s blood through a straw when Mongolman saves him.
- Subverted in Soul Eater: Near the end of the Kishin arc, Black Star and Death the Kid pull a Big Damn Heroes act on Eruka and Free just about to awaken the Kishin, and a battle ensues. In a last-ditch effort, Black Star manages to slice in half the tool used to awaken the Kishin, seconds before Eruka can use it. As he is celebrating his victory, Black Star suddenly finds that the aura of madness that the Kishin is emitting caused him to hallucinate the whole thing — he'd really just attacked one of the room's statues, and the Kishin is revived before the heroes' eyes.
- And played straight: Maka and Soul would have been killed by Crona in episode 8, for example, except that Stein and Spirit turned up and wiped the floor with the poor thing. Crona's reaction at being run through by Spirit - at this point behind the cathedral's closed door - is one of confusion (almost as though their body hadn't been damaged before). What follows is the series' first real example of why its adults are far from useless. And for some a CMOA, though your mileage may vary.
- Gun Buster, Episode 4. the Exelion fleet is ambushed during a Fold jump by Alien Monsters. almost all of the fleet is destroyed, the mecha squadrons are decimated, and everything looks at its worst . . . then Gunbuster Rises, Noriko at the controls, and destroys nearly entire alien fleet with one attack.
- Die Buster manages to do its predecessor justice in episode 4: The Variable Gravity Well has gone berserk. Most of the Buster Machine pilots are dead, and Europa has been literally shot through several times. The two remaining resident Action Girls are next to dead, and their mechs are totalled. The Variable Gravity Well turns around, stares right at them, charges its Texas-sized attack when, suddenly, reality shatters like a pane of glass, and up out of the hole to nothing, having warped all the way from Pluto to Jupiter instantaneously, raises Nono, hair aflame and sporting new duds. She absorbs said giant fucking death ray, summons a legion of space monsters, then slices Europa in half, all while giving a motivational speech with the Buster Machine March playing.
- Hell, she does it again in episode 6 when the entire Earth government has pooled its resources together to build a Buster Machine to propel Earth like a bomb to kill a blackhole, and just as it gets up to speed, reality shatters like a pane of glass, and up out of the hole to nothing, having warped all the way from outside the Solar System to Earth, raises the titular Earth sized fembot, "DIE! BUS! TER!"
- Chrome Shelled Regios when Layton increases his kei in order to save nina and win the match with the 16th platoon
- In Claymore, Awakened Being Agatha has Galetea literally pinned to the wall, and is about to kill Clarice and Miata. Her attack gets thrown off by one of her legs being destroyed. Cut to Clare and the rest of the Sexy Seven standing on top of a building in the rain and informing Agatha that as she is about to die, she doesn't need to know who they are.
- In the climax and crowning moment of confusing of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Syaoran and Sakura, arriving minutes too late to save Syaoran and a few days too late to save Sakura, are freed from a decade of imprisonment just in time to save their son, Syaoran, and his girlfriend, Sakura. Everyone with the same name looks exactly alike. Yes, it is somewhat hard to keep track of.
- Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Rei: Just when Keiichi has given up hope of escaping with his swimsuit from his friends, Tomitake, Oishi, and Irie (together with Keiichi, the "Heavenly Kings of Darkness") swoop in on surfboards in the middle of a pool scene to save him, each sprouting a grandiose line about not giving up. Oishi even ends up summoning a squad of fully-armed riot police to help, which storms in after their truck bursts through the pool fence.
- Subverted in the first Ranma ˝ movie. In a tense climactic scene between Kirin and Akane, the door finally bursts open. But instead of Ranma coming to her rescue, it's Ryoga Hibiki and the rest of the motley crew. Ranma gets his own big damn moment a little while later.
- Played straight rather sweetly earlier in the series, both anime and manga. When Ranma temporarily loses his strength to moxibustion, most of his enemies gang up and decide to give him the monumental collective ass-kicking they've been wanting to give him for some time. Ranma, on the ground, just about to be completely flattened, closes his eyes, hears a strange noise and opens them again to find Ryoga Hibiki, who has appeared out of nowhere, defending him.
- It's also played straight in the aforementioned movie. When the fishing rod-wielding Lucky God Ebiten has Ranma beaten, bleeding, and at his mercy, he winds up for the coup de grace... and suddenly a spinning bandanna comes flying and destroys his fishing rod. Cue Ryouga steamrolling over Ebiten on his way to Kirin's tower (closely followed by everyone else) while Ranma just blinks in bewilderment.
- The same movie also gave an earlier one to Shampoo. Ranma has been ensnared by a Razor Floss using martial artist, who is just about to cut him into pieces when Ranma's unwanted fiancée comes flying in from off-screen and cuts the wires before they can slice Ranma apart. She then tells him to go on and save Akane while she holds the line here.
- Gintama has a lot of last-minute rescues. Gintoki especially rescues Shinpachi a lot.
- Miaka of Fushigi Yuugi gets handed the Distress Ball a lot, but the trade-off is that her warriors get to pull off some nice last-minute saves. Tamahome does this too many times to count, and in fact one of these is the start of their Rescue Romance.
- Tasuki runs a close second: saving Nuriko, Hotohori and Miaka as they're about to be killed by zombies, showing up at the very last second to prevent Miaka from having her skull bashed in by brainwashed Tamahome, and finally showing up with Chichiri in the real world to take on Nakago.
- The twins get their moments as well. Amiboshi saves Miaka after his Heel Face Turn. As a result, Tomo corners both Amiboshi and Miaka with intent to kill them - at which point moral event horizon-crosser Suboshi unexpectedly shows up and murders Tomo on the spot for daring to threaten his beloved brother.
- In Azumanga Daioh, Sakaki is saved by the gang of cats led by Kamineko by the Irimouto cat she befriended earlier. Good thing there's something that doesn't hate her, right?
- Great Teacher Onizuka does this all the damn time, sometimes with gunshot wounds. Ask any of his students. He even lampshades it once, where he apologizes for not arriving earlier, but then that wouldn't have been as dramatic.
- Interestingly, One Piece which usually takes any opportunity to turn the heroism up to the eleventh doesn't use this trope much. In fact, the only time I can think of it happening is when Usopp, a not particularly heroic character, snipes out the marines ready to gun down Nico Robin from an impossible distance. And then strikes a badass pose.
- Well... "MERRY!!"
- Don't forget the epic awesome in chapter 502/episode 396 after the Straw Hats lose their chance of rescuing their friend, Caimie, who going to be sold as a slave to the World Nobles, Luffy comes crashing through the auction house window with Zoro and punches out the World Noble. Camie gets rescued.
- This changed most recently in Chapter 556, right in the middle of the ongoing war between Whitebeard's Pirates and the World Government, which is pretty much destined to end badly, Luffy and the Impel Down escapees have literally thrown themselves into the fray, right at at what looks to be the tipping point of the battle!
- There was another one, earlier — "The Hunter," anyone?
- But... Luffy loves this trope! In addition to the above mentioned rescues at [[Sabaody and Marineford]], he's pulled it off at Little Garden, Alabasta (twice, depending on your interpretation), and Thriller Bark.
- Subverted for laughs in Eureka Seven's infamous football episode. When things aren't looking good for the Gekko team, Holland takes off his coat and declares that he's going in. Cut to the score of 34-0 against the Gekkostate.
- This happened often in the first two seasons of Pokémon, complete with some great background music.
- In "Noodles Roamin' Off", after Team Rocket has separated, James goes to catch a violent shiny Metagross, but gets in over his head (He tried to fight it with Psychic-type Mime Jr. and Grass-type Carnivine, neither of which are very strong against Psychic/Steel Metagross). Just when it looks like he's at its non-existent mercy, Yanmega and Seviper show up with Jessie to save him (not that that should've worked either).
- And it didn't; Meowth had to save them both.
- At the climax of Pokémon 3, Ash, in a desperate struggle against Entei, and falls off a cliff. And then, Charizard, who was left by Ash in the Charicific Valley to become stronger, swoops in to save his trainer. What happens next is an epic battle between Ash's strongest Pokémon and the unstoppable force of nature known as Entei!
- This happened about three times in the teamup movie, Pretty Cure All Stars. First, Cure Black and Cure White saved Milky Rose, Cure Mint, and Cure Aqua from an freakin' huge Zakenna aeroplane. Then Cure Bloom and Cure Egret saved Cure Dream, Cure Lemonade, and Cure Rouge from an falling Uzainaa. Then Cure Peach, Cure Berry, and Cure Pine, are saved by everyone else from the innards of the Big Bad!
- God Ginrai does this to Star Saber in the latter's first fight with Liokaiser.
- Volume 11 of Love Hina ends with Keitaro FINALLY showing up - after nearly an entire volume of agonizing strife between Kanako and the rest of the girls, which largely wouldn't have happened had he been there - just in time to accidentally crash his van into the booby-trapped street vendor's cart Kanako was about to use to blow up Hinata Sou, foiling her attempt.
- It happens in Monster, mostly with Tenma, who always has a fire to stop or a child to save.
- Inn Transformers Zone, Metrotitan has Dai Atlas and Sonic Bomber on the ropes, but then Road Fire suddenly jets in to save them.
- The titular character of Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple has been known to do this. His masters also tend to show up when things really get bad.
- In Full Metal Panic, Sousuke tends to have awesome entrances like these to save the day. In fact, the amount of times he does this to his Arch Enemy Gauron are so numerous, Gauron eventually lampshades it mockingly. In the finale of the first season, Gauron tackles Sousuke (while in their AS), and holds him down while he tries to self destruct, teasingly telling Sousuke: "Well well, how do you like this? It's such a disgrace like this, isn't it? You can't act like a big damn hero and save the day in a cool way." Guess what: He does it anyways.
- In The Second Raid, Sosuke does this when it appears that Gates is going to wipe out his combat commander, and is even lampshaded by Kurz.
- Hell, both the first series
 and TSR opens with this. And of course the memorable moment where Gauron is about to shoot Sousuke point-blank when he gets scared off by Kurz descending on a parachute, firing a sniper rifle.
- For a Mafia gangster that insists he's totally a villain, Baccano!'s Luck Gandor sure ends up doing this a lot.
- Rachel also makes a habit of this, despite orders to the contrary.
- Surprisingly, in Pokemon Special, Giovanni of all people saves Yellow from being blasted to smitereens by Lance. (Of course, he ran away afterwards, but it was cool at the moment.)
Comic Books
- In the climax of Watchmen, this is subverted. The big bad saw the Big Damn Heroes coming and activated his plan as he did. Consequently, they arrive 35 minutes too late.
- Elf Quest: in part 15 of the original series, just as the Wolfriders and Leetah are about to be slaughtered by Guttlekraw's trolls, they are rescued by the Go-Backs and (big spoiler): Rayek. All except One-Eye, who's killed before they arrive. Here's the scene, if all the spoiler tags haven't put you off.
- Y: The Last Man. Natalya and Ciba arrive just in time to stop one of Alter's mooks from kidnapping Beth Junior. Genre Savvy Hero even quips: "Natalya; always with the last minute Han Solo."
- Grant Morrison is particularly fond of this trope, beginning his obsession in Zenith (see this article) and taking it to its logical conclusion in Seven Soldiers, which is literally just a bunch (conspicuously more than seven) of those moments strung together, from the badass ( "Gloriana! There is one!") to the farcical ( Bulleteer accidentally running over the Queen of Darkness in a cartoony art style to boot) encompassing romantic, metafictional and slightly creepy along the way even finding room for an ambiguous aversion, with Klarion merrily fulfilling his own personal character arc at the expense of the rest of the "team"
- Subverted in his JLA run when The Key devises a plan that actually depends on the Justice League's last minute heroic victory.
- Played straight moments later when Green Arrow Jr. shuts him down with a boxing glove arrow to the face.
- "Ultron. We would have words with thee."
- "And yet, through the smoke, Xavier sensed a coming... of hope... of heroes... of Marvels."
- There are some instances in the X Wing Series comics that count. In Requiem for a Rogue, Wedge is captured by a Sithling who wants to use him as bait for the other Rogues. The other Rogues come on foot to rescue him, and he slips away while the Sithling is directing his forces. Just as three Rogues are about to get killed, Wedge appears with two stolen blasters, shouting "Everybody down!◊" "Wedge! You're alive!" "Yeah, and you can keep me that way by moving your behinds!"
- This is essentially the Great Red Dragon's main schtick.
- The final battle in Kingdom Come is getting out of control. It looks like the apocalypse is only seconds away, and "their only hope for salvation rests with a force from on high." Cue Batman and his army of super heroes.
- Subverted in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, during the Foot's attack at April's building; despite Casey Jones' Big Damn Heroes entrance, the Shredder's forces still manage to overrun the heroes, and they are eventually forced to retreat. The scene is eventually adapted into the first movie and the second cartoon.
- In the Sinestro Corps War arc of Green Lantern, Hal Jordan is fighting a losing battle against Parallax in the anti-matter universe when the rest of the Corps shows up just in time.
Parallax: [to Hal Jordan] You've been despised and abandoned by your corps.
Green Lantern: [from offpanel] Despised is one thing. But abandoned? That the Green Lantern Corps don't do.
(cut to a two page spread of the Corps appearing in the middle of the battlefield)
Fan Fic
Film
- Pretty much every single time Batman smashes through a window involves a Big Damn Hero entrance.
- Spider-Man 3 has a great Big Damn Heroes scene from Harry Osborn.
- Subversion: In El Mariachi, the prequel to Desperado, the titular character (played by Carlos Gallardo instead of Antonio Banderas) arrives too late to prevent bad guy Moco from gunning down Domino, his love interest, in a fit of jealousy.
- This trope could very well have also been called "The Han Solo Moment", after the scene at the end of the first Star Wars movie when he shows up to save Luke from Darth Vader during the Death Star battle.
- A classic version of this occurs in Iron Man where an Afghan village is being terrorized. Just as the head thug is about to execute an innocent villager as his wife and children scream for them to stop, everyone hears something falling out the sky....Iron Man! Who then proceeds to lay the smackdown on all the terrorists in short order.
- Kung Fu Hustle. In a scene lasting about three to four minutes, there are three Big Damn Heroes moments, one from each of the Three Heroes. The first is easily the most impressive, involving a lighter being caught by a coolie in a scene that would make the aforementioned Firefly crew green with envy, and the hero facing off against something on the order of a hundred gangsters. The others are less impressive, but only by comparison, involving a gay tailor sending a man through and beating the crap out of the gangsters swarming the first man, and a donut-making baker taking on three men armed with thompson machine guns with a pair of blunt sticks meant to roll out dough. Aint they just Three Big Damn Heroes?
- Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country. Most of the characters besides Kirk, Spock and McCoy had been given relatively simple (but meaningful) roles to play. That made this moment even more special as Captain Sulu and the Excelsior crew came to help the Enterprise against the cloaked Klingon ship. When they finally get the upper hand, "Target that explosion and fire!" it is especially satisfying. George Takei affectionately calls the movie 'Captain Sulu to the Rescue.'
- Remember the buildup to this moment too? Sulu orders his helmsman to fly faster to which he replies "But sir, she'll fly apart!" With satisfying, angry determination "FLY HER APART THEN!"
- In Star Trek First Contact, the Borg are back and are slaughtering the Federation starships standing between it and Earth, including the Defiant, being commanded by Worf. The Borg lock on and begin cripling the ship...
Worf: "Report!"
Worf: "Perhaps today IS a good day to die. Prepare for raming speed!"
Helsman: "Sir, there's another ship coming in... it's the Enterprise!"
Cue two torpedoes destroying the Borg cutting beam as the massive Enterprise swoops between the two ships, drawing the cube's fire and suffering no damage! Picard then tops this by taking command of the fleet and ordering them to concentrate their fire on a single, non-vital spot, which opens up its secondary power relay to a direct assult from the Enterprise's quantum torpedoes. The formerly "invincible" Borg cube was destroyed within seconds.
- This was arguably cockblocking Worf from trying to prove that Ramming Always Works, but it's still an awesome moment.
Literature
- I'm giving one to Harry Dresden for his Dinosaur Rescue, even if he didn't know his people needed rescue.
- As stated in film, in The Lord Of The Rings there are plenty of these, though played a little differently in the book. At Helm's Deep Gandalf comes with Erkenbrand and an army to turn the battle at Helm's Deep. King Theoden, Eomer, and secretly Eowyn and Merry come with a huge army to help turn the tide at the Battle of Pelennor Fields. When the Corsair ships come, it then looks to be a Big Damn Villains moment, but it turns out to be Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, the Grey Company, and enough soldiers from the south to turn the tide.
- The Hobbit has a few of these as well, with the eagles rescuing Gandalf, Bilbo, and the dwarves quite literally in the nick of time, Bilbo rescuing the dwarves from the spiders, Gandalf rescuing the dwarves and Bilbo from the goblins, and the eagles and Beorn helping turn the tide of the Battle of the Five Armies.
- Happens in The Silmarillion too, Luthien saving Beren from Tol-in-Gaurhoth just one of many examples. Tolkien was really fond of this trope.
- In the Fairy Tale, Bluebeard, the heroine asks her murderous husband for a chance to pray as a last request, and her brothers arrive to save her just as her time is up.
- In Angela Carter's version of this story in The Bloody Chamber, it is the heroine's mother who comes galloping over the flooded causeway on horseback, bursts through the gates of the castle, and without a moment's hesitation, shoots her daughter's husband in the head with a revolver just as he's about to cut her head off. Definitely a Big Damn Heroes moment for mothers everywhere.
- Similarly, the heroine of The Seven Swans is rescued by her brothers just as she's about to be burned at the stake for witchcraft.
- In the Star Trek novel My Enemy, My Ally, the Enterprise and renegade Romulan vessel Bloodwing are fleeing from a Romulan research station with the Vulcan-crewed starship Intrepid II, having just freed the latter and her crew from being experimented upon. With Romulan forces overtaking them, they're saved in the nick of time as Starfleet reinforcements charge in across the Neutral Zone. Turns out to be a subversion, as Kirk had actually ordered them to do so several days previously, pre-emptively calculating that if he hadn't made it back by then, he'd probably need backup at that exact time.
- In Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain novel For the Emperor, Jurgen and Sorel get one of these moments when they arrive just in time to save Cain and Amberley from a Genestealer Broodlord.
- John Moore's Slay and Rescue opens with Genre Savvy hero Prince Charming (that's actually his name) carefully timing the rescue of a princess to achieve this effect. It's part of the job.
- In Dan Abnett's Brothers of The Snake, a Space Marine arrives on planet to deal with an attack of Dark Eldar when it has wreaked havoc.
- Used a couple times in the Harry Potter series. In The Goblet of Fire, Harry is seconds away from being killed by Mad-Eye Moody, who in reality is a disguised Barty Crouch Jr., when Dumbledore and a few other teachers blast their way through his door and knock him out. It's then used twice in a row in The Order of the Phoenix, when Harry and his friends are saved from the Death Eaters, first by multiple members of the order (Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Kingsly, and the real Mad-Eye Moody), then after the Death Eaters appear to gain the upper hand, Dumbledore again saves the day, single-handedly rounding up most of the Death Eaters within a matter of seconds.
- OK, while the book is good, Cornelia Funke really overuses this in Inkdeath.
- In "City of Glass" Jace saves Clary from being killed by the big bad. The big bad then proceeds to kill Jace seconds after he gives his World Of Cardboard Speech.
- In The Thrawn Trilogy, Luke's team heads into an old ship lost in deep space, covered by Rogue Squadron. Fey'lya's ship and two escorting squadrons show up to place Luke's team and the Rogues under arrest for leaving without acting with the Council's permission(it's a complicated plot). While the two New Republic forces argue, an Imperial Star Destroyer jumps in, sends troops into the old ship, and begins the attack. Fey'lya and his squadrons turn to flee while the Rogues fly cover and Luke's team fights boarders. Fey'lya is lured into an Engineered Public Confession, and his ship and squadrons turn to help the Rogues, but things still look bad. Then Talon Karrde's backup force of miscellaneous ships shows up but still, an Imperial Star Destroyer is more than they can handle. Finally, Garm Bel Iblis shows up with his six heavy Dreadnaughts, and they finally start winning. And then a second Imperial Star Destroyer comes out of hyperspace. It sounds complicated, but it's pretty awesome. And has all sorts of Stuff Blowing Up.
- Vision Of The Future: Garm Bel Iblis and his people grimly realize that they've fallen into a trap and plan to ram the nearest capital ship, hoping that the snubfighters at least can escape. The three rogue Imperials who are impersonating Thrawn gloat and start talking some Mistryl shadow warriors into pitching in with them. Then Supreme Commander Pellaeon arrives in-system, bullies his way onto their ship, exposes the plot, orders Imperial ships to stop firing and pull back, and finally gets to pitch peace to Garm Bel Iblis.
- At a few points in the X Wing Series, Y-Wing squadrons appear just in time to save Rogue Squadron. X-Wing jockeys don't have the best opinion of Y-Wings, and one Y-Wing pilot remarks that the Rogues always sound so pained when thanking them.
- In the fifth Young Wizards book, this happens when the Lone Power is giving Nita Its Evil Gloating speech. She's just about ready to give in...when her wizard partner Kit bursts in in the nick of time. "Fairest and Fallen, one more time...greetings and defiance." You can practically hear the epic music.
- In Bill Baldwin's Helmsman series, the final battle of the first book is the protagonist having to hold off three ships. He actually thinks about this trope, about how the BDH only arrive on time in books. Of course, since this is a book, a few cruisers do arrive - when half his crew is dead and the ship is good for nothing but scrap (and only half an enemy ship remains).
- Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie do it all the time in Journey To The West.
Live Action TV
- The trope name (and the quote) comes from Firefly, wherein Mal and the rest of the crew save Simon and River from being burned at the stake in the episode "Safe".
- Ace Rimmer (What a guy!) in Red Dwarf is usually introduced in a Big Damn Heroes scene. In his first appearance, he flies in, saves the crew, then performs emergency surgery on the Cat while nursing a broken arm. The second time, he literally sweeps in, rescues a Distressed Damsel from a Nazi firing squad, surfs from a plane on an alligator, takes a bullet to the holodrive and still manages to have sex before seeking aid — what a guy.
- In an episode of the 2004 reimagining of Battlestar Galactica, called "Exodus", the titular ship is attacked by three Cylon Basestars while attempting to help colonists on the planet New Caprica escape. The ship is severely damaged, and somber music plays while the camera zooms out as the basestars pummel the Galactica to death in the cold darkness of space... until a missile, then more missiles, fire off the edge of the screen, and the Battlestar Pegasus hurtles to the rescue, just in the nick of time. Of course, this is just the high point to heroic events which kicked off with a deadpan "Prepare for turbulence".
- In season 4, episode 13, Lee is captured by members of Zarek's rebellion against the human-Cylon alliance. It looks as though he's about to be shot, and there's a gunshot...and you see Lee's face, spattered with blood, and Starbuck standing there, pistol in one hand. Another of the rebels moves, and she draws another pistol, shooting him. "I can do this all day." It escalates the situation later on, but it's awesome at the time.
- Stargate SG-1 did pretty much the same thing as Battlestar Galactica, above, in a battle against Anubis fleet above Antarctica, in the two-parter Grand Finale (well, it was a finale at the time), "Lost City", at the end of season seven. Dozens of ships are descending towards the heroes' defenseless cargo ship. Cue rockets blowing up Goa'uld fighters, as General Hammond leads the Prometheus against the incoming enemies.
- Raven pulls one of thee at the ending of The Secret Temple. About bloody time too.
- Both of those situations share several stylistic similarities: main characters convinced that they are doomed, and the sudden appearance of rockets, instantly followed by the use of a Theme Music Power Up: Galactica with fast-paced drums and Stargate with the main theme of the series. The resemblance is probably just a coincidence, unless a Galactica writer did a Homage to SG-1.
- Another example is in Stargate Atlantis at the beginning of season 2 when Atlantis is under imminent attack, the self-destruct is armed and counting... then Earth responds to their earlier distress call with a small army of marines and an intergalactic battlecruiser.
- That's nothing compared to the series' grand finale. Seriously, the best BIG FUCKING GUNSHIP moment ever.
- Also shows up in the Babylon 5 episode "Walkabout". Just as Sheridan's White Star is about to be destroyed by a Shadow ship, the Narn cruiser G'Tok arrives and thoroughly fries the Shadow battlecrab. A small army of reinforcements arrive immediately thereafter.
- And again when the station breaks away from the Earth Alliance, after the station beats the EA's first wave and the second wave shows up. Delenn arrives Just In Time... with a Minbari War Cruiser (several, actually). CMoA ensues.
- G'Kar is good at these. A Late Delivery From Avalon, and they made a very satisfying thump when they hit the ground.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: At the closing moments of Season Six's penultimate episode, Willow, on a black-eyed bender of murderous, bad-magic-is-bad fury, is mopping the Magic Box floor with the Slayer, the only one who might have been strong enough to stop Willow's skin-flaying rampage. With Buffy down, Willow crows her triumph, informing all present (at least those still conscious) that there is no one on earth who is powerful enough to stop her. Cue Big Damn Hero entrance in the form of Rupert Giles, hepped up on some serious magic of his own, to test Willow's theory.
Xander: I saved the world with talking from my mouth. My mouth saved the world.
- Doctor Who: Mickey and Jackie showing up to save Sarah Jane.
- Not to mention the Doctor smashing through a mirror astride a white horse (series 2) to save Madame De Pompadour from the creepy clockwork men.
- Cleverly framed toward the end of "The Doctor Dances". Jack Harkness is sitting in his cockpit, knocking back a hypervodka, resigned to the imminent destruction of his ship. The camera pulls away from Jack slowly, showing him in the center as the camera passes through the interior of his ship...and into the TARDIS. Cut to the Doctor and Rose dancing, and Rose shouts to Jack, "Well, c'mon!"
- In Torchwood, Ianto Jones is about to have his throat slit by a cannibal with a meat clever, when good ol' Captain Jack kicks down the door and starts shooting people. Narm or Ruleof Cool? The choice is yours.
- Lampshaded by an ungrateful Third Doctor: "Thank you, Bridadier. Do you think for once in your life you could arrive before the nick of time?"
- Lost, third season finale "Through the Looking Glass:" Three of the Others are holding Sayid, Jin, and Bernard at gunpoint. Sawyer and Juliet are hiding in the bushes, wondering how they can possibly rescue them unarmed. All of a sudden Hurley comes barreling onto the beach and runs over one of them with a Volkswagen Bus.
- Ace Lightning tends to end it's series' with Big Damn Heroes moments, usually in the form of a Power Trio.
- In the series finale of Roswell, Michael is on his way out of town when he sees a fleet of black cars heading the other way. Rightly guessing this means trouble, he turns back... just in time to burst through the school auditorium doors on a motorbike, ride up the aisle and onto the stage, where Max gets on behind him and everyone gets away.
- Happens fairly often in the 60s spy series The Man From UNCLE. Usually Solo is in James Bondage (often with the Girl Of The Week beside him) when Kuryakin will swoop in at the nick of time; occasionally it happens with the roles reversed. One example: The second season episode "The King of Diamonds Affair", when Kuryakin arrives to save Solo, the innocent of the week, and a villain-turned-hero who are strapped to cannons with lit fuses which are about to fire:
Napoleon Solo: Next time, try not waiting til the last minute.
Illya Kuryakin: Next time try not to go that far up the Amazon.
- Occurs all the time in Supernatural.
- But utterly subverted in the Season 4 finale, "Lucifer Rising": Sam kills Lilith, which he thinks will stop her from breaking the final seal that will release Lucifer from his prison, but it turns out that she was the final seal, and killing will set Lucifer free. Dean arrives to tell him this, but Ruby prevents him from getting into the room until it's too late.
- Star Trek Deep Space Nine, episode "Shattered Mirror". When Mirror Bashir and Mirror Dax swoop in to save the day, we've almost forgotten that they were a part of the plan all along.
- It happens again in "Sacrifice of Angels", when the Klingons arrive late (better than never) to the fight.
- Sharpe's Challenge sees Richard Sharpe, unarmed and being charged by mooks, saved by the timely arrival of a horseman who blasts the baddies with a seven-barrel Nock gun. So it's a Big Damn Heroes moment, The Reveal and a Crowning Moment Of Awesome all in the one short sequence.
- In the Season 2 finale of Chuck, the day is saved in the form of John Casey and his unit parachuting into the Church, to the tune of Mr. Roboto.
- True Blood: Jason Stackhouse confronts a mob of Maryann's crazed revelers armed with only a chainsaw and a nailgun in order to save Sam from being sacrificed. Thanks to a rare moment of cleverness on his part, it works. Took A Level In Badass, indeed.
- Dai Sentai Goggle V opens with Akama Ken'ichi AKA Goggle Red saving Dr. Hongou from Deathdark in the nick of time, while just passing by, even before he knew he's going to be Goggle Red.
Music
- This is the core theme of the Coasters' novelty song "Along Came Jones" (written by Lieber and Stoller).
- The free-runner in the "It's Not My Time" video cuts his Big Damn Heroes moment extremely close.
Professional Wrestling
- This is called the run-in, and can be done by both heels and faces alike—but there's nothing like the crowd's pop when a face runs in to save an overmatched friend.
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- The beginning of Star Fox 64 features a Big Damn Heroes moment. The Star Fox team flies in and save Corneria from the invading forces of Andross' army.
- Wolf O' Donnell gets one in Star Fox Assault when he saves Fox McCloud from a group of Aparoids.
- Subverted and lampshaded in Disgaea 2, when
Demon Lord Beauty Queen Etna, arrives just in time to save the heroes from being overrun by a neverending flood of zombies. She's actually downright annoyed that she's wound up arriving just in the nick of time, "like one of those 'heroes of justice' losers", and considers just letting the zombies finish you off before taking on the Big Bad - fortunately for you, the Big Bad is carrying the Villain Ball, and sics the Mooks on her instead of letting them finish you. Cue the explosions.
- Played straight and lampshaded later in the game with Axel arriving with his flute to subdue the Rifle Demons (see the second page quote)
- Played straight in the first Disgaea if you lose to the Alternate Overlord (and if you're not on a New Game Plus, you will), with all the random high-level NP Cs from the castle saving your party.
- Happens Several times in Skies Of Arcadia.
- In Tales of Symphonia, before facing Yggdrasill in Welgaia, all of the members of the party besides Lloyd apparently sacrifice their lives (via being caught in various traps) so that Lloyd may continue onward to face Yggdrasill. Finally, Lloyd enters the chamber in which Yggdrasill is waiting for the completion of the transfer of Martel's soul to Colette's body. Yggdrasill is shocked and extremely angry that Lloyd managed to reach him, and moves to kill him — but then a fireball from above stops Yggdrasill in his tracks. What do you know, the rest of the party didn't die after all, and appeared just in time to save Lloyd! (This scene also counts as a Battle Royale With Cheese.)
- Final Fantasy VIII pretty much lives off this trope. Half the game seems to be centered around Big Damn Heroes moments.
- There's one in Final Fantasy IV, too! After smiting the Calcobrina dolls, the group is confronted by Golbez, who promptly douses them with a paralyzing agent before summoning a Shadow Dragon to start killing them. Kain gets off lucky if he's in the air before the gas goes off and when the killing begins; Rosa and Yang are still screwed. Golbez happened to be hiding the Villain Ball in his robe at the time, as he takes a moment to bid Cecil farewell... a moment too long, as that's when a Mist Dragon erases Golbez' Shadow Dragon and Cecil's paralysis is lifted via Unicorn Horn before the real boss battle begins. Name the mystery benefactor, folks.
- And viciously subverted in Final Fantasy X: Yuna is gettin' hitched to the Big Bad, Seymour, so the party comes charging in on an airship to crash the wedding, guns blazing, kicking physics to the curb—and all they do is get overwhelmed by the amount of guards there and ruin Yuna's plan to Send Seymour by giving him material to threaten her with—kill him and they die too. And then they all wind up arrested and imprisoned anyhow, though were it not for Yuna thinking on her feet, they'd be dead. Yuna herself manages to escape and then has to go into the dungeon and rescue them alone. So this is a vicious subversion of the Distressed Damsel too.
- During the second trip through the Forsaken Fortress in The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Tetra pulls this twice - once to distract the Helmarock King and buy time to rescue the captives and again when Link is in Ganondorf's grasp... only for this attempt to fail and require another dramatic rescue.
- A pretty ironic example, considering that she's the damnsel and he's the hero. Well, she's an Action Girl after all.
- It also happens in Twilight Princess, as Link gets confronted by a hoard of enemies in Hyrule castle, and suddenly BAM. Cavalry. Well, infantry, but same effect.
- Fridge Logic sets in as you realize Link has survived much more than the single arrow which was headed for him, and he regularly beats down all sorts of monsters (especially the kind he was up against in this case) without any trouble.
- Pretty much happens in every case of the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney series at some point. The prosecution appears to have won and Phoenix is ready to give up but then... OBJECTION! Someone comes in with new evidence to save the day. The last case in the second game ends up boiling down to stalling until the big damn hero arrives.
- Also of note is the third case of the first and third games where Detective Gumshoe pulls this outside of court.
- Not to mention Gumshoe's failed attempt at this in the fourth case of second game, and Franziska's pick up save off of this at the very last second.
- This happens four times during the final showdown of Ace Attorney Investigations, and three◊ of◊ them◊ get dramatic full-screen shots. (Spoilers on the links)
- We go this far and Larry Butz's big save in game 1, case 4 is left out? That one is one of the more epic ones.
- This trope occurs in Halo games several times, with Master Chief rescuing marines, or Johnson rescuing the chief. The third game directly references the Trope Namer, as a character called Sergeant Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, states, "Looks like we got here just in the nick of time. What's that make us?". Gamers everywhere immediately replied "Big Damn Heroes, sir!"
- In fact, part of the ad campaign for Halo 3 was based around the beneficiaries of such moments reminicing about the hero who saved them. You can see a couple of these ads here and here.
- The Subspace Emmisary of Super Smash Bros Brawl has Sonic showing up just in time to prevent the final boss Tabuu from releasing a superattack on everyone. Also Ness and Falco get their Big Damn Heroes moment.
- Meta Knight manages to save Lucas and Red/Pokemon Trainer from falling to their deaths (or rather falling to their trophycation).
- Link, Mario, Pit, Kirby, and Yoshi get one as well, leaping off a cliff to come to the aid of some of the other heroes who're fighting off the
Heartless Primids.
- Pretty much every character gets one of these at one point or another. Fox bursting out of the wreckage of his Arwing to save Diddy Kong, Captain Falcon using his signature move to take out a ROB who's just annihilated Cpt. Olimar's pikmin team, Ike destroying a Subspace Bomb being carried by the Ancient Minister, this list could earn its own separate page.
- Fire Emblem does this in every game out in the US (probably every game, period), generally as reinforcement to the stories Lord showing when they are in a really serious bind. However on easier difficulties this often leads to the reinforcements needing AMAZING projection as they aren't as leveled.
- The first example of the Lord getting to be the "Big Damn Hero" is in Fire Emblem 7 (released in the states as Fire Emblem). Florina (a supporter to the tutorial chapter's lord, Lyn) arrives to the main team of heroes to tell how her Lyn and the castle are under attack, naturally the main team of the game go to save them.
- Second example is in Fire Emblem 10, right when Lucia is going to be executed by the rebellion, The Greil Mercenaries in PERFECT Big Damn Heroes form all show up. What's great is that in the cutscene for their arrival, each one arrives saving another member of the party from being attacked. So any time the villains attempt a counter strike, they are instantly taken down. Making it a string of Big Damn Hero moments.
- In Mega Man Battle Network 6 (6 being the last game) in the 3rd to last (the last 2 being past the point of no return) cutscreen in the game, the villans realize it is a better idea to take on the Kid Hero in the real world then in cyberspace, only one of these moments save Lan.
- To be broader, Battle Network loves this trope such much that it has a Leit Motif for it
- Laker from Super Robot Wars Original Generation actally plans this, he lets Elzam keep the Kurogane, and occasionally gives him mechs so he can have moments like these, and aid the Hagane, and Hiryuu Custom from the shadows. In Original Generation 02 the Hagane did this a lot in the early levels pissing off the Shirogane's captain Lee Injun, who was jealous of the Hagane.
- Axel Almer and Alfimi both did this in OG Gaiden to play part in the Super Robot Wars MX prologue. When the Jetzt wrecked the Cry Wolves, and it got Foglia killed, Hugo fatally wounded and Albero is sure in to be their next victim, suddenly both of them arrive and attracted the Jetzt, giving Albero time to escape with Hugo.
- An official Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 manga features a rather epic version of this. After the Big Bad is defeated, Son Ganlong appears to take advantage of the Alpha Numbers' weakened state and finish them once and for all. At that point all the Alphas who didn't return in 3 show up to support their friends and dispense an almighty smackdown.
- In Call Of Duty 4 you both play as the Big Damn Heroes in several missions and are blown up by a nuke because of it in one outstanding, totally badass instance and are saved by the Big Damn Russians in the very last mission, though Gaz and Griggs would probably have preffered it if they could have arrived a few moments earlier....
- In Modern Warfare 2 General Sheperd does this to the horribly outnumbered and wounded 141 squad led by Ghost and Roach, personally wielding a .44 magnum to fend off the Russian hordes.
- Major Subversion: he immediately murders Ghost and Roach to further his own plans.
- "Reinforcements? I am the reinforcements."
- The same line occurs in Mass Effect on Virmire, when you ride in to recue the Salarian recon squad. They are less than impressed with your Bad Ass selves, wondering why the Council didn't send the army they asked for.
- And speaking of Mass Effect, what about "It's the Alliance! Thank the Goddess!" One of the possible endings has the Alliance fleet arrive just in time to save the Council and its flagship, the Destiny Ascension.
- In Metal Gear Solid 4, Johnny Sasaki, the resident Butt Monkey of the series, saves both Solid "Old" Snake and Meryl in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and then saves Meryl near the end of the game. Johnny and Meryl then proceed to kick a lot of ass, becoming a Battle Couple in the process. Also Raiden, who would save Snake's life at least twice... the first time cutting off an arm to do so, then the second time appearing without his arms, his sword (Rule Of Cool) first clutched in his teeth and then in his left foot.
- Shinobu during the final boss fight of No More Heroes.
- Subverted multiple times in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, wherein the bounty hunters show up just in time to reactivate a dead orbital cannon and nuke the Space Pirates' asteroid weapon - and then just before they can hit the Big Red Button, Dark Samus shows up and blows them all away, achieving a Big Damn Villain moment of her own.
- And then subverted yet again, as Samus turns out to be Only Mostly Dead, hauling herself to the control panel and activating the cannon before lapsing into a month-long Convenient Coma.
- The World Ends With You has Neku and Shiki, in the third day, almost out of time. Then at the last second, Beat and Rhyme show up and finish off the "master of A-East." Since only one player needs to complete the mission to spare everyone from the threat of erasure that comes with running out of time, their action not only spared them, but also Neku, Shiki, and all the other players currently in the game.
- Near the end of their week, Neku and Josh get a few chances to do this during a Taboo Noise rampage, two out of three of which you can skip over and the third one, oddly enough, forces you to save someone who is as good as dead even if you save him from the things.
- At the beginning of the third week, Neku is the only player in the game after all the other players have been taken as his entry fee, meaning that he can't partner up with anybody and is completely defenseless. Just as he's about to get erased, Reaper Beat comes out of nowhere to form a pact with Neku.
- In Mega Man X 2, if X succeeds in retrieving all of Zero's parts from the X-Hunters, Zero will break into the Central Computer's core just before Sigma unleashes his Copy-Zero on X, then proceed to destroy the Copy himself and punch a hole in the floor for X to pursue Sigma, all accompanied by kick-ass heroic music.
- Zero's introduction in the original Mega Man X is another Big Damn Heroes moment that establishes him as a serious Bad Ass.
- At the end of Megaman X3 either Zero or Dr. Doppler will arrive just in time to save X from the invincible Viral Sigma.
- "Looks like we are the support, huh, Colonel?"
- Earlier than that, when Marcus, Dom, and Rook- I mean Carmine are exploring the ruins of Ilima City and get pinned down by a squad of Locust, Cole pulls off a superb Big Damn Heroes by showing up and taking out the entire enemy squad by himself. "Nobody plays this game like me!", indeed.
- Early on in Suikoden II, Flik and Victor show up just in time to stop the executions of the main character and Jowy. On your way out, you discover the main character's sister has broken out of jail on her own, and was on her way to attempt the same.
- A variation in War Craft III. Arthas and the village have held the line as best they can, but finally the undead are proving unstoppable...and then Uther, with The Cavalry at his back, charges into battle. But despite his initial joy:
Arthas: Uther! Your timing couldn't have been better!
- ...he becomes defensive later, when he misinterprets Uther's admiration as disbelief that he was good enough to hold out so long.
- In Half-Life 2: Episode 2, you try to protect a defenseless vortigaunt with two mooks and two busted turrets. By the last wave, it's the three of you and one working turret against dozens of Antlions. Then the last turret breaks down. You figure this is going to get unpleasant. Then, three Vortigaunts, who have been nothing but background filler until now, wander into the scene. Moments later, it's you, two mooks, and three Vortigaunts, against HUNDREDS of Antlions, all coming at once. And you know what? The Antlions never stood a chance. I really never expected the Vorts would get a Big Damn Hero moment, but there it was.
- Alyx gets a fine moment of her own in Half-Life 2 when she saves Gordon from the metrocops early in the game. Then there's Gordon himself, who only hesitates to fling himself into alien dimensions and unstable fusion reactors if you, the player, make him.
- And it decisively shifted the Vortigaunt's personality from fugly alien Magic Negros to definite badasses.
- Tales Of Phantasia offers a rather interest example, wherein one character performs a Big Damn Heroes moment for the player characters... who immediately perform one back. Near the beginning of the game, the Big Bad Dhaos is unsealed, and Morrison casts a spell to send Cless and Mint 100 years into the past in order to save them from Dhaos. The two of them go on a journey (collecting two other allies in the process), and eventually activate another time warp to appear between Morrison and Dhaos, mere seconds after Morrison had sent them away. To the player, it took 30 or so hours of gameplay, but to the mentor and the bad guy, they appeared to have warped right back... until they proceed to kick Dhaos's ass, something they certainly couldn't have done when Dhaos first appeared.
- All of a sudden, some guys rushed into the room!
- City Of Heroes: Most of the missions involve you arriving just in time to save someone, keep something from being from being destroyed, or stop a villian's plan.
- There's two in fairly close succession at the beginning of Valkyria Chronicles, the first where Welkin saves his adopted sisters life by clubbing an imperial soldier about to shoot her with a fence-post, the second moments later when the siblings get their dad's old tank up and running and perform a proper rescue of the town watch in Bruhl. Alicia even mentions 'Now you're my hero' to Welkin afterwards.
- Lancer of Fate Stay Night is king of this trope in the UBW path. Has his heart impaled, and then he kills the Big Bad of the last route in one attack. That's cool right? Heroic determination and stuff, nice from a guy who was basically just a minion. Only then Shinji shows up, and gets big damn heroed out as well, though not fatally. Still walking around and chatting sans heart, he lets Tohsaka go and burns the entire castle down.
- Gilgamesh subverts it by turning into the next baddie. Archer zigzags on the 'hero' bit.
- Tragically subverted in Cave Story, wherein the BDH arives moments too late to save the victim from being force fed a red flower, and is killed moments later when he tries to attack the villains in a rage. And then you have to Shoot The Dog.
- Later played straight in the final, good ending, where you and Curly Brace are nearly crushed to death by a set of moving walls before Balrog the flying toaster, of all people, swoops in to save you.
- In the last mission of Battalion Wars 2, Pierce has no fewer than 3 Big Damn Heroes moments: providing 3 Fighters to combat the air force; shooting down Kaiser Vlad's escape transport, rendering his obtaining the staff useless, at least until the next game; and giving Betty a ride on his personal Fighter to rescue her from being nuked by Vlad's usage of the staff used to call the satellite weapon.
- Mech Warrior 3, you have picked up two of your 3 available npc allies and are travelling across country to try and rendezvous with mechwarrior Keith Andrew, who you have been in contact with for much of the game. On the way, in dire need of repairs, you come across an enemy fortress and secure it for supplies. The enemy responds by sending a massive force, and another from the other way, and there's an assault mech closing from the west, wait isn't that...
Alan Matilla: Can you read me, Damocles Command? Looks like you need a hand.
- Turns out you're also his best chance of survival since he can't even reload without assistance, but credit for the entrance. Keith Andrew never joins you and eventually meets with a rescue ship that you can't reach.
- There's a great one of these in World Of Warcraft, during the Northrend quest Tirion's Gambit. At the end of a long (and excellent) quest chain, you enlist the help of Tirion Fordring to get a shot at destroying an artifact important to the Lich King. You, Tirion and a small band of Argent Crusade paladins sneak incognito into the Cathedral of Darkness, but the Lich King appears and exposes you all. Surrounded by elite Cultists, you and the Crusaders prepare for a hopeless battle, when...
Koltira Deathweaver: Take courage, crusaders. You do not fight alone!
- Highlord Darion Mograine and the Knights of the Ebon Blade rush in to save the day.
- Also, at the Battle of the Wrathgate, the Alliance army is getting its ass kicked when...
Bolivar: I was wondering when you would show up.
Saurfang the Younger: I couldn't let the Alliance have all the fun today!
- And then he proceeds to kill three massive Frost Vrykul with one swipe.
- And now there is a new one with the Halls of Reflection instance. You attempt to confront the Lich King, but your group can't last, so you flee down a secret exit trying to hold off the hordes of approaching undead.
Trapped on the edge of a cliff outside the tunnel, Lich King closes in, and then your factions airship rises up the cliff behind you and seals the enemies in the tunnel with a few well aimed cannon blasts
- Horde Characters starting off in the Borean Tundra Northrend get their butts saved from the Scourge—or more directly, becoming a part of it—by none other than Varok Saurfang himself.
- In Resident Evil 3, If Nicholai gets away with the helicopter (or you destroy it), Barry shows up with a helicopter and saves Jill and Carlos just before the nuke hits.
- Later on, in Resident Evil 5, Chris and Sheva are being attacked by Ganados on dirt-bikes, and are just abrely holding them off - until Captain Stone and Delta Squad arrive to save the day in a thoroughly badass instance.
- Subverted all the time in Final Fantasy Tactics: Ramza tries to storm the castle he thinks Princess Ovelia is held in, except he runs into Agrias, who managed to escape by herself; a subsequent rescue attempt turns out to be a trap. Throughout the plot, Ramza pretty much either stumbles into rescue missions by accident or arrives too late to do anything.
- Depending on how much Level Grinding you did prior to fighting Wiegraf, the moment when your allies show up to reinforce you in the second stage of the battle, followed by Weigraf summoning his own monsters to even the score can be either a "awesome, cue the overkill" or Oh Crap moment.
- Ace Combat 6, Mission 12: The Player Character and his Wingman saved their hometown from a WMD attack, and must now make it back to base. However, the Estovakians start to send in entire fighter squadrons (including a jammer and 2 AWACS in) to kill you. Just when you thinked you're about to die, cue every friend you ever helped to come and save your rear.
- In Golden Sun 2, at the top of Jupiter lighthouse. Felix is initially ordered to move to the top of the lighthouse alone while the other party members try to help rescue the previous game's lead party. Piers insists on accompanying him, and the two are attacked by the 2 antagonists, Agatio and Karst, who had set the trap which detained the other characters. One by one the battle is interrupted as your party members return, and (just too late) eventually the entire cast of protagonists arrive, causing Agatio and Karst to retreat due to being outnumbered.
- Damas from Jak And Daxter drives through a wall and into a bunch of Dark Maker satellites, making them explode nicely.
- In Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Sora is alone facing Larxene (having angrily told Donald and Goofy to stay behind after they started questioning his trust in his memories), badly wounded after his fight with the Riku Replica. Just as she is about to attack him, Goofy's shield comes flying at her face, a spell heals Sora, and Goofy and Donald place themselves between Sora and Larxene, reminding Sora that they had promised to protect him and that they would always stick together. Cue asskicking.
- Towards the end of Lufia II, an army of monsters appears to prevent your Global Airship from taking off for the Very Definitely Final Dungeon. In comes the Badass Normal Dekar, who had supposedly died in a Heroic Sacrifice much earlier in the game, riding a whale for no other reason than to make for a more epic entrance.
- In Mario Party DS, after the shrunken heroes have a few rounds of "fun" in Bowser's pinball machine, he decides to use his rod to shrink them even further. Cue Donkey Kong bursting into the castle, disarming Bowser, and stomping on the rod, restoring everyone to normal. By accident.
- Played straight and slightly lampshaded in Mass Effect 2, in the downloadable content. Limey-accented killer Zaeed names the trope in a conversation during his loyalty mission, in what is most likely a direct homage to Firefly.
- At the end of the first Bioshock, at the end of the fight against Fontaine, the spliced-up musclehead slams Jack across the room, stalks over, and is about to pound him/you into mush, when a Little Sister jumps on Fontaine from behind and stabs him with the ADAM-collecting syringe. After he throws her off, a small horde of Little Sisters jumps him and stab him to death.
Web Comics
Web Original
- There are a few instances of this in Survival Of The Fittest. A notable example is that of Seth Mattlock rescuing Bryan Calvert and Tory Johnson from a player - pulling it off in the true spirit of the trope: just in the nick of time. Amusingly, this is because he waited before pulling off the save, although he was, admittedly, trying to get the best possible shot on the bad guy. It also turns into an unintentional Heroic Sacrifice.
- A somewhat common climax for the Bunny Kill series is for the hero to be outmatched by the Big Bad and get saved by another major character...only for that character to get effortlessly one-shotted by the Big Bad.
- One of the Cheat Commados, from Homestar Runner, is aptly named Reinforcements, for often being , well, reinforcements.
- Andrew Hazel, who saves Alec from Boris's firing squad in Sapphire Episode III.
- Team Four Star's Dragon Ball Z Abridged lampshades this upon Goku's entrance into the fight versus Nappa and Vegeta. "Hey guys, what'd I miss? Oh. Are they all..."
- When the main characters are cornered in There Will Be Brawl, Captain Falcon comes out of the alley, gives a speech about only he gets to bruise Pit's face, and Falcon Punches Saki and Issac to dust.
- Almost every time a new character is introduced in Dead Fantasy, said character is intervening to aid someone else in a fight. In fact, very few fights have had a clear winner, since every time someone's on the verge of defeat, someone else has come to save them. So far, Rikku, Hitomi, Tifa, Rinoa, Cloud, and Ryu Hayabusa have pulled Big Damn Heroes moments.
- In Darwins Soldiers, when terrorists are attacking the control room, Shelton is saved by Cobalt Squad busting through a window.
- The end of Paw's Top Nine Modern Video Game Themes. That Chick with the Goggles, Angry Joe, and The Spoony One all come in to save the day against Dark Paw . And it is AWESOME.
- In Yukari is Free, the RED Pyro gets quite an impressive one when he saves Fuuka from the BLU Spy.
Western Animation
- Transformers: Beast Wars has too many of these to list, generally set up by cutting to the good guys headed towards where they're needed, then cutting back to their destination and letting a scene play out until it's a good time for it to be interrupted by weapons fire. The best example of the trope occurred in "Coming Of The Fuzors, Part 2", when the Maximals are outgunned and literally surrounded. When it looks like they're done for (Megatron says, "Finish it."), the wall of the Maximal baseship blows open to reveal the new-and-improved Optimus Primal, Back From The Dead and ready for a fight.
- Transformers: Full of moments like these, mostly when a character is either first introduced, or appeared to be at death's door previously. One of the best examples has to be the episode "Key to Vector Sigma" where Menasor has Superion pinned and is about to impale him on a large spike - only for Omega Supreme, nearly destroyed earlier in that episode, to show up and KO him.
- Avatar The Last Airbender: "The Boiling Rock" has Mai saving the group from having the gondola they're dropped into the boiling lake.
- Also, in "Sozin's Comet" : Sokka and Toph are about to fall off an airship, and are surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers...in comes Suki, riding on top of another airship, giving them someplace to jump down to and destroying the first airship at the same time.
- Happens here and there in Danny Phantom.
Pariah: *holding Danny and Vlad in his hand, both knocked out* Ghosts and humans! Is there no end to this day's surprises?
Valerie: Hey, stoneface! Surprise! *shoots him in the face*
- Also comes up in The Fairly Oddparents a few times. In fact, it's the first thing we see Crash Nebula doing.
- The second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon has two such moments: the first occurs in "City at War", when Raphael, who had abandoned the turtles after offered to join forces with The Foot, returns for the final battle with Splinter in tow. The second occurs in "The Day of Awakening", when Cody, who had been left behind on Earth, burst into Moonbase Bishop to save the turtles from Sh'Okanabo.
- Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command episode "The Return of XL" hangs a lampshade on this practice.
Booster: I just hope we're in time!
Buzz: It wouldn't be a real rescue if we were too early.
- The opening title sequence of the animated GI Joe movie definitely counts. So awesome that it overshadowed the rest of the film.
- From Futurama: How Hermes Requisitioned his Groove Back
Morgan: Bender's brain lost in the master in pile, and it would take some sort of giant, mechanical, atomic-powered sorting machine to find him.
Hermes: You rang?
- In the season 3 premiere of Metalocalypse, a Corrupt Corporate Executive was trying to force Dethklok to sign a new contract advantageous to him. Nathan was just about to put his signature on it when Charles Ofdensen, their thought dead manager, shows up in the doorway to stop them.
- In an episode of Rocky And Bullwinkle Bullwinkle refuses to put out the fuse of a bomb until the last moment because "Heroes always arrive in the TA-DA! nick of time."
- Bunnies get to be Big Damn Heroes in Watership Down, when Hazel and his runners lure a Big Damn Dog to the warren, just in time to save Bigwig's life by decimating Woundwort's troops.
- Invoked in Justice League. Batman is falling without a parachute after ejecting from the Batplane, and is saved by Superman at the alst moment.
Batman: Batman to all points. I could use some air support. Since I can't fly. At all... Now would be good.
Real Life
- Blücher and the Prussians managed to pull this off in the battle of Waterloo.
- A much less famous example is King's & Stĺlhandske's arrival at the battle of Wittstock, having been detached by Banér earlier on to outflank the imperial fortifications but been delayed by the difficult terrain.
- We also have Crown Prince Frederick at Königgrätz.
- Benito Juárez, one of the most remembered presidents in Mexico, was about to be shot by a traitor, when his friend Guillermo Prieto barged in screaming "Put down your weapons! Brave men don't murder!".
- The Battle of Stalingrad. Twice.
- The first time was on September 13, 1942. The Soviet defenders at that point were at the brink of being overrun. Suddenly, reinforcements arrived in the form of the 13th Guards Division. Although a "Guards" unit, most of the 13th's soldiers were new recruits. Many did not have rifles. But the commander of the 13th grimly declared that "I am a communist. I will not abandon this city!" and sent his men into the fray. Out of 10,000 men, only 300 survived the battle. Most died on the first day. But their sacrifice stopped the German advance cold and bought time to restore the Soviet defenses.
- A few weeks later, the Soviet 62nd Army was again at the brink of being overrun in Stalingrad. Out of tens of thousands of soldiers, only a few hundred survivors remained. Suddenly, word came that Zhukov had launched his counter-offensive and surrounded the German soldiers attacking them. Some of the defenders couldn't believe it, but then a Russian tank column smashed through the German lines from behind and reached the beleaguered 62nd. The Russian tanks were greeted with cheers, embraces, and most of all, tears.
- Bill Clinton rescuing two journalists from North Korea, for both it's randomness and heroness. In the words of one of the journalists "And then I looked and saw President Bill Clinton standing there and knew the nightmare of my life was over." It's questionable on how straight the trope is played. The whole thing maybe just political manipulation to make things look like a Big Damn Heroes moment, which may qualify as a subversion or even deconstruction.
- This event. Prison officer being attacked and choked to death by an far younger and stronger inmate when another inmate pulls off a running punch on the attacker. Several other inmates assist in subduing the attacker and calling in help. The fact that the Big Damn Heroes included men charged with attempted murderer, home invasion and assault/battery means this doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. Apparently, they did it because they liked the officer.
- King Jan Sobieski of Poland and the Holy League at the Siege of Vienna in 1683. The Ottoman forces have had the city under siege for month and have finally managed to place the underground charges to breach the walls when the relief forces arrive and... launch the largest cavalry charge in history, spearheaded by the Polish Winged Hussars. King Jan was considered a Big Damn Hero for that
- Against all probability, infamously bumbling mayor of London Boris Johnson recently pulled one of these when he intervened to stop a woman being attacked whilst out on his bicycle. Makes you wonder...
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