History AdaptationalBadass / LiveActionFilms

*** Radagast the Brown from the books was something of a coward and abandoned his mission because he couldn't gather the courage to face the Nazgûl head on. In the first film, he faces off with the Witch-King of Angmar without a hint of fear or hesitation, [[spoiler:only escaping when he comes face to face with Sauron himself.]]

*** Wonder Woman is able to hold her own and even restrain Doomsday with her lasso in the FinalBattle. In the comics Diana (DependingOnTheWriter) usually gets wrecked by the monster and needs Kryptonian help.

*** In the comic books Wonder Woman has two lariats, the lasso of compulsion and the lasso of truth, with two different sets of powers and ''can't'' effectively use them both at the same time unless one of the [[SideKick Wonder Girls]] is there to hold the other. In the film she has the lasso of Hestia, which not only has the powers both lariats have in the comics but can also do somethings neither can do like burn those who try to defy it, swing on lightning bolts and project past events into the minds of those it ensnares.

** The comic book version of Pyro was a LaughingMad pyrokinetic who was hamstrung by his inability to create flames, relying on an unwieldy pair of flame throwers with very prominent fuel lines. Naturally, he was often very easily hamstrung. In the films, he's perfectly rational, albeit a bit temperamental, and he now only relies on a lighter, which in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', he attached to his glove, allowing maximum firepower with minimum inconvenience.

** ''Film/XMen1'': In the comics, Toad was originally conceived as a deformed, sniveling hunchback who served as TheIgor to Magneto. His super power was [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway he could hop... really high]] because of having very low-grade super-strength, concentrated in his legs. However, stuntman Creator/RayPark played him as a wisecracking martial artist with wall-crawling abilities and a tongue that he could use as a whip, thus making him more capable of beating up Storm, Jean and Cyclops simultaneously. Also, Toad can spit slime projectiles unlike the comics. However, considering that Ray Park once played as [[Film/ThePhantomMenace that red-skinned badass Sith]], his badassery has to be expected.
** Kitty Pryde one of the relatively weaker X-Men gets a good dose of this in the films. In ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' she defeats The Juggernaut single handedly and in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' she has the power to send Wolverine’s conscious back in time which saves the world and the timeline. Though in the latter case this is due to [[CompositeCharacter combining]] her character and [[AdaptationalSuperpowerChange powers]] with ComicBook/RachelSummers who is AdaptedOut of the story.

** ''Film/XMenDarkPhoenix'': The D’bari in ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'' are a harmless LittleGreenMen-esque race who are [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide decimated]] along with their galaxy by [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Dark Phoenix]]. The SoleSurvivor of their species, Vuk has a human disguise and some PoweredArmor, but besides that is a minor villain. In the movie the D’bari are [[GalacticConqueror world conquering]] [[VoluntaryShapeshifter shape shifting]], [[{{Telepathy}} telepathic]] [[AliensAreBastards evil aliens]] who’s leader a [[GenderFlip Gender Flipped]] Vuk can take on the entire X-Men, overpower Magneto and even holds her own against Jean with her own PsychicPowers. It’s more than likely filmmakers [[CompositeCharacter combined]] the D’bari with the Skrulls who are generally that fearsome in the comics, but whom Fox didn’t have the rights to.

* The ''[[Film/BloodAndChocolate2007 the film adaptation]]'' of ''Literature/BloodAndChocolate'' does this to Aiden. In the book he's not especially athletic or badass, although he does manage to [[spoiler:shoot two werewolves]] (the second time he [[spoiler:hits the wrong werewolf]] and he's freaking out). Here he was raised to be a tough survivalist by his ex-military dad and he's more of an ActionSurvivor, bordering on ActionHero, taking out multiple werewolves with guns, knives or even just a silver pendant and a long drop.

* The ''[[Film/BloodAndChocolate2007 the film adaptation]] of ''Literature/BloodAndChocolate'' does this to Aiden. In the book he's not especially athletic or badass, although he does manage to [[spoiler:shoot two werewolves]] (the second time he [[spoiler:hits the wrong werewolf]] and he's freaking out). Here he was raised to be a tough survivalist by his ex-military dad and he's more of an ActionSurvivor, bordering on ActionHero, taking out multiple werewolves with guns, knives or even just a silver pendant and a long drop.

* The ''Film/BloodAndChocolate2007 the film adaptation]] of ''Literature/BloodAndChocolate'' does this to Aiden. In the book he's not especially athletic or badass, although he does manage to [[spoiler:shoot two werewolves]] (the second time he [[spoiler:hits the wrong werewolf]] and he's freaking out). Here he was raised to be a tough survivalist by his ex-military dad and he's more of an ActionSurvivor, bordering on ActionHero, taking out multiple werewolves with guns, knives or even just a silver pendant and a long drop.

* ''Film/{{Jaws}}'': While the shark in the both the film and the novel is unusually large for a great white, the one in the novel eventually dies from exhaustion and is unable to go underwater with three barrels. [[TheJuggernaut The one]] in the movie [[NoSell shrugs off virtually everything thrown at it]], and despite Quint's insistence that there's no way it can go under with three barrels hooked on it, it proceeds to do just that. It takes blowing up it's face to finally kill it.

** [[spoiler: Ditto is portrayed similarly to its anime counterpart, going from only being able to use Transform and copying the moves of the Pokémon it transforms into to being able to shapeshift into other Pokémon and people at will, largely thanks to Howard Clifford's genetic experiments. It can also assume the role of the aide Ms. Norman to gain intel on others and is surprisingly skilled at melee combat. Just imagine Ditto as [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay the T-1000]] and you've got it.]]

* ''Film/LesMiserables2012'' gives this treatment to InspectorJavert as while Javert was ruthless in [[Literature/{{LesMiserables}} the book]], he was only really a threat to the [[SuperStrength superhuman]] Jean Valjean due to his position and posse of police officers at his command. This is seen in the chapter where [[DelicateAndSickly Fantine]] dies of shock thanks to Javert arresting Valjean at her sickbed, [[BerserkButton enraged]] Valjean easily breaks free of Javert’s grip and with verbal intimation makes the inspector [[PaperTiger retreat]] across the room in fear, allowing Valjean to make a promise to Fantine’s lifeless body before surrendering. In the same scene in the movie Javert duels Valjean [[SwordFight with a sword]], forcing the latter to flee the scene. This doubles for some versions of the [[Theatre/LesMiserables Musical]] where Valjean overpowers Javert during the confrontation like the book, whilst in the movie Javert is easily a match for Valjean.

* ''Film/LesMiserables2012'' gives this treatment to InspectorJavert as while Javert was ruthless in [[Literature/{{LesMiserables}} the book]], he was only really a threat to the [[SuperStrength superhuman]] Jean Valjean due to his position and posse of police officers at his command. This is seen in the chapter where [[IllGirl Fantine]] dies of shock thanks to Javert arresting Valjean at her sickbed, [[BerserkButton enraged]] Valjean easily breaks free of Javert’s grip and with verbal intimation makes the inspector [[PaperTiger retreat]] across the room in fear, allowing Valjean to make a promise to Fantine’s lifeless body before surrendering. In the same scene in the movie Javert duels Valjean [[SwordFight with a sword]], forcing the latter to flee the scene. This doubles for some versions of the [[Theatre/LesMiserables Musical]] where Valjean overpowers Javert during the confrontation like the book, whilst in the movie Javert is easily a match for Valjean.

** Eustace get this upon turning into a dragon in ''Voyage of the Dawn Treader''. In the book version, he is only transformed for a brief peroid before Aslan cures him and due it being a DespairEventHorizon for him, he didn't do anything particuarly cool as a dragon just flying around and lighting a campfire with his dragon's breath. In the film Eustace's time as a dragon is expanded and he helps the ''Dawn Treader'' go faster by pulling it along with his tail while flying and he actually helps out in the FinalBattle as both a dragon and a human (once Aslan changes him back).

** Susan deserves her own special mention. Due to the StayInTheKitchen ValuesDissonance of the books Susan didn't get involved with in any of the battles like Peter and Edmund did and is too "tender hearted" to hurt anyone, she only uses her [[ArcherArchetype bow and arrow]] to fight once in ''Prince Caspian'' to startle a Telmarine who was going to drown Trumpkin by shooting an arrow at his helmet. In contrast to films, ''especially'' the second one where Susan gets involved in the action alongside her brothers and racks up a large Telmarine body count with her own [[ImprobableAimingSkills incredible]] [[MasterArcher archery skills]], including at one point ''throwing one of her arrows'' into mook's torso to kill him. To a lesser extent Lucy gets this in ''Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' as she fights slavers who attack her, Edmund and Caspian in Doorn, unlike the book where she and the others got captured immediately.

*** Harley Quinn, while very dangerous in other media, gets upgraded to UpToEleven CharlesAtlasSuperPower levels that give even Batman a run for his money as well as insane Film/JohnWick GunFu antics. [[spoiler: In the finale she even leaps into Starro’s eye and climbs back out, something that would certainly kill her in the comics PopularityPower or not.]]

** [[Film/ITChapterTwo The sequel]] takes [[UpToEleven it even further]] [[spoiler: as the FinalBattle gives every member of the Losers’s Club a moment of badassery and it's their combined PowerOfFriendship that beats the titular MonsterClown/EldrichAbomination. Whereas in the book (and Mini-series) Mike is hospitalized and unlike the film doesn't have a crucial role in the battle, Eddie gets killed rather needlessly instead of a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome where he wounds Pennywise with a javelin throw and Ben as well as Beverly get sidelined while Bill and Richie are the ones who take IT down; but the film has Ben and Beverly have a PowerOfLove moment to free themselves from IT's traps together. Lastly in the book it's Bill (the Stephen King AuthorAvatar) who deals the killing blow, in the film however ''all'' the remaining Losers reduce Pennywise to a Voldermort-Esque baby through [[IShallTauntYou taunts]] and [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve belief]], and then [[BeatStillMyHeart they crush Its heart]] ''together'' rather than just having Stuttering Bill do all the work]].

** Quicksilver is one of the fastest characters in the Marvel comics universe, but he has limitations on just how fast, and is generally well under the speed of sound. In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', Hank mistakes him for a teleporter, and fans have noted that Peter's SuperSpeed and power set (he's capable of redirecting bullets with ease and shattering glass by vibrating his hands) are closer to Franchise/TheFlash, who explicitly has a speed advantage over Quicksilver in inter-company crossover stories. It's taken UpToEleven in ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' because he rescues ''all'' of Xavier's students from an explosion in only a ''fraction of a second''. Maximoff is one of the most powerful mutants in the whole X-Men film franchise.

** ''Film/GodzillaFinalWars'' sees Godzilla as a OneMayArmy, with only [[spoiler:Monster X/Keiser Ghidorah and an upgrade Gigan giving him real trouble.]]

** Miraz the antagionist of ''Prince Caspian'' gets a great deal of this. In the book he was the usual DirtyCoward monarch who got manipulated by his more competent subordinates and most embarrsingly he knocks himself out during his duel with Peter by tripping over a tussock. In the film Miraz is made to be geuinely threating displaying a calculating cold bloodedness, [[VillainousValour not even showing fear]] when his nephew Caspian holds a sword to his throat and when a goddamn minotaur climbs to his balcony to kill him Miraz just pushes the beast off. He also puts up a better fight againist Peter, almost killing him in their duel.

*** Arwen, while not to same extent as Legolas still gets a big case on this in ''Film/TheFellowshipOfTheRing'' where becomes an ActionGirl. In the book all she really does is meet and fall in love with Aragon [[SatelliteLoveInterest and get married to him]] after the War of the Ring is won, in the film due to Glorfindel getting AdaptedOut ([[WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings again]]) to cut down on the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, Arwen takes his role racing againist the Nazgûl to get the dying Frodo to Rivendell. She's the one who summons the torrent of water to wash the Ringwraiths away in this version. ''Film/TheTwoTowers'' was originally go the extra step further of having Arwen take part in the Battle of Helms Deep too, but Peter Jackson fearing he'd strayed too far from the books, cut her role out of it.

*** Orcs in general receive this. In the books, it's often noted that your average orc is far weaker than a human, as well as significantly smaller. Treebeard's musing implies that the reason Uruk-Hai are superior to the standard variety is that they have taken on manlike characteristics, which is treated as a direct upgrade (and they're still generally smaller and weaker), and Sauron's auxiliary human forces are consistently shown to be his best troops. In the films, though orcs have a massive amount of variety in appearance, the ones in Sauron's army are shown to be at least on par with humans in size and skill, and the Uruk-Hai are downright ''huge''.

*** Merry and Pippin get a good deal of this, they were mostly [[ActionSurvivor Action Survivors]] in the first two books with Pippin being TheLoad. In the films they're much more badass as seen in ''Fellowship of the Ring'' where they not only help kill the Cave Troll by jumping on its back and stabbing it, but they also sacrifice themselves for Frodo leading the Uruk-ha away from him at Weathertop. Although ''Return of King'' fails to show the moment where Pippin killed a Mordor troll by himself.

** Sonya, Jax and Kano get this thanks to AdaptationalSuperpowerChange. In the games Kano and Jax have [[{{Cyborg}} cybernetics]] with former having a metal eye that can shoot a laser and the latter has [[ArtificialLimbs bulky metal arms]]. In Sonya’s case, she has special gauntlets that can shoot [[EnergyRingAttack pink energy rings]] but is otherwise a BadassNormal. In the movie, due to the [[VictorGainsLosersPowers arcana]] subplot, Sonya, Jax and Kano gain actually superpowers with Kano getting an actual EyeBeam, Jax [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext growing high-tec metal arms out of spindly little prosthetics]] and Sonya can shoot the pink ring [[BlastingTime blasts]] from her bare hands.

*** Ratcatcher, on top of being a LegacyCharacter through his daughter, is much more impressive than his/her comic counterpart. In the Batman comics, Ratcatcher is another C-tier gimmick villain who is a nuisance at best. In the film Ratcatcher II has incredibly useful and destructive capabilities being able to summon millions of rats [[spoiler: who take down Starro in the climax]] and use the rats to solve complex puzzles and look out for her while she sleeps.

* In most ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' films, Godzilla's Nuclear Pulse can only stun enemies. In ''Film/Godzilla2000'', [[spoiler:it deals the death blow to Orga]].

** Moriarty himself. In the books, he's really a NonActionBigBad, relying on his underlings to to do all the work for him and Holmes easily overpowers him in their confrontation at Reichenbach. In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' on other hand, Moriarty is a geuine phyiscal threat as well as a EvilGenius. Being the boxing champion of cambridge it's shown in ''his own'' AwesomeByAnalysis slowdown he would've easily defeated the wounded Sherlock and thrown him into the falls, if not for Holmes taking third option by [[AHandfulForAnEye blowing his tabacco pipe in Moraity's face]] and [[HeroicSacrifice pulling him over the ledge with him]]. Additionally book Moriarty's schemes never escalated beyond London, here he's an international terrorist who would've successfully instigated a world war across Europe if not for Holmes and Watson.

* ''Film/TheHobbit'':
** Bilbo Baggins is a lot more quick-witted, competent, and takes the initiative in the movie, and on several occasions -- most notably the encounter with the Trolls -- manages to accomplish more in moments where he was saved by someone else in the book. In the book, he doesn't really start pulling his weight until he saves the Company from the spiders, while the movie gives him a BigDamnHeroes moment saving Thorin from Azog immediately following the Goblin encounter.
** The dwarf company is more badass than they were in the book. All armed to the teeth, they are raking in high kill-counts in many scenes where they simply slipped away unnoticed or with minimal trouble, like Goblin Town and the Barrel Ride. Oh, they also overpower Smaug the dragon at one point.
** In the movies, Smaug's hide is tough all over, and can only be successfully damaged by Black Arrows fired from a dwarvish wind-lance, whereas the book version's scales were soft on the underside and instead had a waistcoat of treasure embedded in them to make up for this. Smaug's weak spot is subsequently changed to a single chink where a scale is missing -- and even then, it took multiple hits from two wind-lance fired Black Arrows to give him that weak spot! Furthermore, while the book counterpart was no wimp by any stretch of the imagination, this version of Smaug endures and bounces back from a lot of punishment that his book counterpart was never known to (from having giant metal constructs falling atop him in a seemingly bottomless underground shaft, to getting drowned in molten gold), as well as being somewhat more persistent when the dwarves have entered the Lonely Mountain.
** Radagast the Brown from the books was something of a coward and abandoned his mission because he couldn't gather the courage to face the Nazgûl head on. In the first film, he faces off with the Witch-King of Angmar without a hint of fear or hesitation, [[spoiler:only escaping when he comes face to face with Sauron himself.]]

* In ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' '''everyone''' with the sole [[AdaptationalWimp exception of Frodo]] gets Adaptational Badass, however the standout when it comes to this trope is clearly Legolas Greenleaf. Sure in the books he kills a Fellbeast but otherwise there's no suggestion Legolas is stronger than Aragorn or Gimli, in the movies however Legolas just makes his companions look incompetent by comparison with his "[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Leggy Moments]]" i.e [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaGZnLyCPXw surfboarding on a shield down a staircase while firing arrows and then hurtling the shield into a orc's chest]] or [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=132WIdxvgdo taking down a pack of Haradrim and massive Oliphaunt (a giant freaking elephant) by himself]] like a ''One Elf Army''.

** Miraz the antagionist of ''Prince Caspian'' gets a great deal of this. In the book he was the usual DirtyCoward monarch who got manipulated by his more competent subordinates and most embarrsingly he knocks himself out during his duel with Peter by tripping over a tussock In the film Miraz is made to be geuinely threating displaying a calculating cold bloodedness, [[VillainousValour not even showing fear]] when his nephew Caspian holds a sword to his throat and when a goddamn minotaur climbs to his balcony to kill him Miraz just pushes the beast off. He also puts up a better fight againist Peter, almost killing him in their duel.