A list of tropes that appear very often in a climax. This also includes tropes that come off as climactic.
See also: The Climax and Anti-Climax
If you were looking for climatic tropes, see Weather and Environment.
Tropes:
- Accidental Public Confession
- Big Badass Battle Sequence
- Big Damn Heroes: The heroes pull off a dramatic rescue.
- Big Damn Hug
- The Big Damn Kiss
- Big Damn Reunion
- Big Game
- Burning the Ships
- Cataclysm Climax
- The Cavalry
- Climactic Battle Resurrection
- Climactic Elevator Ride
- Climactic Music
- Climax Boss
- Climbing Climax
- Collapsing Lair
- Concert Climax
- Deus ex Machina: An event from out of nowhere causes things to shift to the hero's favor.
- Disney Death: A character who appeared to die at first subsequently turns out to still be alive or is miraculously resurrected.
- Disney Villain Death: The villain ends up falling to their death.
- Down to the Last Play
- Ending by Ascending
- Engineered Public Confession: A villain who has been able to hide their true nature from the public is tricked by the heroes into publicly admitting that they are a horrible person who was deceiving everyone.
- Essential Third Act Twists
- "Eureka!" Moment: A character's thoughts or observations inspire them to come up with a plan.
- Final Battle
- Final Boss: The video game ends with one last boss fight that the player must win to finish the game. The final boss will almost always be the main antagonist.
- Flashback-Montage Realization
- Go into the Light
- Gunship Rescue
- Heroic Second Wind
- Just in Time
- Load-Bearing Boss
- Main Character Final Boss: The game ends with the main character becoming the final boss, requiring their party to either fight to free them or kill them.
- Miracle Rally
- Monster Threat Expiration
- Necro Cam: A Flashback-Montage Realization solving the mystery of how a character died.
- Not an Act
- Parallel Conflict Sequence
- The Reveal: A twist that involves a secret being revealed.
- Throne Room Throwdown: a climatic fight scene occurs in a throne room.
- Stock Clock Hand Hang
- Stuff Blowing Up
- Third Act Stupidity: The heroes or villains (or both) start acting stupid to sustain conflict in the climax.
