Morality Chains in Live-Action Films.
- In Ant-Man, Cross feels that he and Hope are similar in regards to their resentment and bitterness towards Hope's father, Hank (though he takes it far further than Hope). Because he knew Hope was in the next room, he decided not to kill Hank when he had the chance and later on, he paused when Hope tells him he's losing his mind.
- In Ant-Man and the Wasp Bill Foster serves as this to Ghost. When she wants to go after Scott's daughter Cassie to force him to cooperate he refuses point blank, warning that he will no longer help her if she does anything to the child.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: The Knightmare timeline reveals that Clark Kent went evil after losing Lois Lane, the love of his life, with Barry Allen surreptitiously mentioning that "she is the key." This is reinforced in Justice League, where Clark Came Back Wrong and completely wrecks the Justice League in his confusion, but is immediately brought back to sanity upon reuniting with Lois.
- Four Brothers has Evelyn Mercer serve a similar function, as the following quote demonstrates. That said, as soon as she dies it's as if destruction were let loose in that town. Eventually, the brothers do somewhat settle back down once enough people are dead.Detective Fowler: If this woman's such a goddamned saint, how did she end up raising four total fuck-ups?
Lt. Green: Miss Evelyn cycled hundreds of kids out of the foster program and into permanent homes. In 30 years she only came across four lost causes. Four delinquents so far gone she couldn't find anyone to take them in. So she did. Trust me, Fowler, these kids are congressmen compared to what they would've been. - The Godfather:
- In The Godfather, after he figures out the treachery of Carlo, the brother-in-law, Michael waits to assassinate him until the death of Vito, because he doesn't want to hurt the old man by breaking up the family. After Vito dies of a heart attack, all bets are off.
- Taken even further in The Godfather Part II, where Mike finds out that his actual brother, Fredo, has betrayed the family. He explicitly tells Fredo that he is safe for now, because Mike knows what killing him would do to their mama. After Mama dies, though...
- Happy Gilmore: Happy's grandmother is his defining moral point — her being in trouble is what sparks the whole plot, and Happy rejects anything that will cause her harm in some way.
- The title character in Harry Brown loses his wife and best friend in the first few minutes. With them gone, there's nothing left (except advanced age) to keep him from reverting to the ruthless torture-using Royal Marine he once was.
- Owen Grady is this in Jurassic World to his four Velociraptors. He is the only person they won't kill on sight and manages to retain a small measure of control over these Reformed, but Not Tamed animals... at least until halfway through the film when they decide that the I. rex makes a better alpha. And then they switch sides again in the finale when Delta and Echo fight to the death to protect Owen and Blue pulls a Big Damn Heroes with Rexie and the Mosasaurus to take down the I. rex. Charlie also refused to attack Owen during the earlier firefight, which ended up getting her killed by Hoskins' merc team.
- The Long Kiss Goodnight: Charly realizes Hal and Caitlin are this for her, hence her hesitation to kill them in order to "erase" Samantha. The latter's kidnapping by Timothy motivates her to come to her rescue. Averted with Timothy's case with Caitlin that not only he kidnaps her but also leaves her to die in the freezer with her mother, even after Charly reveals that Caitlin is also his daughter.
- In Pearl, the main character is a violent psychopathic young woman on a farm who wants to become a star. Her austere mother ultimately reveals herself as a hostile attempted morality chain on Pearl, being horrified at her daughter's detached animal killings, and determined to ground her mentally or at least keep her occupied and stuck on the farm where she might be kept out of society where she can do greater harm. A confrontation ends with Pearl's mother burned and dying and thrown in the cellar, whereupon Pearl descends into unambiguously deliberate murders in the pursuit of her ambitions.
- Shilo acts as one of these for her father, Nathan in Repo! The Genetic Opera. She replaced her mother, Marni, who was more of a Morality Pet. It's implied that without Shilo, Nathan would take on the Repo Man persona full time.
- In the 1951 film version of Scrooge, which delves deeper into Scrooge's past than the book does, Scrooge's sister Fan is depicted as having been this for his younger self. She was his only family member who ever loved him, and he's a nice young man as long as he has her, but her death marks the start of his transformation into the miserable miser we all know.
- Extensively played with in The Sons of Katie Elder when the four sons return to their mother's home for her funeral and the three elder brothers (all "bad men" in the sense that they were Gunslingers and so forth) decide that the youngest needs to go to college and be respectable so that their mother can be honored. Of course, the youngest son wants to be like his older brothers. They proceed to inform him that he is now required to be the honor bearer for the whole family. This involves a significant amount of brotherly violence to make sure he understands.
- Star Wars basically had Emperor Palpatine psyching Anakin/Darth Vader to the point of killing his own Morality Chain, Padmé.
- For that matter, Return of the Jedi has Luke becoming a Morality Chain for his dying father.
- Actually, they serve as each others' Morality Chains. Darth keeps Luke from giving in to the Dark Side, and Luke brings Anakin back to the Light. Leia also serves this function for Luke somewhat in that when Vader threatens her Luke jumps back into battle.
- And Palpatine notes in the Revenge of the Sith novel that Obi-Wan is Anakin's other morality chain, with Dooku's plan being to break the chain by killing Obi-Wan. Palpatine has other ideas, of course. He also managed to weaken the effect of both of Anakin's chains; at the start of the novel Anakin has some respect for his wife's autonomy and doesn't want to hurt her. Later, even before he strangles her, he sees her less as a person he loves and more as a possession expressing fear and pain, emotions that are beautiful to behold because he earned them.
- Palpatine also sows distrust between Anakin and his morality chains, framing Obi-Wan and Padmé's recognition of Palpatine's growing dictatorship as treason and betrayal of Anakin personally. He also is very careful to isolate Anakin from both of them, going so far as to manipulate the Jedi into sending Obi-Wan half a galaxy away when the crux of the plan is in play.
- For that matter, Return of the Jedi has Luke becoming a Morality Chain for his dying father.
- In Ten Dead Men, Ryan's morality chain is his girlfriend Amy. So long as he is with her, he allows himself to believe that he can be a better man and live a normal life. When his old life catches up with, and London Gangster Hart has Amy executed in front of eyes, Ryan snaps and reverts to being the Professional Killer he used to be. He embarks on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, determined to kill the ten men responsible for her death.
- In Unforgiven, Will Munny's wife is his morality chain. Once she dies, he tries to continue in her memory, as well as for his kids.
