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Super Strength / Live-Action Films

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  • The Adventures of Captain Marvel showcases one of the earliest film examples (which makes sense, given that it's the first-ever superhero film) with the titular Captain Marvel. Throughout the 12-episode serial, the Captain lifts enormous stone columns, large fallen trees, elevator cars, and other feats of strength, to the point that he ends some of his fistfights with criminals by casually slapping them.
  • Alien:
    • The Xenomorphs appear to have this, given that one easily overpowers Brett in Alien, and a group effortlessly pulls open automatic doors barring them from their prey in Aliens. Justified a bit as their bodies have exoskeletons and are biomechanical in nature, making them much stronger than the average human. They can even overpower Yautja, with one Xenomorph impaling a Yautja warrior and lifting him up into the air with its tail. The Xenomorph Queen is the strongest, being able to rip android Bishop in two like wet tissue paper and match Ripley in a Power Loader. The Facehuggers are also dreadfully strong for their size — in Aliens, it takes the combined effort of Hicks, Vasquez and Gorman just to get one off of Ripley before it can impregnate her.
    • The M-56 Smart Gun in Aliens is already a hefty piece of equipment, weighing in at 18 kilograms (or 36 pounds), and yet Operator Mark Drake is able to effectively and accurately operate said heavy-weapon and retreat at a brisk pace while wearing 4-kilograms (or 8 pounds) of chest plate armor, while also carrying a fully-loaded M-240-A Flame Unit, which adds yet another 2 kilograms (or 4 pounds) to his already considerable encumbrance. Drake sure is one tough customer, being able to briskly maneuver and effectively fight while weighed down by 24 kilograms (or 48 pounds) of weapon and armor at all times.
    • The Engineers, as seen in Prometheus, are super-strong thanks to their size and biology; we see one Engineer rip the android David's head off with one arm and use it to beat Weyland to death. In the Prometheus tie-in comic Predator: Fire and Stone, one Engineer easily fights the Yautja Ahab, snapping his arm like a breadstick and tossing him around — Ahab has to use his gadgets to weaken the Engineer in order to kill it.
  • The eponymous hero of the Baahubali duology can lift 100-pound statues of solid gold without breaking a sweat.
  • Blade Runner: Nexus-6 Replicants are built to be far more durable and stronger than human beings, at the cost of a reduced lifespan. In the climax, Roy Batty lifts up Deckard's entire body weight using only one hand to save Deckard's life.
    • The Replicants' strength is shown in even greater detail in Blade Runner 2049, as the Nexus-9 Replicant protagonist K at one point busts through a wall like Kool-Aid Man and the willowy Luv effectively overpowers the protagonist at several points. However, while Nexus-9 Repiclants are strong, they're still not that much more durable than normal humans and are still vulnerable to bleeding to death, getting shot and drowning, thus making them Glass Cannons in general.
  • Bloodshot (2020): When testing what he can do after gaining the nanites, Ray first punches into a sandbag, then cracks concrete. He can also send people flying and shove vehicles.
  • The Chronicles of Riddick:
    • Riddick has super-strength as part of the benefits of being a Human Alien from a high-gravity Death World. Combined with the savagery and brutality that he displays in combat, he tends to shred through his opponents like they're made out of tinfoil. Of course, in retrospect, it makes you wonder how a simple locked door could stop Riddick in Pitch Black.
    • The Necromongers display prodigious levels of physical strength, especially those in the higher ranks like Vaako and the Lord Marshall. Again, it's been pointed out that the Necromongers hail from a heavy-gravity world, and they make use of gravity-based energy weapons along with gravity engines and drives for their ships and vehicles.
  • Elysium: Aside from being able to rip off the heads from droids and throw people around like dolls, the Exosuits increase the user's physical performance dramatically. They move more quickly than the average combatant, and Kruger is able to leap a great distance and height using his Exosuit. Max is able to rip himself from a gurney and pretty much pulverize Crowe into the floor of the Armoury before throwing him like a shotput.
  • Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th series has this ability from Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives and onwards after he becomes an undead zombie. Some of his feats of strength include ripping a man's arm off just by slightly pulling it and decapitating someone with one punch.
  • The Funhouse Massacre: Rocco the Clown is able to kill people by lifting them up with a single hand and throwing them down.
  • Future World (2018): Ash looks like a fairly slight, slim woman, but she is capable of lifting up and killing larger men with her bare hands.
  • Game of Death: Jabbar's character shows supernatural strength and can lift James Tien with ease... that is, as long as he is not blinded by the light.
  • Godzilla gives two examples; Godzilla himself, able to throw kaiju of equal proportions over his head, and Titanosaurus, the only kaiju in the entire series to lift Godzilla by the head using only his own head and neck.
  • The Golem: The Golem is arguably super-strong, single-handedly supporting the ceiling of the Emperor's palace at one point.
  • Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers: Michael Myers is so strong that he impales Kelly with a shotgun through her torso and through a wall.
  • Highlander: Though it isn't specified, the Immortals appear to have this along with Immortality. Connor MacLeod is able to cut through a concrete pillar with his Cool Sword, and Big Bad Kurgan impales a man with his sword and lifts him up by the hilt before throwing him across an alley.
  • Indestructible Man: After his resurrection, Butcher Benson is strong enough to lift a car and rip a steel safe apart with bare hands.
  • It Runs in the Family (1994): Big Dicky of the redneck gang that makes conflict with the old man can tear the porch right off of a house.
  • Obviously the larger dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park franchise are much stronger than people, but they are also shown to be much stronger than their real-life counterparts as well. This is most noticeable for Rexie, the Spinosaurus, and especially the Indominus.
  • King Kong is a classic example, being a gigantic ape who can snatch biplanes out of the air and crush them as well as overpower and kill multiple dinosaurs who attack him on Skull Island. In Kong: Skull Island, Kong swings a ship's anchor chain around as a Improvised Weapon, and in Godzilla vs. Kong, he's even able to stagger and down Godzilla with his blows.
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Mr. Hyde is a hulking monstrosity with super-strength, unlike his literary counterpart.
  • Les Misérables (2012) has Valjean, who (just like in the book) is able to lift things that no person could realistically lift in that era (a ship mast and horse cart). While it's more of a metaphor for Valjean's labor in life, it also makes Javert an Adaptational Badass in hindsight, since he's able to match and drive off the superhuman Valjean rather than being easily beaten as in the Broadway musical.
    Valjean: I am warning you, Javert, I'm a stronger man by far/there is power in me yet, my race is not yet run.
  • In The Lord of the Rings, several creatures and races have great strength, even willowy elves like Galadriel, who carries Gandalf effortlessly in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. The most extreme example is Sauron — being a Maiar, he can send entire armies flying with a swing of his mace, as seen during the Flashback in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
  • Usually not present in the Mad Max movies, which mostly depict the human characters as realistic in terms of ability... until Mad Max: Fury Road, in which The Brute Rictus rips the tunnel ram out of the War Rig's engine with his bare hands, which is not physically possible for anyone other than a superhuman to do. This does raise the question as to how the hell Max could beat Rictus in a fistfight earlier in the same scene, but then again, Max isn't exactly a normal person himself.
  • Almost everyone in The Matrix is able to punch through concrete and crush cars underneath their feet. The Agents are the most blatant examples, but the heroes have this as well — in the training room, Morpheus sends Neo flying with a kick so strong that he snaps a wooden pillar. Speaking of Neo, he gets even greater strength as a Flying Brick, as does Smith.
  • Morgan: Morgan and Lee both have this due to being artificial human super soldiers, throwing people at least their size or larger around easily.
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors: In his dreams, Kincaid is a super-strong bruiser who can bend steel with his bare hands. Not strong enough for Freddy, however...
  • Night of the Living Dorks: Konrad discovers that he gained immense strength when he became a zombie. He starts using it to get back at everyone who bullied him.
  • The One: All versions of Gabriel in The Multiverse get this thanks to in-universe Conservation of Ninjutsu. At one point, Yulaw uses a pair of police motorcycles as boxing gloves.
  • Painkiller Jane: Among the enhancements she receives, Jane gains great strength, allowing her to break out of handcuffs with ease.
  • Not only is the titular alien (Yautja) in Predator strong enough to overwhelm Arnie's Dutch and Neck Lift him, but he can also rip men's spines out like they're Made of Plasticine. Later Predators are shown breaking concrete with their blows and swinging around the aforementioned Xenomorphs by the tail. The Predator in Prey (2022) is outright able to kill a grizzly bear with a punch to the head (after wrestling with it) and then hoisting up its carcass unassisted.
  • Fezzik in The Princess Bride has great strength, most notably shown during Westley's first encounter with the giant, in which Fezzik gives Westley a warning shot by throwing a boulder at a rock near Westley's head so hard that it powderizes. Fezzik then picks up another enormous boulder in one hand, nonchalantly chucking it over his shoulder when they decide to fight in hand-to-hand combat.
  • RoboCop, being a Cyborg, has enhanced strength to the point of being able to punch through walls, send dudes flying with simple blows, and Neck Lift Boddicker. In RoboCop (2014), he's presented as even stronger, and faster as well. However, RoboCop's greatest feat of strength comes from RoboCop: The Series, in which he pushes back a 2850 hydraulic press.
  • In Star Wars, several characters and aliens have enhanced strength, including the Rancor, Wampas, Wookies such as Chewbacca, and (of course) Darth Vader. Jedi can also draw strength from the Force when they're not being merely super-athletic — see Force-powered Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs from Mace Windu.
  • Augments from Star Trek tend to have this as standard, but it's most apparent with John Harrison/Khan from Star Trek Into Darkness, who can swing around a beam cannon like it weighs nothing (one-handed no less), send men flying with a single blow, and crush peoples' skulls with his bare hands. The only one who can fight him evenly is Spock, since Vulcans (including a Half-Human Hybrid like him) are much stronger than humans — even then, Khan can still No-Sell the infamous Nerve Pinch, showing just how strong he is.
  • The Strongest Man in the World revolves around Medfield College student Dexter Reilly inadvertently gaining super-strength from a Super Serum that lands in the cereal of his best friend, Richard Shuyler.
  • Terminator:
  • The Turtles have this in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). Donnie is able to throw Raph with enough force to bash in a Humvee and send it rolling down a hill and flip another truck over with only his bo staff himself. Earlier, when hyped up on adrenaline, they all break through their unbreakable glass cages.
  • Thirst (2015): The alien displays how strong it is by throwing one of the cast through the air and into a fence, which breaks to pieces on impact.
  • Yello Dyno from Tricky People can rip locked safes open with little to no effort.
  • Achilles from Troy is an implied example, as when first invading Troy, he effortlessly cuts the head off a bronze statue of Apollo like it's made of butter. Given Achilles's supposed Semi-Divine nature, this would make sense, but the film is intentionally vague about it.
  • David in Unbreakable can rip car doors off and lift over five hundred pounds (as seen in a Deleted Scene). It's unclear what his maximum potential is, as lifting anything heavy requires great effort, and he never fails at lifting anything. It's hinted that David's only limits are those that he puts in his own mind.
  • Underworld (2003): In Underworld: Evolution, Marcus pulls a helicopter out of the air by pulling a chain hanging from it. It's possible that Marcus is gripping the cave floor with his clawed feet, but it's not shown.
  • We Are the Night: The vampires get this. Although appearing to be just ordinary women, they can toss around much larger men with ease and kill them using only their bare hands (via Neck Snap when not draining their blood).
  • Wishcraft: The killer has this due to his final wish so he could take on young and muscular male victims with ease. Brett however uses his final wish to be tougher, stronger and faster so he'll stop the killer.

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