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God knows why they're fighting here of all places.

"Candle-light, privacy, music! Can't think of a better place for hand-to-hand combat!"

Staging an awesome fight scene, be it a shootout or a Sword Fight, a duel or a MĂªlĂ©e Ă  Trois, in a (usually Catholic) cathedral, chapel, or church apparently has something thrilling for the directors, as does any forbidden fruit. And a shot of Jesus looking mournfully from the cross upon the bloodshed below certainly adds Faux Symbolism to it.

Commonly seen in Heroic Bloodshed movies and Anime, causing much Values Dissonance among the Westerners. May involve a Church Militant or two but it's not mandatory. Bonus points if Ominous Latin Chanting with religious lyrics are added, along with Ominous Pipe Organ or even Holy Pipe Organ. Double bonus points if there are doves flying around during the mayhem. Scenery Porn may be a factor when the building is particularly ornate or the stained glass itself is given particular attention; in addition to the glass itself, the other architectural marvels of a sufficiently large church or cathedral give lots of opportunities for dramatic fight scenes and other dynamic feats.

Also known as the Church Shootout, if it only involves gunfire and no katanas. A fight in a Creepy Cathedral may lead to this. Compare Wedding Smashers and Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress. Not to be confused with the possible aftermath of a Destination Defenestration that's Shown Their Work, though both meanings can overlap in a church setting.


Examples

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Appleseed Ex Machina opens with an awesome Church Shootout. What's up with John Woo and churches?
  • In Attack on Titan, a minor but still bloody (and almost humorous) example. Right before a showdown between the Female Titan and Titan Eren, it cuts to a scene of some loony priest of the Wall preaching that faith is all that they need to be safe. Cue the Female Titan being knocked right through the church and squishing several people flat.
  • In Black Butler there is not only a battle in a church, complete with a Big Damn Heroes Super Window Jump in through the stained glass (similar to the Code Geass example). There's also the fact that their opponent is an ''angel''. Later we find out that s/he isn't actually dead yet, though.
  • Black Lagoon features an intense shootout at the entrance of the Church of Violence during the Greenback Jane arc when the arc's title character seeks the aforementioned church as sanctuary. The show blatantly parodies the entire trope; it's an 'intense shootout' as in 'the church had an M-60 and weren't afraid to shoot it at everyone else involved'. Oh, and a pair of supremely pissed off Sociopathic Heroes and a lead nun with a Golden Desert Eagle.
  • The opening of Blade of the Immortal has a gun-and-sword fight with a fake priest in a confessional.
  • Happens near the beginning of Claymore, with a demon hiding within a church.
  • Lelouch and Suzaku vs. Mao in episode 16 of Code Geass, with a Big Damn Heroes Super Window Jump in through the stained glass.
  • The famous first clash between Spike and Vicious in the Cowboy Bebop episode "Ballad of Fallen Angels" is likely a Shout-Out to both The Killer (1989) and The Crow, or so The Other Wiki says.
  • Volume 2 of Dance in the Vampire Bund has a vicious vampire invasion on students hold up within, Mina's near-singlehanded rescue of same, and a brutal fight between Akira and Mina in rapid succession within a Catholic school's chapel.
  • The first Akuma we see in D.Gray-Man was made from a priest and his fiancee. It does all of its killing inside an abandoned church, and it's destroyed there.
  • Fate/stay night has a brief Sword Fight in the basement of Kotomine's cathedral near the end, immediately following The Reveal.
    • Unlimited Blade Works stages a few confrontations there; at least two of them display the stained glass prominently.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children had an awesome fight sequence inside Aerith's church, twice.
  • The sixth The Garden of Sinners movie features a battle inside the church at Azaka's boarding school. Bonus points for both combatants dressed like nuns.
  • The final showdown between Juubei and Toshiki in the Get Backers' anime. The manga starts them out in a church, but Toshiki decides midway through that the alley where they first met would be more appropriate. You can do that with Divine Design.
  • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: An episode in the second season features a climactic shootout between a terrorist and Section 09 in a Berlin cathedral. The terrorist, using a pepperpot firearm built into his knuckles, fires at Batou, misses, and blows out an entire stained-glass window.
  • Happens in the first episode of Hellsing, complete with tons of Faux Symbolism. It was not present in the original manga, but only in the syndicated anime; whether this change was for the better is arguable.
  • Ever since Lyrical Nanoha introduced the Belkan Saint Church, this was pretty much inevitable. One such battle appeared in the fourth chapter of Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force between Tohma and Veyron.
  • The final shootout in Madlax takes place in a chapel.
  • Ditto for My-HiME, when in Episode 25 Natsuki and Shizuru have a fight, they end up in one of these, even though it's in ruins.
  • Of course, this happens more than once in Noir, starting with normal churches in the beginning to the big weird Soldats Cathedral Mansion complete with Nuns with Guns in the end.
  • The final episodes of Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom are centered on one of those.
  • In Saiyuki, the final battle against Kami-Sama plays with this: the villain lives in a temple with huge Western-style stained-glass windows, in front of which the final battle occurs. They shatter beautifully after his defeat, as the temple falls to pieces around him and his mentor.
  • In Samurai Champloo the church in Episodes 25-26 doesn't have any glass windows, and the one in episode 19 has none at all, but they are churches, and people are fighting in them, so...
  • In Soul Eater Crona and Maka's first meeting and battle is inside an Italian church, resulting in Soul getting his huge chest scar which infects him with the black blood. Much later in the manga Maka finds Crona inside that same church.
  • In the anime version of Tokyo Mew Mew, before Zakuro joins the team, she is targeted by Kisshu while she's praying at church, and promptly kicks his butt before the rest of the titular Magical Girls even do anything. (In the manga, the battle took place at the audition.)
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: A variation of this trope is used in form of Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon. When it attacks, it first flies up in the sky and activates its wings, which take the form of a stained glass painting. The golden sky in the background just sells its beauty even more.

    Comic Books 
  • In Kevin Smith's run on Daredevil (the "Guardian Devil" arc), a major fight between Daredevil and Bullseye takes place in a Catholic church. (See also the note on Daredevil (2003) in the film section below.)
  • There was such a fight in the first modern Human Target story where Christopher Chance impersonates a priest and gets into a gun fight with his principal's would be murderers.
  • "God only knows", a volume of the European comic book SODA, focuses almost entirely on a gun fight in a church. Which the main character takes part in while suffering from Easy Amnesia and believing he's a priest.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Wonder Woman and Batman fight the Joker (possessed by Deimos), Poison Ivy (possessed by Eris) and the Scarecrow (possessed by Phobos) in a cathedral in Gotham that the three children of Ares are warping into a new Areopagus for their father. They are backed up by Artemis, Huntress, Wonder Girl, Nightwing and Robin, who eventually make their way into the cathedral after fighting their way through Maxie Zeus' blank eyed cultists in the graveyard.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animated 
  • Phoebus and Esmeralda engage in a duel inside the titular cathedral in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which Phoebus provides the page quote. At the end of the movie as well, Frollo and Quasimodo fight on the parapets of the cathedral.
  • Korean-made anime-style film Sky Blue has just such a scene, complete with stained-glass Jesus fitting right into the composition of the scene (see image at top).

    Films — Live-Action 
  • 28 Days Later: Though Jim first encounters infected in a church, complete with large crosses, piles of dead bodies, and an infected priest, he quickly exits the premises before it comes to a fight with the many infected inside (though not before giving said priest a good smack on the head).
  • The Tollywood action movie Athadu, being pretty much a love letter to Hong Kong Blood Opera, has its final shootout in one of these, where Pandhu, played by Mahesh Babu, faces down his former partner and fellow assassin Malli, who betrayed and tried to kill him on orders from the Big Bad.
  • Batman's final confrontation with the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) takes place on top of Gotham Cathedral.
  • After a shootout inside, the final fight in The Crow took place on the roof of a neo-Gothic church, in a rainy night, overlooking the graveyard.
  • In Daredevil (2003), Daredevil and Bullseye's last fight is in a cathedral. Bullseye even uses shards of stained glass as impromptu shuriken.
  • The climax of The Eagle Has Landed is a fierce gun battle between German paratroopers and US infantry in a pretty little English country church. During the battle, one of the paratroopers actually begins playing the film's theme music on the organ. And moments before the battle starts the priest (who had been held hostage by the Germans) is dragged kicking and screaming from the place. You know, just to remind the audience that this is a church, in case the spire, altar, pews and stained glass windows weren't enough of a clue to begin with.
  • Equilibrium subverts it by having only one shot fired inside a church, but seeing how there were only two extremely badass guys involved, a Single-Stroke Battle wasn't much surprise, which might make this a straight use instead. Furthermore, keep in mind that the character in question was shot by his best friend, through a book of poetry, raising the symbolism to nigh-unbearable levels. And don't forget that both are formally known as Clerics.
  • A brief fight between several Sangs and Lee Christmas takes place in a church in The Expendables 2. It even has Christmas dress up as a priest.
  • Woo knows exactly how utterly cool this is when done well. In Face/Off he had the Big Bad march onto the scene with arms outstretched and his head bowed providing a bit of Ominous Latin Chanting.
  • The Four Musketeers (1974) did it fifteen years earlier, with D'Artagnan dueling (and killing) Rochefort inside a church.
  • In Hellboy (2019), the final battle with Gruagach and Nimue takes place in St. Paul's Cathedral.
  • Averted in Highlander, as Immortals are forbidden to fight on holy ground.
  • The final showdown in Hitman takes place at a church.
  • James Bond: The final confrontation in For Your Eyes Only takes place in a mountaintop church. Bonus points for having literally bloodstained glass windows. Also the post-final final confrontation in Skyfall.
  • The opening scene of Keanu has the Allentown Brothers blast up a group of drug dealers at a church that has been converted into a drug lab, with the adorable title character in the middle of it.
  • Kill Bill had this, too, in the chapel where the Bride was supposed to be married.
  • The final shootout in John Woo's The Killer (1989), with the title character and his Cowboy Cop ally holding off a virtual army of assassins, is probably the quintessential example.
  • The fight in the church in Kingsman: The Secret Service. A very incensed congregation obviously modeled on the Westboro Baptist Church is used as a testing ground for a Doomsday Device which triggers a Hate Plague. One exceptionally highly-trained and disgustingly well-armed secret agent was pitted against hundreds of bigoted, angry rednecks. They didn't stand a chance.
  • The climactic fight at the end of Ladyhawke takes place in a gothic cathedral. And it even has a horseback duel.
  • Happens in The Last Tycoon, also starring Chow Yun Fat.
  • An attempt to invoke this trope is subverted in The Monster Squad. The Kid Heroes are Genre Savvy enough to try and stage the final showdown with the monsters inside the church as "monsters hate religious stuff." Unfortunately, the door's locked, so they have to do their fighting in the street outside.
  • The final battle with the Demon Bear in The New Mutants takes place in the hospital's church.
  • In A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Alice's final showdown with Freddy takes place in an abandoned church.
  • The first major shootout in the present day from Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which has Mariachi blasting up Marquez's men at a church, which starts with the bad guys ventilating the confessional he was in.
  • Prince Caspian: Aslan's How is a sacred underground site built over the Stone Table (on which Aslan was killed). In all versions, it's the headquarters for the good guys as they plan the war.
  • The final showdown in The Purge: Election Year is set in a NFFA occupied church.
  • Happened in Resident Evil: Apocalypse when Alice fights a licker.
  • Jackie Chan's Shanghai Noon has guns and swords in a church. And Owen Wilson dressed up as a monk...
  • The Three Musketeers (2023):
    • Queen Anne and the Duke of Buckingham are Lured into a Trap in an abbey and a fight erupts between Buckingham and the Cardinal's guards. D'Artagnan, Aramis and Porthos join in to rescue them.
    • The climax with the Protestant rebels attacking the wedding of Louis XIII's brother inside a cathedral and the Musketeers defending the royals.
  • In X2: X-Men United, Storm and Jean have a brief fight with Nightcrawler in a cathedral.
  • The final battle between Venom and Carnage in Venom: Let There Be Carnage takes place in a church as a wedding between Casady and Francis is about to take place.

    Literature 
  • The climax of the Book of the Short Sun occurs during the protagonist's son's wedding at the local mansion when inhumani attack and the local regime is overthrown.
  • Aliette de Bodard's The House of Shattered Wings has a showdown in Notre-Dame de Paris involving fallen angels, an alchemist, and the vengeful ghost of a mortal apprentice betrayed by Morningstar/Lucifer himself. Then the Big Bad causes a giant supernatural banyan tree to envelop Notre-Dame and its surroundings, reducing it to even more of a ruin than it already was after the magical apocalypse, and then blows up its doors.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Alias has at least one hand-to-hand fight in a church.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a season-four episode involving a group of vampires, at Adam's instigation, invading a church to demonstrate they'd overcome their fear. The group's leader comments that after avoiding the place for years it's not that impressive.
  • The Dakotas was cancelled after an episode where the plot is set up by deputies J. D. Smith and Del Stark chasing a pair of bank robbers into a church in the middle of a funeral service, where the four proceed to shoot it out.
  • Daredevil (2015): In the tenth episode of Season 3, Wilson Fisk dispatches Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter to kill Karen Page as revenge for her killing James Wesley. Dex tracks Karen down to Matt's church, where she's hiding. After Dex attacks several parishioners to lure Karen out into the main sanctuary, Matt shows up to fight him. As the fight progresses, Father Lantom is killed shielding Karen from one of Dex's batons. Karen eventually lures Dex up to the second floor alcove, where Matt tries to fight him but is quickly overpowered. As Dex prepares to finish off his quarry, Karen swings a large cross at Dex that knocks him over the railing. The episode ends with Karen breaking down sobbing as she cradles the battered and unconscious Matt, in a shot that recreates the panel of Karen's death from the "Guardian Devil" arc in the comics.
  • General Hospital's Jason Morgan, Sonny Corinthos and Reese Marshall get into a big one of these against Faith Rosco and her men here. Jason even goes Guns Akimbo at one point during the shootout.
  • Highlander averts this. As mentioned in Film above, the only real rule the immortals follow is not fighting on holy ground.
  • Episode 2 of Kamen Rider Kuuga has Kuuga's true power awakening as he fights a Grongi in a church. Bonus points because the church is BURNING.
    • Kamen Rider Kiva evokes the look of this tropes with its monster designs themselves, with the Fangire actually being made of stained glass.
  • Mr. Eko in Lost has a background of killing several thugs in a church when he takes on the role of priest.
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has a couple of second-season episodes featuring fight scenes in a church.
    • The first one isn't much of a fight, but it does involve a booby-trapped baptismal font that electrocutes a Terminator.
    • The second one is an ambush of another Terminator with a crossfire (pun intended) in front of the altar, complete with Crucified Villain Shot.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Happens occasionally in Dungeons & Dragons, although usually the "Church" in question is either openly or secretly dedicated to someone like Bane, Vecna or Erythnul.
  • This visual image is a huge part of the aesthetic of Warhammer 40,000. Indeed, it is almost impossible to find a piece of 40k artwork that doesn't have the ruins of gigantic, forbidding gothic architecture as the background to a ferocious gun battle. Several sets of model scenery are available to reproduce this look on a tabletop battlefield, including the Shrine of the Aquila, Chapel of Vengeance and Honoured Imperium set. Find an Imperial chapel in the 40k galaxy, wait there a few minutes, and you can pretty much guarantee that the fanatical Space Marines will be along to shoot each other to bits in it before you've finished counting the stained-glass windows.

    Theatre 

    Video Games 
  • In Assassin's Creed II you perform your final mission by leaping from the rafters of the Sistine Chapel to assassinate your target during High Mass, before having a sword duel and a fistfight. A fistfight with the Pope!
  • Batman: Arkham City: The first scripted Predator Encounter is in a church, where you save the Arkham Medical Team from Harley Quinn's thugs. It serves as a tutorial on how to play out said encounters. After that however, the church effectively becomes the only safe spot in the city, with survivors making their way there for security.
  • In Batman: Arkham Origins, one optional battle with the real Black Mask takes place in a church. And the final battle with the Joker in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown takes place in a prison chapel near the execution chamber in Blackgate Prison. Though neither place is stained with blood, there is, however, the fact that the Joker brandishes a literal Gun in the Chapel and may not hesitate to bring in a Pretty Little Headshot to kill Batman if he doesn't counter (especially in I Am the Night Mode). Joker will also try and slash at Batman with pieces of stained glass when knocked against a window.
  • Bloodborne: The Vicar Amerlia and Blood-Starved Beast boss battles take place in churches- Vicar Amelia in the Cathedral, Blood-Starved Beast in the Church of the Good Chalice in Old Yharnam.
  • Call of Duty:
  • Child of Light's first boss battle is in a ruined cathedral.
  • In Cris Tales the final battle against the Empress of Time takes place in the Cathedral of Crystallis, which, like every other Cathedral in the game, features a stained glass with a trio of female figures that represent the past, present, and future. Said decoration also foreshadows a major plot twist, as the "present" figure is a dead ringer for the Empress, and the "future" figure is shattered, which gives an attentive player a major hint for the Empress' true identity and origin.
  • In Cyberpunk 2077, your final battle with Placide if you choose to side against the Voodoo Boys is right in the main chamber of the Pacifica Serenity Bible Church.
  • Dead Man's Hand has a boss fight against Father Zeke, a Sinister Minister, being a massive shootout in the local church.
  • In Demon's Souls, the first Boss Fight in the Queen's Tower is in a church in the Prison of Hope.
    • Dark Souls ups this a bit. The first Bell of Awakening is in a church where you first have to fight a bunch of undead in the building proper, then a pair of gargoyles on the roof. Then there's Anor Londo, city of the gods, a blend of this and Storming the Castle.
    • Dark Souls 3 takes you to the Cathedral of the Deep, a sinister church that began worshipping the man-turned-Blob Monster that ate the gods they once followed. The boss fight is against the "Deacons of the Deep", a team of evil holy men, in a large temple chamber. Later, you revisit Anor Londo (see above) and the surrounding area, the Irithyll of the Boreal Valley, with the boss fight being against Pontiff Sulyvahn, the "Pope" of said Religion of Evil, taking place in a sanctuary.
  • The opening fight scene in Devil May Cry 4 has Nero fight Dante in a church, right after Dante puts a bullet in Sanctus's head. It's a Crystal Dragon Jesus kind of church though, but come on, what do you mean, it's not awesome?
  • Early on in Diablo II, you have to battle demons in the Rogues' Monastery Cathedral, which Andariel has turned into an outpost of Hell.
    • The first half of the first game revolves around working your way down through a cathedral's basements and catacombs.
  • The final boss battle of Double Dragon II: The Revenge for the NES and PC Engine.
  • The Chantry in Kirkwall serves as the scene of a couple of fights near the end of Chapter 2 of Dragon Age II, as well as a fight in the "Tranquility" quest in Chapter 1. In Chapter 3, the Chantry is blown to smithereens by a Magitek bomb, with Scenery Gorn aplenty.
  • In the Knights of the Nine expansion to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, two cathedrals to the Nine Divines come under attack by the forces of Umaril the Unfeathered. All the inhabitants of the Anvil chapel are slaughtered, but the Player Character interrupts the second attack.
  • The WWII-set Enemy Front have a shootout set in a church occupied by Germans where you're battling enemies on the ground level and on higher balconies. There's even crates of extra weapons between the pews.
  • Several stages in the survival horror game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem take place in Oublie Cathedral, a No Communities Were Harmed version of the Cathedral of Notre Dame d'Amiens that serves as a front for the Eldritch Abomination.
  • In Fahrenheit, when Lucas visits Markus' church he has to fight off the angel statues out to get him. Although it is revealed to have been All Just a Dream, if he loses, the game is over.
  • Final Fantasy XII has a boss fight with Judge Bergan in a cathedral, not to mention that he and his men have just rampaged through the entire holy mountain of Bur-Omisace, slaughtering clergy, pilgrims, and refugees before finally killing the Gran Kiltias Anastasis himself in the cathedral.
  • First Encounter Assault Recon's first expansion, Extraction Point, features a church in the first level. In it, a cutscene shows Fettel didn't quite die for real, and the previously dormant Replica soldiers re-activate, leading to the game's first major shootout.
  • The Godfather. An important plot twist ends with you and an AI controlled character blasting through the basement of a church.
  • The Opera mod for Half-Life was all about recreating Heroic Bloodshed films in video game form. One level was a church as a shout out to The Killer (1989).
  • Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. The bonus level that got released after HL2 had you destroying a headcrab launcher in a church.
  • Hands of Necromancy has a stage set inside a church... in hell. Said church is filled with demons and cultists on the pews, and you're required to clean up it's contents with your magic.
  • The final stage of Hitman: Blood Money, "Requiem", which has 47 killing everyone at his own funeral. Also, Silent Assassin's final battle and overall last stage were in a church, as 47 attempted to save the priest who had helped him.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Although the battle doesn't take place in a church, Sora and Roxas fight upon the Stage of Awakening, which is a platform decorated like stained glass.
  • The church level in Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven was among the most intense ones to complete.
  • Marathon 2: Durandal's Pfhor temple in Ex Cathedra.
    Durandal: This area is used by the Pfhor as a temple in their pathetically boring religion. Maybe they think that sanctity will protect it.
    • The Game Mod Tempus Irae, a third-party total conversion of Marathon Infinity, uses this a lot in Renaissance-era cathedrals (time travel is involved). The scenery was, for the time the mod was released, state-of-the-art.
  • In one of the later levels Ministry of Smiths in The Matrix: Path of Neo Smith has Exactly What It Says on the Tin taken over a church and Neo has to defeat the church full of Smiths to save Morpheus.
  • In Medal of Honor: Underground, during one mission you fight in the Monastery at Monte Cassino to rescue captured Allied Soldiers.
    • Allied Assault has this twice. In The Nebelwerfer Hunt there's a church with several machine gun nests in the windows you have to clear out, and Rendezvous with the Resistance has a church at the end with a secret passage to La RĂ©sistance's hideout.
  • One of the boss fights in MediEvil has Sir Daniel fighting a monster made out of stained glass.
  • Mortal Kombat 3 features a background known as the Kombat Temple (also known as the Church), which returned for its updates, Mortal Kombat Gold, and Mortal Kombat 9.
  • OMORI has a Climax Boss encounter in which Sunny and Kel fight Aubrey in church—during a sermon, no less.
  • In Red Faction II, one of the later chapters takes place in and around a church of sorts. The boss fight for the chapter is against Quill, whom, appropriately enough, fires at you from a balcony in front of the stained glass window. The fight ends with you shooting them through said window.
  • Resistance: Fall of Man offended the Church of England by using Manchester Cathedral as scenery (there is a lot of gun crime in the area, so it's a sensitive issue).
  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein has a firefight with Helga von Bulow's Elite Guards in a church during the second mission.
  • Shadow Hearts: Covenant opens with a scene where a detachment of German soldiers enters a church, and then a demon comes crashing through the stained glass and starts horribly slaughtering them. Said demon is actually our main character, Yuri, who gets the nickname "Demon of Domremy" for this incident.
  • No matter which character you play, the penultimate fight in SoulCalibur II's Arcade Mode is in a cathedral.
  • Rescuing Rena in Star Ocean: The Second Story involves going into an abandoned church.
  • The final battle of Summoner takes place in the immense central chamber of the now abandoned Temple of Urath against your Enemy Without (you AND him are actually both facets of the same shattered god, Urath, of course). For added symbolism, he turns into an angel, a simulcrum of you, and a devil as the fight goes on.
    • After the battle, you have the option to descend to the secret basement of the temple and sacrifice yourself and the eight other aspects of Urath in the forge he used for the creation of humanity order in to bring him back to life, which doesn't look familiar at all.
  • The seemingly last area of Syphon Filter involves Gabe descending from the top of an absolutely massive church to the ground floor, killing all the way. When he encounters a large glass window, he jumps through it and resumes killing.
  • Towards the end of System Shock 2, the player passes through the bloodstained and bullet-damaged chapel onboard the Rickenbacker, and it is probably where Polito committed suicide. And it's all upside down, because the gravity generator has been reversed.
  • Tekken 5 has a cathedral stage, which is where most characters fight Devil Jin in the second-to-last battle in their story modes.
    • Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection has a "remixed" stage design for all the 5 stages; the cathedral one is in a much brighter setting, but with snow pouring in through a hole in the ceiling.
  • TimeSplitters 2 has a level set in Notre Dame cathedral, complete with zombie priests.
  • Uncharted: Drake's Fortune has a church-gunfight level.
  • Undertale: The boss fight with Sans.
  • The battle against the Elemental Demigod Ifrit in Vagrant Story takes place in the Cathedral's chapel, with the Rood of St. Iocus looking on from the altar.
  • Similarly, World in Conflict has a level where a bonus objective is to make sure that the church at the top of a hill survives the mission.

    Visual Novels 
  • In Rose Guns Days, the final confrontation between Rose (with Leo) and Richard (with Cyrus) takes place in a church, where the latter was hiding. They try to talk at first, but it inevitably ends up in a gunfight where Rose kills Cyrus, although Richard manages to escape.

    Web Originals 
  • Although not strictly speaking a church, Gavin, Tariq and Terrence's raid on the Hymn of One Headquarters in the KateModern episode "Resolution" is a semi example.
    • An actual, albeit animated, church fight scene occurs in the later episode "The Wedding Video".
  • In each version of Survival of the Fittest, there is always a church of some kind on the island. They seem to be among the most popular areas for the handlers of the board, as many people commonly request for a "church fight out" to happen.

    Real Life 
  • It happened surprisingly often in European history. The most notorious is probably the murder of Thomas Becket that inspired Elliot's Murder in the Cathedral (and, indirectly, The Canterbury Tales.) Other prominent incidents were Robert the Bruce's murder of his rival John Comyn in a church, and the attempted assassination of Lorenzo de Medici during Mass in Florence - the latter being particularly shocking because the conspirators arguably included the Pope himself.
  • The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is under a complex joint-jurisdiction scheme by six different denominations of Christianity and the rules state that any movement of the furniture requires agreement by all six of the churches — and so a lot of disagreements would end up being resolved by fisticuffs. In 2002, A Coptic monk moved his chair to be closer to the shade, an act which angered the Ethiopian Monks. The resultant fistfight sent 11 people to the hospital.
  • The Charleston church shooting in North Carolina, in which nine people were killed in a prayer meeting before the suspect Dylann Storm Roof was arrested.
  • During the Normandy invasion of World War II many churches became the sites of battles (or aid stations), bullet holes and blood stains can still be seen today. Church steeples were also regularly destroyed by artillery throughout the war, as they provided excellent vantage points for enemy spotters and snipers.
  • On December 29, 2019 in a church in Texas, a shooter was stopped by a 71-year-old armed parishioner named Jack Wilson. Wilson killed the shooter within only 6 seconds with only two shots. From 50 feet away.


 
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Alternative Title(s): Church Shootout

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Valentine's SIM Cards

Richmond Valentine's latest invention emits a signal that enhances human aggression and takes the brakes off inhibitions. The test of the sim cards results in a church-wide massacre - to the tune of "Free Bird."

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