Badass Bystander: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"In the end, the world didn't really need a 'Super' man. Just a brave one."''
|'''[[Superman]]''', ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]''}}
Movies, anime, cartoons, even books have an unspoken (or in some cases, [[Power Levels|explicitly stated]]) fighting power curve where the hero and villain are at or near the top. The [[Muggles]] and [[Innocent Bystanders]]? They're waaaay down there at the bottom, duh! Otherwise they wouldn't really be [[Innocent Bystander
Except for this guy. The '''Badass Bystander''' is a background or minor character who shows significant or surprising fighting prowess or strength against a major threat. Whether it's a [[Badass Grandpa|doddering old man]] beating the [[Heroscape|DeathWalker]] [[Shout-Out|9000]], going toe to claw with a werewolf, or [[Cool Old Lady|purse-whacking]] the [[Giant Mook]] into submission.
Shows up frequently in martial arts movies, Western Barroom Brawls, and various Tabletop RPG's, in which random wandering monsters or random NPCs occasionally kick a PC's or villain's ass, depending on how the dice roll. NPC shopkeepers [[Easily Angered Shopkeeper|are pretty tough too]].
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Frequently done for comedy, with the Bystander being either [[Weak but Skilled]] or otherwise [[Hidden Depths|seemingly harmless.]] These minor characters [[Fighting for Survival]] may be so powerful they qualify as [[Sidekick Ex Machina]]'s, with the hero "beating" their opponent by tossing him to the Badass Bystander to finish them off.
By their nature, plots involving [[Zombie Apocalypse]] tend to include Badass
This is a subtrope of [[Badass Normal]], related to [[Heroic Bystander]]. See also [[Suddenly Always Knew That]] and [[Let's Get Dangerous]]. Often a resident of the [[World of Badass]].
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== Anime and Manga ==
* [[Badass Grandpa|Talos]] from ''[[
* One is played for laughs in the ''[[Hyper Dolls]]'' manga when she appears; one of the title [[Lovely Angels]] duo teases the other that the
** ...which may be a reference to Sailor Jupiter's debut in the ''[[
* The Taxi Driver in ''[[
* Yuuna 'the Kid' in ''[[
** And even with all that, she only got fourth place out of all the Mahorafest participants. Meaning there were three other bystanders ''even more badass than she was''.
* From the perspective of the two gangs fighting each other, Hayato from ''[[Oretachi
* In the fourth chapter of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
** Ed's involvement itself is an example of this. Originally, the trainjackers' purpose was completely unrelated to Ed and Al... [[Berserk Button|and then one of them made the mistake of calling Ed "short."]]
** And in the 60ish chapter of Brotherhood, while Wrath is hanging from Greedlings leg, a nameless mook (with a [[Badass Mustache]]) manages to shoot him in the shoulder. This a man who was never even touched throughout the first 59 episodes out of 64.
* Henaro in [[The Tower of Druaga (
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'': A sumo student left the academy after being bullied by a combination of [[School Bully]] and [[Jerk Jock]]. Rather than taking down the bully, Kenshin encouraged the bully's victim to stand up.
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== [[Comics]] ==
* In the [[Justice League of America|JLA]] arc "Syndicate Rules," the Antimatter Universe Johnny Quick and his teammate Power Ring (disguised as the Flash and Green Lantern) are having their asses handed to them by Computron and the Rainbow Raiders. The civilians are thoroughly stunned to realize the two "Leaguers" are having a hard time with these D-List (at best) supercriminals, and immediately rush in and beat the crap out the Raiders with makeshift clubs, shovels, and two-fisted bystander action.
{{quote|
'''Bystander 2''': --'''losing??'''
'''Bystander 3''': '''[[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner|GET EM!!]]''' }}
* In ''[[What If]]: [[House of M]]'', every superhero and villain loses their powers. This leads to the Red Skull, with the combined forces of the Hand, A.I.M, and Hydra to try and take over New York, now that they have no competition. [[Iron Man]] tries to save the day, with the help of the other un-superheroes in new iron suits, but gets their asses handed to them. This leads Peter Parker, formerly known as [[Spider-Man]], to jump into the fray with a Badass Speech and, with his old web shooter, smashes the cosmic cube the Red Skull is holding. The result: the ENTIRE CITY OF NEW YORK [[Zerg Rush
* In ''[[Final Crisis]]: Revelations'', [[Name of Cain|Cain]] [[The Bible
* In the [[X-Men]] graphic novel ''God Loves, Man Kills'', main villain and [[Sinister Minister]] William Stryker is about to shoot Kitty Pryde after she gives him a [[Reason You Suck Speech]] on live tv. {{spoiler|In the book's climax, Stryker aims his gun and the X-Men stand their ground. A shot is fired, but it's ''Stryker'' who falls over, as he was shot (non-lethally) by a police officer working security. The cop states rather obviously that Stryker was about to shoot an unarmed little girl, which is ''not'' the Word of God.}}
* In one [[Thor]] story, tired after a destructive fight, Thor is sitting by an ambulance when a paramedic walks up to him and passes him Mjolnir, telling him that they found it in the wreckage. Thor only realises once the man walks away that he spoke to a rare mortal capable of lifting the hammer, and thus worthy of "the power of Thor".
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Spider
** In the first film, Spidey is about to be finished off by the Green Goblin when his bacon is saved by... a crowd of New Yorkers throwing bricks, pipes etc at the bad guy.
** Subverted in the second film when Spider-Man nearly kills himself stopping a tram from driving off the rails. After he's pulled back inside the tram by the passengers, Doctor Octopus shows up to finish him off, at which point everyone in the tram car stands up and proclaims that he'll have to get through them first. He casually knocks them all aside. At least they tried!
* There's the black guy in ''[[From Dusk
* In ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'', low-life crook Sing discovers too late that ''everyone'' in Pig Sty Ally could kick his ass all goddamn day. Then the shy, effeminate tailor turns out to be the most badass martial artist of the lot. Later on, Sing and his accomplice harass a salaryman on a trolley until he grabs both of them by the collar and starts pounding their heads into the seats.
* In ''[[Shaolin Soccer]]'' the main character envisions a world where everyone uses kung fu in their day to day lives. In the end, we see a bunch of random people in the street performing amazing feats of [[Wire Fu]].
* The grandma from ''[[Madagascar]]'' beat Alex, a tamed lion, which is only amped up in the sequel into an all devouring [[Deus Ex Machina]] [[Just for Pun|Grandmachina]].
* The ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' episode ''[[Werewolf (
* Two bloodsuckers assault an ambulance in ''The Vampire Effect'' that holds [[The Hero|the heroine]]. Thinking the vampires are hurt, the driver stops and gets out to help them, not understanding what the heroine means by "undead". Despite his ignorance, the super humanly strong duo with the power of flight prove to be no match for the ambulance driver. [[Mook Chivalry|At least not until they decide to attack together]], then they manage a stalemate. The ambulance driver was played by the film's producer, [[Jackie Chan]].
* The [[Badass]] waitress Vicki from ''[[Friday the 13th (
{{quote|
* The [[Badass Preacher|priest]] from ''[[Braindead]]'', who just ran into some zombies by complete accident: "I kick arse for the Lord!"
* ''[[Diary of the Dead]]'' has the dynamite and scythe wielding, deaf, Amish zombie killer Samuel who introduces himself amidst blowing up the undead. Likewise the female paramedic who karate-kicks a standing zombie in the head.
* The page pic is the nameless banker, played by William Fichtner, in ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' who takes on the Joker and his goons with a shotgun until he runs out of ammo. It turns out the bank is run by the mob. {{spoiler|It's a good attempt, but the Joker still gets away. He only lives because the Joker preferred to scare the crap out of the guy rather than kill him, lodging a fake grenade in his mouth instead of a real one.}}
* The bathroom brawl scene in ''[[
* In ''[[
* When a gang of Yakuza pull swords on Bae-dal in ''[[Fighter in The Wind]]'', some guy in a hat (later revealed to be an old friend) leaps out of the crowd and fights them to a standstill - despite only having one hand.
* In the [[So Bad It's Good]] early 90s [[Cyberpunk]] film ''Nemesis'', protagonist Alex Rain is fleeing some heavily-built, cyborg assassins on the streets of Shang Loo, "a low-tech Asian shithole". After he ducks around a corner, one of his pursuers runs into an old lady crossing the street and tries to muscle her out of the way. She mutters, "goddamned cyborg!", produces a ''[[Hand Cannon|Desert Eagle]]'' from her handbag, and shoots the assassin dead.
{{quote|
* ''The Avenging Disco Godfather'' has the title character (played by Rudy Ray Moore) yell to a random jogger while fighting drug pushers, "Howard, these men are ''angel dust dealers!''" The jogger replies, "Okay, Godfather," and joins the fray. "Howard" was actually Rudy Ray Moore's martial arts instructor in real life.
* In the [[Jim Jarmusch]] film, ''Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai'', the title character witnesses a gangster trying to rob an old man, only to see the old man respond by flooring the youth with elaborate spin-kicks... while carrying his groceries. Then he merrily goes on about his business, and out of the movie. We never see him again.
* A random ninja takes out 4 or 5 mooks with guns at the climax of ''[[
* Gabby Johnson, the resident drunkard of Rock Ridge in Mel Brooks's ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'', can take out bandits simply by grabbing them by the collar and breathing his "beer-breath" on them.
* The scientists in the first chapter of the ''[[Commando Cody]]'' serial "Radar Men From the Moon" are surprisingly good fighters. They hold their own for a while against a pair of hired thugs as seen and commented on in this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8hvKJpGuPc MST3K episode.]
* Most of Paris gets to be this in [[Disney Animated Canon]]'s ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'', when in the climactic battle scene the crowd that had gathered to protest Esmeralda geting [[Burn the Witch|burned at the stake]] undergoes a mass [[Took a Level
* In ''[[Battle: Los Angeles]]'', one of the civilians being evacuated by the Marines, Mr. Rincon, is doing his best to help the troops as they escape. During the freeway battle scene, he spots an alien flanking the Marines. {{spoiler|Despite his lack of training, he grabs a fallen rifle and sprays the alien from the hip, taking it out, but taking a shot to the gut in the process. He eventually dies a few hours later.}}
* At the end of Hitch's ''[[Strangers
* In ''[[Thor (
* In ''Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend'', some random African tribesman in the climax guns down a half dozen of the villains.
* In the Korean film ''[[The Host]]'', when the monster first rampages through a public area, an American man takes it upon himself to mount a valiant attack on the monster before getting mauled. A news report later reveals that he's a soldier. This is probably done to compensate for the otherwise anti-American slant of the film.
* ''[[The Avengers (
{{quote|
'''Old German:''' [[A Nazi
** It's cooler if you think about it. The guy could have been alive when Hitler ruled and he refuses to bow down to another man like that.
*** Word of God was that the Old Man was a Holocaust survivor. He's seen Loki's brand of shit before and he recognizes the stink no matter how much perfume the god tries to cover it with.
== [[Literature]] ==
* Used a few times in the [[Badass]]-saturated ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'', sometime to introduce a character that will become important a few books down the line. The most prominent example is that of Traveler, who first shows up in ''House of Chains'' accompanying a group of [[Red Shirt|nameless soldiers]], defeats a hundred [[Elite Mook|elite mooks]] [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome|off-screen]], and leaves the narrative by the end of the chapter that introduced him.
* In the last ''[[Percy Jackson
** A straighter example from the same series is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who covers for Percy (who at the time was a perfect stranger) and puts the pursuing monsters on a false trail.
* Invoked in ''[[
** Alternatively, what happens when you try to use [[Too Stupid to Live|three feet of thin steel against six feet of solid oak.]]
* [[Meg Cabot]]'s ''American Girl'' examines this from the point of view of the bystander. She just happens to be present at the scene of an attempted presidential assassination, and tackles the assassin, injuring herself in the process. She does nothing else heroic or extraordinary over the course of the book, and does not view herself as a hero, but the resultant fame changes her life in a variety of ways, good and bad.
* Klaus Rosenthal and Francis De la Cruz from ''[[Rainbow Six (
* In ''[[Jack Ryan
* Robin Hood ran afoul of one of these men in the course of his adventures; when waylaying a beggar with a large bag because he was curious what was in the bag, Robin got pissed off by the beggar's insolence and nocked an arrow to threaten him. The beggar proceeded to take his staff and, in rapid succession, break Robin's bow, numb is sword arm, and knock him senseless before proceeding on his way. When Little John and George-A-Green attempt to avenge Robin's injury, the beggar pretends to surrender, offering them the money in his bag; Instead it turns out to be full of meal, which the beggar throws at their faces before beating the crap out of both of them. The nameless beggar, who never appears again, remains one of the few to soundly thrash the outlaws and walk away unscathed.
* In ''[[Monster Hunter International]]'' a highly trained professional monster hunter is saved from a {{spoiler|gargoyle}} by a farmer who is positively delighted to have had a legitimate use for his expensive elephant gun. He is promptly given Monster Hunter International's business card and offered a job.
== Live-Action TV ==
* Played with to great effect in the original ''Whoops Apocalypse''. A major sub-plot in the early episodes has the Soviets brutally interrogating a sweet, harmless elderly husband and wife whom they believe to be undercover agents for the West. The audience laughs merrily along at this, until suddenly...they beat the crap out of their interrogators, produce various spy-tech gadgets, and stage a jail break.
* In ''[[Chuck]]'', Big Mike ends up, on two separate occasions, completely owning enemy special agents that had been giving Team Chuck major problems earlier in the episode.
* In ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' an undead wraith crashes into Camelot and throws a gauntlet down before King Uther and Prince Arthur's feet. Though it is clearly intended for a member of the royal family, on two separate occasions a knight of Camelot grabs it before Arthur can in order to protect him.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'', a nameless extra is the one who ends up taking down and killing the insane gun wielding murderer holding a grocery store full of innocents hostage, after all evidence seemed to be implying that one of the main characters was going to.
* ''[[Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger]]'' has a scene possibly inspired by the Bike Thrower example under [[Real Life]] below, with some differences - the bike belonged to Akagi Nobuo, who tried to help but [[Epic Fail|couldn't,]] and the bike was hurled at the robber by ''the victim herself''.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[GURPS]] Supers'' mentions these as one possible way of saving the heroes if the villain is getting the upper hand, pointing out that to avoid stealing the heroes' thunder it's better not to let the bystander beat the villain on their own, but rather contribute just enough to turn the tide.
* Every ''[[Hunter: The Reckoning]]'' character started out as one of these, it's their willingness to be so that persuades their mysterious patrons to [[Took a Level
*
* There's ''[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Justice_Hobos Justice Hobos]'' a [[High Concept]] /tg/ homebrew [https://archive.moe/tg/thread/15842369/]{{Dead link}}, possibly inspired by <s>[[Memetic Mutation/Tabletop Games|COSMIC BUMFIGHTS]]</s> ''[[Unknown Armies]]'' (that's close to how some games run anyway, apparently). As in, PCs are hobos minding their own business, such as it is, and then - "what the?.. whoa, that's messed up, man".
== Theatre ==
* [[Older Than Steam]]: In ''[[King Lear]]'', when Cornwall is {{spoiler|brutally gauging out Glauchester's eye}} on stage, one of his servants challenges him to a sword fight, and actually delivers a wound that would eventually kill him. The only way he's beaten is to be stabbed by Regan when his back was turned.<ref>In his essay "The World's Last Night", [[
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Max Payne 2]]'', Payne gets attacked by assassins in his own apartment, and has to fight his way through the tenement building to safety. On his way, an elderly woman shotguns one of the assassins through her door and gives Payne her ''other'' rifle. Then Payne rescues a hobo from a burning corridor, and said hobo unpacks two pistols, claiming to be an ex-cop himself. Then Payne encounters a random prostitute who got locked in the lobby by the perps. But she also draws a gun of her own, and so both she and the hobo proceed to help Payne to take down all the assassins.
* In ''[[
** In one occasion, if you spend enough time chasing a perp, a random resident standing on his lawn will throw a decking punch and stop him for you.
* The [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Wastelanders]] in ''[[Jak 3
* Blue in Red's quest in ''[[
* [[Fire Emblem Tellius
* In ''[[Mafia II]]'', if you rob a store there's a distinct possibility (which increases, the rougher the neighborhood) that some civilian will pull a gun and try to take you down. They just might, too, if you're not quick enough getting into cover or shooting them down.
* ''[[Space Rangers]]'' allows you to pull off a version of this. You can hail pretty much any ship in a system to [[Gondor Calls for Aid|joint attack a target]]. They won't always agree, but situations where a trader, passenger liner, and diplomat team up to help you take down a troublesome [[Space Pirate]] are fairly common. Attacks by a [[Big Bad|Klissan/Dominator fleet]] tend to make even the ''pirates'' [[Enemy Mine|drop everything and pitch in]].
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Dragon Age]]'', Bodahn Feddic's adopted son Sandal is just an [[Idiot Savant]] with unusual skill at [[Catch Phrase|enchantment]]. {{spoiler|Except at the endgame, he murders over a hundred Darkspawn, including several Ogres, by himself.}} In the sequel, {{spoiler|he does it again, and then adds a pile of massacred demons on top of it}}. Precisely how this happens is not clear.
{{quote|
'''Sandal:''' [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Enchant]][[Catch Phrase|ment!]] }}
* In the ''[[Fallout]]'' series, as well as ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
* The willingness of random people to take on the dragons in ''[[Skyrim]]'' has reached memetic levels among fans. It is quite distressing (or perhaps heartening) to note the number of people who will charge straight in a torrent of flame in order to beat a dragon to death with their bare hands. Though this might explain all the random people who tell you they think they might be the Dragonborn.
* Sakupen, creator of the [[Dad Series]], appears in the ''Dad Game'' as a random bystander in the middle of a panicked crowd in an early level. If you attack him enough times, he suddenly turns into [[Bonus Boss|the hardest boss in the game.]]
* The giant pig at Link's home island in [[The Legend of Zelda:
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Officer Tod from ''[[
** Yeah, but ''[[Made of Plasticine|everybody]]'' {{spoiler|kills Oasis}} eventually.
*** True, but {{spoiler|Oasis tends to be very good at killing people when she sets her mind to it, especially when they aren't main characters. This particular assassin managed to go toe to toe with Oasis in his first appearance, lose, and still come out alive without being bailed out by someone else.}}
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In the third RP of ''[[
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* Subverted in the ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' finale. [[Wonder Woman]], Shining Knight, Vigilante, and Sapphire are having a difficult time fighting an army of Parademons when one of the Chinese bystanders stops running, says goodbye to his wife, and runs to help. Wonder Woman tries to talk the old man out of it, until he one-hit K.O.s not one, not two, but THREE parademons, ''turns into a dragon'', and whups several more, much to the heroes' surprise. The subversion comes in when the old man turns out to be J'onn J'onz, aka [[Martian Manhunter]].
** Played straight several times earlier in the series, though. The most memorable episode is "Patriot Act".
** And even earlier in the [[DC Animated Universe]] when Dan Turpin single-handedly turns the tide against [[Darkseid]] in ''[[Superman:
* Played for laughs in an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' when a hired assassin tries to kill Grampa with a machine gun. When Grampa runs to the retirement home's nurse and begs her for help, she initially reacts by trying to double his medication, but when the assassin bursts in and continues firing the nurse pulls a shotgun out of nowhere and repeatedly blasts him, yelling [[Punctuated!
** Note that each exclamation point is a shotgun blast.
* In an episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'', one day the girls get tired of always saving the townspeople from monsters and invoke this trope by spending the entire episode getting them to actually figure out HOW to destroy it. Granted, for quite some time they were [[Idiot Ball|total MORONS]], [[It Makes Sense in Context|having reasoned that soggy toast would fend off the monster]], but finally figure out how to destroy it.
** There is also the sleepover episode, where Mojo Jojo takes away the girls' powers and starts taunting them. The girls' normal friends soon become angered as he makes fun of them for being "normal girls" and proceed to beat him up. [[Rule of Funny|With pillows.]]
* One episode of ''[[Static Shock]]'' begins with the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] of metahumans robbing mallgoers. One promptly gets a faceful of pepper spray from a [[Never Mess
* In ''[[
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [http://notalwaysright.com/we-need-one-of-these-in-every-store/192 This guy], a [[
* [[Ronald Reagan]] once [https://web.archive.org/web/20111021170826/http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38860 saved a 22 year old nurse] from a mugger in 1933. He scared away the mugger by pointing a [[Cool Guns|1911 pistol]] at him, saying [[Moment of Awesome|"Leave her alone or I'll shoot you right between the shoulders"]]. Later, he would tell the woman he saved that the [[Weapon for Intimidation|gun was empty]].
* John Smeaton, who [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jul/05/terrorism.features11 kicked a burning terrorist in the balls so hard he injured his foot].
* A Delaware woman told [http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-10-09-50statedelaware_N.htm USA Today] that she had been walking home from church when her purse was snatched. A nearby man who had witnessed the attack jumped out of his car, chased the purse-snatcher through several backyards and over fences, and got the purse back. The man in question? Just happened to be her senator, Joe Biden.
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* A Milwaukee man picked the wrong time and place to get into a "domestic dispute" when [http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/53702692.html Mayor Tom Barrett] was nearby.
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/6244076/Farmers-daughter-disarms-terrorist-and-shoots-him-dead-with-AK47.html Rukhsana Kausar], a farmer's daughter from India, living near the Pakistani border. After three armed militants invaded her home and began beating her father, she attacked the leader with an axe, disarmed him, and shot him dead with his own gun while his gang ran away in pants-wetting terror. The dead man turned out to be a high-profile wanted terrorist commander. Kauser was shortly therafter named [[Badass of the Week]].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100529093322/http://oldies.about.com/od/elvispresleyhistory/a/elvis1977_2.htm Elvis] [http://www.amazon.com/Weird-Wisconsin-Wisconsins-Legends-Secrets/dp/0760759448 Presley] was on the way to his hotel after arriving in Madison as part of a concert tour in June
** It's really impossible to picture that scene without envisioning Elvis as played by [[Bubba
* Mayor of London [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/03/boris-johnson-attack-camden-london1 Boris Johnson] encountered a woman being attacked while out riding his bicycle. He proceeded to take their pipe and chase them down the street calling them "Oiks"
* Professional wrestler Perry Saturn, a former US army ranger, once passed an alley with three armed men attempting to rape a woman. [[Only a Flesh Wound|By the time the police arrived, he had beaten all three men unconscious but had not even realized that he had been shot in the neck during the fight.]]
* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20120402155235/http://www.nowpublic.com/strange/chinese-bike-thrower-video-man-knocked-thieves-motorcycle "Bike Thrower"] in China. He stopped his bike in the middle of the road after seeing a lady being mugged by two assholes on a motorbike. Then as the robbers rode past him, [[Improvised Weapon|he threw his]] [[Improbable Weapon User|bike at them]], knocking them down and leaving them for the cops. Then the hero just picked up his bike (trashed by the throwing) and walked away carrying it.
* A retired [[Nepali With Nasty Knives|Gurkha soldier]] was sitting quietly while forty bandits robbed the train he was in, until the bandits decided to try and rape the young girl next to him. [https://web.archive.org/web/20131013102659/http://www.logiccool.com/blog/591281-lone-nepali-soldier-defends-potential-rape-victim-against-40-men/ Bad Move]. He pulled out his service [[Kukris Are Kool]] and proceeded to kill 3 of them, and injured 8 more, until the rest ran for their lives.
* [[
* [[Adam West]] one day was chilling at the beach. He saw a man swearing at a topless girl and chasing after her with a knife. As West tells it, while he knew it probably wasn't going to help his reputation for mental stability, he still managed to take the attacker down. By hitting him with a beach-chair.
* [[wikipedia:Daniel Lewin|Daniel Lewin]]
* This is the idea of the Right to Carry movement, which is about letting law-abiding citizens carry weapons on their persons. The idea is that if the carrier is attacked by criminals, or if they observe an attack on someone else, then they have the ability to fight back. It normally works, and civilians who use firearms to protect others or themselves both have much greater accuracy than the Police, but they also shoot the wrong person by mistake much less frequently.
** To be fair to the police, the police make a living out of showing up to confusing situations and having to guess what the hell's going on, with insufficient clues and under extreme time pressure. A bystander being attacked, however, has had the major problem re: accidentally shooting the wrong person already solved for them -- they can clearly and unambiguously know that they actually ''are'' being attacked, and who their attacker is.
* [[Complete Monster|Richard Ramirez]] (AKA the serial killer known as [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Night Stalker]]) was caught when he tried to steal a car.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWFFXhZP4xI Adam Kinzinger.] For the record, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|he has since been elected]] [[Awesome Moment of Crowning|a U.S. Congressman.]] Just goes to show, everyone loves an [[Action Hero]].
* During Bill Clinton's term as President a man with a semi-automatic rifle shot at the White House. When the gun jammed, several bystanders tackled him to the ground. Including a man in a white cowboy hat.
* Newark Mayor Cory Booker was on his way home one night when he saw that his neighbor's house was on fire and their daughter was trapped inside. He immediately ran into the flaming building and carried the girl out safely. People immediately started joking about the new standard for government service.
* From ''[[Cracked.com]]
** ''[http://www.cracked.com/article_19766_6-nobodies-who-turned-into-superheroes-without-warning.html
** ''[http://www.cracked.com/article_18509_5-unknown-schmucks-who-turned-into-superheroes-in-clutch_p2.html
* When a [http://nypost.com/2012/02/11/shocking-video-man-attacks-drinkers-at-british-pub-with-chain-saw/ British man] was thrown out of a pub for smoking, he came back with a chainsaw for a weapon. The other pub patron responded by looking for any item they can find and went after the chainsaw welding hooligan.
* If you're going to be drunk, DON'T DRIVE. If the police doesn't get you, some random bystander will. This [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/citizens-arrest-drunk-driver-suspect-video_us_59776017e4b0c95f375ed9a4 drunk driver] found this out... IN TEXAS, of all places.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Hidden Badass]]
[[Category:Badass]]
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