Current Events > What are the limits of action heroes?

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Action heroes frequently go beyond human limitation. Cops, soldiers, and everyday tough guys in movies engage in lengthy, uninterrupted fights that professional boxers and MMA fighters would be too exhausted to see the end of.

If you look at a film like Die Hard, John McClane can't even walk down the stairs without injuring himself on the railing. If that film had been real, if McClane had never been struck, shot, or otherwise physically hurt, on nerves alone, he would be out of commission before the night was through. He even has a bit of a breakdown during one of the explosions. But, naturally, he's fine just seconds later.

I watched Marvel's Werewolf By Night. I assumed the characters had superhuman strength, so I didn't think anything of it when a woman shrugged off having her head slammed twice into a concrete wall by a man three times her size. When it turned out she wasn't superhuman, it triggered my bullshit meter a bit. Then I asked myself, "Why did that bother you if Black Widow beating up robots was okay?"

It made me wonder about the limits of "human" characters in superhero media and just action heroes in general. Could the world's greatest assassin kick somebody with such force that they fly across the street and smash a car door? Could somebody pick up that car and throw it just because they spend all of their time in the gym?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c988f568.jpg

Before you say there is no cutoff point, remember the opening scenes of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

FortuneCookie posted...

remember the opening scenes of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Marked.

it's fiction. I think Kingpin is just super strong without special powers?

Rai_Jin posted...

it's fiction. I think Kingpin is just super strong without special powers?

Officially, prime/616 Kingpin does not have super-strength.

FortuneCookie posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c988f568.jpg.

A lot of SF characters are considered superhuman.

mazingetter posted...

A lot of SF characters are considered superhuman.

Not many people can create fireballs in their palms and throw them

FortuneCookie posted...

It made me wonder about the limits of "human" characters in superhero media and just action heroes in general.

A bullet to brain/throat/heart will stop a regular non-powered 'human' hero. That would be the limit of 'human' durability in action movie. For example: Last Action Hero movie.

The limit of 'human' strength is probably breaking chain/padlock barehanded to gain entry, and the limit of 'human' speed is probably outrunning a car on foot. I believe such feats are depicted as impossible for mere 'human' but cmiiw. Endurance or stamina has no limit.

Rai_Jin posted...

it's fiction. I think Kingpin is just super strong without special powers?

It is funny how "I'm with them" is a valid excuse for super powers. You have a person who's part robot, an alien, a mutant, and then, "Come on, you don't expect ME not to have hella strength, do you? I'm one of the group."

It's really funny when you see Spider-Man pick up a car, then struggle to break Kingpin's bearhug.

thisworld posted...

A bullet to brain/throat/heart will stop a regular non-powered 'human' hero. That would be the limit of 'human' durability in action movie. For example: Last Action Hero movie.

What is this, some kind of a joke? I wouldn't even call this a flesh wound.

The limit of 'human' strength is probably breaking chain/padlock barehanded to gain entry, and the limit of 'human' speed is probably outrunning a car on foot. I believe such feats are depicted as impossible for mere 'human' but cmiiw. Endurance or stamina has no limit.

I always think about Horror of Dracula (1958) when it comes to plot-convenient stamina. A fifty-something Professor Van Helsing goes two days without sleep (or on-screen eating), yet still has the stamina to go hand to hand with a supernatural vampire count.

John Wick 4 pushed me. There were things I liked about that movie, but the zany cartoon character punishment he was taking was wearing on my patience and I absolutely did not like Donnie Yen's character. He felt like he belonged in a parody movie.

Also typically Marvel stuff with Black Widow doesn't bother me. In the comics she's enhanced through some means, so I just don't think of her as a normal human, although I guess she's just highly trained in MCU.

my limit before my suspension of belief is broken is probably comic book batman level so lots of room lol

WarfireX posted...

Also typically Marvel stuff with Black Widow doesn't bother me. In the comics she's enhanced through some means, so I just don't think of her as a normal human, although I guess she's just highly trained in MCU.

Yeah. She's been enhanced by a variant of the super-soldier serum during the 1950s.

Ratchetrockon posted...

my limit before my suspension of belief is broken is probably comic book batman level so lots of room lol

Batman's superpower is time to prepare. That can overcome anything, even the debilitating effects of continued physical stress on the human body.

008Zulu posted...

Batman's superpower is time to prepare. That can overcome anything, even the debilitating effects of continued physical stress on the human body.

They say prep time. They mean plot armor.

FortuneCookie posted...

They say prep time. They mean plot armor.

Eh, it happens to everyone in DC periodically.

Like the time Hal Jordan bodied the entire League, including somehow trapping Flash in a moebius strip.

Or the time Deathstroke bodied a decent chunk of the JLA, including hitting a guy the size of an atom with a laser pointer and stabbing Flash by holding his fuckin' sword out.

...it happens to everyone in DC except Flash, I guess.

There was a science teacher years ago that used superheroes as an example for science. He gave each hero a one miracle rule, then deduced what it would be like for them.

For example: The Invisible Woman can turn invisible. Granted. But light would also travel through her eyes, rendering her blind while invisible.

LonelyStoner posted...

There was a science teacher years ago that used superheroes as an example for science. He gave each hero a one miracle rule, then deduced what it would be like for them.

For example: The Invisible Woman can turn invisible. Granted. But light would also travel through her eyes, rendering her blind while invisible.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RequiredSecondaryPowers

LonelyStoner posted...

There was a science teacher years ago that used superheroes as an example for science. He gave each hero a one miracle rule, then deduced what it would be like for them.

For example: The Invisible Woman can turn invisible. Granted. But light would also travel through her eyes, rendering her blind while invisible.

Your science teacher sounds annoying.

WarfireX posted...

Your science teacher sounds annoying.

He wasnt my teacher, but he was just using it as an example to teach practical science to grade schoolers, not to shit on superheroes. He was well versed in Marvel/DC lore. Like the fact that Cyclops head would be ripped from his neck and propelled backwards.

The bourne films are pretty much peak realistic action.

LonelyStoner posted...

He wasnt my teacher, but he was just using it as an example to teach practical science to grade schoolers, not to shit on superheroes. He was well versed in Marvel/DC lore. Like the fact that Cyclops head would be ripped from his neck and propelled backwards.

I mean, I have my own problems with Marvel/DC writing. It just sounds to me like all he was teaching those kids was how not to be invited out on the weekends.

WarfireX posted...

I mean, I have my own problems with Marvel/DC writing. It just sounds to me like all he was teaching those kids was how not to be invited out on the weekends.

Thats certainly an odd way to look at it. Its not like he was telling the kids to constantly compare superheroes to scientific laws and theories. He was just using popular fiction to teach how the laws of physics work. And 7th and 8th graders arent going to keggers.

WarfireX posted...

Your science teacher sounds annoying.

The teacher is right though. Even H.G. Wells had a nod to this scientific fact in The Invisible Man. When a cat is turned invisible, only its tapetum lucidum (reflectors) can be seen. After that, he just cheated by having Griffin go completely invisible while still being able to see.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/803a037b.jpg

Had I known about Undercover Cops, I would have posted this pic in the first post.