History Main / TheJuggernaut

Note: While the ''X-Men'' villain the Juggernaut certainly fits this Trope, much more detailed information can be found about him [[ComicBook/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}} on this page here]].

* In ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'' OmnicidalManiac [[MeaningfulName Jagganoth]] is named after the TropeNamer (see the RealLife section). True to his name, Jagganoth is almost completely unstoppable: On top of his super-strength, magecraft, millennia of combat skills and being a sixty-foot tall monstrosity whose footprints melt rock, he has CompleteImmortality and {{No Sell}}s anything that is conceptually able to cause him harm. According to WordOfGod he's as strong as the other six surviving Demiurges combined. [[spoiler:When he finally makes his move in ''Breaker of Infinities'', Jagganoth is able to check five of the other six Demiurges as a warm-up until Aspected Chaos joins the battle... At which point he reveals he has a OneWingedAngel form and goes on the actual offensive, killing Mammon and Mottom and putting the rest out of commission. He's only stopped (temporarily) by Solomon David sacrificing himself to trap Jagganoth in a magical black hole, and no-one believes for a second that this state of affairs is anything but temporary.]]

* The second appearance of Amazo in ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' falls squarely into this trope. The android, having absorbed untold amounts of power, charges through the entire Franchise/GreenLantern Corps and the entire extended roster of the Justice League to get to ComicBook/LexLuthor. It even moved a planet out of its way [[spoiler:without destroying it and later bringing it back with little more than a thought]]. That planet was [[spoiler: OA, the HQ of the Guardians of the Universe themselves]].
** He was almost as bad during his debut. He was able to duplicate and mix all the powers of the original Justice League and was only stopped when someone convinced him to 'look for knowledge' somewhere ''other'' than on Earth. Guess that came back to bite the JL HARD.
** The Annihilator, an {{Expy}} of Marvel Comics' Destroyer (mentioned above), was virtually unstoppable, as it drew power from conflict itself (and thus any attacks on it only strengthened it). [[spoiler: Fortunately, this meant you could beat it by ''[[SheatheYourSword not]]'' fighting it.]]

* The Juggernaut has appeared in various animated Franchise/MarvelUniverse series, which have treated him with varying levels of respect. ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' is perhaps the most respectful; Juggernaut [[TheWorfEffect gets thrown into the sea by Gladiator]] one time, but is otherwise treated as truly unstoppable. The early 2000s ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' similarly treats Juggernaut as one of the most dangerous beings the X-men can face. In ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009'', though, Juggy has been severely [[TheWorfEffect worfed]] and is frequently knocked out and thrown around to show how strong the ''real'' villain of the week is.

* The TropeNamer came from Myth/HinduMythology. ''Jagannatha'' (meaning "Lord of the World") is one of the many titles possessed by Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu. Its English association with something unstoppable originated from the Hindu festival of Ratha Yatra, celebrated in Puri, Odisha. In it, the image of Krishna was pulled from the Temple of Jagannatha and placed inside a chariot, to be pulled by hundreds of devotees throughout the city. According to European accounts, it was said that the chariot became so fast and unstoppable that it trampled anyone and anything in front of it.

** The final enemy, [[spoiler:Scion]], takes this even higher than the Endbringers. ''Nothing'' that anybody throws at him gives him more than a second's pause, even such things as [[spoiler:getting launched at supersonic speeds out of the atmosphere, getting many hundreds of tons of solid steel dropped on his head, or even having an entire planet's worth of nuclear warheads dumped on him]]. He's not invincible, but it takes so much to harm him that he might as well be.

** Cans from the Midnight Crew Intermission is the biggest and strongest member of The Felt and, along with Clover (who is too lucky to be killed off conventionally) and Snowman (who can't be killed without [[ApocalypseMaiden taking the rest of the universe with her]]), is one of the few members of the gang that does not get killed by the Midnight Crew. [[ThereWasADoor He can easily plow through walls Kool-aid Man style]] at [[LightningBruiser lightning speed]]. Even worse, [[EveryoneHasASpecialMove his time-related power]] lets him [[NotHyperbole literally]] [[MegatonPunch punch people into next week]] or into a different ''calendar year''. The Midnight Crew are understandably reluctant to face him.

** Cans from the Midnight Crew Intermission is the biggest and strongest member of The Felt and, along with Clover (who is too lucky to be killed off conventionally) and Snowman (who can't be killed without taking the rest of the universe with her), is one of the few members of the gang that does not get killed by the Midnight Crew. [[ThereWasADoor He can easily plow through walls Kool-aid Man style]] at [[LightningBruiser lightning speed]]. Even worse, his time related power lets him literally punch people into next week or into a different ''calendar year''. The Midnight Crew are understandably reluctant to face him.

"Juggernaut" is a word meaning "unstoppable". The Juggernaut is just that. It is often fixated on a goal, reaching somewhere that it shouldn't be, trying to accomplish something that the heroes don't want it to accomplish. In any case, it is moving ever and continually forward, [[SuperStrength letting no one and nothing stand in its path]]. A GroinAttack? [[BallsOfSteel Try again]]. Bullets? [[ImmuneToBullets Pathetic]]. Rockets? [[ScratchDamage Barely noticeable]]. Super Powered beams? [[NoSell You won't even scuff its armor]]. Nuclear bombs? [[NighInvulnerability Might make him flinch,]][[labelnote:*]]if only from the flash[[/labelnote]] but [[OutOfTheInferno don't expect the flames to stop him]] — ''[[InfernalRetaliation and that's if you're lucky]]''. The group of powerful heroes we've been following are nothing more than the RedshirtArmy to this thing. YouShallNotPass? It's going to. And it's ever, continually moving forward. You can ''taste'' the invulnerability of this thing.

** Mechakara. Before he was introduced all threats could be dealt with by Linkara's CoolGun, but he has an AdaptiveAbility that renders the gun useless against him, along with any other attack. To add to this as his a robot he's physically much stronger than Linkara and is only stopped when he's remotely hacked giving Linkara a chance to destroy him with a {{BFG}}.

Compare SuperPersistentPredator, and the PerfectPlayAI, which usually applies only in gameplay terms. For those who manage to defeat a Juggernaut, it's DefeatingTheUndefeatable.

** In the NFL, the New England Patriots under head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Creator/TomBrady absolutely embodied this trope. From 2001 until Brady left after the 2019 season, they won their division, the AFC East, in all but two years[[note]]2002 and 2008, as the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins took the division title thanks to tiebreakers, respectively[[/note]], they made 13 AFC Championship Game appearances, advanced to 9 Super Bowls and won 6 of them, tying the Pittsburgh Steelers for most Super Bowl titles, and in 2007, they finished the first perfect regular season under the 16-game schedule before losing to the underdog New York Giants, denying them the first wholly perfect season since the 1972 Dolphins.

* A Macedonian phalanx was a sixteen-thousand-or-so man with light armour and shields and incredibly long pikes. It just kept marching until it trampled everyone in its way. At least until they met AncientRome. The phalanx would have trampled even the Romans, had the Romans tried frontal assault. Too bad that the Romans weren't stupid enough to charge a phalanx from the front: their standard tactics were to either slow it down with a smaller phalanx while most of their army defeated what units covered its vulnerable flanks and attacked there until it lost cohesion, or, when the enemy commander was stupid enough to not cover those vulnerable flanks, to lure it on rough terrain, wait for it to charge and lose cohesion and then [[DeathFromAbove attack with a crapload of javelins]] to break it down, at which point the Romans would simply march in close formation. Both tactics ended with DeathByIrony: the former caused the phalanx to be trampled by the Roman phalanx supposed to hold it down, and the latter ended with the broken up phalanx trampled by the Romans advancing in compact formations.
** The prototype, the Greek phalanx, was ''supposed'' to be this. Ten thousands men in close formation with heavy armour and shields and short spears, it was thought the only thing capable of stopping one was another phalanx. Then it fought the Persians, who would just keep the distance and massacre it with a RainOfArrows (as soldiers moving the heavy shield over the head would disrupt the phalanx's formation. That's why the Macedonian phalanx had the rear ranks have their pikes raised to hinder projectiles; the pikes of a compact phalanx would have blocked even the Roman armour-piercing javelins, and why, after the first encounter, the Greeks would do their best to close range with the Persians before they could start shooting arrows), and from then on the phalanx' weaknesses (vulnerability to projectile-armed enemies capable of avoiding contact and uneven terrain) were quickly exposed, and the phalanx stopped being considered invincible until Philip II of Macedon put his spin on it and created the Macedonian phalanx.
** That said, a properly-used phalanx (translation: with cover on the flanks and skirmishers to fight off enemy projectile-armed troops) ''was'' this, as shown by the fact pretty much everyone in the Mediterranean used it (including the Romans, until one of their armies was caught at a pass unable to deploy and forced to surrender. They then started to analyze it to find ways to break it while adopting tactics that would prevent a repeat) and that Carthage's army during the UsefulNotes/PunicWars went from being a training exercise for the Romans to a force capable of facing them as equals in a straight battle (or inflicting them a series of [[CurbStompBattle terrifying defeats]] when led by Hannibal) exactly when [[TheStrategist the Spartan mercenary general Xanthippus]] had them replace the old doctrine, based on the hoplitic phalanx, with Hellenistic doctrines based on the Macedonian phalanx.
** Credit must also go to the Testudo formation developed by Ancient Rome. It takes the phalanx formation, and makes it more mobile. This is done by locking the shields in a rectangular formation, even going so far as to use the shields as a roof to protect against AnnoyingArrows. This slows down the unit somewhat, but it has the effect of turning the Legion using it into a walking meat grinder, stabbing enemies from behind a shield then crushing them underfoot. It is so effective that it still finds use with riot police today.
* The first [[TankGoodness tanks]] are a downplaying of this trope; Indeed, nothing the terrified Germans themselves could hurl at the Mark Is were able to faze them in the slightest during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, but many of them were bogged down and [[InsurmountableWaistHighFence stuck]] in the very terrain they were designed to navigate through.

** A rare incident occurred in San Diego where Shawn Nelson stole an [=M60A3=] Patton and started to drive it all over the local town. Nobody could do ''anything'' about it, as the thing rolled over cars, barricades and such without slowing down, and shrugged off anything the police had. The police were in the process of requesting aid from the local military to destroy it (an idea no one was happy with, given it would be difficult to limit collateral damage), but then the tank got stuck on a highway divider, allowing a couple of daring cops to yank the hatch open and shoot the madman.
** Something of the sort happened at Arras in 1940, when a detachment of British Matilda II tanks rolled right over German anti-tank guns and Panzer [=II=]s, slowly but quite unstoppably until Rommel finally managed to get some 88s (meant to be there as anti-aircraft guns) and heavier artillery in position to shell them. Rommel supposedly thought there had been hundreds of tanks in the attack -- the actual number of these were 74, and of these, only 16 were equipped with anything bigger than a machine-gun.
*** The Matilda II was slow, had suspension trouble, was difficult to maintain and had unimpressive armament (40 mm). However, early in the war it's thick armour and some redundancy (two engines) made it very hard to take out in the first half of the war for the Germans and throughout the war for the Japanese. It was the only tank which was in front-line service from the beginning of the war to the very end. It gained the nickname ''Queen of the Desert'' in Africa as it completely outclassed any Axis tanks, and ''Queen of the Jungle'' at Pacific, as no Japanese tank was a match to it. The only ways to destroy it were anti-tank mines.
** Both the Panzer III and Panzer IV were extremely poorly armored even for the standards of the time. The Panzer IV was never designed to engage enemy tanks, but even the Panzer III (which was) had extreme difficulty fighting heavier tank designs. Even the French medium tank, the S-35, was almost completely invincible to the Panzer III, requiring a near perfect 90 degree shot to the side from within 50 meters for a kill. Then they went to Russia without upgrading and faced the T-34, the best tank in the world at the time. The T-34 was completely invincible to the German's standard 37mm anti-tank gun and almost completely invincible even to their upgunned 50mm gun while having no issues killing the German tanks. Just to be insulting it was also faster.
** The KV-2, armed with a monstrous turret housing a 152 mm howitzer and thicker armour then even the T-34, was able to destroy entire divisions of lesser tanks and dealt with anti-tank guns by ''running over them''. A German report read:
--->''Our companies opened fire from 700 metres. We got closer and closer... soon we were only 50-100 metres from each other. A fantastic engagement opened up -- without any German progress. The Soviet tanks continued their advance and our AP projectiles simply bounced off. The soviet tanks withstood point-blank fire from both our 50mm and 75mm guns. A KV-2 was hit more than 70 times and not a single round penetrated. A very few soviet tanks were immobilized and eventually destroyed as we managed to shoot off their tracks, brought up artillery to hammer them at close range and then attacked them on foot with satchel charges.''
** Compared to Japanese tanks, on the Pacific front, the M4 Sherman was a juggernaut; its armour was completely immune to anything the Japanese had at their disposal. On the other hand, the Americans found they had to use high-explosive ammunition against the flimsier Japanese tanks; [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill the anti-tank shells pierced the Japanese tanks and came out from the other side]], causing little other damage but a nasty hole. Still, the biggest advantage of the M4 over other WWII-era tanks is that it's easy to mass-produce, allowing large numbers of them to effectively ZergRush whatever theater they are in.
* While not exactly the same thing, Toshiba sold a VCR that once you set the time to record a show, and it started recording, ''absolutely nothing would stop its completion.'' The stop button is ignored. The remote control is ignored. Even if you ''unplugged the VCR for some time and plugged it back in'' as soon as it was reconnected to power, ''it would resume recording.'' The only way you could stop a timed recording before the time ran out was to unplug the machine and plug it back in ''while holding down the stop button.'' It was more tenacious than the [[UnstoppableMailman Postal Service]]: neither rain, nor snow, nor disconnection of electricity would prevent this courier (of video tape) from the swift (or at least as long as the time period was) completion of its appointed rounds (and rounds, and rounds...).
* The animal kingdom
** The {{rhino|Rampage}} is usually a GentleGiant, but if you piss it off...lets just say that stopping it from impaling you with its horn is easier said than done.
** Two other members of the "Big 5", the elephant and the Cape buffalo are both notorious among big game hunters for being nearly unstoppable if not put down immediately.

** Among extinct animals, the biggest sauropods are believed to have been this. The largest land animals ever to have lived, most were big enough that, especially if they lived in herds as many paleontologists believed, they'd have been all but invincible to predators and would have been able to trample anything in their path underfoot.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer Marvin Heemeyer]], who went on a rampage in a [[WeaponizedCar up-armored bulldozer armed with several high power weapons]] the media dubbed [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Killdozer]]. The Killdozer was ImmuneToBullets, kept police at bay with its weapons and proceeded to flatten half of the town. The police were going to request assistance from [[GunshipRescue National Guard gunships armed with anti-tank missiles]] when the Killdozer got stuck on the ruins of a demolished building and Heemeyer [[AteHisGun shot himself]].

** College football is dominated by the SEC which includes the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and to a lesser extent, LSU, Auburn and Tennessee.
** There are many NFL players in the past and present who fit the description of a juggernaut,Bo Jackson,Jim Brown,Marshawn Lynch,Derrick Henry,Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Donald and many more.

* When it comes to rugby, no player ever approached the physical dominance of the great Jonah Lomu. Where many famous wingers such as Shane Williams are known for their quick feet and their ability to avoid defenders, Lomu was able to run ''over'' them. It is not hyperbole, as one of his most famous tries during the 1995 World Cup had him literally [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0NLC3uk5xs going through English fullback Mike Catt]]. Despite being 1,96 m (6'5") tall and weighing 120 kg (265 lb), he still managed to run the 100m in less than 11 seconds. He was so powerful that some opponents were known to freeze in terror instead of trying (and often, failing) to tackle him. Sadly, Lomu's career would be hampered and prematurely ended by kidney disease, which contributed to his premature death in 2015 at age 40.

** The next US Thunderbolt, the Fairchild-Republic [[CoolPlane A-10 Thunderbolt II]], is quite similar. [[BoringButPractical Extremely slow]], [[TheAestheticsOfTechnology extremely ugly]], and [[FlyingBrick completely indestructible]] (the thing has flown missing an entire wing and an entire engine), and is capable of raining down [[GatlingGood 30mm depleted uranium rounds,]] [[DeathFromAbove smart bombs, dumb bombs, cluster bombs, guided missiles, and rocket pods on any ground target]]. Like it's WWII-era granddaddy, it has an unrelated, commonly-used nickname ("Warthog") that reflects its appearance and its unstoppability (seriously guys: if you ever find yourself in the path of an actual warthog or other wild pig, get out of its way as fast as you can).

** College football is dominated by the SEC which includes the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and to a lesser extent, LSU, Auburn and Tennessee.

* Today's NBA seems to be dominated by lean players such as Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis or Giannis Antetokounmpo. It was not always the case however, and the best example of a juggernaut in the league has to be Creator/ShaquilleONeal in his youth, who was simply too powerful for anyone to stop him. Or more accurately to ''legally'' stop him, as most defenders' only chance not to get pushed away or dunked on was to foul him and hope for his legendary clumsiness with free throws to kick in. Not that it always worked, as he was commonly able to score despite having an opponent grabbing his arm. Boards were ''reinforced'' because of him as he was known to break them while dunking.

"Juggernaut" is a word meaning "unstoppable". The Juggernaut is just that. It is often fixated on a goal, reaching somewhere that it shouldn't be, trying to accomplish something that the heroes don't want it to accomplish. In any case, it is moving ever and continually forward, [[SuperStrength letting no one and nothing stand in its path]]. A GroinAttack? [[BallsOfSteel Try again]]. Bullets? [[ImmuneToBullets Pathetic]]. Rockets? [[ScratchDamage Barely noticeable]]. Nuclear bombs? [[NighInvulnerability Might make him flinch,]][[labelnote:*]]if only from the flash[[/labelnote]] but [[OutOfTheInferno don't expect the flames to stop him]] — ''[[InfernalRetaliation and that's if you're lucky]]''. The group of powerful heroes we've been following are nothing more than the RedshirtArmy to this thing. YouShallNotPass? It's going to. And it's ever, continually moving forward. You can ''taste'' the invulnerability of this thing.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

** The Siberian. Her power makes her a literal unstoppable force, to the point that she and anything she touches can become completely immune to external effects. She doesn't bother with clothes and fights mainly by [[FoeTossingCharge running into]] [[MadeOfPlasticine the enemy]].

* ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlue Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction]]'' features the Meta, a SuperSoldier that [[PowerCopying steals enhancements and AIs]] from its victims. Throughout the series, it dodges rockets, throws vehicles at people, and survives a direct attack against it ''with a chain gun''. Bonus points for being TheVoiceless -- it only speaks in grunts and growls.

* In ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'' OmnicidalManiac [[MeaningfulName Jagganoth]] is named after the TropeNamer (see the RealLife section). True to his name, Jagganoth is almost completely unstoppable: On top of his super-strength, magecraft, millennia of combat skills and being a nine-foot tall monstrosity whose footprints melt rock, he has CompleteImmortality and {{No Sell}}s anything that is conceptually able to cause him harm. According to WordOfGod he's as strong as the other six surviving Demiurges combined. [[spoiler:When he finally makes his move in ''Breaker of Infinities'', Jagganoth is able to check five of the other six Demiurges as a warm-up until Aspected Chaos joins the battle... At which point he reveals he has a OneWingedAngel form and goes on the actual offensive, killing Mammon and Mottom and putting the rest out of commission. He's only stopped (temporarily) by Solomon David sacrificing himself to trap Jagganoth in a magical black hole, and no-one believes for a second that this state of affairs is anything but temporary.]]

* The Juggernaut has appeared in various animated Franchise/MarvelUniverse series, which have treated him with varying levels of respect. The 90's ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' is perhaps the most respectful; Juggernaut [[TheWorfEffect gets thrown into the sea by Gladiator]] one time, but is otherwise treated as truly unstoppable. The early 2000s ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' similarly treats Juggernaut as one of the most dangerous beings the X-men can face. In ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009'', though, Juggy has been severely [[TheWorfEffect worfed]] and is frequently knocked out and thrown around to show how strong the ''real'' villain of the week is.

Not to be confused with the 1974 film ''Film/{{Juggernaut}}'', which is about an extortionist who has planted {{time bomb}}s on a cruise ship.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_G%C3%A9vaudan Beast of Gévaudan]] was an [[DireBeast unusually large]] and [[SavageWolves aggressive]] wolf (or possibly an escaped lion) that terrorized the historical province of Gévaudan in France from 1764 to 1767 and may have killed upwards of 500 people. It evaded professional hunters sent by the King of France himself, shrugged off bullets and other bladed weapons, and was [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated reportedly killed several times before the attacks resumed]]. The people at the time thought it was an AnimalisticAbomination or demonic in nature.