History ActionDad / Film

* Liam Neeson's character in ''Film/{{Nell}}'', who winds up very protective of the borderline WildChild (wild adult, by then) he and another doctor have been observing since her mother's death. A reporter who sneaks up trying to get a picture of the rumored "wild woman" gets thrown down the front steps of Nell's cabin and his camera broken for his troubles. Neeson's character does admit he overreacted, only to chase the reporter away when the idiot keeps asking questions.

* Although not a biological father, O'Malley from ''Disney/TheAristocats'' fights quite ferociously to prevent the BigBad from shipping the cats to Timbuktu.

* Fergus in ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}''.

* Bob Parr (a.k.a. Mr. Incredible) in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''.
* ''Disney/TheLionKing'': Mufasa is the best father ever (no matter his species), as he is wise, just, loving, stern when necessary, and royal. But don't you ''dare'' cause ''any'' harm to his kid, or he will ''find'' you and he will ''kick your ass'' (unless you're unlucky).
* Pongo in ''Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians''.

** Arnie plays a mild-mannered ex-military helicopter pilot (who takes skiers up mountains) in ''Film/The6thDay ''. He fails to die on schedule, and the company responsible kidnaps his wife and daughter to try to force his compliance. Then he and his clone (yes, it's that kind of movie, and why he was supposed to be dead) destroy the company [[MacGyvering with a tin of aluminum oxide]] ''[[Series/MacGyver and one pistol between them.]]'' If you can't say Made Of Awesome, I'll do it for you.

* Creator/JohnWayne spends the majority of ''Film/BigJake'' tracking down and in the end blasting seven hells out of a bunch of bandits who kidnapped his grandson. ''[[BadassGrandpa Grandpa Wolf]]'', indeed.

* Marlin in ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', because how many fish do you know would risk life and death across an ocean that is infamous for some of the most POISONOUS and DANGEROUSLY VICIOUS creatures of the sea, to find his son? He's not even a shark, he's a goddamn clownfish who's [[CowardlyLion scared of everything]].

* ''Disney/TheLionKing'': Mufasa is the best father ever (no matter his species), as he is wise, just, loving, stern when necessary, and royal. But don't you ''dare'' cause ''any'' harm to his kid, or he will ''find'' you and he will ''kick your ass'' (unless you're unlucky...).

* Bob (a.k.a. Mr. Incredible) in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''.

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Yondu Udonta is a OneManArmy with his TrickArrow, leads the ruthless and amoral Ravagers, and is Peter Quill's adoptive father. He survives his M-ship smashing into the ground with little more than a few scratches and then takes down [[spoiler: an entire Sakaaran platoon (and a necrocraft)]] in seconds with the aforementioned arrow. Taken UpToEleven in ''[[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 Vol. 2]]'' when he massacres hundreds of his mutinying crew in a matter of minutes and later [[spoiler: pulls a HeroicSacrifice to save Peter from the vacuum of space]]. Peter mentions that as a kid, he always told the other kids that his dad was Creator/DavidHasselhoff from ''Series/KnightRyder'', who he thought was cool because he had an awesome car and fought robots. Peter eventually realizes that Yondu fits that description reasonably well.

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Yondu Udonta is a OneManArmy with his TrickArrow, leads the ruthless and amoral Ravagers, and is Peter Quill's adoptive father. He survives his M-ship smashing into the ground with little more than a few scratches and then takes down [[spoiler: an entire Sakaaran platoon (and a necrocraft)]] in seconds with the aforementioned arrow. Taken UpToEleven in ''[[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 Vol. 2]]'' when he massacres hundreds of his mutinying crew in a matter of minutes and later [[spoiler: pulls a HeroicSacrifice to save Peter from the vacuum of space]].

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Yondu Udonta is a OneManArmy with his TrickArrow, leads the ruthless and amoral Ravagers, and is Peter Quill's adoptive father. He survives his M-ship smashing into the ground with little more than a few scratches and then takes down [[spoiler: an entire Sakaaran platoon (and a necrocraft)]] in seconds with the aforementioned arrow.

* John [=McClane=] in ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'' - After he gets involved in the terrorists' Scheme, the BigBad decides to kidnap his daughter Lucy to try to control John. Big mistake.

* In ''Film/NorthCountry'', Josey's dad. He was initially aloof about his daughter for reasons relating to her first pregnancy (where she was apparently promiscuous), although he eventually stood up for her at the union rally when she tried to expose the sexual harrassment problems at the mine she works at, also calling out his coworkers on this fact. However, the biggest example of his being a PapaWolf comes in later: During the trial, Josey is forced to reveal what truly happened during her youth and the ''real'' reason she became pregnant with her son after one of the co-workers (who she also went to school with) exposed the knowledge of who the father of her first child was: It turns out that her teacher had in fact committed statutory rape on her after serving Saturday detention for skipping class and kissing said future co-worker, of which the only witness was said co-worker and he failed to stop him. As soon as the father learned the truth during the trial, he walks over to the teacher and then proceeds to go ballistic and attack him for raping Josey, resulting in him being forcibly removed from the courtroom.

* The daddy ''T. rex'' in ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark''. Teamed up with his ActionMom to shove two connected RV's off a cliff after their hatchling was taken. Being a ''T. rex'', he was already a {{Badass}}.

* ''Film/DeathSentence'': Nick Hume's older son gets killed by a gang member and he learns that the gang member will only receive a few years in jail, he forces the case to be dropped so that he can kill the bad guy himself. In doing so, he is forced to kill another member of that gang. However, the gang's head doesn't take kindly to this and swears vengeance on Nick's family. Nick being an ActionSurvivor rather than a hardened {{Badass}}, he fails to stop the gang. Though [[spoiler:his younger son survives and]] he gets back at the gang successfully, it's quite clearly shown that Nick ends up far from the man he used to be. Not all positively.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'', Hiccup's father is a {{Badass}} Viking who's willing to punch dragons in the face and dent metal with his hammer to protect his boy, and the other is a freaking ''dragon.'' A dragon who attacks and drives off another dragon a little over three times his own size when the other threatened Hiccup.

* An unusual although understandable example would be Walt from ''GranTorino'', who is Papa Wolf toward his neighbors once he gets over some racial tension, but not toward his "own spoiled-rotten family" who treat him more like an invalid than a worthwhile individual. When he comes to Sue's rescue:

* ''Film/LoneWolfMcQuade'': You can beat him, shoot him, bury him alive, and shoot his dog and maybe survive, but if you hurt his daughter, you will open the whole can of ChuckNorris whoopass.

** His SpiritualSuccessor, Sonny Koufax in ''BigDaddy'', is no slouch himself. He at first takes a boy as his own son to raise out of undisguised selfishness, but thanks to BecomingTheMask, ends up declaring: "I would die for this kid, just so he wouldn't have to feel a moment of sadness."

** Arnie plays a mild-mannered ex-military helicopter pilot (who takes skiers up mountains) in ''Film/The6thDay ''. He fails to die on schedule, and the company responsible kidnaps his wife and daughter to try to force his compliance. Then he and his clone (yes, it's that kind of movie, and why he was supposed to be dead) destroy the company [[MacGyver with a tin of aluminum oxide]] ''[[Series/MacGyver and one pistol between them.]]'' If you can't say Made Of Awesome, I'll do it for you.

* The [[DirectToVideo Direct to DVD]] StevenSeagal movies ''Belly of the Beast'' and ''Film/OutOfReach''. In the latter, he isn't actually even the girl's father, making it all the stupider.

* The daddy T-rex in ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark''. Teamed up with his ActionMom to shove two connected RV's off a cliff after their hatchling was taken. Being a T-rex, he was already a {{Badass}}.

* Creator/CharlieChaplin's Tramp character in ''Film/TheKid''. When an official from the local orphanage takes the [[DoorstopBaby boy he found and raised]] away, he goes into RoofHopping {{Determinator}} mode.

* Invoked in ''AwayWeGo'' when the expecting parents are discussing their future daughter.

* In ''[[Film/BackToTheFuture Back To The Future Part II]]'', Marty gets chased out of the "dark 1985" version of his house by a baseball bat-wielding PapaWolf, who is enraged to find Marty in what, in the altered timeline, is the bedroom of the PapaWolf's young daughters. Based on what he's screaming, it's not the first time people had broken into his home.

* An ActionDad score for Denzel Washington is ''JohnQ'', where to make sure that his IllBoy son Michael will [[BillyNeedsAnOrgan get a heart transplant]] which is being denied to him because insurance doesn't cover it, John Quincy Archibald actually ''takes a full hospital hostage'' and claims he won't back off until Michael is given priority. [[spoiler: John goes as far as improvising a ThanatosGambit so his heart will be harvested and given to his child, but it fails. In the BittersweetEnding, however, John is still trialed and incarcerated, but Michael is saved.]]

* In ''North Country'', Josey's dad. He was initially aloof about his daughter for reasons relating to her first pregnancy (where she was apparently promiscuous), although he eventually stood up for her at the union rally when she tried to expose the sexual harrassment problems at the mine she works at, also calling out his coworkers on this fact. However, the biggest example of his being a PapaWolf comes in later: During the trial, Josey is forced to reveal what truly happened during her youth and the ''real'' reason she became pregnant with her son after one of the co-workers (who she also went to school with) exposed the knowledge of who the father of her first child was: It turns out that her teacher had in fact committed statutory rape on her after serving Saturday detention for skipping class and kissing said future co-worker, of which the only witness was said co-worker and he failed to stop him. As soon as the father learned the truth during the trial, he walks over to the teacher and then proceeds to go ballistic and attack him for raping Josey, resulting in him being forcibly removed from the courtroom.

* Anthony Hopkins in ''Film/TheWolfman2010''. He shoots on those who want to catch his son, [[spoiler:and later tries to kill Lawrence. And he already killed his brother. And he ''is'' a werewolf.]]

* LiamNeeson's [[RetiredBadass Ex-Special-Forces commander Bryan]] of the film ''Film/{{Taken}}'' (see page quote) shows the organization that kidnapped his daughter the exact reason why you don't screw around with an ex-CIA operative's kids. In a particularly brutal example of this trope, he is willing to go as far as [[spoiler: threaten to kill a CorruptCop and former friend's innocent wife AFTER winging her with a bullet to show he's serious]] to save his daughter from being sold into prostitution. The entire movie is effectively a paean to the PapaWolf trope.

* Creator/CharlieChaplin's Tramp character in ''TheKid''. When an official from the local orphanage takes the [[DoorstopBaby boy he found and raised]] away, he goes into RoofHopping {{Determinator}} mode.