Any time the heroes get to save the day in a big, awesome manner.
Say that the poor
Distressed Damsel 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! The heroes
kick down the door and proceed to
stomp the bad guys into the ground.
A
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits will often have a
Misfit Mobilization Moment before becoming the Big Damn Heroes. 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.
But note that a Big Damn Heroes moment doesn't have to
succeed. The villain may declare "
You Are Too Late." Or sometimes the heroes' actions end up
making things worse.
Often this can involve
Gunship Rescue,
I Got You Covered,
Horseback Heroism,
Roaring Rampage of Rescue,
Just in Time, or even
Changed My Mind, Kid.
Compare
The Cavalry (it's the heroes saved in the nick of time),
Contrived Coincidence,
Bad Guys Do The Dirty Work,
Villainous Rescue (when the villains are like this
trope).
If this is done in an anticlimactic way, then it's a
Deus ex Machina, and dooms it bad, of course. When done right, it is a sure-fire way to get a
Crowning Moment of Awesome.
If the heroes just finished a training arc and show off new powers, it's
Look What I Can Do Now.
Supertrope of
Roaring Rampage of Rescue. Often leads to a
"Hell Yes" Moment.
Examples
