Friend or Idol Decisions made in Live-Action Films.
- Avengers: Infinity War: Since Loki once craved the power of the Tesseract, for him the choice offered by Thanos between the cube and his brother's life is this. He pretends not to care for Thor, then attempts to Take a Third Option by announcing Hulk's attack, but neither works. Loki then tosses the cube aside and rushes to shield Thor.
- The Disney Channel original movie Brink! (a loose adaptation of Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates) revolves around this trope: the main character (a competitive skater) must choose between competing with his friends or as part of a sponsored team.
- In the 1995 movie adaptation of Casper, the titular ghost makes just such a decision at the end of the film, choosing to give up the only bottle of life-restoring formula for his father's "Lazarus Machine" in order to bring back Cat's newly-deceased father.
- In Cyrano de Bergerac, Cyrano is finally confronted with the possibility that his cousin (don't worry about it) actually loves him for his wit despite his ugly nose. Tragically, at the same time Christian, the man she thinks is writing all the letters Cyrano has actually been writing, is fatally wounded. Cyrano, in the ultimate sacrifice, ends up choosing to save his friend's honor and memory over the chance to be with the love of his life.
- In Darkman III: Die Darkman Die, a villain shoots a floppy with the main character's accumulated research on skin substitutes, and a fire during the climactic fight leaves one girl severely burnt. Darkman had been intending to use the flask of liquid skin he kept on himself, since it had shown promising results... but he ends the series still faceless, as the flask goes to the burn victim instead.
- At the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy had to choose between getting the Holy Grail or taking his father's hand, thus allowing Indy to survive. He chooses to "let it go". The Nazi-lady doesn't.
- This happens twice in the James Bond movie GoldenEye. During the second, the Big Bad even says "So, what's the choice James? Two targets; time enough for one shot: the girl or the mission?" The game uses the same scenario, but leaves an opening to subvert the trope; if the player stands at exactly the right angle, it is possible to kill the person holding the girl hostage, and shoot The Dragon before they get the shield down. This buys you more time in the escape scene.
- K2: Siren of the Himalayas: Team leader Fabrizio Zangrilli on one of his climbs up K2 was within an hour of the summit, but saw a porter that had suffered a stroke, so the priority became getting him down the mountain.
- In The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) both Napoleon and Illya are forced into this position by the end of the movie: retrieve the tape containing sensitive information at all costs, including, if necessary, killing the other to do so. Yet to do so would mean killing a man they've come to respect. After Napoleon gives Illya his father's watch (which had been stolen from a mook, and Napoleon found during the raid), they Take a Third Option and burn the tape altogether. Immediately after Mr. Waverly comes to them with a job offer to join U.N.C.L.E.
- At the end of Meet Dave, the aliens realize that they only have enough power to either retrieve the orb and save Earth or go home. Fortunately, Josh's quick thinking allows them to do both.
- In the film adaptation of The Name of the Rose, Adso of Melk, a young virginal monk, begins to feel a bond of love towards the young peasant girl that he had intercourse with. However, at the end of the film, after the girl was spared from death, Adso had to make a decision to leave behind the girl and follow his calling as a monk, or to leave behind his calling and possibly marry the girl. He chose the former option, and in the latter years of his life, as he was narrating the entire story as a memoir, he recalled that he did not know the girl's name.
- In National Treasure, Ben the hero chooses the idol, dropping the Love Interest in order to save the Declaration of Independence. She later reassures him that she would have done exactly the same thing. And he drops her someplace safer than where he is at the moment.
- Riley: I would have dropped you both! [mutters] Freaks.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: At the end of the maelstrom battle, Jack has a shot at his lifelong dream of immortality and the most dangerous ship in the Caribbean — not to mention supernatural powers and revenge on all of his enemies — but gives it up to save Will.
- In Remember the Titans, Coach Yoast finds himself faced with one of these. The School Board has placed a condition on the African-American Herman Boone keeping his job as head coach (the Caucasian Yoast's previous position; he's now the Assistant Coach)—namely, Boone has to win every single game or be fired. Before the first playoff game, Yost's School Board friends assure him that they've done something to ensure a loss, and sure enough, the Titans are flagged for every single play. If Yoast keeps his mouth shut, he'll not only get his old job back, but he'll be nominated for the High School Football Hall of Fame, which has been his dream for years. For a few minutes, he seems to actively consider not saying anything...but then calls out the ref, telling him that he knows they've been paid off to make crooked calls, and that he'll reveal the whole operation to the papers if they don't stop immediately. The ref agrees, the Titans win, and the furious School Board officials assure Yoast that "you just lost yourself the Hall of Fame."
- Safety Patrol: In the climax, Mr. Miller nearly falls to his death from a hot air balloon because he won't let go of a bag of stolen money to grab Scout's hand.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022): When Tails is knocked unconscious, Sonic immediately abandons chasing the compass to save him, letting Dr. Robotnik and Knuckles take the compass. This pays off because seeing this honorable act makes Knuckles question if Sonic is really evil or not, and ultimately gets Knuckles on his side.
- In Star Trek Into Darkness, the movie opens with Spock trapped in a volcano on a pre-warp civilized planet with a cold fusion bomb set to go off to stop the volcano from performing an Earth-Shattering Kaboom. Rescuing Spock would mean violating the Prime Directive by letting the natives there see the Enterprise but not doing so would see Spock die. Kirk decides to risk it and save Spock, though McCoy tells Kirk that if their roles were switched, Spock would have abandoned him to uphold the Prime Directive.
- Star Wars:
- In the climax of Attack of the Clones, Count Dooku destroys a pillar to escape. Two Jedi are underneath the pillar, and would be killed if it fell. But Yoda needs to kill Dooku to end the war. Of course, Yoda saves the two Jedi. Though it's possible he missed the trick of throwing the pillar at Dooku's ship.
- In the climax of the Return of the Jedi , Darth Vader must make the choice between obeying his master Palpatine, or saving his son Luke. In the end he chooses to save his son by throwing Palpatine down the reactor shaft at the cost of his own life.
- Toward the end of Tower of Terror, Buzzy has to decide between helping the ghosts or getting his newspaper career back. In the end, he gets both.
- In Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Charlie finds himself faced with this in the final stretch. As the factory tour ends, turns out that Willy Wonka knew that Charlie and Grandpa Joe stole Fizzy Lifting Drinks, and due to violating a (very small!) clause in the contract they signed at its start, Charlie will not receive a lifetime supply of chocolate. But if he sells the Everlasting Gobstopper he received to Mr. Wonka's rival Slugworth, he'll get enough money to lift his family out of poverty, which he wants more than anything else...but he promised Mr. Wonka he'd never do such a thing when he got it. He decides to apologize for what he did by giving the Gobstopper back to Mr. Wonka, who then reveals that this was actually a Secret Test of Character that Charlie passed. Now Charlie will not only get the chocolate, but become his heir, so Charlie gets even more than he wanted for doing good!
- Happens again in the 2005 film adaptation. After Charlie is the last kid left, Wonka designates him as the heir of the factory...but states that he will only do so if Charlie has to leave the rest of his family behind. Because family always comes first for him, Charlie declines the offer. However, after Wonka reunites with his own long-estranged father, he changes his mind and allows the family to live in the factory, even moving their entire house into there.
