Yeah, TV producers are much more willing to be darker with their heroes.
In the first four minutes of the first episode of Luther,
[spoiler]he chases a serial kidnapper/killer up to the top of a factory where the guy falls and is hanging on by his finger tips. Luther stalls, demanding to know where the girl is. When he gets the information, he walks over and steps on the guy’s hands, causing him to fall.
(He didn’t die, he was just severely injured.)[/spoiler]
I so agree. Whenever there’s a vampire/evil wizard/godzilla that is said to be immune to normal weapons so there’s no point in calling in the army, I at least want to SEE what happens when a minigun fires 6000 uranium depleted-slugs a minute at it. Being hard to kill with a Glock is a WORLD away from being un-damageable by the full might of the US Military.
In DARKMAN,
<spoilers>
…the superhero starts dangling the villain off the side of a building and promptly gets the usual if-you-kill-me-you’d-be-just-as-bad-as-me speech.
"I’m learning to live with a lot of things, says our hero, as the dropped villain dies.
There’s also the anime movie Ninja Scroll, where the immortal bad guy is defeated by immersing him in molten gold, then sinking him to the bottom of the ocean.
In an issue of Justice League, somebody was facing off with Captain Atom (incredible cosmic fusion powers)…
Bad guy: “Hah! You can’t hurt me, I can absorb energy!”
Atom: “Neat power. DOES IT HAVE A LIMIT???”
Atom opens up and shows the guy the surface of the sun at point-blank range.
As it turns out, yes, there was a limit.
SF movie where a hostile life form is encountered-
Senior Scientist: “It would be a tragic loss to science… but you’re right, it’s just too dangerous to keep alive.”
The End.
“we gonna plug up that hole?”
“Yeah we can get it done tomorrow if price is no object”
Family Guy reference
Cute girl and new boyfriend are walking down the street and encounter old boyfriend.
The breakup between cute girl and old boyfriend was hard on both of them, but it has been some time. Cute girl wants to show that she’s ‘over it’.
Cute Girl: We should all have dinner together!
New Boyfriend: Uh…I think I’ll pass.
Old Boyfriend: Me too. I think that would be kinda weird for no good reason.
I’d like to see Van Damme or Segal play an action hero who folds up and whimpers at the first sign of danger.
A: How could you not tell me that secret!!?!?!?!
B: (Lengthy explanation of how knowing that secret would put A in danger)
A: That’s a surprisingly reasonable explanation, sorry I got so upset
Haunted house movie:
Skeptic declares “There’s no such thing as ghosts!”; whereupon a straight razor levitates itself and castrates him. Then as he’s crouched in agony clutching his bleeding groin he gasps “I’m sure… there’s a… perfectly… logical… explanation”.
The ghost appears. Everyone else runs away screaming; the skeptic declares “What are you scared of? What can it DO- scare you to death by going ‘Boo!’?” Whereupon the ghost reaches through the skeptic’s chest and draws out his bloody heart, instantly draining him to a withered corpse.
I watch relatively few haunted house movies, but… aren’t those the things that DO happen? I feel like “skeptic learns that the supernatural is real” is a much more likely trope IN A HAUNTED HOUSE MOVIE than “skeptic ends up being right”.
Or are you saying that what usually happens is that the skeptic somehow keep just not being in the room when the scary stuff happens?
[ul][li]Hero slowly walks away from explosion; is killed by the concussion blast[/li][li] “Give me your badge and gun. You’re fired.” “Don’t you mean suspended?” “Nope.”[/li][li] “I’ll have a beer.” “Uh…we have THIRTY beers on tap.”[/li][li] Hero gets knocked unconscious - movie waits several weeks for him to recover[/li] Hero is out of bullets - rather than tossing gun aside, carefully puts expensive firearm back in its holster[/ul]
[quote=“Morbo, post:73, topic:686510”]
[ul][li] “Give me your badge and gun. You’re fired.” “Don’t you mean suspended?” “Nope.”[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
IRL, NO police officer can be summarily fired by his immediate superior; it’s a civil service matter and it has to go through channels. He can certainly be suspended pending almost certain dismissal but there are hearings and appeals. Usually they’ll offer him the chance to voluntarily resign and avoid losing his pension for malfeasance.
I’d like to see the opposite. Scooby and the gang are running away from a ghost that can go through walls. They get cornered, the ghost takes a swipe, and goes right through the good guys and the walls behind it. He keeps trying, while our heroes chuckle and go home.
“Fuck you, asshole. This is MY gun. Police departments haven’t issued guns in 40 years.”
Notice there’s no police union (er, “benevolent association”) in any of these cities.
“What’s your phone number?”
“It’s 555-4728”
“OK, thanks. Hey, waitaminnit, there’s no ‘555’ exchange, that’s why they always put them in movies so some schmuck doesn’t get called for real and ends up suing the studio. Why are you giving me a fake number?!”
I give you The Adventures of Ford Fairlaine.
Hero and villain get into a fight above a river of molten lava. Both are almost instantly killed by the fierce radiant heat and superheated air.
A band of cunning dwarves resolve to immerse a dragon in molten gold. The dragon floats like a cork on the absurdly dense liquid.
The perky but plain heroine of a romantic comedy carries on a phone relationship with the hot guy from the floor below, who believes he is relating to her hot friend who she has got to front for her. When he finds out, he is furious with the pair of them and shuns them both permanently.