Medal of Heroes

The Medal of Heroes is a special medal from the game, Hero's Duty in the film Wreck-It Ralph.

Description
The Medal of Heroes is featured in the game Hero's Duty where it is bestowed upon the player that wins the game by defeating the deadly Cy-Bugs and climbing up to the 99th floor of Hero's Duty tower. The medal is specifically given to the winning player by General Hologram. When they reach the pedestal it rests on, an automated speech plays

Role in the film
When an arcade bad-guy named Wreck-It Ralph hopes to become a hero by earning a medal, he meets one of the Hero's Duty soldiers named Markowski, who mentions the medal. Ralph then journeys off into Hero's Duty and breaks into the tower after a disastrous stunt he pulled in front of Sgt. Calhoun. The medal is given to him by General Hologram, but a Cy-Bug attacks Ralph and the two land in a shuttle that blasts them out into Game Central Station and then to Sugar Rush, a racing game. Ralph's medal ends up on the top of a candy cane tree. Ralph tries to retrieve it but a little girl named Vanellope steals the medal mistaking it for a Gold Coin and uses it to buy her way into the Random Roster Race.

The medal is deposited into a large cup and becomes part of the game's codes. According to King Candy, the ruler of the world, the medal can only be returned when someone wins the cup at the end of the race. Ralph then teams up with Vanellope to win the race. Since she's banned from racing because she's a glitch, King Candy goes into a secret room where the game's codes lie, and retrieves the medal. He then offers it to Ralph if he agrees to keep Vanellope from racing, as the game could be unplugged upon the gamers seeing her glitching a thinking the game's broken. Since Vanellope's a glitch, she can't leave and she'll die with the game.

Ralph agrees and destroys Vanellope's kart. He leaves Sugar Rush with a heavy heart and returns to his own game. There, he meets up with Gene, one of the game's inhabitants, who tells Ralph the game will be unplugged due to his absence. Ralph discards the medal and throws it to the screen of the console. It is implied that Ralph got the medal back in the end credits.