Badass Normal/Films

• The Star Wars film series includes Jango Fett, who fights Obi-Wan and his Jedi powers using gizmos and gumption. Jango gets the worse of the combat, but his gadgets last just long enough to allow a quick escape. Later he manages to kill a distracted Jedi with some blaster sharpshooting. This must have gone to his head, because he ultimately tries to take on Mace Windu and gets rather anticlimatically curbstomped.
  • His clone/son Boba wasn't a weakling either. Not many people can survive being swallowed by a sarlacc three times or brusquely talk back to Darth Vader the way he can.
  • One should not ignore Han Solo who briefly went up against Darth Vader himself and was the one who eventually killed Boba Fett (well, as far as the movies go).
• The Transformers Film Series has an interesting example of how a group of characters grow into the role of Badass Normal. When they start off human soldiers were completely helpless against the Decepticons, as they would shrug off .50 cal machine guns and anything lower with no problem. Lennox and Epps managed to discover (almost by accident) that they were vulnerable to high-heat propelled grenades, which they fired from hand-held weapons, as well as the really heavy weapons fired from artillery platforms. But due to difficulties mobilizing support crafts and hand-held weaponry not capable of extensive enough damage, they were still relying heavily on Autobot support during the course of ROTF. By DOTM you see soldiers training directly with Autobots in how common infantry soldiers can do real damage against the big robots: using trip wires, blinding them with parachutes or sniper rounds, planting grenades on their feet to disable them... basically using Badass Normal strategies over heavy firepower. In the final battle of DOTM it effectively becomes Bash Brothers with equal footing with the Autobots and Human Soldiers just decimating the Decepticon ranks.
• League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen is being run by an ordinary one - he doesn't even have Nemo's "mad science knack" for him. But seeing how it's Sean Connery, obviously he kicks as much and more ass then various immortals and Hydes.
• Several examples from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which may cross over with comics examples listed on that page:
  • SHIELD agents Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. They all serve under undisputed Badass Normal Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • Apart from Captain America (comics) himself, every other member of the Howling Commandos is a Badass Normal.
  • Anton Vanko showed that he was capable of killing Hammer's guards with his barehands, escaped prison without missing a beat, and while he did have a laser-whip harness, he was otherwise unprotected when he was hit by a car, a metal door, and by Iron Man himself. He stayed conscious through all of this.
  • Tony Stark himself showed that he was capable of survivng supervillains without the benefit of his armor as well.
  • Also, the first time Emil Blonsky faced the Hulk, he was just a soldier. He didn't fare well but was seemingly the only survivor against Hulk's ramapge and certainly the only one left standing by the end of it. That says something.
• In the X-Men films, the average cop or soldier is capable of fighting against mutants. They might not always win but they put up a helluva fight.
  • The military is Genre Savvy enough to go after Magneto with non-metal weapons and took out quite a few members of his mutant army before the X-Men showed up to lend a hand.
  • A random security guard was the one eventually took down Mystique.
  • One cop briefly took Wolverine down with a shot to the head.
  • In X Men Origins Wolverine, Stryker was the one responsible for shooting Logan in the head with an adamantium bullet, giving him amnesia.
• Riddick of Pitch Black had this going for him until the sequel Ret Conned him into the last of a fearless warrior race.