A Hallway Fight, as the name implies, takes place in a corridor. The fighters are more or less forced to go in one direction while the narrow and cramped quarters force them into a more claustrophobic battle. Because of these restraints, the fights can be very close and quite brutal. If the director so chooses, it can also be the perfect opportunity for The Oner. It can also be a way to Hand Wave the Mook Chivalry trope as multiple opponents often have to come one by one.
Compare Chokepoint Geography.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Ed and Al clear a hallway in record time through a combination of psychological warfare, fly kicking people in the face and generally beating them up.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Stardust Crusaders: Jotaro battles against Forever within the hallway of a ship freighter while being confined to the wall.
- Stone Ocean: In Jolyne's fight with MiuMiu, she chases her around the prison's hallways and having to avoid armed guards after being affected with a Perception Filter.
- Luck Stealer: Kurusu's targets often run out in the hallway in whichever building they are in, either to meet their fate or fight Kurusu when he's running after them.
Comic Books
- An issue of the Warren Ellis run on Moon Knight has Mr. Knight fighting his way through an entire brownstone house to rescue a kidnapped girl, including several hallways.
Fan Fiction
- Tarkin's Fist: Tenel Hja gets into one of these with the Army Rangers from Task Force Odysseus who are guarding the access point to the bridge of the hijacked Super Star Destroyer Ares.
Films — Live-Action
- Inception features a hallway fight between Arthur and a nameless mook. Because they are inside the dreaming mind of a person in a rolling vehicle, the two men end up grappling as the hallway rotates and they flop this way and that.
- In Kill Bill Vol 2, the Bride and Elle briefly get into a sword fight in the hallway of Budd's trailer, which leads to the Bride ripping the eye from her socket and considering she only had one eye to begin with, it gives her the win.
- Though not necessarily a hallway, per se, one is present in Kung Fu Hustle after Sing's powers as a Kung Fu Master have awoken and a large group of mooks are confronted on one of the long balconies of Pig Sty Alley. For further amusement, we don't actually get to see the beat down as the camera focuses on The Beast's rather bemused reaction to it all and when the camera shows the actual carnage the mooks are absolutely laid out with some even stuck in the ceiling!
- The Matrix:
- In The Matrix, the Final Battle between Neo and Agent Smith takes place in a building hallway inside the Matrix.
- In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo and Morpheus right their way through a horde of Smith clones when they are ambushed in the hallway of a building leading to the Source.
- In Oldboy, Oh Dae-Su fights his way through a long hallway of mooks, armed with a hammer. It is perhaps the most well known action sequence in the movie due to it's intense level of violence, the serious Combat Breakdown that occurs mid-fight, and for being The Oner.
- In The Raid, the main characters have to take down an entire apartment building full of gangsters, which leads to plenty hallway fights. One of the main fights involves them slashing their way through bad guys with machetes.
- Star Wars:
- A New Hope opens with Imperial Stormtroopers blasting their way into Princess Leia's starship, leading to a series of intense shoot-outs in the narrow corridors of the ship.
- Rogue One: The climax involves Darth Vader himself killing his way through a corridor of a Rebel spaceship in order to obtain plans for the Death Star. Calling it a "fight" is perhaps being generous.
- The action thriller Snowpiercer takes place on a train, so all unfolding fight scenes resemble hallway fights.
- Star Trek Into Darkness has hand-to-hand combat aboard the Starfleet supership Vengeance. John Harrison who is actually A Villain Named Khan has no problems kicking ass in close quarters.
- In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, young John Connor is trapped in the narrow gallery of a corridor in a shopping mall when the T-1000 comes around the corner and starts shooting at him. Luckily for John, T-800 is around and shields the boy from the bullets, although an unlucky janitor is killed in the crossfire. Then T-800 pushes John into an adjacent room and a shoot-out between the two terminators unfolds in the corridor.
- What We Do in the Shadows has a hallways fight between two vampires in their apartment, which goes up the walls and across the ceiling as a parody of the aforementioned Inception scene.
Live-Action TV
- In the premiere of Ahsoka, two Dark Jedi (one fallen Jedi and his apprentice) carve through New Republic soldiers in the corridors of the cruiser Vesper to liberate Morgan Elsbeth.
- Of all places, season 5 of Arrested Development features a brief yet very gymnastics-heavy fight between George-Michael and Micheal.
- Arrow. In "The Undertaking", Oliver Queen slugs and arrows his way through the goons in the corridor outside the room where Walter Steele is being held prisoner.
- Cobra Kai: "No Mercy." Tory confronts Sam at the intersection of the locker room area in what was meant to be between only the two of them. Instead, it sparks an all out Mob War between the Rival Dojos that takes place throughout the school's corridors and shows just how brutal a close quarters fight between two groups of teens who hate each other and all have legitimate karate training would actually be.
- In the Doom Patrol episode "Puppet Patrol" Robotman bloodily dispatches a squad of Heinrich Von Fuchs Hive Mind Nazi minions in a hallway of the Fuchtopia facility.
- Season 4 of The Flash has the villain DeVoe breaking into ARGUS Facility and butchering the guards with his psychic powers in a corridor.
- The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale parodied these in a fake trailer
for Netflix's newest 12-episode series, Hallway Fight.
- In the third season of Lucifer, there's a scene where the title character enters a Korean drug dealer's hideout and proceeds to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to the Mooks - all set to, most appropriately, "Lucifer" by SHINee.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe: This seems to be something of a Creator Thumbprint for the MCU's Netflix shows:
- Daredevil:
- In "Cut Man", Matt Murdock fights his way through a hallway full of Russian mobsters to rescue a kidnapped boy. This is considered the signature one of the hallway fights, since it's shot in one take with no changes of camera angle.
- In "New York's Finest", after freeing himself from Frank Castle, Matt fights off Dogs of Hell bikers in the hallway of an apartment building, which eventually leads to a stairwell fight. This is an homage to The Raid.
- In "Seven Minutes in Heaven", Wilson Fisk needs to get rid of Dutton, the guy who runs the prison's underground economy. So he tricks Frank Castle into entering Dutton's cellblock. After Frank kills Dutton, Fisk locks him in, and releases all the prisoners who are quick to get revenge on him for killing their boss. He ends up having to go down a corridor, stabbing his way out with a shiv.
- "Blindsided" sees Matt have a continuous one-take fight that one-ups the season 1 fight. In this one, Matt visits Rikers to try to get information on Fisk's time there. Fisk finds out he's there, and a nurse on his payroll proceeds to attack Matt. Matt disarms the nurse but not before the man is able to inject him with a sedative. Fisk then calls Matt to tell him that this is retaliation for the threats Matt made to keep Vanessa from him when Matt visited him last year, then hangs up. Fisk directs a bunch of inmates to start a riot and attempt to kill Matt, forcing Matt to fight his way out down several corridors, get information from the Albanians on Jasper Evans, then escape escorted by an Albanian disguised as a guard, all before the sedatives can kick in. This one is a true ten minute long one-take fight, with zero cuts at all.
- In "Cut Man", Matt Murdock fights his way through a hallway full of Russian mobsters to rescue a kidnapped boy
- Jessica Jones:
- When Will Simpson turns into a psychotic super soldier, he attacks Jessica in her apartment. The two of them fall through a wall and start smashing each other against sides of a small passageway.
- The season 1 finale sees Jessica have to fight her way through a hospital corridor filled with doctors and patients that Kilgrave has ordered to stop her. She tries to sneak down the hall to get out but she is soon spotted and forces her way through, getting a nasty cut with a scalpel for her troubles.
- Luke Cage: In "Who's Gonna Take the Weight", Luke Cage attacks Crispus Attucks, the location of Cottonmouth's main stash, using his Super-Strength to bulldoze his way through Cottonmouth's henchmen in three different hallways before finding the vault where all of the money is stashed.
- Iron Fist:
- A group of Triads armed with hatchets show up at Danny Rand's hotel suite and try to kidnap Joy Meachum in retaliation for a pier deal she and Ward reversed on Harold's orders. Danny fights his way down a corridor full of their men until he gets to the elevator, where he dispatches the last two, before fleeing with Joy to Colleen Wing's dojo. Harold later kills the guy who hit Joy by splitting his head open with a sword.
- Danny and Davos later fight a group of Hand members in a narrow passage while escaping Bakuto's compound, and almost get overwhelmed due to the cramped quarters.
- A few episodes later, Colleen Wing and Davos rescue Danny from Bakuto and his men as they try to capture him from Harold's penthouse. The three of them dispatch Bakuto's men in the lobby of the General Electric Building, then chase down and fight off Bakuto in Central Park.
- The Defenders: This one is how the heroes all end up coming to meet. It starts in the boardroom of Midland Circle Financial as Danny confronts Alexandra. After taking out a dozen fighters armed with tranquilizer guns, he is eventually overpowered by a second wave. He is about to be captured when Luke suddenly breaks down the doors and they fight their way out. They burst out through the wall into the nearby hallway just as Matt and Jessica arrive. After an awkward exchange as Luke and Jessica recognize each other, they find themselves pinned down, with Elektra approaching on one side and a bunch of goons coming from the elevator and stairwells. Luke, Jessica and Danny handle the henchmen while Matt fights Elektra one-on-one.
- The Punisher:
- When Frank infiltrates the enemy compound during a flashback to his service in Kandahar, he begins shooting his way through a few corridors before running put of ammo and using a knife, then a rock.
- A hallway fight/stairwell chase happens in a hotel as Frank overpowers several cops and Anvil security operatives as he's chasing after Lewis Wilson, a PTSD-afflicted soldier-turned-Mad Bomber who has taken Karen hostage.
- Matt does it again in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law when he and She-Hulk end up having to rescue his client from hers. Matt beats up a gang of mooks, but when a second group shows up and starts to rush him, Jennifer suddenly drops in through the ceiling on top of them, knocking them all out at once.
- Daredevil:
- Strangers From Hell: The final fight between Jong-woo and Moon-jo takes place mainly in the studio's hallway.
- Wonder Woman: In "Judgment from Outer Space", Major Steve Trevor and friends are trapped in a hallway by two groups of Nazi soldiers. Wonder Woman rescues them by overpowering both groups.
- The Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian delivers several of these on board Moff Gideon's cruiser:
- First, the Amazon Brigade of Cara Dune, Fennec Shand, Bo-Katan Kryze and Koska Reeves vs. the Stormtroopers, which the women win with relatively little issue.
- Then, The Mandalorian vs. a Dark Trooper, which he narrowly wins.
- Next, Beskar spear-wielding Mando vs Darksaber-wielding Gideon, which Mando wins due to better fighting experience.
- And finally, Luke Skywalker vs. every single Dark Trooper, which Luke wins handily. The similarities with Darth Vader's fight in Rogue One have been duly noted and are certainly not a coincidence.
- The Walking Dead: The final season features a three-on-one fight with Maggie, Elijah, and Negan going up against Brandon Carver, a member of the villainous Reapers. Even though the heroes are all badasses in their own right, Carver is a bloodthirsty Afghanistan war vet who quickly turns the tables on them. Elijah also is suffering from a wounded leg despite being perhaps the most vicious of the three heroes present. Negan only wins the fight for the heroes when he distracts Carver with a bell he displays prominently, and then throws sand into his face, giving him the opportunity to finally knock Carver down. Even then, Carver has to be knocked unconscious by Daryl.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: At Noctis City, Ann is ambushed by thugs from the Factio Pugni at the top floor of an apartment building's hallway. She easily takes them down, then chases after the leader through a Super Window Jump at the end of the hall.
- Off-screen example in Evil Genius, in which the greatest triumph of Super Agent Jet Chan was defeating an evil genius who built a long, narrow lair which ran the length of the Great Wall of China. Chan reportedly used the lair's layout to his advantage, forcing the genius' mooks to fight him one-on-one rather than let them gang up on him.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: The Snowpeak Ruins miniboss room appears on the map as a circle, as with all the other. Once inside, however, it's actually a long corridor (the extra space is used for storing, of all things, cannons)., with the miniboss being a giant armored lizard swinging an Epic Flail. To get past him without getting smashed to bits, Link has to hookshot the ceiling behind the lizard and drop down behind to attack hi unarmored tail.
- A frequent occurrence in the Yakuza series, usually when Kiryu or his allies are in the process of Storming the Castle to get to the main villains.
- One of the sequences in A Way Out has the game switch to a 2D perspective as one of the protagonists takes a hammer and starts bashing away at a horde of foes as a shout-out to the scene from Oldboy.
- Another Shout-Out to Oldboy is Sifu, where the student fights through a hallway in the slums, being shot in a similar way to the Oldboy scene.
Web Videos
- Anime Crimes Division: Season 2 has Joe get in a hallway fight when he visits Prestige TV City, a city dedicated to beloved western shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones instead of anime. It's even lampshaded with an original song playing in the background all about how you have to have a hallway fight scene now.
Western Animation
- Arcane: League of Legends: In Episode 3, Vi fights Silco's mooks one by one on a catwalk.
