The Power Of Friendship / Live-Action Films

aka: Film

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• Deep Blue Sea: lampshaded when Samuel L. Jackson gives a big speech about the Power of Teamwork, just before being unceremoniously eaten by a shark.
• The Fighting Seabees: Yarrow and Donovan become fast friends, to the point where when Donovan falls in love with Yarrow's girlfriend, Yarrow is understanding and not terribly upset.
• At the end of It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey ends up being saved by one of the more mundane versions of this trope: after he was falsely accused of stealing some money placed in his care that is now missing, all the people he's helped over the years come together and give him enough cash to replace the money that was stolen.
• The King's Speech focuses on the friendship between King George VI and his speech therapist and how it helped the former grow into a strong leader.
• In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the group is ready to give up after one of the members betrays the group and they're almost killed. Tom Sawyer makes a dandy little speech about team unity and how they can win this fight because they have each other. Suddenly, and from that point on, everyone is BFFs and ready to fight.
  • Thankfully, most of that scene was cut, indicating that the production team decided that giving any more screen time to an already insufferable token American character was a bad idea.
• Sam and Frodo's friendship in The Lord of the Rings can be summarised in eleven simple words: "I can't carry it for You, but I can carry You".
• A big theme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Played with in Iron Man 2. When Rhodes takes the Mk II, his Beam-O-War with Tony produces a powerful blast, which is needed in the climax to defeat Whiplash after Rhodey makes up with Tony.
  • The Avengers: Tony Stark's kindness towards and acceptance of Bruce Banner/The Hulk, refusing to treat him like a ticking time bomb the way everyone else is, has drastic consequences later on, as not only does his insistence that the Hulk can be used for good get through to Bruce, who decides to come back to help during the final battle, but the Hulk remembers Tony and winds up saving his life.
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier has the climactic fight between Steve and Bucky, the titular brainwashed soldier. After the lives of 20 million people are no longer at stake, Steve drops his shield out of the Helicarrier and refuses to fight his best friend, which results in Bucky more-or-less overcoming his programming and saving Steve from certain death after he falls into the Potomac.
  Steve: I'm not going to fight you. You're my friend.
  Bucky: You're my mission. YOU'RE! MY! MISSION!
  Steve: Then finish it, 'cause I'm with you to the end of the line.
  • The climax of Guardians of the Galaxy, as fitting for a space fantasy movie, features the power of friendship weaponized. When Peter manages to snatch the Infinity Stone away from the Big Bad Ronan, the power bursting from it threatens to kill him. However, he's saved when his teammates, recalling a memory of several beings attempting to share its power, take each other's hands to divide the immense load. Thus the four (and a half) of them together are able to wield the Infinity Stone, letting them use its power to obliterate Ronan.
  Ronan: You're mortal! How?!
  Peter: You said it yourself, bitch. We're the Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Pacific Rim: Because Drifting to pilot a Jaeger requires two people to be mentally linked so closely they'll be seeing each other's memories, they have to get along really well with no secrets; most pilot teams thus appear to involve close family, best friends, or Battle Couples.
• In the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, when Scott finally battles the Big Bad Gideon, his only chance to win is when his friend Knives steps in and battles alongside him.
• There is probably no more powerful example than The Shawshank Redemption.
• Smokey and the Bandit is all about this trope. Not only do Bandit and Snowman succeed by working with one another, but also by relying on assistance from all their CB radio friends.
• Star Trek:
  • In Star Trek (2009), Spock Prime cites this trope as the reason why Kirk and Spock must learn to work together; it is the only way the Enterprise can defeat Nero.
  • In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, when Spock tells Kirk what he learned from mind-melding with V'Ger:
    Spock: I saw V'Ger's planet, a planet populated by living machines. Unbelievable technology. V'Ger has knowledge that spans this universe. And, yet with all this pure logic, ...V'Ger is barren, cold, no mystery, no beauty. I should have known.
    Kirk: Known? Known what? ...Spock, what should you have known?
    Spock: [holds Kirk's hand] This simple feeling... is beyond V'Ger's comprehension. No meaning, no hope, and, Jim, no answers.
• Spectre: This is what enables James Bond to defeat the Big Bad. While Ernst Stavro Blofeld may have toadies that are kept in line with fear, 007 is always surrounded by close friends and True Companions such as M, Q, Tanner and Moneypenny who are willing to help him even in dire situations.
• Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: The Emperor thinks Luke is a fool for trusting his friends to destroy the greatest superweapon ever built. We all know how that turned out.
  Luke Skywalker: Your overconfidence is your weakness.
  Emperor Palpatine: Your faith in your friends is yours.
• X-Men: Apocalypse shows in its climax how a group can beat what is basically a Physical God:
  Apocalypse: It's over, Charles. You're finished. You're mine now.
  Xavier: You will never win.
  Apocalypse: And why is that?
  Xavier: Because you are alone... and I am not.
  [cue Jean Grey entering the Battle At The Center Of The Mind]

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