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"Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved eight hundred lives, including your mother's - and yours. I dare you to do better. Join Starfleet."
Exactly what it says in the trope title; The Hero is called upon to step up to the plate and be awesome. Sounds a lot like the Call To Adventure, you say? Well yes, the two are closely related. The difference is, an Adventure Call is more like, "Hey! You totally want to take on this quest to slay The Dragon and save the princess because it sure beats washing cars and sipping lattes all day (and you might even get a nice check , or even more, out of the deal).
A Badass Dare is more like, "The Dragon has already stomped out a squadron of fighter jets and a bunch of tanks. And now he's getting ready to eat the princess. But you're our only hope. Now yeah, you can sit here and just keep sipping lattes and washing cars. Or you can take this BFG/ BFS and save the world!"
The Dare To Be Badass makes the distinction that the character turning their back on the dare is somehow lesser as a person for not accepting it. Conversely, the character is being asked to step up to awesomeness because, deep down, he/she knows they are meant for something more. Something greater. This will usually punctuate, or trigger, massive Character Development.
While the Call To Adventure usually starts off The Hero's Journey, the Dare To Be Badass usually comes at a point when the chips are most certainly ''down'' for the hero, and he/she must be reminded that they can't give up. This isn't always the case, though.
Done right, this can resemble a 30-second Rousing Speech. And thus be highly awesome. Done wrong, well you know what you get.
The trope name is in reference to the famous phrase of the classical philosopher Horace, sapere aude or "Dare to be wise."
Compare a World Of Cardboard Speech.
Not to be confused with a dare to be stupid.
Examples:
Anime
- In Code Geass, Zero's rescue of Todoh and his fellow rebels from the execution they had come to accept is accompanied by a lecture on the nature of miracles. Adult Swim accurately described this scene as Zero berating Todoh for "not being badass enough."
- At the beginning of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji Ikari receives a challenge like this from his father Gendo, who needs him to pilot EVA-01 to save the city from an Angel attack already in progress. Shinji, however, is 14 (sensitive and easily frightened at that), hasn't seen his father in years by the latter's choice, and was expecting some sort of reconciliation scene. Neither lives up to the other's expectations, then or later.
- Mahou Sensei Negima has Negi on the receiving end of several of these, usually from Evangeline (or a psuedo-Eva created from his memories). Evangeline also gives one of these to Asuna to see if she can survive Eva's Training From Hell. It ultimately boils down to "You can either die, quit and go home, or be Bad Ass enough to survive. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I don't like you."
Film
- William Wallace points out that while the Scotsmen could very well run away and live, they should stay and fight because Every man dies, but not every man truly LIVES. Also a Rousing Speech.
- Iron Man
Yinsen: This is your life's work! In the hands of those murderers. What're gonna do about it?? Huh? Is that the way you're going to go out? Is this is the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark??
Stark: They'll kill me. You. And even if they don't I'll be dead in a week anyway.
Yinsen: (almost smirking) Well, then....this is an important week for you, isn't it??
- Done even better when a news report shows the devestation being caused by the terrorists. The newswoman says, "....these villagers are left to wonder, WHO; if anyone, will help..." At that moment and infuriated Stark blows out all the windows with his brand new repulsors, as if to answer "I WILL!". Cut to the Theme Music Power Up as he dons the Mark II suit and flys off to Afganistan to kick some ass.
- The quote at the top comes from the 2009 Star Trek movie, where Pike basically asks Kirk whether he wants to continue to be "the only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest" or put his skills to some actual use. Besides literally daring Kirk to "do better", Pike tells him that if he's even half the man his father was, Kirk will make a great Captain. CMoH/CMoA.
- Spock Prime telling Kirk to "re"-take the Enterprise can also be this. I mean, what's more badass than trying to piss off a Vulcan?
- From the same movie. "Either they're going down; or we are."
- It was done before in Star Trek II when Kirk is clearly suffering a mid-life crisis from being an Admiral. In their own different ways, his two pals McCoy and Spock basically tell him to stop being a typical middle-aged white guy, get up off his ass, and get back to being The Captain we all know and love.
Spock: If I may be so bold, it was a mistake for you to accept promotion. Commanding a starship is your first, best destiny. Anything else is a waste of material."
McCoy: Get back your command Jim, before you become a part of this collection. Before you really do grow old.
- Back To The Future - George McFly's mantra that "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything" isn't really one of these, until his son tells him this in a desperate attempt to get him to marry his mother and thus ensure his existence.
- Subverted in Part III, the local townsfolk of 1885 Hill Valley attempt to use something like this on Marty to get him to duel with Mad Dog Tannen, basically telling him that if he doesn't face him "he'll be branded a coward forever". However, Marty proves his aweseomeness by not going through with the duel. And further subverted in that he still manages to kick Tannen's ass.
- Alfred does these highly effectively in the new Batman movies...
Batman Begins: Alfred: (after Bruce has gotten his ass kicked by Ra's al Guhl and Wayne Manor burns, while he's trapped under a piece of furniture) Sir: What was the point of all those one-armed push-ups if you can't even lift One Bloody Log??
The Dark Knight: Bruce: People are dying Alfred. What would you have me do?
Alfred: Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They'll hate you for it, but that's the point of Batman. He can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make–the right choice.
- Ducard started the Badass Dare trend with his introduction to Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins
Ducard: If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal and if they can't stop you, you become something else entirely – a legend, Mister Wayne.
- Captain Mal Reynolds "Aim To Misbehave" speech to the crew of the Serenity has some shades of this. Specifically he tells his crew he's "asking more of them than he ever has before."
- In Mission: Impossible II, after Anthony Hopkins character gives Hunt his latest oddball mission, Hunt points out that what he's being asked to do is 'pretty difficult'. In what is possibly one of the movie's best lines, he responds, "Well, it's not called "Mission: Difficult", Mr. Hunt. It's "Mission: Impossible"."
- "Use the Force, Luke.....Let go Luke....Luke -- trust me". Complete with Rousing Music.
- "On your feet SOLDIER!!" Sarah Connor to Kyle Reese.
- "A navy diver is NOT a fighting man. He is a salvage expert. If he's lucky, he'll die young 300 feet below the waves; for that is the closest he will come to being a hero. Now dammit; square that rig and APPROACH THE RAIL!! Chief Billy Sunday to (eventual) Master Chief Carl Brashear.
- This is essentially the message of Wanted.
- "You're a hero for GOD's sake, Hancock! And you will never be at peace till you accept that."
- Lennox to Sam Witwicky in the climax of Transformers, when the latter protests that he can't take the cube to safety: "Listen to me! You're a soldier now! All right, I need you to take this Cube. Get it into military hands while we hold them off, or a lot of people are gonna die."
- Even earler, Sam to Micheala. "Twenty years from now, when you look back on your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the courage to get in the car?"
- Crimson Tide: Lt. Cmdr. Hunter telling a young radio operator that he needs radio communication. Oddly, he's quoting Star Trek.
Hunter: You're Scotty. I'm Kirk. And I need warp speed on that radio. Now.
- Azeem gives a pretty badass one to an entire crowd of peasants in the climax of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves:
Azeem: English! English! Behold, Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bakir. I am not one of you, but I fight! I fight with Robin Hood. I fight against a tyrant who holds you under his boot! If you would be free men, then you must fight! Join us now, join Robin Hood!
- The chorus from the opening song in Casino Royale puts a darker spin on this trope, basically couching it in a warning that if you don't Take A Level In Badass, you will be dead very quickly:
Arm yourself, beacause no one else here will save you
The odds will betray you
Live Action TV
- Sarah Walker gives one of these to Chuck at the end of the first episode.
Sarah: Some people want to be heroes, and some have to be asked. Well, are you ready to be a hero, Chuck??
- Jeff does this to get Lester to perform "Africa" in Chuck vs. The Best Friend. He even quote's Eminem's "Lose Yourself".
Jeff: I'm not asking you to do this for yourself. I'm asking you to do this....for me.
- Star Trek seriously seems to have a thing for this trope; but then again being an classic American adventure story maybe this isn't surprising. Consider the final episode of Star Trek The Next Generation; Picard is back in time and ordering the Enterprise to take on a dangerous anomaly which will most likely destroy the ship. He reassures his confused crew with the classic line:
Picard: I cannot explain why we have to do this. All I can say is that I know you can do this. Because...you are the finest ship in the fleet. Now, engage.
- One of the greatest dares from TNG, the episode "Ethics" in which Worf is paralyzed and as a Klingon decides to commit suicide rather than live an invalid. He asks his best friend, Riker to assist him and further tries to guilt-trip Riker into doing it, saying that a Klingon must protect his honor. Riker unleashes a speech that's part Dare To Be Badass, part The Reason You Suck Speech in which he basically tells Worf that if he were really a Bad Ass, he'd try to survive.
Riker:Do you remember Sandoval? Hit with a disruptor blast two years ago. She lived for about a week. Fang-lee, Marla Aster, Tasha Yar! How many men and women, how many friends have we watched die? I've lost count. Every one of them, every single one, fought for life until the very end.
- "Q Who" (aka The One With the Borg) has an incredible one from Q, of all people, basically telling Picard that even though the galaxy is filled with unstoppably powerful monsters that can kick your ass effortlessly, it's still too awesome not to keep exploring... if you have the balls:
If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross... But it's not for the timid.
- "Let us make sure that history never forgets... the name... ENTERPRISE."
- One of the more popular Badass Dares in recent memory: Save the cheerleader; save the world!!.
- A better one from Heroes is the scene where Daniel Linderman offers Nathan Petrelli a choice between an ordinary life and "a life of meaning".
- In Season 2 of 24 Jack is suffering a Heroic BSOD after the death of his wife, so he volunteers to fly the nuke into the desert, ready to die CTU Head George Mason, dying of radiation poisioning, slips onto the plane, and says a few words to Jack, telling him that a better man would try to put his life back together.
Mason: Come on, Jack, you've had a death wish ever since Teri died. The way things have been going for you the past year and a half, this probably doesn't look like such a bad idea. You get to go out in a blaze of glory, one of the greatest heroes of all time, leave your troubles behind. You still have a life, Jack. You wanna be a real hero, here's what you do: you get back down there and you put the pieces together. You find a way to forgive yourself for what happened to your wife. You make things right with your daughter and you go on serving your country. That'd take some real guts.
Music
- "Scots Wha Hae", by the great Scottish poet Robert Burns, purports to be Robert the Bruce's Rousing Speech to his troops before the Battle of Bannockburn. He offers to let any soldier 'wha will fill a coward's grave' flee, and proclaims "We will drain our dearest veins/But they shall be free!"
Video Games
WesternAnimation
- The Gargoyles do this for Quasimodo, to get him to literally and metaphorically break from his chains and rescue Esmerelda.
- How can we forget Edna Mode's friendly pep talk
 to Helen Parr?
Helen: *Sobs* Now I'm losing him! Oh, what'll I do, what'll I do?..."
E: What are you talking... about?
Helen: Hm?
E: *Jumping onto table with rolled up newspaper* YOU ARE ELASTIGIRL! My God, pull (bat!) yourself (bat!) together (bat!)! Is-is- this a question?! You will show him that you remember that he is Mr. Incredible and you will remind him who you are. Well, you know where he is, go, confront the problem. Fight- WIN!! ...And call me when you get back, darling, I enjoy our visits.
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