Neutral Female characters in Live-Action Films.
- In Babes in Toyland, the hero and the villain are both shrunk down to toy size and then begin to engage in a sword fight while the normal-sized heroine watches them, very concerned. She could have easily flicked the villain away or stomped on him, or simply picked him up and put him in a jar or something.
- In Back to the Future, Lorraine at least attempts to fight Biff when he confronts George, but he has no trouble brushing her off. It's justified since George's character arc depends on him finding the courage to stand up to Biff.
- Dawn of the Dead (1978). The actress playing Francine famously refused to be just another Screaming Woman; however during the first confrontation at the airport she just stands there while her boyfriend is fighting with a zombie, neither running nor helping. She does get better though. The 2004 remake gives us Luda, who's entire purpose for being is to 1.) Scream, 2.) be pregnant, and 3.) turn into a pregnant zombie and have a zombie baby. Needless to say, she isn't entirely helpful.
- In For a Few Dollars More, Mortimer's sister might well have survived if she'd shot her rapist instead of herself, as well as watching her boyfriend being murdered in front of her by El Indio.
- Subverted in Get Smart with 99. Once Agent 23 is revealed as the mole he takes her captive, and ties her up in the back of his SUV while Max and the Chief give chase. At first she's neutral in the pursuit, but when he makes a comment about how guys like women who are feminine, 99 takes offense and begins kicking the crap out of him while he's driving, incredulously shouting "I'm not feminine?!" the entire time.
- Played Straight and then averted in Hearts of the World. The Girl is cowering off to the side while her fiancée, the Boy, is engaged in a life-or-death struggle with a German soldier. Then she realizes that she has a large butcher knife, which she's been carrying ever since a German officer nearly raped her. She stabs the soldier in the back.
- Highlander: In the battle between the Kurgan and Ramirez in 1542, Heather sits there screaming hysterically even while Ramirez is warning her to run away.
- Subverted in High Noon, where the hero's wife spends the whole movie insisting that she will not stand by her husband's insistence on facing the villain, but in the end, she does come to his defense, and her actions help him defeat the villain.
- In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, it's understandable that Willie Scott would be unprepared compared to career adventurer Indiana Jones. But when an 11-year-old child is noticeably more useful and proactive, and given more responsibility by Indy himself, it gets a little silly. Again, as an homage to B-movie tropes, this is likely the whole point — Willie as the Girl of the Week is a deliberate contrast to two-fisted, hard-drinking Marion Ravenwood from the previous movie.
- James Bond. It would take less time to list the Bond Girls that were NOT useless in a fight: Camille, Jinx, Wai Lin, Certes, Domino (with a harpoon!), Contessa Tracy, Pussy Galore, Melina, Pam, May Day, Stacy, Vesper, and Eve Moneypenny. Honorable mention for Tanya, who was mostly useless but did shoot the villainess after Bond subdued her. Natalya gets a pass because she was busy engaging in Hollywood Hacking during the climactic fight scene.
- Juanita in Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. After she is kidnapped by an Indian, Jesse arrives to rescue her. She stands by wringing her hands and praying while Jesse and the Indian fight; instead of, say, picking up a rock and hitting the Indian. In the final battle, it looks like she is doing the same thing again as Jesse and Igor wrestle. However, she somehow finds the wherewithal to pick up Jesse's dropped gun and shoot Igor.
- In Jurassic Park, this role is played by Tim. While Lex turns the power back on and Grant and Ellie try to keep a raptor out, Tim stands ineffectively behind his sister shouting encouragement instead of passing Ellie the gun she's trying to reach with her foot so she can shoot the raptor before it devours them all. Justified in that he's nine and also had his back to Ellie at that point.
- Kaleidoscope: An extremely absurd example. Barney and Harry's Mook are having a fist fight with death on the line. Angel dashes up to find the mook's gun, knocked out of his hands, on the ground. She picks it up, holds it awkwardly as Barney and Harry fight, then throws it in the moat. She then watches as Barney wins the fight and throws the mook in the moat as well.Angel: And I don't like fighting.
Barney: [irritated] How does living grab you? - Averted in The Karate Kid Part II. During the final confrontation, the first thing Kumiko does is take her dance ribbon and try to strangle Chozen. Chozen knocks her out with one punch, but at least she tried.
- Defied in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes. The male lead, Gilbert, fights a henchman for a bit with female lead Iris watching meekly from the sidelines. Finally Gilbert shouts "don't just stand there like a referee, cooperate!" Working together they easily subdue the man.
- Subverted in Maleficent. Aurora was magically blessed to be an All-Loving Hero and has been raised in complete happiness and safety, so she can't bring herself to be violent even when her godmother is being attacked. She finds a way around it by finding and freeing Maleficent's wings, allowing her to win the fight.
- Examples from films featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000:
- Played Straight in Girl in Gold Boots: in the "climactic" fight Michele just stands around not offering any assistance to the protagonist.
- Played Straight again in Cave Dwellers, where the female lead, despite being handy with a sword, suddenly forgets all her combat training and just shrieks as Ator fights a giant snake.
- Our Miss Brooks: Invoked in The Movie Grand Finale, although Miss Brooks' first reaction was to try and subvert the trope. Connie Brooks is a guest on the Nolan motor yacht on Crystal Bay (Crystal Lake on television and radio). Prompted by Connie' landlady Mrs. Davis, a jealous and worried Philip Boynton rows out to check up on Miss Brooks. Trying to climb up the ladder onto the boat, Boynton ignores Lawrence Nolan's warning about the loose rungs. Boynton falls into the water. Connie immediately moves to the life preserver, but Nolan insists he does the rescuing. As it is, Connie is more worried about Boynton rather than who does the rescuing.
- Lawrence Nolan: Never mind. I'll save him. I'm a man.
- Christine does this twice in the 2004 musical movie adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. In the musical it's based on, both times there was little Christine could do during the scenes; not so in the film. First she just watches worriedly during Raoul and the Phantom's sword fight, and then when Raoul gets the upper hand and is about to stab him she tells him not to.
- The Mel Brooks parody Robin Hood: Men in Tights has Marion just as inactive as her counterpart, although she is never presented as an Action Girl in this film.
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves: Marian does her best to stay out of the way during the final duel between Robin and the Sheriff. As she's unarmed, unarmored and wearing only her shift, keeping away from the fight is the safest thing for her to do. She does make some efforts to help Robin by pushing a bench in the Sheriff's way to trip him and stabbing him in the chest with a candle when he gets too close to her.
- Subverted in Safe (2012), when Alex is holding Mei hostage and he and Luke agree to put down their guns and settle this like men. They barely have time to square up before Mei grabs Alex's discarded gun and opens fire. Mei is only about ten years old, but she's very much aware that her life is at stake here.Mei: "I saw him fight before. Bad business for you."
- Subverted in Serenity, where Inara appears to do little during the Mal/Operative fight (after her initial attempts to help Mal ended up with the Operative casually tossing her aside), only to be revealed that her earlier "praying for Mal" by lighting incense was actually arming a flashbang.
- Inverted and Played for Laughs in Shaun of the Dead: During the gang's back garden safari to the Winchester, Shaun grapples with a zombie while Ed and David stand by and watch uselessly. Shaun even calls them on it: "Feel free to step in at any time!" Liz and Di are slightly more useful, the former knocking the zombie off of him with a chair, and the latter supplying Shaun with a weapon in the shape of a swing ball pole.
- Spite Marriage: Trilby and Elmer are stuck on the boat with a bank robber captain, who has already tried to rape Trilby and is certain to try again after he finishes killing Elmer. So what does Trilby do during Elmer's death struggle with the bank robber? She stands off to the side looking concerned.
- Subverted in True Lies. Mousy Helen Tasker wants a little adventure in her life, but not if it requires her to cheat on her husband. Later, when she and Harry are both kidnapped, she tries to tell him "let me do the talking". Even later, Helen finds out her husband is a spy, and falls into true Neutral Female territory. Later still, Helen tries to help Harry by taking up a gun she has no idea how to shoot, and drops it. As Helen winces at her "oopsie", the gun falls down the stairs, still firing, and takes out every bad guy in the room. At Harry's look of incredulous awe, she shrugs and smiles. Kidnapped again, though, she smacks her kidnapper upside the head with a bottle of Dom Perignon, and is well on her way to the XP required for her level in Badass.
