History Main / DinerBrawl

A sub-trope of the BarBrawl. Sometimes, you don't have to go to the BadGuyBar in order to have a beat down. Sometimes, all it takes is a trip to the local GreasySpoon. One or more characters are trying to have a nice meal when an inexplicably aggressive diner patron decides to pick a fight. The inexplicably aggressive patron might even have one or more inexplicably aggressive friends backing him up. This will result in an altercation of some sort, despite the character's best efforts to avoid a fight.

* {{Defied|Trope}} in ''The Basalt City Chronicles''. Two rival gangs of teens are in Bev and Dev's Cafe. They don't ''hate'' each other, but they'd be up for a good brawl. Problem: [[TheBigGuy I'Brolent of the I'Brel Tribe]] is sitting between them. None of the teens in the cafe has any trace of doubt that [[OneRiotOneRanger I'Brolent can mop the floor with everyone if they try anything.]]

* Several scenes from ''Film/BabyDriver'' take place in "Bo's Diner" before the inevitable brawl, which winds up being a swift gun battle between [[spoiler: Buddy, Baby, and an unfortunate police officer who was in the wrong place at the wrong time]].
* The ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' trilogy:

* ''Film/BadDayAtBlackRock'': Creator/SpencerTracy as a one-armed HandicappedBadAss wipes the floor with Creator/ErnestBorgnine.

* ''Film/CloudAtlas'': A downplayed example. When a rowdy customer at Papa Song's gets a little too frisky with [[FanServiceWithASmile Yoona]], she turns around and punches him in the head. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, Yoona's owner kills her on the spot a few moments later, however, as she tries to escape.]]
* The Kris Kristofferson movie ''Film/{{Convoy}}'' begins with a diner fight between truckers and a corrupt sheriff. The truckers win but they have to flee across the state line in order to avoid trouble.
* Creator/MickeyRourke's character slugs a gambler outside the eponymous eatery in ''Film/{{Diner}}''.
* In ''Film/DisturbingThePeace'', one of the bikers picks a fight with Catie in her diner in order to [[GetIntoJailFree get arrested]]: the plan being for the gang to capture Dillon and Matt when they they are [[VulnerableConvoy transporting him to the county lockup]].
* [[Series/TwoAndAHalfMen John Cryer]] and his two friends (one of which is played by [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers Flea]]) get into a diner brawl with a large punk in the Western action comedy ''Film/{{Dudes}}''. Later, the main characters get into another one at a redneck diner, which apparently houses brawls all day, judging by the warning the gas station attendant gives them just before going in.

* The Creator/JamesDean movie ''Film/{{Giant}}''. Seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4ptm6F2KHQ here.]] Rock Hudson is the one delivering the beating, however.
* The straight-to-DVD horror/comedy ''Film/TheGingerdeadMan'' starts with Gary Busey killing people in a diner before being caught and eventually sent to the electric chair.

* ''Film/{{Heat}}'': depicts a scene in which Neil [=McCauley=] starts to beat up [[TokenEvilTeammate Waingro]] while still in the booth at a truck stop diner. They follow up on the deed outside, but he's forced to stop the beating when Chris spots a police car nearby. They wait until the police car drives off, by which point Waingro is gone.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' has the scene where Indy and Mutt start a DinerBrawl between the [[JerkJock jocks]] and the [[AllGirlsWantBadboys greasers]] in order to get away from the KGB agents that had them cornered. It even came with 50's brawling music!
* While it had apparently been closed for the night, Tony Stark faces off against a female Extremis infectee in ''Film/IronMan3'' while inside a diner.

* The film ''Film/{{Legion}}'' involves angels attacking a lone diner and its patrons in order to bring about the Apocalypse. One of the first scenes shows an angel in the guise of an elderly woman brutally attacking the main characters until she is shot dead.
* ''Literature/LoveAndDeathOnLongIsland'' has an in-universe example. Creator/JohnHurt watches a [[ShowWithinAShow Movie Within a Movie]] called ''Hot Pants College II'' which apparently starts with a scene of hooligans beating up Jason Priestley at a 50's style diner.

* The opening scene in ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'' also has a particularly nasty diner brawl and one of the few examples of the [[VillainProtagonist protagonists]] causing it.

* Happens in Creator/RobertAltman's live-action ''Film/{{Popeye}}''.
* In ''Film/ThePresidio'', Sean Connery's character has to take a JerkAss down in the middle of a diner, using only his [[PressurePoint thumbs]]. He says he'd only use his ''right'' thumb, as his left is [[BadassBoast far too powerful]]. Once the fight begins, [[CombatPragmatist he uses both thumbs and a foot.]]
* It's more of a diner ''hold-up'', rather than a brawl, but the ''Film/PulpFiction'' is [[BookEnds bookended]] by the two different takes on the same diner scene where [[OutlawCouple two small-time crooks]] try to rob the restaurant where [[VillainProtagonist Jules and Vince]] decided to have a breakfast.

* ''Film/SpaceTruckers'' has a fight scene in a [[GreasySpoon diner]] InSpace.

* In ''Film/{{Sunset|1988}}'', two stuntmen are paid by Dibner to pick a fight with Mix in the ''El Coyote'' restaurant. Earp tricks them into looking under the table, which Cheryl then kicks into them. They try to retaliate but are quickly jumped by Mix's friends.

* ''Film/UniversalSoldier'' featured an example in which the hero started the fight, although not intentionally. Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme played a cyborg who just discovered food and orders multiple plates without realizing that he has to pay for it. You can imagine where it goes from there.
* In ''Film/UTurn'', another movie directed by Oliver Stone, Sean Penn's character gets beaten up in a diner by a jealous boyfriend who is pissed that his girlfriend has a crush on him. He [[HumiliationConga actually gets beaten up a lot in this movie.]]
* In ''Film/{{xXx}}'', protagonist Xander Cage is abducted from his home by government agents and wakes up the next day in a busy road diner. Almost immediately there's a stick-up by two armed men, but Cage easily dispatches both of them. Agent Gibbons reveals himself and explains that this was a test which Cage passed, but asks why Cage was confident enough to just walk right up to the second gunman and take his shotgun. Cage [[SherlockScan points out all the increasingly unlikely discrepancies he noticed before the hold-up]]; one of the gunmen packing a cop-issue Beretta and the other one dressed up as a broker on a Sunday when the stock market is closed he deemed unlikely, but still plausible; a career waitress coming to work in high heels, however, was beyond the realm of physical possibility, so he realized that if she was fake, then the whole setting was fake and the guns only had blanks.

* In the first episode of ''Series/TheAquabatsSuperShow!'', "[=ManAnt!=]", the extremely famished band attempts to order at a deserted burger joint when [=ManAnt=]'s henchmen show up to attack.
* In the sixth episode of the first season of ''Series/AshVsEvilDead'', the main characters fight their way out of a diner overrun with deadites.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Community}}'' depicted the cast dressing up as ''Film/PulpFiction'' characters in a diner for Abed's birthday. When Troy damages Abed's gift by accident, he and Chang get into a fight in the diner, resulting in them hitting the jukebox.
* An early storyline of ''Series/{{ER}}'' had a doctor and her husband being diagnosed with HIV. The husband had not known about this and accidentally infected a co-worker during a work-related accident. The co-worker saw the doctor and her husband in a diner in one episode and began to harass them until the husband stepped in and fought him. It was one of the more dramatic examples of this trope.

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:

** ''Series/Daredevil2015'' has a rather gruesome example of this in the episode "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S2E11380 .380]]". [[Series/ThePunisher2017 Frank Castle]] uses an unsuspecting Karen Page to lure two of the Blacksmith's henchmen to a diner. The hitmen come inside and Frank savagely beats and kills them both while a horrified Karen hides underneath the counter in the kitchen.
** ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': In the season 2 finale, Jessica, on the run with her homicidal mother, stops off at a diner to meet with Oscar so he can get her and Alisa some new [=IDs=]. However, some of the diner patrons turn out to be undercover cops waiting to catch Jessica. Jessica fights off the undercover cops and then escapes the diner in the back of a dump truck.

* In LJN's ''[[VideoGame/BackToTheFuture1989 Back To The Future]]'' for the NES, one of your goals is to fight off Biff's goons at Lou's Cafe, using milkshakes as weapons.

* Claire's campaign in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' starts out with her getting attacked by a zombie in a diner, before [[BigDamnHeroes Leon rescues her]].

* Likewise with Mulder's campaign in ''VideoGame/TheXFilesResistOrServe'', which begins with him going into a diner to look for help and then getting attacked by the zombified staff.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad!'' gives us [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-mxecN8Kls Stan vs. Bullock]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', the first time [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Bruce Banner]] first confronts the villain, the Absorbing Man, they are in a diner. Sure enough, Banner is soon tossed through the front door and has a HulkOut.

* This happens in two Fleischer ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' cartoons ''We Aim To Please'' and ''What - No Spinach?''.
* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' featured one in the episode "Eggcellent" where Benson, Skips, Muscle Man, and High-Five Ghost get into a fight with a bunch of angry diner staff that are trying to prevent Mordecai from completing the [[MegaMealChallenge Eggcellent Challenge]].
--> '''Manager:''' ''(angry)'' Step aside.\\
'''Muscle Man:''' Why don't you MAKE us, bro?
** The episode "Steak Me Amadeus" [[spoiler:shows a ''mass shootout'' between the [[HostileAnimatronics Capicola Gang]] (who were previously thought to have been killed in "Fuzzy Dice") and the police at the eponymous restaurant.]]

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

** [[GreasySpoon Waffle House]] is ''infamous'' for its [[https://twitter.com/whfights?lang=en brawls]]. Of course, this is likely due to the fact that it is open 24 hours a day and tends to attract {{Lower Class Lout}}s.

* In ''Film/{{Sunset}}'', two stuntmen are paid by Dibner to pick a fight with Mix in the ''El Coyote'' restaurant. Earp tricks them into looking under the table, which Cheryl then kicks into them. They try to retaliate but are quickly jumped by Mix's friends.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1541051373084717900
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* A brutal example is on the cover of [[http://www.studioonfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ATM_Poster_001.jpg this]] album.

* In LJN's ''[[VideoGame/BackToTheFuture1989 Back To The Future]]'' for the NES, one of your goals is to fight off Biff's goons at Lou's Cafe, using milkshakes as weapons.
* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'': The Surfside Diner is normally a masquerade zone, except for that one mission where Jeanette or Therese tricks you into walking into a trap, with three hired goons packing pistols and a third wielding a shotgun waiting to corner you. Being four puny humans against a vampire, even a low combat player character can redecorate the diner with their faces.

* This happens in two Fleischer ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' cartoons ''We Aim To Please'' and ''What - No Spinach?''.
* ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' has one. Well, dinner theatre brawl actually, but pretty much the same. Incited by Dan, of course.
--> '''Dan:''' Who would've thought an angry mob would get so out of hand..?

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'': Zak and Fisk cause one at the start of "Cryptid vs. Cryptid".

* Every ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' book in which the heroes journey outside the village will feature at least one punch-up in a restaurant.

[[folder:Fan Fic]]

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

* In ''Film/ThePresidio'', Sean Connery's character has to take a JerkAss down in the middle of a diner, using only his [[PressurePoint thumbs]]. He says he'd only use his ''right'' thumb, as his left is [[BadassBoast far too powerful]]. Once the fight begins, [[CombatPragmatist he uses both thumbs and a foot.]]
* The opening scene in ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'' also has a particularly nasty diner brawl and one of the few examples of the [[VillainProtagonist protagonists]] causing it.
* In ''Film/UTurn'', another movie directed by Oliver Stone, Sean Penn's character gets beaten up in a diner by a jealous boyfriend who is pissed that his girlfriend has a crush on him. He [[HumiliationConga actually gets beaten up a lot in this movie.]]
* ''Film/BadDayAtBlackRock'': Spencer Tracy as a one-armed HandicappedBadAss wipes the floor with Ernest Borgnine.
* In ''Film/HowardTheDuck'', Howard has to fight for his life inside of a diner in order to avoid being cooked and served to customers. The BigBad enters the diner during the same scene and begins attacking.
* PlayedForLaughs (note the obvious StuntDouble) in ''Film/ImGonnaGitYouSucka'' when Mr. Big's goons arrive at a local diner to beat up Jack Spade. Luckily Jack's mother is there to protect him, much to Jack's chagrin. Includes a BarSlide.
* ''Literature/LoveAndDeathOnLongIsland'' has an in-universe example. John Hurt watches a [[ShowWithinAShow Movie Within a Movie]] called ''Hot Pants College II'' which apparently starts with a scene of hooligans beating up Jason Priestley at a 50's style diner.

* ''Film/SpaceTruckers'' has a fight scene in a [[GreasySpoon diner]] InSpace
* Happens in Creator/RobertAltman's live-action ''Film/{{Popeye}}''.

* ''Film/SecondhandLions'' has a memorable brawl, with Hub giving the teen delinquents who are hassling him fighting lessons, then working off some angst on them, then bringing them home to provide [[BeefBandage first aid]] and a lecture called "what every boy needs to know about being a man".

* The Kris Kristofferson movie ''Film/{{Convoy}}'' begins with a diner fight between truckers and a corrupt sheriff. The truckers win but they have to flee across the state line in order to avoid trouble.
* ''Film/{{Heat}}'': depicts a scene in which Neil [=McCauley=] starts to beat up [[TokenEvilTeammate Waingro]] while still in the booth at a truck stop diner. They follow up on the deed outside, but he's forced to stop the beating when Chris spots a police car nearby. They wait until the police car drives off, by which point Waingro is gone.
* The straight-to-DVD horror/comedy ''Film/TheGingerdeadMan'' starts with Gary Busey killing people in a diner before being caught and eventually sent to the electric chair.
* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', Steve Rogers briefly talks about getting beaten up behind a diner.
* It's more of a diner ''hold-up'', rather than a brawl, but the ''Film/PulpFiction'' is [[BookEnds bookended]] by the two different takes on the same diner scene where [[OutlawCouple two small-time crooks]] try to rob the restaurant where [[VillainProtagonist Jules and Vince]] decided to have a breakfast.
* Mickey Rourke's character slugs a gambler outside the eponymous eatery in ''Film/{{Diner}}''.
* [[Series/TwoAndAHalfMen John Cryer]] and his two friends (one of which is played by [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers Flea]]) get into a diner brawl with a large punk in the Western action comedy, ''Dudes''. Later, the main characters get into another one at a redneck diner, which apparently houses brawls all day, judging by the warning the gas station attendant gives them just before going in.
* ''Film/UniversalSoldier'' featured an example in which the hero started the fight, although not intentionally. Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme played a cyborg who just discovered food and orders multiple plates without realizing that he has to pay for it. You can imagine where it goes from there.
* The film ''Film/{{Legion}}'' involves angels attacking a lone diner and its patrons in order to bring about the Apocalypse. One of the first scenes shows an angel in the guise of an elderly woman brutally attacking the main characters until she is shot dead.
* In ''Film/StreetsOfFire'', we're introduced to our hero Tom Cody when he arrives at a diner and finds some unruly greasers getting out of hand. He beats them all up and makes a big mess of the joint. It turns out that the hostess is his sister and a little annoyed that he trashed her business while protecting her honor.
* In ''Film/{{xXx}}'', protagonist Xander Cage is abducted from his home by government agents and wakes up the next day in a busy road diner. Almost immediately there's a stick-up by two armed men, but Cage easily dispatches both of them. Agent Gibbons reveals himself and explains that this was a test which Cage passed, but asks why Cage was confident enough to just walk right up to the second gunman and take his shotgun. Cage [[SherlockScan points out all the increasingly unlikely discrepancies he noticed before the hold-up]]; one of the gunmen packing a cop-issue Beretta and the other one dressed up as a broker on a Sunday when the stock market is closed he deemed unlikely, but still plausible; a career waitress coming to work in high heels, however, was beyond the realm of physical possibility, so he realized that if she was fake, then the whole setting was fake and the guns only had blanks.

* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', Clark is working as a busboy at a truck stop and nonviolently stands up to a rowdy trucker, who hurts his own hand by punching him. Later, we discover that Clark has gotten his revenge by completely destroying the trucker's semi.

* ''Film/CloudAtlas'': A downplayed example. When a rowdy customer at Papa Song's gets a little too frisky with [[FanServiceWithASmile Yoona]], she turns around and punches him in the head. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, Yoona's owner kills her on the spot a few moments later, however, as she tries to escape.]]
* In ''Film/{{Sunset}}'', two stuntmen are paid by Dibner to pick a fight with Mix in the ''El Coyote'' restaurant. Earp tricks them into looking under the table, which Cheryl then kicks into them. They try to retaliate but are quickly jumped by Mix's friends.

* Several scenes from ''Film/BabyDriver'' take place in "Bo's Diner" before the inevitable brawl, which winds up being a swift gun battle between [[spoiler: Buddy, Baby, and an unfortunate police officer who was in the wrong place at the wrong time]].
* In Part 1 of ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', a [[https://youtu.be/fYlF_TfzrR8?t=163 wand battle]] ensues in a diner between the Trio and two death eaters.
* ''Film/FrankensteinCreatedWoman'': When Anton and his friends harass Christina in the cafe, Hans demands that they apologise. When they refuse, a brawl erupts.
* At the start of ''Film/CityHeat'', Lt. Speer goes to a diner for coffee. Two men arrive, looking for a former cop turned private eye named Mike Murphy. Speer and Murphy were good friends until the latter left the force. The men pounce on Murphy the minute he arrives. Speer ignores them until a goon causes him to spill his coffee. Both goons are thrown through the front door. Murphy sarcastically thanks Speer for saving his life.
* In ''Film/ItHappenedInHollywood'', Tim gets in a fight with Joe Stevens who is mocking his destroyed career in a diner. Al Howard witnesses this and is impressed enough to cast him a gangster film.

* ''Series/CobraKai'': In season 3, a group of flashbacks detail the origin of John Kreese. The first flashback involves some thugs causing trouble at the diner young Kreese works in, promoting them to take it outside where Kreese mops the floor with them.

* Averted in ''Film/DumbAndDumber'' when Harold throws a salt shaker and accidentally hits a large redneck named Sea Bass in the head. Sea Bass marches over to the two men and is ready to kick their collective ass until they apologize and offer to pay for his meal. They end up sticking him with the bill instead and flee the diner.

** Later, during the battle in Smallville, Clark fights Faora in an [[ProductPlacement IHOP]] restaurant.
* Narrowly averted in ''Film/Drive2011'', where the main character is spotted by an old client in a diner. The Driver threatens to beat the client if he says another word to him, so the client stands down immediately.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Averted in ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert''. Mortelli intimidates Saul into running away after the diner successfully re-launches, but Saul just makes a beeline out of there without a fight.
[[/folder]]

** In the first ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' movie, Biff and his gang bully George [=McFly=] while in Lou's Diner and then turn their attention to Marty once he tries to stand up to them on behalf of his dad. Later, Biff and his pals go back to the same diner to beat up George only to have Marty trip them and sucker-punch Biff. This leads to the car chase around the town square culminating in Biff getting a load of manure dumped on him.

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'': The Surfside Diner is normally a masquerade zone, except for that one mission where Jeanette or Therese tricks you into walking into a trap, with three hired goons packing shotguns waiting to corner you. Being three puny humans against a vampire, even a low combat player character can redecorate the diner with their faces.

[[caption-width-right:350:Today's special menu: Knuckle sandwich.]]

** [[GreasySpoon Waffle House]] is ''infamous'' for its [[https://twitter.com/whfights?lang=en brawls]]. Of course, this is likely due to the fact that it is open 24 hours a day and tends to attract{{Lower Class Lout}}s.

** [[GreasySpoon Waffle House]] is ''infamous'' for its [[https://twitter.com/whfights?lang=en brawls]]. Of course, this is likely due to the fact that it is open 24 hours a day and attracts {{LowerClassLout}}s.

* The opening scene in ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'' also has a particularly nasty DinerBrawl and one of the few examples of the [[VillainProtagonist protagonists]] causing it.

[[caption-width-right:350:Today's Special Menu: Knuckle Sandwich.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Did somebody order a knuckle sandwich?]]

** The episode "Steak Me Amadeus" takes this UpToEleven: [[spoiler:It shows a ''mass shootout'' between the [[HostileAnimatronics Capicola Gang]] (who were previously thought to have been killed in "Fuzzy Dice") and the police at the eponymous restaurant.]]