History ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/BadBoys 2'': Marcus's sister is kidnapped by the drug lord and taken to Cuba. Mike and Marcus intend to go rescue her themselves, but are then aided by a loose-knit group of law enforcement agents who decide to risk violating international law.

'''[[TheSpock Data]]:''' Captain, I believe I speak for everyone here, sir, when I say... [[SophisticatedAsHell "to]] ''[[SophisticatedAsHell Hell]]'' [[SophisticatedAsHell with our orders"]].

* ''Film/DirtyHarry'' lives this trope. So do some other Creator/ClintEastwood characters.
* ''Film/TheNakedGun''. Frank Drebin tries to live this trope from time to time, sadly with more realistic consequences than most BigDamnHeroes.

* In the film version of ''Film/TheRunningMan'', Ben Richards is ordered to fire upon a food riot. When he refuses, the crew overpowers him and carries out the order. Richards is then blamed by the state and becomes known as the "Butcher of Bakersfield".
* In ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'', [[spoiler:Neo realises Trinity will be killed by an Agent, and insists she stays out of the matrix; however, despite his pleading, Trinity states "[She refuses] to sit and watch [Neo] die", and does so anyway.]]
* ''Film/CrimsonTide'' is all about this. Lt. Commander Hunter (played by DenzelWashington) actually commits mutiny and seizes control of the ''USS Alabama'' in the name of preventing nuclear war. Though Hunter insists throughout that it was ''not'' a mutiny, he did everything "by the book". It was the Captain who disobeyed proper procedure, by not holding the launch countdown pending retrieval of the message, and attempting to relieve Hunter for fulfilling his role, the very reason why there's two sets of keys. As far as Hunter sees it, his actions were all Lawful as well as Good.
* In ''Film/IRobot'': Sonny, a advanced robot who is able to think independently of the three laws, agrees that the actions of the main villain are perfectly rational and that their logic is sound in accordance with the laws of robotics; however, he chooses to go against their plan because it "just seems too heartless."
* In ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'', Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien go against orders to take a dying Hellboy to Prince Nuada's realm in order to save his life. Johann Kraus intercepts them, seemingly intending to either reason with them or arrest them for disobeying orders, but instead joins them.
* In ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', Trudy Chacon's [[NeutralNoLonger Neutral Face Turn]] comes when she's ordered to fire on a tree full of defenseless Na'vi:
-->"Screw this. I didn't sign up for this shit!"
* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': General Hawk first subverted his orders by [[spoiler:telling the team that they could violate the spirit of the orders without technically violating the letter]] and later [[spoiler:launched an unsanctioned attack on Cobra's Arctic base after the organization was ordered disbanded.]]
* ''Film/StreetFighter'': "Troopers, I just received new orders. Our superiors say the war is cancelled. We can all go home. Bison is getting paid off for his crimes, and our friends who have died here will have died for nothing. But, we can all go home. Meanwhile, ideals like peace, 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 wannabe is gonna feel it! Now, who wants to go home... and who wants to go with me?"
** In the video game adaptation, failing to complete the assault on the compound gets Guile court-martialed.
* ''Film/NationalTreasure'' is all about a guy who ''steals the Declaration of Independence so someone else can't''. In the sequel, he kidnaps the President, but unlike the first movie, it has absolutely nothing to do with "saving the country" or anything; Gates just wants to find El Dorado and clear Thomas Gates' name of treason.
* ''Film/StarshipTroopers'':
** Has a scene where [[DrillSergeantNasty Sergeant Zim]] is arguing with his superior officer to let him join the war. Being a boot camp instructor, he won't get anywhere near the front lines unless he "busts himself back to a Private". Rico bursts in, asking Zim to cancel his resignation so that he too can join the war effort. Zim shows him the resignation documents, and after a silent nod from his superior officer, rips them up and thus gives ''both'' of them what they want.
** The end of movie shows that Zim did end up busting himself down to private, though that's probably a subversion, since he was actually following the rules in that case. [[spoiler: And it turns out to be the best decision as it was Zim who captured the Brain Bug.]]
* The primary reason Jason keeps the evidence from the police in ''Film/MysteryTeam''.
* In ''Film/TearsOfTheSun'', the [=SEAL=] Team engages the Nigerian rebels after watching the rebels massacre a village, not to mention trying to extract as many indigenous refugees from the conflict zone as possible, against direct orders from their command center.
* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'',
** Steve Rogers' first real action in World War II is when he rescues 400 soldiers from HYDRA against Colonel Philips' orders. Subverted to a degree when, after returning the men to their base successfully, Steve voluntarily surrendered himself for disciplinary action, only to have [[AFatherToHisMen Phillips]] say, "I don't think that will be necessary."
** Agent Peggy Carter decides to help Steve to get into the HYDRA base, at the risk of her career. Likewise with Howard Stark, who flew the plane into enemy lines. Though as he was a civilian, not to mention a millionaire private contractor, he technically didn't have any orders to disobey, and had the least to lose.
*** The Starks have a habit of stepping in where the military won't. Howard's son, [[IronMan Tony]] flies to Gulmira to handle the terrorists personally even though the US forces in the area hadn't been given the go ahead. A soldier monitoring the situation says they weren't given the go-ahead because the terrorists were using human shields. Iron Man is unimpressed by cowards who use human shields.
* Sartana in ''Film/{{Machete}}'' could have supplied the header quote if there wasn't already one:
-->"Well, there's the law and there's what's right. I'm gonna do what's right."
* ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' has Qui-Gon Jinn, who will defy the council to train Anakin because he believes the boy is the "Chosen One." Never mind how bad that went. He was sure he was doing the right thing at the time.
** It should be noted that Qui-Gon was right, but not in the way anyone expected.
* Heimdall in ''Film/{{Thor}}'' is ordered [[spoiler:by the temporary king Loki]] to [[ExactWords not open the Bifrost to anyone]]. When the Warriors Three and Sif decide to break the rules and go anyways and tell this to Heimdall, the latter simply replies with a "Good!" and walks away. After readying the Bifrost, of course.
* ComicBook/NickFury does this in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' when the WSC orders [[spoiler:a nuclear strike on Manhattan]] to stop the Chitauri invasion. Understandable, it ''is'' a [[SophisticatedAsHell stupid idea.]]
-->'''[[Creator/SamuelLJackson Nick Fury:]]''' I recognize that the council has made a decision. But given that it's a [[SophisticatedAsHell stupid-ass]] decision, I have elected to ignore it.

** In an EstablishingCharacterMoment in the beginning of the film, Maverick aborts his landing to help the badly-shaken Cougar land his plane even though he's low on fuel himself. He's chewed out for this by Commander Johnson, the carrier's CAG, but Johnson can't do anything else because he's been told to send his top flight crew to Top Gun and Cougar just quit the squadron.

** The Hansens decide to preemptively intervene and assist Cherno Alpha during the Battle of Hong Kong against Pentecost's orders. [[spoiler: This nearly got them killed because [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy it was a feint by the kaiju to lure them into an EMP blast]].]]

* ZigZagged in ''Film/PathsOfGlory'', set in WWI trench warfare. During an all-out attack 'B' Company can't get out of their trenches due to a [[MoreDakka hail of bullets]]. General Mireau then orders for the artillery to fire on his own troops to force them out. His immediate subordinates demand for this order to be given [[JustFollowingOrders in writing]].

* ''StarTrekIntoDarkness'' starts with Kirk and crew violating the Prime Directive to save an alien tribe from a volcano (possibly, it's a little unclear if ''that'' was the big violation, or if letting the natives see the Enterprise during a rescue of Spock. Either way, writing a misleading report to cover it up afterwards wasn't Kirk's best decision). Subverted in that Kirk ends up [[TurnInYourBadge losing his command]] as a result. This is later inverted when Admiral Marcus gives Kirk the Enterprise back and orders him to fire a payload of advanced photon torpedoes from a distance at John Harrison, who was in hiding in Klingon Space([[spoiler: as part of Marcus' ploy to instigate a war between the Federation and the Klingons]]). After much soul-searching, Kirk decides "Screw the Admiral's questionable orders, I'm doing what's right" and informs his crew that they are going to arrest Harrison and bring him to Earth to stand trial.

* ''DirtyHarry'' lives this trope. So do some other Creator/ClintEastwood characters.

* ComicBook/NickFury does this in ''Film/TheAvengers'' when the WSC orders [[spoiler:a nuclear strike on Manhattan]] to stop the Chitauri invasion. Understandable, it ''is'' a [[SophisticatedAsHell stupid idea.]]

* In ''Film/HellboyII'', Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien go against orders to take a dying Hellboy to Prince Nuada's realm in order to save his life. Johann Kraus intercepts them, seemingly intending to either reason with them or arrest them for disobeying orders, but instead joins them.

* ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'', the entire plot revolved around this trope so much that their rebelling against the rules is actually part of the title. The thing which sets the plot off is Data, who was assigned on what he thought was a survey mission, and attacked to keep the truth hidden when he discovered what was really going on. This damage kicked him into a kind of basic mode of functioning, probably designed to keep him from being used as a weapon, wherein his program directed him to do the right thing, regardless of whatever else was going on. Essentially, he was ''programmed'' with a ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight default mode.

* NickFury does this in ''Film/TheAvengers'' when the WSC orders [[spoiler:a nuclear strike on Manhattan]] to stop the Chitauri invasion. Understandable, it ''is'' a [[SophisticatedAsHell stupid idea.]]

* [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''Film/{{SWAT}}'', where it's shown what happens when a stunt like this doesn't go as planned. In the opening scene of the movie, the audience sees a bank robbery that quickly turns into a tense hostage situation, and they're introduced to respected SWAT officer Brian Gamble, who disobeys a "hold" order to save one of the hostages from certain death while his superiors insist on negotiating with the robbers. It's the kind of stunt that practically all action movies depict heroically -- except Gamble screws up and accidentally shoots the hostage, causing a PR nightmare for the police department, destroying Gamble's relationship with his partner, and leading to his expulsion from the force, whereupon he goes rogue and becomes a bitter career criminal. Turns out [[DecoyProtagonist Gamble's actually the villain of the movie]]. Oops.

* In ''Film/TopGun'', which is also an EstablishingCharacterMoment, in the beginning, Maverick aborts his landing to help the badly-shaken Cougar land his plane even though he's low on fuel himself.

* The primary reason Jason keeps the evidence from the police in ''MysteryTeam''.

* In ''HellboyII'', Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien go against orders to take a dying Hellboy to Prince Nuada's realm in order to save his life. Johann Kraus intercepts them, seemingly intending to either reason with them or arrest them for disobeying orders, but instead joins them.

* NickFury does this in ''Film/TheAvengers'' when the WSC orders [[spoiler:a nuclear strike on Manhattan]] to stop the Chitauri invasion.

-->'''[[Creator/SamuelLJackson Nick Fury:]]''' I recognize that the council has made a decision. But given that it's a [[PrecisionFStrike stupid-ass]] decision, I have elected to ignore it.

** The Becket brothers decide to save a fishing trawler rather than guard a coast line from a Kaiju attack, defying orders. [[spoiler: This ends up getting one of them killed.]]

** The Becket brothers decide to save a fishing trawler rather than guard a coast line from a Kaiju attack, defying orders. [[spoiker: This ends up getting one of them killed.]]

** The Becket brothers decide to save a fishing trawler rather than guard a coast line from a Kaiju attack, defying orders.

** Agent Peggy Carter decides to help Steve to get into the HYDRA base, at the risk of her career. Likewise with Howard Stark, who flew the plane into enemy lines.