History Main / DinerBrawl

* In ‘’Series/CobraKai’’, a group of flashbacks detail the origin of John Kreese. The first flashback involves some thugs causing trouble at the diner young Kreese works in, promoting them to take it outside where Kreese mops the floor with them.

%%* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Sam and Dean get into a lot of diner brawls.

* Narrowly averted in ''Film/{{Drive}}'', where the main character is spotted by an old client in a diner. The Driver threatens to beat the client if he says another word to him, so the client stands down immediately.

* Kavinksy's video for ''Odd Look'' features a short-film inspired by ''Film/{{Drive}}'', of which, they contributed to the soundtrack. It involves a Driver-like hero stopping a robbery in a diner and saving the waitress.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' had a reversed diner brawl in the episode ''Backwards''. It started with a patron uncracking Lister's ribs, proceeded with Lister being thrown across a table, and finally Lister putting a tooth back into someone's mouth before the bar returns to normal activity.

* In ''Film/{{xXx}}'', protagonist Xander Cage is abducted from his home by government agents and wakes up the next day in a busy road diner. Almost immediately there's a stick-up by two armed men, but Cage easily dispatches both of them. Agent Gibbons reveals himself and explains that this was a test which Cage passed, but asks why Cage was confident enough to just walk right up to the second gunman and take his shotgun. Cage [[SherlockScan points out all the increasingly unlikely discrepancies he noticed before the hold-up]]; one of the gunmen packing a cop-issue Beretta and the other one dressed up as a broker on a Sunday when the stock market is closed he deemed unlikely, but still plausible; a career waitress coming to work in high heels however was beyond the realm of physical possibility, so he realized that if she was fake, then the whole setting was fake and the guns only had blanks.

** ''Series/Daredevil2015'' has a rather gruesome example of this in the episode "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S2E11380 .380]]". [[ThePunisher Frank Castle]] uses an unsuspecting Karen Page to lure two of the Blacksmith's henchmen to a diner. The hitmen come inside and Frank savagely beats and kills them both while a horrified Karen hides underneath the counter in the kitchen.

This scene might play out in more family friendly movies where a bar could be seen as inappropriate. Maybe the scene involves teenagers, so a bar is certainly out of the question, but the writers still want to invoke the same idea as a bar brawl. It's also possible that the writers simply wanted to move the action to a different locale in order to have a nice breath of fresh air. Unlike the BarBrawl where the hero is usually guaranteed a winner, this scene might have a more unfortunate result. Sometimes, the scene is meant to show how meek the hero is before having his or her final moment of glory. They may even end up PayingForTheActionScene.

* In ''Film/SupermanII'', Superman loses his powers and is reduced to mild mannered Clark Kent. He visits a diner, only to be harassed by a truck driver and roughed up. Later in the movie when he regains his powers, he goes back to the same diner and throws the truck driver down the length of the counter. He leaves, claiming that he's been working out.

* In ''Film/{{xXx}}'', protagonist Xander Cage is abducted from his home by government agents, and wakes up the next day in a busy road diner. Almost immediately there's a stick-up by two armed men, but Cage easily dispatches both of them. Agent Gibbons reveals himself and explains that this was a test which Cage passed, but asks why Cage was confident enough to just walk right up to the second gunman and take his shotgun. Cage [[SherlockScan points out all the increasingly unlikely discrepancies he noticed before the hold-up]]; one of the gunmen packing a cop-issue Beretta and the other one dressed up as a broker on a Sunday when the stock market is closed he deemed unlikely, but still plausible; a career waitress coming to work in high heels however was beyond the realm of physical possibility, so he realized that if she was fake, then the whole setting was fake and the guns only had blanks.
* While it had apparently been closed for the night, Tony Stark faces off against a female Extremeis infectee in ''Film/IronMan3'' while inside a diner.

* ''[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet A Nightmare on Elm Street: Perchance to Dream]]'' has a Fast Food Restaurant Brawl, caused by everyone being rendered edgy, paranoid and violent due to Jacob Johnson stopping everyone in Springwood from dreaming for at least a month (to protect them from Freddy). Later on in the police station patrons are still fighting, with several cops now involved.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' had a reversed diner brawl in episode ''Backwards''. It started with a patron uncracking Listers ribs, proceeded with Lister being thrown across a table, and finally Lister putting a tooth back into someone's mouth before the bar returns to normal activity.

* The introductory ''TabletopGame/FengShui'' adventure, "Baptism of Fire", opens with one of these, with the heroes fighting off a vicious gang that have come to shake down the owner of the establishment.

--> '''Dan:''' "Who would've thought an angry mob would get so out of hand..?"

** This tends to happen at 24 hour diners or open late diners in general. Often, 24 hour diners or late-open diners are in areas with a lot of nightlife. The DinerBrawl in these cases is often just a PortingDisaster of the BarBrawl.

* In Part 1 of ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', a [[https://youtu.be/fYlF_TfzrR8?t=163 wand battle]] ensues in a cafe between the Trio and two death eaters.

* ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' has one. Well, dinner theatre brawl actually, but pretty much the same. Incited by Dan.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad!'' gives us Stan vs. Bullock.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/NaturalBornKillers https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/natural-born-killers_64.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Woody Harrelson wanted his eggs sunny-side up.]]

* Played for laughs (note the obvious stunt double) in ''Film/ImGonnaGitYouSucka'' when Mr. Big's goons arrive at a local diner to beat up Jack Spade. Luckily Jack's mother is there to protect him, much to Jack's chagrin. Includes a BarSlide.
* ''{{Literature/Love And Death On Long Island}}'' has an in-universe example. John Hurt watches a [[ShowWithinAShow Movie Within a Movie]] called ''Hot Pants College II'' which apparently starts with a scene of hooligans beating up Jason Priestley at a 50's style diner.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', the main characters run into a diner to escape the Death Eaters, but two show up because they are able to track anyone who speaks Voldemort's name.
* ''[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet A Nightmare on Elm Street: Perchance To Dream]]'' has a Fast Food Restaurant Brawl, caused by everyone being rendered edgy, paranoid and violent due to Jacob Johnson stopping everyone in Springwood from dreaming for at least a month (to protect them from Freddy). Later on in the police station patrons are still fighting, with several cops now involved.

* ''Film/CloudAtlas'': When a rowdy customer at Papa Song's gets a little too frisky with Yoona, he gets a punch to the head. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, Yoona's owner kills her on the spot a few moments later, however, as she tries to escape.]]

* ''Film/KickAss'' features the hero's first fight just outside of a diner.

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* ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles''. A local cowboy doesn't like the fact that Lord Fanny is a transsexual and tries to pick a fight. Doesn't go well when the heroes take down entire military bases on their off days.

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* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Sam and Dean get into a lot of diner brawls.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Community}}'' depicted the cast dressing up as ''Film/PulpFiction'' characters in a diner for Abed's birthday. When Troy damages Abed's gift by accident, he and Chang get into a fight in the diner, resulting in them hitting the jukebox.
* In the first episode of ''Series/TheAquabatsSuperShow!'', "[=ManAnt!=]", the extremely famished band attempts to order at a deserted burger joint when [=ManAnt=]'s henchmen show up to attack.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'' has a rather gruesome example of this in the episode "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S2E11380 .380]]". [[ThePunisher Frank Castle]] uses an unsuspecting Karen Page to lure two of the Blacksmith's henchmen to a diner. The hitmen come inside and Frank savagely beats and kills them both while a horrified Karen hides underneath the counter in the kitchen.
* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': In the season 2 finale, Jessica, on the run with her homicidal mother, stops off at a diner to meet with Oscar so he can get her and Alisa some new [=IDs=]. However, some of the diner patrons turn out to be undercover cops waiting to catch Jessica. Jessica fights off the undercover cops and then escapes the diner in the back of a dump truck.
* ''Series/AgentCarter'' fought through a diner full of SSR agents when they suspected her of being TheMole and tried to arrest her in a huge sting operation.
* In the sixth episode of the first season of ''Series/AshVsEvilDead'', the main characters fight their way out of a diner overrun with deadites.
* ''Series/FargoSeasonTwo'' kicks off with a triple homicide in a diner. Rye Gerhardt tries to intimidate Judge Mundt into unfreezing his partner Skip's bank accounts as she's eating late in a Waffle Hut on the outskirts of Luverne, Minnesota. The meeting turns hostile and she sprays him with a can of bug spray. Rye then pulls out a gun and shoots her in the shoulder. Then he kills the cook as he charges out of the kitchen carrying a [[FryingPanOfDoom frying pan]], then shoots the waitress. Mundt recovers and manages to stab Rye in the back with a knife from the table before he is able to finish her off. The waitress, badly wounded, tries to flee the scene as Rye steals the money from the cash register to make it look like a robbery, but Rye hears her opening the door, follows her out into the parking lot, and shoots her in the back. He's then distracted when he sees the lights of a UFO appear overhead. Wandering out into the road to investigate the lights, he's suddenly struck by Peggy Blumquist, who drives off with Rye stuck in her windshield. State Trooper Lou Solverson and his father-in-law, Rock County Sheriff Hank Larsson, end up being the primary investigators on the case.

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* The introductory ''TabletopGame/FengShui'' adventure, "Baptism of Fire," opens with one of these, with the heroes fighting off a vicious gang that have come to shake down the owner of the establishment.

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* In ''Film/ThePresidio'', Sean Connery's character has to take a JerkAss down in the middle of a diner, using only his [[PressurePoint thumbs]]. He says he'd only use his ''right'' thumb, as his left is [[BadassBoast far too powerful]]. Once the fight begins, [[TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty he uses both thumbs and a foot.]]

* In the sixth episode of the first season of ''Series/AshVsTheEvilDead'', the main characters fight their way out of a diner overrun with deadites.