History BigDamnHeroes / LiveActionFilms

** In the latter incident, [[spoiler: the Raptor pack-leader "Blue" gets one when she comes to the aid of the downed Rexy, stopping the ''Indominus'' from finishing her off, letting the old girl [[HeroicSecondWind get back on her feet]] and work with Blue to double-team the monster. Then the ''Mosasaurus'' outdoes them both when she lunges out of her tank to chomp down on the ''Indominus'' before the latter can resume the fight, dragging her to a watery death]].

* In ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'', [[spoiler:[[AlienInvasion Parademons]] are swarming the civilians, the Earth is being [[HostileTerraforming terraformed]], ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and ComicBook/WonderWoman are being crushed by falling debris, Comicbook/{{Cyborg}} had his leg torn off by [[BigBad Steppenwolf]] before he could finish separating the [[MacGuffin Mother Boxes]], Comicbook/{{Flash}} can't save all the civilians by himself and ComicBook/{{Batman}} has [[BatmanGrabsAGun run out of ammo]]. How will our ComicBook/JusticeLeague [[DarkestHour survive this?]]]]

* ''Film/IpMan'': TrainingThePeacefulVillagers has been subverted, the factory workers are still getting their asses handed to them by the bandits - until Ip Man shows up and gives them the old what-for.

** Two big ones in ‘’Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker’’ , both during the climax. First there’s Ben Solo arriving after his ‘’HeelFaceTurn’’ to save Rey, and soon after, Lando and Chewie bringing the cavalry in time to save the Resistance from certain defeat. Cue ‘’ThemeMusicPowerUp’’.

* ’’Film/{{Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1}}’’:

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/ReturnOfTheKing https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/big_damn_heroes.png]]]]

** Aragorn has this moment in the first film. The Ringwraith stabs Frodo, and just as he is reaching out (likely to get the Ring that Frodo still wears), Aragorn jumps in, torch and sword at hand and battles the five Ringwraiths, setting most of them on fire.
** Sam when he saves Frodo from Shelob (even if he doesn't know at the time).
** When the Witch-King and his fell-beast are about to kill an incapacitated King Théoden, and then Éowyn jumps in the way, hacking the beast's head off in merely a few strikes.
** End of Helm's Deep. All is lost, Aragorn looks to the East, and then... Gandalf and Éomer, mother-fucker. With a full army of Rohirrim.
** The Battle of Minas Tirith was essentially a series of dueling BigDamnHeroes moments for each side. First, the Rohirrim appear when all seems lost, then Mordor reinforcements arrive with oliphants, then Aragorn shows up leading an army of ghosts...

[[spoiler: ** Thanos is about to catch up to Black Panther and take the Infinity Stones, when Scarlet Witch intervenes. She proceeds to deliver a truly epic CurbStompBattle on the purple meanie, only halted when he orders a missile strike on the Battlefield.]]
*** In the same scene, [[spoiler:Carol Danvers]] does this pretty well too. Thanos' flagship is raining hell down on the heroes when suddenly, they all realize that the guns have stopped. Cut to [[spoiler:''every single one of Thanos's big guns'' [[GodzillaThreshold turning away from the battle and firing on]] something huge and terrible descending rapidly from the sky. Captain Marvel shrugs off the energy blasts, before punching through the ship without breaking stride, sinking it into the lake with one shot]].

** In ''Film/JurassicPark'', the ''TyrannosaurusRex'' of all things gets one when she [[spoiler:shows up to attack the raptors that have the human characters surrounded]].
** That same ''T. rex'' gets ''another'', even ''bigger'' damn hero moment in ''Film/JurassicWorld,'' when [[spoiler:Claire [[SummonBiggerFish lets her out of her paddock]] and leads her to the rampaging new dinosaur ''Indominus rex'', allowing "Rexy" to ultimately save yet another cast of characters]].
** In the latter incident, [[spoiler:the Raptor pack-leader "Blue" gets one when she comes to the aid of the downed Rexy, stopping the ''Indominus'' from finishing her off, letting the old girl [[HeroicSecondWind get back on her feet]] and work with Blue to double-team the monster]].

** Not long after that, Kaa has Mowgli in [[GenderFlip her]] coils, ready to eat him. But just then, [[spoiler:Baloo]] arrives and fights off the snake, chasing her away.
** During the final battle against Shere Khan, Bagheera once again fights Shere Khan to protect Mowgli. He gets wounded, and Shere Khan is ready to bite his throat when Raksha and her wolf pack arrive, Raksha shouting a BigNO while tackling the tiger to save Bagheera.

[[spoiler: **Thanos is about to catch up to Black Panther and take the Infinity Stones, when Scarlet Witch intervenes. She proceeds to deliver a truly epic CurbStompBattle on the purple meanie, only halted when he orders a missile strike on the Battlefield.]]

[[spoiler: Thanos is about to catch up to Black Panther and take the Infinity Stones, when Scarlet Witch intervenes. She proceeds to deliver a truly epic CurbStompBattle on the purple meanie, only halted when he orders a missile strike on the Battlefield.]]

[[spoiler: Thanos is about to catch up to Black Panther and take the Infinity Stones, when Scarlet Witch intervenes. She proceeds to deliver a truly epic CurbStompBattle on the purple meanie, only halted when he orders a missile strike on the Battlefield.

** Two big ones in ‘’Film/TheRiseOfSkyWalker’’ , both during the climax. First there’s Ben Solo arriving after his ‘’HeelFaceTurn’’ to save Rey, and soon after, Lando and Chewie bringing the cavalry in time to save the Resistance from certain defeat. Cue ‘’ThemeMusicPowerUp’’.

** Two

** Yoda plays the part to a T in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', despite [[PintSizedPowerhouse not being very big at all.]]
** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'': Happens quite a bit, but the Biggest Damn Heroes moment is [[spoiler:when Han, Chewie, and Finn are taken prisoner by the Stormtrooper unit on Takodana, only to have an opportunity to escape when Poe Dameron and a squadron of Resistance X-wings blast onto the scene with dramatic fanfare.]]
** Rey, Chewbacca, and eventually [[spoiler: Luke Skywalker]] all show up on Crait just in time to come through in the clutch for the dying Resistance.

*** [[spoiler: Chekov saves Kirk and Scotty from falling to certain death when the ''Enterprise'' is falling, and they end up hanging onto a rail for dear life.]]
** ''Film/StarTrekBeyond
*** Kirk [[spoiler: creates a diversion on a motorcycle using holographic versions of himself to distract Krall's minions so Spock and Bones can get the rest of the crew to safety. Jaylah also gets her moment by defeating Manas, who killed her father.]]
*** Bones and Spock [[spoiler: save Kirk in one of Krall's swarm ships before he gets sucked into space.]]

** The [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third]] also has one at the very end when [[spoiler: Will, now the new captain of the Flying Dutchman,]] erupts from the sea to help the Black Pearl drive off the East India Trading Co.'s fleet.

** When the Witch-King and his fell-beast are about to kill an incapacitated King Théoden, and then Éowyn jumps in the way, hacked the beast's head off in merely a few strikes.
** End of helm's deep. All is lost, Aragorn looks to the East, and then... Gandalf and Éomer, mother-fucker. With a full army of Rohirrim.

** [[spoiler: Magneto]], of all people - when the Blackbird is about to crash into the forest in ''Film/X2XMenUnited''.

* In the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'', these are somewhat plentiful and frequently awesome. Film 1 has Bumblebee saving Sam from a pack of [[AngryGuardDog angry guard dogs]], Bumblebee saving Sam & Mikaela from Barricade, Optimus saving Sam & Mikaela from corrupt government officials (though this one doesn't work out so well), and Bumblebee & Mikaela saving the soldiers from Brawl. Film 2 has Bumblebee saving Sam & his parents from the kitchen appliances brought to life by the Allspark shard, Optimus & Bumblebee saving Sam & Mikaela from [[spoiler:the revived Megatron]], Jetfire showing up in the final battle to kill Mixmaster [[spoiler:and Scorponok]], and Bumblebee saving Sam & co. from [[spoiler:Rampage & Ravage]]. ...Bumblebee gets to do a lot of these, doesn't he?

* Subverted in the short film ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYDquzEPLsw Pyrates]]''. Just as a pirate is about to be hanged, his captain and crew arrive to effect a daring rescue, [[spoiler:only to find out at the end of the film that they just wanted his part of the treasure map.]]

* Subverted in ''Film/LandOfTheDead'' [[spoiler:as the heroes rush to join the final battle against the zombie horde, it appears this will be played straight and they will arrive just in time to save the terrified people trapped between the electric fence and the zombies. They actually arrive just in time to watch as the zombies feast on the people and all they can do is give those still alive a somewhat quicker death.]]

* Played with in ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy''. Ron tries this, utterly failing ("I immediately regret this decision!"), the rest of the news team does pretty well, but it's [[spoiler: Baxter]] who saves the day

* Film/TheSmurfs,where the entire smurf village comes to rescue Papa from Gargamel. [[spoiler:They brought forks,gold balls, and other things]].[[spoiler: Too bad this didn't last long until Gargamel used his dragon wand to trap the entire smurf village.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FNGgFQGJ8k The soundtrack for that scene starts out like an old tribe about to fight. But later get's fun and exciting.]]
* ''Circus'' has a subversion; Leo is being threatened by a pair of {{Loan Shark}}s, when Leo's buddy Moose intervenes and beats up the sharks... because he blames Leo for the death of his mistress and [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou wants to kill Leo himself.]]

** The drone coming to Jack's rescue during the Scavs' ambush on the remains of the New York Public Library, and the drones sent to intimidate the Scavengers when they capture Jack and Julia. [[spoiler: Although considering TheReveal that follows, they could be considered more of a VillainousRescue in action.]]
** When the drone on Tower 49 is reactivated, [[spoiler: killing Victoria]] and getting ready to shoot Jack, Julia saves him by blowing away the drone with the Bubble Ship's guns. [[spoiler: The fact that the later AerialCanyonChase has the drones getting shot repeatedly with the same guns with little damage making it also an example of WorfHadTheFlu, is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by Harper mentioning earlier that the drone isn't worth much without its armor.]]
** During the final shootout between the drones and the Scavengers on the bunker, one of the drones is about to shoot Julia [[spoiler: and some human civilians]]. [[DefiantToTheEnd Julia picks up a gun]] and [[FiveRoundsRapid shoots the drone ineffectively]]... but is enough of a diversion for Sykes to be able to shoot it InTheBack with no problem. [[RebelLeader Beech]] also mans a turret and shoots it out with one of the drones, destroying it although he ends up injured because of it.

* Done during the final battle of ''Film/SpiderMan3'', when [[spoiler: Harry]] comes in and saves Peter from being crushed by the Sandman.

** The Mutos seem unstoppable until Godzilla pimps into town to show them who's boss. The big reveal in the Honolulu airport suggests this trope, but really it's the final showdown in the San Francisco Bay that best captures it, [[spoiler:after Ford blows up the Female Muto's egg, she attempts to kill him. Cue atomic breath, allowing Ford to escape.]]

-->[[spoiler: '''Judge Lex''']]: 'Wait'? Are you kidding me? Did you say 'wait'? Judge Dredd... ''the'' Judge Dredd, finally gets on the wrong end of a gun, and what he says... is 'wait'. You know what? I expected more of you. I mean, wait for what? Wait for me to change my mind? Wait for another two or three seconds of life because you're so fucking weak you just can't stand to see it end?

-->''(Anderson blasts [[spoiler: Lex]] multiple times from behind.)''

* In ''Film/DumbAndDumber'' Harry pulls this twice. First, he smashes through a gas station bathroom stall to [[ItMakesSenseInContext put out the fire on his foot,]] which happened to be the same bathroom stall [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Lloyd was about to get raped by Sea-Bass in.]] The second time was a subversion when [[spoiler: Harry [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy fails to shoot the BigBad]], but distracts him long enough for [[TheCavalry the FBI to come in.]] ]]

*** When the Avengers can't evacuate the city [[spoiler:that has been turned into a FloatingContinent by Ultron, Nick Fury arrives with the old helicarrier to help]]

** ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': When the Asgardians are about to be overwhelmed on the Rainbow Bridge, [[spoiler:Loki arrives with Korg, Miek and the rest of the rebel gladiators to save the day.]]
** ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'': In the climax of the film, [[spoiler:M'Baku arrives with troops to help T'Challa in his hour of need.]]

*** When Vision and Scarlet Witch come under attack by Thanos's forces, [[spoiler:Captain America and his team of Secret Avengers eventually show up to help them.]]
*** When Thor [[spoiler:arrives in Wakanda wielding Stormbreaker. Bruce Banner even yells out, "You guys are screwed!" at the invading army the second he sees his fellow Avenger...and he's not wrong.]]
** ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' has possibly the most epic one ever: [[spoiler: Captain America stands alone against Thanos' forces, and then Doctor Strange's portals open and EVERY living hero from the past decade of MCU movies (along with thousands of extras) show up and an [[BigBadassBattleSequence epic final battle]] ensues.]]
*** In the same scene, [[spoiler: Carol Danvers]] does this pretty well too. Thanos' flagship is raining hell down on the heroes when suddenly, they all realize that the guns have stopped. Cut to [[spoiler: ''every single one of Thanos's big guns'' [[GodzillaThreshold turning away from the battle and firing on]] something huge and terrible descending rapidly from the sky. Captain Marvel shrugs off the energy blasts, before punching through the ship without breaking stride, sinking it into the lake with one shot.]]

** In ''Film/JurassicPark'', the ''TyrannosaurusRex'' of all things gets one when she [[spoiler: shows up to attack the raptors that have the human characters surrounded.]]
** That same ''T. rex'' gets ''another'', even ''bigger'' damn hero moment in ''Film/JurassicWorld,'' when [[spoiler:Claire [[SummonBiggerFish lets her out of her paddock]] and leads her to the rampaging new dinosaur ''Indominus rex'', allowing "Rexy" to ultimately save yet another cast of characters.]]

* ''Film/JasonBourne'': When [[BigBad Dewey]] has Bourne at his mercy following a BreakingSpeech, [[spoiler: Heather arrives and quickly shoots Dewey down, saving Bourne.]]

** Joe and Marcos [[spoiler: shooting a gang of Russian Purgers dead and saving Barnes and Roan.]]
** Laney and Dawn [[spoiler: running down Kimmy's friends, then Laney shooting Kimmy in the head.]]
** Marcos [[spoiler: shooting Warrens in the head, then LaResistance killing the rest of the NFFA members.]]

''[[spoiler: [[BigDamnHeroes Superman punches Steppenwolf]] and the [[ThemeMusicPowerUp classic Superman]] music cuts in.]]''
* ''Film/XxXReturnOfXanderCage'' has [[spoiler: Darius Stone coming out of nowhere and blowing up mooks with a grenade launcher in the final battle.]]

* ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'': Harrowingly subverted in an infamous scene where [[spoiler:Mellish is losing a tense tussle with a German soldier, who takes the knife out of his hands and pins him down on the floor. [[NaiveNewcomer Upham]] is outside on the stairs, sobbing and clearly afraid. In a more idealistic war movie, Upham would have went upstairs and saved his comrade in arms. Instead what happens is Upham's fear gets the best of him and Mellish has a slow and painful NightmareFuel death from the bayonet sinking down into his chest.]]

** ''Film/IronMan'': Just as the head thug is about to execute an innocent villager in Afghanistan as his wife and children scream for them to stop, Iron Man falls out the sky and proceeds to lay the smackdown on all the terrorists in short order.

* In ''Film/SuicideSquad'', Captain Boomerang is pinned and helpless, about to be killed by TheDragon, when he's saved by Katana jumping in and chopping off the villain's hand with her [[KatanasAreJustBetter Soultaker Sword]].

** End of helm's deep. All is lost, Aragorn looks to the East, and then... Gandalf and Éomer, mother-fucker.
** The Battle of Minas Tirath was essentially a series of dueling BigDamnHeroes moments for each side. First, the Rohirrim appear when all seems lost, then Mordor reinforcements arrive with oliphants, then Aragorn shows up leading an army of ghosts...
* In ''Film/{{Rambo|IV}}'', the Burmese soldiers have captured both the missionaries and their mercenary rescuers, and are lining them up for execution. They ready their weapons, prepare to fire...and then John Rambo rises up into view behind the soldier manning the Burmese troops' .50cal machinegun.

* DoubleSubversion in ''Film/IndependenceDay'': Russel Case gives the line "Sorry I'm late, Mr. President!" ...and then his missile jams. ...and then he makes a HeroicSacrifice to destroy the alien ship anyway.

* In ''Film/JusticeLeague'', [[spoiler:[[AlienInvasion Parademons]] are swarming the civilians, the Earth is being [[HostileTerraforming terraformed]], ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and ComicBook/WonderWoman are being crushed by falling debris, Comicbook/{{Cyborg}} had his leg torn off by [[BigBad Steppenwolf]] before he could finish separating the [[MacGuffin Mother Boxes]], Comicbook/{{Flash}} can't save all the civilians by himself and ComicBook/{{Batman}} has [[BatmanGrabsAGun run out of ammo]]. How will our ComicBook/JusticeLeague [[DarkestHour survive this?]]]]

*** In the same scene, [[spoiler: Carol Danvers]] does this pretty well too. Thanos' flagship is raining hell down on the heroes when suddenly, they all realize that the guns have stopped. Cut to [[spoiler: ''every single one of Thanos' big guns'' [[GodzillaThreshold: turning away from the battle and firing on]] something huge and terrible descending rapidly from the sky. Captain Marvel shrugs off the energy blasts, before punching through the ship without breaking stride, sinking it into the lake with one shot.]]

** ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' has a Truly epic one [[spoiler: Captain America stands alone against Thanos' forces, and then doctor strange's portal opens and EVERY living hero from the past decade of MCU movies shows up and an epic final battle ensues]]

** Every single time Batman smashes through a window involves a Big Damn Hero entrance. The classic example is the scene in the 1989 ''Film/{{Batman}}'' movie where Bats smashes through a skylight to save Vicki Vale who is being menaced by the Joker in the museum.