Moviedom’s wimpiest heroes

On July 4, thousands of Americans took refuge from extreme heat inside air-conditioned movie theaters across this great country. There they watched the world be saved by two very different men: Bruce Willis’ tough-as-nails cop John McClane and Shia LaBeouf’s twittering teen Sam Witwicky.

It’s an uneven matchup. In the big action sequence of “Live Free or Die Hard,” McClane takes on a fighter jet with a Mac truck and giggles each time he kills a bad guy. Witwicky, on the other hand, trembles in terror on the ledge of a building while giant robots duke it out below him.

We are all familiar with the McClane brand of can-do heroism, but a glance back in the movie archives in our brain remind us that wimpy heroes abound as well.

Here are some of the .