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Big Damn Heroes / Live-Action TV

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  • In the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Ye Who Enter Here", when Skye is fighting HYDRA Agent 33, Agent 33 gets the upper hand, only to be tackled to the floor by Lance Hunter.
  • Alex Rider (2020):
    • The Department, when they rescue Tom from the duplicate Parker Roscoe. Mrs Jones then calls a team to extract Alex when she realises his cover is blown.
    • Kyra rescues Alex when he's Strapped to an Operating Table.
    • Also Alex himself, along with the paramilitary team, when they rescue the kidnapped students from the school.
  • Babylon 5:
    • G'Kar, in "A Late Delivery From Avalon", jumps in to help a human who stepped in to defend a helpless woman, evening the odds in the fight significantly. G'kar observes, in a post-fight drink:
      "...and they made a very satisfying thump when they hit the ground!"
    • In the Season 1 episode "Signs and Portents", the station is seemingly overwhelmed by Raider ships, then suddenly Sinclair springs his trap when the supposed Starfury squadron the Raiders had lured away returned.
    • In Season 2 "All Alone in the Night", a fleet led by the EAS Agammemnon and flanked by Starfuries and Ambassador Delenn's Flyer, arrive in the nick of time to stop a Streib ship from making off with Captain Sheridan.
    • The classic Babylon 5 Big Damn Heroes moment is when the Minbari arrive in "Severed Dreams":
      Delenn: Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.
    • Later in Season 3's "Walkabout", just as the Shadow ships are closing in on the Whitestar, the Army of Light arrives led by the G'tok. Which was pretty impressive, given that the G'Tok's commander previously refused to participate in the mission.
    • Also in Season 3's "Interludes and Examinations", the Brakiri were having their asses kicked by the rampaging Shadow fleet when suddenly, a Vorlon armada jumps in and proceeds to annihilate the enemy fleet and at the same time rally the League of Non-Aligned worlds into an alliance.
    • In Season 4's episode "Endgame", Clark had given a last "scorched earth" order upon his imminent defeat, setting one of Earth's defense platforms to fire on the planet itself. With many ships damaged and no other way to destroy the platform in time, Sheridan on the Agamemnon steers the ship to ram the platform. Just before impact would have happened, General Lefcourt, who had commanded the Earthforce defense against Sheridan's advance on Mars and Earth, becomes a Big Damned Hero for Sheridan when his ship Apollo, which just recovered from extensive disablement in the battle of Mars, jumps in and fires on the platform, destroying it.
      Lefcourt: We have monitored the situation. Hold onto your hats!
    • In Season 5's "A View from the Gallery", just as the station is about to be overrun by the unnamed invaders, the Whitestar fleet jumps in to save the day.
    • Deconstructed in Season 5's "Learning Curve", when a young Minbari Ranger steps in to protect a human being assaulted in DownBelow. He gets his ass kicked and nearly dies because he's not yet experienced enough to handle himself in such a situation. The rest of the episode is about him regaining his confidence and exploring his own motives in joining the Rangers.
    • Earthforce pulled a huge example of this in the Dilgar War. The Dilgar were kicking the collective asses of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, while the Narn had been scared into looking the other way and the Centauri decided to do nothing. Earthforce entered the war and crushed the Dilgar despite a massive technological disadvantage, and in doing so not only won a cache of Dilgar technology to bring humanity up to speed but also won a key ally in the political sphere.
  • Band of Brothers: In episode 3, the Germans are assaulting positions held by the 101st Airborne outside of the French town of Carentan. While Easy Company is holding their own, several other companies have been forced back by the German attack. Cue the arrival of 2nd Armored. The Germans, caught off guard, are forced into a panicked retreat.
  • Battlestar Galactica (2003):
    • In a two-part episode of the 2004 reimagining of the show, called "Exodus", the titular ship is attacked by three Cylon Baseships while attempting to help colonists on the planet New Caprica escape. The ship is severely damaged, and somber music plays while the camera zooms out as the Baseships pummel Galactica to death in the cold darkness of space...until a missile, then more missiles, fire off the edge of the screen, and the Battlestar Pegasus hurtles to the rescue, just in the nick of time. This is just the high point to heroic events which kicked off with a deadpan "Prepare for turbulence."
    • In Season 4, Episode 13, Lee is captured by members of Zarek's rebellion against the human-Cylon alliance. It looks as though he's about to be shot, and there's a gunshot...and you see Lee's face, spattered with blood, and Starbuck standing there, pistol in one hand. Another of the rebels moves, and she draws another pistol, shooting him. "I can do this all day." It escalates the situation later on, but it's awesome at the time.
    • The classic Original Series had moment after moment of this, with every major and minor character getting a chance to pull one off in one episode after another.
  • Bones: Averted this in a recent episode, with the FBI showing up to save the day only to find that the "bad guys" had already departed, and the day was no longer in need of saving
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • At the closing moments of "Two to Go", Willow, on a black-eyed bender of murderous, bad-magic-is-bad fury, is mopping the Magic Box floor with the Slayer, the only one who might have been strong enough to stop Willow's skin-flaying rampage. With Buffy down, Willow crows her triumph, informing all present (at least those still conscious) that there is no one on earth who is powerful enough to stop her. Cue Big Damn Hero entrance in the form of Rupert Giles, hepped up on some serious magic of his own, to test Willow's theory.
    • "Grave" when Xander confronts Willow.
      Xander: I saved the world with talking from my mouth. My mouth saved the world.
    • Angel's entrance in "End of Days" also qualifies.
      "You look timely. And also good."
    • Averted in Angel's "Not Fade Away" when Illyria becomes concerned about Wesley and arrives just after he's been fatally wounded. She did take care of his opponent though.
    • The end of the episode "Double Or Nothing" when the team comes to save Gunn Just in Time.
  • Castle, of course, has its share. One of the better ones being "The Wild Rover", when Ryan has just revealed his true identity to the boss of a gang he was infiltrating, he actually calls out his heroes, starting with his partner Esposito. Though it takes a second (pause for dramatic effect?) enter Espo...then enter Beckett...then enter Castle (though he's comedically not packing like Espo and Beckett are).
  • Chuck: In the Season 2 finale, the day is saved in the form of John Casey and his unit parachuting into the Church, to the tune of Mr. Roboto.
  • Community: In "Epidemiology" when Greendale is overrun by zombies, at the last moment Troy saves the day by cooling everyone down until the military arrived.
  • Control Z:
    • In 1.03, Javier when he buys Luis enough time to escape from Gerry, Darío and Ernesto by deliberately crashing his car through a wall.
    • In 1.08, María when she saves Isabela from Pablo's wrath before he spitefully reveals to Isabela that they have slept together behind her back, causing Isabela to end her friendship with María.
    • In 2.07, Pablo beats Raúl up at his house while demanding the whereabouts of Gerry, who suddenly shows up and hits Pablo in the head with an Xbox to defend him.
  • Criminal Minds: Does this almost every episode, with the team racing in just before the killer/rapist/terrorist/etc kills his next victim.The team figures out the next target, rushes to the Monster's hideout and saves the victim from certain death. However, they do occasionally subvert this trope (most notably in "Zugzwang") and it is implied that in cases that aren't shown, it happens more frequently.
  • Diff'rent Strokes: Phil Drummond was this multiple times ... to:
    • Dudley in "The Bicycle Man", arriving with the police just moments before a child molester — a man who was a respected small businessman — could make his move on Dudley, whom he had sedated with a pill.
    • His daughter, Kimberly, in "Hitchhikers", moments before a sociopathic rapist could initiate sex with her, while locked in the darkroom.
    • His stepson, Sam, in "Sam's Missing". Sam had been resigned to becoming the "adopted son" of a man bitterly grieving the death of his own son ... and when the moment arrives he shouts out "Mr. D!!!!"
  • Doctor Who:
    • The TARDIS is basically an enforcer of this trope, purposely dropping the Doctor off wherever she knows he's needed (existing across all of time and space comes in handy for figuring this out) so that he'll just "happen" to be in the area whenever things go pear-shaped somewhere in the universe, and will swoop in and save the day.
    • "Remembrance of the Daleks": The Seventh Doctor and the army rush into a school just in time to save Ace from the Daleks.
    • Cleverly framed toward the end of "The Doctor Dances". Jack Harkness is sitting in his cockpit, sipping a martini, resigned to the imminent destruction of his ship. The camera pulls away from Jack slowly, showing him in the centre as the camera passes through the interior of his ship... and into the TARDIS. Cut to the Doctor and Rose dancing, and Rose shouts to Jack, "Well, c'mon then!"
    • "The Parting of the Ways":
      • The TARDIS assists in several of these: a) rams several Dalek missiles while protected by a forcefield, b) lands on the Dalek mothership in style, and c) flies back to the future with Rose, after she's been ripped open so Rose could communicate with her.
      • Rose and Mickey have tried everything they can think of, including his car and a chain, to open up the TARDIS console so Rose can return to the Gamestation to help the Doctor. Then Jackie shows up in a heavy-duty tow truck, which she got access to because someone owed her a favour.
      • And, last but certainly not least, Rose as the Bad Wolf arriving on the Gamestation to save the Doctor from the Daleks.
    • "School Reunion": Robot Buddy K9, of all characters, helps the others escape from attacking Krillitanes via his handy nose laser.
    • The Doctor smashing through a mirror astride a white horse to save Madame de Pompadour from the creepy clockwork droids in "The Girl in the Fireplace".
    • "The Age of Steel": Mickey and Jake commandeer a zeppelin to rescue the Doctor, Rose and Pete from the roof of Lumic's burning Cyberconversion factory.
    • "Doomsday": Rose has lost her grip and is going to be sucked into the Void... and then Pete teleports in, catches her and takes her to safety in his own universe.
    • "The Runaway Bride":
      • First, it's played awesomely straight: Donna is kidnapped by a Robot Santa Taxi Driver and is being driven down a motorway. She looks out of the back window, screaming for help, just in time to see the TARDIS swoop down from the sky and underneath a bridge. It then approaches the taxi at speed, spinning wildly, after taking a sizable chuck out of the tarmac and nearly flattening some of the traffic. Donna's reaction sums it up to the whole audience:
        Donna: You are kidding me.
      • Later, there's a vicious subversion: It looks like Donna's fiancé Lance, who's been primarily hesitant and cowardly until now, is going to pull a stealthy one with a fire axe on the monologuing Racnoss Empress... and then it turns out he was just adding insult to injury in his Evil All Along reveal.
    • "The Stolen Earth": Wilf and Sylvia are cornered by a Dalek after his attempt at blinding it doesn't work, but then Rose blows it to pieces with her BFG.
    • Mickey and Jackie showing up to save Sarah Jane from Daleks in "Journey's End".
    • Subverted in "The Waters of Mars". The Doctor tries to alter history to save Adelaide Brooks and her remaining crew, but nearly broke time itself instead; this is averted only through Adelaide's self-sacrifice.
    • "The Eleventh Hour": Amy and Rory have been cornered by Prisoner Zero when the Doctor arrives in a commandeered fire truck, smashing the ladder through one of the windows.
      "DUCK"
    • "The Beast Below": Liz 10 arrives just in time to rescue the Doctor and Amy from Smilers that have them cornered in the overspill pipe.
    • One human-led Big Damn Heroes moment occurs in "Victory of the Daleks", when right as the Doctor is about to be killed because his self-destruct mechanism is revealed to be a jammie-dodger, he is saved by three hastily constructed space Spitfires.
    • "The Pandorica Opens": Amy is saved from an attacking Cyberman by... her previously-retgoned fiancé Rory, now a Roman centurion, who impales the cyborg on his sword.
    • Rory does it again in "The Big Bang", appearing to save Amy, Amelia and the Doctor from the stone Dalek.
    • In "Day of the Moon", the unmistakable tones of the TARDIS materializing announce the arrival of the Doctor, Rory, and River Song, just in time to save Amy from the Silence.
    • Amy returns the favour in "The Wedding of River Song" by gunning down the three Silence about to kill Rory.
      • Having earlier rescued the Doctor and Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill from dozens of Silence hanging from the roof above their heads, this time with the help of both Rory and a platoon of soldiers.
    • "The Angels Take Manhattan": The Doctor risks destroying New York to land the TARDIS through a Time Storm and save River Song from a Weeping Angel.
      [Loud Bang, faint TARDIS noises, lights flicker, ground shakes]
      Grayle: What's that? What's happening? Is it an Earthquake? WHAT IS IT?
      River: Oh you bad boy, you could burn New York.
    • The Doctor does this in "The Snowmen", rescuing Clara and the kids from the Ice Governess with a Mr. Punch puppet of all things!
    • "The Day of the Doctor":
      • Three incarnations of The Doctor made a Big Damn Heroes entrance into a room that was completely TARDIS proof by freezing themselves in a piece of Gallifreyan art, arranging for that art to be moved to the room in question, and then sonicing an active Dalek through the picture frame to step in and avert a nuclear holocaust.
      • The current Doctor, all 11 of his past incarnations, as well as his next incarnation play this role for the people of Gallifrey during the climax.
        "Calling the War Council of Gallifrey, this is the Doctor!"
    • Santa Claus gets one in "Last Christmas" when he manages to save everyone from the Dream Crabs.
    • Deconstructed in "Hell Bent". The Doctor makes a last-moment rescue of Clara Oswald, by pulling her from time as she faced the raven. The problem is that to her horror, he has not actually saved her life — that wasn't possible. Instead, she's Only Mostly Dead, and horrified to realize that the Doctor has gone mad with grief and could not accept her death. To make matters worse, this act defies a fixed moment in time and threatens to destroy the universe.
    • "Arachnids in the UK" has a subversion: In any other circumstance, Robertson shooting the Giant Spider would be heroic. But as the Doctor points out, it was already dying of suffocation and was more interested in escaping than harming them. Robertson instead calls the shooting a Mercy Kill and shows no remorse, infuriating the Doctor.
  • Endeavour: In "Degüello", Morse is standing alone in a deserted quarry, facing off against a Dirty Cop and a gang of local thugs. As the cop tells Morse that he is going to die alone, a police car rolls into the quarry and out step Thursday, Bright and Strange and take their place behind Morse, saying they don't abandon their own. Even as the the Dirty Cop is saying he can kill all of them and get away with it, there is the wail of police sirens approaching. Bright calmly announces that while he might have some influence over uniform and CID, his reach does not extend into traffic division.
  • The crew of Moya from Farscape get several moments. One good example was the time they attacked a Shadow Depository (Mafia bank, basically) to rescue Crichton.
  • Firefly: The trope name (and the quote) comes from this show, wherein Mal and the rest of the crew save Simon and River from being burned at the stake in "Safe". The page photo for the trope, however, is from a different episode.
    • Zoe, Jayne and Wash simultaneously blasting Adelai Niska off Mal in "War Stories" is arguably another example.
  • In The Flash (2014) episode "Killer Frost", Cisco and Caitlin vibe across Central City and arrive Just in Time to save Barry from Savitar, Caitlin using her new freezing powers to drive the villain away.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • In "Blackwater", the combined Tyrell-Lannister army (commanded by Ser Loras Tyrell and Lord Tywin Lannister) comes riding to the rescue of King's Landing, which was under siege by Stannis Baratheon's forces, a straight example of The Cavalry, complete with triumphant Rains of Castamere over the credits.
    • In "The Red Woman", Theon and Sansa have been found by the Boltons' men, who are about to drag them back to Winterfell to be subjected to even more of Ramsay's perverse tortures. Then, out of nowhere, Brienne rides in and manages to hack their pursuers to pieces, finally getting to pledge herself to Sansa's service.
    • In "Home", things look bad for Davos and the few remaining Nights Watch members who remain loyal to Jon. Thorne and his band are at the door and Davos and Co prepare for their final stand... cue The Wildlings, led by Giantsbane and Wun-Wun the Giant bursting into the courtyard, ensuring that Jon's murderers will not escape justice. They may be the Free Folk but they are loyal to those that were loyal to them. Bonus points that the ones that stayed on Jon's side in the Nights Watch were the ones that fought at Hardhome... when they came to the Wildlings' aid
    • Without prompting, the Hound runs in saves Ser Loras from Gregor Clegane by fighting him off during the Tourney of the Hand, as Gregor's response to losing a joust against Ser Loras is to behead his own horse and attack the unarmed Loras with a live blade.
    • Tyrion saving Catelyn from a mountain tribesman in "The Wolf and the Lion".
    • Tyrion saving Sansa from Joffrey's physical abuse in "Garden of Bones".
    • The Hound saves Sansa single-handedly from Attempted Rape in "The Old Gods and the New", complete with heroic music.
    • During the Battle of Blackwater, Bronn saves the Hound in the nick of time when he becomes transfixed by the sight of a man being burned alive.
    • Podrick when he saves Tyrion in "Blackwater" from being killed by Ser Mandon Moore of the Kingsguard.
    • Barristan shows up just in time to save Daenerys from an assassin in the Season 3 premiere "Valar Dohaeris".
    • Ramsay saves Theon from his pursuers, who are really his own men, but if Theon had actually known who he was, he might not have been so grateful for it.
    • Jaime returns to Harrenhal just in time to save Brienne from the bear pit in "The Bear and the Maiden Fair".
    • Steelshanks shoots a crossbow bolt into the bear threatening Brienne and Jaime, distracting it long enough for them to escape.
    • The Night's Watch's counterattack on Craster's Keep is perfectly timed to save Meera from a Near-Rape Experience.
    • Stannis and his army coming to the rescue in "The Children".
    • When Brienne returns to save Pod from his attacker in "The House of Black and White".
    • In "The Gift", Ghost turns up just when things are looking most grim for Sam and Gilly and scares off two asshole Brothers who were beating Sam to a pulp and clearly planning to rape Gilly.
    • "The Dance of Dragons" is full of them. First, Jorah is saved from death in the pits by another opportunistic fighter, then he throws a spear to kill the Son of the Harpy behind Dany, and finally, a very angry Drogon arrives at the last moment to save Dany and her followers from being overrun after they are caught in an ambush orchestrated by the Sons of the Harpy. Most of the attackers wisely flee at the sight of him. The rest are not so lucky.
    • Benjen saves Bran and Meera from wights in Season 6.
    • Summer saving Bran from an assassin hired by Joffrey.
    • Ghost saves Sam from an ax-wielding white walker just as he's about to land a blow over poor Sam.
    • Howland Reed stabs Ser Arthur Dayne just before he delivers the last moment Coup de Grâce and saves Ned's life.
    • Tywin at Harrenhal, when he stops the wanton torturing and killing of prisoners through Pragmatic Villainy, enslaving them instead.
    • Podrick Payne was almost hanged for the actions of his master, but Tywin heard his family name in time, commuted the sentence and sent him to squire for Tyrion as punishment for the two of them, though the two saw it as Cool and Unusual Punishment.
    • In Season 7, Daenerys comes to the rescue of the Wight-hunters by personally appearing on the battlefield and torching thousands of the Undead with her dragons.
    • In "The Sons of the Harpy", Barristan saves Grey Worm from certain death by killing twenty two enemies single-handedly.
    • In "The Long Night" the living armies have been crushed, Jon Snow and Daenerys are struggling for their life, and the Night King is about to kill Bran Stark, when Arya jumps at him. He catches her in midair, but the show's resident Little Miss Badass drops her knife to her other hand and delivers the killing blow, destroying him and the entirety of his army.
  • House of the Dragon:
    • Just as a fight is about to erupt between Daemon's forces and Otto and the Kingsguards (with high chances of seeing the latter be reduced to ashes by the fire of Caraxes) for a dragon egg Daemon stole, Rhaenyra swoops in on Syrax's back to calm things down.
    • Just as Rhaenyra is hauled before the whole court by Vaemond Velaryon and accused of stealing control of the Velaryon family from its true lineage with her children (bastards of Harwin Strong), a dying King Viserys finds the strength of coming to her rescue and unexpectedly walks into the throne room, sits on the Iron Throne one last time and rules against Vaemond's demands.
  • Guardian: The Lonely and Great God: Kim Shin has a few moments of this, usually when Eun-tak is in danger. An especially memorable one occurs when he and Wang Yeo go to save Eun-tak from violent loan sharks who kidnapped her.
  • Happy Days: Fonz has this uncanny habit of showing up exactly when Richie or Joanie need help.
  • Horatio Hornblower:
    • When Horatio and his party are in trouble, HMS Indefatigable saves them. It could practically be a drinking game to take a shot every time "the Bloody Indy" appears over the horizon to save the day.
    • However, if it is the Indefatigable that is endangered, it's Horatio to the rescue!
      • He saved the "Indy" who was under heavy fire from French corvettes, using a French captured ship and sailing under French colours. Not illegal in that era, but he should have changed the flag a few moments earlier to play perfectly according to the rules.
      • When Horatio is about to be told that he's flunked his exam, a fire ship appears and is about to destroy the "Indy". Hornblower and his examinators try to avert the event, and Hornblower and Captain Foster board the freaking fire ship — and change her course, saving the "Indy" and her men. Captain Pellew is impressednote .
    • In "Retribution", Lieutenant Bush and crew are about to be captured by the Spaniards. Convinced that Horatio has abandoned them, Bush angrily remarks, "If you see Mr. Hornblower, tell him he'll hang from the yardarm." What happens barely half a second later? — KA-BOOM!! "Glad to see you safe, Mr. Bush!" Later in the same episode, the Spanish, now imprisoned in the Renown, stage an uprising that takes everyone off guard. Buckland is captured while Bush and Kennedy are severely wounded, and all is lost—until Horatio rams into Renown with the prize vessels and retakes the ship with his own small crews.
  • JAG:
    • In "Déjà Vu", Meg and the Instrumental Theme show up just in the nick of time to save Harm's life.
    • In "Enemy Below", both Harm and Sturgis, in their own ways, prevents Al-Qaida terrorists and a defected Russian submarine captain to unleash a dirty bomb on U.S. Carrier Battle Group in the Indian Ocean.
  • Kamen Rider Build:
    • Sento/Build himself is introduced saving Sawa just as she gets attacked by Needle Smash.
    • In episode 3, Sento appears right when Banjou gets surrounded by Guardians.
    • In episode 22, Banjou comes to stop Build's Hazard Trigger-induced rampage right as he is about to attack untransformed Kazumi/Grease and manages to knocks him out of his transformation.
    • When Evolt gives an opening for Fu and Rai to counterattack Kazumi in episode 37, Gentoku steps in and saves Kazumi, and then proceeds to defeat both brothers with one Crack Up Finish for each of them.
    • In the beginning of episode 39, Kazumi shows up in the nick of time to save Gentoku from being killed by Utsumi with a Castle Discharge Crash and borrows a Nebulasteam Gun to help everyone escape from Evolt and Utsumi.
  • Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders Vs. Great Shocker: Features all mostnote  of the protagonist Riders in the franchise's 38-year history coming to the aid of Decade and Diend after the two were overwhelmed by Shocker's massive numbers.
    • Happens again in Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider: Let's Go!! Kamen Riders, when every Rider (main or not) arrive to take down Great Leader.
    • Truth be told, this was something of a big deal with the Showa Riders after ''V3.
  • Kevin Can F**k Himself: The first season finale ends with Neil shoving Allison against her kitchen counter and choking her out. Fortunately, his sister Patty hears Allison's screams, runs into the house, grabs a bottle, and smashes it over his head, forcing him to the ground before asking Allison if she's okay.
  • Life on Mars: Occurs very frequently in this show and in its Sequel Ashes to Ashes (2008) where Gene Hunt storms in to take down the perp with no hesitation whatsoever. The Pilot of Ashes to Ashes is the most memorable, where the entire 3rd act is one extended Big Damn Heroes moment to rescue Shaz - particularly when Gene and his deputies re-arrive and are speeding towards Shaz and Alex on a boat, under tower bridge, while Gene totes his own sub-machine gun,◊ to the tune of The Strangler's: No More Heroes (which is the perfect song to represent Gene's persona.)
    DI Alex Drake: I have to reclaim my destiny Arthur. Somehow, I'm going to stop you and go home.
    Arthur Layton: What you talking about?
    Alex Drake: I'm facing up to you. I'm strong enough. I'm strong enough to WAKE UP!
    DCI Gene Hunt: (over radio) Oi, Drake! The A-Team are back in business.
    • Like the above example, the Big Damn Heroes moments in this series often coincide with awesome music moments too.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Halbrand saves Elendil's life from an orc by throwing a spear at the creature.
  • Lost: third season finale "Through the Looking Glass:" Three of the Others are holding Sayid, Jin, and Bernard at gunpoint. Sawyer and Juliet are hiding in the bushes, wondering how they can possibly rescue them unarmed. All of a sudden Hurley comes barreling onto the beach and runs over one of them with a Volkswagen Bus.
    • The best was in the series finale when Jack and Locke are having their final confrontation. All seems lost as Locke lowers his knife toward Jack's throat, then BAM! Kate puts a bullet in him.
  • The Mandalorian:In "Chapter 16: The Rescue" The Mandalorian and his allies are trapped on the bridge of Moff Gideon's light cruise with a battalion of Phase Three Dark Trooper droids trying to break down the blast doors. At the last moment a solitary X-Wing appears and docks with the cruiser. Luke Skywalker emerges and quickly makes short work of the ship's entire Dark Trooper complement without even breaking a sweat.
  • The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: Happens fairly often in the 60s spy series. Usually Solo is in James Bondage (often with the Girl of the Week beside him) when Kuryakin will swoop in at the nick of time; occasionally it happens with the roles reversed. One example: The second season episode "The King of Diamonds Affair", when Kuryakin arrives to save Solo, the innocent of the week, and a villain-turned-hero who are strapped to cannons with lit fuses which are about to fire:
    Napoleon Solo: Next time, try not waiting 'til the last minute.
    Illya Kuryakin: Next time try not to go that far up the Amazon.
  • Merlin: During the third season finale Gaius saves Merlin from Morgause, using his magic for the first time in years.
  • Midsomer Murders: Cool Old Guy Byron Street almost pulls this off in "The Night of the Stag" when he arrives on scene as Quested, Smudgepot and Wilberforce prepare to kill Barnaby and Jones.
  • The Ministry of Time: General Ambrogio Spinola and his troops arriving just in time to thwart a Nazi attack on the Ministry.
  • Monarch: Legacy of Monsters:
    • "Departure": Bill Randa and Dr. Keiko Miura are almost killed by the Ion Dragon, when Lee Shaw, who earlier ditched them over a disagreement until he saw the Dragon's ion trails, returns in time to get them out of the shipwreck to safety.
    • "Parallels and Interiors": The next we see of Kentaro after he snaps out of his hallucination, half-hypothermic in a derelict cabin with a radio is him sliding open the door on one of the helicopters that are coming to his friends' rescue to reveal himself already onboard, having successfully called in help using the cabin's radio.
  • Murder, She Wrote: The police force (particularly whenever she was on location) was this for Jessica, whenever the unmasked murderer attempted to add her to their body count.
  • Outlander: Jamie's rescue of Claire from Fort William, as well as from the witch trial
    Jamie: I'll thank you to take your hands off my wife.
  • Person of Interest: Typically when either Reese, Finch, Carter, or Fusco is in trouble, one of the others will come in for the save. Special mention goes for the first season finale where Fusco and Carter play this for Reese when he is pinned down by HR and soon will die.
  • Subverted in the Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie episode "Jeux de glace" (adapted from They Do It With Mirrors): Laurence hears Avril scream, finds her struggling against a big, mean-looking guy, and Curb Stomps him into unconsciousness. Avril is not impressed; she'd stumbled across a dead body and subsequently freaked out, and the big guy was just trying to calm her down.
  • Power Rangers/Super Sentai:
    • Dai Sentai Goggle Five: Opens with Akama Ken'ichi AKA Goggle Red saving Dr. Hongou from Deathdark in the nick of time, while just passing by, even before he knew he's going to be Goggle Red.
    • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: In the first season, this always happened concerning Sixth Ranger Tommy - Rangers would get their asses handed to them, Zordon calls in Tommy, Tommy cleans up shop. One epic moment is Tommy's I'm Back moment in "Return of the Green Ranger Part 2" when Tommy jumps in, repowered, and saves the Rangers with his Dragon Shield glowing brightly, sending the bad guy scattering. As one Youtube viewer put it, "He saved everyone with the power of his awesome!"
    • Without a doubt, Bulk and Skull's awesome moment was during the second season during "When is a Ranger Not a Ranger", when Lord Zedd likely came the closest he ever came to true victory with a Monster of the Week who managed to strip the Rangers of their memories and their powers (all six of them). Bulk and Skull were the ones who managed to rescue them this time; sadly, a side effect of the creatures powers caused them to forget that it happened (but that was for the best, because they also saw the Rangers unmasked).
    • In Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and its American adaptation Power Rangers Samurai, the female Red Ranger (whether you want to call her Kaoru Shiba or Lauren Shiba) saves the team after the normal Red Ranger (again, either Takeru or Jayden) is injured.
    • In Power Rangers Dino Charge, Heckyl arrives just in time to save Keeper and Ms. Morgan from Snide.
    • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: In the movie Gokaiger Goseiger Super Sentai 199 Hero Great Battle, it's revealed that the previous team, the Tensou Sentai Goseiger, were overwhelmed by the invading Zangyack Empire. Cue the arrival of the rest of the 199 Super Sentai, including dead Sentai and Extra Heroes!
  • Primeval: Nick and Cutter are being chased by a Raptor. Connor, who's been ridiculed all episode for his lack of gun skills, barrels in from behind Nick, yells him out of the way and takes a fully grown Raptor down with one shot.
    • In another episode, a swarm of Megopterans and a pack of future predators are catching up to the team and all seems lost...cue Becker, thought to be dead already, blasting away from his hiding place inside a car. Damn, that guy is badass.
  • Psych: "Big Damn Heroes" is Lassiter and Juliet's standby mode. Listing all the times they've kicked down doors with guns at the ready to rescue Shawn and Gus from the villain of the week (sometimes more than once in a single episode) would cover at least 1/3 of all episodes ever aired. The duo is usually together during these moments, although both Lassie and Jules have pulled off a handful of solo BDH's too.
  • Radio Enfer: Carl has to deal with a bully named Magnant, who keeps stealing his money. When Carl refuses to give him money, the bully grabs him and attempts to punch him right in the face, only for Jean-Lou to grab his fist in the nick of time before proceeding to twist Magnant's wrist into submission.
  • Raven: Pulls one of these at the ending of The Secret Temple. About bloody time too.
  • Red Dwarf: Ace Rimmer (What a guy!) is usually introduced in a Big Damn Heroes scene. In "Dimension Jump", he flies in, saves the crew, then performs emergency surgery on the Cat while nursing a broken arm. In "Stoke Me a Clipper", he sweeps in, rescues a Damsel in Distress from a Nazi firing squad, surfs from a plane on an alligator, takes a bullet to the holodrive and still manages to have sex before seeking aid — what a guy.
  • In the second season of Resurrection: Ertuğrul, Geyikli manages to save a weak-handed Ertugrul's life from a Mongol soldier by piercing the attacker from behind with his wooden spear.
    • Later that season, Ertugrul’s brother Sungurtekin manages to rescue Halime and Deli Demir from a Mongol ambush in the nick of time.
    • One season later, a spectacular example occurs when Ural and his alps attempt to systematically execute Halime and the other hatuns, only to be interrupted by Ertugrul, who proceeds to lead his men onto the scene and finish the traitors off once and for all.
  • Revolution: Miles and Rachel's appearance in Annapolis - with a laser-guided missile launcher - in "The Stand." One almost expects Rachel to invoke this trope, and Miles to declare, "Ain't we just!" (from Firefly).
  • Rome: In the first season episode The Spoils, Titus Pullo finds himself severely outmatched in the arena by an enormous gladiator. Enter Lucius Vorenus, who makes short work of his opponent and gets Pullo out alive.
    • The episode Caesarion begins with Cleopatra in mortal danger, about to be killed by her brother-husband Ptolemy XIII. Just as the Nubian executioner sent to kill the queen is about to do his work, Titus Pullo storms in and brutally kills him instead.
    • The very first episode has Vorenus and Pullo slaughter a group of Gauls who have captured Octavian and are using him as a slave. While they're not trying to save Octavian, per se, it is clear that Octavian sees them as this - especially Pullo.
  • Roswell: In the series finale, Michael is on his way out of town when he sees a fleet of black cars heading the other way. Rightly guessing this means trouble, he turns back...just in time to burst through the school auditorium doors on a motorbike, ride up the aisle and onto the stage, where Max gets on behind him and everyone gets away.
  • Scrap Teacher: Takasugi and his group are always this. They show up just when their teacher and/or classmates are in some kind of trouble.
  • Sherlock:
  • Shine a Light: When Wally and Les are running out of food in "The Chips are Down", Taffy arrives with his supply ship to replenish their stock.
  • Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The premise of the show revolves around the main characters delivering lost mail at the time that the recipient (or sender) needs it most. There are a few episodes in the series that said lost mail leads to the main characters becoming Big Damn Heroes to something bigger.
  • Sinbad: Features at the end of episode 4 in the Sky 1 series, when Sinbad and Gunnar have to rescue Nala.
  • Smallville: It is a Superman show, what did you expect? Tons of There Was a Door, Out of the Inferno and Load-Bearing Hero moments.
  • Stargate SG-1: Did the same thing as Battlestar Galactica, above, in a battle against Anubis' fleet above Antarctica, in the two-parter Grand Finale (well, it was a finale at the time), "Lost City", at the end of Season 7. Dozens of ships are descending towards the heroes' defenseless cargo ship. Cue rockets blowing up Goa'uld fighters, as General Hammond leads the Prometheus against the incoming enemies.
    • Both of those situations share several stylistic similarities: main characters convinced that they are doomed, and the sudden appearance of rockets, instantly followed by the use of a Theme Music Power-Up: Galactica with fast-paced drums and Stargate with the main theme of the series. The resemblance is probably just a coincidence, unless a Galactica writer did a Homage to SG-1.
    • Another example is in Stargate Atlantis at the beginning of Season 2 when Atlantis is under imminent attack, the self-destruct is armed and counting...then Earth responds to their earlier distress call with a small army of marines and an intergalactic battlecruiser.
    • That's nothing compared to the series' grand finale. One of the best Gunship Rescues ever.
    • Russia never being heroes and then in Continuum: "We have been expecting you. Good luck."
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek: The Original Series:
      • "Friday's Child" has Kirk, Spock, and McCoy unarmed, outnumbered, and surrounded by a Klingon force. "Too bad the cavalry doesn't come over the hill anymore," Kirk actually says just before Scotty and a security detailnote  beams down to save the day.
    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
      • "Shattered Mirror". When Mirror Bashir and Mirror Dax swoop in to save the day, you've almost forgotten that they were a part of the plan all along.
      • In "Sacrifice of Angels", the Defiant is leading Starfleet against Dominion-Cardassian forces. Just as three Jem'Hadar are closing in on it, the Klingons finally arrive, decloaking from the direction of a star and smashing through the Dominion lines.
    • Star Trek: Discovery:
      • In "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2", the Discovery and Enterprise are getting their asses kicked by CONTROL and its fleet of Section 31 ships when two sets of this trope hits. The first is a fleet of Kelpian shuttles lead by Saru's sister Sarena followed by a Klingon cleave ship with High Chancellor L'Rell captaining it with L'Rell mentioning the battlecruisers are right behind her.
    • Star Trek: Picard:
    • In "The Impossible Box", Elnor and his sword show up in time to save Picard, Soji and Hugh from Romulan soldiers. Unlike the last time, however, Picard doesn't scold Elnor for killing their enemies, and he even thanks him for it.
      • In "Broken Pieces", Seven of Nine appears in the nick of time to rescue Elnor from the Romulans who are about to overpower him.
      • In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", Captain Riker arrives in command of a vast Starfleet armada just in time to prevent the Romulans from destroying Picard's ship and wipe out the synths on Coppelius.
  • Stranger Things:
    • Eleven has a few of these, disappearing to whereabouts unknown (whether to her friends or the audience as well), but then turning up to save the day just as those she cares about are in imminent danger of dying.
    • The Battle of Starcourt features two epic of these, though this time not for Eleven (who had hers a bit prior), but for Steve and Robin, when they ram Billy's car, and shortly afterwards when they together with Will and Lucas attack the Mind Flayer with a veritable shit-ton of self-made explosives.
  • Supernatural: Occurs all the time.
    • But defied in the Season 4 finale, "Lucifer Rising": when Ruby prevents Dean from getting into the room in time to tell Sam that Lilith is the final seal and killing her will release Lucifer.
    • Done to a hideously Narm-ish degree in "Swan Song" when Dean shows up to interrupt the impending smackdown between Michael and Lucifer. And then hilariously subverted a few minutes later when Castiel appears and hits Michael with a Holy Hand Grenade (aka, a Molotov of anti-angel holy oil) only to get blown up a second later by Lucifer.
  • Teen Wolf: Derek is making a habit of it, to the point where it is an expected part of his Heel–Face Revolving Door.
  • At the end of the Titans episode "Together", Jason Todd, the new Robin, arrives to save Dick from the Organisation's hired goons.
  • Torchwood: In "Countrycide", Ianto Jones is about to have his throat slit by a cannibal with a meat cleaver, when good ol' Captain Jack breaks through the wall "in a ruddy great tractor" and starts shooting people. Cue theme music.
  • Tower Prep: Ian, Suki, and CJ show up just in time to save Gabe in the season finale.
  • True Blood: Jason Stackhouse confronts a mob of Maryann's crazed revelers armed with only a chainsaw and a nailgun in order to save Sam from being sacrificed. Thanks to a rare moment of cleverness on his part, it works. Took a Level in Badass, indeed.
  • Veronica Mars: This seemed to be Logan's main function whenever Veronica got into over her head. Out of every one of them, his biggest BDH moment has to be in 2x08, when Logan points a gun at a bar full of Fitzpatricks, orders them to let Veronica go, and walks out with her. Made all the more awesome by the fact that the gun wasn't loaded.
    Logan: Stop! I've had a very bad year.
  • Walker, Texas Ranger: The series’ titular character was this almost Once per Episode. Examples ranged from saving a teenaged girl who was Buried Alive and a young woman trapped in a burning house to his fiancé and partner being trapped in a Drowning Pit to stopping a psychopath who had taken over a courtroom and the situation turned to anarchy.
  • Wallenberg: A Hero's Story: The neutral diplomats showing up at the train station at Heygeshalom, 250 km note  from Budapest.
  • Wedding Season:
    • In the fourth episode, the police arrive just as Stefan is about to get shot by Conrad.
    • In the fifth episode Metts has Stefan and Katie cornered, only for Donahue to interrupt at the last second.
  • Wonder Woman: In "Wonder Woman in Hollywood", once the evil Nazi plot has been unleashed, all of the war heroes and Major Steve Trevor have been captured, and they're being whisked off to Germany, it's Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl to the rescue! They race to the hideout on foot at amazon speed, rescue the kidnapped soldiers, but Wonder Woman is shot! Or so it seems...
  • The X-Files:
    • Agents Mulder and Scully saved each other at the last minute on a regular basis, as both suffered from Damsel in Distress and Distressed Dude. Scully often used her medical knowledge.
    • In "Død Kalm", Mulder and Scully are rescued by unknown people, probably the Norwegian Navy.
    • In "731", X saves Mulder from an exploding train. Then he does the Unflinching Walk and outwalks the fireball with Mulder in the Over-the-Shoulder Carry position.
    • In "Field Trip", it's AD Skinner and bunch of other FBI agents who save the dynamic duo from caves with hallucinogenic mushrooms that were devouring them alive. Both are barely conscious, covered in mud and yellow substance.

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