In A Time to Kill, Samuel L. Jackson’s young daughter is sexually assaulted by two white men. After the men are arrested, Jackson hides in the courthouse with his rifle, and murders the two men as they’re being led to the courtroom (he also hits other people, including a cop who has to have a leg amputated as a result).
Misguided or not, the lengths that he was willing to go to for his family could certainly be considered heroic.
After Jackson’s character is arrested for the murders, Matthew MacGonaughey becomes his attorney in a case that has the town split in two. There are racial protests, the KKK burning a cross in his yard, threats to his wife and daughter, and so much more. He’s a lawyer who is barely keeping his head above water, so he’s just a little guy with no real support staff taking on the district attorney in a case that he should lose.
Fiction:
Sidney Carton going to the guillotine in A Tale of Two Cities. Numerous films, notably the 1935 version starring Ronald Coleman, and the 1980 version starring Chris Sarandon.
Major Heyward giving himself up to be tortured to death in the 1992 version of Last of the Mohicans.
Based on a True Story: Zulu 150 British soldiers, versus a thousand Zulu warriors.
7,000 Greeks (including 300 Spartans) versus at least 70,000 Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae. Depicted in the 1962 film The 300 Spartans, and the 2006 film 300.
This example is one I’ve mentioned before elsewhere, from the first Avengers movie, but since it’s an action taken by a ‘civilian,’ I say it qualifies.
Loki is in Germany, threatening a crowd of people, strikes one of them down (IIRC), then commands them all to kneel. They do, but then one old man slowly stands back up, no powers, no protection, knowing he will also be struck down.
(paraphrasing from memory)
(old man has just said he will not kneel to ‘men like you’)
Loki: There are no men like me.
Old Man: There are always men like you.
It’s no Charles Bronson from Magnificent Seven moment (and the post above makes me want to go see that version, which I never have), but in a similar situation (substitute nut with a gun for Asgardian trickster), I doubt I myself would have that old man’s courage.
“Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal of Honor! He saved the lives of every man on that transport!”
“Every man on that transport died! Harry wasn’t there to save them, because you weren’t there to save Harry!”
That’s the bit in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE that spells stuff out for us after we’ve already seen how George’s constant sacrifices have pretty much saved the jobs and homes and life savings of the hardworking men and women of Bedford Falls, which, y’know, is great; but in between those, the cherry on top is young George saving the life of a child while overwhelmed and unable to think of anything clever, which leads to him kind of whimpering as he pleads with someone to stop smacking him bloody, which, okay, you could maybe argue isn’t the gold standard of being heroic…
…but if you really listen to what he’s saying, then it’s clear that (a) he knows exactly what the situation is, and (b) he’s not, strictly speaking, asking for the guy to stop hitting him. Instead, he’s in effect saying look, I’m foiling a homicide by stopping you from making the biggest mistake of your life, and in return I’m just asking you, well, not to refrain from hitting me, perish the thought; I’m only asking if you could hit me somewhere other than the body part that got ruined the last time I was rescuing someone from certain death.
From most anyone else, that’d be an inhuman level of snark; from George Bailey, it’s — Tuesday.
I’ve never seen this film, but doesn’t Shelley Winters’ character swim to save the day and die in the process?
This one’s a special case, since it’s based on a true story, but in 1776, the biggest opponent to the Declaration of Independence is John Dickinson. When it passes anyway, he refuses to sign it, then says that because he loves his country, he’s going to join the army to fight for it anyway, even though he believes it to be hopeless. Then John Adams (Dickinson’s antagonist up to that point) rises and says, “Gentlemen of the Congress: I say ye, John Dickinson.” Everyone applauds. (From what I’ve heard, Dickinson was the only member of Congress who joined the army.)
If I remember correctly, I believe you’re right. There was a flooded passage they had to swim through, and she made it but then died of a heart attack induced by the effort.
Went the Day Well? (1942) – Graham Greene-based thriller in which Germans have a bad day pretending to be Brit troops to take over a strategically located town. The heroics, by turns shocking, brave and intuitive, come unexpectedly from three unlikely female characters.
Sailor of the King (1953) – Very loosely based on a WWI incident updated to WWII with Canadian sailor Jeffrey Hunter single-handedly delaying the departure of a German raider until reinforcements can arrive. Two endings were filmed, one rather less triumphant than the other.
Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) – Pretty much summed up by the op’s “…on the spur of the moment, with absolutely nothing to gain, they step in and risk their lives because it’s just the right thing to do.” A certain existential malaise might have something to do with it as well.
Goyokin (1969) – Tatsuya Nakadai tried to stop his clan from committing a massacre, but failed and split. Five years later, he returns bearded and extra po’ed after learning his clan is planning an encore. The results are quite different this time.
