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alt title(s): Never Give Up Speech Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
— Dylan Thomas
La Resistance is about to be crushed by The Empire. The Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits sports team is way behind at halftime. The Dork Horse Candidate has just seen his opponent make a strong point in the political debate, to enthusiastic applause. The opposing attorney in the courtroom drama has just made his argument with laser-like precision.
In short, everything looks hopelessly lost.
And this is when the hero will step forward and make a pithy speech including at least one noteworthy One Liner (similar to a Facing The Bullets One Liner), to the effect of (or the specific phrase) "It's time to take the fight to them," (often followed by a One Liner Echo or a Dramatic Gun Cock). This sometimes happens right after a sidekick has joined the choir invisible via a Heroic Sacrifice.
In TV and movies, there's no situation so desperate that it can't be turned completely around with a brilliant one-minute rant. This speech means that the good guys are going to (finally) move to a proactive posture, despite the overwhelming odds and very real chance that they'll all end up dead.
The Slow Clap or other ovation followup is practically essential, followed by a Misfit Mobilization Moment (or a Miracle Rally for sports-based works). But if a Grand Finale does not result, the whole thing will often backfire leaving the heroes badly battered. A Sedgwick Speech often looks like one of these at the beginning.
Usually, it's the leader of the heroes who delivers the Rousing Speech signaling this transition, but a common variation is to have whichever character is typically most cautious (even cowardly) deliver it.
Compare World Of Cardboard Speech, Self-Destructive Charge, Tired of Running, It Has Been An Honor.
Contrast The War Has Just Begun, Sedgwick Speech.
Because of the sheer volume of memorable Real Life Rousing Speeches that exist, please do not add them to this page, add them to the Quotes page.
Examples
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Anime
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is pretty much the embodiment of this trope. The first comes in episode eight, and things just grow from there. The best definitely goes to Simon once he overcomes Kamina's death. His speech and his Theme Music Power Up is so goddamn rousing, you can feel the Wangst demons cast by Neon Genesis Evangelion being exorcised as he speaks! Essentially every line Simon has in the last three episodes is one of these.
Kamina: Simon...never forget. Believe in yourself. Not in the Simon that I believe in. Not in the Kamina that you believe in. Believe in the Simon...who believes in you!
- Near the end of the show, everyone else in the crew joins in and pretty much has this go into Badass Creed territory. For the last few episodes, EVERY motivating speech they give can basically be summed up as "We're about to Punch Out Cthulhu." That's an awesome creed right there.
- In Hellsing, right before Captain Pip Berdanotte leads his ragtag band of mercenaries into what is most definitely a suicidal close-quarters battle against an army of Nazi vampires after Seras goes on the offensive, he lets out a short but brutally simplistic speech about their fates.
"To let such a sweet girl die befits a death worse than hell, am I right? [...] And if it comes down to that, all of your lives must be sacrificed. This is the place you shall be buried. Your fortress will become your grave. [...] You fellas came here to kill for chump change, same as me. You all chose the life of a mercenary. Let's go die like mangy dogs. Let's die, screaming "Fuck! Fuck!" Taking gut shots, and writhing on the ground in agony. Heh, heh, heh. What do you boys say to that?"
- Pokemon. Mewtwo plus an army of genetically altered (read: enhanced) Pokemon. Imminent extermination of the human race. Enter Ash Ketchum with dozens of "ordinary" Pokemon in tow. Horribly outnumbered and outgunned. "You can't do this. I. Won't. Let you."
- In the last episode of Last Exile, between the overwhelming enemy forces and indiscriminate attacks of Exile, the final battle threatens to turn into a war of attrition. Sophia responds that this is a war of attrition, and lays out in no uncertain terms that no matter how much they have to throw into this battle, no matter how much they have to sacrifice, this is their last chance to overthrow the Guild. "TARGET: MAESTRO DELPHINE!"
- Parodied in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu when Kaname inspires her fellow students to assault the booby-trapped hill where Sousuke is hiding because they need him as an artist's model. "For the sake of our lost comrades! For the sake of our own human dignity! And above all, for the sake of everybody's grades!" Kurz gives a similar speech when inspiring his comrades to assault a Sousuke-protected hill...in order to perve on the girls while they're naked in a hot spring.
- Done straight right before the rugby episode. Well, except Sousuke had already solved their hopeless situation long before the speech.
- Much, much lower stakes in Eyeshield 21. In the regional championship game, Deimon is behind by 17 points when their seemingly invincible leader/quarterback gets crushed by one of the opposing players and is taken off the field with a broken arm. With no back-up quarterback, their strongest lineman in minute two of his Ten Minute Retirement and the rest of the team totally shaken, the opposition asks if they're ready to forfiet the game. After a brief team meeting, the Devil Bats declare their decision in unison, "We will KILL them!"
- General Revil's unforgettable "Zeon is exhausted!"
 speech in Mobile Suit Gundam, when The Federation was on the brink of total surrender.
- Kaiji gives a few of these to Furuhata and Andou on the many occasions when things look hopeless on the Espoir.
- In quite possibly the most unorthodox example of the trope ever, an episode of Gintama features Gintoki giving the now-fandom-infamous "truth of the strawberry milk" speech to justify going to find a missing person. Said speech is basically about how people that drink strawberry milk will wet the bed in their sleep, and everyone cheers him on for this. It's that kind of show. You can watch it in all its glory here.
- A favorite pastime of the title character on Naruto, usually concerning the power of friendship and never giving up. Ironically, one of the most memorable of the show's speeches was much more cynical, given by not-exactly-main character Shikamaru.
- Skies Of Arcadia's Vyse loves these, being the adventurous optimist incarnate.
- Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni: Keiichi's rousing speech to Rika in Atonement Chapter, which renews her will to fight against fate and break the cycle of tragedy.
- In a villanous example, the Major's infamous 'I Love War' speech in Hellsing.
- In the Gundam Wing "Endless Waltz" movie, Dorothy Catalonia rouses the citizenry to openly protest Marimaia's coup d'etat. This can only be seen in the theatrical, not the 3-episode OVA cut.
Comic Books
- Ultimate Captain America in Ultimates #1. World War II, and Cap's soldiers are assaulting a Nazi superscience bunker. They're being slaughtered by defenses ... until Captain America crashes the transport plane into it - and survives. As he climbs out, he waves the troops forward, proclaiming "What are you ladies waiting for - Christmas?!"
- This happens with the X-Men in the Fall of the Mutants storyline. They know full well they will not survive the encounter with the Adversary, but go on to fight him anyway after Wolverine gives some rousing words to the people watching at home (a cameraman was accompanying them).
- Subverted in Asterix And The Laurel Wreath where Asterix gives the courtroom a rousing speech that drives the entire courtroom to tears... in order to get themselves thrown to the lions in the hopes that Caesar will attend in order to obtain the titular laurel wreath.
Film
- Newsies has a pretty epic one at the point when everything has fallen and the Newboys felt they had been betrayed by Cowboy and abandoned by Denton. You can watch it here. It is delivered as a pamphlet rather than a speech.
- Aguirre: the Wrath of God ends with Aguirre giving one of these, combined with his mad vision to conquer the Spanish Empire, to his crew - who are either dead or insane - himself, and a swarm of tiny monkeys. There are several similar speeches throughout the film.
- Played straight in Airplane! and subverted in Airplane II: the Sequel.
- In Animal House:
- Bluto's (John Belushi's) speech leading to the sabotage of the parade, is an almost perfect parody of this trope, laced with fiery rhetoric, cliches that were already hackneyed by the 1960's, and garbled historical references.
Bluto: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
- A less-famous example from the same movie is Otter's address to the disciplinary council, which inspires the entire gang to walk out of the proceedings, ignore the closure of their fraternity, and hum the Star Spangled Banner:
Otter: Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests. We did. But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!
- Back to School has Rodney Dangerfield reciting the Dylan Thomas poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" from memory after almost giving up during his oral exams. He then goes on to (barely) pass.
- Dan Ackroyd, in Blues Brothers 2000, launches into a semi-inspiring speech (mostly about the many reasons that the Russian Mafia was not, in fact, going to blow up Willy's Strip Club) — but it consisted almost entirely of a history lecture on Russian politics that left everyone else entirely perplexed.
- Another one after they've run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, and all but the main three are thinking of just giving up -
Elwood Blues: [addressing the rest if the band] You may go if you wish. But remember this...walk away now and you walk away from your crafts, your skills, your vocations; leaving the next generation with nothing but recycled, digitally-sampled techno-grooves, quasi-synth rhythms, pseudo-songs of violence-laden gangsta-rap, acid pop, and simpering, saccharine, soulless slush. Depart now and you forever separate yourselves from the vital American legacies of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Memphis Slim, Blind Boy Fuller, Louie Jordon, Little Walter, Big Walter, Sonnyboy Williamson I and II, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Elvis Presley, Lieber and Stoller, and Robert K. Weiss. Donald "Duck" Dunn: Who is Robert K. Weiss? [the rest of the band shrug] Elwood Blues: Turn your backs now and you snuff out the fragile candles of Blues, R&B and Soul, and when those flames flicker and expire, the light of the world is extinguished because the music which has moved mankind through seven decades leading to the millennium will whither and die on the vine of abandonment and neglect.
- They eventually follow, except for the saxophonist who wanders off to get gas.
- Parodied in the Norm MacDonald movie Dirty Work: after screwing over the residents of an apartment block by trashing their building, Norm's character and his accomplice are themselves screwed over by the slimy businessman who hired them to do so. Norm appeals to the residents to join him in a scheme that will enable everyone to get their revenge on the businessman with a stirring speech that climaxes with him yelling "Are you with me?"... and the response is a stony, hostile silence. He then tries "Okay, are you with me on the assumption that if we fail, you get to kick my ass?" — and the crowd goes wild.
- Parodied in Dr. Strangelove. To the crew of a B-52 on a nuclear bombing run into Soviet territory:
Major Kong: "(... ) [T]his thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I'd say that you're all in line for some important promotions an' personal citations when this thing's over with. That goes for every last one of ya, regardless of your race, color, or your creed. Now, let's get this thing on the hump. We got some flyin' to do."
- Viciously subverted in Glengarry Glen Ross. "Coffee's for closers only."
- Subverted with terrific cruelty in High Noon, in the church.
- In Independence Day, President Whitmore gives such a speech before he and the other pilots get into their planes for their battle. His speech ends like this:
President Whitmore: [...] This will be remembered as the day that the world declared with one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We are going to live on! We are going to survive! Today! We celebrate! Our Independence Day!
- Bill Murray's terrific "it just doesn't matter" rant in Meatballs roused the entire camp to victory, even while emphasizing the superiority of their opponents and underscoring the pointlessness of the game.
- Subverted awesomely in Muppet Treasure Island, when the rat with the toothpick-sized sword tries to put his life on the line and stand up to Long John Silver, but fails miserably:
Jim Hawkins: "Kill Captian Smollett and you'll have to kill me."
Gonzo: "Kill Jim and you'll have to kill me!"
Squire Trelawney: "Kill Gonzo and you'll have to kill me! (to his imaginary friend) Oh, and you too, Mr. Bimbo!"
Rizzo the Rat: "Kill Mr. Bimbo and the bear, and you'll have to, um... negotiate strenuously!"
- Played almost completely straight in The Great Muppet Caper in Fozzie's speech to the residents of the Happiness Hotel.
- Played nearly straight in Mystery Men. "Or will I eat this sandwich?"
- Pirates Of The Caribbean has Elizabeth doing it.
- Subverted and played straight (in that order) in Robin Hood: Men In Tights, where a Rousing Speech by Robin (done in the style of Winston Churchill) bores the villagers to tears, by a Rousing Speech done by Achoo ( bless you!) in the style of Malcolm X succeeds.
- A surrealistic variant occurs in the big fight scene at the end of The Rundown, where the Scottish pilot, in the midst of a battle, sits down and puts his feet up and has one of the villagers get him a beer. While Beck is pinned down. He then recents the trope name in a weirdly fascinating tone, and adds a couple of religious allusions as well, at which point Beck breaks his "no guns" rule and goes to town.
- In Scent of a Woman Al Pacino gives a speech in defense of a prep school student threatened with expulsion if he won't reveal the culprits behind a prank. You can see the whole thing here, but here's a highlight:
Headmaster Trask: Sir, you're out of order.
Lt. Col. Frank Slade: Out of order, I show you out of order. You don't know what out of order is, Mr. Trask. I'd show you, but I'm too old, I'm too tired, I'm too fuckin' blind. If I were the man I was five years ago, I'd take a FLAMETHROWER to this place! Out of order? Who the hell do you think you're talkin' to? I've been around, you know? There was a time I could see. And I have seen. Boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there isn't nothin' like the sight of an amputated spirit. There is no prosthetic for that. You think you're merely sending this splendid foot soldier back home to Oregon with his tail between his legs, but I say you are... executin' his SOUL! And why? Because he's not a Bairdman. Bairdmen. You hurt this boy, you're gonna be Baird bums, the lot of ya. And Harry, Jimmy, Trent, wherever you are out there, FUCK YOU TOO!
- Serenity contains two versions of this trope: Once after The Operative destroys the group's safe havens, and once after the secret is found out. The latter is punctuated by Mal's Catch Phrase, "I aim to misbehave".
Mal: You all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all came to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. 'Cause as sure as I know anything, I know this: they will try again. Maybe on another world. Maybe on this very ground, swept clean. A year from now, ten, they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... (looks directly at River) better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave.
- Star Trek First Contact: Picard's "The line must be drawn here!" speech (though partial subversion, as this move ultimately has more to do with Picard's personal relationship with the Borg than with the importance of doing what's right).
- Used memorably in the Street Fighter movie when Guile decides to shirk his (more weaksauce than usual) Allied Nations orders and lead his strike force against Bison as originally planned.
Guile: "Troopers! I have just received new orders. Our superiors say the war is cancelled, and we can all go home. Bison is getting paid off for his crimes, and our friends will have died here... will have died for nothing. But... we can all go home. Meanwhile, ideals like these - freedom, and justice - they get packed up. But... we can all go home. Well... I'm not going home. I'm gonna get on my boat, and I'm going up-river, and I'm going to kick that son-of-a-bitch Bison's ass so HARD... that the next Bison wanna-be is gonna FEEL it. Now who wants to go home... and who wants to go with ME!"
- In Toy Story 2, Buzz Lightyear inspires the other toys to press on in their search for Woody, while working in a few continuity nods:
Buzz: Come on, fellas. Did Woody give up when Sid had me strapped to a rocket? No! And did he give up when you threw him out of the back of that moving van? No, he didn't! We have a friend in need, and we're not going to rest until he's safe in Andy's room! Now, let's move out!
- The Transformers The Movie. Twice. With Theme Music Power Up. "AUTOBOTS! Transform and roll out!"
- And in the recent Michael Bay film, Optimus gives a speech on their obligation to help the humans, before they do the car equivalent of the Power Walk. The Decepticons have a team-up montage at the same time, so you know it's on.
- Let's see, there's Braveheart, Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King (twice!), Gladiator, 300, the list goes on and on. This happens in pretty much every movie that features large-scale battles involving sharp objects. And if the guy is on a horse, riding up and down in front of his ranks while giving the speech, all the better.
- Inverted hard earlier in the Return of the King film, when Theoden, prior to the charge of the Rohirrim, effectively tells his men, "You wanna live forever? I thought not! Let's go kill some bad guys and get our throats cut!" See Northern Heroism under Mythology below.
Theoden: Arise! Arise, riders of Théoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered - a sore day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride! Ride to ruin, and the world's ending! Death! Death! DEATH! FORTH ÉORLINGAS!
- Likewise from the movie version:
Theoden: Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath! Now for ruin! And a red dawn! FORTH ÉORLINGAS!
- That sounds like played straight to me. It is not unknown for some of the best speeches to have rather grim aspects. Think "Blood, toil, tears, and sweat".
- Then later played straight by Aragorn
Aragorn: Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day! An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the Age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand! Men! of the West!
- Damn Sean Astin for making this troper choke up every time he opens his mouth from Two Towers on. An absolute master of these speeches.
- Suberverted in 300, as Leonidas does not seek to lead his men to victory, knowing full well that their defeat is inevitable, but encourages them to meet it with courage. Additionally, played straight at the very end of the film, at the Battle of Platea.
- Knute Rockne, All-American:
Rockne: And the last thing he said to me, "Rock," he said, "sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock", he said - "but I'll know about it - and I'll be happy."
Player # 12: Well, what are we waiting for?
- And the team rushes out of the locker room to win the game.
- In that vein, the locker room speech before the seniors' final game in Rudy.
Coach Dan Devine: No one—and I mean, no one—comes into our house and pushes us around.
- The "inches" speech in Any Given Sunday, spoken by the team coach (Al Pacino) just before their playoff game.
- C'mon people, no locker room speech from Miracle?
Coach Herb Brooks: If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world. I'm sick and tired of hearing what a great hockey team the Soviets have! Screw 'em! This is your time! Now go out there and take it!
- Parodied (naturally) by Groucho Marx in Duck Soup: "And remember, while you're out there risking your life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are!"
- The Goonies. The Hero, Mikey, gives a speech convincing the Goonies to continue following the Treasure Map after the Jerk Jock offers them a chance to be rescued.
Mikey: Chester Copperpot! Don't you guys see? Don't you realize? He was a pro. He never made it this far. Look how far we've come. We've got a chance.
- GLORIOUSLY subverted in Deep Blue Sea when Samuel L Jackson gives a Rousing Speech (complete with a revelation of a Shameful Secret), only to be killed by a shark just as he's about to start rallying the characters to action.
- 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes is a Rousing Speech constructed by cutting together parts of famous monologues from many films (most of them Rousing Speeches in themselves).
- Inglourious Basterds
Lt. Raine: My name is Lt. Aldo Raine and I need me eight soldiers. Eight Jewish-American soldiers. Now, y'all might of heard rumors about the armada happening soon. Well, we'll be leaving a little earlier. We're gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. And once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwackin' guerrilla army, we're gonna be doing one thing and one thing only... killing Nazis. Members of nationalist socialist party conquered Europe through murder, torture, intimation, and terror. And that's exactly what we're gonna do to them. Now, I don't know about y'all, but I sure as hell didn't come down from the goddamn Smoky Mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, fight my way through half Sicily and then jump out of a fuckin' air-o-plane to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity. Nazi ain't got no humanity. They're the foot soldiers of a Jew-hatin', mass murderin' maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed. That's why every son of a bitch we find wearin' a Nazi uniform, they're gonna die. We will be cruel to the Germans and through our cruelty they will know who we are. They will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered, disfigured bodies their brothers we leave behind us and the Germans will not be able to help themselves from imagining the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, at our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the Germans will be sickened by us, the Germans will talk about us and the Germans will fear us. And when the Germans close their eyes at night and their subconscious tortures them for the evil they've done, it will be with thoughts of us that it tortures them with. Sound good?
Basterds: YES, SIR!
Lt. Raine: That's what I like to hear. But I got a word of warning to all would-be warriors. When you join my command, you take on a debit. A debit you owe me personally. Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y'all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazis. Or you will die tryin'.
- From Deep Blue Sea: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Because I carry a big stick and I'm the meanest motherfucker in the valley!"
- The movie The Replacements plays with this. The quarterback calls for the last huddle and specifically states that he's not good with the type of speeches they're expecting, so he just makes a one-liner. It seems to be more motivational that if he'd actually tried making the speech.
- Master And Commander : "This Ship is England..."
Literature
- Tyrion Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire gets a few of these. They may not be masterpieces, but since he's a dwarf, the fact that he makes the effort at all always strikes this troper as nothing less than phenominal.
- Consider also he was doing this for people who hated his guts, treated him like garbage, and lopped off his nose for his trouble in saving their sorry asses...
- James Barrie's Peter Pan sort of fits into this trope: at one point, Peter has saved Tiger Lily but thinks he is going to drown (he was injured, so he couldn't fly or swim away). At first he is scared, but then he stands up, grins, and says "To die would be a very big adventure." However, the only person around to hear him is the reader.
- Subverted in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow when Bonzo is out to kill Ender and Bean gives a speech about how anyone who's against Ender is on the Buggers' side. When he finishes, someone tells him Ender's alone and Bonzo and his gang are already after him.
- Parodied in Robert Graves' I, Claudius, where Claudius meets historians Livy and Pollio. Pollio criticizes Livy for writing that generals gave rousing speeches before battles, and tells that Julius Caesar before the decisive battle with Pompey (where Pollio was present) didn't do anything of the sort; instead, he did funny skits involving a radish.
- In the sequel, Claudius gives a similar speech before an important battle in Britain (without a radish though).
- Spoofed repeatedly by Cleolinda Jones, author of Movies in 15 Minutes, who enjoys using the titular poem as a substitute for inspirational moments in the movies she parodies. Of note is the spoof of Independence Day, when the President begins to give his speech... and then, seeing that his audience doesn't get it, switches to a more contemporary reference - Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".
- Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time has the Aiel oath:
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld, naturally enough, plays with this trope in a variety of ways.
- In Lords and Ladies, Shawn Ogg attempts and fails to give a St. Crispin's Day speech, after which his mother calmly informs the unimpressed crowd that anyone who doesn't follow him will have her to deal with.
- Nanny also uses one of these to enlist the aid of the Elf king, after a fashion - except she only means for humanity to not go gentle into that good night. In helping her he's merely ensuring that there'll be room for him on the day they do, when finally even the iron in the head is rusty.
- In Jingo Carrot leads his small group against two battling armies with the cry "If we succeed, no-one will remember! And if we fail, no-one will forget!" (double subverted in that they're still behind him). We are told of the only worse attempt, General Pidley's famous 'Let's all get our throats cut, boys'
- This Troper has seen a variant of Carrot's speech displayed in sign form by members of a British Bomb Disposal unit: "If I am right, no-one remembers. If I am wrong, no-one forgets."
- General Pidley's speech may not have been as bad as reason suggests. A Foreign Legion Officer once inspired his men with 'You became Legionaires in order to die and I am going to take you where you can die.'
- In Interesting Times Rincewind gives a passionate speech against the concept, claiming the leaders making such speeches are usually the only ones with decent armour.
- In The Last Hero the heroes who are going to the Hub to intercept Cohen have patches made up with a slogan in actually rather good Latin: Morituri Nolumus Mori. Rincewind thought them up. With something between amusement and disdain, Lord Vetinari prompts him to translate: "We who are about to die, don't want to." (literally, "{the}About-To-Die We-Do-Not-Want To-Die")
- Night Watch also parodies Braveheart by taking the most remembered line—"They may take our lives", etc.—and having people react to it as if the speaker had just said something profoundly stupid.
- In Wyrd Sisters, Hwel, the dramatist thinks that Tomjon, who's the greatest actor in the world, could make a bunch of drunkards in a pub to storm the Patricain's palace by giving a speech - and they'd probably succeed.
- In JK Rowling's first three Harry Potter books, Gryffindor Quidditch captain Oliver Wood was fond of these. His team, not so much.
- Both King Theoden and Aragorn in JRR Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King, prior to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. The speech Theoden gave in the movie, however, is given by Eomer in the novel, in despair after he sees Eowyn wounded.
- The Tolkien metal band Battlelore based the song The Great Gathering off of a RousingSpeech for the Last Alliance of Men, Elves and Dwarves.
- One of the speeches (I forget which) is a subversion known by some fans as the "Let's All Go And Get Killed" speech.
- Commissar Genadey Novobazky delivers one of these at the end of the Warhammer 40k novel His Last Command. Colonel Wilder, Novobazky and A Company of the 81/1st (Recon) stay behind during the retreat from Sparshad Mons to fight a rearguard action and allow Imperial forces to withdraw from the city before it gets bombarded from orbit. This example is a Bolivian Army Ending. We never see what happens, but there are only two possible outcomes. The Belladon either get slaughtered by the Blood Pact, or vaporised by the orbital bombardment.
- It's also a convenient way for Gaunt to get command of the regiment again. Wilder is out of the picture, and most of the Belladon soldiers are dead.
- The Novel We Few by John Ringo and David Weber is named after the Saint Crispan's day speech. Much thought is given to the problems when a King establishes a great deal of personal loyalty by surviving a Bolivian Army Ending with his own troops.
"The safety of the Empire? Admiral, I'm sworn to serve the Empire, we both are, but I serve Master Rog. We all do. You'd have to have been there to understand. He's not...who he was. None of us are. We're Prince Roger's Own. Period. They call aides 'dog-robbers' because they'll rob a dog of its bone, if that's what the admiral wants. We're...we're pig-robbers. We'll steal slop, if that's what Roger wants. Or conquer the Caravazan Empire. Or set him up as a pirate king. Maybe Pahner wasn't that way, maybe he fought for the Empire, even to the last. But the rest of us are, we few who survive. We're Roger's dogs. And if he wants to save the Empire, well, we'll save the Empire. And if he'd told me to come in here and assassinate you, well, Admiral, you'd be dead."
- Another novel by David Weber, coauthored by Steve White, Crusade, has a corrupt alien religion based around the "Holy Mother Terra". The main headquarters of this religion on the alien home planet has been targeted for invasion/destruction by the Terran fleet that's laboriously fought its way through several other conquered systems, because capturing it will open a small hole in the planetary defenses, allowing the Terrans to force terms of peace. The problem? Said base has been constructed into a mountain, under two hundred meters of rock, the ground defenses are forty kilometers deep, there's four fighter squadrons based there, and countless rocket launchers, anti-shuttle weapons, minefields, auto-cannon, pillboxes, and mortar pits. It's described as being not so much a fortress as a weapon designed to drown the attackers in their own blood. The icing on the cake? A two hundred megaton suicide charge underneath the base proper. The reply from the back row, after all this has been explained to the troops?
"Question, Commander. What do we do after lunch?"
- This book also features a very different kind of speech from the old and wizened Admiral, where he convinces the Terran Navy's High Command not to exterminate the religious fanatics entirely.
- In Lords of the Bow, Genghis Khan gives a very impressive speech after gathering the steppe tribes together, which motivates them to cross the Gobi desert and attack the Chinese nations.
- From the Able Team (spin-off of the Mack/Bolan Executioner series) novel Ironman.
"He had village assemblies. Set up loudspeakers. Preached 'beans and bullets'. The duty of the people to the nation. The evil of neutrality. The evil of communism. Promised schools and electricity. New roads. Should have saved his breath."
"Everyone knew the facts. Fight or get shit on."
- Used irritatingly by Roran in The Inheritance Cycle to the entire village of Cavarhall in order to persuade them to abandon the town and join the Varden in Surda. Gloriously (and thankfully) subverted later on when the town needs to steal a boat. They turn to Roran, expecting another rousing speech, but he simply delivers the One Liner "It's either this or walk," and goes to sleep.
- In the novel Expendables, the drunken old former Explorer Phylar Tobit manages to get a bunch of indolent aliens to help him out by firing them up with a rousing speech (which he then admits to loosely translating from Henry V).
- Wedge Antilles has one in Starfighters of Adumar, before launching the united Adumari nation. The Adumari hat is Proud Warrior Race Guy, but that just gets them killed, so he speaks about keeping their minds on the task at hand, not on glory. Before he starts, he thinks that he's not one of those people who needs a rousing speech, and he's a little iffy on the idea of someone who does.
- François Villon in If I Were King:
"Herald of Burgundy, in God's name and the king's, I bid you go back to your master and say this: Kings are great in the eyes of their people, but the people are great in the eyes of God, and it is the people of France who answer you in the name of this epitome. The people of Paris are not so poor of spirit that they fear the croak of the Burgundian ravens. We are well victualled, we are well armed; we lie snug and warm behind our stout walls; we laugh at your leaguer. But when we who eat are hungry, when we who drink are dry, when we who glow are frozen, when there is neither bite on the board nor sup in the pitcher nor spark upon the hearth, our answer to rebellious Burgundy will be the same. You are knocking at our doors, beware lest we open them and come forth to speak with our enemy at the gate. We give you back defiance for defiance, menace for menace, blow for blow. This is our answer—this and the drawn sword. God and St. Denis for the King of France!"
- Robert "Bobby" Pendragon in Pendragon 10:The Soldiers Of Halla, before the final fight, says "This is the beginning of a new history... The way it was meant to be."
Live Action TV
- Angel in the last two episodes.
- Babylon 5 practically uses rousing speeches as motor fuel.
- When Sheridan decided to attack Earth to get our government back.
- "No more! NOT ON MY WATCH!"
- "We can end this. Not just for the next thousand years, but for all time!"
- Right before the Battle of the Line — the last, desperate battle in the Earth-Minbari war — the Earth President gives one.
- The series likes to point out that this is humanity's trademark: Any other race gives in to despair, humans fight to the end.
- The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica has a lot of these, as you can imagine. Most of them go to Commander (and later, Admiral) Adama, but a notable one goes to Colonel Saul Tigh - not usually the guy you look to for reassurance - in the season two opener, "Scattered". Adama is lying in sickbay, with two bullets in his chest, and the Galactica has apparently lost the rest of the Fleet after a jump. Tigh admits that "This is Bill Adama's command. His orders are still the word of the Gods on board this ship. Just so we're clear. This will be Adama's command until the day he dies. And we are not going to let him die. So say we all." He then makes the call to network Galactica's computers together (something Bill would never do, and thus forcing him to deviate from his usual default setting of "follow Bill's lead").
- Adama also does this after Earth is revealed to be just a nuked cinder in space.
- The finale of Blackadder Goes Forth - the whole series is set in the trenches of World War One, so it has a more serious overtone than the preceding three seasons/series of Blackadder. At the end of the final episode, the characters admit they're scared, decide to follow their orders, leave their trench and charge into a hopeless battle, where they are shot dead. Probably.
Blackadder "I'm afraid not. The guns have stopped because we're about to attack. Not even our generals are mad enough to shell their own men. They think it's far more sporting to let the Germans do it."
George "So we are in fact, going over? This is, as they say, 'it'? "
Blackadder "Afraid so. Unless I can think of something very quickly..."
From offscreen: "Company. One! Face, Forward!"
Baldrick: "Why there's a nasty splinter on that ladder sir, a bloke could hurt himself on that!"
From offscreen: "Company, stand ready!"
Baldrick: "I have...a plan, sir."
Blackadder: "Really Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one?"
Baldrick: "Yes sir."
Blackadder: "As cunning as a fox who was just appointed professor of Cunning at Oxford University?"
Baldrick: "Yes sir."
From offscreen: "On the signal, company will advance!"
Blackadder: "Well I'm afraid it'll have to wait. Whatever it was, I'm sure it was better than my plan to get out of this by pretending to be mad. I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?"
Whistle from offscreen
Blackadder "...Good luck everyone."
- The first episode of Blackadder has a parody, where Richard the Third gives a speech before the Battle of Bosworth Field which is largely cribbed from Henry V's speech in the eponymous play, with smaller speeches offered by Prince Harry and the future King Richard IV (played by BRIANBLESSED)
Harry: Now, I'm afraid there's going to have to be a bit of (unhappily) violence. (Brightly) But at least we all know its for a good cause.
- Every single episode of Boston Legal. However, the cases they take on are so incredibly far-fetched, that, prior to each Rousing Speech, you can't help but thinking "How are they going to get out of that one?"
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Just about one per season, along with a spectacular backfire or two in season 7.
- Subverted in "Doomed" (Season 4, Episode 11): Spike's sudden unexpected outburst of enthusiasm for "fighting the good fight" (after he realized that the implanted behavioral modification chip didn't punish him for killing demons) meets with helpless silent protestation from Xander and Willow. That, and after a long exhausting day of monster-slaying, Spike was blocking their view of the TV box. The irony of course lies in the fact that Spike is a vampire, and used to be Buffy's enemy until that point.
Spike: What's this? Sittin' around watching the telly while there's evil still afoot? It's not very industrious of you. I say we go out there and kick a little demon ass! What? Can't go without your Buffy, is that it? Too chicken? Let's find her. She is the chosen one, after all. Come on! Vampires! Grrr! Nasty! Let's annihilate them, for justice, and for... the safety of puppies... and Christmas, right? Let's fight that evil! Let's kill something! [Credits start running.] Oh, come on!
- Subverted in The Gift (season 5), in which Buffy gives an unimpressive speech before the final battle, and Spike and Giles have the following exchange referencing Henry V:
Buffy: Hey, everybody knows their jobs. Remember, the ritual starts, we all die. And I'll kill anyone who comes near Dawn.
Spike: Well, not exactly the St. Crispin's Day speech, was it?
Giles: (Wryly) "We few, we happy few..."
Spike: We band of buggered.
- The greatest has to be Buffy's speech to the Potentials in "Bring On The Night" where she declares war against the source of all evil.
- Doctor Who contains a memorable one in the story 'Earthshock', in which the Doctor confronts the completely emotionless Cyberleader with the limitations of their existence, pointing out that small, beautiful things - which they cannot appreciate - are what make life worth living.
- The Tenth Doctor takes control in "Voyage of the Damned" by stating he's going to save "your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?"
- How about Colonel Alan Mace's speech in front of the Atmos facility in "The Poison Sky"? The whole planet is covered in soon-to-be toxic gas, and there's an alien invasion underway, but he finds time to give his men a speech, before proceeding to kick the Sontarans' cloned asses back to space with a Airborne Aircraft Carrier
- Sent up with Buck Frobisher's "March 11th" speech in the final episode of Due South, which, while only truly appreciable onscreen, deserves to be reprinted in full:
Frobisher: They have called this day the eleventh of March. And whom-so-ever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain, you will stand a hipnal when e'er you hear the name again, and you will get excited at the name March the eleventh. We happy few, we few, we band of brothers our names will be as like household names. Those who are not here be they sleeping or doing something else, they will feel themselves - sort of crappy. Because they are not here to, to join the fight. On this day, March the eleventh!
- While Farscape didn't have any speeches in the direct sense, a good portion of the final season had Crichton convincing his alien friends (and often himself) that this was the only course of action left: Stop running, make a stand, end this madness once and for all. In the final episode, Crichton goes back to Earth one last time, calls his father from the moon and tells him that he's sealing up the wormhole to Earth (to keep it safe from the Scarrans) and isn't coming back. The 'speech' ends with an endearing father/son moment.
Jack:"You tell my grandkids about me."
John:"Ha, that's a no-brainer. They gotta know who my hero is."
Jack:"You're going to find, when you have your own, you want them to surpass you. Be better. Climb higher. I guess if that's the measure, I'm the greatest Dad on Earth."
John:"I love you, Dad."
Jack:"You're the heart and soul of my life, son. I love you."
John:(with a definite tone of finality)"Goodbye."
- Lexx: "Brigadoom". Usually cowardly Stan delivers the relevant speech, with the One Liner delivered as the last line of a song: "If this should be our final stand / Then we stand together with pride / We will honor the past / And fight to the last / It will be a good way to die."
- Common two or three episodes before the finale to any season of Power Rangers.
- In the season finale of Power Rangers In Space, there's an interesting (and plain ol' inspirational) variant, where resident bumbling comic relief characters Bulk and Skull declare that everyone in the crowd full of unarmed civilians facing down a superpowered alien threat is a Power Ranger themselves, and that they'll fight the aliens without the "real" Power Rangers show up, because they're just that heroic. The real Rangers do come, but not before Bulk and Skull deliver an Ensemble Darkhorse kind of ass-kicking.
- A similar variant happens in the finale of Power Rangers SPD. The Ranger team has been captured by Emperor Grumm, and Grumm is making a final assault on SPD headquarters. Boom, an academy washout who works as the resident guinea pig for new Ranger gear, stands up and tells the demoralized cadets that he will stay and fight. Not because he thinks that they'll win, but because that's what Power Rangers do.
- Red Dwarf: "Out of Time". Shocked at the decadent attitude of their future selves, the crew refuse to hand over the Time Drive to them, and are delivered an ultimatum: hand it over or be destroyed.
Rimmer: Do we have any chance of winning?
Kryten: Their craft is greatly upgraded. We have no chance whatsoever.
Rimmer: Then I say Fight.
Kryten: (shocked) Sir?
Rimmer: Better dead than smeg.
Lister: All right! Cat?
Cat: Better dead than sofa-sized butt.
Lister: Kryten?
Kryten: Better anything than that toupee!
- Star Trek: Whenever a Klingon is around for one of these, he gets the Catch Phrase, "Today is a good day to die."
- Third Rock From The Sun episode "36! 24! 36! Dick!". After a group of hot Venusian women fail in their plot to steal everything of value from Earth, Dick cheers them up by telling them how they can make something of their lives by becoming supermodels.
- Quoted and used as the theme in an episode of Titus. It involved getting closer to death to make you feel alive. "Erin makes me not want to splatter myself on the rocks. Great! Now I'm boring!"
- In Torchwood, medic Owen Harper, trapped in a nuclear bunker which will shortly fill with radiation, begins to shout and run around and smash things, insisting that he will "rage his way to oblivion". He stops, though- it wasn't accomplishing anything except hurting Tosh's feelings.
- Dramatic example: The West Wing: "Shutdown", when President Bartlet decides to stand up to Congress (also a Hes Back moment). The speech was more impressive, but the context less seasons earlier when something similar happened in "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet", which employed a One Liner Echo with "I serve at the pleasure of the President."
- Firefly ruthlessly subverts this in the pilot episode, where Mal delivers a quick, rousing speech to his troops, only to have one of them clam up in terror, another get killed while trying to call in air support, and at the end of the entire scene, the Allaince coming in to obliterate the entire Independent army, utterly crushing both the Browncoats and Mal's spirit.
- Peter gives one to his fellow
mutants superhumans "people with abilities" when they're being pursued by the government in the Heroes episode "Trust and Blood."
- Brutally subverted in the season 5 premiere of Supernatural. Dean delivers a rousing-yet-typically-Dean speech to Sam and Bobby about how, in this apocalyptic and collateral damage-heavy war between Lucifer and the angels, they're gonna win the war for humanity... only, once Bobby is out of earshot, Dean admits to Sam that he was just talking shit to keep Bobby's spirits up, and they don't have a chance in hell of winning.
Mythology
- This might possibly be one of the oldest tropes in all of Western entertainment, as revealed in The Iliad. As the Trojan War is going on, Achilles, the strongest member of the Greek army, refuses to get involved. This changes when his friend and possible love interest dies, causing him to go berserk on the Trojan Army, ultimately helping to win the war, but resulting in his death at the hands of Paris.
- This was the entire basis of Teutonic mythology. Even the gods were ultimately doomed and what mattered was to die bravely. JRR Tolkien, and expert in Northern mythology, tried to invoke this spirit in The Lord Of The Rings. Being doomed was no reason not to fight.
Tabletop Games
- The flavor text of the Magic The Gathering card Awakening.
- Going one step further, the flavor text of the card Primal Rage shows just how rousing that speech was.
- Apply this concept to entire species, and you'll have an idea what life for the Eldar and Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40000 is like. As one might expect, such speeches are commonplace.
- This also applies to its sister setting in Warhammer. The dwarfs have lost their empire, their numbers are dwindling, the craftsmanship and skills of the past are being lost, and one by one their last remaining strongholds are falling to the grobi or rat-men or other nasties that inhabit the Warhammer world. But they keep fighting, out of sheer, stubborn, dwarfish bloody-mindedness. The high elves have a similar situation regarding their dark kin and the forces of Chaos, but are naturally more stuck-up about it. Oddly enough, the human Empire is a bit more optimistic, due to spanking Chaos in a recent campaign a few years back.
- This is one of the character schticks of the Warlord class (the "Martial Leader") in the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Like a number of other classes, the Warlord can choose between several "motifs" at character creation; two motifs focus towards manipulating their allies in the fight (Tactical and Resourceful), while the other two focus towards inspiring allies to fight harder. The Inspirational Warlord is the more likely of these latter motifs to make use of Rousing Speeches- the Bravura Warlord prefers inspiring through example. Beyond being part of the theme, a number of the Warlord's powers actually take the form of particular speeches and battle cries.
- Werewolf The Apocalypse puts a pretty badass one in the mouth of Margrave Konietzko in the final battle against the Wyrm:
Know this, warriors of our Mother! There is nothing after this. Our ancestors have been butchered twice over, once in body and once in spirit. There is no Heaven, there -will be no Hell, Valhalla does not exist. All that is will be destroyed if we fall here today. And many of you will. The enemy is mighty and fearsome, and we march forward into the mouth of death. Do not fight for an afterlife reward for your bravery, for it will not come. Fight instead, for Gaia. Fight for all that you know and love. Fight with -every last ounce of Rage left inside you, so that even should the Wyrm destroy us, he will be awestruck by your mighty fury. Prove your arms so mighty, prove your anger so terrible, prove your love so pure and your passion so encompassing, prove your minds so resourceful, and your zeal and courage so overwhelming that even should —every last one of us fall today, the armies of the Wyrm will never rest easy. In their reign of Oblivion, every one of their soldeirs will look over their shoulders and sleep —with one eye open. They will live in fear.....fear that one day we will find a way back!!!
Theater
- While the "St. Crispin's Day" speech tends to be more famous, King Henry's "Once more unto the breach, dear friends!" speech from Shakespeare's Henry V definitely falls under this category.
- Neverwinter Nights References the latter speech as being an option for the PC's voice set.
- Subverted in Antony and Cleopatra. Before one of the battles, Mark Antony gives an incredibly depressing speech ("Haply you shall not see me more; or if,/A mangled shadow: perchance to-morrow/You'll serve another master.") This is the only battle in the play that Antony actually wins.
Video Games
- Gray Fox towards the finale of Metal Gear Solid. "We're not tools of the government, or anyone else. Fighting was the one thing, the only thing that I was good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in. Snake... farewell." Inspired this player, anyway, to strap on body armour and just spam missiles at the Big Bad and ignore any damage being taken. Echoed in the sequel by the Older And Wiser hero.
- "One must die and one must live. No victory, no defeat. The survivor will carry on the fight. It is our destiny. The one who survives will inherit the title of Boss, and the one who inherits the title of Boss will face an existence of endless battle. I'll give you ten minutes. In ten minutes, MiGs will come and bomb the hell out of this place. If you can beat me in less than ten minutes, you'll be able to escape in time. Jack, let's make this the greatest ten minutes of our lives!"
- In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Martin Septim gives a rousing speech to his assembled soldiers before a giant portal to hell opens and legions of demons begin to pour out. The player then gets to go inside and close it.
- In Mass Effect, Captain Kirrahe gives a pretty good 'Do Not Go Gentle...' speech on Virmire. Made even better by the fact that it's impressive to the (obviously human) player, despite Kirrahe being an alien that refers to events that the player had never heard of before.
- You give one yourself earlier upon taking command of the Normandy, which was real nifty since you choose your speech piece by piece, and unlike Knights of the Old Republic, your character does talk.
- Even more impressive as a it comes from a salarian, whose hat throughout the game has been Mad Science. A nice little subversion there.
- Auron, from Final Fantasy X: "Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!"
- "Remember Great Comrade Stalin's order - not one step backwards!" Subverted in that the speechmaker is not exactly heroic, and the soldiers first try to escape and then get killed en masse.
- From Modern Warfare 2:
"The healthy human mind doesn't wake up in the morning thinking this is its last day on Earth. But I think that's a luxury. Not a curse. To know you're close to the end is a kind of freedom. Good time to take . . . inventory. Outgunned. Outnumbered. Out of our minds. On a suicide mission. But the sand and the rocks here, stained with thousands of years of warfare . . . They will remember us. For this. Because out of all our vast array of nightmares, this is the one we choose for ourselves. We go forward like a breath exhaled from the Earth. With vigor in our hearts and one goal in sight: We. Will. Kill him."
- Squall, of all people, gives one of these speeches during the Battle Between the Gardens in Final Fantasy VIII.
- Knights Of The Old Republic 2 allows the player to choose from one of four rousing speeches before a climactic battle on Dantooine. It loses something since the player character can't, you know, talk, but the reaction from your soldiers if you choose the right speech is pretty nifty.
- Also a partial subversion, since you can twist it around give a huge bummer of a speech and utterly destroy their morale to make it easier for the invading army to kill them. You know, if you're a Jerk Ass.
- Interestingly enough, when you give that speech, the militia leader comments that you shouldn't worry, as they always react like that after a rousing speech... at least, after his. In unrelated news, La Resistance has about five members.
- Before the final chapter of Fire Emblem 9 Ike gives one of these speeches, one noteable bit is he states that he finaly understands the concept of Nakama
- Malfurion Stormrage, just before the last mission of the regular game in War Craft III, sounds a battle call to the allied forces—the Horde, the human Alliance, and the Night Elves—as they face down an endless army of undead and demons, not even trying to win, just trying to hold them back.
- General Sheppard, the GDI commander, gives one of these as the final mission briefing.
We've found it, Commander - Kane's temple and base of operations. This field operative's covert transmission came to us live just five minutes ago, so there's no doubt that Kane's inside. He's surrounded himself with his own crack militia. Getting to him... won't be easy. Ironic, isn't it? Kane's planted his temple just outside of Sarajevo. If that sounds familiar, it's because that's where another madman started World War One. And here we are, trying to stop this madman from doing it again. Commander, there is to be no quarter given. No leniency in dealing with Kane and his zealots. Wipe his temple off the face of the earth. Destroy the bastard!... Or prepare to die trying.
- In Gears Of War 2, Chairman Prescott launches into one of the most badass speeches ever as he sends the gears on an offensive against the Locust. See for yourself.
- At the end of Final Fantasy XII, Vayne gives a very rare villainous Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night speech as he faces the protagonists in battle, realising that he will probably not live through this.
- Worldof Warcraft: behold the pure awesome that is High Overlord Saurfang:
I am Saurfang. Brother of Broxigar. You know me to be the Supreme Commander of the Might of Kalimdor. An orc - a true orc warrior - wishes for one thing: To die in the glory of battle against a hated enemy. Some of you have fought in battles. Peace has been with us for many years. Many years we sat idle but many years we battled. In those years - where strife the land and Legion and Scourge sacked our homes, killed our families - these insects dwelled beneath us. Beneath our homes - waiting. Waiting to crush the life from our little ones. To slay all in their path. This they do for their god. And for our gods? We defend. We stand. We show that as one. United. We destroy. Their god will fall. To die today, on this field of battle, us to die an orcish death. To die today is to die for our little ones. Our old ones. Our… loved ones. Would any of you deny yourselves such a death? Such an honor?
-High Overlord Saurfang, address to the combined forces of the Horde and the Alliance, during the Ahn'Qiraj War
- Gre Nade of Evolution personifies his trope, not only in how he speaks to his charge, Mag Launcher, but in that his combat abilities which heal, boost stats, and even revive from death, are all various forms of rousing speeches.
- Scolar Visari, the leader of the helghast in the Killzone games is very adept at making hair-raising, inspiring speeches. His truly epic speech in the intro to Killzone 2 has inspired many a player to fight for cause of the Helghast.
- Warhammer 40000: Dawn Of War has several, the most notable being Governor-Militant Lucas Alexander's speech when an army invades Victory Bay in Dark Crusade. If Chaos is the attacker, Chaos Lord Eliphas the Inheritor even notes "What a rousing little speech, Governor..."
- Likewise, when Eliphas attacks the Blood Raven stronghold in North Vandia he comments "Such inspiring courage. Perhaps we'll mount your corpse on a golden chair and make an idol out of you as well."
- Subverted in Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies. One of these is made near the end; unfortunately, it's made as you select your plane for the final mission, not with a dedicated cutscene, and no subtitles are provided, so it's possible to never notice it, and thus it loses quite a lot of impact.
Web Comics
- In The Order Of The Stick, the Order's bard Elan gives a speech to Azure City's troops before battle, an act he calls a Bardic Right of Passage. The speech conglomerates most well known quotes in this entry, each time examining the statement a bit too closely . It works...until the last phrase, when Fridge Logic ruins it.
Elan: They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom! Unless they kill us and animate our corpses as zombies to fight for them. Then I suppose they've taken our lives and our freedom. ( Awkward pause)
Soldier: You suck!
- O'Chul is apparently getting to play it straight. He even killed one of the demon cockroaches!
- Subverted hard in Goblins when a guard gives this speech...to a lynch mob.
- At the end of the main story of the first run of Fans!, Rikk, Kath and the assembled geek armies of the world recite Aragorn's speech in unison, to each other, before going to war with the God Machine.
- During GPF's mammoth 'To Thine One Self...' arc, the Grey Drone, Pi, attempts to rouse his fellow aliens into revolt against The Empire, in a classic Rousing Speech playing on morality and justice. And fails utterly. Then his comedic sidekick, Planck, steps up, after having serendipitously ended up with a fairly decent Braveheart costume through a series of improbable mishaps - and successfully rouses the drones into revolt with a mishmashed speech combined from various real and fictional Rousing Speeches, and some general-purpose silliness. (Though the ending isn't as crazy at it would appear to the uninitiated - earlier comics revealed that the Greys find cheese to be both delicious and addictive.)
- In Punch an' Pie, right after one of the employees at the toy shop quits, another gives a speech along these lines:
Aaron (wrapping up): And we all knew that one day, one of us would crack under the pressure. So her time was now. So what? The rest of us are here, for you, and we will continue to fight for our cause till we cease to be!!!
Angela: ...and this cause would be?
Aaron: Money.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Very nearly subverted in Avatar The Last Airbender, when Katara gives a dramatic speech encouraging a group of prisoners to revolt... and they all pretty much ignore her, unconvinced they can win. Thankfully, the second attempt goes better all thanks due to the one prisoner who actually knew Katara and had only been in the prison for a day.
- Played with a lot in Chicken Run. Ginger, a chicken at a chicken farm, constantly makes speeches about her dreams of freedom to the others in an attempt to convince them to go along with her plans to escape. Sometimes they work, sometimes they're met with clueless responses or sarcastic jibes. In one scene this trope is subverted, when after one of Ginger's speeches a more cynical chicken, Bunty, responds with an 'enlightened' look on her face "In all my years, I've never heard such a fantastic load of tripe!"
Ginger: We either die free chickens, or die trying!
Babs: Are those the only choices?
- The Braveheart example is spoofed in an episode of South Park - as Thanksgiving turkeys are attacking the town, Chef rides in front of the townsfolk in Braveheart face-paint and gives them the Braveheart speech to inspire the town to fight. The scene then cuts to the turkey army, where a turkey - complete with facepaint - is doing the exact same thing, only in turkey-speak ("Puck-puck puckpuck puck puck puck-puck-puck!")
- The Spongebob Squarepants episode "Band Geeks" - "Right! So if we just imagine that Squidward was a fireman or some guy in an ambulance, then maybe we can discover what it truly means to be in a marching band!"
- "YEAH, FOR THE FIREMAN!!!"
- Towards the end of Teen Titans Beast Boy has managed to avoid being captured by the Brotherhood of Evil, but the only apparent other "survivors" have rather lame powers and don't see the point in trying to fight back. He manages to rally everyone together to go save the day.
- Starfire gives one to the other Titans in "Revolution" (sans Robin who has been captured by Mad Mod), which enables the team to come up with a successful strategy to defeat the villain, utilizing bits and pieces of the methods they'd already tried before.
- Subverted in Ratatouille where Linguini finally confesses he is really a front for a rat, Remy, who is the real cook who has revived the restaurant's fortunes. In the face of the staff's stunned disbelief, Linguini eloquently tells them that if they have faith in this rat's culinary genius, they will all have a glorious future. Unfortunately at the conclusion, the entire staff reacts to this seemingly insane proposal by immediately quitting.
- Yet that speech is simultaneously played straight in that while the humans are not impressed, Remy's rat family is so moved in part by Linguini's efforts, that they step up to be the new kitchen crew.
- Which is then subverted when the restaurant is closed down for good because of its rat infestation.
- Subverted in the 2008 Horton Hears A Who where Horton tries to Shame the mob with a rousing speech explaining why he is so devoted to protecting a speck on a clover which contains a microscopic community on it. At the end, even the Sour Kangaroo notes that the speech is moving, but immediately orders Horton bound and caged anyway.
- In Disney's 1995 Pocahontas, both the white settlers and Pocahontas' tribe have rousing speeches at the same time leading up to the battle between them. Oh yes, this being Disney, it's done in song. This is a subversion, since the audience can see just how distorted each speech is in demonizing the other side.
- Quite a bit of both speeches are identical, so the two sides can say them together. Oddly, both contain a lot of focus on race, while the issue had been pretty much ignored in favor of culture clash for the rest of the movie (the settlers had been referring to the natives as 'savages' the whole time, but until the song no-one was saying 'red-skin' or anything like that).
- Later releases changed "red-skin" to "shrieking".
- In Mission Hill, just after Andy has given a rousing speech in defense of his brother:
The Judge: The man in the hot pants speaks the truth. Case dismissed!
The Judge: Well, maybe you should have given a rousing speech.
- In Futurama, Zapp Brannigan responds to being court-martialed:
Zapp: I'd like to make one final statement. Kif, come here and hold up the flag. And wave it a little, for God's sakes. My friends, you can take away a man's title and his uniform but you can never take away his integrity or his honour. Plus, it was mostly Kif's fault.
- In the Duckman episode "Vuuck, as in Duck", Duckman gives a speech to his women's baseball team that parodies the famous Knute Rockne "Win One for the Gipper" speech, and culminates in "... or I swear I'll go beat that legless bastard."
- Optimus Primal delivers one at the end of Beast Machines right before facing Megatron's final onslaught.
Other
- A joke:
A sports team is losing badly to their opponents. Displeased with their distress, the team captain decides to instill in them some good old fashioned team spirit:
Team Captain: What's with the long faces? Aren't we the Everyschool Teamnames?
Team: Yeah!
Team Captain: Don't we have the best team of the season?!
Team: YEAH!!!
Team Captain: And don't you have me as your captain!?!
...Now go out there and do something awesome!
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