Battle Amongst the Flames

A heated battle.

"Only a fool fights in a burning house."

— Seldom heeded Klingon proverb

Battles are awesome. Know what's even more awesome? Having a battle while the area is on fire!

Yes, it seems that, in many instances of fiction, the epic battle between good and evil occurs during a wildfire of some sort. These fires are often caused by explosions, random lightning hitting a tree, or by the hero/villain themself. In either case, it makes the battle itself more dramatic and more exciting to the viewer.

This will always be extremely guilty of Hollywood Fire. As long as you don't touch the fire, you'll be fine. Also, you won't tend to see heat exhaustion or smoke inhalation affect the combatants much, even though smoke inhalation is the most common killer in real fires. May overlap with Faux Symbolism if the idea is that two are battling each other to the death in Hell.

Compare Infernal Background, Climactic Volcano Backdrop, and Battle in the Rain which is like this, only... in the rain. If the rain's during a lightning storm, both may happen at the same time. Can also overlap with Collapsing Lair.

See also Ring of Fire.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The finale of the first episode of Berserk has Guts facing off against the Baron of Koka Castle as the village they are in is burning down.
• In the Soul Society arc in Bleach, Captain-Commander Yamamoto's battle with Captains Kyoraku and Ukitake, though largely unseen, counts.
• The Fate/stay night anime begins with Saber and Gilgamesh fighting within the burning Fuyuki City.
• In Fist of the North Star, Kenshiro and Shin have their final battle at the top of Shin's tower, standing high above the burning city of Southern Cross.
  • Jagi also detonates a tank of fuel at a heliport on top of a building where he and Kenshiro fight, in an attempt to burn Kenshiro to death. He didn't expect Kenshiro to punch his way through the floor until it collapses inwards.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, there is a forest fire during a fight between Ed and co. and Pride and Gluttony. Pride started it to make sure his Living Shadow would have light to cast it. In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) the battle between Mustang and Pride takes place in a burning building, though Mustang is deliberately exploiting the fire to his advantage.
• The climax of Yukkii and Yuno's first battle against Seventh in Future Diary takes place in a burning house.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Done to more or less bookend the conflict between Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando in Phantom Blood. Jonathan's first brawl with Dio after the latter becomes a vampire occurs in the Joestar mansion, which Jonathan set aflame to potentially burn Dio to death. Since vampires regenerate too quickly to be killed conventionally, Jonathan hoped that the fire would outspeed Dio's rate of regeneration. At the end of the part, Jonathan sets fire to the boat he's on with the same goal in mind, since at this point Dio has been reduced to a talking head that's trying to take Jonathan's body for himself; the latter fight is much shorter and is rather one-sided.
  • Golden Wind: When Formaggio tries to feed Narancia to a spider, Narancia set off a car explosion to free himself from his grasp, which set Formaggio and the surrounding area on fire as a result, the two finish off their confrontation amidst the flames.
• The final battle of Ninja Scroll has the hero facing the Big Bad in the hold of a burning ship. The flames are so hot that they melt the gold bars in the hold, ignoring the fact that the melting point of gold is 1064 degrees Celsius, which would easily be hot enough to rapidly reduce the wooden ship to ash and cook both fighters alive before they could exchange more than a few blows.
• In One Piece, part of battle between Luffy and Doflamingo happens in flaming remains of the kings castle.
• Pokémon Adventures: Naturally, most battles against Team Magma turn into this, especially when it involves Mack of the Three Fires since his ability as a Master of Illusion requires a lot of trapped heat in the area so that his opponents would start hallucinating due to heat stroke.
• R.O.D the TV had a rather significant one happening between it, and the original Read Or Die OVA, seen in increasing detail in a number of flashbacks... Yomiko Readman suffering a Heroic BSOD after Mr. Gentlemen tells her what happened to her first boyfriend, in the depths of the British Library secret underground lair. Pissed off Papermaster + a fuckton of paper + computers shooting sparks = Traumatic childhood experience for a 4-years-old caught in the middle of it...
• Rurouni Kenshin: The fight between Kenshin (and company) and Shishio takes place amidst the fires of an oil refinery in Shishio's base. Of course, Shishio's motif is fire - when he unleashes his ki, it's commented that the flames rise in response.
• Samurai Champloo: Perhaps jested at where Jin and Mugen are fighting ferociously and a fire breaks out. The two swordsmen ignore their surroundings as if used to fighting in these conditions or too focused to care. The building collapses and they pass out before they can continue their fight. The wise choice would have been to take the fight elsewhere...
• Space Pirate Mito: During the first half, Aoi, Mito's son, keeps having flashes of a memory involving his mother fighting Ranban while flames swirled around them.
• The Mariage from StrikerS Sound Stage X of Lyrical Nanoha set every place they attack on fire. This naturally culminated in a final battle in the burning Marine Garden where the Forwards and N2R unit had to fight them while suppressing the fire and rescuing any survivors at the same time.
• In Toriko, a big part of the battle between the titular character and his rival and brother Starjun happened inside a metal-melting flaming tornado, courtesy of Starjun's pyrokinetic powers. Luckily, Toriko's body can regenerate faster than fire can burn it.
• Variable Geo ends with the long-awaited showdown between Yuka and Satomi, which takes place atop the Jahana research facility as it burns down around them. The match begins after a brief dialog, then immediately cuts to the end credits.
• Yaiba: The final battle during the Oda Nobunaga Tournament takes place in a copy of the Temple of Honnoji (where Nobunaga met his doom) and, just to fit the atmosphere, the shrine is set ablaze with fire arrows!

Asian Animation

• BoBoiBoy Galaxy: The episode called ^note in official translation that is, "A Fiery Fight" takes place on a volcanic planet, and the volcano gets agitated to erupt by BoBoiBoy Fire's attacks on the opposing team. Everyone just manages to escape the planet in time before the volcano erupts.

Comic Books

• In Baker Street #5, the climactic confrontation between Sharon and Davenport takes place in the Baskervilles theatre, which is burring down around them as a result of a fire Davenport accidentally started.
• Elk's Run sets one of these up, but doesn't actually go through with it—the hero abandons the battle to go help some people who've been trapped by the fire, leaving the villain alone and confused.
• The finale of Friday the 13th: Jason vs. Jason X is set up when a spaceship crashes on ground, and the two Jasons conclude their fight amongst the burning wreckage.
• Hunter's Hellcats: In Our Fighting Forces #117, the Hellcats battle a group of Nazi Super Soldiers specially conditioned to function in extremely cold temperatures. The Hellcats start a fire and battle them amid the flames to even the odds.
• Skull Island: The Birth of Kong: In this MonsterVerse tie-in graphic novel, Walter Riccio's visions (which might be real or might just be a result of him imbibing too much of the Iwi's medicine) depict Kong's parents' last stand against the Skullcrawlers occurring amid lightning and what appears to be a volcanic eruption. Notably, the landscape grew much more peaceful and solemn after the battle ended.
• When Spider-Man has his first full fight with the Hobgolin, it's in a burning warehouse.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1987): When Neron realizes that Diana's powers are being drained he casts her down to his little fiery corner of hell for a fight, in which he actually manages to fatally wound her. Artemis and Wonder Girl (Cassie) fight him too once they get free of the cages he has them trapped in.
  • Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman: In "Generations" Diana fights Cheetah surrounded by a fire caused by a phoenix.
  • Wonder Woman: Odyssey: The boss fights Diana and Hippolyta in a ring of fire, but the women realize that fire is the only thing that can destroy the cruel man who has been empowered by a trio of war goddesses and Hippolyta drags him into the flames with her.

Fan Works

• Better Bones AU: When WindClan gets to the lake, they set a controlled burn of their territory to allow it to become the moorland they are accustomed to. Mudclaw and his allies sabotage the burn during their attempted coup, leading to the resulting battle being in the midst of a fire.
• Child of the Storm references a fight between Nick Fury and Lucius Malfoy at Malfoy Manor at the end of the First Wizarding War on several occasions, during which Fury set Malfoy Manor on fire. With napalm. The fight ended with Fury missing an eye, Malfoy losing his wand and being left to die in the flames. He survives, but gains a permanent limp which necessitates the use of his Classy Cane/Wand Cane in later life.
• An Empire of Ice and Fire: The Final Battle between Jon and the Night King plays out in the middle of an inferno created by the dragons. Daenerys takes a certain satisfaction in this, noting that up until now, every fight with the White Walkers has been in their element, but this last duel will be in the Targaryens'.
• Gravity Falls fic Home Is Where the Haunt Is features a fight in a burning house at its climax.
• Infinity Train: Boiling Point's climactic battle between Boscha and the Apex in Chapter 3 takes place in the burning hallways of Mana Academy. Unlike most examples, the flames are extinguished before the battle is over.
• Karma in Retrograde: The story opens with Shouto's and Dabi's battle in the middle of a flaming warehouse that was set ablaze by their respective Playing with Fire powers.
• The Lion King Adventures: Simba and Hago share a pretty tense one in Friends to the End. Simba narrowly avoids being dragged into the flames by Hago, resulting in the wizard falling to his doom.
• In the Owl House Fanfic "My Brother Cain, My Brother Abel": like in the show, the final confrontation between Philip and Caleb happens in a blazing forest after a fire spell goes out of control. All throughout the fight, Caleb is making mental notes about the rising heat and how the smoke is making it hard for him to breathe.
• The Night Unfurls: An inversion happens in Chapter 26 of the original. The last battle between Kyril and Grishom's forces occurs outside a burning area, not within the area. It starts with Soren starting a fire at Grishom's cathedral, with the mages breaching the wall and controlling the flames simultaneously. The rebel forces are driven from the cathedral due to the smoke and heat, only to be cornered by Kyril's forces waiting outside.
• Pokémon: Harmony and Chaos: This is invoked by Flash Sentry in one battle to give his Fire-Type, Viper, a Home Field Advantage. During the Equestria League, Flash and Trixie face off in the first round, with the battlefield they face each other on being a Forest Field. When Viper battles Trixie's Hatterene, whose speed has been massively increased thanks to Trick Room, Flash has Viper set the entire field on fire with Flamethrower. This forces Hatterene to slow down to avoid any falling flaming debris, and getting too close to the flames causes her to get singed by them, while Viper has no such problems due to having an immunity to flames thanks to being a Fire-Type.
• Prehistoric Earth: The rescue team leader Drew bronco rides an Arthropleura in the center of a Ring of Fire that's been formed around a swamp clearing he and the massive arthropod are located in for the sake of ensuring it remains in ideal position to get sent through the time portal to the safety of the titular park and doesn't go wandering right into the flames surrounding it.
• Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Much like he did in Prehistoric Earth, Drew bronco rides Melancholia the Arthropleura in the middle of a swamp clearing surrounded by fire over the course of his efforts at getting her through the portal to the safety of the park.
• Queen of Shadows: The First Battle of Awaji starts with the Gani burning down the town outside the castle, as a terror tactic.
• Return to Krocodile Isle: In addition to the Climactic Volcano Backdrop, K. Rool and DK's duel is accompanied by flames from the burning pile of bananas.
• The Season's Trilogy: Season Unending has a fight where Jon Dovahkiin has to rescue his family, whilst simultaneously fighting the Blades (who've just betrayed him and set said house on fire), and trying to avoid being burnt alive. Which admittedly was much easier seeing as he's mildly invincible to flames, being the Dragonborn. Still pretty awesome though.

Films — Animated

• This happens in Felidae as well, due to Pasacal/Claudandus accidentally knocking over a computer and causing it to explode.
• The Jungle Book (1967) has a variant, during the climactic battle in a thunderstorm, a bolt of lightning strikes a tree and sets it on fire, and since Shere Khan is afraid of fire, it becomes useful when they tie a burning branch to Shere Khan's tail that sends him running for the hills.
• The Lion King (1994) has the climactic Battle of Pride Rock (also started by lightning), which provides the page image.
• In the climax of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Death summons a wall of fire to surround himself and Puss for their final duel.
• Robin Hood (1973): When Robin is fleeing/fighting the Sheriff in the burning tower. Unlike many Battles Amongst The Flames, Robin has the sense to try to get out of the way of the fire, though doing so by going up the tower isn't the most effective idea.

Films — Live-Action

• The climax of Backdraft: the fire proves far more dangerous than the villain ever was.
• The final showdown between Valerie and Teddy in Copshop occurs as the police station is burning down.
• Black Eagle have the third and final action scene, where the titular hero fights Andrei The Dragon (an early role from Van Damme, before he's famous) on a burning ship. With explosions and fire everywhere.
• In Bruteforce 1947, the final fight between Joe and Munsey takes place in the burning watchtower.
• In Cradle 2 the Grave, Su (played by Jet Li) fights Ling on the airport where the helicopter circled it with oil and its explosion lit the circle on fire.
  • Which bears parallels to another Ring of Fire showdown in Romeo Must Die.
• In Deadpool (2016), Wade's first fight with Ajax (FRANCIS!) after he escapes the oxygen chamber is this, as the escape was facilitated by an explosion that set the whole facility on fire.
• The final confrontation between Captain Miller and Doctor Weir in Event Horizon occurs in the titular ship's engine room, which Weir and/or the ship itself set on fire to further mess with Miller (who Back Story involves losing a crew member to a fire).
• At the end of The Four Musketeers (1974), a battle between the title characters and the Cardinal's men partially occurs in a burning building after a lantern is knocked into a pile of straw.
• The Heroic Ones have the Last Stand of Shih Jing-Si, who needs to rescue his father from the burning Peach Tree Villa set on fire by enemy forces, while fighting dozens and dozens of enemies in the burning courtyard.
• Friday the 13th:
  • Tommy in the end of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives has to lure Jason Voorhees into the Crystal Lake in order to trap him there. While Jason approaches, he pours gasoline into the water around his boat and sets it alight to up his chances.
  • Freddy vs. Jason has the combatants second fight begin within a burning cabin.
• Happens during a battle between Gamera and Irys in Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys.
• Godzilla:
  • The battle between Godzilla and Monster X/Keizer Ghidorah in Godzilla: Final Wars features a brief scene where both monsters stand amongst the flaming buildings of where Tokyo once stood and shot energy blasts at one another.
  • Godzilla (2014): Mostly downplayed, fitting with the film's grim and slow-paced tone. Parts of San Francisco are visibly smoldering and the battling Kaiju are wreathed in smoke during the HALO jump. Probably the closest to dynamically playing with this trope is the chain of airport explosions which occur just as Godzilla arrives and engages in a (mostly offscreen) battle against the male MUTO.
  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): During the Final Battle, most of the city's ruins are gradually and increasingly set alight by the battling Titans' fallout, creating together with the storm-blackened sky a very effective, hellish-apocalyptic landscape for Godzilla and Ghidorah's final showdown for the fate of the world.
• The climax of Halloween: Resurrection has Freddie fighting Michael Myers in a burning shack.
• In Hard Target, the final showdown between Chance Bordeaux and Fouchon, Van Cleaf and the hunters turns into a battle amongst the flames due to old Mardi Gras parade floats apparently being Made of Explodium.
• In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore creates a huge firestorm against an army of Inferi.
• The final fight at the end of Iron Monkey. On top of wooden poles, no less.
• The final confrontation between Mowgli and Shere Khan in The Jungle Book (2016). Mowgli climbs to the treetops, closely followed by Shere Khan, while the jungle underneath them is slowly consumed by fire from Mowgli's torch.
• Happens twice in Legend (1985): once when Jack and his allies fight Darkness' Mooks in the hellish kitchen, and again when they battle the Big Bad Darkness himself at the climax (Darkness provides most of the flames).
• The final fight with Jack Travis in Lethal Weapon 3.
• At the end of The Man from Colorado, Owen orders the township of Glory Hill to be put to the torch to flush out Del and Caroline. The final confrontation between Owen, Del and Jericho occurs in the middle of the burning town.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Captain America: The First Avenger: Steve's first fight with the Red Skull takes place on a catwalk on the upper level of one of HYDRA's factory bases, which has already partially exploded from its Self-Destruct Mechanism.
  • During the climax of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the cargo plane that Spidey was trying to stop the Vulture from hijacking crashes on Coney Island. The remainder of the Final Battle then plays out amongst the flaming wreckage.
• In Mystery of the Wax Museum, Joe and Ivan start fighting each other as Ivan's first wax museum burns down around them.
• The final fight between Jet Li and Jet Li in The One takes place in an abandoned factory. One of the machines is damaged, and it starts throwing sparks all over the place. While not specifically fire, they still look cool, especially when time slows down. Quite possibly the only reason to go see the movie.
• The Final Battle in Predators, done so on purpose by the protagonists to mess with the titular hunters' sensors.
• The fight in the hotel at the climax of Quantum of Solace.
• In Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones and Marion fight against Major Toht and his henchman inside a burning bar in Nepal.
• Rampant: The final battle between Lee Chung and Kim Ja-joon takes place on the roof of the burning palace.
• In Rogue (2020), Pata confronts Zalaam's second-in-command Masakh, the man who executed his family, in a brutal knife battle amid the flames caused by an explosion.
• Spider-Man battles Green Goblin in a burning building in his first movie. Since he wanted to meet Spider-Man, it's implied Gobby was the one who set the place on fire to begin with.
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock has Captain Kirk and Commander Kruge, a very determined Klingon warrior, duking it out in this fashion during the film's climax as the Genesis planet rapidly decays around them. The source of the flames? From the ocean of lava now rapidly growing around the two.
• Star Wars:
  • The climactic lightsaber duel between Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Revenge of the Sith — lava, of course, but it fits.
  • There's also a Star Wars Legends comic where Vader fights a resurrected Darth Maul. Lava is involved.
  • The Last Jedi has Finn and Captain Phasma's duel in the hanger bay of a heavily damaged First Order ship, which is burning and falling apart around them. There's also Rey and Kylo Ren versus Snoke's Praetorian Guards in his throne room as its wall hangings burn from being ignited by the fighting.
• The Sherlock Holmes movie A Study in Terror features a climactic fight between Holmes and Lord Carfax, alias Jack the Ripper in a burning building.
• The final battle of The Sword of Doom takes place in a burning teahouse, though by the film's end it hasn't gotten beyond very smoky.
• Tom-Yum-Goong: The battle at the temple against the Capoeira guy and the Wushu guy.
  • Inexplicably, this same fight scene took place in knee deep water.
• The climax of The Wolfman (2010) has Lawrence fighting his father in their burning home, with both of them as werewolves.
• Wonder Woman (2017): In the final battle Diana faces off against Ares on an airfield covered in burning debris.
• The climax of the first Wrong Turn film starts with Chris partially setting the villains' shack on fire when he crashes a car on to it. Then it's time to kick ass and save the girl.

Literature

• In Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader, Vader's duel against Roan Shryne on Kashyyyk continues even as the Empire is bombarding the planet from orbit, blasting huge holes in the forest-city of Kachirho and setting what's left on fire.
• The Dresden Files: This tends to happen to Harry Dresden, no doubt due to his choice in magic and battle style.
• At the climax of the second book of The Falling Kingdoms Series, Jonas's rebels have tracked Prince Magnus to a road camp. Shortly after they start their assault, a fire mysteriously breaks out; unwilling to give up the chance to capture or kill him, Jonas presses the attack, and ends up fighting the prince himself as the flames rage around them.
• Interview with the Vampire: There are four fights in burning buildings.
• Kane Series: In "Cold Light" Kane lures two of Lord Gaethaa's men, Jan and Mollyl, into an abandoned warehouse and closes the doors behind them to cut them off from the rest of their group. Jan, not being the brightest, throws his torch at his enemy—straight into a mound of old, dust-covered textiles and the fire spreads rapidly.
• Sam Vimes manages to set one up in Night Watch when he sets fire to a building before remembering he left a prisoner in there.
• Others: Private investigator Nick "Dis" Dismas learns retirement home Perfect Rest to host inhumane study of bodily deformity. On his disruption of lavishly filmed footage of enforced copulation between test subjects, escape is hindered by a murderously insane test subject, and a swiftly spreading fire.
• Occurs in A.L. Phillips's The Quest of the Unaligned. When Alaric and Laeshana have to fight through 500+ fire-spiders to get out of a cave, the walls are soon coated in the burning web that gives the spiders their name. Interestingly, Convection Shmonvection is explicitly averted, as Alaric almost gets toasted from all the radiant heat before Laeshana uses her aesh-magic to put out the flaming webs.
• The siege of King's Landing in A Song of Ice and Fire. An especially deadly variety due to the fire being Wildfire, a substance that can burn on anything, even water, salt, rock or metal, and is almost impossible to put out.
• In The Wheel of Time series, Mat's climactic fight against the gholam takes place in a burning building.

Live Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy battles Angelus in a burning warehouse in the episode "Passion".
• The F.B.I.: At the climax of "The Divided Man", Erskine confronts a saboteur in a fuel refinery. The saboteur sets of detonator that ignites a set of fuel drums and Erskine fights him hand-to-hand surrounded by flames.
• Game of Thrones Season 7 has the famous "Loot Train" battle between Daenerys Targaryen and her Dothraki horde vs. Jaime Lannister's army. Daenerys has a huge advantage on the battle, thanks to her dragon Drogon, who incinerates majority of the Lannister army while the Dothraki ambushes the rest during the confusion.
• In the Highlander episode, "Homeland", Duncan fights the Villain Of The Week in a ring of fire.
• The second episode of Kamen Rider Kuuga has a showdown between Kuuga and his opponent in a burning church.
• Lost Love in Times: Duo Xia and Mu Ke Sha have a sword fight in the middle of a burning room. It ends with Duo Xia fatally stabbing Mu Ke Sha, before she dies when the roof falls.
• Penny Dreadful: Ethan, Sir Malcolm, and Sembene's fight with the vampire nest aboard the plague ship in "What Death Has Joined Together" briefly becomes one of these, as a lit lantern gets knocked over and smashed, setting the place ablaze.

Professional Wrestling

• WWE Inferno Match: the ring is surrounded by gas pipes emitting (low-temp) fire. Whichever wrestler sets his opponent on fire wins. Kane is usually one of the wrestlers involved. Strangely for this being "his" gimmick match, he loses about as often as he wins.
  • Actually, Kane has only won one inferno match, against MVP.
  • To be fair, there've only been four of these matches, total. Kane's been in all of them and lost all but one. This is mainly because for a long time, Kane wore a full body suit that could be fitted with fireproofing, unlike his opponents. The one he won featured him in different(shirtless) attire against an opponent with more covering.
• During the WWF "Attitude Era" a championship match between Steve Austin and The Undertaker was promoted with film of the actors wrestlers stalking each other through a burning junkyard. In print promos the Artist's Rendering showed them attacked each other with car batteries, doors, etc. in the same junkyard of fire. The match itself was gimmick-free, AIR.
• Fire-themed matches are rarely trotted out, not for the inherent danger of coming in contact with the fire, but rather the detriment to good showmanship. Kane has mentioned in the past that he found Inferno matches problematic because the fire surrounding the ring sucks all the oxygen from inside the ring, leading to difficulty breathing and thus performing (as it’s just gas burning and not creating smoke, it’s simply the fire itself that’s consuming the breathable air). And this is just in WWE. In Japan their “deathmatch”-style matches, such as the sort of shows put on by Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW), have actually injured the participants when they got too crazy with the idea (look up “Hellfire Deathmatch” for more details).

Roleplay

• Trial 6 of Destroy The Godmodder 2 has a technicolor variant of this, wonderfully illustrated by TwinBuilder. The Incarnate produced two jets of fire, one colored orange and one colored purple to symbolize oblivion and corruption respectively, the green fire Build used to keep the Eclipse at bay, the scarlet fire created as the Eclipse fell onto the server, and the red fire of the Red Dragon.

Tabletop Games

• Exalted; An inevitable consequence of having too many Fire Aspect Terrestrial Exalted in one place. (Note: if the area contains enough wood, "too many" equals one.)
• The climax of the Feng Shui adventure "Baptism Of Fire" involves the heroes battling it out with an Evil Sorcerer and a vicious gang leader and his men inside a burning tenement building.
• Genius: The Transgression recommends fight locations that are on fire and/or falling, preferably and.

Theatre

• Sweet Gay Baby Jesus: The room which has caused so much friction throughout the play is set ablaze, and nearly the entire cast assemble to take down the Big Bad and save the girl.

Video Games

• 9 Monkeys of Shaolin have multiple stages set in burning arenas. Right at the first level, you're defending your village which is set alight by marauders (and failing, because You Can't Thwart Stage One), and later on there's a stage in a burning forge and another burning waterfront.
• The final boss battle of the arcade Shoot 'Em Up Air Gallet.
• American McGee's Alice battles the Jabberwock on flaming floorboards similar to her own house when it burned down.
• The final stage of Back Stab where you fight Kane in his office, thanks to a Falling Chandelier of Doom igniting his office's lavish carpets.
• The climactic battle in Borderlands 2 takes place in a Vault full of lava.
• Brothers in Arms has two notable examples in Hell's Highway.
  • "Baptism of Fire" has the entire city of Eindhoven in flames following a surprise German bombing raid, and Baker and his squad have to repel German counterattacks in the midst of the burning houses and vehicles lining the streets.
  • "Hell's Highway", so-named due to the constant fighting going on for control of this narrow stretch of Dutch countryside, with the end result being hundreds of burning vehicles, buildings, and houses lining the entire area for miles on end. The flames are so bad, in fact, that they blot out the sun, making mid-afternoon looking like evening.
• The first level of Castlevania: Dracula X and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood takes place in a blazing village, and the boss battle against Cerberus in the former has blue flames in the background.
• The battle between you, Father Ariandel and Sister Friede from Dark Souls 3 takes place in a chapel that is soon set to burning during the battle's second phase when Ariandel goes apeshit upon seeing Sister Friede dead, soon before Friede resurrects for a Dual Boss battle. And then again as Blackflame Friede.
• Dawn of War II: Retribution has one battle take place on a planet currently going Exterminatus. While the fire and lava present no danger, you do have to dodge orbital lance blasts.
• The battle vs. Sticky Fingaz in Def Jam: Fight for NY takes place in a Ring of Fire. Besides the usual conditions of victory (like stiff punching the opponent or hitting your Finishing Move on "Danger"), the match can also be won by tossing your foe into the flames.
• Battles against Berial from Devil May Cry 4 take place in a small village/mining area field where the wooden buildings burn down as the battle rages due to the demon's attacks and spreading flames. Upon Berial's defeat however, the buildings may no longer remain intact and the surrounding flames will disappear.
• In Dynasty Warriors, a battle amongst the flames is actually a bad idea: staying inside forces the opposing army (depending on who set the fire) down to 3/4 of their max health until they leave the area to try and heal up. In earlier iterations, these were scripted events; later on in the series, they became gameplay elements, allowing you to carry out your own fire attacks.
• Far Cry: New Dawn has the climactic battle against Mickey and Lou take place in the smoldering ruins of New Eden.
• Final Fantasy VI, a part of the game takes place in a burning house, but is otherwise a filler event to provide a reason for exposition on the Town with a Dark Secret. The battle background is later reused for the battle with the Optional Boss of the Gameboy Advance remake, Kaiser Dragon.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses: The final chapter of the Crimson Flower route has Rhea/Seiros ordering the Knights of Seiros to set fire to Fhirdiad, the capital of the Kingdom of Faerghus, just so they can slow the Empire's advance and kill Edelgard and Byleth in vengeance. The Black Eagle Strike Force faces off against the remnants of both Faerghus' army and the Knights of Seiros, as well as Rhea/Seiros in her true form, a divine dragon known as the Immaculate One, all while the kingdom capital is engulfed in flames.
• Gene Troopers has the stage on Planet Nemesis, battling aliens on a lava-filled world inspired by Star Wars's Planet Mustafar.
• Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Any fights taking place in Magma Rock have a background of lava pits and burning puzzle pieces.
• In Hard Corps: Uprising, near the end of Stage 7, you pursue Leviathan on a stairway when his grenades set the whole Capital Tower Building on fire.
• The final stage of Hour of Victory is a massive shootout in the burning halls of Berlin University, where you take on the Nazi Insane Admiral Steckler and the remaining German troops.
• In Jitsu Squad, the first (of three) boss battles against Dash Kobayashi is in the flaming ruins of Hero's hometown, burnt to the ground by Dash and his minions. Dash even taunts Hero with, "How do you find the fireworks?"
• In Killer7, the fight with Julia Kisugi in Sunset Part 1 is a shootout in a restuarant that is burning down.
• The last boss fight you play as Roxas in Kingdom Hearts II. Hell, at some points, you're even running on the fire to do a reaction command.
• Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe: The final battle with the Master Crown at the end of the Magolor Epilogue takes place in a civilization in ruins, burning to the ground. The crown's Flavor Text also suggests that it destroyed countless civilizations in the past through corrupting its previous wearers, and this most likely could've been one of those civilizations. Not only that, but look closer to the buildings in the background, and you'll notice that they're almost the same as the ones found in Egg Engines, implying that what you are witnessing is the destruction of Egg Engines itself.
• Krut: The Mythic Wings ends with the war in Himmaphan's waterfront and coastal cities, set alight in the middle of Zurah's invasion. There's fire burning everywhere, and the arena where you finally battle Zurah mano-on-mano is shrouded by flames. Zurah can even stomp the ground and cause fireballs to spew upwards in an attempt to roast you.
• Not exactly an epic battle, but more like a fight for survival. In The Last of Us, Ellie is forced to fight for survival against David inside an abandoned burning restaurant. Throughout the three stages in which you have to have Ellie sneak up on and attack David, the condition of the fire noticeably continues to spread. Joel arrives in time to get Ellie out before it became impossible to escape. David is the closest thing to a boss fight in the game, and he purposefully locks Ellie in the building, despite the fire.
• In the final act of The Last of Us Part II's Seattle portion the WLF launch an all-out assault on Haven, the Seraphites' settlement in the Queen Anne neighborhood. Abby ends up fighting her way through the burning village in a bid to reach the docks and escape by boat.
• The final battle of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, in which Link battles Ganon as a wall of flames surrounds the battlefield.
• Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name has the second fight against Homare Nishitani III, which takes place in his office after the building has been set on fire.
• In the original Xbox game MechAssault there's a mission where you take the recently captured assault-class mech Ragnarok into battle to stop the Word of Blake from ending the world. The level is set on a active volcano with lava flowing as if it were a creek.
• The final battle of Mega Man Zero 3 against Omega Zero takes place in the lab where Zero was awakened in Mega Man Zero Wreathed in Flames.
• The final battle of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance against Senator Armstrong amidst the burning wreckage of Metal Gear Excelsus.
• The final boss battle against the Kraken in Metal Slug 7/XX takes place in a volcano.
• The final boss battle of Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae takes place a ruined shrine on fire.
• If a Mortal Kombat game includes the Netherrealm as a playable stage, then any fights that take place on that stage become this.
• Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer has an interesting example in the Ashenwood, where the creature you're battling is the source of the flames (some sort of fire elemental that is stuck in place and has caused a forest fire).
• While the background of the battles in Pokémon X and Y resembles the location where the battle takes place. The final battle against Lysandre, however, takes place in Team Flare's secret underground base, yet the backdrop for the battle appears to be a field of fire or the inside of a sun.
  • Also the room of the fire boss of the Elite Four, Malva. You end up battling between two pillars of flame.
• In Red Dead Redemption II, if you go for Dutch's money, then the knife fight with Micah Bell can become this, as there is a wall of fire in the forest.
• Resident Evil
  • Resident Evil 4: The second boss fight (against Bitores Mendez) takes place in a burning building in the frontier area of the village, close to Salazar's castle.
  • Resident Evil 5: A final boss battle ends up on some sinking rocks in the middle of a freaking lava flow.
• In Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara is introduced to a class of Trinity soldiers called ‘Fireflies’. Their specialty? Using a flamethrower. She is promptly initiated into a fight, trapped in a ring of burning buildings with this soldier. Hit the pack on their back just right and they end up roasting instead of Lara.
• In River City Girls Zero, the last battle with Sabu at his mansion starts as the building catches on fire, with Kunio and Riki having to dodge the falling debris and avoiding Sabu's gunshots.
• Saints Row 2: The Ronin storyline ends with the Boss fighting Ronin oyabun Kazuo Akuji on the deck of a Chinese junk which got set on fire at some point. Before the Boss shows up, Kazuo was fighting elderly Chinese gangster Mr. Wong on that same junk. The Boss ultimately wins and pins Kazuo to the floor by sticking his own katana through his body, making sure he can't escape before the burning boat explodes.
• The recurring Incident at Honno-ji stage in Sengoku Basara frequently involves fighting Oda Nobunaga in the midst of the burning temple. In the anime, Kojuro and Mitsuhide are the ones who fight there, and the heat and smoke actually make Ranmaru faint.
• Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse has the Camp Ichigaya dungeon, which is on fire as the angels, demons, and humans use it as their battleground.
• The final fight in Soul Calibur II takes place on an eternal field of fire. There's also a burning mansion stage in the third game, and a burning city quarter in the fifth.
• Spyborgs sees you fighting your way out of a burning penthouse crawling with enemies in order to reach the helipad stage.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • The final battle between Mario/Luigi and Bowser at the end of Super Mario Galaxy takes place inside the Sun!
  • The final boss against Cackletta in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, which takes place in Bowletta's stomach, is on fire.
  • In the climax of Luigi's Mansion, Luigi fights King Boo on the roof of the mansion, except it's surrounded by flames.
• For the very first stage of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game, April's Foot-infested apartment building is on fire.
• In Tekken 5 (though not Dark Resurrection), the temple stage is this.
• The last two stages of Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism took place in (former) Hell. In which the flame is still as hot as the core of the sun.
  • Of course, that temperature might be due to the fact that they're fueled by nuclear fusion at this point.
• Turok: When Turok fights Roland Kane, the Big Bad and then after killing him, a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And this takes place in a fortress that had been burning down... and was in the middle of a volcanic landscape.
• Uncharted
  • Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception sees Nate and Sully shooting their way out of a house that has been set on fire.
  • The final battle of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a sword duel with Rafe in the burning treasure hold of Avery's ship, set ablaze by one of Avery's many booby traps.
• Most battles in Undertale take place against a featureless black backdrop. The battle with Asgore is notable for having an orange glow with sparks rising from the bottom of the screen, which is probably intended to invoke this. Justified since Asgore fights using powerful fire magic.
• Warriors of Fate, being a faithful adaptation of the Battle of Red Cliff in video game form, faithfully re-creates the iconic scene from history where the heroes get to fight legions of enemies on burning ships.
• The second part of the final battle against Deathshead in Wolfenstein: The New Order is this, where you fight him in a basement set on fire. The fire grows bigger the more you damage him.
• In The Wonderful 101 you fight the boss of the volcano level while he and you literally stand in the lava. You both are inside giant robots, so it's okay.
• World of Warcraft: Mimiron in Ulduar, but only if you do him on hard mode (which is activated by hitting the room's Self-Destruct Mechanism).
• Xenoblade Chronicles X: The battle against Ga Jiarg and his group of Wrothian warriors in Chapter 9 will suddenly shift to having firey brimstone raining down from the sky as the battle goes on. The battle happens in Sylvalum, where that kind of weather does not happen (it does happen naturally on the nearby Cauldros). The explanation is that the battle between Elma's party and Ga Jiarg's warriors was so intense that they lit the surrounding environment on fire... or something. Interestingly, this isn't the final boss, and no other boss in the game has such a weather shift as part of their battle.
• XenoGears: The prologue ends in a battle at Fei's Doomed Hometown as he fights Gears while the town is set ablaze.

Web Comics

• In Knights of Buena Vista Mary, playing Anna from Frozen, guesses that Hans is a bad guy and says she hopes he and Anna have a final battle over a live volcano.
• Tuesday Titans: During the battle of the Dies Martis Peninsula in Southern Enotria, as the city is invaded by Severine forces, the Titan Excel battles an Autocarrier amidst the flaming wreckage.
• Unsounded: The battle at Litrya Shrine is carried out in the firey aftermath of the Inak teenager using the self-destruct spell.

Web Original

• Dead Fantasy 3: Tifa vs. Hitomi are teleported inside a large building and engage in battle. Near the beginning of the fight, they hit each other so hard that they set the building on fire, and the remainder of the fight occurs in the flames.

Western Animation

• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the final battle between Aang and Ozai. Justified in that he had been busy firebombing the place before being interrupted. Also, any Agni Kai (fire duel), but particularly the comet-enhanced fight between Zuko and Azula, which torched a fair portion of the royal compound.
• Occurs in the episode "Lois Kills Stewie" in Family Guy where the duel between the two sets the room on fire.
• In Gargoyles, Goliath battles Macbeth in "Enter Macbeth". He also battles Coyote on a burning oil tanker in "Leader of the Pack;" he also battles Thailog on a burning oil derrick in "Double Jeopardy;" Demona battles Thailog atop a burning roller-coaster in "The Reckoning."
• Rick and Morty: In "Thanksploitation Spectacular", both the President and the Turkey President battle each other in a burning cornfield.
• Samurai Jack: In the midst of their furious duel, Jack and Mad Jack's clashing swords create sparks that quickly ignite the forest around them into a roaring blaze. Fittingly, once Jack regains his sense of inner peace and lets go of his anger, the wildfire around them dies down as well.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: In "Pulse", Glimmer and Catra's fight ends up doing a number on the Horde's hideout which eventually sets the whole place on fire.
• Deconstructed in The Simpsons episode "Dumbbell Indemnity". Moe accidentally started a fire in his bar and Homer enters the bar out for revenge. The two start a fight in the burning bar but quickly succumb to smoke inhalation and pass out before they can even hit each other. Barney has to save them (and the booze...booze first).
• Subverted in South Park. In the trailer for Cartoon Wars: Part II, the Fox studio is on fire when Kyle fights Cartman. In the actual episode, they fight, but it's not on fire. Given the theme of the episode, the trailer might have been Wish-Fulfillment for Trey Parker.
• This happens several times in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012). One instance is with several fights between Splinter and Shredder both in flashbacks and in "Booyakashowdown!" (the former in the then-human Splinter's burning house in Japan and the latter in Shredder's New York lair with pyrotechnics), a fight between Shredder and Karai in a burning Bronx warehouse in "Requiem", and the Turtles' fight with Shredder atop his burning mansion.

Real Life

• During World War II partisans in the Soviet Union (of all allegiances) would occasionally light forest fires to aid in their ambushes and hit-and-run attacks... or to wipe out communities getting too cosy with their enemies.
• At Trafalgar there was one incident where the Brits with Battleships stopped firing so they could help the French put out a fire. Besides the fact that the fire might spread to their ship(they were almost touching each other) the British knew that if the French ship blew up, it would deprive them of Plunder.
• The Battle of the Nile was fought at night, and most of the battle involved firing at muzzle flashes and silhouettes. At 9 o'clock the French flagship L'Orient caught fire, illuminating the entire battlefield◊. An hour later L'Orient exploded, showering the entire area in burning debris in an explosion so huge all firing stopped for ten minutes while everyone stared in horror or rushed to put out fires sparked by flaming brands from the explosion that might otherwise have similarly destroyed their own ships.
• During the Battle of Britain, fighter pilot James Nicholson found himself taking multiple hits which set his aircraft ablaze, including the cockpit. Being set on fire himself, Nicholson decided to bail out, but halfway through he spotted an enemy fighter dead in front, not paying attention. He immediately lowered himself back into the burning cockpit to take the enemy plane down, before resuming his escape. On his way down, he sustained even worse injuries when over-eager Home Guard soldiers mistook him for a German paratrooper. He survived and received the Victoria Cross.
• Just about any fight in which the Eastern Roman Empire used a sufficient amount of Greek fire could be this, such as the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople, which ended with the invaders' ships being set on fire. With flamethrowers. In the 700s AD.
• This is fairly common in naval battles because of all the flammable stuff (paint, tar, munitions, wood, oil, etc) carried aboard ships. In the first phase Naval Battle of Guadalcanal which was sort of a giant disorganized Bar Brawl between ships at point-blank range, they did not even stop to put out fires but continued to shoot at the ship nearest them while fighting fires.

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