- Leonidas and the Spartans. While the Spartans were already commonly regarded by historians as one of the most badass civilizations in all of history, this movie, also making bored high school history students interested in a quaint little city state that they would not even know existed in the first place, exaggerated the idea further that the Spartans were really a race of hypermuscular Supermen who can each kill millions by themselves while wearing only underwear. It's like applying Chuck Norris Facts to an entire city.
- When you are attempting a ridiculously deadly stunt and anybody says This is Madness, repeat this phrase: This! IS! SPARTA!!!
- Quaritch is not on Pandora. Pandora is under Quaritch.
- Michael Bay, who will make any film he directs awesome. "Awesome", as in EXPLOSIONS!
- Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. Because no one fights like Gaston, and no one hunts like Gaston, etc. Lampshaded in House of Mouse where they have a Running Gag of him butting in on other characters' conversations to say "No one [does what you're talking about] like Gaston!" (Actually, that episode might have been the inspiration for Gaston's meme.) In one episode, in which Clarabelle is gathering gossip, Gaston begrudgingly concedes that he has, indeed, seen others hunt like Gaston. There's also the Gaston Reads meme on dA. And at least one Take That! as well. No one can get eaten like Gaston!
He was forced to avert his meme once, though — in which someone mentioned shutting up, he states "No one shuts up like... nevermind." - All of this may be true, but nobody fucks with the Jesus.
- Lampshaded in Braveheart:William Wallace: Sons of Scotland! I am William Wallace.
Young Soldier: William Wallace is seven feet tall!
William Wallace: Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds. And if HE were here, he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from his arse.
(Scottish army laughs)- Continued to it's logical conclusion here.
- Continued to it's logical conclusion here.
- Bruce Campbell and his boomstick. He's the most famous B-Movie actor around. He's fought and killed just about everything you can think of; aliens, mercenaries, bandits, himself, Napoleon's army, an evil army of the dead, and bad stop-motion effects. He was a corpse in Congo, yet still the most awesome thing in the entire movie.
- As far as The Cinema Snob is concerned? PIERRE KIRBY.
- The Bank Manager in the opening scene of The Dark Knight didn't grab a shotgun and start blowing the Joker's gang away while screaming threats because he was a secret mafioso; he did it because William Fichtner is just that badass!
- Dirty Harry.
- You really don't want to make his day.
- Ask yourself, punk, "Do I feel lucky?" Huh? Well, do ya?
- He's played by Clint Eastwood who is already a Memetic Badass, so this was a given.
- Downfall has Hermann Fegelein. What do you mean you can't find Fegelein? Then look for him! The Führer wants to see him AT ONCE! I will not be made a fool of for being unable to find the man who ruined my day. ANTICS! Bring me Fegelein! FEGELEIN! FEGELEIN! FEGELEIN!
- Captain Nascimento from the Brazilian movie Tropa de Elite (a.k.a. The Elite Squad). When Bruce Banner gets mad, he becomes The Hulk. When Hulk gets mad, he becomes Capt. Nascimento.
- The Expendables is a rare example where the film itself has achieved Memetic Badass status. This is based mainly on the fact that it's a throwback action movie directed by Sylvester Stallone and starring almost every living action movie actor available. The trailer alone, apparently, will put hair on your chest and give you a third testicle, if you're a dude. If you're a girl, you'll walk out of the theater pregnant.
- The Fast and the Furious: The first movie has a nameless truck driver who fights off Dom and his gang with a shotgun. This has resulted in fans dubbing the trucker the most powerful being in the films' setting as he is the only person to beat Dom, something two drug lords (one even has an entire corrupt police force at his disposal), an elite DSS squad, an ex-SAS and his team and his even more dangerous ex-black ops brother AND a mercenary force with enough armaments to annihilate a small country could never do.
- "ROWSDOWER saves us, and saves all the world!"
- Freddy vs. Jason: Lori Campbell decapitated Freddy Krueger with Jason Voorhees' machete!
- Frozen:
- Elsa will shortly kick your ass. And, according to the fandom, can freeze Voldemort and Gandalf. It's not uncommon for "evil AU" fics to turn her into a Physical God who turns her kingdom into a frozen wasteland (which may be a reference to The Snow Queen itself).
- Anna is often treated as a Lightning Bruiser on par with Bruce Lee.
- Bill the Butcher from Gangs of New York will teach you to speak English with his fucking knife.
- Daniel Plainview's "I drink your milkshake!" became the basis for a meme for someone who "pwned" someone in some way: "(x) drank (y)'s milkshake"
- Anyone played by Daniel Day-Lewis in general.
- They don't call Godzilla king of all monsters for nothing. In Final Wars, he managed to curb stomp nearly all of the major past monsters (and Zilla) ONE. AFTER. ANOTHER.
- There are things that go bump in the night. And we are the ones that bump back.
- Seneca Crane's Beard. That is all.
- Indiana Jones. Maybe he's making this up as he goes, but he doesn't belong in a museum.
- Sgt. Donny Donowitz doesn't bash Nazis' skulls in with his baseball bat; the skulls cave themselves in rather than be hit by him.
- Samuel L. Jackson and almost any character played by him.
- John Wick. It doesn't matter how ridiculously overpowered you are; if you kill his dog, he will kill you and he will look awesome doing it.
- Kick-Ass: Hit-Girl, and in some circles, Mr. Bitey.
- In-universe, Kill Bill's Pai Mei is so badass that legends about his badassery are over a thousand years old.
- The Lord of the Rings
- Aragorn, King of Gondor. Who here has the audacity to leap into the middle of a mob of angry berserkers with nothing but an oversized knife and an attitude from Hell?
- Legolas. He jumps on the back of a massive beast that can singlehandedly rip apart Gondor's armies, kills every single person on it, then sprints to the forefront and kills it with ease. This is a beast that has very, very thick skin and is very large.
- Who not only fought, but wounded Shelob? The world's most badass gardener, Samwise Gamgee. Then he killed a bunch of orcs singlehandedly. Also, you know that One Ring that seduces every single person who so much as looks at it? He gives it up with barely a struggle.
- Let it be known Éowyn is no man and caved the Witch-King's head in.
- It took three arrows thicker than his finger and bigger than his leg to take Boromir down. The only reason he died at that point was because he was played by Sean Bean.
- Grond, the Wolf's Head.◊ Forged in Mordor, made of rune-enchanted steel, pulled by giant rhinoceros-like beasts. Manned by Mountain Trolls.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Tony Stark can build anything — in a cave! With a box of scraps!
- Thor will throw a hammer through your mouth and have it go out the back of your head. End of argument.
- Who's gonna put the hammer down? THOR'S GONNA PUT DA HAMMER DOWN!!
- Agent Phil Coulson. The short "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer" shows that it is entirely justified.
- Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War can turn anything to dust with a snap of his fingers. Anything — ranging from characters from other works of fiction to pesky things like your student loans. However, he's always going to stop his destruction halfway, leaving the other half perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
- Avengers: Endgame: The Avengers may be badasses in their own right, but they'd still be stuck with the Snap if it wasn't for the universe's greatest hero, the rat that accidentally freed Scott from the Quantum Realm.
- Scott Lang himself has become this thanks to the Thanus meme.
- Ian McKellen is Magneto and Gandalf. Seriously: Just back away slowly.
- How do I begin to explain Regina George?
- Four for you, Glen Coco! You go, Glen Coco!
- From The Mighty Ducks, Coach Gordon Bombay has become this to many Anaheim Ducks fans, and even some fans of other teams, especially in light of the 2015 Western Conference Finals, where it was the Ducks against the Blackhawks, shortened to the Hawks. And then after Emilio Estevez actually tweeted his support of the Ducks before Game 5 of said series, this formation happened.◊
- Morbius from Morbius (2022) says “IT’S MORBIN TIME!” In actuality, his film just gained a huge ironic fanbase that like to pretend he’s the most popular superhero of all time from the most successful film of all time because of how badly his movie flopped, twice, along with his actor Jared Leto already being notorious for being in another incredibly-poorly-received superhero movie.
- Unshaved Mouse turns Mulan into one of these (while she's already pretty Badass in her film)."Those of you lucky to still have your lives, take them with you. However leave the limbs you have lost. They belong to me now."
- Yao will hit you so hard, it'll make your ancestors dizzy!
- In Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Mike and the Bots mock their very own credits and learn that the Construction Coordinator was a guy named Rando Schmook. Automatically, they declare him "The Amazing RANDO!"
- Liam Neeson, particularly after his post-Taken career reinvention. This was particularly helped along by the Key & Peele sketch revolving around his badassery. Hell, he even showed he could poke fun at that idea. As a popular joke runs: he's been Zeus and Jesus, and he's trained Batman and Darth Vader; how stupid do you have to be to try to kidnap his daughter?
- Pacific Rim: The Kaidanovskys seem to be approaching this status
- Also Hannibal Chau wants his goddamn shoe back now.
- Radiation gets Stacker Pentecost poisoning.
- HELLO! My Name Is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare to Die.
- Sharktopus. A giant, genetically-altered Shark/Octopus with swords on the the tips of his tentacles. That is all.
- As of Sherlock Holmes (2009), Watson has reached this level, due to his general ability to kick ass, take names, and save Holmes' butt about fifteen times.
- Shrek. Somebody once told him that he was gonna roll the world. Considering that Shrek is one of the most memetic characters in history, he was bound to become one of these. There was once a point in time where people continuously jokingly requested for him to be a fighter in the Super Smash Bros series. Sadly, Sakurai denied it. Why? He’s too powerful to be in any fighting game.
- Disney seems to consider Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty one of these. In any given Disney crossover storyline, be it in books, video games, or theme park attractions, she's usually one of the Big Bads if not THE Big Bad. Then again, few other Disney villains have ever actually summoned up the powers of Hell? It also helps that she can turn into one of the most fearsome looking dragons in the history of animation. Maleficent is quite possibly the most evil villain that Disney has featured in a movie. After having captured the prince, and having placed Sleeping Beauty under the sleeping spell, she announces that she is going to let the prince go... when he's 118 years old (she outright states that she's going to keep him there for 100 years.) So that planting a kiss on Sleeping Beauty will likely be the last thing he ever does. Not only is he likely to drop dead as soon as he finishes kissing her Aurora is going to be left broken-hearted and have not aged a day. The animated Maleficent was absolutely cruel in every way. In fact there seems to be only one thing in the world she ever showed any kindness for and that is her pet raven.
- Italian actor Bud Spencer. According to fans, he's so strong that Gordon Ramsay praises his cooking, and he once insulted Chuck Norris' mum and Chuck offered him a drink. In fact, he can punch into submission anything but an out-of-order bancomat, can easily defeat Goku◊ and can snap Thanos out of existence without Infinity Stones.
- The Tobey Maguire iteration of Spider-Man, particularly under the influence of the symbiote, has undergone a recent rebranding in the YouTube community as “Bully Maguire”, in which he is so insanely overpowered that he can snap Thanos out of existence without the Infinity Stones in Avengers: Endgame, can take on all of the opponents that Neo did in The Matrix Reloaded without breaking a sweat (except for hurting his back after doing a backflip), can be put in the role of any Sith Lord in Star Wars no matter how overpowered they are, etc. It started ironically due to symbiote-influenced Peter Parker being a Memetic Loser originally (originally going by the much less flattering "Emo Peter"), but the hilarity of seeing symbiote-Peter’s personality combined with unbelievable strength and power has made the meme of him being a badass catch on.
- Fledgling example: Captain Christopher Pike of Star Trek (2009). Don't forget Captain Robau. The shields on the Kelvin don't keep enemy phasers out. They keep Captain Robau in.
- Star Wars:
- Yoda. Greater than Mace Windu he is. Greater Jedi than all others combined, times Mace Windu squared, he is. Muppet he is. Puts all the Sith to shame he does.
- Sheev Palpatine, a Sith Lord with UNLIMITED POWWWWWWWWAAAAAH! who is also the entire Galactic Senate.
- Boba Fett went out like a punk on screen, taken out by a blind man and a pole. But he looked so gosh-damn mysterious in his cool body armor that fans assumed that he must in all essences be the Galaxy Far, Far Away's version of Batman. And so, in Star Wars Legends, that is indeed what he became. Even in his seventies and recovering from a terminal illness, he could still manage to beat the stuffing out of anyone who gets in his way. Parodied heavily in Robot Chicken's Star Wars specials, in which he's more of a Small Name, Big Ego. In the new canon, where he appears onscreen in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, his badassery is downplayed compared to Legends, but he still escaped the Sarlacc, got back in the game and even took over a crime syndicate.
- TR-8R, the Stormtrooper from The Force Awakens, started reaching memetic badass levels when he took on Finn (who has a lightsaber) with a baton and kicked his ass.
- Obi-Wan Kenobi can defeat anyone, because he has the high ground.
- Everyone lets Chewbacca win, because when he loses he rips arms off.
- Chirrut Imwe, who doesn't need sight or the Force to kick your ass. Shoots TIE Fighters down with a crossbow and yawns while doing it. He is one with the Force and the Force is with him.
- Luke Skywalker, who, as of The Last Jedi, astral projected himself across the entire universe just to fuck with his punk-ass nephew.
- Snoke's Praetorian Guard. Fought Rey and Kylo Ren to a standstill without Force powers. 'Nuff said.
- Coleman Trebor (the green Vurk Jedi who is easily killed by Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones) is a completely ironic example of this trope, with fans insisting he is the strongest Jedi despite his unimpressive showing.
- Jar Jar Binks is secretly a Sith Lord and was the Greater-Scope Villain all along.
- Transformers Film Series:
- Bonecrusher hates this page and everyone on it. The only reason he hasn't ground the servers to dust and killed everyone who's ever edited the page is because it provides a handy list of people he needs to kill, and Bonecrusher hates to be unprepared.
- Optimus Prime would like you to give him your face!
- Tremors: Burt Gummer. Doin' what he can with what he's got
- Achilles. "Who would win? Achilles or ...?" (Leonidas / Maximus/ Superman / Chuck Norris...) Experts have even pronounced him "Str 8 gangsta", of all things. Beowulf fans debate at length: "Achilles is kinda cheating with the heel thing..." And the answer is: Achilles. He had a body part named after him, making this trope Older Than Feudalism. Unfortunately this makes him still vulnerable to heel kicks...ones that he delivers.
- Yuri Boyka. He is the most complete fighter in the world.
- The version of Van Helsing of the self-titled movie — at least in Tycho's book.
- In the 2011 film Warrior: Tommy becomes one in-universe after his video hits the web. He does eventually prove to be worth his fame.
- "You Warriors are good. Real good." "The best." Not really a Badass Boast, as they have already proven this to be factually true.
- Wreck-It Ralph:
- Ralph is gonna wreck it. It doesn't matter what it is. HE'S GONNA WRECK IT!
- If it's a monster, Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun will obliterate it with a machine gun, even on a day away from work. Even during her wedding. Calhoun earned the title of "Queen of Badassery" BEFORE she existed (that is, before her game was plugged in the arcade).
- Erin Hanson is not a Final Girl. She's the Final Girl to outshine all others. She is the smartest, most resourceful and capable of them all, and no slasher would survive a fight with her. Just ask the killers in her own movie. Oh wait...you can't. Because she violently killed every last one of them.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MemeticBadass/Film
FollowingMemetic Badass / Film
Go To
