History Main / BloodStainedGlassWindows

* The famous first clash between Spike and Vicious in the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' episode "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession5BalladOfFallenAngels Ballad of Fallen Angels]]" is likely a ShoutOut to both ''Film/TheKiller1989'' and ''Film/TheCrow'', or so [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] says.

* After a shootout inside, the final fight in ''Film/TheCrow'' took place on the roof of a neo-Gothic church, in a rainy night, overlooking the graveyard.

* ''Franchise/TheThreeMusketeers'':
** ''[[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1973 The Four Musketeers]]'' (1974) did it fifteen years earlier, with D'Artagnan dueling (and killing) Rochefort inside a church.
** ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers2023'':
*** Queen Anne and the Duke of Buckingham are LuredIntoATrap in an abbey and a fight erupts between Buckingham and the Cardinal's guards. D'Artagnan, Aramis and Porthos join in to rescue them.
*** [[spoiler:The climax with the Protestant rebels [[WeddingSmashers attacking the wedding]] of UsefulNotes/LouisXIII's brother inside a cathedral and the Musketeers defending the royals.]]

* The famous first clash between Spike and Vicious in the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' episode "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession5BalladOfFallenAngels Ballad of Fallen Angels]]" is likely a ShoutOut to both ''Film/TheKiller'' and ''Film/TheCrow'', or so [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] says.

* The final shootout in Creator/JohnWoo's ''Film/TheKiller'', with the title character and his CowboyCop ally [[TheSiege holding off a virtual army of assassins]], is probably the quintessential example.

* ''The Opera'' mod for ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' was all about recreating HeroicBloodshed films in video game form. One level was a church as a shout out to ''Film/TheKiller''.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[JustForPun God knows]] why they're fighting ''here'' of all places.]]

*** Queen Anne and the Duke of Buckingham are LuredIntoATrap in an abbey and a fight erupts between Buckingham and the Cardinal's guards, soon joined by D'Artagnan, Aramis and Porthos.

* The sixth ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' movie features a battle inside the church at Azaka's boarding school. Bonus points for both combatants dressed like nuns.

%%* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'' likes doing this.

* It happened surprisingly often in European history. The most notorious is probably the murder of UsefulNotes/ThomasBecket that inspired Elliot's ''Murder in the Cathedral'' (and, indirectly, ''The Canterbury Tales''.) Other prominent incidents were UsefulNotes/RobertTheBruce's murder of his rival John Comyn in a church, and the attempted assassination of Lorenzo de Medici during Mass - the latter being particularly shocking because the conspirators arguably included ''[[SinisterMinister the Pope!]]''

* During the Normandy invasion of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII many churches became the sites of battles (or aid stations), bullet holes and blood stains can still be seen today. Church steeples were also regularly destroyed by artillery, as they provided excellent vantage points for enemy spotters.
* On December 29, 2019 in a church in Texas, a shooter [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqWibXye6YE was stopped]] by 71-year-old armed parishioner by the name of Jack Wilson. Wilson killed the shooter within only 6 seconds with only two shots. From 50 feet away.

* ''[[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1973 The Four Musketeers]]'' did it fifteen years earlier, with D'Artagnan dueling (and killing) Rochefort inside a church.

* The fight in the church in ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService''. A ''very'' incensed congregation obviously modeled on the [[ActivistFundamentalistAntics Westboro Baptist Church]] is used [[spoiler: as a testing ground for a DoomsdayDevice which triggers a HatePlague. [[OneManArmy One exceptionally highly-trained and disgustingly well-armed secret agent]] was pitted against hundreds of [[AcceptableReligiousTargets bigoted, angry]] rednecks. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXB6slJSbL4 They didn't stand a chance]]]].

* ''VideoGame/DeadMansHand'' has a boss fight against Father Zeke, a SinisterMinister, in the local church.

-->-- '''Phoebus''', ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}''

* The famous first clash between Spike and Vicious in episode 5 of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', "Ballad of Fallen Angels," is likely a ShoutOut to both ''Film/TheKiller'' and ''Film/TheCrow''. Or so [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] says.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': ComicBook/WonderWoman and ComicBook/{{Batman}} fight [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]] (possessed by Deimos), [[Characters/BatmanPoisonIvy Poison Ivy]] (possessed by Eris) and [[Characters/BatmanTheScarecrow the Scarecrow]] (possessed by Phobos) in a cathedral in Gotham that the three children of Ares are warping into a new [[{{Mordor}} Areopagus]] for their father. They are backed up by ComicBook/{{Artemis}}, [[Characters/BatmanHuntress Huntress]], ComicBook/WonderGirl, ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} and ComicBook/{{Robin}}, who eventually make their way into the cathedral after fighting their way through Maxie Zeus' blank eyed cultists in the graveyard.

* ''Series/{{The Dakotas}}'' was cancelled after an episode where the plot is set up by deputies J. D. Smith and Del Stark chasing a pair of bank robbers into a church in the middle of a funeral service, where the four proceed to shoot it out.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty''

* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' features an intense shootout at the entrance of the Church of Violence during the Greenback Jane arc when the arc's title character seeks the aforementioned church as sanctuary. The show blatantly parodies the entire trope; it's an 'intense shootout' as in 'the church had an M-60 and weren't afraid to shoot '''it''' at everyone else involved'. Oh, and a pair of ''supremely'' pissed off {{Sociopathic Hero}}es and a lead nun with a [[BlingBlingBang Golden]] [[HandCannon Desert]] [[RareGuns Eagle]].

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 2'' features a church in one level, but it's just one of several buildings you have to clear.

Commonly seen in HeroicBloodshed movies and {{Anime}}, causing much ValuesDissonance among the Westerners. May involve a ChurchMilitant or two but it's not mandatory. Bonus points if OminousLatinChanting with religious lyrics are added, along with OminousPipeOrgan or even HolyPipeOrgan. Double bonus points if there are {{d|isturbedDoves}}oves flying around during the mayhem. SceneryPorn may be a factor when the building is particularly ornate or the stained glass itself is given particular attention.

* Aliette de Bodard's ''The House of Shattered Wings'' has a showdown in Notre-Dame de Paris involving fallen angels, an alchemist, and [[spoiler: the vengeful ghost of a mortal apprentice betrayed by Morningstar/Lucifer himself]]. Then the BigBad [[spoiler:causes a giant supernatural banyan tree to envelop Notre-Dame and its surroundings, reducing it to even more of a ruin than it already was after the magical apocalypse, and then blows up its doors]].

* The famous first clash between Spike and Vicious in episode 5 of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', "Ballad of Fallen Angels," is likely a ShoutOut to both ''Film/TheKiller'' and ''Film/TheCrow''. Or so [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] says.

* Aliette de Bodard's ''The House of Shattered Wings'' has a showdown in Notre-Dame de Paris involving fallen angels, an alchemist, and [[spoiler: the vengeful ghost of a mortal apprentice betrayed by Morningstar/Lucifer himself]]. Taken UpToEleven when the BigBad [[spoiler:causes a giant supernatural banyan tree to envelop Notre-Dame and its surroundings, reducing it to even more of a ruin than it already was after the magical apocalypse, and then blows up its doors]].

* The Chantry in Kirkwall serves as the scene of a couple of fights near the end of Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', as well as a fight in the "Tranquility" quest in Chapter 1. Turned UpToEleven in [[spoiler: Chapter 3, when the Chantry is blown to smithereens by a {{Magitek}} bomb, with SceneryGorn aplenty]].