| 1 | [[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/SpiderMan https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gang_war.jpg]]]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ->'''Vinson:''' The prisons and the graveyards are full of boys who wore the crown.\ |
| 4 | '''Marlo Stanfield:''' Point is: they wore it. It's my turn to wear it now. Tell our people to tool up. |
| 5 | -->-- ''Series/TheWire'' |
| 6 | |
| 7 | The friction between two (or more) rival crime factions has broken out and exploded into all out warfare. This can happen between two groups of the same type/nationality (for example two [[TheMafia Mafia]] families going at it) or between multiple nationalities (e.g., TheMafiya taking on a {{Yakuza}} group). Two groups of GangBangers getting into a turf war to settle things once and for all also counts, as does TheSyndicate clashing with another Syndicate or group. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | This may be portrayed as an organized crime version of FeudingFamilies, and as with many portrayals of FeudingFamilies [[EvilVersusEvil both sides are evil]], while sometimes the conflict is a more [[BlackAndGrayMorality black-and-grey]] between NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters and RuthlessForeignGangsters. Sometimes, the war comes from conflict between two factions within a single group, which tends to be a particularly bitter and usually short conflict. In this case it often [[PassThePopcorn doesn't matter who wins or loses]], as the victor usually finds that their criminal empire has been [[PyrrhicVictory smashed beyond repair by the conflict]]. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | You'll often see characters express an apparently sincere desire to ''avoid'' a mob war -- members of these criminal gangs are frequently portrayed as businessmen obsessed with profit, and they know well that a mob war is bad for business. Mob bosses and their henchmen will often invest significant time and energy into finding all sorts of ways to strike back at the opposing side without triggering a full-on war. They usually fail, for reasons of dramatic necessity (in which case an EscalatingWar is the result). |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Expect to see at least half of the GunsAndGunplayTropes put into effect, as well as lots of StuffBlowingUp and lots of {{Gorn}}. Compare EnemyCivilWar, which is when {{Mook}}s from the same faction are duking it out within their ranks, though there can be some overlap. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | ---- |
| 16 | !!Examples: |
| 17 | |
| 18 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 19 | |
| 20 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 21 | * In the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' episode "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession5BalladOfFallenAngels Ballad of Fallen Angels]]", Spike's former mentor Mao Yenrai is killed in Vicious' introduction scene for trying to make peace between the Red Dragon Syndicate and another mob. Later, in "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession25TheRealFolkBluesPart1 The Real Folk Blues (Part 1)]]", the Red Dragons have a mini-civil war when Vicious launches his coup. |
| 22 | * ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': This is a constant threat in Roanapur, as there are a number of criminal factions that tolerate the presence of the others, at present. However, it is noted that potential mob conflicts solve themselves once a third party gets involved: Roberta in the "El Baille de la Muerte" arc and Hansel and Grettel in the Vampire Twins arc. During the "Fujiyama Gangster Paradise" arc, Hotel Moscow also engages in a mob war against the Yakuza when visiting Japan, [[RuthlessForeignGangsters using more brutal tactics than the Yakuza are used to]]. |
| 23 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Gungrave}}'' anime, the out-of-town Lightning organisation's attempt to take power from [[TheSyndicate Millennion]]. |
| 24 | * ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'' has several, most notably the one between the Gandors and the Runoratas in the ''Drugs and Dominoes'' arc. Likewise, there's serious bad blood between Jacuzzi's [[{{Delinquents}} street gang]] and the Russo mafia family set up in Chicago, and part of the reason Jaccuzi's hitched a ride on a transcontinental train to New York is to escape their interest. |
| 25 | * Essentially the plot of the second season of ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'', and also a part of the back story for several characters. |
| 26 | * Several arcs of ''Manga/TokyoCrazyParadise'' center on potential or actual mob wars, sometimes with PsychoSerum-fueled monsters. |
| 27 | * Happens in ''Anime/HeatGuyJ''. |
| 28 | ** The head of the Wei family is ''not'' happy that Clair has been made head of the Leonelli family (One, it interferes with the Wei family's power, and two Clair is [[AxCrazy nucking futz]].) He tries to absorb the Leonelli family into his own, and when that fails, slights Clair (and tries to poison him) at a luncheon/dinner. An all-out fight ensues, with great losses on both sides. Clair responds by sending a tanker truck full of napalm to the Wei family's district. [[spoiler: Daisuke stops him, though.]] (In the manga, he dispenses with the napalm and has his girlfriend build a sexy gyndroid to seduce and strangle Wei. There is also no explicit mention of an all-out mob war, though that could simply be because the manga is so short.) |
| 29 | ** Happens again in a later episode. Clair has gone into hiding after being framed for a crime he didn't commit, and the Vita Board members want the money he has stashed away in a safe that opens via retinal scan. Each faction is out for its own interests, and fight against each other in an attempt to locate Clair and [[EyeScream take his left eye]]. |
| 30 | * Common in ''Manga/Reborn2004'', considering its settings. |
| 31 | ** A [[ButtMonkey pretty incompetent kid]] who is one day told that he is the [[UnexpectedSuccessor next in line to be the Boss of the strongest Family in Italy]]. |
| 32 | ** A rather straight example is the whole of the [[StoryArc Future Arc]], which spans over four sub-arcs (in the manga; six in the anime). |
| 33 | ** After the GenreShift from SliceOfLife Comedy to {{Shonen}} Fighter, this became the majority of the plot. |
| 34 | * The titular "False Love" in ''Manga/{{Nisekoi}}'' between Raku and Chitoge is deliberately set up to avoid a mob war between the criminal syndicates run by their respective fathers. |
| 35 | * One was briefly mentioned in ''Manga/BungoStrayDogs'' called 'The Dragon's Head Conflict'. It's said to be a conflict between multiple mobs, under which the Port Mafia. The Conflict is elaborated on some more in Dead Apple. |
| 36 | * ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'': Happens within the [[TheMafia mafia]]-{{yakuza}}-esque business organization Teiwaz, when Jasley Donomikols teams up with a [[ArmiesAreEvil Gjallarhorn]] commander to take out rival gangster Naze, and later tries to [[TheStarscream go directly]] for [[TheDon McMurdo]] himself. [[spoiler:Jasley's attempt to usurp power gets quashed pretty quickly however, when [=McMurdo=] makes a deal with Gjallarhorn that cuts Iok off from helping Jasley and has Tekkadan resign as a Teiwaz subsidiary so they can go after him.]] |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 40 | * ''ComicBook/SinCity'' occasionally features this, most notably with the Old Town Girls once resisting attempts from the mob to invade their turf and later striking back at TheMafia for the death of one of their own when she had been just an InnocentBystander. |
| 41 | * If a hero operates in a city and the series lasts more than 60 issues, this WILL be a storyline. Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/SpiderMan have both had ''multiple'' mob wars in their respective series. Batman's most notable was "War Games", which is started by [[NiceJobBreakingItHero his own plan being used by Stephanie Brown]]. Spider-Man's was most likely when ComicBook/TheKingpin was thought to be dead and all of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity was crawling over each other to replace him. |
| 42 | * An early ''ComicBook/SavageDragon'' storyline featured a mob war among superpowered criminals. |
| 43 | * ''ComicBook/ThePunisher's'' origin came when his family was killed in a botched mob hit during one of these. |
| 44 | ** On occasion, Frank has tried to take out the Kingpin, only to be prevented by the fact that killing the Kingpin would spark a gang war with inevitable civilian casualties (or StatusQuoIsGod). |
| 45 | ** ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'': Frank's assassination of the centenarian Don Cesare at his birthday party (along with a great deal of the Cesare capos and soldiers) sparks multiple mob wars over the course of the series, all of which he does his best to encourage as it's less work for him. |
| 46 | *** ''The Cell'' is the MAX version of the Punisher's origin: Frank gets himself thrown into Ryker's so he can get at the five men indirectly responsible for the death of his family (the don's consigliere put a hit on him via his own hitman, and the two bodyguards opened fire at random when their boss was down but not out, killing Frank's family). |
| 47 | *** Nicky Cavella was an up-and-coming capo with a psycho rep who had the bright idea to intimidate the Triads by murdering their leader's sons. What he thought would send him on the fast track to promotion instead got him ReassignedToAntarctica as the dons thought he went too far (and ended up causing the Mob War he thought he was preventing). With Cesare's death, the dons were desperate enough to bring him back to deal with the Punisher. His even brighter idea was to desecrate Frank's family by pissing on their bones, filming it, and mailing the footage to the local news, to which Frank responded by hitting the Mafia ''even harder''. Cavella was deserted by his goons once they realized he simply didn't have the intelligence to be a leader and ended up gutshot and dying over a few days. |
| 48 | ** During ''ComicBook/ThePunisherWelcomeBackFrank'' arc, Soap persuades Frank to rescue a capo held hostage by South American narcotraffickers, as only his authority can prevent a brewing Mob War from spilling into the streets and harming innocents. Frank agrees, and once the mob boss is back in New York, he calls a meeting to discuss how to get back in the game instead of attacking each other for money and territories: killing the Punisher. Frank then calls the mobster, asking if he ever questioned Frank's motives. That is, less "prevent a mob war" and more "have all the Mafia leaders in the same room at the same time". Cue Frank, holding a belt-fed machine gun. |
| 49 | ** In another, Frank goes to Ireland to stop a shipment of drugs from coming in. He finds that the local drug-running Protestants and Catholics are quite happy murdering each other without his assistance. |
| 50 | * The inspiration of the 2003 ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}}'' storyline "City At War" harks back to the one done for the original ''ComicBook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'' comics, concluding its run. However, here, the storyline involved splinter factions of the Foot attempting to gain supremacy in New York before Karai took over. |
| 51 | * ''ComicBook/{{Family}}'': Silver Odysseus is hoping to incite a gang war that will engulf the city between his brother Gio, the current Don of the Odysseus family, and Cane, an up-and-coming gangster. |
| 52 | * ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': Pretty much the main point of emphasis for the New Ultimates as, unlike [[ComicBook/TheUltimates the previous iteration]] who dealt with terrorists and invasions, the new Ultimates are more street level and focus on super powered gangs. |
| 53 | * The first story of ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' climaxes in an aerial gang war fought between Professor Moriarty and Fu Manchu. |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': All of Boston ends up in the crossfire of the fight between Paulie Longo and Julianna Sazia for control of the mob. The war looks a bit different from the stereotypical since while there are plenty of guns Paulie hired a powerful BlackMagic user to back him up and Widow Sazia started hiring henchmen with lots of body mods, she also threatened several of Paulie's supporters into becoming her cyborg henchmen. |
| 55 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'': The main MythArc of ''ComicBook/StarWarsBountyHunters'' is a conflict between the Mourner's Wail and Unbroken Clan crime syndicates, which has been ongoing for over a decade. Though this gets superseded during the BatFamilyCrossover ''[[ComicBook/StarWarsWarOfTheBountyHunters War of the Bounty Hunters]]'', when both groups are targeted by [[spoiler: the restored [[Film/{{Solo}} Crimson Dawn]]]]. And then in the miniseries ''[[ComicBook/StarWarsCrimsonReign Crimson Reign]]'', the latter triggers a galaxy wide war between every criminal organization by means of a few targeted assassinations and spreading the rumor that the Empire is seeking to replace the Hutts as their main underworld contact with whoever proves themselves strongest. |
| 56 | * One breaks out in the ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' arc "The Dark Age" between a half-dozen gangs. It's made much more complicated because one gang has hired a [[PsychoForHire psychotic assassin,]] another gang is led by a telepathic BrainInAJar, and there's a vengeful AntiHero with a TouchOfDeath who wants to kill them all. |
| 57 | * Parodied in ''ComicBook/GiraffesOnHorsebackSalad''. While the Surrealist Woman is imprisoned, Jimmy, [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho, and Chico]] start spreading madness throughout the city in an attempt to [[MundaneFantastic normalize surrealism]]. They are opposed by the Realists, led by Linda, Michael, and their socialite friends. The Realists use weapons modified to shoot [[AbnormalAmmo food, confetti, paint, and rubbish,]] while the Surrealists retaliate with circus animals, tentacled eyeballs, and other indescribable apparitions. |
| 58 | [[/folder]] |
| 59 | |
| 60 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 61 | * In ''Fanfic/HuntersOfJustice'', after the Kingdom of Mistral is bottled by Brainiac, Professor Lionheart is found dead and the entire kingdom is consumed in a power struggle among the many criminal elements spreading from the WretchedHive of Mistral's lower levels. The two biggest names in the war are Sienna Khan and the White Fang against Lil' Miss Malachite and the Spiders. |
| 62 | * In ''Fanfic/RiskItAll'', there's been long-standing friction between the Snake-Flower Triads and the mafia led by Black Mask for some time before the start of the story, as shown by how quick Black Mask is to shoot Ren. Due to being mistaken for a member of the Triads in his vigilante identity, Ren inadvertently reignites war between the two factions, starting with Black Mask's lackeys trying to shoot up a diner. |
| 63 | [[/folder]] |
| 64 | |
| 65 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 66 | * ''Film/BlackMass'', the story of Whitey Bulger and how he built a crime empire in Boston, starts off with Bulger and TheIrishMob going to war with TheMafia in Boston. Whitey wins, after helping the FBI arrest the Italians, and takes total control of organized crime in the city. |
| 67 | * In the Creator/ChuckNorris movie ''Film/CodeOfSilence'', a gang war breaks out between the Colombian Comacho mob and the Italian Luna mob after the Italians kill eight Colombians during a drug deal involving an undercover police officer. |
| 68 | * ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'', the first film of the Film/DollarsTrilogy, features this with the Baxters and the Rojos, two families vying for control in a small town. |
| 69 | ** And the remake ''Film/LastManStanding'' does this again, except with Italian and Irish mobs replacing them. |
| 70 | *** And the film which both of them are remakes of, Creator/AkiraKurosawa's ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', did it in Japan. |
| 71 | *** Which in turn may also have been based on the Creator/DashiellHammett novel ''Literature/RedHarvest'': See the Literature example below. |
| 72 | * ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' - In the movie it's immigrant Irish gangs vs. native-born Americans. In the book, it's basically every immigrant group vs. every other one. One memorable passage is about a street in the Lower East Side where all the Irish immigrants lived across the street from all the English immigrants. They'd go to work, go to their various pubs, get hammered, and then spill into the street and brawl ''almost every day.'' |
| 73 | * This happens in ''Film/TheGodfather'' when Sonny decides to "go to the mattresses" after the attempt on his father's life, although there is remarkably little violence seen on-screen. The story of the mob war is told through [[SpinningNewspaper newspaper headlines]] while Carmine Coppola plays on an out of tune piano. |
| 74 | * In another Norris movie, ''Film/TheHitman'', there's a mob war between an Italian gang from Seattle, a French gang from Vancouver, and [[RuthlessForeignGangsters a recently arrived Iranian gang]]. |
| 75 | * B-movie ''Film/HollowPoint'' featured a Syndicate with [[TheMafia Italian]], [[TheMafiya Russian]] and [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Chinese]] wings that all distrusted each other and, after being pushed by the protagonists, collapsed into fighting each other. |
| 76 | * ''Film/LastActionHero'': Sicilian mobster Vivaldi is plotting to kill off the Turelli Mob with a gas bomb, after making a fake peace with them. |
| 77 | * The title character of ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin'' becomes the pawn of two mob bosses hostile to each other. The key plot element is that it is still a Mob Cold War and neither is willing to start a shooting war yet. The protagonist is useful since it can be made to look like he acted on his own and not on the orders of one of the mob bosses. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for both mob bosses, said protagonist isn't the useful idiot he appears to be.]] |
| 78 | * ''Film/MeetTheFeebles'' has a brief but action-packed one: [[spoiler: Mr. Big has one of his goons, Louie, sell Mr. Bletch borax, telling him it's cocaine. When Bletch finds out, he has Louie killed and his cronies take him to the docks where the ''actual'' drugs are. They fight Mr. Big's gang, killing all but one of them, and later kill Mr. Big himself (though not before one of Bletch's goons gets killed as well). In the end, Bletch successfully obtains the drugs and has Trevor sell one to one of their employees]]. |
| 79 | * A gang war kicks off in ''Film/MillersCrossing''. Tom Reagan [[spoiler: plays all sides against the middle in an effort to keep his friend Leo O'Bannon in the driver's seat. He succeeds, but is beaten up so often it's a wonder he can still walk, and [[ShaggyDogStory ultimately gives up the girl, his friendship and position in the mob]]]]. |
| 80 | * ''Film/Predator2'' is set in Los Angeles during a HeatWave ''and'' a gang war between Colombian and Jamaican drug cartels. Which makes it the perfect safari destination for an alien HuntingTheMostDangerousGame. |
| 81 | * One of the first gangster films ever made, ''Film/TheRacket'' (1928), has a war between rival bootlegging gangs as a plot point. |
| 82 | * ''Film/RomeoMustDie'' featured a [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Chinese Mob]] and an African-American [[TheSyndicate Syndicate]] on the edge of war. |
| 83 | * In ''Film/Scarface1983'', a mob war is part of what allows Tony Montana to rise to the top of the Miami drug trade. Later when [[EvenEvilHasStandards Tony's standards]] get in the way of him doing business with TheCartel, his group gets wiped out in what is not so much a mob war as a [[CurbStompBattle Mob Curb Stomping]]. |
| 84 | * ''Film/Scarface1932'' also features a city-wide war, although it's far more violent and destructive than the remake's, with many of the onscreen events being based on infamous gang murders in real life. |
| 85 | * ''Film/SicarioDayOfTheSoldado'': The U.S. government attempts to incite an inter-cartel war in Mexico in retaliation for their ties to terrorist groups, kidnapping the daughter of one of the cartel's leaders in a FalseFlagOperation. |
| 86 | * UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} was being torn apart by the violence between different mobs in ''Film/TheUntouchables1987''. (And in real life). |
| 87 | * There are many {{Yakuza}} movies dealing with these, some outstanding ones are Kinji Fukasaku's ''Film/YakuzaGraveyard'' and the ''Battles Without Honor Or Humanity'' series and Takeshi Kitano's ''Sonatine''. |
| 88 | [[/folder]] |
| 89 | |
| 90 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 91 | * A major component of the ongoing plot of web serial ''Literature/{{Barkwire}}''. |
| 92 | * In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': ''Literature/SmallFavor'', the possibility of a mob war breaking out in Chicago is the ''least'' of the problems caused by the disappearance of Marcone, albeit still one of great concern to Dresden, and something which he uses to secure cooperation and a vital clue from one of Marcone's employees. |
| 93 | ** Marcone's rise to power was caused by a power vacuum from the aftermath of a mob war. |
| 94 | * This is an important running sideplot in the web-novel ''Literature/{{Domina}}''. Gang politics are not the focus of the story, but multiple characters are still gang members, which influences their actions one way or another. |
| 95 | * ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'': The Desilijic and Besadii Hutt clans both have attached crime syndicates, with an old rivalry. During the books they fight over control of the spice trafficking trade. |
| 96 | * Creator/DashiellHammett's novel ''Literature/RedHarvest'', written in 1929, is possibly the ur-example of this trope, and is thought to have inspired [[Creator/AkiraKurosawa Kurosawa's]] film ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', which in turn has been remade in different settings many times. |
| 97 | * During the events of ''Literature/RWBYRomanHoliday'', a war between criminal organizations in Mistral provides Lil Miss with the opportunity to expand her organization elsewhere, triggering further wars as a result. [[spoiler:She begins expanding into Vale, eventually triggering a war with Vale's dominant crime organization, the Xiong family. It comes to a head at Trivia's family estate until Neo and Roman find a way to end it for good.]] |
| 98 | * [[ThievesGuild The Ink]] in ''Literature/SkateTheThief'' is noted to have secured its stranglehold on vice in [[CityOfAdventure Caribol]] against a rival gang known as the Claws at some point in the past; presumably, this was not a peaceful conflict. |
| 99 | * The Swedish ''Literature/StockholmNoir'' trilogy centerers on different attempts to remove the iron grip the Serbian mob holds on Stockholm's underworld by Swedish, Arabic, Chilean and other Serbian elements. |
| 100 | * The second book of ''Literature/TheWitchlands'' has two pirate groups go to war over who gets to claim [[spoiler:Owl]] for the BigBad. |
| 101 | * Steven Brust's ''Literature/{{Yendi}}'' is about an all-out Mob War between Vlad's organization and a neighboring Jhereg crime boss. |
| 102 | * ''Literature/JadeCity'': The conflict between the Mountain and No Peak clans is the primary plot of the book and both sequels. Featuring both many SupernaturalMartialArts fight scenes throughout the city of Kekon and less direct methods like the rival clans making covert deals with the Expys of Cold-War era United States and USSR for financing. |
| 103 | [[/folder]] |
| 104 | |
| 105 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 106 | * The threat of Tony Soprano's New Jersey mob family breaking out into open civil war or becoming embroiled with one of the New York families hangs overhead in several seasons of ''Series/TheSopranos''. In the last half of season 6, an open war breaks out between the Soprano crew and the Lupertazzi family under Phil Leotardo. |
| 107 | * A major subplot in the second season of ''Series/{{Rome}}'' deals with the various groups of the Roman underworld vying for control after a [[EvilPowerVacuum Power Vacuum]] opens up. This includes an all out showdown between the gang Vorenus created, (but being led by Pullo at that time) and another group. |
| 108 | * Virtually the entire plot of Seasons 6 and 7 of ''Series/TheShield'' is the Strike Team trying to ''start'' a Mob War in order to use them to kill off the other side. Throughout the series though, Vic and the Strike Team try to prevent mob wars as they obviously produce murders and cost everyone money. |
| 109 | * In an episode of Creator/SpikeTV's ''Series/DeadliestWarrior'', the 1920s Mafia went up against the late 1940s Yakuza in a five-on-five battle royale. [[spoiler: Mafia won]]. |
| 110 | ** In an episode of the second series Jesse James and his gang go up against Al Capone and his cronies. [[spoiler: Jesse James won, with his brother Frank surviving as well]]. |
| 111 | * ''Series/TheWire'': |
| 112 | ** At the beginning of the series, due to either a GreatOffscreenWar or a constant series of small territorial expansions, Avon Barksdale and his crew are firmly in control of the Westside of Baltimore, including controlling several housing projects where they supposedly sell their product 24/7. At the end of the first season Avon goes to jail and in the second his NumberTwo Stringer Bell is unable to hold onto their all important drug connection that keeps them supplied, causing the Barksdales to start losing their grip, leading to other crews muscling in on their territory. Most notably there is a very anti-climactic shootout between Bodie's crew and the newcomers, where both gangs [[ATeamFiring fail to even scratch the other side]], but a stray bullet [[MurphysBullet hits and kills a small kid]], pissing off Stringer, who explains that the police attention from killing a kid is bad for business. Eventually Stringer solves by making an agreement with their Eastside rivals led by Proposition Joe, although he has to keep Avon in the dark for awhile because Avon can't stand the thought of cooperating with the Eastside crews. |
| 113 | ** Season 3 revolves around a turf war between Avon Barksdale's drug organization and the organization of Marlo Stanfield, a new independent crew from the Westside that [[VillainousEthicsDecay strives to outdo the Barksdales in both ruthlessness and brutality]]. Both sides take casualties, but the war comes to an abrupt end when the Major Crimes Unit arrests Avon and most of his gang in a weapons stash house. |
| 114 | ** Season 4 sees Marlo working to maintain and expand his turf, using his enforcers Chris Partlow and Snoop to execute rival dealers as well as associates who have become liabilities. |
| 115 | * ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' has an ever-shifting balance of power between the eponymous motorcycle club, their Mexican equivalents, the local neo-Nazis, the nearby black and Chinese gangs, and a splinter faction of the IRA. |
| 116 | ** Keeping the Sons out of a mob war is a recurring theme in the series. They are quite satisfied with the status quo and an open conflict with any of the other factions is likely to severely weaken the club or even destroy it. They are very good at finding out the weakness of an enemy and striking a mutually beneficial deal to avoid a war. |
| 117 | ** The Sons were involved in a bloody mob war years before the series began and although they won, they came out of it very weak and still feel the effects of it. |
| 118 | ** When Clay gets the Sons involved with a Mexican drug cartel, they end up in the middle of a mob war between two rival cartels and a Son is killed in an ambush. |
| 119 | ** Tig gets the Sons into a mob war when he accidentally kills the daughter of one of LA's biggest drug lords. Subverted in the end because the drug lord finds the Sons to be too useful to destroy, calls off the war and instead settles for personal retribution on Tig alone. |
| 120 | ** After many years of casualties and setbacks, the Sons try to get out of the gun trade for good by hooking up their Irish supplier with the most powerful black gang. This shift in the balance of power is unacceptable to the Mexican and Chinese gangs, who soon join forces against the black-white alliance. Jax then provokes a war with the Chinese because of a personal vendetta. |
| 121 | * The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E17APieceOfTheAction A Piece of the Action]]" does this in satirical form, featuring a planet where the government is modeled on Chicago mobs of the 1920s, and mob wars are thus a form of political conflict. |
| 122 | * ''Series/HillStreetBlues'': Frank Furillo spends much of his working life trying to prevent one of these from kicking off in his precinct, with mixed results. |
| 123 | * On ''Series/{{Graceland}}'' Mike, an undercover FBI agent, inadvertently triggers a mob war when he convinces gang leader Bello to buy his heroin from a different supplier. The Mexican drug cartel who used to supply Bello takes this rejection badly and sends in a group of hitmen to kill Bello and wipe out his operation. |
| 124 | * The main StoryArc in the third season of ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' is a mob war between Nucky Thompson and Gyp Rosetti. Gyp is backed by Joe Masseria, and Nucky gets help from UsefulNotes/AlCapone. |
| 125 | * ''Series/{{Justified}}'' has had a number of these. The first season features a three way conflict between Boyd Crowder's [[VigilanteMan vigilante]] {{cult}}, his [[ArchnemesisDad father]] Bo's meth runners, and the [[TheCartel Miami Cartel]]. The second season sees Boyd, out to take over his father's business, clashing with the [[HillbillyMoonshiner Bennett family]]. Season 3 sees Boyd competing for influence with [[AxeCrazy Robert Quarles]] and the Detroit Mob, while seeking to avoid an all out war. Season 5 has numerous confrontations between Boyd, Hot-Rod Dunham, Boyd's cousin Johnny, and the newly arrived Crowe family. In each case, you can count on [[TheProtagonist Raylan Givens]] and the other {{US Marshal}}s to be caught in the middle. |
| 126 | * Meldrick Lewis intentionally starts one in the Mahoney organization on ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' by spreading rumors among the various factions. It actually blows up in the squad's face, although unlike ex-partner Kellerman - who had previously roiled things by killing Luther Mahoney - Lewis keeps his job. |
| 127 | * ''Series/LawAndOrder'': The first-season two-part episode "The Torrents of Greed" had Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone unintentionally start a war among New York City's [[TheMafia Mafia families]] when he got so close to indicting [[TheDon a major Mafia boss]] that the man killed his own brother-in-law to save himself - and was then killed by his own ''sister'', the dead man's wife. |
| 128 | * ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' spends most of its first season hovering under the threat of, and having a few near brushes with, one of these breaking out between rival crime bosses Falcone and Maroni. Cobblepot states that such a conflict is inevitable, and that when it happens "[[AStormIsComing blood will run in the streets]]". [[spoiler: And in the penultimate episode, [[MagnificentBastard he ensures it happens]], staging a FalseFlagOperation to make Maroni think Falcone tried to kill him, and kickstarting the war.]] |
| 129 | * The second season of ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' focuses largely on a war between the Gerhardt Crime Family in Fargo and the Kansas City Mafia. The Gerhardts are trying to keep their territory while Kansas City is trying to usurp it from them. In the end, [[spoiler: Kansas City wins [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing through almost no action of their own]]. The local representative of the Kansas mob is killed and most of their men either dead or arrested, but the Gerhardts' internal strife and their betrayal by Hanzee Dent at the Sioux Falls Massacre wipes out the remainder of their gang and leadership.]] |
| 130 | * ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': This is Helena Bertinelli's plan to avenge her fiancé Michael, who was killed by her father because he thought Michael was a mole for the FBI (he wasn't -- Helena was the one talking to the feds). She weakens his organization by anonymously assassinating several of his key officers and men, and then kills the head of the Triad (the prime suspects for the assassinations, of whom Frank Bertinelli personally accused right to their faces) to instigate the war. With the Bertinelli Family as weak as it is, they would assuredly be wiped out. Both Oliver and the police want to prevent this, as while a mob war would wipe out one of the organizations, it would also likely involve several innocent lives getting stuck in the crossfire as well. |
| 131 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 132 | ** ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Wilson Fisk gets into one with the Russians due to Matt Murdock busting up their operation. After he kills Anatoly for interrupting his date with Vanessa, he uses some machinations so that Vladimir will prepare his men to go to war with Fisk, not realizing Fisk has sent suicide bombers to take out him and his men. At the start of season 3, there's brief retaliation from the Albanians for Fisk's snitching on them to Ray Nadeem in the form of an ambush on the motorcade transferring him to the Presidential Hotel (what prompted said transfer, though--Fisk being shanked--was actually something Fisk arranged for Jasper Evans to give to him). |
| 133 | ** ''Series/ThePunisher2017'': It had been revealed in ''Series/Daredevil2015'' season 2 that Frank Castle's family was killed in an apparent gang shootout between three rival gangs. Which then turned out to be a police sting gone south, and which was ultimately revealed in Frank's own show to have been all a FalseFlagOperation sanctioned by William Rawlins to take out Frank, who he thought had leaked a tape of the torture of Ahmed Zubair. |
| 134 | ** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': The gangsters in Harlem are as much at war with each other as they are with Luke Cage. Season 1 sees a gang war between Cottonmouth and Domingo break out after some Harlem youths shoot up a gun deal between the two. Season 2 revolves around Harlem being the subject of a war as the Brooklyn-based Stylers decide to go to war with Mariah Dillard as Bushmaster seeks revenge for the deaths of his parents at the hands of Mariah's grandparents. After Mariah is arrested, there's another gang war that breaks out as the Koreans and Italians and Puerto Ricans fight to take control of Mariah's turf, which is resolved by Luke taking over Harlem's Paradise. |
| 135 | ** ''Series/IronFist2017'': Season 2 reveals that, with the destruction of the Hand in ''Series/TheDefenders2017'', a [[EvilPowerVacuum power vacuum]] has been left in the Chinatown criminal underworld. As a result of this, the Golden Tigers and Yangshi-Gonshi triads start fighting for control of the neighborhood. [[spoiler: Which comes to a screeching halt as [[KnightTemplar Davos]] starts killing people on both sides, causing them to ally against him.]] |
| 136 | * ''Series/{{Narcos}}'': |
| 137 | ** While Escobar is a rival to the Cali godfathers, for much of the series they maintain an uneasy detente. However, throughout season 2 he is also fighting off splinter groups of his own cartel, all the while the government is on an endless hunt for him. Cali also gets involved indirectly, as Medellin's fall would give them a virtual monopoly over the Colombian cocaine market. |
| 138 | ** In season 3, after Gilberto Rodriguez [[spoiler:is imprisoned, the vassal Valley North cartel smells blood and turns on the Cali Cartel, carrying out assassination attempts on both Miguel Rodriguez and Pacho Herrera. Despite Gilberto's pleas, Miguel orders to fight back.]] |
| 139 | ** In season 5, tensions between the Tijuana and Sinaloa chapters of the Guadalajara Cartel reach a fever pitch, with the final straw being Sinaloa building a tunnel on Tijuana territory to skirt the 10% tax Felix placed on them. A series of killings and reprisal killings ensues, until Felix puts a stop to it by decapitating the Sinaloa organization, since he can't afford to lose the west coast corridor. |
| 140 | ** In season 6, the plazas have become their independent Cartels, but Tijuana and Sinaloa start ''another'' war after previously agreeing to a truce immediately following Felix's downfall. The Arellanos start abusing their superior position to tax the poorer Sinaloans even more and refuse any resolution that would satisfy the latter. The resulting violence between the two groups eventually gathers national and international attention when they accidentally murder a beloved cardinal during a shoot-out, which deeply shocks the majorly Catholic country. |
| 141 | * ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': When the Machine provides the numbers of the heads of the Five Families, Finch and Reese realise that [[DiabolicalMastermind Elias]] is finally making his move to take over the New York Mafia. They briefly consider [[AssholeVictim sitting this one out]], but decide to intervene because of the risk to innocent bystanders. Later, Elias in turn finds himself being challenged by the Brotherhood, an alliance of New York's street gangs who are making their own bid for power. |
| 142 | * In the final episode of Season 2 of ''Series/CobraKai'', Tory's hijacking of the PA system to threaten Sam sets the stage for what turns into a full-scale fight-to-the-finish bloodbath between the RivalDojos. |
| 143 | * ''Series/{{Hightown}}'': Osito goes to war with the Frawleys over drug trafficking in Season 4 when they start supplying his dealers behind his back. |
| 144 | [[/folder]] |
| 145 | |
| 146 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 147 | * Gang wars are a [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster common theme of hip-hop]], and some think the massive Bloods-Crips war for Southern California may have led to the murders of Notorious B.I.G. and Music/TupacShakur. |
| 148 | ** DrillMusic has a reputation of not just documenting, but stoking gang wars from Chicago to London, as many artists are active members of their neighborhood gangs, and insulting rival gangs, their neighborhoods, and even dead members are common topics. |
| 149 | * Music/MichaelJackson's "Beat It" music video. |
| 150 | ** Hilariously parioded in Music/WeirdAlYankovic's video for his "Beat It" parody, "Eat It". |
| 151 | * The 1974 Paper Lace song "The Night Chicago Died" is a [[RealPersonFic fictional account]] of Al Capone's gang going to war with the Chicago police. |
| 152 | * The {{Music/Genesis|Band}} song "The Battle of Epping Forest", describing a [[LondonGangster London East End]] gang war. |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[folder:Professional Wrestling]] |
| 156 | * The storyline going on in Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling at the time of this writing between Wrestling/{{CHAOS}} led by Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada, Wrestling/BulletClub led by Wrestling/JayWhite, Wrestling/LosIngobernablesDeJapon led by Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito, Wrestling/SuzukiGun led by Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki and Wrestling/TheUnitedEmpire led by Wrestling/WillOspreay. |
| 157 | [[/folder]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 160 | * In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', there have been several mob wars, the most recent ones being the [[SiblingsInCrime Matheson Crime Family]] vs. the [[GangBangers Nightstalkers]] in Maar Sul, and the [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores Union Workers]] vs. the [[AncientConspiracy Order of the Black Rose]] in Libaterra. |
| 161 | [[/folder]] |
| 162 | |
| 163 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 164 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': |
| 165 | ** The adventure ''Mob War'' details a civil war between Mafia factions, mixed up with a conflict between the Mafia and other crime groups such as the Yakuza. It takes place in Seattle in the year 2058. |
| 166 | ** In Fourth Edition, Seattle's still in the grip of one -- Yakuza vs. Mafia vs. the Vory, with the survivors of a purge of Koreans from the Yakuza ranks trying to stay out of the way. |
| 167 | * ''TabletopGame/BladesInTheDark'' is pretty much ''Mob Wars: TheRolePlayingGame''. Not only is the game's default opening situation a turf war between the [[NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters Lampblacks]] and the [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Red Sashes]] over the drug distribution business in TheCityNarrows, but the player characters (who form their own gang at character creation) are fully expected, nay, ''encouraged'' to start muscling in on other gangs' turf as soon as they have the resources for it. |
| 168 | * ''TableTopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 169 | ** The SpinOff ''TableTopGame/{{Necromunda}}'' a skirmish-level small unit combat set on the human Hive World of Necromunda, with mostly human factions fighting an underground gang-war. It is the JustForFun/{{SciFiCounterpart}} to Warhammmer's ''TableTopGame/{{Mordheim}}''. |
| 170 | ** Gang wars are an inevitable part of life in the lower levels of a hive. The Arbites do their best to keep things from spilling over, but higher authorities are quite keen to let them keep happening, as it means combat-ready recruits for the Imperial Guard (who sometimes conduct sweeps of the lower levels, shanghaing everyone they find) or even the SpaceMarines. |
| 171 | * ''Family Business'' is a card game about mobsters putting contracts on each other. "Mob War" is a specific phase in the game [[note]]starts when six or more mobsters are on the hit list, and continues until either everyone on the list is dead, or someone plays a card to stop the killing[[/note]], but the whole game is one long mob war by most standards. |
| 172 | [[/folder]] |
| 173 | |
| 174 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 175 | * ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' is ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' with the Jets and Sharks street gangs standing in for the Montague and Capulet families. |
| 176 | [[/folder]] |
| 177 | |
| 178 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 179 | * In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate'', the city of London is embroiled in a gang war between the Assassin-backed Rooks and the Templar-backed Blighters, complete with referees for official battle between the bosses. |
| 180 | * ''VideoGame/BaldursGate 2'' features a war between the local thieves' guild and an upstart guild of vampires. |
| 181 | * ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'': A massive gang war is going on between the three top supervillains in the Arkham City prison -- Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face, based out of the steel mill, museum, and courthouse, respectively, with some other supervillains running around as well; the Mad Hatter seems to want to get a foothold in the war using mind control, but is ultimately a minor threat. As it turns out, all of the supervillains are being supplied with the guns and other weapons they're using, as well as information against each other, by Dr. Hugo Strange, who runs Arkham City, as pretense to activate Protocol 10: [[spoiler:the attempted massacre of every single inmate in Arkham City, which includes some innocent civilians such as doctors trying to help everyone in there and people who simply knew too much about Arkham City's true purpose. The ultimate goal is to murder all the worst criminals in Gotham City and then do it again all over the world and replace Batman as Gotham's savior in the process]]. |
| 182 | * ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' has a well-loved sidequest arc where the Vault Hunters start a WarForFunAndProfit and break the truce between two FeudingFamilies (who are both over-the-top stereotypes of Irishmen and rednecks respectively), in a parody of the 1920s "Beer Wars". This starts from simple pranks to piss both families off, then it gets increasingly brutal from there until the final mission, where you have to kill the godfather of whatever family annoys you more and their entire honor guard in a bloody firefight at the local train station. |
| 183 | * ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' has a more family-friendly (and non-lethal) version of this with a conflict going on between the five cliques at Bullworth Academy, with many of the cliches often found in gang and mob stories brought down to a high-school level. |
| 184 | * ''VideoGame/CriminalCase'': |
| 185 | ** ''VideoGame/CriminalCaseGrimsborough'' features a [[MeleeATrois three-way mob war]] between [[GangBangers The Vipers, The Skulls]], and [[TheMafia the Italian mafia]] happening in the Industrial Area, which ends when [[spoiler:Salvador Cordero, leader of The Vipers, is murdered by Tony Marconi, TheDon of the mafia]], putting the latter in prison and technically making The Skulls the winners of the conflict. |
| 186 | ** ''VideoGame/CriminalCasePacificBay'' shows that the Chinese and Russian communities of Inner City have been in conflict for a long time thanks to their leaders, Sue Xiong and Nikolai Kamarov, [[spoiler:being former StarCrossedLovers that were forced to split by their families]]. Thankfully, the conflict ends in a relatively minor note when [[spoiler:Nikolai gets murdered by his own son]] and his successor decides to put an end to the Russian's rivalry with the Chinese, with only a few casualties happening as a result of it. |
| 187 | ** One of the main {{Story Arc}}s of ''VideoGame/CriminalCaseMysteriesOfThePast'' is putting a stop at an imminent all-out war brewing between the Italian and the Irish gangs of Concordia, with most of the conflict happening in the districts of Sinner's End (which is Irish territory), Coyote Gorge (controlled by the Italians), and Crimson Banks (where both communities mostly coexist in peace). [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the police department is too late to prevent the war from occurring in the climax of the arc, and is only after too many gang members die or get too injured to keep fighting that everything starts to settle down]]. |
| 188 | * Basically the point of X-rated PC game ''VideoGame/{{Daiakuji}}'', where the player character is a gangster who fights other gangs and the authorities for control of a weird alternate reality version of 1930s Osaka. |
| 189 | * The plot of ''[[VideoGame/DefJamSeries Def Jam: Fight For New York]]'' is about the battle between two gangs competing for control of New York's [[FightClubbing illegal underground fighting circuit]]. |
| 190 | * In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the Red Dragon triad is at war with the Luminous Path triad. Rather than eliminating one side, the objective is to encourage a peace between the two. |
| 191 | * ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' There is an ongoing conflict between the [[TheSyndicate ruthless, murderous]] [[TheMafia native gangsters]] in the Camonna Tong and the Imperial import ThievesGuild. While all-out war is not something either side can afford, the conflict is still nasty enough that even the usually violence-averse Guild orders Tong operatives to be killed and are in the process of outfitting their meeting places with deadly traps and guards. |
| 192 | * ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has the [[UndergroundRailroad Railroad's]] "To the Mattresses" quest chain during the PlayableEpilogue, when the normally-clandestine group works to wipe out the anti-[[ArtificialHuman synth]] L&L Gang. |
| 193 | * ''Film/TheGodfather'' game lets us see the mob war between The Corleone family and the other mob families up close. It's pretty brutal. |
| 194 | * A common plot device of most of the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games (especially ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories'', where it's the main plot of the game). Even gangs that are at war with yours won't open fire unless you attack first in most of these games, with ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' being the notable exception (some of the gangs become so hostile eventually that it's nearly impossible just to drive a car through their neighborhood without having it blown up by shotgun fire). |
| 195 | ** Turf wars are a major gameplay elements in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', first popping up towards the end of the Los Santos chapter, and then again towards the finale, where CJ is required to hold a certain amount of territory before certain story missions unlock. |
| 196 | ** In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoOnline'', Lamar tries to use a series of FalseFlag attacks to provoke a war between the Ballas and the Vagos. |
| 197 | * A major part of the plot of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZero'' is a war between the Erebonian mafia group operating out of Revache & Co and the Calvardian triad family operating out of Heiyue Trading, Ltd. for control of the criminal underworld of the Erebonian/Calvardian buffer state of Crossbell. Heiyue comes across as more sympathetic, because their crimes are kept in the background of the story, and are primarily gang-on-gang, while Revache is openly shown committing crimes against normal citizens. |
| 198 | * In the ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' games, the plot often deals with preventing all-out war between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance, with the protagonist Kazuma Kiryu caught in the middle. |
| 199 | * ''VideoGame/MafiaTheCityOfLostHeaven'' is primarily about the mob war between Salieri and Morello families (except the last missions [[spoiler:after the Morello family is defeated]]). |
| 200 | * Commander Shepard runs up against various criminal organizations throughout ''Franchise/MassEffect'', and frequently gets involved in their internal conflicts. |
| 201 | ** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', Shepard is approached by Helena Blake, a member of a criminal syndicate who wants Shepard to eliminate the two other leaders of her organization. She claims that they have begun dealing in red sand and selling slaves, [[EvenEvilHasStandards and she can no longer be associated with them]]. After eliminating her competitors, you can either leave her in charge of the remaining faction, kill her as well, [[TakeAThirdOption or persuade her to retire since if she stays in the organization she will eventually be taken out just like they were]]. |
| 202 | ** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the three most powerful mercenary armies/criminal organizations (The line between which is which gets blurry) are the Blue Suns, Eclipse, and the Blood Pack. The three of them seem to be engaged in a constantly simmering conflict, since as you battle each of them at their various outposts you find frequent notes and records about their planned moves against one another. |
| 203 | * ''VideoGame/MaxPayne1'' has the Punchinello mob and Vladimir's Russian syndicate going to war, with the title character caught in the middle of it. [[VideoGame/MaxPayne2 Twice.]] [[spoiler: He's the last one standing after everyone on both sides is dead.]] |
| 204 | * ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'': [[WretchedHive Rogueport]] is in middle of one of these during the events of the game between [[TheMafia PiantaSyndicate]] and the [[GangBangers Robbo Gang]]. The factions control the West side and East side of the town respectively, with violent encounters between the two organizations happening regularly, with the very first one that we witness appearing as a FunnyBackgroundEvent early in the adventure: While Toadworth is informing Mario about Princess Peach's disappearance, we see two Pianta Goons beating up a couple of Robbo Gang members. |
| 205 | * The ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' games have you lead the Third Street Saints to dominance over increasingly-outlandish rival gangs, through combat and minigames like "Insurance Fraud" and "Septic Avenger." ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'' even sees the Saints fighting a US military task force, while ''VideoGame/SaintsRow4'' has the Saints conquering virtual "turf" to break out of an alien computer simulation. |
| 206 | * In ''VideoGame/ShadowHeartsFromTheNewWorld'', you end up in Chicago... and the game is set in the 1920s. One of your party members is a capo in Capone's mob, while another is in love with Capone's sister. Add some dark magic and the mob war gets ''weird''. Oh, and said capo is also a MegaNeko. |
| 207 | * ''VideoGame/Sharpshooter3D'' is set in the middle of a ''massive'' mob war in the (fictional) city of Southern Slovenko, with the police trying to suppress the situation by arresting everyone (including you!) Naturally, you spend the whole game killing your way across the city through various mobsters. |
| 208 | * ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'': |
| 209 | ** Following the Kingpin's arrest, the remnants of his organization come under fire from a mysterious superpowered Chinese gang called the Inner Demons. Initially, everyone assumes this conflict is about some dangerous upstarts trying to establish themselves by carving out territory from Kingpin's crumbling empire, but that's all just a smokescreen. [[spoiler:What the Demons are ''really'' after is the Kingpin's secret leverage on [[MayorPain Mayor Norman Osborn]] and his illicit caches of military-grade firearms and explosives, and the "turf war" is simply a means to an end to acquire those from him. Once they have them, the Demons break off from the war to focus on their ''real'' objective: [[FarEastAsianTerrorists domestic terrorism]] against Mayor Osborn.]] |
| 210 | ** The second of ''The City That Never Sleeps'' DLC campaigns, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Turf Wars]], focuses on a more traditional one within [[TheMafia the Maggia]], as Hammerhead and his clan attempt to assert their dominance within New York's underworld by wiping out the other Maggia families. |
| 211 | * The Creator/JohnWoo game ''VideoGame/{{Stranglehold}}'' has the Golden Kane and a Russian syndicate joining forces against Dragon Claw, an established triad, with Tequila, the main character, caught in the middle of it. |
| 212 | * ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' has the "Gravel War" as its ExcusePlot. Back in the 1850s, two idiot brothers were willed acres of expensive but useless real estate by their father because he knew they'd spend the rest of their days fighting to seize the other's portion. Sure enough, Redmond and Blutarch Mann hired teams of mercenaries to battle over control points, briefcases full of intelligence documents, or bombs on minecarts. Thanks to life-extending technology, the conflict rages over a hundred years. |
| 213 | * ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'': In the ''Bad Blood'' DLC, T-Bone's investigations in the Street Sweeper mission chains uncover a [[MeleeATrois three-way feud]] brewing between [[MurderInc the Fixers]], [[TheIrishMob the Chicago South Club]] and [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Pawnee Militia]], with each gang gunning for one of the other two while simultaneously being targeted by the third. |
| 214 | * Recurrent in the ''VideoGame/WayOfTheSamurai'' series. |
| 215 | [[/folder]] |
| 216 | |
| 217 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 218 | * ''VisualNovel/LuckyDog1'' features an all-out mob war breaking out between CR-5 (an American Mafia group) and Grave Digger (an American gang) in the third part of the game. [[spoiler:CR-5 wins in the good endings, Grave Digger in the bad ones.]] |
| 219 | * ''VisualNovel/RoseGunsDays'' is essentially about the confrontation, negotiations and changing alliances between Mafia families in the Tokyo district "City 23", in an AlternateHistory where China and the United States have remodeled Japan. The protagonist, Rose Haibara, is the head of a club of "ladies of the night" which eventually becomes a Mafia group, and its first antagonist is another Japanese mafia, the Caleb Family. Other groups include the Golden Dragon Society, a Chinese mafia controlling City 22 and part of City 23, and the American occupation army, which plays a important part in the balance of powers. |
| 220 | [[/folder]] |
| 221 | |
| 222 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 223 | * ''Webcomic/TheCroaking'': Corvids (i. e. the [[WingedHumanoid birdpeople]] with crow/dole/etc. wings) organize themselves in murders that are essentially gangs. Each hold territories and often, there are fights or assaults, either between different species (crows vs. doles, for example) or among one species (one crow murder against another) |
| 224 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': The Midnight Crew and The Felt are engaged in a fairly long one; when we first come into that part of the story, it's pretty much at its conclusion as the Crew mounts an assault on Felt Manor. |
| 225 | * Because of Gray stirring the waters in ''Webcomic/WeakHero'', the existing gang hierarchy of Yeongdeungpo ends up in a long, drawn-out war with him and Ben's gang. |
| 226 | [[/folder]] |
| 227 | |
| 228 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 229 | * ''WebVideo/ThereWillBeBrawl'' occurs to the backdrop of public unrest due to a mob war going on between gangs controlled by Mewtwo, Ganondorf, King Dedede and Bowser. Also slightly subverted by the fact that [[spoiler: neither Dedede or Bowser were trying to fight a war]]. [[spoiler:Ganon]] eventually brings down all the mobs, only to be killed himself. |
| 230 | [[/folder]] |
| 231 | |
| 232 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 233 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': PlayedForLaughs in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E11TheTwistedWorldOfMargeSimpson The Twisted World of Marge Simpson]]". When Marge's homemade pretzel business is about to fail, Homer hires TheMafia to help. This works wonders until they come to take all of the profits for themselves. The mob is about to kill Marge and Homer for refusing to turn over the money when a group of Yakuza hired by Marge's business rivals arrive, [[VillainousRescue and start a brawl with the mafia]], leading to the two gangs forgetting about everything except fighting each other. After a while the two groups just keep brawling in the front yard while the Simpsons family go about their usual business indoors. |
| 234 | * ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'': [[MassEmpoweringEvent The Big Bang]] occurs when the cops try to break up a massive fight between two rival street gangs. Since most of the people exposed to the [[GreenRocks Bang Baby Gas]] were already criminals, this also explains why the majority of the Bang Babies went straight to committing crimes once their powers manifested. |
| 235 | * One of the "Goodfeathers" bits on ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' did a spoof of the gang rivalry and fights in ''Theatre/WestSideStory''. |
| 236 | * Occurs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}}''' "City at War" arc, with three factions--the local branch of the Foot, the Purple Dragons, and the generically-named "Mob"--fighting for control of the New York City underworld in the wake of the power vacuum created by the Shredder's apparent death. |
| 237 | ** The Turtles (and even Splinter) feel they should not be involved, since their interference in the war would only make it worse. But Leo, feeling responsible for it since they're the ones who've taken out the Shredder, just can't ignore it, and takes it upon himself to deal with it. |
| 238 | ** The Purple Dragons tried to break away from the Foot, until gang leader Hun returned to stop it, due to his UndyingLoyalty to the Shredder. |
| 239 | * Occurs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode "Turf", between crime groups led by Tony Dracon and Tomas Brod. |
| 240 | * Occurs in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'''s "Criminology 101" arc, with characters such as Silvermane and his daughter ComicBook/SilverSable, ComicBook/DoctorOctopus, and Roderick Kingsley (the latter only in the first episode of the arc) fighting The Big Man for control of... well, you can probably guess. |
| 241 | ** A much smaller scale version appeared in the second season of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries''. Here, the aged Silvermane thought the Kingpin was weak (for failing to eliminate Spider-Man, natch) and not fit for his position. The two sides were determined to dispose of the other, though their conflict didn't engulf the whole city. |
| 242 | * ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In "Persona Assistant", one of these is sparked when Stan's failure to properly fill in for Roger's many personas (which turn out to be [[BarrierMaiden essential for the town's smooth running]]) triggers a series of DisasterDominoes: Stan doesn't take his roller blades to be repaired, so the roller blade repair shop owner's wife can't afford (breast implant) surgery, so their son robs a liquor store and accidentally kills the cashier, it turns out the liquor store is [[ProtectionRacket protected]] by TheMafia (also run by Roger) who blame TheMafiya and [[ExternalCombustion take revenge]] since Roger isn't there to stop them, then the Russians blame TheIrishMob and also [[ExternalCombustion take revenge]], and finally the Irish declare war. |
| 243 | [[/folder]] |
| 244 | |
| 245 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 246 | * The most famous is the Prohibition-era Chicago Gang War that spanned from 1920 to 1931 and only killed 500 to 1300 people in total, but was fought with far more brutality and sadism than UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (for starters, a gangster was thrown out of car while burning alive onto a busy public street in 1928). Also, the war wasn't just for the control of all illegal booze, the gangsters were fighting each other for ''control of the whole city'', as the mayor at the time, Big Bill Thompson, was nothing more than a corrupt, insane [[PuppetKing puppet]] for UsefulNotes/AlCapone to control. The war ended in 1931 not because either side won but because (1) Capone was finally sent to prison and (2) the (relatively) incorruptible reformer Anton Cermak defeated Thompson in the 1930 mayoral election and cracked down on organized crime in general.[[note]]As an aside, Cermak was killed in 1933 while at an event in Miami with then-President-elect UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt, shot by the (nominally) [[BombThrowingAnarchist anarchist]] Giuseppe Zangara. Historical consensus is that Zangara was (1) not entirely in his right mind and (2) aiming for Roosevelt, but missed, but there is something of a ConspiracyTheory that Zangara was connected to the Chicago Outfit and was aiming for Cermak in revenge for his anti-Mafia efforts as mayor. If true, the conspiracy theory makes this assassination the final act of the Chicago Mob War. Either way, Cermak ended up as a minor secular saint of Chicago; they named a major street (and the southern terminus of the [[UsefulNotes/ChicagoL Red Line]]) after him.[[/note]] |
| 247 | * The Castellammarese War, the other famous gang war, was a bloody power struggle for control of New York City's Five Families ([[UsefulNotes/TheMafia and by extension, the entire American Mafia]]) between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salvatore Maranzano, and was so-called because Maranzano's faction came from Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily. It began when both factions accused each other of hijacking the other side's alcohol trucks, along with Masseria's heavy-handed attempts to strong-arm the other Italian gangs in New York, mainly the Castellammarese, and soon enough, Maranzano declared war on Masseria's gang in 1929. Outwardly, this war was between the forces of Masseria and Maranzano, but eventually, a third faction comprised of younger, Americanized mafiosi emerged. [[OldGuardVersusNewBlood The "Young Turks"]], as they were called, were more open and willing to work with other ethnic gangs, unlike "Mustache Petes" such as Masseria and Maranzano, who were too old-fashioned, dead-set in their archaic ways, and refused to work with other [[KosherNostra ethnic]] [[TheIrishMob mobs]], let alone fellow Italian mobsters; this faction was headed by Lucky Luciano, [[DragonWithAnAgenda Masseria's right-hand man in name only]]. The war claimed at least 150+ lives on both sides, and went on until Masseria was gunned down in April of 1931 at a Coney Island restaurant, allegedly orchestrated by Luciano, who wanted to make peace with Maranzano. With Masseria out of the way, Maranzano wastes no time establishing the Five Families and declaring himself [[BigBadWannabe boss of all bosses]] at a secret meeting shortly after Masseria's death; despite establishing many of the rules that still govern the Mafia, such as Omertà and crews of soldiers working under a capo, he was another Mustache Pete. This, combined with him [[BadBoss treating his mooks like crap]], [[ValuesDissonance his outdated views on running the Mafia]] and [[TheStarscream his plot to kill Luciano]] provoked a violent reaction, and he was gunned down by gunmen posing as IRS agents at his office on September 10, 1931. [[OldGuardVersusNewBlood With the old guard out of the way]], [[DragonAscendant Luciano and his allies]] could now consolidate their own power and establish the modern American Mafia. They created "the Commission", where no one mobster could ever be "boss of all bosses" again and the leaders of the Five Families would have to settle disputes peacefully, in order to prevent such wars from happening again. While not fully effective[[note]]in particular, it couldn't stop ''internal'' mob wars, fought over who would lead a single Family[[/note]], it worked pretty well for them and is a large part of why the American Mafia survived all the way to the 21st century. |
| 248 | * A currently ongoing one is the Mexican Drug War, which has also killed more people than ''ISIL'', and was violent enough that the cartels control whole sections of Mexico, get into firefights with the Mexican army daily, and even have to put up notices to warn citizens of cartel-ruled cities to not to go out at a certain time, ''because that's when they'll start shooting.'' |
| 249 | * There was another major mob war in Tampa Bay in the 1930s and 40s between the forces of the two most powerful mobsters in the region, Charlie Wall and Ignacio Antinori, known by the [[SarcasmMode charming]] title of the "Era of Blood". In the end, Wall won when Antinori was killed... [[PyrrhicVictory but was so weakened]] that Santo Trafficante Sr. (who had stayed neutral during the war) was able to move into the power vacuum and become the new boss of the region. |
| 250 | * The Colombo family underwent ''three'' internal turf wars over the course of the 20th century. The first one broke out in the late 1950s when capo Joe Gallo tried to overthrow boss Joseph Profaci, but lost momentum by the early 60s after Profaci died of cancer and Gallo went to prison. The second war broke out in 1971 when boss Joe Colombo was assassinated and the recently released Gallo was blamed (though he didn't actually have anything to do with it); Gallo's men were soon fighting Colombo supporters led by Carmine Persico, which didn't end until 1975, when the Commission stepped in and convinced the Gallo faction to transfer to the Genovese family instead, allowing Persico to take over the Colombos. The third war (which was the bloodiest of the three) broke out in 1991 when acting boss Vic Orena (filling in for Persico while he was in prison) decided to try and take over permanently, leading to conflict between his and Persico's loyalists until Orena's own arrest in 1993 caused the fighting to peter out, with Persico thereby winning by default. |
| 251 | * During the 1960s and 1970s, the Bonanno family split into various factions, mainly over who should become boss. This began when family namesake Joe Bonanno attempted to take over the Commission in 1964, but was forced to step down, triggering a brief mob war over his succession. The Commission then intervened and anointed Phillip Rastelli as Bonanno's successor, but this was challenged by Carmine Galante, who felt he should be the boss, but was assassinated by Rastelli loyalists in 1979. The Bonannos almost split up again in 1981 when several Galante loyalists attempted to avenge his death by taking over the brugad, but were wiped out by Rastelli backers who were tired of people defying his authority. |
| 252 | * After the arrest in 2004 of UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}} mafia boss Vito Rizzuto (and his extradition to New York for his involvement in the [[Film/DonnieBrasco Three Capos murder]] back in 1981, followed by his conviction in 2007 to 10 years in prison), an internal faction within the once powerful Rizzuto family, lead by Raynald Desjardain along with deported New York Mafia boss Salvatore Montagna, plotted to take over the family. Their coup started in the late 2000s; after Vito Rizzuto returned to Canada in 2012, he immediately started ordering the assassination of all the members that had betrayed the family and those involved in the murder of his son, Nick Rizzuto Jr., in 2009 and his father in 2010. In 2013, Vito Rizzuto died suddenly of lung cancer, but there is speculation that he might have been poisoned, because no autopsy was carried out. After his death, a vacuum was left within the criminal world, and a war that has claimed over 100 lives began to spread from Montreal, to Ontario and beyond (and is still ongoing). The Rizzuto family is now believed to be controlled by Stefano Sollecito, the son of murdered Rizzuto capo Rocco Sollecito, and Vito's only son Leonardo Rizzuto. |
| 253 | * Pretty much par for the course when it comes to the Hells Angels and their relationships with almost every other major 1%er biker gang. The biggest, and oldest, include their feuds with the Outlaws, Mongols, Bandidos, Pagans and the Breed. Since many of these gangs have chapters around the globe, these wars can carry across nations. A major example was “The Great Nordic Biker War” in Scandinavia from 1994-97 between the Angels and the Bandidos that left 12 dead and nearly 100 wounded. Many of these conflicts see the clubs involved throwing everything and the kitchen sink at each other, with nothing off the table, from barroom beatings and stabbings, to drive by shootings, to bombings and even a rocket laucher attack on a clubhouse. |
| 254 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Biker_War The Quebec Biker War]] lasted from 1994 to 2002 and spilled into the rest of the province. It was a particularly sordid war involving [[EnemyMine the Hells Angels and the Rizzuto family]] against a rival outlaw biker gang called the Rock Machine. The most infamous event was the death of an 11-year old boy, Daniel Desrochers, who was killed by shrapnel when a car bomb went off close to him. The response from law enforcement was inefficient, due to not only a relatively high [[DirtyCop corruption level]] in the Montreal and Quebec [[UsefulNotes/TheMounties provincial police]] and the Quebec courts, but also the fact that the Quebec Independence Movement was in its apex at the time, contributing to tensions between the Quebec government and Ottawa, which soured cooperation efforts with the [[UsefulNotes/TheMounties RCMP]]. The war ended when the leader of the Hells Angels Quebec chapter, Maurice "Mom" Boucher, was imprisoned for life in 2002. To this day, the French word for "biker" ("''motard''") [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels has sordid and negative connotations with violent organized crime]] in Quebec, [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage while]] in the rest of the French-speaking world "''motard''" is simply a neutral term for a biker. |
| 255 | ** In a similar vein, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milperra_massacre 1984 Milperra Massacre]] in UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}} was an especially infamous case of biker gang warfare in Australia. Not just because of the intensity of violence involved between the gangs, but also because a teenage girl was fatally caught in the crossfire. |
| 256 | * During the 70s, Cleveland was a battleground between [[TheIrishMob The Celtic Club criminal syndicate]] led by Danny Greene and the [[TheMafia Licavoli crime family]] when both organizations competed for control over the city. Infamously, Greene prefered to deal with his enemies by [[MadBomber blowing them up]] via car bombs, to the point that in 1976 alone, 36 bombs exploded around the Cleveland area, which resulted in the place gaining the moniker "Bomb City, U.S.A". The conflict reached an end after [[KarmicDeath Greene himself was finally killed by a car bomb in 1977]] [[PyrrhicVictory but by that time he had permanently crippled Licavoli's influence in the city.]] |
| 257 | * A MobWar was fought in Glasgow in the 1980's between rival ice cream vans, which may sound off until you learn that the trucks were [[BadHumorTruck fronts for drugs and stolen goods trade]]. |
| 258 | [[/folder]] |
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