Ambiguous Name: Climbing Climax

A villain flees/retreats to an isolated altitude during the climax, requiring the heroes pursue up after him. (All too often, the only means of escape is down.)

We currently have a YKTTW for "Final Ascent", a videogame-specific version, but it made me wonder how this trope is getting used first. So let's find out!

Generally correct usage

• Abandoned Warehouse
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever
• Baldurs Gate: "Inverted in the intro to BG1, which has Sarevok chasing an apparently heroic person up a tower."
• Film.Batman
  • Broken Heel, same context
• Blade Runner: "Inverted, it is the protagonist that climbs onto the top of the building for the ultimate showdown, and the antagonist that follows him."
• Cliffs Of Insanity
• Clifftop Caterwauling
• Clock Tower
• Disney Villain Death
• Inspector Morse: "In the episode 'In Service of all the Dead', Morse chases the murderer up a church tower."
• It's All Upstairs From Here
• King Kong
• Film.Lighthouse: "McCloud and Spader climb to the topmost floor of the lighthouse to escape from Rook, and Spader has to fight him there."
• Lighthouse Point: "...an ideal setting for a Climbing Climax."
• Characters.Persona2: "Eikichi (finally) corners Yasuo on the school's roof."
• Rooftop Confrontation
• Take My Hand!: "See also Clock Tower, Cliffs Of Insanity, Climbing Climax."
• Anime.Tales From Earthsea: "On to the top of a castle tower."
• The Trigan Empire: "A number of villains felt the need to go up high when Trigo chased them."
• Recap.Tintin Cigars Of The Pharoah: "At the end, Tintin chases the Fakir and his boss up a mountain."
• White Heat: "Cody climbs up a gas storage tower to escape his police and make his last stand."

Zero Context Example, please elaborate

• Alarm Fur Cobra 11
• Videogame.Bully
• For Your Eyes Only
• Garulfo
• Hanna
• High Anxiety
• Jet Set Radio
• Max Payne
• Theater Of Blood
• The Fugitive
• The Great Mouse Detective
• The Hunchback Of Notre Dame: "Three guesses what structure it takes place on, but the first two don't count."
• The Pillars Of The Earth
• Film.The Rocketeer

Unable to call

• Allison And Lillia: "The villain of episode 8 is made quite Genre Blind in order to accommodate the changes to the climax of the Ikstova arc. On the bright side, he gets to store knives in Hammerspace..."
• Soundtrack Dissonance.Anime: "...an epic fight at the top of someplace high"
• Beauty And The Beast: "The final fight between the Beast and Gaston on the castle's roofs."
• DC Universe Online: "Given the commonality of flying powers, this is often averted."
• WMG.Dollhouse: "Epitaph One ends by climbing up - because they are flying a cheap spaceship from the roof to Safehaven."
• Evil Overlord List: "If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridge over a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)"
• Maddigans Quest: "The series ends with a confrontation at the top of Solis tower, leading to Disney Villain Deaths for Ozul and Maska."
• North By Northwest: "The final fight on the Mount Rushmore."
• Not His Sled (Annie): "Warbucks finds out they were fakes afterwards, leading to a Chase Scene, a Climbing Climax, and ultimately Miss Hannigan's Heel–Face Turn."
• Pokemon Ranger: "The final mission in Shadows of Almia is a raid on the 'Incredible Machine' tower atop Altru Inc. that is going to be used to hypnotize all of Almia's Pokemon."
• Policenauts: "Evil Tower of Ominousness: Tokugawa H.Q. (leading into a Climbing Climax)."
• Psycho Beach Party: "Chicklet tries to escape the murderer by climbing up a movie billboard."
• Film.Ricochet: "Styles lures Blake into the unfinished child center grounds for the climax., where they start climbing the thing while fighting."
• Film.Sherlock Holmes: "The final fight between Holmes and Blackwood on the half-built Tower Bridge."
• Stairwell Chase: "As the hero is likely to 'tree' himself at the top of the stairs, see also Climbing Climax."
• Star Wars Clone Wars: "Asajj and Anakin climb to the top of a cliff."
• Literature.The Last Of The Mohicans (page image caption)
• The Russians Are Coming: "When the Russians and the town's folk make a human pyraimd to help the boy at the top of the Church."
• Thundercats2011: Inverted In "Omens Part 1" the Chase Fight racing game ends with Lion-O knocked off the treetop and into the water, soundly trounced and publicly humiliated by Tygra as he rings a bell in triumph.

Looks more or less like misuse

• Die Hard: "The fate of Hans Gruber at the end of Die Hard."
• Haiku.Half Life: "Climb the reactor, Destroy vital components, Breen is defeated"
• Misfits (under Shout-Out): "When a fugitive in a gorilla costume says he's finally found the right girl, you know it won't be too long before he's carrying her up the nearest tall building..."
• Plummet Perspective: "We all know that after the unarmed struggle the villain's going to fall, don't we?" (Disney Villain Death)
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: "Both games end with a tower climb."
• Save the Villain: "...big fight on the top of a building" (Rooftop Confrontation)
• Scotland PA: "The showdown between McBeth and McDuff happens on the roof of the restaurant." (Rooftop Confrontation?)
• The Dog Shot First: "Goodie and Baddie struggle on edge of building." (Rooftop Confrontation?)
• The Thirty Nine Steps: "hanging off the minute hand of the clock on St. Stephen's Tower" (Clock Tower)

Lists and indexes

• Added Alliterative Appeal
• Chase Scene
• ElencoProvvisorioA-C
• Ending Tropes
• Older Than Television
• Roger Ebert
• Settings: "Clock Tower: May be a bell tower you have to ascend."

edited 26th Feb '12 10:57:25 AM by Stratadrake

right, "running upstairs" is what it supposed to be, while "Grand Finale on a podium" is an obvious Missing Supertrope.

Not what the page currently says, though. "Climax occurs at an elevated altitude" would still be a Missing Supertrope.

edited 27th Feb '12 9:09:29 AM by Stratadrake

Bumpage. Did anyone go and make the "climax occurs on an elevated surface" supertrope?