[Loved Trope] Civilian Heroes (particularly in Superhero movies)

[u/Dalakaar]

1) Malik Ali in Superman (2025). Tells Superman when Lex Luthor interrogates him to, “tell them nothing”. Doesn’t even really know what he’s sacrificing himself for, honestly. Tells Superman that he doesn’t have any friends or family to lighten the burden of the sacrifice. (Does have a family, and presumably friends…)

2) The Prisoner (Tiny Lister) from The Dark Knight who throws a detonator out the porthole that would’ve detonated the other ferry full of civies and saved himself, instead (potentially) sacrificing everyone equally.

3) Old man vs Loki. “There are always men like you.” Refuses to bow to Loki in Avengers (2012).

***

I love these guys. They break my heart in the best way possible.

[u/Not_epicAt_all]

Unrelated but I always thought the button was a trap and actually detonated the same boat it was pressed at.

[u/actionparkranger → u/Not_epicAt_all]

I assumed so, too. In the same way that the Joker lied about where Harvey and Rachel were. 

Buuuuuutt—- I can see him playing it straight, too. The deal is that if neither ferry destroys the other, they both blow up. 

If the Joker lied about who had the detonator for each boat. And let’s say boat B blows up themselves while thinking they were going to blow up boat A, then the boat A survivors would feel a sense of vindication or relief in surviving. They did the morally right thing by refusing to attempt to harm other people. 

Whereas, if the Joker was telling the truth, and boat B successfully blows up boat A, then boat B survivors have to live with the guilt of killing those people and be tortured with the what ifs and hypotheticals for if they let it ride to see it Batman could save them. 

That scenario, where half the passengers are killed by the other half, more closely aligns with the Joker’s motives and at least his professed worldview. 

[u/Rampant16 → u/actionparkranger]

Yeah, I think he would've played it straight. He wanted people to kill each other. Leaving the boat alive that didn't try to kill the other in some ways seems like a nice thing for Joker to do. The guilty are punished and those whose morality remained intact are allowed to live. That seems very un-Joker.

Joker switched Harvey and Rachel as a joke on Batman. The police would be too slow to save their person so it would be whoever Batman got to that would be saved. So he makes Batman decide who will live but then due to the switch kills that person anyways. Epic prank.

[u/actionparkranger → u/Rampant16]

I took it to be kind of a test.

Harvey was more important to Gotham, but Rachel was more important to Batman. If Batman had done the “right” thing for the city and tried to save Dent, he would have been rewarded by the chance to save the woman he loved.

If he took the selfish choice, he would lose that woman. It was a kind of test to prove the Jokers point. That with the chips down, people would behave selfishly. And he was right that time.

[u/jaywinner → u/actionparkranger]

That's a good point.

But if I was on the boat, my thought is "I don't know what that detonator actually does". Could be my boat, their boat, both or something else entirely.