History Main / ClimbingClimax

[[folder:Comicbooks]]
* One of the many villains to usurp the throne of ''TheTriganEmpire'' was confronted by the Emperor Trigo and actually attempted to escape by climbing his own Lady-Liberty-sized statue. Trigo followed, and only when standing on the upraised hand did the baddie think to pull a gun on him. The baddie then slipped, but Trigo caught him and brought him down to "use his genius for the good of the Empire." What a guy!

* A {{Justified|Trope}} example in ''Film/TheMinistryOfFear''. As Stephen and Carla exit her apartment, they see Nazi spies climbing the stairs below them. This leads them to flee to the roof.

* A {{Justified|Trope}} example in ''TheNakedCity'': at the climax, the exhausted and panicking murderer finds himself trapped on a bridge and starts climbing the supports in desperation. The police, wisely, don't bother following, but instead try to talk him down and then, when that doesn't work, shoot him from the ground.

* In ''{{Bookhunter}}'', when library police swarm the apartment of their book thief, they find it's empty. Agent Bay realizes the apartment was only vacated a few minutes ago, and that the thief must have taken the window fire escape. Sure enough, the thief climbs up, rather than down; Bay follows, and a rooftop confrontation ensues.

->''Creator/GeneSiskel was fond of a movie cliche he called "The Climbing Killer Syndrome." This described the mysterious compulsion that forces killers to flee upwards instead of sideways. If you climb to the top of a building, scaffold, tower, mountain, etc., your escape options relentlessly narrow. In movies like this, you should avoid the roof at all costs, because the plot will inevitably have you clinging by your fingertips to a vertiginous perch above the street far below.''
-->-- '''Creator/RogerEbert'''

A common subversion (that makes more [[TheChessmaster practical sense]]) is for the villain to have a BlackHelicopter revved up and ready to leave on top of whatever he is climbing. Alternatively, said helicopter can arrive JustInTime in a true BigDamnGunship fashion and [[WeWillMeetAgain sweep him away]].

* The DisneyAnimatedCanon is fond of these:
** ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' - The dwarves and animals chase the transformed queen to the top of a cliff
** ''Disney/RobinHood'' - Robin tries to escape Prince John's burning castle until he jumps into the moat below.
** ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'' - Basil's final confrontation with Ratigan occurs on the hands of Big Ben
** ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' - Gaston and the Beast fight atop the castle
** ''Disney/TheLionKing'' - Simba and Scar on the summit of Pride Rock
** ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' - Taking place, surprisingly enough, on Notre Dame cathedral
** ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'' - The final part of the Mulan/Shan Yu fight takes place on the roof of the Emperor's palace.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndThePea'', Laird and Hildegard take Daria to the top of the castle, and Rollo follows them up there to rescue her.

->''Gene Siskel was fond of a movie cliche he called "The Climbing Killer Syndrome." This described the mysterious compulsion that forces killers to flee upwards instead of sideways. If you climb to the top of a building, scaffold, tower, mountain, etc., your escape options relentlessly narrow. In movies like this, you should avoid the roof at all costs, because the plot will inevitably have you clinging by your fingertips to a vertiginous perch above the street far below.''
-->-- '''RogerEbert'''

* In the ''InspectorMorse'' episode "Service of All the Dead", Morse pursues the murderer up a church tower. This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the original book; it mentions that, later, Sergeant Lewis asked Morse why he didn't just lock the murderer in and call in reinforcements.

* While the final episode of ''MaddigansQuest'' sets this trope in motion as a trap for the heroes rather than the villains, it's largely played straight from there on in. The children make it to the top of Solis tower with the solar converter, where they are greeted by the Duke of Solis and [[spoiler:betrayed by Timon. Maddie, Boomer, and Yves arrive, and in the resulting chaos, Ozul and Maska fall to their deaths, Timon reverted back to his usual self, and Solis is saved.]]

* ''The Triumph of SherlockHolmes'', a film otherwise remarkably faithful to ''Valley of Fear'', ends with ''Moriarty'', of all people, doing this.

* In ''Film/ThePrincessAndThePea'', Laird and Hildegard take Daria to the top of the castle, and Rollo follows them up there to rescue her.

* {{Justified|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', where the BigBad [[spoiler: is a giant, flying, demon-possessed dragon god]], so it makes sense for him to make the heroes [[spoiler: climb to the top of the highest building in the city and confront him there]].

* In [[TombRaider2013 the Tomb Raider reboot]], Lara has to [[spoiler: scale a mountain that's being torn to pieces by a storm born of Himiko's rage, avoid lightning strikes and debris ripped off the mountain by gale force winds, and outrun a horde of undead samurai below her.]] Unlike with most examples, the climb itself is the climax, rather than used to build up tension for the final confrontation. [[spoiler: Though it's used for that, too, the climb itself is climactic enough to count. The finale just makes it even cooler.]]

** ''NorthByNorthwest'' - On top of Mount Rushmore.

*** Also parodied by the live-action ''RichieRich'' movie.
** TheSaboteur - In the torch of the Statue of Liberty.
*** Parodied (and subverted) by The Wrong Guy - it was a miniature.

* In Batman #1 from the spring of 1940, Dr. Hugo Strange creates "monsters" out of people from the psych ward by giving them growth hormones to make them huge. The last one Batman fights climbs to the top of a building in order to take a swing at Batman, who is in his Batplane.

* Possibly echoing the King Kong example ''Film/Ghostbusters'' climaxes with a showdown atop another building in New York. Lampshaded (as with everything in the film) in that the actual climb is extremely anticlimactic. The climb is justified within the plot in that the villain seems to be doing perfectly well at ending the world from where they are and the trope is played straight again with the giant Mr Staypuft scaling the building in proper King Kong fashion to get at the Ghostbusters.

* In [[TombRaider2013 the Tomb Raider reboot]], Lara has to [[spoiler: scale a mountain that's being torn to pieces by a storm born of Himiko's rage, avoid lightning strikes and debris ripped off the mountain by gale force winds, and outrun a horde of undead samurai below her.]]