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—Inigo Montoya on The Game.
It's the end of the movie, the climactic battle royale between The Hero and the Big Bad... and the Big Bad is kicking The Hero's ass. After a good while of getting beat to a pulp, the Big Bad finally manages to get through the hero's defenses and score what looks like a decisive hit.
The hero crumples, looking to be in a dire strait indeed; usually at this point the villain takes the opportunity to gloat a bit, believing the hero to be his to dispatch at convenience. In more violent examples, the hero will have wounds that really ought to be fatal.
Then, sometimes due to a Deus Ex Machina, imperiled love interest, or more commonly sheer grit and force of will, the hero rises, often presaged or accompanied by a Dramatic Gun Cock, ready to rejoin the battle — and, this time, despite the apparently crippling injury just sustained, there's no question at all that the hero's going to end up standing over the villain's smoking corpse — or, more generally, triumph in whatever way is appropriate for the genre.
This can overlap with a World Of Cardboard Speech, especially if the hero is losing because of some sort of mental block.
This trope is heavily relied on in Professional Wrestling. Hulk Hogan in particular carried wrestling for approximately eight years doing this, to the point where the moment a hero starts shrugging off his opponent's offense is still called " Hulking up" (not to be confused with "Hulking out").
This is almost always accompanied by the Theme Music Power Up. Very frequently a Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
This is more often than not combined (and indeed, is a subtrope of) I Am X Son Of Y, as one would usually want the subject of his renvenge to quake in terror at knowing just who he has wronged and is about to take his life.
A Sub Trope of Heroic Spirit.
Compare Determinator (who stays up because he never went down to begin with), And Your Little Dog Too, Lets Get Dangerous.
Contrast Hope Spot (when this is subverted).
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- This happens a lot in the Pokémon anime, especially during gym battles.
- The few where Ash actually EARNS the badge at least.
- Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer: "I don't want to lose! I don't want to lose!" Misaki does this in just about every fight.
- The protagonist of Bleach wins Every. Single. Battle. by way of this trope. Sometimes it's his Superpowered Evil Side flaring up, other time it just takes him being beaten half to death to focus and fight for real. Of course, the whole shikai-bankai thing makes it easy; the person who pulls their bankai last wins.
- Subverted in Ichigo's battle with Renji and Byakuya early in the series; after Ichigo pulls his Íñigo Montoya moment on Renji, Byakuya stabs him twice before Ichigo even realizes what's going on. More of a "you've graduated to cockroach" moment than an Íñigo Montoya moment, in the end.
- Actually subverted again when Renji and Ichigo attempt a coordinated attack against Aizen: the music starts, they charge, and Aizen proceeds to block Ichigo's bankai with a single finger, then slice his stomach open, all without a change of expression or moving from where he stands. Also, the music abruptly cuts off at that moment. Arguably one of the best (because of surprise) moments in the series to date. The hero/protagonist does not stand back up, but is left lying there bleeding until someone else can save him, in direct opposition to this trope.
- Bleach makes a lot more sense once you figure out that Ichigo's limit break is to level up. He attacks opponents that have him outclassed, gets beaten bloody until he can barely stand up, and then on his next attack: Ding! All better now, and look at the new moves!
- Really, Ichigo doesn't just win every fight he's in this way, his entire character is based solely on this trope. It's established early on (and confirmed by Ulquiorra recently) that Ichigo has power equal to or greater than any given opponent that pops up, but it's perpetually in flux. The only reason Ichigo ever LOSES fights is because of lack of focus/control.
- Except for the Ulquiorra fight, where no amount of determination and grit was saving him until his Superpowered Evil Side took over. Unless you consider that one an argument for lack of control.
- Of course, he then gains a ridiculous amount of power in the time it takes him to...fly down a tower, and is now kicking the crap out of an opponent at least 2x as strong as Ulquiorra without even using his Mask.
- Where do you get that measurement? Yammy has done nothing to prove that his "rank 0" makes him the strongest espada. Rukia managed to wound him, Ichigo did damage when his mask is weaker and harder to use than before, and now Kenpachi is crushing him with not even half the effort he put into Nnoitra. All there is to support claims of Yammy's strength are his boasts.
- This trope is directly invoked in a flashback to Renji's training under Ikkaku, who tells Renji that you should only introduce yourself to an opponent if you intend to kill them.
- Similarly, Rurouni Kenshin is full of these kinds of moments by Kenshin, Sanosuke, and even Saitou. A subversion occurs however, when Shishio Makoto follows Kenshin's heroic powerup and recovery from death's door by doing the same thing. Almost a take that to heroic power ups in general,or at least the fact heroes seem to get most of them, marred only by the fact Shishio pushes himself too far and dies.
- Just try to list everyone this has happened to in Yu-Gi-Oh! and GX. It seems a hero can't win with more than 500 Life Points.
- As a wild guess, I'd say every single episode/subplot except episode 2, which is the only one that didn't have a card-battling scene or anything nearly like it.
- One of the most outrageous examples is when Yami Yugi defeats Dartz. Yami Yugi had [[ 0LP left]].
- It gets more outrageous when said character is also almost about to deck out, at which point they automatically lose if they can't draw, no matter how many LP they have left or how strong their monsters are.
- Somewhat subverted in the Dark Tournament arc of Yu Yu Hakusho. During the final climactic fight, Yusuke's opponent criticizes him for not fighting at his full capacity, and kills a teammate to incite Yusuke's full force. This has its intended effect, and after the fight, one of Yusuke's teammates rebukes him for needing the impetus and not fighting full-out in the first place.
- Of course, this is somewhat parodied when it is revealed that the dead teammate isn't actually dead, but rather pretending to be, just to invoke this trope.
- subverted more than parodied, since the opponent is Genre-savvy and struck just hard enough, and in the right place, to keep the teammate down long enough for the whole thing to be convincing. The opponent was also playing a kind of Batman Gambit (or Xanatos Gambit , take your pic) here, expecting that the teammate would realize what was going on and stay down.
- Happens all the time in certain giant robot series. Often the pilot will get their butt handed to them until the last five minutes, then pull out an amazing comeback because they were playing possum, waiting for their chance, or just needed to get some sense knocked into them. Usually, it's just to prove that determination and GUTS! will always win in the end. Or just a whole lot of screaming.
- Deconstructed by — who else — Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shinji's comebacks are all due to psychotic breakdowns or his EVA going berserk; events that are about as heroic as you'd expect and that usually spell tragedy for all involved. And when Asuka seemingly plays it straight in End of Evangelion, it is immediately subverted in the most mean-spirited manner possible.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, meanwhile, justifies their playing this trope for all it's got — their robots run on the Rule Of Cool, and My Name Is Inigo Montoya moments are very very cool indeed.
- Also lampshaded by the villain at the very end: "Impossible! Where are you getting all this power from?"
- Hell, TTGL has a catchphrase that precisely announces a 'I AM/WE ARE XXX' shout by whoever it is to kick ass: WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?
- In Prince of Tennis, Kirihara Akaya, although generally more a Blood Knight (as much as sports manga allows) type than a hero, does this at the Nationals' semi-final match: having already lost singles 3 and doubles 2 against Nagoya Seitoku, Kirihara is getting his ass handed to him in singles 2 against Liliadent Krauser (he is, in fact, bleeding and heavily injured). Krauser takes time out to gloat about it in English, and Kirihara's team mate helpfully translates and exaggerates what is said, leading to an angry Kirihara getting back up and destroying his opponent.
- Something similar happened beforehand, when Kamio was losing to Sengoku in singles. He hears one of the guys in the bench say it was all lost, but that triggers memories of his loss to Kaidoh (who had also said something similar in the courts) and then manages to recover and wins.
- I am a Flame Haze, one who swore and chose to protect the balance of the world!
- Here, catch! Shana, tied up and powerless, unarmed, injured and almost naked breaks free, steals a magic sword and uses it to cut a creepy twin who has her sword to bits without touching him, takes hers back and chucks the magic sword right into the gut of the second twin over a period of roughly four seconds. The thrown sword is about seven feet long, very wide bladed and just as heavy as you'd expect it to be. She got mad.
- In Naruto this comes often, especially with the title character and is accompanied with a Theme Music Power Up.
- In Season 3 of Digimon, after fighting fairly evenly with Beelzemon, Gallantmon starts walking towards him calmly, with his enemy's strongest attacks bouncing off him. He declares "You cannot hurt me any more." and fires his Wave Motion Gun Finishing Move.
- The heroes of Saint Seiya manage to win fights against much more powerful opponents because they just refuse to stay down. Seiya is by far the worst offender: his usual strategy is to repeatedly get his butt kicked and then stand up again until he has figured out his opponent's techniques and gathered enough power to win.
- Pretty much every major fight in the Dragon Ball series features this one eventually.
- I am the hope of the universe. I am the answer to all living things that cry out for peace. I am protector of the innocent, I am the light in the darkness, I am truth. Ally to good, nightmare to you!
- Happens quite often in One Piece, especially with Luffy and Zoro.
- Fullmetal Alchemist first anime series finale: Roy Mustang is pinned to the wall with a sword through his shoulder, but rips it out to save the kid and finish off Bradley. Epic.
- This troper agrees. Totally epic. Unfortunately, despite all efforts he couldn't save the kid.
- Yeah, well don't feel to bad: In the Manga it turns out that the little bastard is actually Pride.
- Kazuma does this in pretty much every episode of Scryed.
- Hellsing: Nail of Helena-empowered Anderson is finally kicking Alucard's ass for real and Alucard seems unable to do anything to save himself when Seras shows up and tries ineffectually to fend Anderson off. This succeeds in making Alucard snap out of his funk and pull off the win.
- Occurs at least twice in Mahou Sensei Negima.
- After Fate puts a stone spear through his chest and threatens his students, Negi gets back up and smacks him in the face out of sheer determination.
- After being beaten to a pulp during his fight with Jack Rakan at the end of the tournament, he does it again because he wants to win that badly.
- Happened to Negi's legendary father as well. After having his entire party whopped by one attack from The Mage of the Beginning, Nagi reaffirms that he is indeed "The Invincible Thousand Master" and has the healer of his party provide what magic he had left to give him a temp healing before going on to a Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu moment.
- Played very straight at the climax of Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children. Sephiroth leads Cloud around in a fantastically overpowered fight sequence for several minutes without even running out of breath, and finally beats him down and impales him through the shoulder with his BFS. "Tell me what you cherish most... Give me the pleasure of taking it away." Cloud has a flashback of miscellaneous things he cherishes, pulls the sword out and sticks it to the wall next to him, and gets back to his feet. "I pity you... you just don't get it at all. There's not a thing I don't cherish!" Cue Omnislash, the only thing that can beat Sephiroth.
- Elaborated further in the extended version. Sephiroth impales Cloud through the chest in mid-air, grows a wing, throws him high into the air, flies after him and pokes holes in him and finally throws him to the ground, bleeding and barely able to get back on his feet. Sephiroth remains aloft and speaks the above line while making a godlike dramatic pose in the air before swooping down for the kill. Cloud has the flashback, but it ends up with his zoning out to get a prep speech from his dead friend Zack. When he comes back, Sephiroth is still just about to descend onto him. Cue even bigger Omnislash.
Comics
- Depending on the author, Spider-Man's greatest power is not wall-crawling, web-slinging, or even fighting like a cow. It's taking a Class A butt-kicking for 10 pages (complete with torn and shattered mask) before coming back to defeat the villain. The movies followed this pretty accurately.
- Parody example: An official ability of The Tick is Drama Power. This means that his strength actually increases the longer he is attacked, because a comeback victory is more dramatic. Clearly seen in The Tick vs. The Tick.
- Played so straight it became the ultimate example in Marvel Two in One Annual #7. A Cosmically-powered warrior called simply "The Champion" beams the strongest heroes of earth up to his ship to Box with him. The fate of the Earth is at stake naturally. The Thing is the last hero into the ring (the others being mopped-up in short order by a bored champion or not really understanding Boxing, and thus being "disqualified" and punted back to wherever they were yanked from — there's an absolutely classic moment where Thor pops up, thoroughly confused, wearing boxing gloves and trunks... and his winged helmet and cape. Of course, since Norse gods don't box much, he proceeds to wing Mjolnir at the Champion and get kicked out). The Thing gives a good account of himself before being savagely beaten down. He gets back up and attacks again, managing to injure the Champion before being beaten to an utter pulp. He gets up and manages to land a few more blows before being beaten through the floor. As the Champion goes into his spiel about the fate of the Earth, the Thing drags himself up and grabs him by the ankles (weakly). At which point the Champion declares "I could break your body, but I could never destroy your spirit" and leaves for other planets and other challenges. The story is based on a story in which Daredevil takes on the Hulk, which is itself based on a much earlier story involving Daredevil against the Sub-mariner.
- Can this troper point out that this is, to the speech, EXACTLY what happens in an episode of Monkey on Dexter's Laboratory. Guess this is older than I thought.
- The Monkey episode was a Shout Out to that comic, specifically attributed in the credits.
Fan Works
Films
- The scene from The Princess Bride for which the trope is named, in which Íñigo finally catches up with the six-fingered man who killed his father. Of course, the whole point of his speech is supposed to make fun of this very trope. Like the rest of the movie, inexpressibly good.
- Westley pulls a minor version of the same trick in the scene more famous for To The Pain. As Humperdinck loudly proclaims he's won because Westley can't even stand up, Wesley does just that. This, plus a "Drop. Your. Sword." command, is all it takes to win the final battle.
- Made even better by the fact that, the instant Humperdinck was safely tied up, Westley promptly collapsed, having been bluffing the entire time.
- The fist fight at the end of Commando.
- The climactic battle between Neo and Agent Smith at the end of The Matrix, in which Neo rises to conquer despite having had an entire magazine of ammo emptied into his chest. To a lesser extent, "My name is Neo!" in the subway is another example.
- And once more in The Matrix Revolutions — after Smith delivers a truly exemplary Nietzsche Wannabe speech, he asks the beaten Neo why the hell he even bothers to keep fighting. Neo stands and says, "Because I choose to." Cue asskicking, trope subversion as Smith rejuvenates and beats Neo to a pulp again, double subversion as Neo gets up again, triple subversion as Smith manages to infect Neo, and finally quadruple subversion as Neo uses his defeat to provide a link between Smith and the computer that created him, allowing it to simply delete him.
- Subverted (sort of) in Wild Hogs. Ray Liotta and his bikers beat the heroes to a pulp, do it again when they get up and are shocked when the Hogs try and get up for a third time. In the end they are shamed off.
- Although Spider-Man is famous for doing this in general (see above), the climax of the first movie provides a particularly good example of this.
- The Chinese film The Warlords has a particularly powerful example (albiet, slightly subverted). Wu Yang, the Íñigo Montoya, is attempting to take revenge his adopted brother Qing Yun for killing his other brother Er Hu. Even while Qing Yun beats his ass down with repeated blows and breaking his arm and leg, Wu Yang continues the fight, declaring that "The brother who kills the other brother must be killed by me!". However, at the most dramatic moment, when Wu Yang makes his final attack, Qing Yun is shot in the back by an assassin hired by his corrupt superiors. This allows Wu Yang to get past Qing Yun's defenses and make the final killing blow.
- Though he never actually goes down, Sin City sees Hartigan dispose of an entire unit of elite guards but take some serious damage himself in the bargain, to the extent that when he appears at the barn the Yellow Bastard is holed up in, he can barely stand or lift his gun. The Yellow Bastard gleefully points this out, and gets shot for it, although that's the least Hartigan does to him.
- While he wasn't exactly against the ropes yet, this troper is still surprised it's taken this long for someone to mention Luke Skywalker's big counter-offensive in Return of the Jedi.
- Obi-Wan gets one of these moments before Luke (or is it after?) in his fight against Darth Maul, coupled with Heroic Resolve, after his Unstoppable Rage doesn't work too well.
- Rage leads to the Dark side, thus cannot work on heroes. Same with Luke's thing after Vader's "Perhaps your sister will turn to the Dark side...".
- Averted in Gladiator. Oh, the speech is there in full glory, but not at the same as the final fight.
- Sort of subverted in The Fall: although the final fight is a genuinely beautiful and tear-jerking moment, Odious is knocked out with a single blow as soon as the Masked Bandit finds the strength to fight back. And subsequently randomly falls onto a spike, because these kind of occasions call for blood. And proceeds to drown, messily, because... well, why not?
- Justified in ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day". After the T-800 is incapacitated by a metal bar through its power source, he uses a secondary power source to gain a second wind. However, he is noticeably still weak, and only uses his energy to reach the T-1000 to blast it.
- The first and last Rocky films had this as the central theme in the big fight.
- It's also very much used in the way Rocky beat Clubber Lang in Rocky III.
- Averted in Fellowship of the Ring. Boromir takes an arrow, goes down... gets back up and keeps fighting, takes a second arrow, goes down... gets back up and and keeps fighting, takes a third arrow, goes down... and doesn't get back up.
- In the book, it's ten.
- When This Troper first heard about the Director's Cut Extended Edition of the film, he was convinced that at least 20 of the rumored 30 minutes of extra footage would be Boromir taking arrow after arrow.
- Played and subverted in the ending of Hot Fuzz, when Skinner, fist-fighting Nicholas, pulls the lead out on his strength and takes the advantage with "Get... out... of my... village!" only to have Nicholas counter with one of his own: "It's not your village anymore!"
- Averted in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. When Caspian faces his uncle at the end of a duel, he does not say the line. He even has a Spanish accent modeled on Inigo Montoya!
- In Kill Bill Vol. 1 the Bride manages to kill wave after wave of goons, only to be bested in her final duel with O-Ren Ishii. The hero seemingly fallen, O-Ren makes a few victory quips... but not so fast! The triumphant music swells, the Bride rises to her feet, pretty much everything short of actually saying "My name is Inigo Montoya."
- At the end of "The Karate Kid Part II" when the battered Daniel finally realizes the answer to the riddle of that little "sercet of karate" knickernack, rises slowly into a new stance with cold determination now in his eyes, and removes any doubt as to Chozen having any remote semblance of a chance from that point on. A similar moment happens at the end of Part III, in a weird way.
- Happens when He-Man finally extricates his sword of power in the film "Masters of the Universe" and the radiance makes Skeletor cringe away and shield his eyes. Not that anything about the moment is consistent with what's supposed to be going on, but whatever.
Literature
- When in "The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass" by Stephen King, Eddie Dean realizes with gradually mounting grim satisfaction what he has to do to beat Blaine in the riddle contest and destroy it, saving all their lives, and the despondent others, having lost their hope, look over at him (he has been apparently nigh catatonic and useless for hours) and see that he's trying as hard as he can not to burst into laughter as he says, "Blaine?...*I* have couple of riddles..."
- Subverted and inverted in A Song of Ice and Fire during the duel between Oberyn Martell and Gregor Clegane. Oberyn faces the monstrous Giant Mook Gregor Clegane, murderer of his sister and her children, only lightly armored and with a spear, repeating "You raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children." And despite the imbalance of forces it looks like he's going to win... until Gregor catches him, crushes his skull and wins the fight, but not before being fatally poisoned. He does take the time to tell Oberyn that he killed his sister's children (well, one of them) first, in front of her before he did the deed.
- Subverted rather cruelly by the ending of the original book, The Princess Bride: all of the instances listed above still happen, sure, but moments after that "perfect kiss", Westley relapses into a "mostly dead" coma, Íñigo passes out from blood loss, and Fezzik spots a platoon of Humperdinck's men pursuing them from the castle. Everybody scatters, and their actual fate is left up in the air. This Troper maintains, however, that the movie didn't change the ending, really, the Grandfather just didn't read that far. I mean, the Kid was already sick, and pretty involved in the story; it only would've made him feel worse, y'know?
- Used to great effect in the Codex Alera book Captain's Fury when Tavi reveals that he is Princeps Gaius Octavian. Happens to be punctuated by a purely coincidental, plot relevant, volcanic eruption hundreds of miles away.
- I don't remember the exact quote, but in 1634: The Galileo Affair, by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis, there's a line something like "My name is Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Prepare to die." Our friendly neighborhood old fart then proceeds to slaughter and get cut up, while his much-younger girlfriend-from-the-future thinks something along the lines of "He's Inigo Montoya's prototype."
- In Warrior Cats when Firestar fought Scourge. Scourge actually kills him once, and assumes he's gone forever, but since Firestar has nine lives, he comes back later. Firestar's triumphant return is somewhat of a shock to Scourge, and he comes back apparantly fighting with the power of StarClan. Although, Firestar's I Surrender Suckers is the actual deciding factor in the battle.
- Done constantly in Harry Potter. Seriously, pick any book. It almost always happens in the fights. Each ending up with Harry going to the nurse's office unconscious. How he doesn't have brain damage by now is beyond me.
- Happens several times throughout The Count Of Monte Cristro.
Live Action TV
- A scene from the Firefly episode "Out of Gas", in which Mal Reynolds announces his My Name Is Inigo Montoya moment with a classic dramatic gun cock as he gets the drop on the ship thieves who've just gut-shot him.
- Mal has another moment like this in Serenity as well. He's good at them.
- The climactic battle in the Buffy episode "Becoming, Part 2". Angelus has Buffy cornered and disarmed and takes his moment to gloat (Spike even comments that Angelus is going to kill her), at which point Buffy kicks his ass.
Angelus: Now that's everything, huh? No weapons... No friends... No hope. Take all that away... and what's left? (thrusts)
Buffy: (catches his sword) Me.
- Buffy has another one in the series finale. She's stabbed by a random ubervamp, but after some taunting from the Big Bad, dramatically rises to her feet and carries on kicking ass.
- Angel does this a lot. It's really just a matter of him getting mad enough to vamp out, at which point, you're kinda screwed.
- Worf made a fine showing of this trope on an episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Detained in a Dominion prison camp, the Klingon was forced to fight a near continual series of one-on-one fights with progressively more skilled Jem'hadar. Finally, he reaches the lead Jem'hadar, who beats the unholy hell out of him. However, Worf refuses to admit defeat, and rises to go another round. In a subversion, it's clear that the Jem'hadar could easily finish and kill him at this point, but instead...
Ikat'ika: I yield. I cannot defeat this Klingon. All I can do is kill him. And that no longer holds my interest.
- The Doctor gets in one of these every so often:
The Doctor: I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!
Dalek: "But you have no weapons! No defenses! No plan!
The Doctor: Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death?
- In the Season 2 finale of Supernatural, Dean Winchester engages in a fight with the Yellow-Eyed Demon while the gates to Hell are open and spirits and demons are escaping. YED telekinetically tosses Dean into the air and he hits his head on a headstone (and his bloody forehead indicates that he has sustained a concussion at the very least). His dad's spirit breaks out of Hell, wrestles with YED, and then Dean aims the Colt (the magical Kill Anything Gun) at the Yellow-Eyed-Demon and shoots. It hits YED in the chest and he dies. When the rest of the battle is over, Dean walks over to the corpse of the Yellow-Eyed-Demon's host.
Dean: That was for our mom, you son of a bitch.
- Then at the end of the Season 4 premiere, "Lazarus Rising":
- Scrubs did this in the recent Season Finale, where Dr. Cox is telling a Bedtime story to his son. Cox, as a brave knight, says to a monster (in reality an illness affecting a patient):
Cox: My name is Percival Cox. You're killing my friend. Prepare to die.
Music
- Johnny Cash as the title character singing A Boy Named Sue when he meets his father, who gave him that name that caused guys to beat him to a pulp: "My name is Sue. How do you do? Now you're gonna die!"
Video Games
- Any Desperation Attack, and most Limit Breaks.
- Super Metroid's Final Battle, which comes complete with Deus Ex Machina, Theme Music Power Up... the works.
- Repeated at the end of Metroid Fusion
- In a flashback of Final Fantasy VII, this happens THREE FREAKING TIMES between both the hero and villain within a single BFS-happy cutscene. First, Sephiroth fatally wounds Zack and confidently returns to Jenova, only to be impaled width-wise by Cloud's BFS. Then Sephiroth, who clearly should be dead, stumbles back into the room and impales Cloud through the chest with his own BFS. This leads to the third Inigo Montoya moment, where Cloud uses the power of leverage on the katana impaled through his chest to toss Sephiroth into the reactor.
- The protagonists in the Nasuverse tend to have trump-card-like abilities, which when combined with the fact that they tend to fight superhuman enemies, makes for many, many moments of this.
- Tohno Shiki, the protagonist of Tsukihime, has something like a split personality; whenever he is on the verge of death, his Superpowered Blood Knight side ("Nanaya") takes over. And he really likes killing.
- Fate Stay Night's protagonist, Emiya Shirou, seems to have it in his contract that he has to have at least one My Name Is Inigo Montoya moment before things will start to go his way; often, he will have several, enticing the reader with learning new and exciting ways for his body and mind to strain itself Beyond The Impossible before he's allowed to win or get saved by a Deus Ex Machina.
- In the climax of Okami, after the Hope Spot against Yami and the Spirit Bomb that restores Amaterasu to her full, ultimate divine glory, casting "Sunrise" (Ammy's own Celestial Brush skill, but rarely used in the game) destroys Yami's so-called "eternal darkness" and makes it vulnerable to attack. But by that point, powered by the faith of all the people of Nippon, Ammy is so incredibly and awesomely ass-kicking Bad Ass that Yami isn't so much beaten as thoroughly trounced. Even the soundtrack agrees, as the ominous Final Boss music makes way for Ammy's theme.
- In the second fight with Vile in Mega Man X, after both X and Zero lose to him in his invincible war mech, Zero breaks out of his cage, jumps on Vile's back, and self-destructs, destroying the mech. However, Vile survives the explosion unscathed, and comments on how much of a waste Zero's sacrifice was, at which point X suddenly stands back up and his health refills to full.
- Subversion and played straight: In Super Robot Wars, one way to build up Will, which increases stats, activates tide-turning special abilities and unlocks new attacks, is to take damage and watch your allies get blown up. This also happens quite often in plot sequences, but usually when the good guy gets up and attacks the villain again, the villain uses their rage and adrenaline against them, allowing them to finish the job or escape without harm.
- This is an explicit ability of the heroes in the Freedom Force series. Particularly heroic characters get to do it more often. In the sequel they also shout catchphrases, like "The spirit of freedom fills me!"
- Can be pulled off in the Wii Punch Out title: When you're being KOed, quickly mash the 1 and 2 buttons or shake the Wiimote and Nunchuk like mad; if you're lucky, Little Mac will stop himself from passing out and immediately rejoin the fight with 1/4 of his health
- Here comes the Beat wagon!
- Dissidia has this done by Firion, and then he gives his World Of Cardboard Speech, fulfilling his Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
- Fei-Yen in Virtual On has a hyper mode that activates when she is reduced to half her health.
Web Comics
- Used in a particularly psychological variant at the end of A Miracle of Science, when the hero, with a decidedly unpleasant hole through his liver, faces down the Mad Scientist. All he actually manages to do is stand on his own
 , but that's also all he NEEDS to do...
- Used straight in the fan webcomic The Last Days of Foxhound where Liquid is impaled through his chest with a katana. As he bleeds to death, he is taunted in his mind by the voices of his team mates, the ninja that impaled him, and his dead father about how much he sucks. He then proceeds to stop the bullet-evading ninja singlehandedly.
- Of course, Liquid's ability as a FOXHOUND member is that of the Determinator. Much like in the game, he just simply refuses to die.
- Played with straight in this [1] page of Last Resort.
Web Original
- Linkara did it in his fight with Countdown To Final Crisis turned alive. He even made one of the most stupid sentences in a history of comics sound badass while doing it.
Western Animation
- Avatar the Last Airbender: Prince Zuko's climactic duel in his Wild West parody day in the limelight — he even finishes with a "My name is Zuko..." speech.
- Likewise, during the Finale, Aang ultimately finds that his strength with all four elements is useless against the sheer power of Ozai's Firebending, retreating into a ball of rock only to get mercilessly pummeled inside of it and miraculously go into the Avatar State to turn the tables on the Firelord. This is ironic because if the Fire Lord had just left him for dead, he would've won, considering that it was his own attacks which accidentally triggered Aang into going Super Saiya- I mean, into the Avatar State.
- My name is Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. You killed my mother. Prepare to die!
- The Justice Friends short "Dial M for Monkey" from "Dexter's Laboratory" did a complete remake of Marvel Two in One Annual #7 (see above). With "The Champion" renamed "Rasslor" (and voiced by pro wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Oooooh, Yeeeeah!), The Justice Friends filling in for the rest of Marvel's line-up, and Monkey filling the shoes of Mama Grimm's blue-eyed boy. Played completely straight (Rasslor's final speech — "I could break your body, but I could never destroy your spirit" — is lifted verbatim from the comic, as the original writer gets a writing credit), which just makes it funnier.
- Two Words: Popeye. Spinach.
- Danny Phantom, where the hero owned his evil future self by unleashing the Ghostly Wail with the lives of his family and friends as his ultimate gumption.
- A Ghostly Wail that his future self got only prior to the movie starting, makeing it that much more dramatic and badass.
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