Emergence of Hero

I like a particular trope in movies. it never gets old and if done well, it will never feel boring.

I am talking about the trope where in the hero emerges from the group in the time of difficulties or grave danger. Classic example is of ripley. During the first half of the movie, it doesn't feel like ripley is the lead. But when stuff hits the fan and everyone starts freaking out, the hero emerges aka the one with balls and skill and right state of mind emerges as main lead and takes control of the situation.

I can give more examples
Arnold in predator
Antonio Banderas in 13th warrior
Ripley in Alien.

Are there any other good movies where this is the case ?

Does Jamie Foxx in Collateral count?

It kind of counts...but in that movie its more of a two hander and there is only 1 of 2 ways it can go..either cruise comes on top or vice versa.

Something along the lines of live and die in LA also counts...where right before the end...the main protagonist gets his head blown off and his partner needs to carry on the chase from there and kill the bad guy. Its more of a unexpected hero scenario.

On a lighter note..i never bought into transformation of jamie foxx in that movie. He would never have went after tom cruise.

Oh I thought Foxx would have went after Cruise to save the woman cause since he already feels guilty for driving an assassin to people's death, he was not going to want to feel guilty for the last one, especially a woman he grew a little more fond of, unless I'm wrong?

I can try to think of other examples though.

Hombre / Con Air / Under Siege (1992) / Executive Decision (1996)
A few Dramas: 12 Angry Men / Runaway Jury / Titanic / In the Heat of the Night

Ironpony's right about Collateral - the progression to that point has been clearly marked (especially during the nightclub scene where Foxx's character meets Javier Bardem's character). There was even this video essay that noted said progression:



I don't think Arnold's character in Predator counts. He's not only part of a squad of badasses, he's their even-more-badass leader. Now that I think about it, it's going to be tough to single out instances where said hero isn't obviously marked out as the protagonist so their emergence isn't entirely predictable (i.e. Ripley in Alien).

Some other examples I can think of (all horror movies, now that I think about it)...

Ash from The Evil Dead
Sharni Vinson's character in You're Next
Anton Yelchin's character in Green Room

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

You are next is a perfect example

I'm wondering if The Rock qualifies since

Executive Decision?

I suppose Riddick in Pitch Black would be a good one.

I see what you mean about Banderas in The 13th Warrior, even though he's the star and main character but Arnold always seems like the hero in Predator.

Executive Decision?

Yeah, there was some inspired bit of casting where this was set-up as another Steven Seagal film, but he gets sucked out of the plane and dies early on, leaving the book worm (who never goes out into the field) to take over.

Arnold was the captain but they always operate as a team whenever they fight but the moment predator kills the injured guy and goes after arnold down the waterfall...it becomes him vs the predator.

How very dare you – he was the Major .

They operate as a team with Schaefer in full command, and I think he can be consistently perceived as the hero, with or without his team around him. That's very different to something like Alien, where we're seeing more of an ensemble, and an ensemble that probably retained that quality because we weren't watching stars. Dallas might stand out the most to begin with, but that's because he's the captain.

One I can think of is Jadesoturi. Its a co-produced film between China and Finland.

It combines elements of the wuxia (which literally means "martial heroes") genre with Finnish Kalevala mythology.

An interesting film to say the least.

When I was a kid I had a Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, and that's where I first read about Finno-Ugric mythology .

12 Angry Men has to be the definitive example doesn't it? Certainly in Western cinema.

You could go even further and say that The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) shows an anti hero that turned into a hero that then turned back into an anti hero of sorts.

Another horror example (which I think is a genre that's full of examples of this particular trope) would be MacReady from The Thing. He starts off as the helicopter pilot who spends his time away from the group drinking and playing computer chess but he ultimately ends up taking charge of the situation over the outpost's actual authority figures.

Yeah – good one .

I was wondering if MacReady counted or not, because his character seems very much the same from beginning to end I thought, as if he was always the hero of the group, rather than emerging, but maybe I'm wrong?

Yeah, I wasn't sure either, but I think The Thing follows the criteria outlined in the OP - that there's a group of effectively equal characters facing a danger and only one "emerges" as the film's actual hero. It's easy to assume Mac is the hero because he's Kurt Russell, the top-billed actor in the film, but for much of the film's first act he's just the pilot who reluctantly follows the orders of characters like Blair or Copper. It's only after the Thing starts attacking the dogs in the kennel that Mac ends up becoming a more proactive protagonist.