Unstoppable Rage

"There are any number of plausible, scientific explanations for what followed, but I think it was just a question of hatred. It is the way of men to create monsters... it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers."
—Harlan Wade, F.E.A.R.

One of the worst things you can ever do with a hero is to do something that gets them well and truly furious, because rage makes good guys unbeatable. They will go into a frenzy and become stronger, faster, braver, more agile and more indestructible than they've ever been, and they will annihilate you. This holds particularly true if the character in question is generally meek and feeble. Often indicated with Angry Eyebrows in animation. Caution must be employed by the character, since such tantrums can sometimes lead to a Heroic BSOD.

Used widely in Shōnen manga anime. Perhaps because the young male demographic likes to see fast and brutal retribution against enemies who most likely brought it on themselves.

Sometimes referred to gaining Heroic Resolve, particularly if it's in response to a threat against somebody or something that the hero cares about. This is a common result of pressing the character's Berserk Button, and especially occurs if a nice person is pushed a little too far. They might cry but won't stop their attacks. Characters in the grip of an Unstoppable Rage are prone to a Foe-Tossing Charge. They might Kick Them While They Are Down without realizing that they are doing it.

For the quantum leap in badassery achieved without an emotional overflow, see Let's Get Dangerous. In videogames, this is often a Limit Break, or a Eleventh-Hour Superpower.

Interestingly enough, this usually has the opposite effect on villains. Making them angry usually causes them to lose focus, and make poor decisions. Unless they are a video game enemy.

Compare with Super-Powered Evil Side. See also Rage Breaking Point and Rant-Inducing Slight, where this is set off by a multitude of things piling up until a final event proves to be the last straw.

Contrast with Tranquil Fury, often preceded by a Death Glare. May be instilled in Actual Pacifists with Teach Him Anger. A character who lives by this and counts on it may be The Berserker. A Roaring Rampage of Revenge (or its smaller, arguably more spontaneous counterpart, Extreme Melee Revenge) may include this.

Examples of Unstoppable Rage include:

Anime

  • Dragon Ball Z: Gohan. Though suffice to say, nearly every Saiyan character qualifies at one point or another. But Gohan is the outlier, because his potential since the beginning was defined as Unstoppable Rage.
    • Only when he gets into his early adulthood is he actually able to fully access it without any emotional assistance. Other than that, the power disappeared soon after Gohan went Super Saiyan 2; Vegeta even later comments that he was a lot stronger when he was a kid.
    • Likely due to being calmer with age, since at first, all someone had to do is down Krillin to get Gohan to go crazy. Later, Cell had to practically torture his friends and family to make Gohan lose it and after that, he only lost his temper after feeling shame and realizing Majin Buu was going to be released.
    • Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation also qualifies. He's out of power, then has to watch Piccolo, his rival and valuable ally at the time, and his best friend, Krillin, both get attacked by Frieza, with Krillin murdered outright. This pushes Goku over the edge.
    • Broly is Hulk without the green skin. As he gets madder, his power increases, but sooner or later he has to cool off.
  • Sonic X in its third season had the eponymous character Sonic at one point absorb negative energies from fake Chaos Emeralds which unleashed when he became angry upon seeing his friends badly beaten and at risk of execution. The resultant fight involved him beating the everloving crap out of two robots specifically designed to be difficult to defeat. His long-time nemesis, Dr. Robotnik/Eggman, convinces him to stop his rage.
  • Naruto has the Nine-Tailed Fox form that Naruto engages during instances of extreme emotional disturbance. The first time is when Sasuke defends him from Haku's lethal technique, followed by several later instances when Naruto is angered. said Rage will inevitablely cause Naruto's lifespan to be shortened, due to his constantly dying/regenerating cells while the form is active). Also, if Naruto completely loses it, the Fox will take possession of his body.
    • Orochimaru invokes this trope. And boy does he not learn his lesson.
  • For Code Geass, with all a lot of characters being over-protective of another, this happens a number of times. Suzaku stands out particularly, despite being two-thirds pacifist and displaying warrior-like grace, the moment when he witnesses Euphy being shot causes him to go berserk, charging through the battlefield and through two mechas that posed a serious threat to him in order to rescue Princess Euphemia following which he abandons the battle entirely. This later seemingly pushes him past his Moral Event Horizon.
  • Ranma ½: A more comedic use of the trope, if Ranma's fear of cats reaches a critical point (especially when surrounded by them and unable to get away), his mental state becomes like that of a cat. He can only use the Neko-ken (cat fist) when in this state, which manifests as an increase in speed and agility, and the ability to attack enemies (or anything else that annoys him) with invisible claws sharp enough to slice through seemingly anything. As mentioned before, though, his mind and personality are those of a common cat, making this also an example of Sanity Has Advantages: Ranma is distractable, unfocused and generally stupid in this mode, meaning that he can be outthought fairly easily. In this state, Akane finds herself the Kid with the Leash, as Ranma will joyfully savage his/her own Jerkass father without a second thought, he curls up with her like a happy kitten, even though he is insistent that She Is Not My Girlfriend.
  • In Princess Mononoke, this happens to Nago and almost to Okkoto, who are rhinoceros-sized wild boars to begin with. Their rage is the source of their whole tribes being slaughtered by humans and only end when they are killed.
  • In Eyeshield 21. After Taiyou's defeat against the Hakushuu Dinosaurs, a stupid fan (recurring Jerkass background character Satoshi of Deimon's soccer team) mocked one of Taiyou's offensive linemen, Banba, who was beaten brutally by Gaou Rikiya despite his best effort. This pissed off Gaou, who admired Banba's determination, and he demand the idiot to show himself. When the coward didn't show up, he decided to just completely freak out on the spectators until the guy fessed up. Luckily, Riku saves the day by taking the blame (although Gaou can see that Riku didn't say that, he let it off, impressed by Riku's courage).
    • Is also subverted numerous times such as when Tetsuma charges at Gaou after he severely injures Kid and is still soundly defeated
  • In Mobile Fighter G Gundam, this is initially played straight with Domon Kasshu's Shining Gundam and its Super Mode. He even yells "Take this! My love, my anger, and all of my sorrow!". This is later subverted as he finds out this is the "imperfect" mode. His more powerful Hyper Mode can only be used when he is in a completely zen state of peace, calm, and focus.
  • In the finale of Gao Gai Gar, after the final super Zonder's (Mikoto) barrier is weakened, you would expect Guy to wrap it up and finish the fight quickly. Instead, he completely brutalizes the Zonder, ripping off one of its wings, stomping on its head, punching its arms off. To top that off, he didn't even bother with Hell and Heaven, he just aimed at the core and ripped it out. All of this while screaming in anger.
  • See Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. See Kira get angry. See Kira go crazy, and completely disable all of his enemies in seconds.
    • That's not Kira angry. Go watch the episode where He and Athrun succumb to their rage and try to kill one another. Both of them convey their rage very well with the sheer brutality of their attacks. No more hesitation, no more clever tricks. Their minds are set on the same part of the dial: "Two men enter, one man leaves." Unfortunately for Kira, between the two of them, Athrun is the better of the two in melee combat.
    • To say nothing of Shinn from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.
    • In Gundam Wing, Heero enters an Unstoppable Rage during his first use of the Gundam Epyon because of the ZERO System's side effects.
    • Setsuna F. Seiei from Gundam 00 generally keeps very good control of himself if he gets mad, but he does have one case of pure rage: during the intervention in Azodistan, he witnesses a scene that reminds him of the horrific war he participated in as a child, which causes him to snap and go completely ballistic on the attacking Suits. Most of the time, in Gundam 00, blind rage = quick death for pilots, be they flying a Gundam or not.
  • Fuyuki Hinata in the manga/anime Keroro Gunsou becomes so frightening when angry that all other characters shrink back in horror. It takes a very serious personal offence to rile him.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion such as when Shinji goes berserk and EVA begins to eat one of the angels.
  • Ayato Kamina from RahXephon seems to be quite capable of working himself into an unstoppable rage in combat. His common method of combat is very much the raging badass screaming his way into battle, and as a general rule, the second Ayato releases a soul-tearing scream of pure rage, the enemy Dolem is about to die.
  • The slightly related Engels and Tagers get a little irritated if you knock out their pilots, and Engels become enraged if the wrong pilot gets in the cockpit. During this state, they'll try to kill anything that looks remotely threatening that isn't of the same type of being. They don't gain strength or do more damage, but they make all skill rolls as if they had three points in each skill, and don't suffer wound penalties.
  • Chimchar in an episode of Pokémon. That was enough for Paul to try everything he could to bring out that power again.
    • After being knocked unconscious by Paul's Ursaring in a later battle, the true extent of Chimchar's power is unleashed and it needs a Cooldown Hug when it doesn't go back to normal. This unnatural power has been explained as its ability, Blaze.
      • Later on, after it's evolved into Monferno, it does this again, and requires another Cooldown Hug from Ash in order to calm down. Then it evolves into Infernape, after which it's able to control the Ability.
    • Also seen with the Pokemon Mankey, and more so with its evolved form Primeape, which has a Hair-Trigger Temper and goes into an Unstoppable Rage at the drop of a hat.
    • Played for Laughs with Jessie, especially when her hair gets damaged. Poor Seviper found out the hard way.
    • None of the above hold a candle to a pissed-off Mewtwo.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh naturally turned this effect into a card, "Berserker Soul", and had it used by Yami Yugi during one of his own moments of Unstoppable Rage. "DORO! MONSUTAA KAADO!"
    • The best and aforementioned example the third season, after Yugi's soul is taken by the Oricalchos and Insector Haga taunts Yami by tearing up a card in front of him claiming it was Yugi's, just "as a joke", and Yami completely loses it.
      • Even worse for Haga: Since a duel within the Seal is effectively a Shadow Game, he physically felt each and every blow Breaker dealt to him. The true chill-down-the-spine moment, however, comes shortly after he reveals his ruse:

Yami: Wash your neck and wait, Haga.

        • This order was traditionally given to prisoners before being executed, meaning Yami had gone past saying "I'm going to kick your ass" and issued a death sentence to Haga, which he then proceeded to carry out with brutal efficiency.
    • In full swing for Judai by Season 4 of Yu-Gi-Oh GX—if he says "This Is Unforgivable!".
  • In Saint Seiya, Phoenix Ikki goes into unstoppable rage mode when his master, Guilty, kills his Morality Pet Esmeralda specifically to provoke him into fighting. It ends very badly for Guilty.....very.
  • Subaru of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S is normally a happy and energetic sort... until you hurt and threaten to take away her sister, that is. Then her eyes go glowy as rocks around her float from residual energy. Her resulting rampage sent two of the Quirky Miniboss Squad scurrying and put one of their strongest and most experienced members out of commission for the rest of the season.
  • Tsukasa Domyoji from Hana Yori Dango rules the elite private school he attends not because he's an absurdly rich pretty boy but, because when pissed off (and he has an infamously short temper), he will try to kill anyone in his path. And he's the male romantic lead; the reason why he's at first interested in the female lead Tsukushi Makino is because she's the first Eitoku student who defies him openly, to the point of bitchslapping him often.
  • Berserk put it in the title, so it's a major part of the series.
  • It's generally not smart to get Wolfgang Grimmer of Monster angry. It's generally not survivable either.
  • In Elfen Lied, the main character Lucy is almost constantly in this state when she isn't in her alternate personality Nyu, due to a lifetime of almost constant abuse, deprivation, and trauma. Considering that her powers as a diclonius are a recipe for an all-out gorefest, triggering the Lucy persona may well be the last thing you ever do.
  • When the Major is beating the crap out of you with a stoic expression, she's actually just toying with you until you realize the futility of trying to fight her. If you somehow manage to really make her pissed, it will be very obvious, but you will probably never get the chance to fully comprehend what's happening to you. This womans normal range of expression consists entirely of stoic and smiling politely. When her anger is showing, the point of reasoning with her is long over. And being a cyborg, she doesn't even care if she gets limbs torn off or her body crushed, making her truly unstoppable. The only two opponents who ever defeated her were inside Humongous Mecha, which she attacked bare handed.
  • In Slam Dunk, the first thing Heavy Sleeper Kaede Rukawa clearly says is "My name is Rukawa Kaede, I'm a freshman, and I will never forgive whoever wakes me up when I'm napping." Cue to him beating up the gangsters who woke him up from his nap.
  • Several players in The Prince of Tennis have a penchant for injuring their rivals during games. The most infamous ones are Akaya Kirihara from Rikkaidai, Jin Akutsu from Yamabuki and Kippei Tachibana from Fudomine. Subverted in Tachibana's case: after he seriously injures his best friend and teammate Chitose, he becomes The Atoner and refuses to use violent tennis anymore. Which makes him easy prey for Kirihara's Devil Mode later.
  • People who piss off Kenshiro (usually by going too far in their cruelty to others) usually don't live to tell the tale. In fact, if they do, they're already dead. This is at least explained in the series by the fact that his fighting style is designed to increase in power proportional to exactly how angry he is. At normal levels of anger, he can break concrete with his fists. When he is at full power, he can make a tank explode by punching the driver.
  • If you're an Akuma, and you tick off Allen Walker of D Gray Man too much, you're likely to make his Innocence upgrade. Or you might make it angry. That would be a bad thing.
    • Think about it in this way: a permanent upgrade to his weapon will only hamper your goals in the long run, but if you get the weapon mad you will lose so much of your force, that the scales will probably balance.
  • Kazuya Ryuuzaki in Daimos is generally an all around nice guy, especially towards the Earthlings, and he tries to be good for some Not So Different aliens. But after seeing Miwa's racism towards innocent aliens too many times... he snaps, jumps dodging an attempted shot from Miwa and starts beating the crap out of him using Karate (thankfully on foot, rather than stomping him with the eponymous mecha) while screaming that Miwa was actually worse than the aliens (which is actually true). Kyoshiro and Nana managed to stop him after hearing that Miwa would be arrested for his crimes, but even after being restrained, Kazuya cannot stop to scream at them telling them to stop restraining him. This also gets taken to Super Robot Wars Advance, done with full amounts of awesome.
  • Both Takato and Guilmon of Digimon Tamers simultaneously go into an uncharacteristic rage upon the death of Juri's Leomon, with disasterous results. Guilmon and his evolutions even have a hazard symbol to hint that you really shouldn't piss him off.
  • In the very final chapter of Tekkaman Blade, Blade's brain breaks down completely because of his Deadly Upgrade. Right when it looks like we're all doomed, he suddenly lets out a roar and zips off to the moon to have a nice, dramatic final battle. Did he get better? Nah. It's just that a single aspect survived the complete destruction of his entire personhood - his rage toward the Radam for taking away his family. It really puts the "unstoppable" in Unstoppable Rage.
  • In Chrono Crusade, Chrono has moments when his Berserk Button is pressed where he taps into his demonic power and starts to attack indiscriminately. In one particularly bad moment of this, he sets part of a city ablaze and nearly kills Rosette because of the massive drain on her soul. Which sends him into a Heroic BSOD afterwards. A major key in the events leading up to the climax is Chrono learning to control his rage.
  • Princess Tutu has an example of this trope, but not in with the character you'd expect. Is it Fakir, who prides himself on being the Knight? Nope. Is it Mytho, the heroic Prince from a fairytale? Not him, either. It's actually Autor—a nerdy, Drosselmeyer-obsessed scholar. When Fakir's hands are nearly cut-off by the Bookman trying to stop the story, Autor flies into a rage and defeats the axe-wielding man using only his bare hands. Not nearly as impressive as some of the other examples on this page, and it only appears briefly, but it's still surprising considering the sort of character he's portrayed as.
  • In Mai-HiME, this happens to Mai, of all people, when Mikoto (accidentally) ends Takumi's life under the influence of her own Unstoppable Rage. She grits her teeth so hard that blood starts to form, and summons her CHILD to attack. Mikoto gets better... but not in the way Mai expected. PROTIP: Never anger a girl with an enormous pet dragon.
  • In Hellsing, Zorin Blitz kills Pip as he tries to carry a blinded and severely wounded Seras to safety. He requests for Seras to drink his blood so "they can defeat them together" just before he dies. Filled with intense sadness which quickly becomes rage, Seras fulfills his last wish and her true vampiric abilites awaken. She then proceeds to go batshit insane and slaughters Zorin's mooks, and finally grinds Zorin's head on the wall like a cheese grater.
    • Also during the Valentine Brothers attack on the Headquarters.
    • Alexander Anderson from the series seems to fit this trope as well when he is in combat, typically demonstrating nothing but sheer joy at the prospect of battle. He attacks Integra, a high ranking British official who didn't even want to start a fight, head on, killing her bodyguards and decapitating one of them before threatening to paint to walls with her blood. He runs into gunfire without even trying to dodge and due to his augmentations is able to slaughter hundreds of undead mooks without any difficulty. In the TV version, at one point he gets both of his arms shot off. He simply kneels to the ground and grabs his knife with his teeth, and then proceeds to run at his opponent with it while he's still being shot at.
  • Subverted? In a Shōnen manga anime? Unnatural! But in Shaman King, rage clouds your mind, and causes you to squander your energy. It's specifically considered something to be avoided.
    • Demonstrated quite well in the Yoh vs. Faust VIII fight. Faust taunts and enrages Yoh from the start of the fight by harming Manta, and when Yoh is on his last legs, his last-ditch strategy is to punch Faust's Berserk Button as hard as he can. And it probably would have worked if Yoh had had just a little more furyoku to spare.
  • In Gintama: Not exactly conscious rage, per se, but it is brought about by rage. In her fight against Abuto, Kagura loses all control against her Yato instinct and flies into what can be fairly called an Unstoppable Rage - though the look on her face says she's actually enjoying it in a detatched, psychotic way.
  • Busou Renkin has a good chunk of rage, with a Victorized Kazuki duking it out with Victor. There's also Tokiko, who pumps rage through her veins instead of blood.
  • In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Simon flies into one in the middle of taking over the Dai-Gunzan when Kamina appears to have died. He then releases so much Spiral Energy that the whole ship starts to glow, blows all the Mooks out of the ship, and he sets off a nearby volcano. It took a whalloping from Kamina to get him out of it.
  • Full Metal Panic!: In episode 5, Sagara and Tsubaki really piss off the school janitor, who transforms in to a chainsaw-wielding monstrosity that easily fends off their combined attacks, swallows hand grenades, and chases them around the school like puppies.
  • Hamel in Violinist of Hameln, when he transforms into a monster.
  • One Piece. Pressing any of the Straw Hats' Berserk Buttons will inevitably lead to this.
    • Do not anger Luffy enough to make him take off his hat. God help you if you make Luffy take off his hat. How can you do this? Insult anyone's dreams, hurt his friends, mock anything to do with a pirate's pride, threaten anyone close to him...
    • And if you want to make it several billion times worse, if you step on Luffy's hat or do anything to damage it, 2 steps will follow:

1. Luffy will call you a bastard.
2. Luffy will kick your ass from here to next Wednesday.

Luffy: You think after everything you've done to my friend, and my sea, that I'm going to let you get away with all of this?!!

    • To put it in perspective, the character Luffy said that to had spent over twenty years developing his plan, and it was so far along that the only way it could fail is if he happened to blab too many of his secrets to someone who would oppose it, allow that someone to discover the remaining secrets, bring that someone to his home base, and refrain from killing that someone when he had the chance. But even if a someone was armed with all that, they would need to have an absurd amount of power to stop him. And who does he do that to except for the Straw Hat Pirates? And he made it infinitely worse by kidnapping their navigator — whose meteorology skills are unrivaled in that world — in order to remove the only possible threat to his plan. He learned the hard way that the unpredictable cyclones of the Grand Line were nothing when compared to the Straw Hats' Unstoppable Rage.
    • Tell Sanji that his chivalry is naïve, that he can't protect anyone, mock his status as a chef, waste food or insult a beautiful lady in his presence. For maximum effect, do all of the above at the same time.
    • Although this could also go under Tranquil Fury, there's also Whitebeard in the War of the Best, where after everyone witnesses Ace's death and despite sustaining heavy injuries from being shot, stabbed, slashed, burned and having half his face melted off, he defeats Akainu in 2 hits, the second hit destroying most of Marineford and separating the pirates and Marines with a giant chasm. In short, never, ever piss the old man off.
    • Recap of the past few Big Bads. Number 1: Arlong. Killed Nami's mother and enslaved her and her home island. Promised to free them if Nami paid him a hefty amount of money. Utilized Loophole Abuse to ensure she doesn't get the amount after eight years of hard, hard work. Mocked her and provoked her entire village to attack him in what would inevitably be a Curb Stomp Battle with everyone she loved ending up dead. The culmination of this? Nami bursts into tears, and asks Luffy for help. He and his other three cremates march off to Arlong Park, and a couple of hours later, Arlong is unconscious and half-dead beneath the rubble of what used to be his base, and all of his henchmen aren't much better off.
  • Roberta from Black Lagoon normally spends her days as a bad maid, but if you kidnap or kill her masters, she will hunt you down through single photographs and kill you. You have a slight chance of surviving if you are a member of the Green Berets, otherwise you are dead.
  • Shortly after Kiyomaro of Zatch Bell comes Back from the Dead and completely wipes the floor with his opponents, one of them taunts Kiyomaro with mention of his fallen allies and receives an epic beating with epic use of Demon Head on Kiyomaro's part.
  • Ryoma from New Getter Robo flies into a berserker rage near the end of the series, after absorbing an enormous amount of Getter Energy. The character was already known as "Batshit Ryoma" among fans due to his crazy expressions and Determinator status, so the idea of him having an "Unstoppable Rage" mode distinguishable from his regular personality seemed impossible. They found a way .
  • Miu gets this when she finds her friends badly beaten by Shou Kanou during the D of D arc in Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi. How does Kenichi snap her out of it? By groping her chest. Which was apparently a technique that Ma Kensei taught him.
  • Bado from DOGS Bullets and Carnage} goes into Unstoppable Rage whenever he has a nicotine fit and can't find cigarettes.
  • Negi Springfield of Mahou Sensei Negima goes into one of these when he finally meets the demon who petrified his home town on that snowy day. Actually a subversion, since he almost meets the same fate. It's only after collecting himself that he mixes it with Dissonant Serenity and starts kicking ass.
  • Bleach:
    • In the earlier parts of the manga, pushing Ichigo too far was an invitation for his Inner Hollow to come out and play. Eventually, he's driven into an unstoppable form of pure instinct as a result of Orihime being left vulnerable to Ulquiorra. This results in both Ulquiorra and Ishida (who tries to calm Ichigo down) to take the full brunt of Ichigo's state.
    • When Captain Aizen appears to have been murdered, it's Hinamori who finds the body. Convinced the grinning Gin is the culprit she flies into an Unstoppable Rage, causing one of her best friends, Kira (Gin's Number Two) to step in to defend his captain. Even then, Hinamori won't stop, calm down or see reason and it takes the intervention of another captain to get the situation back under control (by arresting both Hinamori and Kira).
  • Omamori Himari: Himari has one of the Heroic BSOD variety Yuuto appears to have been killed by her opponent. It's also her Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Wolfs Rain - Toboe + Walrus = Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Edward in Fullmetal Alchemist goes into one of these when he finds that Shou Tucker, an alchemist famous for making chimeras, turned his own wife into one, and then later turned his daughter and his dog into one. Shou makes it worse however, by provoking Edward about the use of human lives, and saying that they aren't so different, leading Edward to continually scream "YOU'RE WRONG!", whilst punching him repeatedly. Ouch.
    • When Al sacrifices himself to give Ed his arm back, Ed goes berserk on Father Homunculus ...and HOW.
    • Al almost does this too.

Alphonse: "Mister Tucker, one more word out of you... and I'll be the one to snap."

    • Riza also goes into Unstoppable Rage when she thinks Lust managed to kill Mustang, and promptly empties her gun's magazine into her, reloads and repeats. Several times. Worth noting because it is a subversion rather than a straight portrayal, as when she's run out of bullets, she collapses and cries, while Lust gets back up after shrugging off the barrage without breaking a sweat.
    • When Mustang finally finds out that Envy killed Hughes.
Roy Mustang: "That's that... you killed Hughes..... that's all I needed to know... You don't need to say anything more, Envy. The first thing I'm gonna turn to ash is your tongue."
—He makes damn good on this promise, He then proceeds to alternate between full, body-consuming explosions, and pinpoint attacks that target the most sensitive and painful areas, notably the eyes. Repeatedly. OUCH!
    • Notably averted, however, with the Homunculus Wrath. Despite being a ruthless fighter, he is always calm and composed in a fight.
    • Father as well in the Final Battle he shows much anger
  • In the first part of "Jupiter Jazz" from Cowboy Bebop, a gang leader made the mistake of calling Spike Spiegel by the name of his rival, Vicious. Spike went berserk and handed a supreme asskicking to the entire gang before laying into him.

Spike: You think I'm Vicious? YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT VICIOUS IS!

  • It's never wise to threaten/try to kill Yukiteru in front of Yuno in Mirai Nikki; this chick put the yan (sick) in Yandere.
  • One: Do not mess with Senri's friends. Two: Do not remove Senri's eyepatch. Three: When white hair appears on his forehead (after you have ignored number two), you run away as quickly as possible, through that really isn't going to help, you're going to be clawed to bits anyway. Even if +Anima is a childen's manga, it doesn't skimp on the violence when neccessary.
    • You get to see Senri go into an Unstoppable Rage two times. Once while he is a young child, and the other time he's in Moss Mountain with Cooro, Nana, and Husky.
  • In Death Note, Touta Matsuda has an awesome moment in the final episode in which he Took a Level in Badass for some and was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap for others. When Light Yagami is exposed as Kira, Matsuda slumps to the floor under the weight of it all, but springs into action faster than anyone else when Light attempts to escape by murdering everyone with the Death Note piece in his watch. Matsuda then shoots him in the hand, with the most ultimate Manly Tears coming down as he calls Light out on leading his father (and Matsuda's Obi Wan) to slaughter for nothing. When Light tries to convince Matsuda that the only way to make Soichiro's justice worth it is to save Light and kill the SPK and investigation team, he's only more enraged, and snaps when Light once again tries to write names in the note fragment with his own blood. He shoots him multiple times, and tries to finish him off with a shot to the head, but is held back by the other members of the investigation team. Coupled with the fact that he was the only member of the team to have any doubts about whether Kira really was evil, Matsuda's Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass moment is even more impressive.

Matsuda: "I have to kill him! HE HAS TO DIE!"

  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn: Averted when the berserk rage is only powerful for five minutes and it is in itself not unbeatable. Tsuna is at his best when he is on the other side, straight past normal, straight past calm, all the way onto the other side where he is completely empty of feeling and is thus at his most level of head. Results in loads of arse kicking. But... there comes the time when he just has to lose it for a moment, and that's when he kinda hit Byakuran with an X-burner so hard that Byakuran vaporized. Scary...
  • The otherwise peaceful and docile Ohmu of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind fly into an Unstoppable Rage if the Sea of Decay or any of its insects are harmed, killing and destroying everything in their path in an attempt to claim vengeance against whatever is responsible. In the manga, we're privy to their thoughts through Nausicaa's empathic link with them, and they seem to regret their actions once they regain their senses.
    • Nausicaa herself flies into a rage and annihilates a roomful of trained soldiers with just a staff.
  • England of Axis Powers Hetalia flies into one of these during the War of American Independence. Despite America's formidable Super Strength and the fact that England doesn't seem to have any backup, he still manages to disarm America and level a musket point-blank at his face. Unstoppable Rage, indeed... which, for worse, is followed with a Crowning Moment Of Heartbreaking once England realizes what happened and breaks in tears.
  • The Nodos in Heroic Age are Nigh Invulnerable Kaiju possessed of incredible destructive power to begin with, but under certain circumstances (such as when more than two at a time are engaged in a fight) they can go into "frenzy" (or "madness" or "mental chaos", depending on the translation), becoming even more monstrous and destructive. The Heroic Tribe apparently destroyed several entire star systems through such rages during their civil war, hence why the Golden Tribe sealed the survivors within members of other tribes, making them slaves to these "lesser" beings.
  • Ivan Isaac's superpower in Priest is his sheer rage and contempt for Temozarela. He doesn't even care whether or not he wins against him, he just wants Temozarela to see how angry he is.
  • Shizuo Heiwajima in Durarara!!. He actually doesn't like violence, but set him off—and many things set him off—and he can't stop himself from throwing something unreasonably heavy at you.
  • In episode 11 of the Tenchi Muyo Spin-Off Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari the antagonists' latest and dirtiest attempt to kill Kenshi pisses him off so much that he goes utterly apeshit. His Seikijin partially transforms into a horrible black giant thing that mercilessly beats down his opponents and actually kills one of them (the one that came up with the scheme in the first place). It's so terrifying that Dagmyer has a Freak-Out that segues into a two episode long Villainous BSOD. This is a subversion—Kenshi's rage overloads the Seikijin even faster than normal and causes it to fall apart midway through the battle. This is the only reason Emera was able to rescue Dagmyer.
  • In Bakugan Battle Brawlers, never let Ditzy Hybrid Monster Rabeeder overhear that her sister is defeated or possibly dead. The ditz who hit on the main character and challenged you to silly races before might only give you a single death's glare warning before beating the ever loving tar out of The Dragon, that dragon's Dragon, and their little dog, too!
  • Hajime no Ippo: Don't make Takeshi Sendo angry while in the ring. You'll live longer. Shigeta and Ippo both have been victims of his flip-outs. It's not a nice situation to be in, really.
    • In his fight against Bryan Hawk, in the moment that is beyond doubt the CMOA of CMOAs, Takamura goes into a state of pure, uncontrolled rage (while half-unconcious to boot) and proceeds to beat the flying shit out of Hawk. It's so unbelievably awesome that words cannot capture the moment.
  • In a recent Soul Eater, after spending 800 years waiting, having his boss and partner killed, and going so far as to grow a second, back up body, Giriko is all sorts of insane with rage. Unfortunately, he's built up so much rage that he overloads his soul. He rages so hard his soul explodes and he dies.,Then The new Noah appered representing Wrath and is the idol of Rage seriously.
  • Sorcerer Hunters protagonist Carrot Glace suffers a unique combination of conditions. His body naturally absorbs any spell that hits him, and the energy from that spell transforms him into some nigh-unstoppable beast. The only two people who seem consistently able to snap him out of it are his coworkers and the two girls he normally avoids whenever he can: the Misu sisters, Chocolate and Tira.
  • After spending almost the entire second season as nothing but a hostage, Kojuro of Sengoku Basara escapes, and finds out that Hanbei, the jerk who had constantly tried to convince him that Masamune was dead, gave his lord a scar across his back. He is less than pleased about this. He promptly rides off without a sword , finds Hanbei's unit, and proceed's to beat all of the mooks bare handed. He then steals a sword, and goes berserk on Hanbei himself. His definite CMoA. This is Mitsunari's raison d'etre. Whoever may be on the receiving end of his anger, nothing is gonna get in his way until he hunts them down and chops them into mush.
  • In an episode of Halo Legends, Harka has the wife of Fal 'Chavamee, the original Arbiter, killed to provoke him into a duel after he refuses to serve the Covenant. Fal wipes out an elite hit-squad, hundreds of Covenant infantry, a Wraith and three gigantic Hunters before dying along with Harka in the eponymous duel.
  • If you kill one of Yuna's friends, she won't care how much of a Badass Villain Sue you are. She will tear you to shreads.
  • In the second series of Beyblade, Kai has a major guilt-induced Heroic BSOD while fighting Goki, because Goki's Mind Control Eyes reminds him of Wyatt, who is dead/insane depending on the version and it was Kai's fault. ("I can't fight you. Not you.") He snaps out of it on his own, but still isn't strong enough to take down uber!Cyber Dranzer. Then Goki refers to Wyatt as "your wimpy little friend" and, well. Dranzer hits Battle Aura and the title trope ensues.
  • Don't mess with any Fairy Tail members.
  • In Trigun, Vash is normally a pacifist who refuses to kill anyone, trying his very best to non-lethally shoot at people (unrealistic, but for the context of the story one just has to roll with it) which puts him in bad situations with the major villains of the series who don't go down as easily as a normal person would from his non-lethal shots. On one notable occasion, the villain was unaffected by Vash's attempts to non-lethally defeat him but when he murdered a lot of people right in front of Vash's eyes Vash pulls out his machine gun arm and quickly immobilizes the villain. In his weakened state, Vash knows the villain can't fight back but in his rage he seriously considers killing him. However, he holds true to his morals and lets him go. This shows you that Vash would be an unstoppable gunfighter if he went in for the kill from the start.
  • In the Mega Man NT Warrior manga, Megaman's Super Mode starts out as this until he learns to control it. Another example comes a few chapters later when Shademan threatens Lan. Megaman rips him apart.
  • In Vinland Saga Canute has a divine revelation that transforms him from a frightened sissy into an incredibly charismatic and powerful leader. And the very first thing he does is to calm down a raging berserker four times the size, that is about to crush him, with a Cooldown Hug. After that, he only has to look at people to make them worship him.
  • In Blue Exorcist, Rin has some... problems with restraint once he draws his sword to transform into his demonic form. This was especially visible in his fight against Amaimon in the anime as he started off as a bit angrier version of himself but ended up as a snarling and growling bundle of Ax Crazy, behaving more like a feral dog than a human. Right in front of his Nakama who up until that point thought he was a Badass Normal and definitely not the son of Satan himself. Good thing Shiemi was on-hand for a Cooldown Hug, otherwise it would've gotten real ugly real quick.


Comic Books

  • The Incredible Hulk in every incarnation and medium.
    • In Marvel's World War Hulk storyline, he's busy with a particularly Unstoppable Rage, mopping the floor with everyone in his way. The truly frightening thing was that he had gone into Tranquil Fury at the same time, leaving him with enough mind to keep his head and employ strategy and trickery.
  • This is also one of Wolverine's defining traits. He's usually composed and calculating when he fights, but when he's pushed beyond a breaking point, he gives in to his animal instincts and his fighting style becomes more erratic and feral, and it's usually in these occasions where his body count rises the most.
  • If Hulk weren't the poster boy for this trope, the Red Lantern Corps in Green Lantern would be. Their rings are powered by their rage, which is strong enough to the point where all but their leader are mindless berserkers.
  • In the Hush storyline, Batman goes into one of these when it seems that The Joker killed his childhood friends. Flashing back through all the people the Joker's victimized and killed over the years (mostly Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, and Sarah Essen), he goes into an Unstoppable Rage, taking down Harley Quinn and Catwoman (the latter of which was on his side, but simply trying to stop him from killing the Joker), and stalking the Joker through an alley. It takes Jim Gordon to snap him out of it, and, even then, Gordon had to shoot him to get his attention. Even after getting shot, Batman's still thinking of all the different ways he could kill Joker (something along the lines of "pushing his skeleton through his mouth"), but at least he wasn't choking him any more.
    • In Superman/Batman #1, Batman finds himself witnessing a similar situation between Superman and Lex Luthor. He notes the similarities between this and what happened in Hush, and then, instead of talking him down like Jim Gordon did (he even notes that he wouldn't do that), he notes to Superman that he could make Luthor's death look like an accident, and then he gets Superman to stop by directing his attention to something else that needs to be done that's more important.
    • In the film adaptation, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Supes goes even further when Batman, instead of Captain Atom as was the case in the comics, attempts a Heroic Sacrifice by manually piloting Toyman's rocket to destroy the asteroid. He then gives Luthor the beatdown of his life and only stops fuming when he learns there's a chance Batman is still alive.

Superman: That was my best friend... and you just killed him!

Joker: I hit Jason a lot harder than that. His name was Jason, right?

Huntress: MY KIDS? YOU THREATEN MY KIDS?

  • Tends to happen to Spider-Man whenever the important things in his life, especially his family, are threatened (although this isn't an explicit power of his).
    • The most famous of these was when Gwen Stacy was killed. He very nearly killed the Green Goblin with his bare hands.
    • Another example happened during the "Back In Black" story arc following Civil War. Aunt May lay dying after taking a sniper's bullet meant for Spider-Man. Donning his black costume, Spider-Man tracked down the man responsible, The Kingpin (who was serving prison time at that point), broke into the prison, confronted The Kingpin and then proceeded to give him a very savage beatdown. No jokes, No quips. He ends it by threatening to fill Kingpin's throat with enough webbing to kill him if he ever comes for Spider-Man again.
  • Superman is normally one of the nicest guys on the planet (despite what some people may have to say), but he's a terror when he's pushed.
    • In For the Man Who Has Everything, Superman loses it on Mongul after waking-up from a Lotus Eater Machine, but his innate morality prevents him from actually killing Mongul off.
    • In the Elseworlds story Kingdom Come, Superman enters into an Unstoppable Rage when most of the metahumans are killed by a UN-launched nuclear warhead and nearly tears down the United Nations.
    • Issue 6 of Final Crisis, after Batman's death. A quite frankly shit-scary Superman, roaring with grief and his eyes on fire, tears through the battle to recover the body.
    • JLA-Avengers. Superman becomes so outraged while fighting The Mighty Thor, he knocks him out while even lampshading "Up to Eleven".
      • This is followed by another crowning moment of awesome when the combined Marvel heroes, upon seeing Thor taken down flip out and all attack Supes, managing to actually keep him off balance for a short time.
  • The Punisher, despite being something of an unstoppable killing machine, is typically a very calm, methodical man. That is until Nicky Cavella, a mob boss with a grudge, dug up his family's remains and urinated on them. This did not go down well. A pissed off Mr. Castle proceeded to pack up his M-249 and consecutively attack various criminal hideouts, racking up 68 bodies... in one night.

Mayor: And the good news?
Johnathan: Crime's down.

    • It was so bad that he wasn't even really aware of what he was doing each time until the recoil from his gun kicked in. He was in a sort of perpetual hallucination until his family was returned to their grave.
  • The final arc from the Star FOX comic run in Nintendo Power had Fox McCloud going berserk upon learning that Andross was responsible both for his mother's death (a car-bomb meant for his father) and his father's disappearance in the Black Hole (because Andross sabotaged his ship). He proceeds to sport Glowing Eyes of Doom and tear the bad guys apart before going after Andross in person, but in a rare moment of not getting in the last shot like he usually does in battles, he allows Andross to escape into the Black Hole because he knows his father is going to find him and "he deserves the last shot after all these years."
  • Sleepwalker had plenty of reason to be angry at his archenemy Cobweb in the final issue of his comic series, not least because Cobweb tricked Sleepwalker into furthering his plans to conquer Earth, and because he committed mass murder on Earth and pinned the whole thing on Sleepwalker. Throwing aside Cobweb's minions like they were nothing, Sleepwalker catches up to Cobweb and proceeds to rip his MacGuffin right out of Cobweb's body, before using it to banish Cobweb once and for all.
  • A possible variation on this is Rorschach from Watchmen. He begins as a relatively capable hero, holding his own alongside Nite Owl. Following the murder of Blair Roche, Rorschach simply goes insane, and removes all traces of mercy from his actions in his blind hatred towards the "evil ones," rendering him strong enough to scare the shit out of most of New York without any weapons.
  • In the Disney Ducks Comic Universe Scrooge McDuck has many famous Comic book iterations of this, but none quite as amazingly awesome as these three pages. A 45 Kg Duck destroying a riverboat with his bare hands, and a concert piano.
  • Tycho Celchu in the X Wing Series, at least in the comics - in the novels, Isard apparently managed to neatly excise his ability to be angry - gets mad and starts swinging very easily.
  • Colossus, normally the Gentle Giant of X-Men, is also one of the last people you ever want to get mad. Just ask Riptide. Just ask Ord from Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run! Trust me, imprisoning and torturing him for two years to create a "mutant cure?" Very bad idea.

Ord: "It matters not that you escaped. Do you think that because you are made of mere metal that you can stand against me?"
Colossus: "I am not made of steel. Rage! I am made of RAGE!"

  • Wulf in Strontium Dog, being a Viking, becomes a literal berserker when he gets really mad. In this state, he's capable of beating up even Johnny.
  • Raghnarok, a french comic about a young dragon features this. When Raghnarok (the young dragon) disappears, and his mother can't find him, she gets increasingly violent as time goes by and her eyes turn red. Over time, her purple scales turn black and she goes from being perhaps 12 feet tall to dwarfing skyscrapers. She then goes on to violently wreck everything in her way while shouting her sons name. This goes on uninterrupted for ten years, and she has the entire world fearing her. All armies run at sight. Her anger is only quelled once she meets her son again- and it's notable that she is a lot smaller after stopping her rampage.
  • Supergirl was once so angry she overloaded Sakki, The Hate Furnace and Gakidou.
    • Also, Supergirl during her mini-series discovered that her lover Lex Luthor had made thousands of clones of her from the residue he collected after her fight with Doomsday. She was very close to killing him too.
  • In Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog , the eponymous character suffers this at times despite his calm and carefree nature, particularly when his family and friends are in danger.
    • In the "EndGame" arc (issues #47-#50) when Knothole Village was seemingly destroyed by Robotnik's doomsday weapon (but in the end learns that it was trapped in another timezone for a short time).
      • Likewise in the same arc, a character named Hershey the Cat pummeled her ex-boyfriend Drago Wolf to a pulp after learning that he tricked her into killing Princess Sally (the princess herself survived, however).
    • Knothole was recently destroyed (for real, this time) by Eggman's air fleet, angering Sonic. It wasn't until he was taunted about the limit of his abilities when Sonic snapped and launched a devastating, but failed, Sonic Boom attack on Eggman's most powerful robot.
      • To paint a better picture, after the taunt mentioned above, Sonic ran off and in a few seconds was on the other side of the continent before turning around and making a beeline toward Eggman's robot. It was one of the more impressive things Sonic has done, short of being Super Sonic.
    • Tails, at one point, fought Sonic because he was tired of being treated as a little kid, but mainly because Sonic at one time had dated his friend's love interest, Fiona Fox. Tails was heartbroken that Fiona never loved him because of age difference, and instead loved Sonic. He was even more devastated because she was really in love with Sonic's evil twin, Scourge. He eventually went all out on Sonic while trying to rescue his dad. After Sonic learned that his friend's rage came from that fact that he took Fiona away from him, he apologized and explained his actions, and they soon made up.
    • Mighty is also prone to these when something bad happens to Ray the Flying Squirrel. The results are never pretty.
  • The Hard Goodbye from the Sin City series features Marv going on on for about a week straight, eventually taking on one of the most powerful crime families in the country. This was all because they killed one of the few people that was nice to him.
  • For Wonder Woman and other Amazons in their pre-Crisis incarnations, the Bracelets of Submission acted as a check against the use of unrestrained power. If Wonder Woman's bracelets were removed, she became intoxicated with power, violent and nearly unstoppable.
  • In Runaways, during the "Home Schooling" arc, a missile strikes the team's Malibu house, killing Old Lace and injuring Klara. Upon regaining consciousness, Klara freaks out and causes a forest of vines to grow and consume the house.
  • Similar to the Wonder Woman example above, Orion from the New Gods has a intense, building rage inside him that's held back by a Mother Box. The reason for this is that his father is Darkseid, and the burning hatred for all living things is In the Blood.


Fan Works

  • Kyon: Big Damn Hero. If you do anything to harm the SOS Brigade, Kyon - or if you hurt him, Haruhi - will lose it and you will suffer.
  • An example shows up in the Mass Effect Self-Insert Fic Mass Vexations. Author Avatar Art flies into one after Shepard tells him to radio Joker in the Virmire mission. The only thing he remembers after radioing Joker? Blurs, falling geth, and someone pulling him away from the scene.
  • In the Firefly fic Forward, Jayne flies into one of these when River takes a bullet for him during the assault by Niska's goons. It is described as Jayne "seeing red." Jayne periodically has these moments throughout the story, when his anger overrides good sense. Later on, River goes into one of these rages when a Hand of Blue shoots Simon, and in the resulting scene reduces his face to hamburger by repeatedly stabbing it in a hysterical, savage frenzy.
  • Logan Wright from Dalton has some rather serious anger issues, causing him to violently lash out at virtually everyone on a semi-regular basis.
  • Blaze from The Legend of Spyro a New Dawn enters this when the curse preventing him from helping his daughter fight the Warden is broken. He shoots the Warden a Death Glare, plows straight through everything between him and his target (including the cage he was in and a mob of Gargoyles), and sends the Warden flying clear across the room twice in a row. He then leads the former slaves and his daughter in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the Warden, ending it by blasting the Warden through a wall. Do not mess with Blaze's daughter!
  • A Hero gives us Dalek Sec, who's like this. All the time. Considering the general disposition of his species, this is actually an improvement.
  • Sleepwalker will explode into this trope when confronted with his Arch Enemy Cobweb, who trapped him on Earth, or his Evil Counterpart Psyko, who murdered the parents of his Heroic Host Rick Sheridan. Sleepwalker's anger typically pushes him beyond his normal limits when dealing with Psyko, although even then the result is a bloodbath from which Sleepwalker typically emerges more dead than alive. An unusual twist on this trope is that Cobweb has also played on Sleepwalker's anger to manipulate him into losing focus and making bad decisions that would get him killed...at least until Rick serves as a Spanner in the Works and sets Sleepy straight.
  • Pterosaurs are not Dinosaurs. Adam Squall is a pterosaur. He flies into one of these whenever somebody calls him one.
  • In Ace Combat: The Equestrian War, when Night Raven tells Fluttershy he fights and kills the ponies not because he hates them, but because he sees it as "fun", she becomes furious.


Film

  • The Blind Side: Michael, normally a Gentle Giant, gets his Berserk Button hit and hulks out when a drug dealer makes sexual comments about Leigh Anne and Collins.
  • In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Big Chris, for all his ruthless coercion and threatening demeanor, is rather a reasonable chap . . . until a man takes his son prisoner. He goes full Papa Wolf on the man, smashing his head repeatedly in a car door while roaring incoherently.
  • Star Wars:
    • Luke Skywalker spends most of the original trilogy actively not giving into anger, because that leads to The Dark Side, but when Darth Vader makes the mistake of attempting to threaten to do something terrible to Leia, he immediately goes berserk, interrupts Vader's sentence, and beats Vader on sheer, Force-augmenting aggression (despite being a full foot shorter and with the corresponding reach disadvantage), only stopping after he chops off Vader's mechanical hand and realizes just how close he just came to becoming like him.
    • It runs in the family: when Anakin completely destroys a village of Sand People after they killed his mother.

"Not just the men, but the women and the children too."

    • The final Luke-Vader duel would be the Ur Example of sometimes-Force-enhanced psychological warfare gone wrong. Although, sometimes spurring someone into this (particularly with repressed anger) was actually the intended effect; Palpatine had actually been attempting this on Luke right before and after the duel... but his obviousness of intent probably helped Luke pull himself back from the brink.
    • Obi-Wan Kenobi after Darth Maul mortally wounds Qui-Gon Jinn.
  • Subversion: In Mystery Men, Ben Stiller's character Mr. Furious was a superhero seemingly built around Unstoppable Rage - except that when he raged, he wasn't much less stoppable than a "normal" adrenaline-fueled angry person. He didn't become substantially stronger, tougher or faster, which wasn't very useful. During the final battle, however, his rage apparently gave him enough momentum to overcome the Big Bad. In fact, it is implied that his "rage" had really been an act until that point.
  • Lancelot in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • Oddly enough, in both Goodfellas and Casino, Joe Pesci seems to have a dangerously psychotic Unstoppable Rage that goes off from something as simple as a misunderstood compliment.
    • Actually averted in Pesci's famous "You think I'm funny?" scene from Goodfellas. He's just screwing around with Henry Hill. What he does to Billy Bats and Spider, on the other hand...
  • Equilibrium's John Preston goes into a Tranquil Fury version of this after DuPont spends a moment to gloat about how Preston played right into his hands. No one survives the resultant Gun Kata asskicking spree.
  • In Serenity, River Tam is rendered catatonic and helpless by the madness of the Reavers pushing in on her mind during the final battle, until her brother gets shot. Ass-kicking results.
    • The name in the Latin American dubbing is Serenity: Unstoppable Rage.
    • Reavers are like this ALL THE TIME.
  • Straw Dogs has this in it.
  • Godzilla destroys cities because he's angry.
  • In Three Hundred, the Captain flies into such a rage when he sees his son Astinos get his head chopped off on the battlefield during a lull in the action. A decent amount of single-handed ass-kicking ensues, until three of his fellow Spartans have to physically restrain him and drag him back to their camp.
    • This is even more Badass when his screams are carried all the way to the Persian camp, and scares them more than the deepest battledrums.
  • The 3rd act of the Jackie Chan film Police Story features a rare look at Jackie's typical happy go lucky character snapping and going to town on everyone that's done him wrong. This includes beating the crap out of people who can't fight worth a damn like a doctor and a lawyer, but they've all been such huge jerks through the whole film that we're cheering him on every step of the way.
  • French & Indian War veteran Benjamin Martin is fueled with unstoppable rage when his second-oldest son is shot point blank by the evil British Cavalry officer Col. Tavington in The Patriot. With minimal help from his two pint-sized sons, Ben brutally takes down a contingent of British Redcoats, not satisfied with making them dead but burning through all of that rage by hacking at one soldier's bloody corpse.
  • In the film adaptation of Legends of the Fall, Brad Pitt's character Tristan Ludlow goes on an Unstoppable Rage-fueled Roaring Rampage of Revenge after he watches his younger brother die on a WWI battlefield from machine gun fire and mustard gas. He not only slaughters every German in the vicinity but arrives back at field camp the next morning wearing warpaint of mud and blood and strings of fresh German scalps.
  • In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Optimus Prime fights Megatron, Starscream and Grindor by himself and is eventually overpowered and blasted halfway across a forest area. After Megatron tries to justify his means for wanting to kill Sam, Optimus denies his reasoning, charges right into the midst of them, slices off Grindor's arm, beats down Megatron, slices off Starscream's arm (and whacks him across the face with it) then leaps onto Grindor and tears his face in two, killing him. Crowning Moment of Awesome.

"You'll never stop at one! I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON!"

    • In DOTM, Optimus might as well be fueled by Unstoppable Rage.

"We will kill them all"

  • Spider-Man flies into a fit of rage anytime his loved ones are threatened or harmed, usually resulting in beatdown for the villains.
    • In the first film Green Goblin taunts that after finishing him in their fight, he will kill Mary Jane, whilst making her death 'nice and slow', Spider-Man quickly recovers and beats the crap out of him.
      • After kidnapping Mary Jane in the second film, Dr. Octopus rather smugly refuses to give up her location and Spidey attacks him in retaliation.
        • This happens several times in Spider-Man 3, once where he confronts and almost kills the Sandman for killing his uncle, the next where he thrashes Harry Osborn in his own home for ruining his life with Mary Jane, the next where Harry takes a blow (two spikes attached to his board) from Venom meant for Peter and is killed because of it.
  • Ralphie, in A Christmas Story. After getting a C+ on his "What I Want For Christmas" essay, and feeling really despondent, neighborhood bully Scot Farkus pelts him in the face with a snowball. After verbally taunting Ralphie, Ralphie snaps and beats the everloving crap out of him, while other neighborhood kids look on, reducing Farkus to a sobbing, miserable wreck.
  • District 9: Wikus in the final battle.
  • Kham in Tom Yum Goong (aka The Protector). After discovering that his elephant had been butchered and the bones set with gold and jewels, he goes into serious Heroic BSOD mode. He doesn't notice the horde of thugs beating on him until one makes the mistake of stabbing him in the side. This snaps him out of his grief and turns his BSOD into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • The titular character from The Iron Giant when he's threatened.
    • Explicitly stated to be part of his programming, that has absolutely nothing to do with rage and he has no conscious control over it initially. To be clear, he resists with his little friend's help and runs away, but when the attacks persist and his friend appears to be dead, the giant emotes some very clear rage and engages his attack-response programming
  • The Fugitive: Richard Kimble displays this upon finally encountering the man who murdered his wife, and upon confronting his so-called friend who set the murder plot in motion.
  • When a Psi-Cop attempts to shut down Juri Arisugawa's mind in a late installment of The Symphony of the Sword from Undocumented Features, the cool, elegant fencer instead explodes into unstoppable berserk frenzy that the Psi-Cop cannot even begin to control.


Literature

  • Older Than Feudalism. After Patroclus' death in The Iliad, Achilles cuts a bloody path through the Trojan forces and doesn't stop for a couple more books. It's implied he was able to do this before, but now he's really mad. Actually, the whole epic is dedicated to 'menin', wrath. The opening line and invocation is:

"Sing goddess, of the wrath of Peleus' son, Achilles, that destructive wrath which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans, and sent forth to Hades many valiant souls of heroes..."

  • Honor Harrington goes on several during the course of the novels, usually when someone she cares about is set upon by goons. Additionally, the entire Grayson Navy goes on one when Haven attacks Basilisk station again, as they believe that their most beloved Steadholder has been murdered by the Peeps. "Admiral Yanakov to all Grayson units," it said, and White Haven could almost hear the clangor of clashing swords in its depths. "The order is--Lady Harrington, and no mercy!"[1]
    • In Mission of Honor this is what Mike Henke has Baroness Medusa and her staff do to Admiral Crandall.
  • Commander Vimes in the Discworld novels has occasional moments of unstoppable rage, most notable when fighting the dwarfs in Thud, where "the Beast" that takes over at such moments is augumented by an evil psychic force. Being Samuel Vimes of the Night Watch, his sheer inner stubbornness to be a good guy and not let chaos and lawlessness win has created an inner Watchman in his psyche, to keep the Beast in check.

"You misunderstand me. I am not here to keep the darkness out. I am here to keep it in." Yeah. He fought unstoppable rage--not 'someone under rage', the rage itself as it tried to use him--and stopped it.

  • The rogue drow fighter/ranger Drizzt do'Urden from Salvatore's Forgotten Realms D&D novels is prone to falling into berserk rages when his self-defense reflex is triggered. Drizzt dubbed this mental state "the Hunter", as he becomes a merciless and calculating killing machine and virtually unstoppable.
  • In Wizard's First Rule, the first book of the Sword of Truth series, when Kahlan is told Richard has died, which he hasn't, she goes into a "blood rage", killing the men who had her held down against the ground and ready to be raped without breaking a sweat.
  • The badgers in the Redwall series are prone to a "bloodwrath," in which they become unstoppable berserkers who are blind to all but their target.
    • Occasionally other creatures will go into a similar state as well, particularly Redwall Warriors if their loved ones are threatened.
    • The Major from High Rhulain. Especially during his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Daine, of The Immortals: "I thought you were dead. I lost my temper." By way of an explanation for having leveled the entire Imperial Palace with zombie dinosaur skeletons in book three.
    • Most of Tamora Pierce's protagonists get at least one of these moments.
  • Both Sam and Hailey in Only Revolutions.
  • The entire Hradani race of the Bahzell series. The race was originally more Elf like, being taller and having fox like characteristics along with a longer life than humans (at a cost at not being able to use magic as direct as humans). Then Wizards start experimenting with the Rage a few had. During the last war they were converted into an evil force of berserkers. Until the few with natural unstoppable rage were able to rebel. It's to the point that if you give yourself to the rage you're immune to nearly all magic. The main character nearly kills the only good wizard left on the planet when he hears the word "wizard," triggering his rage.
    • Hradani didn't start with the Rage - it was forced into their species by dark wizards serving the evil pantheon of that world. Even twelve hundred years later, you wouldn't want to face one of them - Hradani come in two sizes: large and ginormous. Bahzel falls in the ginormous category himself - he's nearly eight feet tall, weighs nearly four hundred fifty pounds, and he moves like a cat. And that's when he isn't using the Rage.
  • Deepgate Codex: Carnival is dangerous enough at the best of times, but when she gets sick of something she goes into god mode, at which point not even the laws of physics can stop her single-handedly slaughtering half an army using a regular everyday handheld gardening fork.
  • Harry Dresden tends to cause a lot of property damage when he's pissed off, and has, at various points: killed an enormously more powerful wizard, Justin DuMorne; redirected a lightning bolt at a demon that was chasing him; thrown a werewolf all the way through two buildings; burned down a building containing hundreds of vampires because they grabbed his girlfriend; brought out all the ghosts under said building at once, collapsing it; killed several incredibly powerful demon-possessed psychos; shredded a mob of vampires with an antipersonnel mine; blasted a huge torrent of fire straight into the middle of the Winter Court of the Sidhe... Well, you get the idea.
    • And all that pales in comparison to "Blackstaff" McCoy, who in a fit of rage over a threat to someone he cares about yanks a old Soviet satellite out of orbit and drops it on a vampire nobleman's estate just to make a point. Or later, when defending his family and friends simply rips the life out of dozens of people. No fire, no explosions, he just points at them and they die.
  • A particularly extreme example of this is Icarium from Steven Erickson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. Icarium, normally a gentle and creative fellow verging on pacifism, has a tendency to go into a berserker mode that's downright genocidal when provoked, usually followed by an inability to remember what just happened. In milder cases, this means he wakes up confused among the gutted bodies of whatever ferocious pack of creatures just attacked him. In a few more extreme cases, he woke up among the shattered ruins and dead citizens of entire civilizations, completely unaware of what had just transpired.
  • Erik in The Phantom of the Opera is prone to these, especially when you hit his Berserk Button and ask him to remove his mask.
  • In The Pendragon Adventure, Saint Dane has a habit of confronting Bobby in order to smack him around for the hell of it. For the most part, though, he's just egging Bobby on as part of his Mind Screw technique. This changes in Rivers of Zadaa when Bobby - in the midst of being smacked around - stands up to Saint Dane and claims that the villain is getting desperate because he is losing the overall war. Saint Dane utterly snaps and proceeds to beat the living shit out of Bobby, to the point where Bobby spends a month in a hospital before he can walk again.
  • Each of the villains in the Keys to the Kingdom series represents a deadly sin, with Sir Thursday representing wrath. He beats his subordinates for minor failures and deeply enjoys battle. At one point he kills children who have been enchanted into motionlessness just because they are not obeying his orders. They're not "following orders" BECAUSE THEY CAN'T MOVE. Thursday doesn't care.
    • The part of the Will he guards, which symbolizes Justice, has anger issues as well, spitting in the face of someone during a parley.
  • Darkest Powers: Although Derek keeps his cool when he's the one in danger of being seriously hurt, possibly tortured, or killed, the same does not hold true when other people are at risk. Being a werewolf, Derek's rational mind will shut down and give way to pure "protect my pack" instinct when the tiny number of people he actually cares about are in danger. At least one person is already spending the rest of his life regretting having threatened Derek's brother.
  • Mrs. Weasley shows a bit of this in Harry Potter with her famous line "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!" followed by the death of a certain loyal female Death Eater. That proves never to mess with one of Mrs. Weasley's children. (This includes Harry, who earlier in the series she outright declared was her own son in all but blood.)
  • In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "The Phoenix on the Sword", an Evil Eye attack by a sorcerously-summoned demon arouses this in Conan.

But the horror that paralyzed and destroyed Ascalante roused in the Cimmerian a frenzied fury akin to madness.

  • Touchstone in the Old Kingdom series, in the first book, Sabriel is shot with an arrow and he runs very, very fast. Later a Noodle Incident is mentioned in which a fake ambassador (in this case a 2 metres tall barbarian) tries to kill Sabriel with a toasting fork. Touchstone grabs him and throws him down the table while roaring with rage. He then tries to throw the throne after him. Counts as a CMOA for Sabriel, who just sits there calming him down while everyone else is having a WTF moment, until he stops trying to pick up and throw the throne.
  • In the Lonely Werewolf Girl books, Kalix's unstoppable rage when she goes wolf has been the downfall of more than one werewolf hunter.
  • This trope is an inherited characteristic of the Viking-descended Barnikel lineage in Edward Rutherfurd's multi-generation historical novels. Do not anger a member of this family, whether it's by threatening to expose their role in La Résistance or abusing a puppy in front of a fifteen-year-old Barnikel boy.
  • Visser Three in Animorphs had one of these several times a book practically. <You have failed me!!!> *body parts begin flying off*


Live Action TV

  • The show The Incredible Hulk is all about the Unstoppable Rage, and provides the page quote above.

David Banner: "Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

    • 'Nuff said.
  • In Heroes, Niki Sanders's alter ego "Jessica", who has super-strength, mostly appears whenever somebody else threatens her son or otherwise angers her.
  • In The A-Team episode "Without Reservations", Face is shot during a hostage situation in a restaurant. Murdock spends most of the episode in a state of Tranquil Fury, until right near the end, when he finally gets his hands on the guy who shot Face, starts pounding him relentlessly, and actually has to be restrained before he finally stops. It's really not a good idea to hurt someone Murdock cares about.
  • In the Doctor Who episode "The Runaway Bride", after seeing the Doctor bring down the wrath of a Time Lord on his enemies, Donna points out just how creepy Unstoppable Rage is, especially coming from the hero, and questions whether we should be rooting for it.

Donna: That place was flooding and burning and they were dying and you stood there like...I don't know, a stranger.

    • As seen in "Turn Left," he would've died there had Donna not been there to stop him from going too far.
    • Do NOT threaten his companions. Seriously.
      • Case in point: After a companion is kidnapped in series 6, the 11th Doctor blows up an entire legion of Cyberships just for some information (and to prove a point) and forms an army storm the guilty party's base. This quickly backfires in a spectacular fashion, but still.
    • In the episode Dalek it took an entire team of security officers to drag the Ninth Doctor away from the "last" Dalek when he was trying to kill it. It really skirts the boundaries between unstoppable rage and Tranquil Fury, but he shows to much emotion for it to count.
  • Jack Harkness of Torchwood, while a generally calm man, does go into a rage whenever his team is threatened and, due to his immortality, he's hard to stop.
  • Although usually the epitome of The Stoic, really piss Teal'c off, such as what happened in the episode "Talion," and he will stop at nothing until you are dead. It's a Jaffa revenge thing, y'see.
    • This also almost happens in an earlier episode when he finds out that his wife remarried.
  • Miss Piggy of The Muppets, especially in The Muppet Movie. Step away from the frog if you know what's good for you.
  • Jeff of Community at two points in particular: in "Cooperative Calligraphy" when he starts tearing apart the room looking for Annie's pen, and once in Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking, after Pierce impersonates his father.
  • Data gets a brief one of these in the first part of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Descent", resulting in him killing a couple of Borg with his bare hands. This was also, technically, his first ever experience of emotional rage.
  • Common on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, usually as a result of a loved one being harmed.
    • When Glory drives Willow's girlfriend insane, Willow attacks her with black magic, actually managing to hurt her despite Glory being a hellgod. This foreshadows her Dark Willow phase - when Warren kills Tara, Willow flays him alive, goes after his partners, fights her own friends when they try to stop her, and nearly destroys the world.
    • Giles goes after Angelus after the latter murdered Jenny Calendar. With a flaming baseball bat.
    • Seen several times with Buffy herself; during her first fight with Angelus, he initially has the upper hand before he goes overboard with his taunts, after which she beats him up and backs him into a corner, but stops just short of killing him, instead settling for kicking him in the groin and walking away.
  • On the Angel end, we have Angel's near-killing of Wesley after the kidnapping of Connor. Gunn, Fred and several orderlies could barely haul him off of Wes.

Angel: YOU THINK I'D FORGIVE YOU? NEVER! YOU TOOK MY SON! I'LL KILL YOU! YOU'RE A DEAD MAN, PRYCE! YOU'RE DEAD! YOU HEAR ME?! DEAD!! DEAD!!

  • Never ever make Admiral William Adama angry, because not only will you get the most terrifying Death Glares on TV but he'll make sure you are dead within three episodes. For instance, when he suffers a mutiny, he flies into a Foe-Tossing Charge to the CIC, and the mutiny leader surrenders before he gets there...
  • In season one of Twenty Four The Mole Nina Myers tells Jack Bauer that the Drazens have murdered his daughter Kim. This proves to be the single biggest mistake that the bad guys ever made that season, as Jack then proceeds to storm their compound in a truck and go to town on everyone with both guns blazing.
  • In the iCarly episode "iMake Sam Girlier", Sam snaps out of her attempts to become more feminine and launches right into a bout of screaming rage after the new bully in town pushes her best friend Carly to the floor.
  • Crops up in Professional Wrestling at times; it's typically called 'Hulking Up'. The bigger you are, the more you can get away with here.
    • Hulk Hogan built a whole career on this trope, getting beaten badly in the early minutes of his fights only to become unstoppable and nearly invulnerable to his opponent's attacks once he hulked out.
  • Parodied in The Avengers. Normally unflappable spy Steed gets thrown around by a bigger, better fighter. His eventual victory takes place off screen, with Steed's boss Mother narrating the villain's fatal error: He made Steed angry.
  • Mork from Ork, at least twice. Once when Klansmen deface Mindy's home when they find out she's Polish (he returns the favor to their lodge), and again when a robber hits and bullies Mearth in a bar. Also counts as Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass.
  • Similar to the example in Sword of Truth, the show Legend of the Seeker takes it one step further by having Kahlan's eyes go blood-red, scream loudly, and gain the abity to confess multiple people remotely (which, apparently, also allows her to confess a Mord'Sith without killing her). The first time it happens when Darken Rahl taunts her by saying that he will use her powers to confess Richard. She actually expels the needles stuck in her with such force that they stick into Rahl's wizard's neck, leaving Zedd the last wizard of the First Order. The second time happens when she finds out that Cara killed her sister, forcing Richard to hold her down, as Cara escapes. The last time (due to cancellation) happens in the finale, when a Sister of the Dark manages to confess Kahlan. When the heroes, with assistance from Mord'Sith, try to kill the Sister, Kahlan again flies into the Con'Dar state, confesses the Mord'Sith and has them kill each other. She then tries to confess Richard but fails, so she stabs him instead.
  • The title character from Kamen Rider Kuuga is normally a pretty nice guy that wants nothing more than to protect people's smiles. That said, do not piss him off. When a sadistic Grongi by the name of Go-Jaraji-Da pushed him too far in episode 35, the result was a brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that ended with Godai finishing him off with a rage-fueled Rising Calamity Titan attack.
  • This is at the core of Kamen Rider Agito's Burning Form. The angrier Agito gets, the more powerful it becomes. However, somewhat subverted as it's not as strong as its evolution, Shineing Form, which doesn't require rage.
  • In the Criminal Minds episode "100" Aaron Hotchner gets into a fight with George Foyet a spree killer who is obsessed with him after he has kidnapped and murdered his wife, Foyet has gained the upper hand in the fight and tells him that once he kills him he's going after his young son who is hiding somewhere in the house, upon hearing this Hotchner suddenly regains his strength and beats him to death in a fit of rage, after his colleagues arrive they manage to restrain him assuring him that he's already dead.
  • Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo from Rome. They are deadly enough when they are just doing their job as Roman soldiers, but insult their legion or threaten/harm their loved ones? Yeah, been nice knowing ya, No matter how many henchmen you have to back you up.
  • CSI: Catherine Willows was a good example of this in "Lady Heather's Box". Eddie's girlfriend started griping about wanting to save Eddie more than Lindsey, and it was all the team could do to hold Cath back.
  • Stargate Atlantis has this scene:

Sheppard: "Ronon has some things he wants to take care of first."
McKay: "Are you insane? There's at least twenty-five Wraith down there!"
Beckett: "...twenty-three."
Teyla: "Also, Ronon appears to be quite angry."

  • five minutes later, all the Wraith are dead, mostly at Ronon's hands*
  • Tommy Oliver flies into this once in Power Rangers Dino Thunder. Zeltrax taunts him with his students' impending deaths at the hands of the episode's extra-strong giant monster. Tommy responds by beating Zeltrax within an inch of his life and then killing the monster with the Brachio Staff's newly-activated powers. Without growing or anything.
  • Babylon 5: Some idiot makes the mistake of throwing a knife at John Sheridan, who is saved because Delenn throws herself in front of it instead. Sheridan's response is to attempt to kill the being responsible with his bare hands, and he would have succeeded if Security hadn't intervened.


Myth And Legend

  • Older Than Dirt: Sekhmet, an Egyptian goddess of war, pestilence, and healing, went on a bender when some mortals dared suggest that her father, the sun god Re, was getting a little old. She had no intention of stopping and nearly exterminated humanity. Finally Re himself stopped her, and then only by making a literal sea of beer mixed with pomegranate juice. Sekhmet, mistaking it for blood, drank herself stupid, and thus the world was saved by alcohol.
  • Cuchulainn from Irish mythology has a prime example of the "monster within" kind of unstoppable rage. In the epic, Táin Bó Cúailnge, he enters a "ríastrad" or "Warp Spasm". In this state he transforms into a horribly mutilated monster who doesn't know friend from foe. At one time, they broke him out of his rage by dunking him into three separate water barrels. The first one exploded, the other began boiling, and the last one finally cooled him down.
    • This would later be co-opted into 2000 AD's Slaine, where they got really creative.
  • In Classical Mythology, Hercules killed his wife and children in a rage induced by Hera. Less supernaturally, as a kid Hercules killed his music teacher with a lyre.
  • The normally gentle Hindu Mythology goddesss Uma can transform into death dealing, world ending Kali. She does this to kill the demon Raktabija, after all the gods cut into the demon, only to find that his blood creates clone of himself once it hits the ground. Kali fixes the situation by inhaling all the blood before it touches the ground as she goes on her killing frenzy. Some legends continue that she would have turned her violence on the gods if Shiva, her husband, didn’t lie amongst the dead in a desperate gambit to get her to stop. This is particularly sobering as Shiva has the ability to unmake all of creation and was pretty sure the only thing that could stop his wife from killing everyone was to gamble on his importance to her.
  • Norse Mythology is the very source of the word 'berserker' (from an Old Norse word meaning "bear shirt"), and was full of them, most famously Thor.
  • According to Japanese Mythology, the storm god Susano-o flew into a drunken rage and did everything possible to mess up his sister Amaterasu's life. He defiled all her shrines, killed her handmaidens, and threw shit in her temples. The gods were unable to stop his overwhelming douchedness.


Tabletop Games

  • If the Black Templars from Warhammer 40,000 see a comrade die, they will charge at whoever or whatever killed him, in an attempt to avenge the dead. Add this to the fact that they cannot feel fear, and this means that Black Templars can get into very stupid situations. Lone man charging the physical manifestation of all disease, anybody?
    • Another WH 40K example is the Blood Angels group of Space Marines, who are occasionally affected by the Red Thirst or Blood-Rage, a berserker rage which grants them a whole heap of Heroic Resolve at the cost of any sense of self-preservation. This can go even further - on the eve of battle, a Blood Angel can succumb to the Black Rage, in which he relives the genetic memory of the chapter's Primarch (super-powered leader and genetic template) dying in a duel with the leader of the forces of Chaos. These individuals are quietly taken away, and used as berserker suicide squads. In gameplay terms, a random number of your soldiers, potentially including your souped-up general, are taken away and replaced with a squad of uncontrollable marines who rush into hand-to-hand combat with the most powerful enemy available. Your normal squads can periodically fall into the same rage, abandoning any fortifications they were manning to rush into close combat. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you are playing offensively, as it means your army can potentially cross the table in a few turns.
    • Most obviously, Chaos Berzerkers of the Chaos God Khorne. Their quintessential crazy special character, Kharn the Betrayer, always hits in melee; if he rolls a miss, he's hit his own side. Frequently portrayed in the fiction as slaughtering his own men when he runs out of enemies.
    • One of the special abilities of the Tau Ethereal leader Aun Va is that he is so beloved by his troops that if he dies, he triggers an Unstoppable Rage in all Tau troops in line of sight - except in this case, the Unstoppable Rage is with plasma guns.
  • The World of Darkness gamelines feature this trope, mainly with the vampire and werewolf games in both systems.
    • When a vampire character in White Wolf's Vampire: The Requiem or Vampire: The Masquerade enters a Frenzy and lets the Beast within take control, he or she can tear lesser foes to shreds and overwhelm another vampire, as they are able to ignore all wound penalties. A more powerful (and usually elder) vampire can still take a frenzied vampire down, especially if he goes into frenzy himself. Vampires interested in maintaining the Masquerade frown on those who frenzy, while those who aren't tend to embrace it.
    • Werewolves from Werewolf: The Forsaken and Werewolf: The Apocalypse have the Frenzy ability as well, and alternately embrace it and fight it (noted that vampires, in game terms, roll to resist going berserk; werewolves roll to both resist and trigger it). They tend to have an even easier time than vampires, since frenzy is always accompanied by turning into a 9 foot-tall lupine death machine... that paradoxically makes their Masquerade easier to maintain due to something called the Delerium. Still, Forsaken calls it "Death Rage" for a good reason.

In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, going too deep into Frenzy causes the werewolf to enter "Thrall of the Wyrm" in which they go absolutely bonkers. This results in either shredding everything in sight, eating everybody in sight, or violent necrophilia, and always a ton of shame when the perpetrator regains their wits. There are also a few Gifts, such as the wereleopard Gift Shiva's Might, that lets the character deliberately enter a (normal) Frenzy.

    • Both gamelines' vampires, and Forsaken's werewolves, can instead enter Unstoppable Terror -- or "Rötschreck," as it's known for vampires -- with the victim fleeing in blind panic from the trigger, tossing aside or shredding anything that stands in the way of doing so. In New World of Darkness it's treated as another facet of the Unstoppable Rage, while Vampire: The Masquerade treats it as an unrelated phenomenon also originating with the vampire's Beast. Werewolf: The Apocalypse has human witnesses freak out any time they see a werewolf or other shapeshifter in their hybrid form.
    • Prometheans also have their own state of emotional disarray, known as Torment. How rage-filled Torment really is depends on the element of the Promethean's humor, but each one has some elements of Unstoppable Rage. Frankensteins (fire) and Tammuz (earth) have the more traditional "Hulk Smash!" rages, Galateids (air) tend to go all Fatal Attraction when it comes to obsessing with others, Osrians (water) go cold and emotionless, and Ulgans (spirit) lock onto whatever spirit is closest and copy its traits. And then you've got the rare nuclear Prometheans, the Zeka, whose Torment tends towards "destroy everything."

And, for added fun, instead of prompting normal Disquiet in vampires and werewolves, Prometheans instead cause an unsettling feeling in them that makes it increasingly more difficult for the other supernatural to resist Frenzy or Death Rage the longer they stay together.

  • In Dungeons & Dragons, a base class, the Barbarian, is built around this idea. Rage is the Barbarian's primary special ability, allowing them a marked increase in their physical prowess and mental fortitude in exchange for a slight decrease in their willingness to dodge blows and think straight. The ability becomes more potent as the character's level rises. Unlike most fictional versions of this trope, Barbarians may invoke and end their Rage at will (but are limited to one rage per encounter), not in response to any specific trigger.
    • Third Edition also has an "on steroids"—or perhaps, "on 'roid rage"—prestige class version of the barbarian: the Frenzied Berserker. The main difference is that there are few defensive benefits to a frenzy (but see below) as opposed to a rage, that its bonuses and penalties can stack with a rage, that frenzy will continue until its time limit expires or the character forces himself out (rage can be ended at will, but you need to make a Will save to end a frenzy) -- and if he runs out of enemies the character will attack anyone in the vicinity, including allies—and finally that it can be triggered by damage as well as entered at will. Finally, he can also inspire frenzy in his allies, which if you consider that most frenzied berserkers probably hang around a lot of barbarians and fighters as opposed to wizards and rogues is a very scary thought.
      • This is a very good example of the trope, as a properly built Frenzied Berserker is one of the most powerful physical combatants possible under 3rd and 3.5 edition rules—without even going into epic level, a half-orc Frenzied Berseker could have a Strength of 36 while in a raging frenzy. This is enough to match or out-muscle most high-level fiends and celestials, all but the oldest and mightiest dragons, and many lesser deities in terms of raw strength.
      • The berserker's frenzy has a tropetastic defensive benefit. While Frenzying, HP damage will not kill him until the Frenzy is over. There's also a feat which lets him delay the effect of any attack until the end of the Frenzy. This can lead to some very interesting moments if he's hit with the big bad's Wave Motion Gun during his Frenzy. Also a notable counter for many damage-output Min-Maxing builds. See Glass Cannon. Sadly, this can be stopped suddenly by a 2nd-level spell called "Calm Emotions".
      • What's not mentioned yet, and which elevates them from supremely powerful to Game Breaker, is that they get an improved version of the power attack feat, allowing use of a two handed weapon to deal 4 points of damage for every -1 to hit, and with the use of the Leap Attack feat, which triples power attack damage, it becomes 12 damage for every -1 to hit. Combine this with the fact that using a two hander multiplies your to hit bonus from strength by one half(there are ways to improve that bonus, naturally), and you can kill anything with a lucky shot.
    • And now there's Fourth Edition, which introduces the Barbarian again. The 4E Barbarian is a bit more primal than his 3E counterpart, and his Daily powers, known as Rages, give effects that last for the entire encounter or until he enters a new Rage, give his At Will powers more power, and allow him to dish out Rage Strikes that expend unused Dailies to deal more damage against an enemy.
    • Pathfinder allows barbarians the option of performing any number of superhuman feats, or shaking off any number of incapacitating effects, while raging.
  • Exalted
    • Limit Break in this game is part Heroic BSOD and part Unstoppable Rage. After having their virtues pushed to the breaking point, many Exalted will either A) act towards them with little thought of restraint, or B) act against them with little thought of restraint. This can get messy fast when the Exalt in question values Compassion or Valor. The two Solar Limit Breaks that best exemplify this are Berserk Anger and Red Rage of Compassion. RROC is slightly less psychotic but still tends to cause collateral damage on par with a very cranky airstrike.
    • The Lunars can become the very embodiment of this trope using the aptly-named Endurance Charms. One charm lets you shrug all damage as long as you channel Essence to it, another lets you not drop dead even if you, by all rights, should be. The fluffs say that Lunars using those charms raged for days as the world arrayed to kill them and their Solar mates.
    • Solars also have a Resistance Charm that allows them to do this. Prematurely ending it takes a significant mental toll (it costs a ton of Willpower points and accumulates a lot of Limit) unless they are restrained by a friend or loved one.
  • Righteous Fury mode is the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel RPG version of Unstoppable Rage. A character can spend two Drama Points to go into Righteous Fury mode, but only in response to something very bad and deeply personal happening, like a brutal attack on a loved one, an unexpected and very nasty betrayal, or the raising of a monstrous former lover killed years ago. When in this mode, the character gets a + 5 to all attack actions for the rest of the fight, which is cumulative with Drama Points spent for Heroic Feats. Even a White Hat can kick serious ass when properly motivated like this.
  • Several races in Talislanta have some sort of innate rage ability. However, there's usually a catch: For example, if your Ahazu goes "shan-ya," you're a danger to everyone...and if your Vajra evokes the Dark Fire, you're probably going to need a new character.


Theatre

  • In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo goes into unstoppable rage after Tybalt kills Mercutio ("...Mercutio's soul/is but a little ways above our heads.../either you or I or both must go with him.") Also seen again when he kills Paris ("Tempt not a desperate man"). Romeo's always in some exaggerated emotional state or another.
    • Hamlet is theoretically in unstoppable rage after the last soliloquy of the play ("...from this point forth/my thoughts be bloody or nothing worth"), but, given that this is Hamlet, two scenes later he's cracking jokes with a gravedigger.
    • The Winters Tale is about what happens when an extremely powerful man gives in to paranoia and unstoppable rage and takes it out on his subjects.


Video Games

  • In the Yakuza series, hurt a kid in front of Kazuma Kiryu. Then count how many teeth you have left after he's done beating you within an inch of your life.
  • Assassin's Creed: Revelations Ezio goes berserk when he finds Yusuf's body and launches a full scale assault on Istanbul's arsenal. Only one person is spared.
  • Splinter Cell: Sam Fisher hits this at the end of mission eight of Conviction, where he learns that Lambert was behind faking his daughter's death in Double Agent, at which point, at least for the rest of the mission, Mark and Executes are free, as in no need to CQC enemies to earn them, and the meter is up to a max of six at this point.
  • "Unstoppable Rage" sums up Kratos from the God of War series. Plus, he has an ability named "Rage of the Gods/Titans/Sparta", that makes him more unstoppable.
    • In Ghost of Sparta, Kratos may have topped himself after seeing Thanatos kill his brother. The man truly becomes rage incarnate at that moment.
  • Fairly late in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, the hero's girlfriend is kidnapped by a traitor, and brainwashed into not only attacking him, but also aiming deliberate, emotional attacks at him. The result: His mech becomes nigh-unstoppable for the duration of the battle as he performs a Foe-Tossing Charge towards the traitor.
    • Partially subverted in that Kyosuke never actually shows any real emotion.

Katina: Wow. He can stay calm even through this?
Ryusei: No. I've never seen him this angry before.

  • The Kaiser Dragon from Breath of Fire III and IV. If Ryu transforms into this from without some tweaking (in III it was a specific combo of Dragon Genes, in IV it required you to gather the various breath weapons of dragons), he'll kill his allies.
    • The scene where he unlocks it in IV is particularly noteworthy. After he easily exterminates the army officer who pissed him off to such a degree (by slaughtering a village of innocent civilians and THEN setting an absurdly powerful monster on your team, which Ryu also destroyed), he's STILL angry and ready to kill, quickly turning his sights on another officer (who can only point her gun at him while shaking in terror), getting his only lines in the game by screaming in rage the entire time. The whole scene is decidedly scary, and it takes a Cooldown Hug from Nina to bring him back to normal.
      • As the said Cooldown Hug occurs, Fou-lu is driven to rage when his girlfriend is used to fuel a nuke.
  • Arcueid of Tsukihime most notably loses her cool during another heroine's route, when you turn down her offer to turn you into a vampire and slice her nearly in half. The humiliating, excruciatingly painful, and oh-so-temporarily debilitating injury drives her insane, removing the self-imposed restraints on the majority of her power...
    • In Arcueid's own route, when she gets cut in half by Roa and dies in Shiki's arms, Shiki goes berserk. Roa is several kinds of Deader Than Dead by the time Shiki comes down from it.
    • Actually, nearly all of the routes have a tendency to end with Shiki falling into this mode. In Akiha's route, after SHIKI hurts Akiha, Shiki completely loses it and goes into his killer mode. Later, in the same route, when SHIKI Mind Rapes Akiha, it takes all of Shiki's willpower to not kill SHIKI immediately. He does kill him, but not before SHIKI tells him how to bring Akiha back to normal. Then, in Hisui's route he goes into a similar homicidal rage when SHIKI either badly wounds or, if it's your first playthrough, kills Akiha and slice him in half in a single stroke. Finally, Kohaku's route features an aversion, when Akiha seems to murder Kohaku in cold blood, Shiki loses any semblance of reason and attempts to kill his own sister. In the end, despite all the wrongs Akiha has committed against Shiki during the course of the route, Shiki still finds himself unable to kill her, realizing that, no matter what she's done to him, she's still his irreplaceable sister. In fact, he even cries when he realizes this. Luckily, as it turns out, Akiha was unable to kill Kohaku either, so all's well that ends well.
  • Occasionally occurs as a plot device in the Final Fantasy series, often against the villain. Often enough though, the character dies afterwards. An example is Tellah in FF 4.
    • Edge in Final Fantasy IV as well. It's what unlocks the ability to use his Ninjitsu techniques after Rubicante taunts him about letting his emotions get in the way.

You think our rage... a weakness? Then let me show you how wrong you are!

  • Happens before the plot of Drakengard, so the protagonist is in almost a constant state of Unstoppable Rage throughout the game. His rage abates by the time any of the endings roll around, but hey, most of the people are dead anyway.
    • It doesn't abate for long. Although by the time the sequel comes around, he has a very good reason to be pissed off. You'd probably be mad too if your pact partner was imprisoned and tortured for eighteen years after she voluntarily sacrificed herself to become the new Cosmic Keystone.
  • Many video games have a rage/fury meter that, when full, can allow you to go into Super Mode or grants you the ability to use a Finishing Move or Limit Break.
  • The attack Rage was unstoppable in Pokémon Red and Blue, and Yellow, only stopping if the Pokémon using it is switched for another one or has an attack used on it that prevents attacks. However, starting with Gold, Silver, and Crystal, the attack doesn't have to continuously be used, though doing so increases its attack power when the user is attacked.
    • There's also Hyper and Reverse Modes in Pokémon Colosseum and XD, respectively. Hyper Mode heightens the critical hit probability for Shadow Rush (which doubles both the damage and the recoil), but makes the Pokemon unlikely to use any other attack. Reverse Mode trades the bonus for a heightened probability to obey another attack command, but the Pokemon in it sustains end-of-round damage for as long as it's in Reverse Mode. In neither mode can healing items be used on the Pokemon in question, and the conditions even persist after treatment at a Pokemon Center! The worst part of all: the closer a Shadow Pokemon is to purification, the more likely it will go into these modes.
      • Having your Shadow Pokemon go into Hyper Mode is actually a good thing, since snapping them out of it is a fast way of purifying them.
  • Darkspine Sonic the Hedgehog from Sonic and the Secret Rings. After Shahara is killed, Sonic remains calm for a bit. And then all hell breaks loose when he absorbs the World Rings (The Arabian Nights equivalent of the Chaos Emeralds, only with emotions assigned to them) of anger, hatred, and sadness, getting a demonic voice, and screaming as he lets loose a flurry of punches and kicks before striking the perpetrator of Shahra's death with an energy flare.

He may not be green, but you won't like him when he's angry.

  • Alma. She's dead, and her hate is what keeps her present on this mortal coil. One character in F.E.A.R. 2 even says that her hate is the reason she just "refused" death.
    • At multiple points in Project Origin, Alma attacks and slaughters people without warning in random spats of sheer violent hatred, complete with her distorted voice screaming " I HATE YOU!" over and over again.
  • In Knights of the Old Republic, both the party member Hanharr and the PC (if you choose the Sith Marauder prestige class) can fly into this. While Hanharr has to eat the defense penalties involved with a rage, the PC at endgame is generally more or less immune to ranged fire.
    • It's worth noting that in his Wookie Fury, Hanharr can tear through even Dark Jedi without taking any significant damage.
  • At the end of the Marine campaign in Call of Duty: World at War, if you let Sergeant Roebuck die, Private Polonsky will go mad with rage at the Japanese. Also a cross between Cutscene Power to the Max and an Informed Ability; his emotional state is clear from his spoken lines, but his behavior as a friendly NPC in terms of game mechanics stays the same.
  • In the Halo series, Ultra Elites and Brutes will berserk and rush you with deadly melee attacks if the rest of their squad is wiped out, or if they are pissed off enough(eg from being stuck with a plasma grenade). In Halo 3, Grunts will "kamikaze" with plasma grenades in desperate times.
    • When its "blood brother" is killed, the other Hunter will immediately attack whatever enemy who stands in its way, attacking them like a enraged elephant without using the arm cannon, just its shield swinging it like a bat.
  • In Left 4 Dead, the Tank special infected is the literal embodiment of this trope. The second the Tank sees you, it will not stop attacking you unless all the survivors are dead or incapacitated, it's dead, you get out of sight and don't get hit for upwards of sixty seconds, or you get into the ending safe room. In the case of getting out of sight, the tank dies due to frustration. Oh, and don't try hiding in the beginning safe room. It will bust the door down and beat the everloving crap out of you.
  • Tony Montana in Scarface the World Is Yours has turned his mercurial temperament into a Limit Break the game calls Blind Rage. Starting off from the climactic shootout at his mansion which serves as a junction point for the game's Alternate Universe premise Tony can build machismo and brashness (in increments measured in Balls) until the Charge Meter tops out, at which point he can break out into his trademark burst of obscenity-spewing rampage where not only he can autotarget enemies For Massive Damage with any weapon or even his fists, but every enemy killed during the Blind Rage results in a partial restoration of Tony's health. Tony can increase not only his incremental Ball gains, but also the duration of the Blind Rage throughout the game.
    • The instruction booklet put it best, "Nobody flips the fuck out like Tony Montana".
  • In Baldur's Gate 2, hulking, amiably insane ranger Minsc is desolate over the loss of Dynaheir, the witch he swore to protect. Then, if you allow Aerie to join your party, he forms a similar attachment to her and offers to protect her with his life.
    • He also has a berserker rage option in combat. It can be a problem, because he regularly just wigs out and forgets who's a member of the party and who's not. He does, however, get points for shouting "I will inspire you by CHARGING BLINDLY ON!"
  • Meta Knight had one of these moments during the "Revenge of Meta Knight" Mini game in Kirby Super Star. At the end, during the final escape scene, Meta Knight enters by shouting "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" and than procedes to chase you hurling swords at you at every chance he has.
  • In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Maglir at the end of the Fighter's Guild has one of these.
    • Also, the Daedra Lords should you fail one of their quests, especially if you choose not to return Umbra to Clavicus Vile.
    • In the Shivering Islands, Sheogorath has a few of these, though they are mostly funny.
    • Though you don't see it, Falcar supposedly had one before leaving the Mages Guild in Cheydenhal.
  • Somewhat used for Don Flamenco in the Wii version of Punch-Out!!. When you knock his toupee off his head, he will get so pissed that he will constantly throw punches at you until he goes down, you go down, or if the round ends.
  • You only see Axel do this twice in Kingdom Hearts.

"You really do remember me this time? I'm soooo FLATTERED!" (Cue flames rising, weapons appearing out of nowhere, and a scary guy with red, spiky hair giving you a Slasher Smile) "But you're TOO LATE!"
"You both...think you can do whatever you want...Well, I'm sick of it. Go on, you just keep running. But I'll always be there to BRING YOU BACK!"

    • When its seemed that Goofy died, Sora, Donald, and King Mickey immediately attacked The Heartless horde with much more ferocity. The rages of Donald and the King was clear, such as Mickey saying "They'll pay for this" and then rushed right at the horde with his keyblade at his hand, with Donald and Sora right behind him, and they curb-stomped at least 1000 heartless each.
    • Then there's Terra's. It reanimated his armour just to fight the guy who had possessed him and the musical theme accompanying this battle? Its (very fittingly) called Rage Awakened.
  • Played straight in World of Warcraft, whose Warrior and Druid(bear-form) classes require a constant supply of Rage to fuel their attacks.
    • And with the warrior skill Bladestorm, whose tooltip states you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and cannot be stopped unless killed or disarmed.
      • Likewise with the Hunter talent, Bestial Wrath, which causes the Hunter's pet to do this (Again, without feeling "pity or remorse or fear"). A further talent allows the Hunter himself to share the rage.
    • Even straighter in Runes of Magic, where warrior classes use Rage energy to attack, have a self buff increasing how fast they become enraged, potions also increasing rage, a straight up rage button, and two abilities that are essentially "I'm pissed so I'm going to hit you harder now." buttons.
  • In Watchmen: The End Is Nigh Rorschach has a literal Rage meter that fills the more bad guys you pound and gives you special, extra-brutal attacks.
  • This is what happened to Mother Brain at the end of Super Video Game/Metroid.
  • In the Rome: Total War expansion pack, Barbarian Invasion, some barbarian factions make use of berserker units who possess the special ability to enter an Unstoppable Rage.
    • Panicked war elephants and chariots may also qualify for this.
    • Hopeleslly surrounded units may choose to "fight to the death" rather than flee.
  • While very short, Junpei's Persona evolution in Persona 3 very much qualifies, as he Screams in rage at Takaya killing Chidori, summons Hermes which subsequently evolves into Trismegistus for all to see, and blasts Jin off his feet, showing that he'd quite happily rip them both limb from limb if his friends didn't talk him down. This is even more notable by way of remembering the rules of fighting in the game: Junpei used Agidyne, a fire spell he could not actually possibly have learned at that point, and the sheer power of his burning passion allows it to knock down an enemy previously noted in-battle as being immune to fire.
  • Diablo 2 has the barbarian's "frenzy" attack, causing the character to attack and run faster and faster as they attack enemies.
  • Alex Mercer is in this state for at least a quarter of the game.

"NOTHING CAN PROTECT YOU FROM ME! NOT MEN! NOT WEAPONS! NOT ARMOR!"
"DIG IN! LIKE IT'S GOING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!"

  • Almost every character in BlazBlue has a Berserk Button and they go into rages accordingly:
    • Ragna the Bloodedge: Got his sister kidnapped, his brother brainwashed and his arm torn off. Response? Annihilate the world goverment and slaughter every single individual associated with it. By the way, this guy is supposed to be the hero of the game.
    • Noel Vermillon: Don't ever, EVER mention her lack of "assets". If you're lucky, she'll put you under arrest. If you're less lucky, she'll put those guns of hers to good use and some bullets in your head.
    • Jin Kisaragi: Don't be Noel Vermillon. Just don't. It's a commonly agreed upon fact that it's not a very good idea to be her in his presence. Also, hurt Tsubaki in front of him if you want a cold, slow, painful death.
    • Hakumen: Never EVER so much as scratch Tsubaki in front of him. If you do, he goes from being fueled by justice to complete and utter hatred. Too bad this causes his downfall in his Continuum Shift bad ending.
    • Kokonoe: Terumi is a berserk button by simply existing. He not only knows this, but he constantly provokes her by reminding her of her mother and that he killed her. If he so much as says her name she'll give Tager (or Lambda depending on who's there) a good old fashioned "Kill that son of a bitch!!!" order.
    • Valkenhayn: Don't insult, threaten, or (god forbid) hurt Rachel. Insults irritate him, threats make him hostile, and hurting her will have him in your face in no time flat.
    • Hazama: Normally, he's the one trying to draw this reaction from you. But if you give him the idea you're toying with him, he'll skip to killing you. And if you have any knowledge the containment of which is vital to his plot, well...

Restriction 666 released! Dimensional interference forcefield deployed! *laugh* I'll show you the true power of the Azure! Code: S.O.L.! BlazBlue, activate! Let's go, you little bitch!

  • Silent Hill 3's Heather, who is normally a clean-mouthed and calm person, does this near the end of the game to Claudia Wolf in a fit of pure rage before she begin to birth the goddess.

"SHUT YOUR STINKING MOUTH, BITCH!"

  • Dwarfs in Dwarf Fortress get a double dose. If they get annoyed enough (by bad weather, friends' deaths, swarms of flies, etc.) without enough to make them happy (well-cooked meals, talking with friends, cute pets) they go on "tantrums" where they randomly attack other dwarfs, break furniture, or pull levers until they calm down from the catharsis, and hopefully before they provoke another dwarf into a tantrum. In combat, they can occasionally go into a "martial trance" that significantly boosts all their offensive and defensive combat skills.
    • It goes further. One step up from "tantrum" is "berserk rage", which will make your dwarves really fuck shit up. As in killing other dwarves, breaking workshops, hitting levers and all that until either the millitary or the fortress guard take them down (usually, the take-down is permanent...). The phenomenon known as "martial trance" is more like Tranquil Fury, all things considered. The OTHER kind of rage status in combat, simply called "enraged", is triggered when a dwarf in the squad (or a dog) dies. At least one if not a few dwarves around the recently deceased will do some kind of acrobatic somersault off the handle - but this time, those tiny drunken sociopaths target the enemy. Splattering ensues. One user set the probability for dwarfs to enrage extremely high. Then, he let three dwarfs storm onto two trolls. The speardwarf enraged, ran to them, beheaded one (WITH A SPEAR) and killed the other with a stab through the heart before the other two dwarfs even reached him.
  • In Yuri Genre Visual Novel Akai Ito, this happens to Sakuya at the end of her route. It's usually enough to overpower Nushi especially if you are dying from Nushi's attack.
  • Asura's Wrath. It's all in the title.
    • Asura goes from "pissed off" to "pissed off enough to punch a planet-sized Buddha to death" to "pissed off enough to not care that my arms have shattered" to "pissed off to the point that I'm indiscriminately firing nuclear-scale explosions into space."
    • Late in the game, Asura has become so unthinkingly, unstoppably pissed off that Yasha realizes the only way to calm him down is to kill him. They've killed him three times already and he just keeps coming back faster each time, so this isn't quite as extreme as it sounds.
    • He makes Alex Mercer and Kratos look like yoga instructors in comparison.
    • Of note, however, is that in spite of Asura's wrath being a terrifying and unstoppable force, he is at the same time not a 'mindless force. Even when completely lost within his own sheer, violent, supreme hatred, Asura still refrains from harming innocents and noncombatants. But anything he perceives as an enemy - such as the Gohma or the Seven Deities and their soldiers - are targets.
  • Grolla Seyfarth of Rosenkreuzstilette is generally calm and collected and is every bit as strict with others as she is with herself. But what happens if you hit her Berserk Button in any way? Cue Unstoppable Rage. She'll go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and won't stop until she finally has her revenge.
  • Tryndamere in League of Legends has the ultimate ability Undying Rage, which makes him temporarily impossibly to kill and cannot be prevented from being cast.
    • Olaf played right is this. His ultimate removes crowd-control effects as well as making him immune to crowd-control effects and reduces damage taken for its duration, his passive increases attack speed for the % of health his is missing, and another choice ability to this in one which increases his damage and gives him Life Drain based off damage he does for a duration. Timed right, he will be a unstoppable and furious attacker where attempts to kill him just cause him to do more damage due to him not hitting Critical Existence Failure. Timed wrong, well... it probably won't be worth the try.
    • And then there is Renekton, who at this point feels nothing but rage.
  • In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Starkiller experiences this when Darth Vader shoves his Love Interest Juno Eclipse out a window. It begins with Starkiller going into perpetual Force Fury,[2] attacking Vader with all his might screaming that he will kill him, and ends with Starkiller saturating his foe with lightning for two minutes straight.
  • Ever fight the Fire King in Odin Sphere? He fits this to a tea. What sets him off is not being able to make Gwen love him and the end of the world prediction that his rage actually sends him into playing his role in it to end up being stopped by the world tree. He takes entire kingdoms down in his rage.

Web Comics

  • Complains Of Names from Goblins, a barbarian, after Chief's torture and death at the hands of Kore. Kore ticked off the bull and now he's getting the horns.
  • Red of Ever After. It might just have something to do with the Big Bad mind raping her all the time.
  • Lemmy from Fanboys has one whenever someone calls Nintendo "kiddy" around him. Complete with white Glowing Eyes of Doom.
  • In El Goonish Shive, the Big Bad is invincible... until he makes Grace angry, at which point she proceeds to kick his butt without much trouble at all.
  • Fighter from Eight Bit Theater is highly protective of Black Mage, whom he thinks as his best friend (despite the fact that Black Mage hates Fighter and has tried to kill him since they first met. When Black Mage is killed by Lich, Fighter, after a Please Wake Up moment goes into a screaming rage which he unleashes upon Lich.
    • Also Berserker, a normally cultured and eloquent dwarf who goes into a terrible (and monosyllabic) rage when he takes his monocle off.
  • Roger Pepitone of CRFH is normally a serene and friendly Cloudcuckoolander, but when pushed too far, this is the result.
  • An ever-present and incredibly dangerous trope in the Walkyverse. See, for example Joyce and Amber. Walky is by far the scariest example, though.
  • In Funny Farm, ASCII goes into one when his slot machine "girlfriend" gets shot. He accompanies his rampage by saying leet versions of "delete", "format", and "defragment".
  • In The Order of the Stick, after Xykon shatters his sword, Roy knocks his head off, and throws him into Dorukan's Gate, destroying his physical form. He comes back though.

"YOU! BROKE! MY! SWORD!"

  • In Hookie Dookie Panic, Adda pulls a few of these, the biggest being when she loses a Dance Dance Revolution tournament due to a fight going on, and she proceeds to go into a psychotic rampage and kill those responsible for the fight.
  • Few days ago, in Sam and Fuzzy, Mr. Blank had his moment of Unstoppable Rage against Mr. Black, at least in the beginning. The funny (or creepy) thing is, the audience could already sense the doom months ago.
  • Averted in Sluggy Freelance. Torg appears to go into one of these after Horribus kills Alt-Zoe, but, in a rare moment of rationality, he realizes saving the world is more important than a grudge match, and runs away instead. Oddly enough, this still ends up being Torg's Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Girl Genius has this for its Sparks. When they get in the Mad Mood, they unleash all their most devastating gadgetry and can throw around clanks single-handedly. However, it is said that this is also the reason for most lower level sparks' deaths. They get in a rage without the ability or sense to keep themselves from dying.
    • Tarvek flies into one of these while fighting Zola, beating her tot he point where she tries to surrender - only Tarvek isn't listening to silly notions like that.
  • Dr. Jean Poule in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob can go from adorable Girl Next Door innocence to blind fury without too much trouble. This rarely manifests as physical violence, as the mere force of her yelling is usually enough to produce results (i.e., Bob: "Wow! Thanks, Jean! You're swell at yelling at people!" Jean: "Well, the secret is to enjoy it...") but it has gotten her into fights upon occasion.
  • In Slightly Damned, Buwaro was born with permanent Unstoppable Rage. The only reason he's so happy-go-lucky is because his star pendant keeps the rage in check.
  • Kedamono from The Pride of Life in episode six.
  • Aradia Megido of Homestuck was first introduced as a depressingly Emotionless Girl because she's a ghost, but later on when she gains a new robot body she becomes capable of showing one in particular. Rage.
    • Karkat Vantas walks around in a state of perpetual ire and will verbally tear into anyone with little provocation, so it's kind of a subversion that he doesn't do this.
    • Gamzee Makara's title is the Bard of Rage. From all accounts, it manifests as him being nigh-unstoppable when he gets going - he is said to have dealt the most damage to the Black King with just one strike, and that was when he was high. When he's sober, this trope is more or less his default state. To wit: what he did to Nepeta...
      • Eventually however, Gamzee's rage is stopped by Karkat via a Cooldown Hug.
    • Bec Noir goes into this after Jade dies again, and slaughters most of the Trolls' Dream Selves in their session.
  • In Gold Coin Comics there is something called Berserk Mode, when a character flies into an uncontrollable rage.
  • In Looking for Group, this is practically a defining characteristic of the Bloodrage Tribe. This is why you don't want to be on the receiving end.
  • In Endstone, Kyri deliberately triggers this in Cole, so she won't realize she's exhausting her power.
  • It takes a lot to make Byron from Guilded Age go into berserker rage, but when he does he doesn't take half-measures.


Web Original

  • Happens occasionally in Survival of the Fittest, especially when a nice guy is pushed too far.
    • Such as Adam Dodd going ballistic on Cody Jenson near the end of V1, who he has every reason to want dead.
  • Sailor Nothing: although Himei usually just wills her opponents into non-existence, she has been known to tear them apart with her bare hands if put under sufficient emotional stress.
  • While it is debatable whether Nist Akath of Dwarf Fortress falls under this or Video Games, the scene where Ironblood is betrayed by the nobles certainly springs to mind. Ironblood is poisoned by the nobles who are servants of an evil god, stripped naked, and thrown into the arena he himself ordered costructed. Then, to kill him, they release a hydra to kill him. While naked, poisoned, and vomiting, Ironblood kills the Hydra with his bare hands. By crushing its skulls. Then, he climbs out of the arena, and... well...

"As he watched the dwarf crushed his wife's form, he came to a sudden, horrid realization. Ironblood didn't use an axe because he needed it. He used it to be kind. And right now he wasn't being kind."

  • Badfic is so horrendously bad that unstoppable rage is a common reaction for Protectors of the Plot Continuum agents, especially when a favorite canon character is threatened.
  • Parodied in Linkara's review of Wolverine: Adamantium Rage.
  • Caboose tries to intentionally invoke this in himself when he and Sarge are trapped in a bizarre land of eternal war in Red vs. Blue. 'I am Michael J Caboose ... and I HATE BABIES!' Followed by 'Hurk! Blagh!' repeatedly.
  • From The Gamers: 'Barbarian rage! Blood, death, and vengeance!'. Success rate? 1 for 2.
  • When Flint kills Ruby in Bunny Kill 4, Snowball proceeds to flip out in a manner that can only be described as Super Saiyan meets frenzied Mimiga.
    • And in 5, Dust does Snowball one better after killing him under the influence of the Psycho Serum that Smoke had injected into him by completely devastating Smoke's army of mooks, wrecking his helicopter gunship as he tries to get away and then sending the bastard right through its rotor blades.
  • In Fine Structure, a series of otherwise normal humans acquire Flying Brick powers. In each case, for the first 15.8 seconds after getting their new powers, they are stuck in an absolute berserker rage wherein they immediately attempt to obliterate anything and everything around them. Since they also percieve time at an accelerated rate, this gives them long enough to kill millions of people if the local population density is high enough.
  • The whole point of the RAEG TRAIN.
  • The Angry German Kid, which is a staged performance of a kid getting angry after his computer breaks, and then he proceeds to scream and throw his keyboard across the room.
  • Along with his better-known abilities, SCP Foundation-682 is noticeably prone to these. Given that he's unstoppable even outside his rages, this is a bad thing.
  • Among the boards of 4chan, /v/ is (rightly) the butt of many jokes as being rage incarnate...


Western Animation

  • Biker Mice From Mars: The last person who threatened Modo's bike was sucker-punched into Lake Michigan.
  • Parodied in the South Park episode "Conjoined Fetus Lady": After timid English doormat Pip is insulted by the Chinese dodgeball team, he wipes them out with a single throw.
  • Subverted in Avatar: The Last Airbender: Like the G-Gundam example, Aang can gain superpowers through intense anger, but they're imperfect (and really hard to control) that way; he's supposed to trigger the "Avatar State" through meditation and Buddhism-like detachment. What's more, despite the power Unstoppable Rage gives him, he also risks being made Deader Than Dead if he's killed while fighting that way (normally he'd reincarnate). Also, in complete contrast to the result of the first season finale, the climax of the second season finale confirmed that even in this form, he is quite far from unstoppable. It did help that during the first season he was teamed up with the massively P.O.'d spirit of all oceans.
    • However, the final fight of the series has Aang regaining control over the Avatar State after it had finished tossing around a supercharged Ozai like a ragdoll in time to prevent it from killing him.
      • Not just that - he regains the use of the avatar state, and then subsequently achieving control.
    • Azula also does this in the Final Battle.
    • Played straight in Avatar when Avatar Roku assists Aang and tears down a Fire Temple around the treacherous monks within.
  • Happens when Cat from CatDog snaps at a Monster Truck Rally.
  • Heroes and villains alike in Transformers tend to do this a lot, with varying degrees of success. Biggest, oddest example: In one episode of Beast Wars, a cybervirus that was supposed to turn Optimus Primal into a coward instead made him a berserker who smashed up the good guy base when they attempted to hold him back, then stormed the enemy base single-handedly.
  • Brock Samson from The Venture Brothers has a hair-trigger example of an unstoppable rage.
  • Ren Hoek of The Ren and Stimpy Show would fly into a rage whenever Stimpy would do something mildly annoying and often beat him. But if anyone else was involved, being a chihuahua, Ren was so weak that he was more likely to be beaten as a result of these than anything else.
    • Except for one episode, "Man's Best Friend" (which was banned from Nickelodeon in part because of this), in which Ren, bought by George Liquor as a pet/guard/show dog, is pushed to the brink, and proceeds to beat George to a pulp with a boat oar, laughing maniacally as he does it.
    • This happens again in the Adult Party Cartoon episode "Ren Seeks Help", in which, after Mr. Horse insults his sanity one too many times and threatens to kill him, he transforms into an insane wild animal and proceeds to beat the crap out of him and eventually beats him to death with his gun. Nothing could snap him out of it and he's sent off to an insane asylum, not before biting off one of the guards' hands.
  • The Beast in Disney Animated Canon's Beauty and the Beast often calls upon this trope, particularly when Belle is placed in danger.
  • Pumbaa the Warthog in Disney's The Lion King (and the Timon and Pumbaa series) goes into an Unstoppable Rage charge whenever someone calls him a pig.

Pumbaa: They call me... MISTER PIIIIIIIG!!!

  • Donald Duck: In "Cured Duck," he tears apart Daisy's (his girlfriend) house, even ripping out telephone poles because he couldn't open her window (it was locked).
    • In "Sea Scouts," he knocks out a shark with a single punch because it ruined his hat!
    • In "Donald's Double Trouble," he finds out his "double" is kissing Daisy in the Tunnel of Love and nearly destroys the entire ride! And when people or animals truly annoy him as in Donald's Penguin" he's come close to killing them even his own nephews! Although he's always managed to stop himself in time. He manifests this trope to such an extent that he's often depicted with the features of a devil while in this state.
  • Toki Wartooth in Metalocalypse. With accidentally causing the death of his father, he was already pretty unstable. It's when a really annoying fan won't leave him alone at a concert that Toki finally snaps, beating the fan to death with his bare hands.
  • Gi from Captain Planet and the Planeteers nearly kills the gang member who shot her professor before Wheeler talks her down.
  • Kim Possible and Shego go into one when a moodulater chip gets on their necks (a device that controls emotions), that coupled with the device breaking when it was on fury mood, locks them into an irreversable frenzy of rage.
  • Darkwing Duck ends up suffering from one of these when he thinks his daughter ran off on him. First Heroic BSOD, then Berserk Button, then Unstoppable Rage, then Knight Templar, then..um..it gets ugly.
  • In The Powerpuff Girls, Buttercup will go into one of these if someone makes fun of her, threatens her sisters, or calls her cute.
    • The "threaten her sisters" part could be applied to all of them as Blossom opened a can of whoopass on Princess after she knocked out Buttercup and Bubbles. And Bubbles in the movie went Trigger Happy with her lasers on Mojo after he grabbed Blossom and Buttercup and started trying to squeeze them to death.
      • Bubbles does this in "Bubblevicious" to prove to her sisters that she's not a baby, and in the pilot "Meat Fuzzy Lumkins" after Fuzzy's meat gun turns her pigtail into a chicken leg.
  • During the big showdown at the end of An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, Chula the spider takes Miss Kitty hostage. This causes Tiger to flip out, barking ferociously and singlehandedly kicking the asses of all of Cat R. Waul's Mooks before dragging Chula down and tossing him on the mousetrap's arm with the rest of the baddies. Arguably the Crowning Moment of Awesome in the film.
  • In the "Low Tidings" episode of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Captain K'nuckles is revealed to have had a traumatic childhood experience on Low Tidings Day in which a group of mermen stuffed him into a sack for not being a good person (as is tradition for all of the bad people in town). When K'nuckles plays the part of the "quiet boy" in a Low Tidings pageant in an attempt to be a good person, the other cast members have him stuffed into a sack for the same offense. Needless to say, the pageant was doomed from that point forward.

Audience Member: He has the strength of ten quiet boys!

  • Ben 10 Alien Force - The tiger-like alien Appoplexians (whose name comes from the word apoplexy, meaning irrational anger) are a whole race of these. Appoplexians are almost always angry, and have an urge to fight anything that so much breaths or moves. This is demonstrated by Ben's Appoplexian form, Rath, who often references Hulk Hogan signature catch phrases and didn't threaten to to mutilate an alien king with rearrangement of his organs if he started a war.
  • Teen Titans: The ones who you have to worry about are Beast Boy and Raven, who, when pushed over the edge, are capable of wiping the floor with Slade, who Robin could only match in hand to hand combat. Then again, what would you expect from pissing off a half demon or someone who can turn into any animal that has ever existed?
    • Robin will also go into a rage when compared to Slade, the Big Bad.
    • All of the Titans can be pretty nasty when pushed, which is proved in The End Part I, when they go to all ends to protect Raven from Slade. Starfire can gather massive amounts of energy and unleash it in a big blast, Beast Boy apparantly learned to turn into that man-beast thing at will and beat up anything, Robin turned his birdarangs into swords (a feature we see for the first and only time, and Cyborg turns into a walking cannon! He drains the tower's power supply to fire a massive blast at Slade and his army, very nearly succeeding, too. The Titans are not to be fucked with.
  • In the appropriately titled G.I. Joe: Renegades episode "Rage", James McCullen attempts to deliberately invoke this trope by using his mech-suits to stimulate a "fight-or-flight" reaction in the pilots. It ends up working a bit too well in Roadblock's case.
  • In the first Family Guy Christmas special, being told there were no paper towels turned Lois from a calm and collected Stepford Smiler to a bloodthirsty monster bent on stealing Christmas.
  • Stan Smith in American Dad can get into this if you go to far, including hurting his family, which even his boss learned the hard way once.
    • When Stan told Francine that he framed her for murder and caused her to run away to Africa, she was far from angry.

"I PRAYED TO A FREAKIN ELEPHANT!!!"

    • When Hayley was dumped, she flew into one of these. Hayley is a trained CIA Super Soldier, and her rages are to be taken very seriously. Even by Stan.
  • In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Texas", Sandy launches into one after SpongeBob and Patrick taunt the state of Texas repeatedly as part of their Batman Gambit to get Sandy to chase them.
  • Zazoom, the cute little donkey in Hanna-Barbera's "Arabian Knights" (a segment of The Banana Splits) became a tornadic hellion when his tail was pulled.
  • In The Simpsons, Maggie turns the house into a war zone when her pacifier is thrown out. At one point, she's shown chewing on a chair like an animal.
  • Justice League Superman will go easy on any super villain, but when he sets his sights on Darkseid, he will kill him without second thought.


Real Life

  • A schizophrenic will occasionally have a fit of "Hulking out"; they cannot experience pain during this fit, nor will they know what's going on around them. It's actually quite saddening, when you think about it...
    • Some forms of Pervasive Developmental Disorders feature this as well; it's called a "werewolf" state.
  • It can happen with drugs as well (such as Meth "tweaking" and PCP)
    • This has the unfortunate side effect of killing many users. While mostly a myth, police have had to 'put down' an assailant because they couldn't be taken without severe risk to the officers in question or civilians. It's not as common as many sources say, but it does happen. Unstoppable rage does not equal bullet proof.
    • 'Roid rage doesn't happen as often as people believe. But some users experience severe aggression spikes. See the Lifestories: Families in Crisis "A Body to Die For: Aaron Henry" for a direct account.
  • Don't piss off a Narcissist. They can fly into a Narcissistic rage.
  • The Vikings. They are the source for the word "Berserk", see Myth and Legend above.
    • On a lesser note, the Celts.
      • I'll say. The Vikings in their berserker state were so whacked out they could bend the steel of their swords with their bare hands. Granted, the swords weren't the best quality iron, but still.
      • At least that's what the myths say. Myth and history tends to blur after a thousand years. That the vikings had their own brand of reckless and powerful warriors called berserkers is above doubt but exactly what they could do and if they actually consumed fly agaric to induce their unstoppable rage, though. That is less certain.
      • Considering that swords are designed to be flexible, bending one at least a little is a lot more plausible than you might think.
      • Some myths state the berserkers were immune to blade and fire. Though they could still be stopped with blunt objects. Now no one actually believes they were invulnerable, but the odd combination of blade and flame has led some to theorize that the berserkers could not feel pain. Which would make a blunt attack more effective in crushing bone and muscle and thus stopping them than stab wound or a burn might. How did they get that way? psychological problems? drugs? mind over mater? It is not known, but drugs are a common theory.
  • Audie Murphy, then a corporal in World War II, had his best friend shot and killed by a member of a German machine gun crew pretending to surrender to him. Murphy proceeded to flip out, single-handedly killing the entire crew before turning their weapons on their every ally within the area, which included two other machine gun nests and several snipers. What makes this more badass was the fact that Murphy was around five-foot-five, weighed about 110 pounds, and was suffering from malaria at the time.
    • What's more amazing is that he did something like this again, although the second time around was more of the Tranquil Fury variety. In a French battle about six months later, after having sent the remaining 19 of his original unit of 128 men to retreat and take cover, he jumped onto a disabled tank and proceeded to use the .50 cal machine gun to hold off the approaching Germans for an hour during which time he was shot in the leg but kept going. The day before, he had also taken some shrapnel from a mortar that had killed two nearby men in his unit? And that reportedly the tank was on fire at the time he leaped onto it?
    • The number of unbelievable things Audie did during WWII has to be read to be believed. He had balls of adamantium-plated depleted uranium and was as close to actually being Wolverine as anyone in real life could be.
    • And when he starred as himself in To Hell And Back, some events were left out so the movie would be more believable.
  • Adrenaline will make anyone faster, stronger and more likely to ignore pain and such. Such as when you put a person or animal into a life-threatening situation they can't run away from.
  • There is some truth to the phrase 'Strength of a Madman', our muscles have actually hardcoded to not function to full power to avoid damaging the skeleton. Madmen in fits of rage have shattered their own bones by punching that hard.
    • There was one famous case where a mountain climber/hiker was pinned under an enormous slab of rock. His body went into survival mode, where he pushed the slab off of him. He exerted so much pressure that his muscle was torn from the bone in his arm. For reference, the rock this moderately-built hiker pushed off of himself weighed over 700 pounds.
  • Klaus Kinski was an angry, angry man.
  • Marion "The Barbarian" Barber of the Dallas Cowboys and Bob Sanders of the Indianapolis Colts are two NFL players whose style has been described as such. Unfortunately, for the latter this has left to a number of serious, often season-ending injuries.
  • hide, late X Japan guitarist, was allegedly prone to these. One incident, mentioned by Taiji Sawada in his band autobiography, referred to hide going into a drunken rage, and fighting with hotel deskpeople....
  • Male elephants in a state of musth become hyper-aggressive and nearly impossible to control.
    • Ditto for any (unneutered) male ungulate in rut, eg bulls.
    • Boars. They are massive, proportionally strong, hard to kill, have big tusks… and also are easily enraged. Which is the main reason why so many peoples all over the word have developed countless variants of hunting spears with side-tines or cross-bars. Because a raging boar isn't deterred by pain and thus cannot be reliably stopped by poking with sharp sticks: the boar will try to press on and use tusks, even if this requires shish-kebobing himself on a spear.
  • MR. RAGE on any good Image Board will be a perpetual example of this.
  • This is very Truth in Television in any multiplayer game. This goes double for a PvP game, triple for FPS games, and quadruple for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games.
  1. ↑ This inspired a massive Oh Crap on the part of Admiral White Haven, who was sure he was about to witness a massive war crime until he realised that the order was "no mercy" as opposed to "no quarter." (The former means that the victors won't be picking up survivors. The latter means that the victors won't be allowing any.)
  2. ↑ it is only cosmetic
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