It is our heroes' Darkest Hour. The villains have all but won. Things are shaping up to be their Last Stand.
But what's this? The Cavalry has arrived!
Wait. Was the chopper shot down? Are they suddenly turning around and retreating before getting anywhere near the heroes? Oh, Crap!
This is usually some form of Hope Spot or a Sacrificial Lion to show how serious the situation is. The Cavalry marches in with fanfare, only to be slaughtered by some new threat. Just when it seems that the worst is over for the heroes, the bad guys establish themselves as an even greater threat than anticipated or simply had another ace up their sleeve.
Could be a subtrope of The Worf Effect if the cavalry is under normal circumstances quite badass, and should be able to hold their own against any number of threats, so this trope is used to establish the bad guys as even more dangerous. Regardless, the characters in need will have to confront the unfortunate fact that It's Up to You.
Compare Redshirt Army and Negated Moment of Awesome. A General Failure might lead one of these.
Contrast Cavalry Refusal, which happens when the supposed cavalry refuses to help; Cavalry Betrayal, where the cavalry becomes hostile and may even be another enemy to be defeated; and The Cavalry Arrives Late, where they arrive after the fighting is over, possibly because they were too incompetent to get there on time. Has no direct relation to Anti-Cavalry methods such as A Thicket of Spears.
As an Ending Trope and possible Death Trope, Spoilers Off.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Attack on Titan: Due to its extremely bleak setting, this is a frequent occurrence. One notable example is the moment when the Female Titan is about to close in on her target, Eren. At first, it seems as though the Survey Corps had managed to capture her, but she quickly summons a horde of Titans to eat her body so that the human inside the Female Titan can escape. She then transforms once again to catch up to Eren but is stopped by the elite Survey Corps soldiers trained by Captain Levi. She slaughters each of them with no effort at all.
- Dirty Pair: Played for laughs in episode 12. Uplifted Animal Algernon takes over 3WA headquarters with an army of mice. The Lovely Angels initially attempt to counterattack by gatecrashing the HQ with a tractor trailer loaded with cats; however, to Kei and Yuri's chagrin, the cats are swiftly beaten back.
- Dragon Ball:
- Dragon Ball Z: During the Frieza Saga, a Namekian village is under siege by Frieza's forces (commanded in person by the tyrant himself). When things seem hopeless, a group of Namekian warriors arrive to defend the helpless villagers. Frieza's nameless mooks attack them, but the Namekian warriors easily dispatch Frieza's forces. But, after properly assessing the Namekians' power, Frieza then sends one of his Co-Dragons, Dodoria, to single-handedly slaughter the Namekian warriors. Once they're all dead, this leaves the helpless village back in the hopeless situation they started from.
- Dragon Ball Super: In the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga, a large group of Namekians fuse together into one Super Namekian to try and fight Moro. Their efforts are sadly in vain as they are instantly and graphically impaled on Moro's arm without the latter even turning to look at them. Moro mocks the Super Namekian's efforts and sarcastically apologizes for his actions, all the while wearing a sadistic grin on his face.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Towards the end of Battle Tendency, Stroheim arrives with a platoon of Wehrmacht to assist Joseph against Kars. While they successfully slay Kars's vampire brigade, their efforts to kill the big guy are in vain, as Kars has already become the Ultimate Being, and he quickly proceeds to decimate Stroheim's soldiers using his newfound abilities.
- The entire final third of Stone Ocean qualifies as this. Jotaro and Ermes arrive as the former punches out Pucci and briefly quells C-Moon, but the Stand evolves into Made In Heaven much earlier than initially anticipated to. With Pucci's true power unlocked, the Green Dolphin Prison Gang can only slow him down before he effortlessly plows through all of them (except Emporio) in a heartbeat.
- One Piece:
- In the Arlong Arc, a Marine ship led by Commodore Purin-Purin arrives and attacks Arlong's base after being contacted by survivors from a village Arlong's crew had destroyed. The engagement starts with Arlong literally chewing and spitting out a cannonball the Marines fired at the base, and ultimately ends when Arlong's top officers attack the ship and send it careening into a massive whirlpool after ripping out the ship's rudder, killing everyone aboard.
- In the Alabasta Arc, a group of soldiers known as the Tsumegeri Guard desperately try to stop Crocodile after he has abducted King Cobra using the forbidden Hero Water that increases their strength at the cost of killing them in five minutes. This attempt fails as Crocodile simply moves beyond their reach and waits for them to die, not even dignifying them with a final battle.
Comic Books
- The Golden Age: Dyna-Man, having been revealed as Adolf Hitler, is thrashing pretty much all the heroes present until Green Lantern (explicitly referred to as "The Big Guy") shows up. But even he, despite doing some real damage to Dyna-Man, goes down. Then Starman (Ted Knight) arrives and gets defeated even more quickly, without even getting in a single hit.
Fan Works
- Alicorn: During the Ascendancy's attack on Manehattan Central Station, the Pegasus Guard are the first on the scene and struggle to keep up with the unicorn cultists, until the Unicorn and Earth Pony guard arrive to back them up. However, they are also overwhelmed once captain Shining Armor is taken out of commission, and the day is only won with the eventual arrival of Princess Celestia.
Film — Animation
- The Mitchells vs. the Machines: A villainous example during the mall fight. While the family is facing off against an army of evil appliances, a squadron of Roombas is sent after them. They charge forward, ready to fight the Mitchells... and then they all fall down an escalator, landing uselessly at the bottom. Aaron finds it funny and takes a second to laugh before going back to the fight.
Film — Live-Action
- Attack of the Clones: Just as Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme are going to be killed in the arena on Geonosis, Mace Windu arrives with a group of Jedi, and easily rescue the trio, but Count Dooku and leaders of Trade Federation separatists unleash their recently built droid army to help out the flagging Geonosians. The Jedi, are able to hold their own, but eventually the sheer number of droids thins out the Jedi numbers, leaving the few survivors at the mercy of Dooku and his allies. Luckily, that's when Yoda finally arrives with the clone army and launches a Gunship Rescue.
- This is what happens in A Bridge Too Far, which depicts the real-life occurrence of this trope during Operation Market Garden; British, American, and Polish airborne forces parachute into the Netherlands and seize (or attempt to seize) several important bridges, which they will hold until relieved by Allied ground forces (who are even described as "the cavalry" during a briefing). When German resistance proves much stiffer than expected, the ground offensive is stalled and the British airborne forces at Arnhem end up having to surrender.
- Brimstone: Samuel, a bandit sheltered by Joanna, bursts into the chapel with a cattle gun in hand when her father the Reverend tries to force her to marry him against her will. This rescue attempt falls completely flat when the Reverend just wrestles the gun from his hands and kills him.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier: As Cap and the Falcon try to take down the enormous Helicarriers, a squad of loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents head to the hangar to try to bring them troops and air support. Unfortunately, the Winter Soldier ambushes them, blowing up their aircraft and slaughtering them all before stealing the last Quinjet to hunt down Cap and Falcon himself.
- A Home Too Far: In the first movie's climax, the PRC refugee army are doing rather terribly due to being ill-equipped, starving, and overwhelmed by the Burmese army when the resistance — led by Andy Lau's character Little Tu — arrives via horseback to back them up. Which started off well, until the Burmese unveils their howitzers. It ends with most of the cavalry wiped out and Tu performing a heroic suicide to destroy the Burmese cannons so the meager remaining survivors can evacuate.
- In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when the Nazis are on their way to the Grail, they are ambushed by the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, whose leader, Kazim, previously encountered Indiana. While their ambush fails miserably against the Nazis' well-armed forces, this does buy Indiana and co time to close the distance in an effort to save Brody, who was captured by the Nazis.
- Jaws 2: After the shark attacks the teenagers and sends them adrift on a raft cobbled together of what's left of their sailboats, a helicopter rescue pilot arrives to tow the boats. The shark attacks the helicopter, eats the pilot, and the mayhem causes the rafts to collapse, leaving almost nothing left for the teenagers to stay afloat on.
- Lone Survivor: Two Chinooks carrying reinforcements arrive to rescue the survivors of the SEAL team, but one gets hit with an RPG and goes down with no survivors while the second is forced to withdraw.
- The Rock: A SEAL Team is sent in to disarm the missiles and defeat Hummel's forces. After deactivating what they think is a laser field, but is actually a custom motion-activated intrusion alarm, they are ambushed and wiped out by Hummel's troops, leaving the heroes, a Non-Action Guy and a Boxed Crook, to fend for themselves.
- Scary Movie 3: Played for Laughs. The Gangbangers that tries to help the president and his crew investigate the alien appearance ends up fighting among themselves to their death, leaving the president and his crew on themselves.
- The Siege of Jadotville: A company of Irish and Swedish peacekeepers are sent to Jadotville to relieve A Company but are bogged down at the only bridge in by the rebels and mercenaries, preventing them from assisting.
- In Time Bandits, The dwarfish, thieving time bandits attempt to rescue Kevin from the clutches of the Evil Genius by fetching heroes and weapons from various periods in history, including the future. Alas, while the effort and the intent were commendable, the results were a fiasco: the Evil Genius makes short work of The Cavalry in all its forms.
- Under Siege. The Hero Casey Ryback is told that a team of Navy SEALS is being sent in to kill the terrorists who have taken over the battleship Missouri. Unfortunately, the team's helicopter is shot down by a missile before they can even land and Ryback has to continue fighting the terrorists alone.
Literature
- King Arthur's Daughter: Morwen convinces Cadwallo's men to leave their lord and fight to defend Ursulet. They initially help turn the tide against Mordred's army and the Romans, but both they and the Romans end up crushed when the Saxons invade in overwhelming numbers.
- The Last Battle: King Tirian and his Narnian allies are locked in battle with the Calormenes and cheer when a herd of Talking Horses come galloping to join them. Unfortunately, a squad of dwarves who want to rule Narnia themselves are overlooking the fighting and decide to put their archery skills to good use. Not a single horse reaches the Narnians.
Live-Action TV
- Happens a few times in The Mighty Boosh, always Played for Laughs:
- In "Tundra", Vince and Howard have been captured by natives and are about to be executed, but their rival Dixon Bainbridge swoops in to save the day. Unfortunately, he is swiftly defeated by the legendary demon Black Frost. Fortunately the Boosh are later saved by a polar bear.
- In "Hitcher", Vince and Howard have been captured by The Hitcher, who threatens to kill them. Naboo and Bob Fossil are on their tail all set to save them, as is Vince's father figure Bryan Ferry. Unfortunately, the three of them appear in the exact same spot feet away from Howard and Vince and collide, incapacitating them and preventing a rescue.
- Raising Dion: In the Season 1 finale, Biona shows up to try and fight Pat/The Crooked Man with a professional version of the storm killer device that Dion and his friends invented, but Pat wrecks their equipment before they can even make an attempt to stop him, forcing Dion to fight Pat himself. Downplayed in that nobody is killed in the attack; just material damage.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Nor the Battle to the Strong", Starfleet orders two ships to reinforce their colony on Ajilon Prime against a major Klingon assault, where Jake Sisko and Julian Bashir are trapped. Both ships are destroyed by the Klingons en route, prompting Ben Sisko to head out himself in the Defiant.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer Fantasy: The Great War Against Chaos ended with the Battle at the Gates of Kislev where the main Imperial army that arrived to save the city found itself vastly outnumbered and surrounded by the Chaos horde. Only the arrival of a second, and literal, cavalry army that attacked the Chaos Warriors from the rear, disorganizing them, and the death of their leader could finally save the day.
Video Games
- In Asheron's Call, there was a yearlong event where players had to destroy crystal shards in order to trigger a new event. However, when there was only one shard left, a group of players declared themselves "Defenders of the Shard" and decided to protect it from being destroyed
, even letting it kill some of them so that it could level up and gain more hitpoints until it was nearly invincible. In an effort to put down this rebellion so that they could move on to the next event, the developers assembled a crack team of admins and high-level players and gave them powerful weapons to send them forth to destroy the shard. Instead, this epic team got its ass kicked. They tried it again and were defeated again. And then again. They finally got a lucky break on their fourth try and created a unique monument to honor the "Defenders of the Shard" afterwards.
- Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun: The 4th GDI mission, "Defend Crash Site", begins with the player controlling only a small contingent of infantry and Wolverines, only a single barracks for unit production, a few Vulcan cannon towers at the entrances, and just 5000 credits to spend. A couple of dropships attempt to deliver much-needed reinforcements just a few seconds after the mission begins, only to fatally crash as an Ion Storm strikes the area, forcing the player's beleaguered force to defend the objective against multiple waves of infantry, buggies, attack cycles and even a surprise subterrannean APC, until the storm finally subsides and a new pair of dropships can fly in to deliver new reinforcements to turn the tide.
- Dawn of War: Dark Crusade:The intro shows a Space Marine force getting their asses handed to them by the Necrons. One of them yells that reinforcements are coming, only for said reinforcements to consist of a whopping three Land Speeders, one of which is immediately one-shotted by the Monolith.
- In Dead Rising 2, a small military force led by Sgt. Boykin is sent in to purge Fortune City of zombies and save any survivors. Initially it goes well, but then gas starts leaking from the vents below, blinding the soldiers and making the zombies much nastier. The soldiers get torn to shreds and Sgt. Boykin becomes a psychopath from the mess.
- Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: After Sigurd was branded a traitor by conspirators controlling Grannvale, Quan, Ethlyn, and Finn leaves the army to return to Leonster and gather reinforcement. Quan and Ethlyn would later return with the Lanceritter to reinforce Sigurd but has to cross the Aed Desert to reach him. Unfortunately, they were ambushed by Travant and the Thracian wyvern knights and were completely decimated. As a result, they were killed in the desert, their daughter Altena and the legendary Gae Bolg was abducted, and, finally, Travant sees it as an opportunity to invade Leonster.
- Fuga: Melodies of Steel pulls a nasty one after defeating the Chapter 10 boss. When it seems like the Taranis can't make a dent in the Tarascus, the children are soon backed up by Gasco's armed forces to help even the odds. Then Hax decided to show just how powerful the Tarascus is by wiping out the entire Gasco battalion with a casual Managarm blast, just to show how outclass the Gasco Army is in comparison to Hax's weaponry, and it falls upon the children piloting the Taranis to put a stop to him.
- Resident Evil 4: happens twice. The first time is shortly before Leon reaches the farmhouse, where Hunnigan informs him a helicopter was on the way, but was shot down before it arrived. The second time: Tracking Leon to the Los Illuminados guerrillas' island base, Mike used the helicopter's guns to wipe out a large force of loyalist guerrillas. Unfortunately, Mike's contribution to the fighting would be brief, as he was shot down by a rocket launcher on the orders of the group's leader, Osmund Saddler. Now saving Ashley is up to you, Leon!
- Happens similarly in the remake except instead of being shot down by a rocket, Mike's helicopter is swarmed by Novistadors and is damaged beyond repair, causing it to violently crash and explode alongside its weaponry
- The SS Hyuga Team from Run Like Hell. The distress call sent by Nick and Jinx was picked up, and the entire crew of Space Marines made it to the Forsetti Station... alas, they docked on the wrong area, one completely overrun by monsters. Who then ambushed and kills everyone, while Nick and Jinx watches with horror via intercom. Further salting the wound, as the HSS Hyuga attempts to flee, the Forsetti's defense systems suddenly activates and blasts a Wave-Motion Gun destroying the rescue vessel.
- During the climax of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, as the corrupted Holy Beast is chomping on Valimar's tachi, Prince Olivert, Viscount Arseid, and Toval arrive in the Courageous, apparently allowing the heroes to turn the tide. However, it turns out the Gnomes planted a bomb on the Courageous, which Black Alberich detonates right as it appeared, blowing it out of the sky before its crew is even able to take part in the battle.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, the High Entia regiment of the allied forces encounter Shulk's party after the Mechonis Core event, where Shulk was shot in the back by Dickson. When the High Entia confront Dickson riding on a herd of Telethia, it's revealed that Lorithia is also evil and starts to release ether, which, in large doses, can turn a pure-blooded High Entia into Telethia. Since the Alcamoth Imperial Guard is made up entirely of pure-blooded High Entia, well...
Web Video
- Discussed at the climax of Red vs. Blue: Revelation, after the Reds and Blues botch their Big Damn Heroes moment when Grif crashes the Pelican into the ground (although it gets their enemy to retreat for a few minutes).
Washington: Well, I'd say that was the cavalry, but I've never seen a line of horses crash into the battlefield from outer space before.
- Dead Fantasy zigzags the trope in episode IV. Yuna finds herself hopelessly outnumbered by Kasumi and an army of her clones. So she switches to her Summoner dressphere and calls down her Aeons, creating a brief Hope Spot. But the Kasumi X clones Zerg Rush tactics and teleport spammage quickly reduces them to fodder. Then right as they close in to kill Yuna herself, Cloud suddenly appears and blasts them away from her.
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball: In "The Robot", Gumball is being attacked by a berserk Bobert and desperately wishes for "something that seemed insignificant" to come save him. Cue Darwin charging in to rescue him… only to immediately be swatted away by the giant robot.
- Curses!: In the season 1 finale, as the protagonists are fighting a Giant Spider, Hank, the mechanical lifeform first seen two episodes earlier, shows up to help, but the spider defeats him with one good hit, shattering him.
- Generator Rex: In "The Day That Everything Changed", the Pack kidnaps Rex and his friends to take them to Abysus to meet their leader, Van Kleiss. After negotiations went south, Rex tried to flee Abysus with his friends, and Six arrived to assist. Rex is glad to see Six, but a little disappointed that it was only him, as he figured that Providence would send an entire army after him. Six tells him they did. Cue a scene showing the slaughtered remains of Providence's army sans Six.
- Samurai Jack: When the Scotsman leads several armies against Aku, some containing cavalry, all are decimated without Aku doing much as breaking a sweat.
- The Scarlet Pumpernickel: Played for laughs in the Gainax Ending Daffy wrote into his script, where after a dam breaks "The cavalry rode to the rescue!...But they were a little too late.", accompanied with the visual of said cavalry's banners and swords sticking out of the surface of the water from said broken dam.
- The Simpsons: In each segment of "Treehouse of Horror V", Groundskeeper Willie comes to the rescue, only to receive an axe to the back.
Willie: I'm bad at this...
- Tiny Toon Adventures: Exaggerated in the short "Slugfest". When Hampton and Plucky (who are pretending to be the Immature Radioactive Samurai Slugs) are cornered by the IRSS' nemesis the Iodizer, Plucky activates an emergency signal that summons all of the IRSS' allies, an army of soldiers and superheroes… who are all bugs, and bunched together are literally the size of the Iodizer's shoe. One hard stomp later, said allies are calling retreat.