Line #75 Main/DarkenedBuildingShootout


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9	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/LAConfidential https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/la_confidential_6329.jpg]]]]
10
11	->''"I trust you can shoot in the dark."''
12	-->-- '''Harold Finch''', ''Series/PersonOfInterest'', ".exe"
13
14	The {{Denouement}} of any number of [[MadeForTVMovie made-for-TV]] thrillers in the 1980s. The hero pursues the villain through a darkened building. They both have guns. They shoot at each other. The guns [[{{Chiaroscuro}} flash brightly in the dark]]. The shots echo and ricochet. Finally, the hero has OneBulletLeft. The villain has moved round behind him in the dark. He is about to shoot. The hero turns and fires his last bullet. The villain is shot squarely in the chest. He [[BlownAcrossTheRoom flies back]] (for extra points he [[RailingKill falls a huge distance over a balcony or into a stairwell]]). The villain lands, dead, on his back, [[DiesWideOpen eyes open and staring]]. Focus on face. Cut to hero returning to the sunlit world outside. Final [[AnAesop Aesop]] if any, roll credits.
15
16	This type of climax also showed up in quite a few otherwise light-hearted films during the decade. Compare AbandonedWarehouse. May involve MuzzleFlashlight. In VideoGames, tends to overlap with BlackoutBasement.
17	----
18	!!Examples:
19
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23	* ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' has a shootout in a darkened warehouse that's similar to this, although it has two variations. First, it's the ''heroes'' that get chased into the building by the villains, not the other way around. Second, Rosette realizes that their enemies are using the darkness as a psychological attack, and shoots at a spilled puddle of some flammable liquid, causing the building to set on fire. This gives them more light at the climax of the fight, but also increases the danger and splits the group up into pairs.
24	* In ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', there's one in a CreepyCathedral in the fifth episode, "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession5BalladOfFallenAngels Ballad of Fallen Angels]]", and one in an AbandonedWarehouse in "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession6SympathyForTheDevil Sympathy for the Devil]]".
25	* Used in an episode of ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' when the girls find themselves the targets. But Kirika gives them an advantage by putting ''popcorn'' on the floor. She's so uncannily good that she can tell from the sound of it being broken where the Mooks are and shoot them accurately.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Comic Books]]
29	* The hero of the ''ComicBook/SinCity'' story ''Hell And Back'' gets involved in a shootout that spans two buildings. In one dark building is a sniper with a night-vision scope. In the pitch-black apartment across the alley, is our protagonist Wallace, who has no night-vision and only goes off the glint of the sniper's rifle to tell where his foe is hiding. [[spoiler: The gunfight ends in a ScopeSnipe.]]
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	%%[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
33	%%* Mixed with maintenance passages and an abandoned shopping mall in [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/109581/1/i-did-not-want-to-die/i-did-not-want-to-die I Did Not Want To Die.]]
34	%%[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Film]]
37	%%* The final shootout in ''Film/TheAccountant2016''.
38	* During one major shootout in ''Film/AloneInTheDark2005'', the lights go out, death metal strikes up, and the viewer is treated to a seizure-inducing muzzle flashlight show while the protagonists mow down {{Mooks}}.
39	* In one scene of ''Film/TheBatman2022'', the title character brawls his way through a hall full of {{Mooks}}, lit only by gunfire from the automatic weapons that they fire at him, and of the bullet sparks as they harmlessly bounce off of the armor of his Batsuit.
40	* In ''Film/BladeRunner'', Deckard's final showdown with Batty occurs in a dark, dank, building (actually the famous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_Building Bradbury Building]] in Los Angeles).
41	* ''Film/TheBodyguardFromBeijing'' has its climax in a BigFancyHouse where the titular bodyguard takes on legions of assassins while the lights are out. The bodyguard manage to take out several opponents by throwing torchlights towards where he hears the assassins approaching, and gunning them down quick-draw style, and when seeing the silhouette of several baddies near a television, flicks on the TV using a remote and firing away at the revealed assassins.
42	* Downplayed in ''Film/Daredevil2003''. While attacking a BadGuyBar, Daredevil starts knocking out the lights one-by-one to [[DisabilitySuperpower give himself the advantage]]. From the audience point-of-view though we can see [[HollywoodDarkness much of what is happening]] due to the remaining lights, fire, electric sparks, or Daredevil's POV showing his SuperSenses as a [=3D=] radar-like image.
43	* ''Film/DieHard'' has this as the main conflict. Between the levels still under construction and the power cut...
44	%%** ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'' had several of them.
45	* Both downplayed ''and'' exaggerated in ''Film/DontBreathe'' when the Blind Man corners Rocky and Alex in his basement. Downplayed because only the Blind Man has a gun. Exaggerated because the Blind Man turns off the power to the entire basement, leaving Rocky and Alex blundering in pitch darkness that doesn't mean a thing to him. Several times, he attempts to shoot them based on their voices.
46	* ''Film/DoubleImpact'' has an interesting subversion -- there's a darkened room fight, hand-to-hand, in the single most interesting and memorable scene in the movie.
47	* ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'': The protagonist enters a pitch-black warehouse and begins a gun battle; the scene is illuminated only by muzzle flashes as we see glimpses of him performing his GunFu and mooks flying through the air.
48	%%* ''Film/TheFrenchConnection''
49	* ''Film/GeminiMan'': Junior sets up a grenade tripwire BoobyTrap in an underground ossuary, then rips out the light switch box after putting on NightVisionGoggles. Henry in turn avoids the trap and [[BlindedByTheLight blinds him with a road flare]], then wrests the gun off him and turns on the [[GunAccessories attached flashlight]]. A short time later, they have a hand-to-hand combat scene lit only by these two light sources.
50	* A non-shooting version occurs in ''Film/GhostInTheShell2017'' when Kuze fights and subdues Major with the scene lit only by the [[TaserTagWeakness sparks from his shock prod]].
51	* During the climactic battle of ''Film/{{Kate}}'', there's a shootout between two {{Yakuza}} factions in an office with the lights out, [[RuleOfCool all the better to show off]] their [[LaserSight green laser sights]] before and after everyone starts shooting.
52	* Used in ''Film/KickAss'' when Big Daddy is being held in a warehouse and his daughter [[LittleMissBadass Hit-Girl]] goes in to rescue him wearing night-vision goggles, [[spoiler:[[YouAreTooLate but is too late to save him]]]].
53	* The final shootout in ''Film/LAConfidential'' takes place in an unlit cabin.
54	* ''Film/MinistryOfFear'' has a climactic shootout with Nazi spies on a stairwell lit only by their muzzle flashes. The scene where Carla shoots Willi is another example -- Willi slams a door shut, followed by Carla pulling the trigger inside a darkened room, with light shining through the sudden hole in the door. Willi is dead on the other side.
55	* Used in ''Film/OnDeadlyGround''; the oil rig fits once Forrest Taft cuts its power. The methods of killing turn quite creative there...
56	%%* ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' has a couple of these.
57	%%* ''Film/TheRecruit''
58	* ''Film/SeeNoEvilHearNoEvil'': A shootout in dark building -- with a twist: one of the protagonists is blind. [[spoiler:And so is the BigBad.]]
59	* ''Film/SheShootsStraight'' contains a scene where mobsters and the police are having a shootout in a darkened nightclub. Unfortunately for the police, being GenreSavvy, the mobsters come prepared with NightVisionGoggles.
60	%%* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'', inside the temple and pyramid.
61	* ''Film/ShootEmUp'': A villain tries to kill Mr. Smith in a public toilet. A bullet knocks out the light, and for a brief time the scene is only lit by the muzzle flashes of his HandCannon. Then another bullet punches a large hole in the door, [[ChekhovsGun throwing a beam of light on the hot air dryer]] which is then used by Smith to turn the tables (by scorching the villain's hand during their GunStruggle), then heating up Smith's own gun (which he accidentally dropped in the toilet) so that it can fire again.
62	%%* ''Film/TheTerminator'' ends with one in a SmokeAndFireFactory.
63	* In ''Film/UnderSiege'', sort of; it's more a Darkened Ship Shootout, and it ends in a KnifeFight rather than a shootout.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Literature]]
67	* {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl: The Arctic Incident'' when LEP officers are drilled never to enter an unsecured building in a firefight without backup. ''Never.'' Guess what [[CowboyCop Holly]] proceeds to do when she's chasing down a smuggler. In her defense, it works.
68	* The deserted Club Valkyrie shootout in ''Literature/Echoes2014''. Dynara manages to land a shot on an assassin in the shadows of a pitch-black dance floor from fifty feet away.
69	* ''The Fraternity of the Stone'' by David Morrell has the protagonist being trained in a dark room exercise--the lesson is to not blunder around looking for the enemy but remain perfectly still and wait for him to make a noise. Unfortunately, later in the novel, he's lured into a dark room by someone who [[EvilCounterpart had the exact same training that he did]]. So who moves first?
70	* The climactic fight in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' starts out in the darkened Department of Mysteries with the Death Eaters and the D.A. firing spells off at each other.
71	* In the climax to ''Mercenary's Star'', a ''Franchise/BattleTechExpandedUniverse'' novel, the protagonist steals a HumongousMecha with a blown-out canopy and engages the Kurita occupational forces in an abandoned storage warehouse. Without the canopy's protective polarization filter, he must alternate his eyes when firing the mech's blinding {{Lightning Gun}}s.
72	* Happens at the climax of ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' when Buffalo Bill [[KillTheLights kills the lights]] in his basement. He is following Clarice using NightVisionGoggles, and in the film adaptation, it is seen from his point of view when she suddenly turns around and shoots him and the screen goes white. It's worth noting that Clarice fires not because of a sixth sense or intuition, but because Bill [[DramaticGunCock cocks his revolver]] and she fires six times at the noise, two or three of which hit him. (Clarice's backstory includes the fact that her father, a glorified night watchman, was killed when he worked the action on his pump shotgun, giving away his presence to an armed burglar. Symbolically, she's avenging dear old dad.)
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
76	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E20Touched Touched]]", Faith and the Potentials get into hand-to-hand combat with the Bringers in a dark room, the action lit solely by the torches the Potentials are carrying.
77	* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Naturally the title character is fond of killing the lights to give himself an advantage with his DisabilitySuperpower. One example that leads to this trope is when he rescues Claire Temple from TheMafiya in the episode "In the Blood".
78	* ''Series/ForeverKnight'': Given that Nick Knight is a {{Vampire Detective\|Series}}, he has the advantage of being able to see in the dark for this trope. However, it becomes a plot point when Nick is shot while searching a dark parade float warehouse, and no-one got a look at the shooter, leaving them free to strike again.
79	* A variation involving pitch-black jungles in ''Series/ThePacific''. Parts I, II and IV all involve frantic shootouts at night, (the Battles of the Tenaru, Henderson Field, and New Gloucester, respectively) where it's so dark that often the only available light are the muzzle flashes of the Marines' rifles and machine guns, or the occasional flash of lightning. [[RealityIsUnrealistic This was actually a point of criticism]] about the series, but very much TruthInTelevision.
80	* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': The episode "[[Recap/TheMandalorianS2E5Chapter13TheJedi The Jedi]]" opens with Ahsoka fighting the GasMaskMooks of the BigBad in a forest at night, with much of the action shown only by blaster fire and the light of Ahsoka's lightsabers.
81	* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': In the episode ".exe", Reese and Shaw are cornered by Samaritan agents. [[MissionControl Finch]] says, "I hope you can shoot in the dark" and [[BigBlackout kills the lights]]. They can.
82	* ''Series/ThePunisher2017'':
83	** In "3 AM", Frank Castle kills the lights and proceeds to massacre a mafia gang. After much confused shooting and shouting, we hear the panicked breathing of the sole survivor who makes his way to the circuit breaker to turn the lights back on. He's in the process of gaping at his dead colleagues when the Punisher [[StealthHiBye appears next to him]] and shoots him with his own gun to make it look like a murder suicide.
84	** In "The Dark Hearts of Men", Frank Castle storms Billy Russo's hideout only to find himself in a dark room where he's then disoriented by strobe lights, then ambushed and captured.
85	* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': Although not involving gunshots, the hand-to-hand struggle between our heroes and [[ProfessionalKiller the Golem]] in a darkened auditorium is portrayed the same way, with the flashes of light caused by a cinema projector turning on and off.
86	* All climactic shootings in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' that were actually held on the space station. Good thing phasers put out light...
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Video Games]]
90	* ''VideoGame/Doom3'' is full of these, such as the level where you escort a scientist with a lantern through pitch-black corridors.
91	%%** Pretty much all of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''.
92	* All three games and every expansion of ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' have these; about half the time, the things you're shooting at aren't human.
93	%%* Happens quite frequently in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series.
94	* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'': The battle with [[{{Pyromaniac}} the Fury]] starts out dark, but his flamethrower gradually lightens things up, making it harder to hide from him.
95	* ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'':
96	** ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare'' has one when you and Captain Price storm a building after Gaz cuts the power, though you have an advantage: "These [[NightVisionGoggles night-vision goggles]] make it too easy." You then go through a pitch-black house with suppressed weapons -- with your night vision, you can see enemies fumbling through the dark or pointing guns at whatever noises they hear. Unfortunately for you, this gets inverted [[spoiler:in the last room, where someone has a flashlight taped to a shotgun -- which overloads the goggles]].
97	** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'' has a similar moment in the gulag level, where a number of enemy troops are moving down a corridor in the darkness. However, they ''also'' have night vision goggles....
98	%%** Also, the entire level "Second Sun" is one of these. Second Sun is {{Narm}} if you can't see what's going on in the dark. Better adjust your brightness settings up a little.
99	* Both the beginning and end of Level 1-3 in ''VideoGame/PerfectDark''. There are other levels which involve the use of NightVisionGoggles to see in dark caves or buildings. Finally, there is a cheat that turns '''every''' level into this trope by removing all the lighting and equipping night vision at the start.
100	* ''VideoGame/PointBlank1994'' has one as a challenge -- which proves quite challenging as you can only see when ''you'' fire (your targets are cardboard cutouts) and there are civilian targets too.
101	%%* ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'' to a lesser extent.
102	* The third level of ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter 2'' has one of these in a darkened highway tunnel.
103	%%* ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'' features one of these halfway through the second stage.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Web Animation]]
107	* The climax of the ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' between [[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]] and [[VideoGame/SplinterCell Sam Fisher]] features this after Snake shuts off all the lights in the building that they were fighting in. Neither one can kill the other with guns though, since both have tech that has night-vision. In the end, it comes down to a knife fight in the darkened building, [[spoiler:with Snake walking away alive]].
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Webcomics]]
111	* Agent Jerry shooting at Molly and Galatea in the peanut butter factory at night in "There but for the Grace" in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob''.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Western Animation]]
115	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': In "The Monster You Created", Vi and Sevika fight while wearing {{Power Fist}}s, and all the power being thrown around fuses out the lights, leaving the fight to be illuminated by the light of their {{Magitek}}.
116	[[/folder]]
117
118	[[folder:Real Life]]
119	* Pat Garrett vs Billy the Kid. In reality, though, a shirtless and sleepy Billy headed to the door to see Grant's silhouette in the doorway. As the Kid asked "Who's there?" in Spanish, Garrett quickly shot him in the chest.
120	[[/folder]]
121

Context Main / DarkenedBuildingShootout