History Main / DamselOutOfDistress

** [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]] has quite the nerve. This is a woman who is caught by villains all the time, but only because she's GenreSavvy enough to know that if she does so [[GoingForTheBigScoop she'll not only get the scoop on the front-page story but also survive to write it]]. Not just by getting rescued either; if Superman doesn't know/is depowered/is busy, she'll pretend to fall in love with the drug lord who captured her, then blast herself out of their wedding, veil, gown, and all, with a {{Mook|s}}'s stolen machine gun.

* Yukari Sahashi, from ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}''. While most Ashikabi are [[NonActionGuy Non-Action Guys]], she regularly [[GroinAttack kicks guys in the balls]] and beats them up so badly they end up in the hospital. She spends a few chapters holding the DistressBall after [[spoiler:Higa kidnaps her as part of an AndNowYouMustMarryMe plot and forces Shiina to work for him]]. However, she eventually [[spoiler:realizes that she's been holding the DistressBall and decides to drop it]]. With a SlasherSmile, she [[spoiler:sets fire to his penthouse, tells his secretary to pass on a very insulting message, and then jumps out a 50 story window because she knows Shiina will catch her]]. This proves to be the cherry on top of his HumiliationConga.

* Sapphire, of ''Manga/PrincessKnight'', is constantly pursued, locked up, and nearly killed at several points in her series, but ''never'' gives up on fighting back. When Nylon comes after her during a siege, she single-handedly takes him down in a swordfight. Later, when she's escaping prison with the help of Friebe, she helps Friebe fight off that castle's ''entire guard''. In ''Twin Knight'', we see Sapphire passed this on to her daughter, Violetta, telling her when the two are being held hostage, "You can't give in to bad people, no matter how tough things get". In keeping with this trope, she then proceeds to give Violetta extra sword-fighting lessons, so her daughter would be better able to handle the upcoming dangers. For the rest of the series, Violetta and her friend Emerald find themselves in various dangers and always set about rescuing each other and themselves.

** Music/SteeleyeSpan's perform a variant called "The Elf Knight". Lady Isabel may be in distress, but she doesn't need anyone's help to get herself out of it.

* ''Fanfic/AllAssortedAnimorphsAUs'': "What if Tom and Melissa escaped together?" diverges from canon when Tom is able to half-morph to escape from his cage in the Yeerk Pool, and takes Melissa on the run with him.

* Angel from ''WesternAnimation/RockAndRule''. She is so effectively resistant to Mok's will that she escapes his clutches, has to be forcibly recaptured and dragged back and finally shackled on stage ''and'' hooked up to Mok's keyboard to make her sing at all.

* ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' has Natasha Romanov (ComicBook/BlackWidow) seemingly captured by three gun-wielding goons. Seconds later, one of the goons receives a phone call from Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D, saying to give the phone to Natasha. As she talks, she says, "Hang on." She then proceeds to knock out all three of her kidnappers - while still tied up. Then, to crown it off, she reveals that she was only gathering intel from them.

* ''Film/AGoodWomanIsHardToFind'': Sarah manages to save herself from rape and murder by Tito through stabbing him with a nearby knife.

*** Leia's first appearance may result in her being captured to eventually be rescued, but in-between giving the Death Star plans to some droids, she's a much better shot than the stormtroopers who died trying to capture her.

*** Reportedly, Creator/CarrieFisher was confronted by an angry father who wanted to try and get her to side with him in stopping production on action figures of Leia in the Gold Jabba's Palace Bikini. He demanded how he was going to explain a respected leader dressing like that to his daughter. Carrie told him, "Tell her that someone forced me to wear it. I didn't like it. So I killed him."

* ''Film/{{Sweetheart}}'': Jennifer needs no help in rescuing herself. Despite difficulties, the only other characters in the story (including her boyfriend) prove useless and Jennifer shows great skills taking down the monster that was threatening her all alone. In fact, the others prove more of a hindrance than anything.

* From Tolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', Lúthien Tinúviel, an Elven princess who falls in love with the mortal Beren. When her father finds out, he sends Beren on an impossible quest and imprisons her. Time for her lover to rescue her? Not quite! She escapes by her own means (twice), then rescues Beren, who has also been imprisoned in the meantime... by none other than [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]], whom Lúthien defeats almost single-handedly. Then she helps Beren fulfill his quest (and does most of the work, really, confronting the legendarium's equivalent of Satan by herself). It's interesting to note that Lúthien was an homage to Tolkien's wife, Edith Tolkien, while Beren was basically an AuthorAvatar.

* In ''Literature/TheInvisibleLibrary'' and its sequels, Irene, a young agent of [[MagicLibrary The Library]], is often underestimated by both friend and foe, but is quite capable in both spycraft and [[RealityWarper The Language]], and takes full advantage of her apparent helplessness to get the better of her captors. In later books, she is forced to get much more creative, or [[DamselInDistress get rescued by her teammates]] when she becomes more highly-regarded and well known, leading to enemies taking extra precautions with her.
* In the ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' novel ''Carnival'', Zoe doesn’t wait around to be rescued when she and Book are captured. By the time Wash and the crew get the ransom money and Mal attempts a rescue,she and Book have freed themselves.

* ''Series/Batman1966'': GirlyGirl Pinky Pinkston she gets her pet dog to chew through the ropes binding her and escapes from captivity without Batman's help.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': In season 21's "Must Be Held Accountable," Rollins is kidnapped by a father unhappy with the way his case ended. She ends her own hostage situation by gaining the upper hand when he's distracted. She steals his own gun, handcuffs him, and hauls him into the precint ''herself'' while her squad is frantically looking for her.

* The end of season cliffhanger in Season 10 of ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' includes Murdoch being told IHaveYourWife. In the first episode of the next season, one of the criminals goes to take a photo of Dr. Ogden to prove she's still alive and finds the guard tied up and no sign of her.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2019'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone2019S2E9TryTry Try Try]]" before the security guards even arrive, Claudia fends Mark off and knocks him down herself. She threatens to do this any other time Mark tries in another loop. It deters him enough that in the next loop he leaves Claudia alone.

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', Crono is thrown in jail for alledgedly kidnapping Marle (aka Princess Nadia). Should the player choose, he can perform a jailbreak and bust out. When reaching the last area, Lucca shows up, ostensibly having come to save Crono, but she remarks that he clearly didn't need her help. Should the player fail to escape or choose to do nothing, this is averted as Lucca performs a rescue before Crono gets his head cut off.

* ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts'': Chris is a RareMaleExample. [[DistressedDude He get captured by villains and gets into other kinds of danger often]] but he is perfectly capable of saving himself or at least making significant progress until the team finds him.

*** In discussions about the film and his own [[HeroWithAThousandFaces book's]] part in inspiring it, Joseph Campbell points out that Leia is a rather unique twist on this, where the damsel is saving the dashing hero (Han) from the dragon, as played by Jabba. Of course, the initial breakout goes up in smoke, but Leia is the one who scores the kill on the dragon while the guys never make it to his lair. As mentioned above, earlier, Leia was the one who rescued her rather incompetent rescuers.

** In ''Series/DaiSentaiGoggleFive'': The enemy loves targeting [[TheChick Miki Momozono/Goggle Pink]] [[MonsterMisogyny to be attacked or sorts]], causing her allies to knock the attacker for her but on the other hand, she can take care of herself and proves her smarts in outwitting the enemies culminating in getting off from a DeathTrap of a burning book... ''alone''.

** Ureshino is pretty damseled with her shy demeanor and no fighting skills, but her magic tricks and knowledge of her company's products allow her to put up a fight against Naruko's trump card, the massive golem Grand Actor, by mixing a magic trick of hers to cause a massive explosion, and in the process breaking the hypnosis her classmates were under.

* The early ''Sega'' arcade game ''VideoGame/SegaNinja' have the villains attempting to kidnap the player's character, a ''ninja'' princess. But being, well, a ninja, the player easily escapes her captors and slays her way back to the capital city.

Contrast DamselScrappy and TooDumbToLive. Should not be confused with BadassInDistress, but can overlap with it. Compare DefiantCaptive, which is about a defiant mindset while captured.

* In one episode of ''Series/AdamTwelve'', a convenience store robber is using a woman as a hostage, only to have her [[AgonyOfTheFeet stomp his foot with her heel spike]]--a trick she [[AwesomenessByAnalysis learned from cop shows]].

* ''Machinima/FinalFantasyVIIMachinabridged'': Cait Sith reveals to the party a video showing the Turks are holding Marlene hostage. However, in the middle of the video, Marlene reveals she smuggled a gun into her cell and shoots her way out.

* Lois Lane makes a return to this trope in ''Film/ManOfSteel'', given her ActionSurvivor status. She gets into danger a lot, but usually she tries to fight her way out of it and does rather well considering the people she's up against are nigh-invulnerable superpowered aliens. She's even able to [[spoiler: fight her way out of Zod's spacecraft using a Kryptonian gun, with some help from the [=AI=] Jor-El]].
* Elizabeth Swann from ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' is like this in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl first movie]] where she uses the Pirate Code to get out of her first instance of distress and later arranging for her own rescue by smoke signal, as well as helping Will fight off some undead pirates. In the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest second]] and [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third]] installments, she graduates to [[KingOfThieves Pirate King]].
* ''Franchise/IndianaJones'':
** ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'': If you look closely as they disembark from the submarine you'll notice that the Nazi soldier guarding Marion is heavily bandaged ''and'' he has an arm in a sling.
** ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''. While on the mine cart chase, a mook manages to down Indiana for a few seconds. Sick to death of being chased, Willie slugs him so hard he goes flying off the cart.

* Modern versions of ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'' often turn the heroine into this and thus inverting her original PrincessClassic / PuritySue characterization.
** Danielle of ''Film/EverAfter'' averts the "alas, I am but a pitiful female" personality throughout the movie and TookALevelInBadass near the end when [[spoiler:Monsieur Le Pieu has essentially kidnapped her, and is getting creepy. She threatens him with a sword, and has rescued herself by the time Henry arrives]].
** Ella, from ''Literature/EllaEnchanted''. Despite her [[BlessedWithSuck gift of obedience]], she escapes her [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors Finishing School of Horrors]] and then again from [[CharmPerson ogres]] who plan to eat her. Finally, she has to break her curse on the [[ThePowerOfLove sheer strength of her love for Char]], [[spoiler: so she doesn't destroy his life by marrying him]].
** Ella Brown from ''Literature/JustElla'', who realizes being engaged to PrinceCharming isn't all it's cracked up to be and breaks herself out of a dungeon.
* While the entire plot of ''Film/{{Commando}}'' revolves around John Matrix rescuing his kidnapped young daughter, Jenny, as it turns out she must have picked up something from her dad. The second her dad storms the compound and she's not tied up, she's popped a doorknob off the door to her room and rescued herself. She's almost to her dad before the villainous Bennett shows up, but had she not tried to escape earlier, she'd definitely be dead as Bennett had gone looking for her ''precisely'' to kill her.
* Maid Jean's capture in ''Film/TheCourtJester'' ended very poorly for the bad guys when she used her situation to extract the castle key the good guys needed to carry out their plans.
* In ''Film/TheWolverine'', when Mariko is snagged by thugs at her grandfather's funeral, she was well on her way toward escaping from them when Logan reached her and finished them off. Also she saves Logan a few times and [[spoiler:helps take down Silver Samurai with her knife-throwing skills]].
* ''Film/{{Dredd}}'': When Anderson's captured by the bad guys, Dredd sets out on what looks like a RoaringRampageOfRescue, only to run out of ammo, get shot in the stomach, and find himself helpless under the gun of a [[DirtyCop corrupt Judge]]. Meanwhile, Anderson frees herself, kills her way out of the enemy stronghold, and turns up just in time to save Dredd.
* During the climax of ''Film/MuppetsMostWanted'', [[spoiler:Constantine takes Miss Piggy hostage and drags her into a helicopter to make a getaway with her. As the other Muppets scramble to catch up, she takes advantage of Constantine's lack of attention and breaks through the ropes around her wrists. With her hands free, it takes her all of a few seconds to KO him. "You may be the world's most dangerous frog, ''but you're still a frog!''"]]
* The plot of ''Film/{{Cellular}}'' gets started when Jessica manages to cobble together a broken phone into barely-working condition and make a call for help. Later, she kills one of the mooks holding her captive by slicing open his brachial artery and making him bleed to death in seconds, breaks her son out of a locked barn by [[CarFu smashing the walls down with a truck]], and would've successfully escaped if [[BigBad Ethan]] hadn't threatened to kill her husband. In the climax, she strangles a mook with her handcuffs and steals his key so she and her family can escape.

* In the first ''Film/MenInBlack'' movie, Dr. Laurel Weaver is kidnapped by Edgar the bug, who attempts to take her with him so he can eat her and feed her to his family as well while climbing to his flying saucer to flee Earth. Laurel has none of it, breaks free from Edgar's grip, and jumps into a nearby tree, fiercely clinging to one of its branches to avoid falling. She eventually does fall, but is unharmed, and manages to get a hold of Jay's MIB gun which she quickly uses to blast the surviving half of the bug into oblivion.
* ''Film/GleahanAndTheKnavesOfIndustry'': After being locked away in her room by her father, Penelope escapes out the window to seek revenge on him.
* ''Film/TaleOfTales'': Princess Violet grows into this role eventually. She's married off to an ogre because he manages to solve her father the king's ImpossibleTask, and he carries her off to his cave. A friendly family saves her and takes her away, but the ogre catches up to them and kills all her saviors. She's forced to act affectionately to soothe him, and he prepares to carry her away again on his back... at which point she slits his throat with the knife she was hiding. She returns to her remorseful father covered in blood and carrying the ogre's head, and the film ends with her AwesomeMomentOfCrowning as queen.
* ''Film/Gone2012'': Jill managed to escape her abductor the first time. When she's lured back into his clutches, she does it ''again'' (this time she brings a gun, making doing so easier).
* ''Film/MirrorMirror'': Due to her dislike of the {{damsel in distress}} trope, Snow White refuses to be one, mentioning she has read many stories in which the damsel has to be saved by her prince, but she doesn't want that to happen. So she deliberately locks Alcott inside the dwarfs' house, then goes off to save ''herself'' from the Beast.
* ''Film/TheCall'': Toward the finale, Casey does a lot of the work rescuing herself, after her would-be rescuer Jordan needs to be rescued too.
* ''{{Film/Ophelia}}'': When her fiancé [[AttemptedRape forces himself on her]], Ophelia rescues herself by kneeing him in the groin, then hitting him on the head with a torch. She then proceeds to feign madness and pretend to drown herself to free herself from Claudius, before travelling alone over miles of countryside to find refuge in a convent.
* ''Film/MissMeadows'': In the very first scene, Miss Meadows kills a man who'd tried to [[MuggingTheMonster kidnap her at gunpoint.]] He just never thought that such a prim and proper young lady would have a gun in her purse -- and be more than ready to use it too.
* ''Film/RedRockWest'': Suzanne's hands are tied behind her back in the final act, but she spends a while trying to work them loose and does so without any help from TheHero. [[spoiler:In a twist, she's an antagonistic FemmeFatale, just one who's not loyal to the other villains.]]
* ''Film/ViciousFun'': Bob and his merry band of serial killers murder an entire police station minutes before Sarah, his would-be victim, wanders in looking for Joel. Sounds bad, right? Luckily she knows self-defense -- Fritz the Clown is laid out in seconds when he tries to attack her.
* ''Film/FreshmanYear'': Marcella, while on a date alone with a guy, fights him off with a punch to the nose after he tries to force himself on her. The guy relents, taking her home.
* ''Film/{{Kimi}}'': In the end, Angela manages to kill all three assassins who have kidnapped her.
* ''Film/{{The Princess|2022}}'': The princess frees herself from captivity quickly in the beginning, killing many {{mooks}} that threaten her and escapes several situations where she's in great danger.
* ''Film/AGoodWomanIsHardToFind'': Sarah manages to save herself from rape and murder by Tito through stabbing him with a nearby knife.
* ''Film/{{Prey|2022}}'': Naru rescues herself from many sticky situations, including escaping the Predator multiple times and [[spoiler:ultimately killing it]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero''. Barbara Gordon talks back to Mr. Freeze when he kidnaps her, attacks him with the same chains she's shackled with, tries to reason with him once she learns about his IllGirl wife Nora (so she'll be able to help him save her ''without losing her organs'' [[spoiler: and later it turns out her blood is enough]]), saves his KidSidekick, tries to save ''him'' too...

* ''Literature/{{Restoree}}'' was apparently written in response to all those early SF Damsels desperate for the hero to rescue them. Sara, TheHeroine, is no {{Action Hero}}ine but she is able to talk and think her own way out of trouble and on one memorable occasion takes a heavy metal hairbrush to a drunken thug who has kidnapped her.

* In the ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' fanfic series, ''FanFic/InstinctivelyFamily,'' Lea took the time to teach Kairi some [[PlayingWithFire self-defense]] to avoid being kidnapped as easily. This prevents Xemnas from grabbing her like he did [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII in canon'' and almost gets Lea in trouble when he accidentally startles her in the second fic.

** Kairi [[DamselInDistress sees herself in danger often]], but every time she's escaped (or in the process of it) before Sora arrives. For instance, when she's captured by Axel [[spoiler: escapes from him but is later captured by Saïx and escapes him (with help from Namine, who, in an ironic doubling of this trope, actually IS her) and is confronted by nobodies and about to fight them when help from Riku arrives. Then she and Riku save Sora from a buttload of Heartless that Saix calls on him]]. Taken further in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII Kingdom Hearts III Re:Mind]]'' in which [[spoiler: Kairi is PromotedToPlayable and becomes a devastating GlassCannon]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInThePrincessAndThePauper'' has a two-fold example in Anneliese and Erika:

%% ** ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'': She tries to escape.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': Malory Archer may have retired from field work but she hasn't lost any of her skills. In "Motherless Child" she's kidnapped and left tied up in an underground bunker with only 12 hours of oxygen. Once she calms down from her initial shock she sets about freeing herself from her bindings and working out where the hell she is. After climbing out of the bunker and back to the surface she's picked up by a truck driver who tries to [[SexForServices proposition her]], so she kicks him out and steals his truck.