Heartbroken Badass / Live-Action Films

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• The Bourne Series: After Marie's death at the beginning of the second movie, Bourne becomes a broken man; he never even manages more than a bittersweet half-smile afterwards (and that's once or twice), for the entire series. And the only truly personal possession he keeps is a picture of her.
• At the beginning of The Dark Knight Rises, we see that Bruce Wayne has been grieving over the loss of Rachel Dawes for eight years.
• Ash Williams, early in Evil Dead 2, has to kill his demonically possessed girlfriend. Twice.
• Connor MacLeod from Highlander is an immortal warrior who was born in Scotland in the 1500's. He married a beautiful girl, Heather, and she was the love of his life. Until she died of old age in his arms in 1590. By 1986, he still lights a candle for her on her birthday. In Highlander: Endgame, they are finally reunited in death.
• In The Hobbit, after becoming incredibly close to the Company during their journey, Bilbo is so traumatized and broken by the deaths of Thorin, Fíli, and Kíli that he can scarcely talk about them for many years after returning home to the Shire.
• Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 after Peeta has been hijacked into hating her. She takes the loss of his love so hard that she almost begins to hate him for not loving her anymore. Still stays very badass though.
• John Wick was perhaps the most lethal and feared hitman of the criminal underworld, capable of taking out entire crime families by himself. Even after falling in love with a woman and leaving the killer's life behind did nothing to water down his legend. The loss of his wife to cancer leaves John a grieving man; it's only the presence of her last gift, a puppy named Daisy, that allows him to cope with that grief. The moment that same puppy is killed is the moment that breaks John, causing him to dive headfirst back into the underworld. Nobody except Continental-owner Winston seems to understand that John simply wants to be left alone- until John starts racking up the body count.
• Bill in the Kill Bill movies. As quoted in Vol. II before their fight as to why the Bride was targeted in the first place.
  The Bride: You "overreacted"? Is that your explanation?
  Bill: I didn't say I was going to explain myself. I said I was going to tell you the truth. But if that's too cryptic, let's get literal. I'm a killer. A murdering bastard, you know that. And there are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard. You experienced some of them.
• Mina Harker, in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, turns into one of these after she revives her old romance with The Mole only to have him show what's Beneath the Mask and take off.
• The primary motivation for Max Rockatansky's adventures from the Mad Max series. After losing his family to a bunch of bandits and later avenging their deaths at the end of the first film, Max became such an empty shell of a man he simply traveled around with no real direction.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Captain America: The First Avenger:
    • Steve Rogers, when he wakes up seventy years after World War II had ended and realizes that Agent Peggy Carter who he promised to go dancing with is either dead or has likely moved on in her life without him.
      Steve: I had a date.
    • Also, Peggy herself was heartbroken and in tears when she and Steve had their final conversation with him going down on the Valkyrie aircraft in his Heroic Sacrifice. Agent Carter shows that she's still heartbroken after a year has passed since the events of the film.
  • Tony Stark is clearly heartbroken at the end of Captain America: Civil War after he discovers that his parents were murdered by the Winter Soldier and that Steve has been keeping it from him. Oh, yeah, and his best friend is paralysed and his girlfriend broke up with him (again).
  • Avengers: Infinity War:
    • Deconstructed with Star-Lord, who becomes a Heartbroken Badass after Thanos kills Gamora to get the Soul Stone, but all his grief and anger does is cause him to lash out at Thanos at the worst time possible (when the other heroes are seconds away from pulling the Infinity Gauntlet off him). Keep in mind, before all that, he found out his biological father killed his mother, was forced to kill him for trying to assimilate the entire universe, and loses Yondu, the man worthy enough to be called his dad, making Gamora's death the final straw for him.
    • In the span of three films, Thor has lost his mother, his father, Mjölnir, the Warriors Three, his sister, Asgard, most of the remaining Asgardians, Heimdall, and his younger brother Loki. As Thor explains to Rocket, he's now lost his entire family, his homeland, and nearly all his friends, and it's pretty clear that his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Thanos is the only thing keeping him from breaking down. Unfortunately his current state of mind causes him to make some bad decisions and he chooses to stretch out Thanos's death rather than give him a swift execution in the climax of Infinity War, which leaves Thanos the opportunity to annihilate half the universe's population. Now knowing he is responsible for half of the universe's eradication due to his own arrogance and lacking the distraction of wanting to slay Thanos (as he does that in the opening moments of Avengers: Endgame), everything he's endured or caused comes crashing down on him and leaves him living the shell of a life in the Time Skip.
  • Avengers: Endgame:
    • Hawkeye is the opening example reason: Opening sees him bond with his family and after his back is turned her family turned to ash thanks to Thanos. Later on Vormir, Clint and Natasha fight and while Clint tried to save her, she let go and Hawkeye gets the Soul Stone. he is still heartbroken after the climactic battle since Natasha is no longer with him.
    • Pepper Potts and Peter Parker becomes this after Iron Man sacrifice his life and save the universe. Pepper and Peter looked on his dead body with sadness. before he dies Peter Parker said they won. By Spider-Man: Far From Home Peter is still heartbroken and now he is all alone according to Happy
    • Wanda's last memories before disappearing in the snap were of Thanos killing Vision to acquire the Mind Stone, hence "heartbroken". Her first major act when she returns is to lash out at Thanos, becoming the first Avenger in Endgame to seriously damage the mad Titan, hence "badass".
      Wanda: You...took...everything from me!
      Thanos: I don't even know who you are.
      Wanda: You will.
• The titular character from The Outlaw Josey Wales starts out as this, though he later evolves into a Bruiser with a Soft Center, as well as the Team Dad.
• By the end of Pacific Rim, Hercules Hansen has outlived his son, his wife, his best friend, and his entire family. The last twenty minutes are obviously torture for Herc as he watches his only child make a Heroic Sacrifice that had originally been planned for him, not the 21-year-old Chuck.
• In Persuasion, Captain Wentworth introduces Anne and the Musgroves to his friend Captain Benwick — a gloomy man who is heartbroken over the death of his fiancee before their marriage, and a great lover of romantic poetry. Though we don't see it, Wentworth and Captain Harville assure the others that Benwick in battle is a fierce opponent.
• Davy Jones of the Pirates of the Caribbean films is an unkillable, badass scourge of the seas. All because his love, Calypso, stood him up.
  Davy Jones: Ten years, I devoted to the duty you charged me! Ten years, I looked after those who died at sea! And finally, when we could be together again... You! Weren't! There!
• James Bond in Quantum of Solace, following on from the events of Casino Royale (2006), as well as (presumably) in Diamonds Are Forever, following Tracy's death in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He is shown to set flowers on Tracy's grave in the opening scene of For Your Eyes Only.
  • He's also this in Licence to Kill, after reliving the ending to Majesty's when he finds Felix Leiter badly mauled and his (Felix's) wife murdered.
• Darth Vader is revealed to be this trope. Sure he was pretty badass in the Clone Wars as Anakin Skywalker, but as soon as his wife died, well, A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back can testify to just how more threatening he became.
  • While the betrayal of his former Padawan is probably already sufficient to qualify, in the Expanded Universe poor Obi-Wan Kenobi goes through this no fewer than three times! Siri Tachi and Satine Kryze die in front of him and Taria Damsin is stricken with a fatal illness.
  • Han Solo starts off the Sequel Trilogy with 32 years of cynical and resigned sorrow that his son, Ben, fell to the Dark Side whilst under Luke Skywalker's tutelage and it ruptured his marriage to Leia. His return to smuggling is primarily so he can leave his past behind him, despite being a hero to the Rebellion and New Republic.
• In The Suicide Theory, Steve is emotionally wrecked after the hit-and-run death of his wife Annie.
• In Zombieland, it's revealed Buck, Tallahassee's beloved puppy was actually his beloved son that he lost during the Zombie Apocalypse. This at least explains why he takes particular pleasure in killing zombies.

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