Clock Tower: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A giant timepiece, visible throughout its locale. Beloved of hunchbacks, of villains who need their capes to billow dramatically, and of snipers with poor tactical sense. Can be used as a background detail, though most examples not [[The Eiffel Tower Effect|in London]] (and plenty that are) end up involved in the plot in some way. One may be used to increase the suspense in a [[Race Against the Clock|Clock Tower Finale]], act as the home or base for the main characters, or become the stage for a [[Fight Scene]] or [[Climbing Climax]].

 

* Characters nervously perching on the ledge invariably located above the clock face. For whatever reason, escaped parrots are also like to perch here. Odds are good somebody will fall, in which case...

* A character grabs onto and hangs desperately from one of the clock hands. Bonus points for the movement of the hands being used for dramatic tension as they slowly tick into a position that would dump the hero off to his doom. Sometimes this effect is used by the villain as a deathtrap. Villains in this position may be [[Save the Villain|saved]] by the hero in a [[Take My Hand]] moment.

* If inside, there will be plenty of gears and other mechanisms, or at least a rope to ring the bell. Expect a stadium sized chamber full of spur gears the size of Volkswagens, on and about which the hero and villain [[Cathedral Climax|will climb and clamber as they fight]]. When the gears are invariably jammed with an [[Throw the Sword|errant sword]] or wrench, expect the whole thing to tear itself apart as the designers conveniently forgot to include any sort of clutch, disconnect, or even an emergency "off" switch. Alternately, it might [[Incredibly Lame Pun|stop the clock]] on somebody about to be crushed, but only until the wrench breaks. (The mechanism inside ''real'' clock towers is often much smaller than in fiction. The workings of the Custom House Tower clock in Boston, for example, are about the size of a file cabinet; those of Big Ben, though weighing about five tonnes, cover the same sort of area as a large table.)

 

 

This trope is extremely prevalent in [[Real Life]]. Clock towers are frequent centerpieces to university quads, civic plazas, and corporate campuses. Used mostly for aesthetic appeal in modern times. Please list only the famous ones under the [[Real Life]] section above.

 

{{examples}}

* Sylvia was once tied to the hands of a clock tower in the ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'' anime.

* The clock tower in the city in ''[[Haibane Renmei]]'' (one of the main characters works there).

* Chapter 3 of [[Ann Cassandra]] features a clock tower as both a crowning achievement for the man who built it and the site of a{{spoiler|n almost}} disaster.

* ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5]] GoGo'' has one in which Syrup lives with Mailpo until episode 25, and ''[[Suite Pretty Cure]]'' has another as Siren and Trio the Minor's base.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', during the [[Shifting Sand Land|arabasta]] [[Story Arc|arc]] the [[Big Bad]] [[Animal Theme Naming|Crocodile]] places a huge cannon that would have been used to kill practically everyone in the city in the clock tower overlooking the square.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

{{quote|Hamish said, "I wouldna' care to climb that high."

"Then stay here." }}

 

* One episode of ''[[Monk]]'' had someone fall off a clock tower. Monk knew that she was murdered by a coworker, but couldn't work out how he could have done it when he was across the school with many witnesses at the time she fell. {{spoiler|He bludgeoned her to death with a plank, then put her ''on one of the hands'', knowing that she would fall when a certain amount of time had passed.}}

* The final fight in the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Hush" took place inside a clock tower.

* There's at least one level in each of the ''[[Castlevania]]'' games that takes place inside a clock tower, complete with moving gears, pendulums, and [[Goddamned Bats|medusa heads]].

* Zasalamel's stage in ''[[Soul Calibur]] III'' is located inside a clock tower.

* The Garal Clock Tower in ''[[Treasure of the Rudras]]'' {{spoiler|The Clock Tower is a countdown timer for [[The End of the World as We Know It]] the world will end but the Tower is a timer, one Death Knell for Every Day that passes upon activation, the tower serves another purpose, the clocks on the sealed doors with a clock face above them start to move upon activation, it moves a total of 8 times in one cycle, which unlocks if the clock hand is at the 12 O' Clock position}}

* Spagonia from ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' and ''[[Sonic Generations]]'' has a huge one in the center of the city, reminiscent of Big Ben. Sonic has to climb the tower in both his regular and Werehog form (in ''Unleashed'') at some point to traverse through their respective acts.

* One of the levels in ''[[Thief|Thief 3]]'' takes place inside a clock tower.

* Many iterations of the game series ''[[Clock Tower (series)|Clock Tower]]'' will prominently feature a clock tower at some point. I know, I was shocked too.

* Also featured in ''[[Resident Evil]]'' 2 on top of the R.P.D. and 3 & 4 as just stand alone towers.

* There is one in the Neighborhood in ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Skateboarding]]''.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** It ''does'', however, {{spoiler|become [[Weaponized Landmark|a sniper cannon.]]}}

 

* Dr. Doofenschmirtz of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' plans to steal Big Ben because the numbers on his watch are too small for him to read...

* An ''[[Adventures in Odyssey]]'' video had Dylan fetch a parrot.

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* The Kremlin clock tower, more properly called Spasskaya Tower, in Moscow.

* The Custom House Tower, with its four clock faces, was the tallest building in Boston (by law!) for most of the 20th century.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Tower]]

[[Category:Settings]]

[[Category:Building Tropes]]

[[Category:Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity]]