Executive Suite Fight



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 Miniboss 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.

Anime

 * Whereas the entire first season of Fist of the North Star 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 Hard Goodbye: The last stop of Marv's Roaring Rampage of Revenge through Basin City is Cardinal Roark's 5th story luxury bedroom/chapel.
 * There was also the Lords' Estate in A Dame To Kill For, which was the setting for two major fights, including the climax.
 * The Sin City 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.

Film

 * The end of the Daredevil movie features a lengthy fight in the Kingpin's penthouse office.
 * After Robo Cop 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, someone goes through the window.
 * Star Wars: Episode III', of course, 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.
 * 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.

Tabletop RPG

 * There's a story on the internet about an adventuring party breaking into the president of a Mega Corp's office. The first thing the party's fighter did was tear in there and tackle him. Too bad the presiden't office chair was wheeled, and there was a huge window behind him...

Television

 * In The Crimson Permanent Assurance short from 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.
 * 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 there 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.

Video Games

 * The final boss of The Ninja Warriors. You've cornered the Big Bad in his office, and all you need to do is walk up to him and slash him.
 * In Sly Cooper and the Thieveus 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 the SNES sequel Final Fight 2, but with a Japanese villa and a paper wall.
 * And again you go through a luxorious 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.
 * The same thing happens at the end of the Hammerin' Harry arcade game. 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.
 * 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 Capcom v/s SNK first game, if you get Geese as your Final Boss instead of Bison.
 * The Punisher 2005 video game. 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 1993 Punisher arcade game, though no one goes out the window. The Kingpin does, however, turn out to be a Load-Bearing Boss for some reason.
 * Happens in the video game 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.
 * FFVII: Since the first major portion of the game 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.
 * 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 at you) taking place in the boss' office.
 * 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.
 * Also, in the original Mass Effect the final fight takes place in
 * 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.
 * The Final Boss of No More Heroes 2, who will teach you to seriously hate that massive window.

Web Comics

 * 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.
 * Dreamkeepers subverts this, as the fight in the suite wasn't the final fight or the Big Bad.