Sometimes the best weapon is love. (Movie spoilers possible)

Lately we’ve been debating the best & worst deaths in cinema history. I don’t want to rehash either topic, as both threads are active, but to bring up a related one.

It’s a fairly common trope in action movies & tv series for a character–particularly one who wouldn’t ordinarily be greatly feared as a warrior–to be moved to extraordinary feats of derring-do in defense of a loved one. Sometimes it’s done extremely well; sometimes it’s done poorly. Which examples of this stick out most firmly in your mind–either for being well-done or poorly-done?

I’ll start with two examples of well-done heroism-by-love fights, oddly enough from a movie I don’t particularly care for:

  1. Samwise Gamgee vs. Shelob, from Return of the King:
    Best … entrance… ever. “Let him go, you filth. You will not touch him again.”

To me this is almost an archetypical example. The least of the Fellowship fighting against a monster so fearsome that the Orcs are terrified of her; and the fight is so gripping because it’s Sam, not Aragorn, Legolas, or Gandalf.

  1. Eowyn vs. the Witch-King, same movie.
    Admittedly, I’d like it better if Jackson had stayed with Professor Tolkien’s dialogue, but I suppose he didn’t want to confuse the non-geek audience with the word “dwimmerlaik.” It’s not as effective as Sam’s fight because Eowyn’s already acquitted herself well in battle, but it still rocks.

Next?

K-k-ken in A Fish Called Wanda.

Slipping in to agree with this most especially – that the dialogue should have been kept. Watching the Rankin-Bass RotK was a pretty moving experience when I was 8. I had no idea what a “dwimmerlaik” was, but it sounded bad, and the exchange still gives me chills. I loved it so much I memorized it, and I haven’t seen the movie in almost 20 years.

“Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!”

“Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he shall slay thee in thy turn!”

“Do what you will, but I will hinder it, if I may.”

“Hinder me? Thou fool! Dost thou not know the prophecy? No living man may hinder me!”

“But no living man am I.” toss helmet You look upon a woman. Eowyn am I. You stand between me and the king, my kinsman. Whether living or dark undead, I will smite you if you touch him!"

A bit shortened from the book, IIRC, but sniff. Even hearing the words the way they were spoken in the older movie and typing them out brings tears to my eyes.

[/big old sap]

Harry Potter fights off Quirrel / Voldemort with his BARE HANDS, as his skin is infused with his mother’s love and sacrifice. He’s 11 years old.

Except that he’s not fighting to defend anyone but himself. as his mother’s already busy being dead.

Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi. He gets the Will to Fight, and finally defeats Darth Vader/dad when he hears how he plans to go after her. Reportedly, Lucas didn’t come up with this bit of motivation until very shortly before filming, which seems hard to believe.

Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List.

Love? Something, anyway. He can’t even say why he does it, and he’s terrified, but he faces Europe’s greatest monster solely to protect others. Him, of all people, a weak and selfish man.

Sailboat

Not a movie, but the season 6 finale of Buffy had Xander going up against Evil Willow and beating her by just repeating, “I love you” over and over.

Even better, in true Joss style, he does it AFTER she mockingly asks if this is the part where he tells her he loves her. And it still works.

Still a fan of the Rankin-Bass version even though its dijointed and barely makes sense… I love that scene.

JAckson’s version:
It’s part of the reason why Retrun of the King fails on just about every level. Eowyn just faces down one of the top evils of Middle Earth. Arguably one of the greatest acts of courage in the series… and then disappears from the movie altogether. That’s just bullshit.
Even a mention of the Yellow Crayon speech from Buffy s.6 makes a lump form in my throat.

You just know that there’s a version of that scene somewhere on Joss’s PC where Willow says, “Fine, you go first,” and incinerates Xander.

George McFly.

This topic immediately brought The Matrix to my mind. I am of course thinking of the time when, after Neo is shot and killed, his bio-indicators zeroed, Trinity resurrects him by whispering “I love you” into his ear a couple of times. Apparently, this act causes Neo to owe her one, Star Wars style, and he returns the favor in the second movie after she was fatally wounded. A couple vows and loving declarations and she’s good to go. I am not sure what was so special about the second time Trinity dies that even the mighty power of Neo’s love cannot save her. Maybe there’s a limit-one-per-customer rule on that kind of thing.

Oh yeah, I’d have to say that’s one of the better light saber duels in the series too, what with the music and the raw desperation of the fight.

Also, River the Reaver Slayer in Serenity. Though her general bad-ass-itude had been shown before this (notably in “War Stories” and in the bar on Beaumonde earlier in the Serenity movie), this was the first time that it was neither a cold blooded input/output kind of response (the bad guys are shooting at Kaylee, so River quickly memorizes their positions and shoots them back) or a subconcious trigger (“Fruuuuuuity Oaty Bars…”) as in the bar on Beaumonde. This time she did it because her brother was badly hurt, and she wanted to help him.

And while not exactly what the OP is looking for, I do recall a recurring strategy for the humans to use against the bad guys in the SDF Macross series was to have two people make out, as the alien race was segregated entirely by gender and reproduced through artificial means, thus having no experience whatsoever of interlocking parts and what not. :smiley: