There are thousands of places where people can go and battle. Whether it be up on the roof, inside an old warehouse or any place that looks dramatic. But what can they do when these places are unavailable or out of reach?
Well, they'll have to make do with what they can find, no matter how silly it looks.
A normal fight in the woods can result in being taken to a nearby local park where children usually play. It's rather unlikely that children are around at the time or people passing by. Expect the people taking part in this fight to be either grown adults or creatures from another planet... or someone who should know better. Some instances can be children as well, but the scuffle might not always be childlike.
Most cases, the fighters will be using war weaponry like swords and guns, or they'll just use Improv Fu. Expect to see things such as fighting on the spinning roundabout, a quick escape down a slide, and/or someone claiming empowerment on the bridge above the monkey-bars. If they are ever caught by a passer-by, said passer-by might back away slowly or not react; it's could also be a child that is immediately shushed by their oblivious parent, but if an adult is the first one to see, they might try to distract the child or Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears.
Examples:
- The main gang brawl in 20 Fists happens in a playground at 3:30 AM.
- Colossal features two characters who inadvertently create kaiju avatars of themselves in Seoul if they step foot in a particular playground at a certain time. This results in the two characters clashing on the playground in their human forms while their giant monster forms duke it out on the other side of the globe.
- In Daredevil (2003), Matt and Elektra's first meeting is a martial arts fight near an inner-city playground where children are still playing.
- In Hanna, Erik's fight with Isaacs and his henchmen happens in a playground with Erik using the equipment to help take them out.
- Averted in Kill Bill. The hero and Vernita Green discuss plans to duel that night on the local baseball diamond, but end up finishing the battle in the kitchen instead.
- Jackie Chan engaged in one against a set of mooks in Police Story 2, with his usual creative use of the environment in the fight choreography.
- An action scene in Shoot 'Em Up briefly takes place at a playground. Smith shoots the merry-go-round bars in order to make it spin, so that Hertz can't successfully shoot the baby.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode where Buffy has her eighteenth birthday opens with her fighting a vampire in an Abandoned Playground, for the requisite leave-childhood-behind symbolism.
- The Doctor Who story "Survival" has a chase scene through a playground, with the quarry going over and through the rides in an attempt to shake off the pursuer.
- The Power Rangers franchise often featured this trope at least once in their many spin-off shows, when the Rangers had to fight some mooks in the nearest place possible (or just where they meet up).
- In Ultraviolet (1998), the confrontation at the climax of the first episode takes place in an empty playground at night.
- At CHIKARA Aniversario And His Amazing Friends, May 21, 2011, UltraMantis Black and Chuck Taylor fought out of the Palmer Center in Easton, PA into a playground next door. The fight involved Taylor coming down the slide and Mantis chopping him.note
- Mega Man ZX: The boss battle against Purprill takes place in his personal room, which is decorated like a playground, complete with sandy floors.
- Diary Of A Bad Man had Humza and his friend Umar ambushed by Asif's gang in a park they snuck in during their Eid holiday. Humza manages to defeat them at the swings while Umar gets his ass handed to him as he tries to escape down the slide.
- Discussed in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Dr. Horrible refuses to fight an online challenger at a local park because children play there. Presumably, there's a playground.
- Smosh did a brief parody of
Super Smash Bros. in which Fox McCloud questioned why he, Link, Solid Snake, and Jigglypuff choose to fight in a playground instead of doing something "productive". When Fox tries to escape, he's obliterated by the drop from the slide to the floor, so the others decide to stay where they are.
- In the Channel Awesome production Suburban Knights, some of the critics have a fight scene in a park against the supernatural villains.
- Stewie fights with his half-brother Bertram in Family Guy over who would get the right to be the most popular person at the playground, which leads into a literal war with weaponry and Child Soldiers.
- The first episode of Jackie Chan Adventures involved Jackie fighting the Dark Hand Enforcers in a playground.
- One sketch from Robot Chicken parodies the Indiana Jones movies with children on the playground, featuring the Jones-expy swinging off the roundabout to use the bullies as target practice, and one boy getting sliced to pieces by girls playing Double Dutch (although implied).
