Climbing Climax: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:KONGempirestate 3593.jpg|link=King Kong|frame| LET'S DO THIS.]]

 

{{quote|''Gene Siskel was fond of a movie cliche he called "The Climbing Killer Syndrome." This described the mysterious compulsion that forces killers to flee upwards instead of sideways. If you climb to the top of a building, scaffold, tower, mountain, etc., your escape options relentlessly narrow. In movies like this, you should avoid the roof at all costs, because the plot will inevitably have you clinging by your fingertips to a vertiginous perch above the street far below.''|[[Roger Ebert]]}}

During the 1980s, this trope was largely replaced by the [[Darkened Building Shootout]].

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Appears at the climax of Ghibli's ''[[Tales From Earthsea]]'', but note that in this case the villain is a wizard who waits until the hero is at the very top of the building before collapsing the whole thing.

* ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', Fate route: Saber versus Rider.

 

* One of the many villains to usurp the throne of ''[[The Trigan Empire]]'' was confronted by the Emperor Trigo, and actually attempted to escape by climbing his own Lady-Liberty-sized statue. Trigo followed, and only when standing on the upraised hand did the baddie think to pull a gun on him. The baddie then slipped, but Trigo caught him and brought him down to "use his genius for the good of the Empire." What a guy!

* In ''[[Bookhunter]]'', when library police swarm the apartment of their book thief, they find it's empty. Agent Bay realizes the apartment was only vacated a few minutes ago, and that the thief must have taken the window fire escape. Sure enough, the thief climbs up, rather than down; Bay follows, and a rooftop confrontation ensues.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* Inverted in ''[[Blade Runner]]'', where the hero (Deckard) flees to the roof of a building while being pursued by the replicant Roy Batty.

* In ''[[Psycho Beach Party]]'' {{spoiler|Chicklet}} flees from the murderer by climbing up a movie billboard, because they were in the middle of nowhere at night.

* Although it's not specifically preceded by a climb because the characters are already inside a skyscraper, Alan Rickman's character performs a rather memorable example (in slow motion no less) of this trope at the end of the ''[[Die Hard]]''.

* Used by a hero this time in [[Transformers Film Series|the 2007 Transformers movie]] during the climactic battle at the end of the movie. Sam runs up a tall building (using an inside staircase) while carrying the [[MacGuffin|Allspark]], during which [[Big Bad|Megatron]] follows him by just bashing through the different floors. Justified because an Army Ranger radioed for a helicopter to meet him on the roof of said building. {{spoiler|Said helicopter was then shot down by another bad guy seconds before it grabbed the Allspark from Sam.}}

** ''[[North by Northwest]]'' - On top of Mount Rushmore

*** Parodied by ''[[Family Guy]]''

** [[The Saboteur]] - In the torch of the Statue of Liberty.

*** Parodied (and subverted) by The Wrong Guy - it was a miniature.

* In ''[[White Heat]]'', Cody Jarrett climbs to the top of a gas storage tower to escape from the police. Rather than follow him, the police just shoot him, whereupon he shoots into the tower shouting, "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" right before it explodes.

* Used in the [[James Bond]] film ''[[For Your Eyes Only (film)|For Your Eyes Only]]'', in which Bond prepares to scale a mountain to reach the monastery located at its summit (there's no other way to reach it without being detected by the bad guys). Unfortunately, the bad guys ARE guarding the cliff, and one of them nearly sends Bond plummeting to his death.

* In ''[[Scotland, PA]]'', the final confrontation happens on top of the local fast-food restaurant.

* The climax of the Robert Powell version of ''[[The Thirty-Nine Steps]]'' takes place in the [[Clock Tower]] of Big Ben, where the villains have integrated a bomb into the mechanism of the clock. While Hannay hangs onto the minute hand in a desperate attempt to stop the clock, the police engage in a fire-fight with the villains who are trying to set the bomb off by hand. And the 39 steps refers to {{spoiler|the number of steps the police and Hannay have to climb to get up to the clock tower}}.

* ''The Triumph of [[Sherlock Holmes]]'', a film otherwise remarkably faithful to ''Valley of Fear'', ends with ''Moriarty'', of all people, doing this.

 

== Literature ==

* Referenced in [[Robert Rankin]] novels; one of the four sets [[Private Detective]] Lazlo Woodbine uses is a rooftop, for climatic battles.

* In ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'', everyone and their grandmother (seemingly) climbing up the massive staircase to the top of [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|Green Angel Tower]] is the buildup to the big climax at the top. It even starts below ground for several characters, as the tower descends at least as far beneath the surface as it does above.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* In the ''[[Inspector Morse]]'' episode "Service of All the Dead", Morse pursues the murderer up a church tower. This is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the original book; it mention that, later, Sergeant Lewis asked Morse why he didn't just lock the murderer in and call in reinforcements.

* Used in the [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[The Fugitive (TV series)|The Fugitive]]'' in the prelude to {{spoiler|Kimble's showdown with the One-Armed Man at the top of the tower. You would think that, after being kicked in the head three times after as many unsuccessful attempts to follow him, he'd start to get the hint...}}

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

** The thing that makes the Mankind-Undertaker match a CMOA is that after 'Taker tossed Foley off, Foley managed to get back up, climb the cage, and get chokeslammed ''through the cage''.

 

* ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'', fer sure.

* A variation of this happens in ''[[Half-Life 2]]'': Dr. Breen [[Villain Exit Stage Left|runs]] from his office near the top of [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|The Citadel]] to the nearby Combine Portal, which he intends to use to leave Earth while simultaneously killing Freeman. Said machine slowly lifts him up to the portal via a shielded platform, and you basically have to reach the apex before him and shut the gateway before he escapes. By that point, you're very high above City 17.

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[Dragon Age]]'', where the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|is a giant flying demon-possessed dragon god}}, so it makes sense for the heroes to {{spoiler|climb to the top of the highest building in the city and confront him there}}.

 

* In the movie-within-a-comic "Man on the Border" in [[Nip and Tuck]], the villain and the hero (played by Nip) end up in a desperate struggle on the catwalks in the roof of the Astrodome. Justified by the fact that the villain, thwarted in releasing a biotoxin through the fire sprinkler systems, was taking a distant second alternative by tossing the vials from the catwalk onto the crowds below...

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' - Taking place, surprisingly enough, on Notre Dame cathedral

** ''[[Mulan]]'' - The final part of the Mulan/Shan Yu fight takes place on the roof of the Emperor's palace.

 

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[[Category:Chase Scene]]

[[Category:Older Than Television]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]