Executive Suite Fight

Stained-Glass... Marble Columns... Convenient Picture Window... Struggling Damsel... I think we have a Final Boss, folks.

"This is the Haltmann Works Company's head office. This is the heart of the company. And here you are, as if it was your own living room... You natives need to be taught manners!"

— Susie, Kirby: Planet Robobot

So, your badass Anti-Hero has just spent the whole night brawling through the dirty, rain-soaked city. The city is empty, the Palette Swap and Underground Monkey gangs have been thrown behind bars, the Quirky Mini Boss Squad has made a hilarious getaway, The Dragon has been reduced to a quivering heap in an alley, and you've eaten more chicken-legs-randomly-found-under-boxes than is probably healthy. It's time to end the reign of terror that has plagued the city once and for all...

Quickly! To the top floor of that luxurious office building!

Although it may seem a little dissonant, plush offices are excellent places for a Final Fight after a long, tough path through the Streets of Rage. It shows that the protagonists have truly made it up into the ivory tower: ready to fight the disease, not just the symptoms. It shows that it's not just the poor, street-level mooks who are getting punished, but also the corruption even in the highest of classes.

Plus, of course, it tends to be an excellent set piece: expensive-looking works of art to throw, leather couches to tumble over, white marble columns to slam heads into, expensive-looking statuary to shred with gunfire in slow-mo, and, of course, the surprisingly easily broken picture window right above a twenty-story drop; that's always fun.

See also: Throne Room Throwdown.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Fist of the North Star: Whereas the entire first season takes place in a fallout-blanketed and crumbling post-apocalyptic desert wasteland, Kenshiro's final confrontation with his Rival Turned Evil best-friend Shin takes place in a cleanly polished, cavernous throne-room of marble and gold.
• The climax of Cowboy Bebop takes place in the executive room at the top of a skyscraper owned by The Syndicate, which is absurdly gilded and roomy.

Comic Books

• Sin City:
  • The last stop of Marv's Roaring Rampage of Revenge through Basin City in The Hard Goodbye is Cardinal Roark's 5th story luxury bedroom/chapel.
  • The Lord Estate in A Dame to Kill For is the setting for two major fights, including the climax.
  • The short Daddy's Little Girl has a rather tragic subversion of this battle when the main character goes to a rich man's estate in order to fight for the right to marry his daughter. The daughter set her boyfriend up to be brutally murdered by her father. As it turns out, they're in a incestuous relationship and apparently killing poor schmucks turns him on.
• The Punisher MAX: The story "Naked Kills" is an exercise in Improvised Weaponry (brooms, staplers, pencils...), as Frank infiltrates the Daedalus Tower as a janitor (a building for the super-rich where no one enters without clearance or a weapon of any kind, and is used to make snuff porn). The final page sees the owner (who escaped the first massacre) let Frank in to clean up his suite.
• Robin (1993) ends with two fights in King Snake's executive suite fifty floors above the streets of Hong Kong. In the first Snake pummels Clyde Rawlins to death, and when Tim arrives and sees his ally dead he's able to use a bit of misdirection and kick Snake out the window, where he then leaves him clinging to the ledge with Lady Shiva standing over him who is implied to have made him fall to his death, though of course he shows up again later.

Fan Works

• From the multi-author Professional Wrestling series The WCFL^note Started in 2001 as a rethinking of wrestling from the last years of the territorial era before WWE went national, it starts In-Universe in "1981".: At WCFL Sat ULL- 1st Annual Torneo Cibernetico!^note "Sat" in this context means "Satellite," as opposed to the "Primary" promotions., (In-Universe airdate November 17, 1989), there was the "Office Death Match" between "Big Business" Hiro Saito and "Safari Hunter" Yoshinari Ogawa^note Regular wrestlers given new gimmicks. that took place in an office and included a John Woo-style staple fight, Saito making copies of Ogawa's face, and even a lunch break. Quite unlike the rest of the WCFL, ULL largely ran on Rule of Funny.

Films — Live-Action

• The end of Daredevil (2003) features a lengthy fight in the Kingpin's penthouse office.
• RoboCop (1987):
  • The first time he goes to arrest Jones in his office, which doesn't go so well since he ends up facing ED-209 and barely escapes. And the whole Detroit police force too.
  • The eponymous hero spends the entire movie beating up street-level thugs, the final battle takes place in the top-level executive boardroom of OCP Headquarters. And yes, the Corrupt Corporate Executive goes through the window.
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith has the confrontation of Mace Windu and his Jedi vs. Palpatine and Anakin take place in the Chancellor's office. Although surprisingly little expensive artwork is damaged in the fight, it does feature the easily-breakable window which Mace is blown through in a display of UNLIMITED POWER by Palpatine.
• The final battle in Kick-Ass involves the titular hero and Hit-Girl taking on the mob boss and his son in the top floor of their office building penthouse.
• The end of Equilibrium takes place in an office deliberately designed to be artistic and over the top, compared to the grey blankness of the city itself. There's gold all over the place, the light shines bright, there's art hanging on the walls. It would have been even more glorious if they hadn't run out of budget.
• In The Crimson Permanent Assurance short from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, the buccaneering accountants of the titular agency sail up alongside The Very Large American Corporation, fire several volleys of filing cabinet drawers into them, and then swing into the corporation's boardroom. This kicks off a daring swordfight with logo pieces and document holders. Yeah.
• Mirage (1965) has a variation; an executive suite is where the hero is given a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by one of the Big Bad's henchmen...who is then shot by the hero's Love Interest.

Live-Action TV

• There are many examples of these fights on Angel, where Wolfram and Hart's offices get trashed. These include the final fight of the first season, the final fight of series (against Hamilton), and the complete devastation wrought by the Eviler than Thou demon known as the Beast. Of course, he went to the office in the first episode of the first season and was still there at the end of the fifth, so it was quite some time before he made much progress fighting the disease.
• Iron Fist (2017): The season 1 finale culminates in Danny and Colleen going to the executive suites in the Rand Enterprises building to confront and kill Harold Meachum, who has had Danny framed for the Hand's drug smuggling, and as Danny has just learned, killed his parents.
• Wonder Woman (1975): In "The Girl with a Gift for Disaster ", William Mayfield's plot has been foiled by Wonder Woman, but he must gather his prized collection before making his escape. So Wonder Woman catches him in his executive suite, has a very short, very decisive fight and locks him up in his own display case.

Professional Wrestling

• WWE's Money in the Bank 2020 was held behind closed doors due to the Covid-19, and they used this opportunity to stage the match as a multi-story fight up WWE's headquarters. Of course, this led to a confrontation between AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan in Vince McMahon's office.

Tabletop Games

• There's a story on the internet about an adventuring party breaking into the president of a MegaCorp's office. The first thing the party's fighter did was tear in there and tackle him. Too bad the president's office chair was wheeled, and there was a huge window behind him...

Video Games

• In Baldurs Gate 3, Lord Enver Gortash invites you to the audience hall in Wyrm's Rock to witness his coronation as Archduke, because he's brainwashed the previous Grand Duke into handing over the reins and engineered a False Flag Operation as part of his power grab. Unless you attack him immediately (which is very ill-advised considering how well protected the coronation is), he'll propose an alliance and ask you to kill his treacherous co-conspirator, saying that he'll be waiting in his office for your report. If you renege on the alliance and decide to kill him instead, his Boss Fight will take place in that very office.
• In Metal Gear Solid, Psycho Mantis can be found holed up in the Commander's Room, a hi-tech office with a number of marble busts and mounted deer antlers. Mantis uses his telekinesis to hurl these at you during the fight.
• Dynamite Cop: In Die Hard Arcade, the leader of the kidnappers, White Fang, remains in a penthouse office throughout the story ala Hans Gruber. When you finally reach him, the office turns into a diabolical trap, with panels extending from the wall to crush you.
• The penultimate mission of Hitman: Absolution takes place at the top of an upscale housing complex. One method of killing the final boss's moll, Layla ("I should've been a nun... But I like to fuck."), is to spike her food with a poison frog extract, conveniently on display in the boss' showroom. This causes Layla to hallucinate and leap off the building while attempting to fly. Whoops.
• Armando Mendez, an antagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, is cornered in his mansion on Prawn Island. He uses a flamethrower to fend off the player. This is a rare instance of an indoor battle in the GTA series.
• The final boss of The Ninja Warriors (1987). You've cornered the Big Bad in his office, and all you need to do is walk up to him and slash him.
• Subverted in The Ninja Warriors Again. You don't get to fight Banglar in his office, but have to fight a Dual Boss from the first stage. Banglar's office is not the final stage either.
• In Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, after working his way through the deserted streets of Mesa City, Utah, Sly confronts the mob boss Muggshot in his executive suite lair atop the tallest building in town.
• Manhunt: James Earl Cash's final battle with Starkweather takes place in the penthouse suite.
• Final Fight:
  • The final battle takes place in Belger's office, ending with you knocking him out of the window. The exact same thing happens in the Final Fight episode of the Street Fighter cartoon. Belger's wheelchair-bound and uses a crossbow to fight you, by the way, making this one of the more bizarre examples.
  • Same thing happens in Final Fight 2, but with a Japanese villa and a paper wall.
  • And again you go through a luxurious building in Final Fight 3... But gets subverted in the last part where Colonel Black, the final boss, is on the rooftop.
• Streets of Rage series: Mr. X's office is the final battle of the first two games. Streets Of Rage 3 subverts this by having you fight a Mr. X in his office, but it explodes, revealing it to be a robot.
• Hammerin' Harry: The last level starts in the sewers and somehow ends in the penthouse of Rusty Nailers Co., where Harry has to fight the President, who is revealed to be a robot/cyborg after you beat him.
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has you climbing up to Sebastian LaCroix's penthouse office for the grand finale. Subverted in that the boss battle doesn't take place: LaCroix turns out to be a wimp.
• At the end of Fatal Fury, your character is snatched off the winner's circle of the King of Fighters tournament and carried up to Geese Howard's office atop Geese Tower, where he tries to kill you himself. The final battle of Real Bout Fatal Fury sees your character invading the office himself or herself.
• The same thing happens in the SNK vs. Capcom first game, if you get Geese as your Final Boss instead of Bison.
• The Punisher (THQ): The luxurious penthouse battle (which belongs to the Kingpin, see above) actually takes place midway through a level about five levels before the end. Yes, someone does get tossed out the window. Then the Punisher has to escape the penthouse, back downstairs and out the front door.
• The same is the case in The Punisher (Capcom), though no one goes out the window. The Kingpin does, however, turn out to be a Load-Bearing Boss for some reason.
• Def Jam Series: This happens in Def Jam: Fight for New York. It is really friggin' hard to finish the fight without knocking Snoop Dogg's character out of a window.
• Max Payne's final shootout takes place in Nicole Horne's penthouse suite at the very top of the Aesir Corporation tower. Horne orders her attack chopper to open fire on the windows, but Max simply crouches beneath a garish metal sculpture in the middle of the lounge, and the helicopter runs out of ammo. Bad art triumphs over evil.
• Since the first major portion of Final Fantasy VII all takes place in one city, Shinra Headquarters becomes the first of the game's Disc-One Final Dungeon. Subverted as when you arrive at President Shinra's office he's already been killed by Sephiroth. Played straight with the boss fight between Cloud and Rufus on the office balcony.
• The end of Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl is set in the Phylex headquarters, with the final showdown (though not with the Corrupt Corporate Executive himself, since he's wheelchair-bound and just sends his mooks and a friggin' helicopter at you) taking place in the boss' office.
• Mass Effect:
  • Mass Effect: The final fight takes place in the Council Chambers, although the Big Bad is a trespasser there and you're actually defending it.
  • Mass Effect 2 has a very brief and very one-sided fight during Thane's recruitment mission, where Thane drops in on Nassana Dantius' guards and massacres the entire room in a couple of seconds.
• Fighting Force 64 inverts this. The very first level is the parking area outside the office building. After that place (and the penthouse) is cleared, it's back to the streets.
• No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: The Final Boss and Rank 1 assassin, Jasper Batt Jr., is fought in the highest floor of his luxurious building, specifically in his office. Watch out for that massive window.
• In the Spider-Man: The Animated Series video game for the Super Nintendo, Spider-Man must fight his way through J. Jonah Jameson's penthouse suite to fight Smythe. That, however, isn't the last level — the Vault is.
• In Spec Ops: The Line, Colonel Konrad's HQ is on the penthouse suite of the Burj Khalifa. Ultimately averted.
• The first three levels of Perfect Dark take place in the evil MegaCorp dataDyne's headquarters, as well as one of the bonus levels.
• Operation 925 and Ziba Tower maps from Close Quarters DLC in Battlefield 3. The former is an office suite, the latter is a luxury penthouse complex.
• Part of some maps in Battlefield 4, notably the penthouse suite in Siege of Shanghai, the office complex in Operation Dawnbreaker, and the hotel in Hainan Resort.
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown: In Enemy Within, once you've finally tracked down EXALT's headquarters facility, it turns out to be a massive penthouse suite filled with artwork, luxurious furniture, and a big evil command center that mirrors XCOM's, all of which you can blow to pieces. The whole map is so destructible that it can get difficult to take cover in later stages of the fight. The cutscene at the end makes sure to showcase the crushed, flaming wreck of the penthouse as the Skyranger flies away.
• Though it's not the final confrontation, about midway through Deus Ex: Human Revolution Adam faces off against a dozen heavily armed Belltower soldiers in the private offices of Tai Yong Medical's CEO. Can be played straight if Jensen's heavily armed and specc'd to kick ass and take names, or it can be subverted if you've gotten the cloaking upgrade and slipped out through a convenient air vent (or just put a gas mine near the entrance).
• In The Kingdom of Loathing, the confrontation with the CEO of Shiawase-Mitsuhama Zaibatsu in The Suspicious-Looking Guy's past takes place in the executive office of the building (described, but not seen, in exquisite detail). It's not the end of that side quest line, though...
• In PAYDAY 2, the second day of the Hotline Miami Heist starts out at a run-down apartment block, but ends in the pristine, well-appointed penthouse.
• While you spend most of Urban Reign battling gangsters and thugs in the streets, you learn near the end that the chaos has been orchestrated by the city's Mayor, so you go to confront him in his office. Given that he goes down in one hit this is more something to close off the story.
• The final level of Mother Russia Bleeds has the heroes fighting their way into the Kremlin, culminating in a confrontation with what is presumably the Soviet Premier.
• Averted in EarthBound (1994). After going through several major detours and a Bizarro Universe, Ness and Jeff are finally able to access the forty-eighth floor of the Monotoli Building, where Paula is being held by Mr. Monotoli. However, Mr. Monotoli turns out to be not a Climax Boss but a puny old man who is no longer interested in hindering Ness in any way.
• Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy has a mission where you need to arrest a businessman manufacturing illegal combat droids. You finally confront him in his office... big enough to have four hidden rooms with these droids.
• In the Yakuza series, the climax typically involves fighting your way up the Millennium Tower skyscraper and often ends with a Rooftop Confrontation upon a helipad.
• Phantom Doctrine: One mission takes you to an undisclosed penthouse in Sears Tower, Chicago, which was the tallest building in the world in 1983 when the game takes place. It's more like an office than an apartment, and one of your team describes it as looking "oddly unlived in." It isn't the final boss fight, but the Elite Mooks will come after you.
• Kirby: Planet Robobot: After a whole game of fending off the Haltmann Works Company, the final level sees Kirby entering the company’s head office, having to battle a souped-up Mecha Knight, followed by President Haltmann himself in his own blinged-out suit of Powered Armor. And worse yet, listen to him ranting about how Kirby is an "ungrateful native". However, Haltmann isn’t the final boss. The finale of the bonus mode "Meta Knightmare Returns", and all Arena battles against Haltmann and the Meta Knightmare final bosses take place in the same office.
• Played with in Bayonetta: while the climactic confrontation with the Big Bad, Father Balder, takes place on the opulent top floor of the Ithavoll Group headquarters (though it’s more like a small amphitheater than a penthouse), the actual boss fight takes place on its falling rubble after it explodes.

Webcomics

• Parodied in Kid Radd: The final level within the game-within-a-comic inexplicably takes place in "Gnarl's Office", despite the rest of the game taking place in a Mega Man-like fantasy world. To be fair, we see relatively little of the rest of the game; Radd could've spent the previous few levels fighting his way up a skyscraper to the aforementioned office.
• Subverted in Dreamkeepers, as the fight in the suite is neither the final fight nor with the Big Bad.

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