History Main / BadassBystander

* ''Film/{{Destroyer}}'': When Petra is attempting to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown stomp Erin to death]] in the ice cream parlour, one of the customers grabs her and pulls her off.

* In ''VideoGame/LANoire'', you come across shop owners once and a while who have actually managed to scare the shit out of their robbers beforehand. Also occasionally pulled by ordinary [[RedShirt beat cops]].

* A similar act of heroism occurred a year later in Sydney when three men pinned another KnifeNut [[https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/police-praise-heroic-bystanders-who-used-chairs-a-milk-crate-and-an-axe-to-stop-sydney-knifeman/news-story/cd96652a0d04ca17c8fdde34c30550c6 using a chair and milk crate]].

* In "Death Shall Overcome," the exposed murderer flees through the halls of the New York Stock Exchange and is overpowered by an unnamed U.S. Steel specialist who takes in how he's running from the cops.

** In "Chemistry" from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', [[Characters/BatmanPoisonIvy Poison Ivy]]'s just revealed she set up Gotham's wealthiest to fall for a bunch of plant people she created to get their attention, marry them, and kill them to get their fortunes. Ivy planned to kill all the respective millionaires during their honeymoon cruise, but gets momentarily distracted when she realizes Susan Wayne (the plant woman who married Bruce Wayne) hasn't joined them yet before the ship's destroyed. It's at this point a rich woman asks her compatriots why they're simply letting Ivy do this and incites them to fight back against Ivy's plants.
** Also from ''Batman: The Animated Series'', Charlie Collins, an innocent office worker who had the misfortune of running into the Joker and being forced to do his bidding. He eventually gets fed up, and, having grabbed one of the Joker's bombs, reduces the Clown Prince of Crime to a terrified wreck screaming for Batman to come save him by threatening him with what he fears the most; Dying unremarkably, killed by a random civilian in a back alley. To top if off, the bomb was fake and Charlie was faking it, which even ''Batman'' lets out a laugh at. Charlie Collins managed to beat the Joker by first terrifying him into submission, then ''making Batman laugh'', something the Joker never could accomplish.

** Played straight several times earlier in the series, though. The most memorable episode is "Patriot Act".
** Earlier, when Dan Turpin single-handedly turns the tide against [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]] in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. With Superman [[BadassInDistress captured and publicly humiliated]] in order to cow humanity into hopelessness, Dan Turpin alone flips off the triumphant Darkseid and rallies the crowd behind him. Dan leads a counterattack, singlehandedly frees Superman, defeats several Parademons, and helps fend off the forces of Apokolips until [[GondorCallsForAid the forces of New Genesis arrive to liberate the Earth]]. Now, while it's true that the ''viewers'' already knew Turpin was a tough cop, Darkseid had no clue who this guy was and thought he'd conquered the Earth by defeating its greatest champion. Unfortunately, this also counts as a DyingMomentOfAwesome, as the fleeing Darkseid kills Turpin out of spite.
** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' two-part episode "The Call", Inque caught a bystander to use as a hostage and Terry tried to talk her out of using innocent bystanders like that. In a similar subversion as the one presented at the finale of ''Justice League Unlimited'', the bystander turned out to be a disguised Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}}... [[CurbStompBattle unfortunately for Inque]].

** In ''Anime/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened'' has a wild Feraligatr commanding many Pokémon to defend their home from the invading Genesects. Notably, though, is how this Feraligatr did ''more'' than the main trio did as they were just standing around and repeatedly trying to get to Red Genesect and [[FanNickname FemTwo]] when in the end they both realized their error of their ways... by themselves.

** In "On the Morgue's Table" there's an insomniac guy who, upon seeing him and Eva [[spoiler:actually two very convincing impostors, but this insomniac man believed them to be the real deal)]], first called the police and, upon seeing they would get away before the police arrived, [[spoiler:grabbed a precision rifle and ''gunned them down''.]]

* In the ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' arc "Syndicate Rules," the Antimatter Universe Johnny Quick and his teammate Power Ring (disguised as the Flash and Green Lantern) are having their asses handed to them by Computron and the Rainbow Raiders. The civilians are thoroughly stunned to realize the two "Leaguers" are having a hard time with these D-List (at best) supercriminals, and immediately rush in and beat the crap out the Raiders with makeshift clubs, shovels, and two-fisted bystander action.

* In ''ComicBook/WhatIf: ComicBook/HouseOfM'', every superhero and villain loses their powers. This leads to the [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]], with the combined forces of the Hand, A.I.M., and Hydra to try and take over New York, now that they have no competition. ComicBook/IronMan tries to save the day, with the help of the other un-superheroes in new iron suits, but gets their asses handed to them. This leads Peter Parker, formerly known as Franchise/SpiderMan, to jump into the fray with a Badass Speech and, with his old web shooter, smashes the cosmic cube the Red Skull is holding. The result: the ''entire city of New York'' {{Zerg Rush}}es the Red Skull and his minions.

* ''Film/DiaryOfTheDead'' has the dynamite and scythe wielding, deaf, Amish zombie killer Samuel who introduces himself amidst blowing up the undead. Likewise the female paramedic who karate-kicks a standing zombie in the head.

** ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'': In the FinalBattle, one of the Parademons manning the defense cannons of Steppenwolf's base manages to stop ''Franchise/{{the Flash}}'' mid-race with an incredibly well-timed shot.

* When a gang of Yakuza pull swords on Bae-dal in ''Film/FighterInTheWind'', some guy in a hat (later revealed to be an old friend) leaps out of the crowd and fights them to a standstill, despite only having one hand.
* Subverted in ''Film/FoodOfTheGods2''. During the giant rats' attack on the synchronized swimming competition, an audience member grabs a gun from a policeman and begins shooting, except that all he succeeds in doing is shooting other people. Lt. Weizel has to grab the weapon away from him before he can do any further damage.
* Nigel James in ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation''. For a jerkass minor character, he proves himself surprisingly capable at handling supervillains. When Storm Shadow breaks out his water containment, James manages to stun him by electrocuting the leaking water. He then attempt to get things back under control by rallying his guards, but another Cobra crashes the party and kills everyone. Now heavily wounded, James still manages to pull off one last act of defiance by destroying a fuel tank and wounding Storm Shadow, thus depriving the Cobras of their best assassin.

** In ''Film/IronMan2'', when the Hammeroids go haywire and start attacking people, everyone immediately starts running away in a full-on panic--well, everyone except for one little kid wearing toy replicas of Iron Man's mask and repulsor. The kid stands up to one of the Hammeroids at the Stark Expo and manages to distract it long enough for the real Iron Man to show up and defeat it (Iron Man also thanks the kid before the leaving). When you really think about it, that kid likely prevented massive collateral damage '''''and''''' saved the lives of numerous people.[[note]]What makes this even better is that WordOfGod has confirmed that [[HeroicBystander the kid]] was in fact [[Franchise/SpiderMan Peter Parker]], who must've been around only 7 or 8 when this happened.[[/note]]

* Used a few times in the badass-saturated ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', sometime to introduce a character that will become important a few books down the line.
** Traveller first shows up in ''Literature/HouseOfChains'' accompanying a group of [[RedShirt nameless soldiers]], defeats a hundred EliteMooks [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome off-screen]], and leaves the narrative by the end of the chapter that introduced him.

* BadassBystander: In "Death Shall Overcome," the exposed murderer flees through the halls of the New York Stock Exchange and is overpowered by an unnamed U.S. Steel specialist who takes in how he's running from the cops.
--> '''U.S. Steel Specialist:''' My boy, I don't know why they want you, but...
--> ''With that, he pivoted and landed a competent rabbit punch. He followed this up with a short, powerful jab. The murderer folded. He did not slump to the ground since he was held erect by the crushed tangle surrounding him. The U.S. Steel specialist might be sixty and overweight, but he had not boxed at Dartmouth for nothing.''

* ''Liteature/JuniorJediKnights:'' In ''Lyric's World,'' several young Melodies help Anakin and Tahiri fight back against a snake monster by throwing rocks at it. Given how they've grown up on a DeathWorld, they have quite a bit of practice.

* The [[ProudWarriorRace Wastelanders]] in ''VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander'' qualify, as not only will they shoot at you if you hit them, but when Spargus is overrun by Dark Makers, they fight back.

* ''VideoGame/Postal2'' makes many jokes towards the Second Amendment, one of them including the fact that most civilians in [[DeepSouth Paradise, AZ]] have plenty of weapons in their house that you can pick up in case you break into them. Some civillians will also effectively pull out their guns and try to take you down in case you start causing trouble, or, in harder difficulties, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou they just come after you the moment they see you]]!

** Later, during the Chrysalis arc, the [[spoiler:students of Arcadia High do this, helping Skitter escape by mobbing the superheroes that were coming for her.]]

** Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' finale. Franchise/WonderWoman, Shining Knight, Vigilante, and Star Sapphire are having a difficult time fighting an army of Parademons when one of the Chinese bystanders stops running, says goodbye to his wife, and runs to help. Wonder Woman tries to talk the old man out of it, until he one-hit K.O.s not one, not two, but THREE parademons, ''turns into a dragon'', and whups several more, much to the heroes' surprise. The subversion comes in when the old man turns out to be J'onn J'onz, aka ComicBook/MartianManhunter.

** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' two-part episode "The Call", Inque caught a bystander to use as a hostage and Terry tried to talk her out of using innocent bystanders like that. In a similar subversion as the one presented at the finale of ''Justice League Unlimited'', the bystander turned out to be a disguised Franchise/{{Superman}}... [[CurbStompBattle unfortunately for Inque]].

* From Website/{{Cracked}},
** ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_19766_6-nobodies-who-turned-into-superheroes-without-warning.html 6 Nobodies Who Turned Into Super Heroes Without Warning.]]''
** ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_18509_5-unknown-schmucks-who-turned-into-superheroes-in-clutch.html 5 Unknown Schmucks Who Turned Into Superheroes In The Clutch.]]''
** ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_19139_9-acts-vigilantism-straight-out-comic-book.html 9 Acts of Vigilantism Straight Out of a Comic Book.]]''
** ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_20516_6-awesome-stories-bystanders-becoming-heroes.html 6 Awesome Stories of Bystanders Becoming Heroes.]]''

In ''Anime/WonderEggPriority'', sometimes a VictimOfTheWeek will help a protector defeat the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Wonder Killer]]:

* In the Korean film ''Film/TheHost'', when the monster first rampages through a public area, an American man takes it upon himself to mount a valiant attack on the monster before getting mauled. A news report later reveals that he's a soldier. This is probably done to compensate for the otherwise anti-American slant of the film.

* Most of Paris gets to be this in Franchise/{{Disney|AnimatedCanon}}'s ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'', when in the climactic battle scene the crowd that had gathered to protest Esmeralda getting [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake]] undergoes a mass TookALevelInBadass as a result of a RousingSpeech by Phoebus; they all join Phoebus in kicking the tar out of Judge Frollo's goon squad while Quasimodo is busy tending to Esmeralda (who is fighting for her life after having inhaled too much smoke). And we had actually seen hints of this earlier at the Festival of Fools, when Frollo orders his guards to arrest Esmeralda and the {{Street Performer}}s in the plaza do their part to help her escape.

** In "On the Morgue's Table" there's an insomniac guy who, upon seeing him and Eva [[spoiler:actually two very convincing impostors, but this insomniac man believed them to be the real deal)]], first called the police and, upon seeing they would get away before the police arrived, [[spoiler:grabbed a precision rifle and ''gunned them down'']].

-->-- The '''''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Record]]''''' headline, summing up what cab driver Alex [=McIlven=] did during the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Glasgow_International_Airport_attack 2007 Glasgow Airport attack.]]

** Ed's involvement itself is an example of this. Originally, the trainjackers' purpose was completely unrelated to Ed and Al... [[BerserkButton and then one of them made the mistake of calling Ed "short."]]

** The real one comes when [[spoiler:the heroes have been taken out by Father's WaveMotionGun alchemy. He then is '''this''' close to absorbing Ed and Izumi to replenish his Philosopher Stone, when a random sniper bullet comes out of nowhere and nails Father right in the head! [[HealingFactor It doesn't kill him]], but it does knock him down for a few seconds, saving Ed and Izumi, and setting up the good guys counterattacks and effectively leading to his defeat]].

* In ''ComicBook/WhatIf: ComicBook/HouseOfM'', every superhero and villain loses their powers. This leads to the [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]], with the combined forces of the Hand, A.I.M, and Hydra to try and take over New York, now that they have no competition. ComicBook/IronMan tries to save the day, with the help of the other un-superheroes in new iron suits, but gets their asses handed to them. This leads Peter Parker, formerly known as Franchise/SpiderMan, to jump into the fray with a Badass Speech and, with his old web shooter, smashes the cosmic cube the Red Skull is holding. The result: the ''entire city of New York'' {{Zerg Rush}}es the Red Skull and his minions.
* In the ''ComicBook/XMen'' graphic novel ''ComicBook/GodLovesManKills'', main villain and SinisterMinister William Stryker is about to shoot [[Characters/XMen80sMembers Kitty Pryde]] after she gives him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech on live TV. [[spoiler: In the book's climax, Stryker aims his gun and the X-Men stand their ground. A shot is fired, but it's ''Stryker'' who falls over, as he was shot (non-lethally) by a police officer working security. The cop states rather obviously that Stryker was about to shoot an unarmed little girl, which is ''not'' the Word of God.]]

* In ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', on the Flying Island of Tipaan, a disguised George and Ringo are jamming along with the Six Step Combo (and having a damn good time doing so). Things abruptly stop when one of the “Punk Cowboys” stands up and accuses the two of being members of the [[TheNotableNumeral Awesome Foursome]]. When George and Ringo just sit there looking incredibly guilty and with no clue as to how to plausibly deny the accusation, the three Punk Cowboys get up on stage to unmask them. The Six Steppers, all civilians, promptly beat the crap out of them. Ranala, the group's drummer, does for one of the Punk Cowboys all by herself, beating him over the head with her drum until he falls over. Turns out [[spoiler: the Six Steppers knew they were outworlders in disguise but didn't care; indeed, they had good reasons for coming so swiftly and decisively to Ringo and George's aid]].

* 2 examples in ''Fanfic/MyRidonculousRace''. The 1st is Anjel Williams, who offers to drive Jordan and Fabian throughout London when they blow all their money on a hospital visit. 2nd are [[spoiler:the Gym Rats Gabriella and Nekota]], an already eliminated team who not only find one racer's stolen passport but also offer to drive their team around Washington DC.

* ''Film/BlindFury:'' When Lyle and Tector carjack an elderly couple, [[NeverMessWithGranny the wife pulls a gun out of her purse and shoots after them as they speed away.]]

** In the third act of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', Brock Rumlow goes up to a random nerdy-looking S.H.I.E.L.D. IT guy and orders him to [[spoiler:launch Project Insight]]. He refuses, even though the expression on his face makes it abundantly clear that he [[HeroicSacrifice fully expects Rumlow to shoot him for refusing.]]
--->'''S.H.I.E.L.D. Tech:''' [[WhatYouAreInTheDark Sorry. Captain's orders.]]

** Subverted in the [[Film/SpiderMan2 second film]] when Spider-Man nearly kills himself stopping a train from driving off the end of the tracks. After he's pulled back inside the tram by the passengers, Doctor Octopus shows up to finish him off, at which point everyone in the car stands up and proclaims that he'll have to get through them first. He casually knocks them all aside. At least they tried....

* Played with to great effect in the original ''Series/WhoopsApocalypse''. A major sub-plot in the early episodes has the Soviets brutally interrogating a sweet, harmless elderly husband and wife whom they believe to be undercover agents for the West. The audience laughs merrily along at this, until suddenly...they beat the crap out of their interrogators, produce various spy-tech gadgets, and stage a jail break.

* In some performances of ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance'', the Pirate King [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou attacks the orchestra conductor]], who fends him off. [[ThrowItIn This originated as improv but has since become somewhat traditional]].

** The giant pig at Link's home island in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker''. Pigs are Wind Waker's replacement for [[CallARabbitASmeerp Cuccos]] in that they attack Link if he attacks them enough times, and the giant pig acts the same way, only he does more damage to Link in a single hit than any other enemy in ''the entire game.''

** Later, during the Chrysalis arc, the [[spoiler:students of Arcadia High do this, helping Skitter escape by mobbing the superheroes that were coming for her]].

-->''Just in case you're the eldritch thing: [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu fuck off, squidface]]. We're worthless, sure, [[BadassBoast but we can get shit done just as well as the others]]. [[YouShallNotPass You're not getting in.]]''

** ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_19766_6-nobodies-who-turned-into-superheroes-without-warning.html 6 Nobodies Who Turned Into Super Heroes Without Warning]]''
** ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_18509_5-unknown-schmucks-who-turned-into-superheroes-in-clutch.html 5 Unknown Schmucks Who Turned Into Superheroes In The Clutch]]''
** ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_19139_9-acts-vigilantism-straight-out-comic-book.html 9 Acts of Vigilantism Straight Out of a Comic Book]]''
** ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_20516_6-awesome-stories-bystanders-becoming-heroes.html 6 Awesome Stories of Bystanders Becoming Heroes]]''

* This would-be robber probably should've checked to see if [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BGjIB83MvQ one of the customers happened to be an off-duty police officer.]]

* [[http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/25020053/only-on-fox-good-samaritan#ixzz2x0lhBN00 Tameka Brown,]] who was riding a Philadelphia train when she noticed a man trying to attack a woman carrying a small infant. Brown stood up, put herself in front of the assailant, and successfully got the woman and child off the train to safety. But not before delivering the following BadassBoast to the attacker:

* While filming a night scene for the first episode of ''Series/PersonOfInterest'', actor Creator/JimCaviezel spotted a woman being beaten by her boyfriend in the street; he immediately ran off set and "intervened."

* Actress Creator/DarylHannah is 5'10 and twice used her [[ShesGotLegs long legs]] to hold down muggers.

** In Episode 58 of ''Brotherhood'', while Wrath is hanging from Greedling's leg, a nameless Briggs soldier (with a BadassMustache) manages to shoot Wrath in the shoulder. This is a man who was never even touched throughout the first 59 episodes out of 64.

* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': [[HollywoodNerd Washio]] is a NiceGuy with no fighting ability to speak off. Yet, in the final episode, he somehow made it past the security at the Jahana research facility undetected and saved Reimi, as the building was going up in flames. Moments later, they're seen safely outside, with Washio's jacket [[HerBoyfriendsJacket draped around her shoulders]], to protect her modesty.

*** An honourable mention must also go to an unidentified airbase security guard in the title sequence, who sees a [[EliteMooks SAS trooper]] on exercise run down by an enemy agent in a stolen Land Rover and comes running out of the guardhouse in time to put most of his sub-machine gun's magazine into the fleeing vehicle, nicking a crate of incendiaries in the back and ensuring the killer wouldn't get away. 007 ultimately did most of the work offing the guy, but still.

* From the [[https://metropole.at/how-the-viennese-reacted-to-a-night-of-terror-with-solidarity-resilience-and-wit/ November 2020 terrorist attack in Vienna, Austria:]]
** In several videos of the shooting at Schwedenplatz, someone can be heard screaming, "Schleich di, du Oarchsloch!" (Viennese dialect for "Get lost, you asshole!") from a window, drawing attention to themselves.
** Two Turkish-Austrian young men carried an injured police officer to an ambulance through gunfire. A Palestinian-Austrian man rescued another injured officer from the gunfire as well, giving him first aid. A Syrian-Austrian saved three wounded passersby and took them to the hospital in his private car. Especially poignant, given the immediate racist/anti-Muslim/anti-immigrant scapegoating that erupted during and after the shooting on social media.
** The police was finally able to get a kill shot in because a citizen [[DefiantStoneThrow threw a vase at the shooter]], [[FlowerPotDrop distracting the attacker]] (who immediately started firing at the window).

** [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=8693 This woman]], who was quickly dubbed Crossbow Lady on the forums, pulls an epic ShutUpHannibal on PyroManiac Maki with a crossbow bolt to the shoulder. Even better is that her hands are visibly shaking, meaning that despite being scared she's still doing it, and she appears to be a [[MixedAncestry mix blood]], a group that's [[FantasticRacism looked down on in story]].

* From the January 2020 terrorist attack in Vienna, Austria:

** Similarly, the police was able to get a kill shot in because a citizen [[DefiantStoneThrow threw a vase at the shooter,]] distracting the attacker (who immediately started firing at the window).
** Two Turkish young men carried an injured police officer to an ambulance through the gunfire.

** Similarly, the police was able to get a kill shot in because a citizen threw a vase at the shooter, distracting the attacker (who immediately started firing at the window).