Do Not Go Gentle moments in Live-Action Films.
- Buliwyf from The 13th Warrior is poisoned and so fatally sick that he can hardly stand, but when the battle starts he's there with his sword and his dog to not only inspire his comrades with a Viking prayer but to also participate in the battle because that's just how Vikings do it. He survives the battle by managing to not only resist the poison through sheer determination but actually slays the Wendol warlord in the process, and then lets himself succumb once the battle is over.
- * Alien:
- Aliens:
- Lieutenant Gorman and Private Vasquez make a desperate last stand in the air ducts of the ruined space colony. Surrounded on all sides by Xenomorphs and running out of ammunition, they end it by detonating a grenade, killing themselves and the surrounding aliens.
- Shortly before this is Hudson, who goes down shooting at and cursing out the Xenomorphs even as they drag him to his death.
- Alien³: With a xenomorph running around the prison facility on Fiorina-161 and killing its meager prisoner population, and Weyland-Yutani on its way to collect the lethal specimen (as well as the queen incubating in Ripley's chest); Ripley and prisoner Dillon try to rally the reluctant survivors to kill the creature before the company can claim it for the bio-weapons division. Though initially resistant to the idea, they manage to succeed in convincing most of the men; and although by the end of it all, only one prisoner, Morse, manages to survive, they do succeed in destroying the alien.Ripley: When they first heard about this thing... it was crew expendable. The next time, they sent in marines- they were expendable too. What makes you think they're gonna care about a bunch of lifers who found God at the ass-end of space? You really think they're going to let you interfere with their plans for this thing? They think we're crud, and they don't give a fuck about one friend of yours that's died- not one.Dillon: We're all gonna die. The only question is how you check out. Do you want it on your feet? Or on your fuckin' knees... begging?! I ain't much for begging! Nobody ever gave me nothin'! So I say FUCK that thing! Let's fight it!
- Alien: Resurrection sees Purvis, one of the victims of Dr. Wren's attempt to obtain the Xenomorph, decide to use his final moments to take Wren with him. How does Purvis do this? Right as the chestburster starts to come out, he storms over to Wren, who's holding to Call hostage, shrugs off every shot fired into him by Wren; beats the shit out of Wren's face; then grabs Wren and positions him so that when the chestburster does come out second later, it goes through Wren's head, too.
- Aliens:
- Assassin's Creed (2016): During the climactic prison riot, Joseph Lynch is alone, armed with only a disassembled Hidden Blade and is boxed in a room with only one exit. He brings down several Abstergo security guards before he dies.
- The Bucket List is all about this trope. Two men, both with terminal diseases, see how many dreams they can fulfill for themselves before they kick the bucket.
- A memorable recitation of the Trope Namer poem takes place at the end of Dangerous Minds, just as the protagonist teacher is about to give up, feeling overwhelmed and impotent to make a difference. Not exactly life or death in that situation, but facing the prospect of being a dedicated, caring teacher for one of the roughest public schools around is pretty daunting too. When her friend asks her why she decided to stay, she answers only "they called me their light..."
- About to be eaten by a werewolf in Dog Soldiers? "I hope I give you the shits you fucking wimp!"I'm gonna fuckin' HAVE YA!!!
- Preston in Equilibrium, after learning revolution was a trick of the authority to trap him, decides not to give in easily, and manages to win.
- In Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, after Destoroyah kills Godzilla’s son, he goes after Destoroyah with everything he’s got, causing his nuclear meltdown to accelerate.
- In Hangmen Also Die!, one of the hostages taken in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich writes a poem to this effect regarding the Nazi occupation, called "The Invisible Torch".Fellow patriots, the time has come.
Fellow patriots, there is work to be done.
Raise the invisible torch and pass it along.
Keep it burning, keep it burning
forward on the road that has no turning.
Die if you must,
for a cause that is just.
But shout to the end: "No Surrender".
Ever onward, no returning,
till the senseless* butcher will be learning
that his war isn't won till the last battle's done.
Carry on when we are gone.
No surrender! - Double Impact: In the opening scene, the twins' father kills three Triad assailants before Moon kills him.
- Independence Day had the President using this argument as the cornerstone of his Rousing Speech. If the human race is to be wiped out, then they will make certain the aliens remember them. In fact, he almost uses the trope name word-for-word during his speech:"We will not go quietly into the night, we will not vanish without a fight..."
- Interstellar. The original Dylan Thomas poem (or at least parts of it) is recited several times as the plot involves saving mankind from slow extinction. However, the trope is subverted (and the poem becomes an Ironic Echo) midway through the film when Professor Brandt makes a Deathbed Confession that he thought the people on Earth had no chance of survival; it was just a motivational lie so people would support the mission. Dr Mann also quotes the poem when he tries to murder Cooper. However the protagonists do manage to save humanity after all, so the quote is engraved on a memorial to their mission.
- The Last Samurai. Algren persuades Katsumoto to go down fighting instead of committing Seppuku or bowing down to Omura and the forces of corporate Japan and fading into obscurity. What ensues is the last flowering of the Samurai.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
- This is how Tony Stark gets his call in Iron Man: captured in a cave, shrapnel climbing to his heart, and little hope of rescue. His fellow captive convinces him to fight, and the rest is history.
Yinsen: Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark!? Or are you going to do something about-?
Tony Stark: -Why should I do anything? They're gonna kill me, you... Either way, if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week.
Yinsen: Well then... this is a very important week for you, isn't it?- In the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers are storming one of the last Hydra Strongholds, and their leader, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, calls out that they will never surrender. Though Strucker whispers to Dr. List that he’s going to surrender.
- Avengers: Infinity War has this moment during the climax, as the heroes see how vastly outnumbered they are by Thanos' forces, but decide to go down fighting.
M'Baku: This will be the end of Wakanda.
Okoye: Then it will be the noblest ending in history. - The Matrix Revolutions: Mifune's Rousing Speech to the defenders of Zion just before the Machines invade may qualify:"All right! This is it! Now you all know me, so I'm gonna say this as simply as I can. If it's our time to die, it's our time. All I ask is, if we have to give these bastards our lives...we give 'em hell before we do!"
- In Pacific Rim, the Kaiju and their creators were not expecting humanity to fight back as hard as they do against extinction. Special mention also has to go to the Hansens who, when they have a disabled Jaegar and no other options, start telling Leatherback to "come get some" and fire flares that are about as effective as Spiteful Spit instead of giving up.
- The protagonists of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and not just the immediate fight after a Rousing Speech. Pirates as a whole were phasing out as well. Fighting that one, last hopeless battle to the death might well have been the send-off of their way of life altogether.Elizabeth Swann: "You will listen to me...LISTEN! The Brethren will still be looking here to us, to the Black Pearl to lead, and what will they see? Frightened bilge rats aboard a derelict ship? No... No, they will see FREE MEN! AND FREEDOM! And what the enemy will see is THE FLASH OF OUR CANNONS! THEY WILL HEAR THE RING OF OUR SWORDS AND THEY WILL KNOW WHAT WE CAN DO! By the sweat of our brows, and the strength of our backs, and the courage of our hearts! Gentlemen... Hoist the colors!"
- Blackbeard says something to this effect toward the end of On Stranger Tides when he comes face to face with the man fated to kill him:
Blackbeard: Aye, that be the cold breath of fate I feel down my nape. But... I'll have one last fight, by God. KILL 'EM ALL!!! - DJ Grant Mazzy signing off in Pontypool. With his recording booth besieged by zombies and a trigger-happy military, there's only one thing left to say:"This is Grant Mazzy for CSLY Radio Nowhere. ...And I'm still here, you cocksuckers."
- The entire plot of Repo! The Genetic Opera is driven by the fact that Rotti Largo knows that he's dying, and wants to enact one last Evil Plan to make everyone he hates suffer. He pulls it off.Rotti: It seems the man who cured the globe can't stop his own extinction. But I can still go out with a bang!
- Star Wars: Ewok Adventures: In the second film, Cindel's brother and father are both last seen defiantly shooting at forces who have them outgunned and outnumbered, before their life-monitoring signals on Cindel's bracelet go out.
- The main theme of The Whales of August, which is about two elderly sisters living together. Sarah is concerned that Libby is talking so much about death. Libby for her part doesn't see why people as old as they are should bother to do anything new like install a picture window. Libby eventually comes around, seeming to resolve to make the most out of what time she has left.Libby: [last lines of the movie, as they look for the whales] Can you see them?
Sarah: The whales have all gone.
Libby: You can never tell. You can never tell.
