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{{trope}}
[[File:
A staple of Westerns, but still seen in plenty of action films and series, the '''Traintop Battle''' is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. Often the result of an aborted [[Train Escape]].
A train has plenty of advantages for an action scene: it's fairly enclosed, without people able to go too far either way for fear of falling off, it has plenty of opportunity for tunnels and overhead lines for your [[Look Behind You!]] moments, it doesn't need much explanation, the high speed acts as wind to let characters [[Dramatic Wind|billow dramatically]]. In short, it turns an
If hero and villain are trying to get to a location in time, it means the hero can be thrown off, and "lose" without dying. Or a villain may be forced out of the action, only to return later.
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A subtrope of [[Interesting Situation Duel]]. If the battle happens atop a moving gondola rather than a train, then it's a [[Cable Car Action Sequence]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. With the sheer amount of train-time in that thing, it had to happen some time. "Some time" was, in this case, pretty early in.
** There's also Ed and Alphonse's fight with the terrorist Bald early in the first anime and manga (the chapter is cut from ''Brotherhood'').
** The first level of the [[
** In the manga, Kimblee and Scar once fight on a train.
* The first mission in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'''s third season involved a battle that started inside a train and ended on top of it.
* ''[[Baccano!]]'' has a massive three-way one featuring [[Knife Nut|Chane]], [[Ax Crazy|Ladd]], and [[One-Man Army|Claire]], plus another featuring [[Cowardly Lion|Jacuzzi]] and the Lemures' leader Goose.
* ''[[
* The first episode of ''[[Mai-Otome 0~S.ifr~]]'' has this as part of the main action.
* The fight that eventually led to Pissard's death in ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure]]'' moved to several locations, one of them being the roof of a train.
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* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'', "Waking the Dragons". "Yami" / the Pharoah. Weevil Underwood. Traintop card dueling. [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|Seriousness.]] This is the one that ends with Weevil pissing Yami off so much that he keeps attacking even ''after'' Weevil's life points hit zero. It just wasn't his day.
** And then topped by Kaiba (oddly enough) when he and a filler villain from the same arc battle ''on top of a private jet''. Even [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] for its ridiculousness.
{{quote|
'''Kaiba:''' Maybe I did. [[Jerkass|Don't you geeks have someone else to annoy?]] }}
* A [[Filler]] episode of ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' has the [[True Companions|Kenshin-gumi]] ride a train for some reason when bandits take it over. Kenshin gets knocked overboard, then finds himself a horse that earns the [[Fan Nickname]] of "Super Horse" for the [[Horse Jump|improbable jumps]] that it pulls off.
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'''s [[Mushroom Samba]] episode.
{{quote|
'''Cow:''' Oh, it's no problem! }}
* In ''[[Soul Eater]]'', Death the Kid gets into a three way battle with one of the various Mizune rat witches and a fat fisherman assassin while on a train that's zooming through the desert.
* In ''[[Maiden Rose]]'', after Klaus and Azusa jump on top of a train Azusa asks why they will be going in through the last car and fighting their way to the engine room rather then running across the top straight there. Klaus [[
* A recent episode of the Best Wishes arc of the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime had Meowth pretend to reform and join the main characters, saying that Team Rocket fired him for messing up one of their evil plans, but it is then revealed that he joined them as part of a trap set up inside one of Team Rocket's trains, and that Meowth was never fired at all. A battle between Ash, Pikachu, and Co. and the Subway bosses Emmett and Ingo and Meowth, [[Took a Level
* ''[[Allison & Lillia]]'' almost has a train battle during Allison's arc, but it's cancelled due to tunnel. We have to wait until Lillia's arc to see a proper train battle.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* One [[Golden Age]] ''[[Batman]]'' story climaxes in a battle between Batman and [[The Joker]] atop a moving train. A punch from Batman sends the Joker off the edge of the train and over a cliff in a [[No One Could Survive That]] moment.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* Taylor Hebert (reincarnated into the body of a Muggleborn girl) takes out a Death Eater with a bowie knife on top of the Hogwarts Express in the ''[[Worm]]/[[Harry Potter]]'' crossover fic ''[[A Wand for Skitter]]''.
==
* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'' has Indy getting chased along a line of circus train cars. [[Two Words: Obvious Trope|One word]]: Rhinoceros.
* [[
** ''[[Octopussy]]''
** ''[[From Russia with Love]]''
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** ''[[Licence to Kill]]'', however, has the battle on top of trucks.
* One of the earliest examples in [[Buster Keaton]]'s ''[[The General (film)|The General]]''.
* The finale of the ''[[Mission: Impossible]]'' film. This is at least partially Subverted: They do have a Traintop Battle, but it's on the high-speed TGV. They can barely move because of the enormous wind resistance.
** The N64 game adaptation also has a traintop chase with [[The Mole]].
* ''[[The Matrix]]: Reloaded'' has a fight on top of a semi truck, with many similar stylings.
* ''[[Silver Streak]]''
* ''[[Wild Wild West (film)|Wild Wild West]]''
* ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]] 2'' has a fight on top of the train, on the side of the train, trailing behind the train, and briefly ''in'' the train. Sounds like Kama-Sutra, only with rampaging violence instead of sex.
* The climax of ''[[Speed]]'' features a fight on top of an out-of-control subway train that ends with [[Bond One-Liner|the immortal line]] "Yeah? Well I'm ''taller''."
* Parodied (with knobs on) in ''[[Top Secret]]''. The bad guy fails to duck for a low bridge, ''and shatters it''
* The ''[[Zorro]]'' Sequel gets in on it, even the damn horse ends up getting involved!
* ''[[Emperor of the North]]'' climaxes with one very brutal train-fight between a determined hobo and a sadistic conductor.
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* The Charles Bronson movie ''Breakheart Pass'' has a couple, set in an 1800's Wild West setting. Supposedly, he did his own stunts.
* [[Jackie Chan]] did this in a number of movies, including ''[[Shanghai Noon]]'', which has a fight that goes through several different cars, including an open lumber car with tree trunks. Rollage Ensues.
* Happens in ''[[The Good, the Bad, the Weird]]'', as a result of two [[Train Job
* In the remake of ''Narrow Margin'', set mostly on a train, Gene Hackman and the witness he's protecting are confronted on the roof by a woman he met earlier, who turns out to be a [[Career Killer]].
{{quote|
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* The climax of ''[[The Dresden Files]]: Death Masks'' took place on top of a train, and the fights were pretty damn badass for a book.
** To elaborate, {{spoiler|Dresden, a mob boss (equipped with commando gear and an assault rifle), and two Knights of the Cross (one of whom is carrying an AK in addition to his holy sword) chase and then land on the train in the mob boss's helicopter, which happens to be, on Dresden's request, playing "Ride of the Valkyries." All of that to stop a group of demons from unleashing an apocalyptic plague.}} Just as awesome as it sounds.
* The ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' tribute novel ''[[The Seven-Percent Solution]]'' features a train-top [[Sword Fight]] between Holmes and the villain.
* The ''[[Warhammer
** It is, however, coated with ice and in the middle of a blizzard, so that may even things out.
* In ''[[The Tomorrow Series|The Other Side of Dawn]]'', Ellie jumps onto a goods train from a bridge and ends up fighting an enemy soldier atop the train and inside one of the carriages.
* Alistair MacLean's ''[[Breakheart Pass]]'' is set around an American train in indian country in the late 1800's. It has a couple. For that matter, the same author has a [[Cable Car Action Sequence|top-of-the-gondola fight]] in ''[[Where Eagles Dare]]''.
* ''[[The Wolf's Hour]]'' by Robert R. McCammon has the protagonist forced to fight his way from one end to the other of a train in Nazi Germany that has been rebuilt as a rolling death trap while the [[Egomaniac Hunter]] stalks him from behind.
* Fitting of its Western influence, [[The Alloy of Law]] includes a gunfight atop a moving train, which continues despite the protagonist being thrown off the top (he uses magic to save himself).
* ''[[A Certain Magical Index]]'' has the battle between Touma and Freyja, which occurs on top of a subway train in a tunnel. Since Freyja fights by summoning giant monsters, many of her creations are large enough that they scrape against the ceiling of the tunnel but take no damage due to their [[Super Toughness]].
* [[Discworld]] has a train battle in the book that introduced trains to the setting, ''[[Raising Steam]]''. They even take the battle into a tunnel, when the story's <s>hero</s> protagonist ''doesn't'' warn his opponent of the upcoming danger. {{spoiler|Said opponent is a dwarf, though, so there's just enough clearance for him to remain standing on the train car while it's in the tunnel.}}
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* Partially invoked in the pilot of ''[[Human Target]]'': there isn't a fight on the roof of the train, but there are several go-rounds in the cars, and one in the air ducts at the top of the cars.
* The [[Community/Recap/S2
== Tabletop Games ==▼
* The ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' setting ''[[Eberron]]'' has a magic train for two purposes. To get the characters to places quickly, and [[Rule of Cool|for them to have climactic fights on top of it]]. ▼
▲== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
▲* The ''[[Dungeons
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has several fights upon an [[Afterlife Express]], though little is made of the particular environment. The boss is the train itself.
* ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'', against the [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]] Smorgs. To simply ''reach'' the boss fight itself, you also have to hammer your way through a veritable horde of them on top of the Excess Express first.
* The Mole Train boss fight in ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]''.
* ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando]]'' had a fight atop a hover train with jumps from car to car. [[Ratchet & Clank (video game)|The first game]] featured a short train top battle, as well.
* In ''[[Samurai Legend Musashi]]'', there's an entire part of a level in which you stand on a train and fend off robots, including some that are in another train behind you!
* Just after the first chapter in ''[[Dark Cloud]] 2'', you have to throw bombs at a car with two mooks in it firing a machine gun at the train. Fail and the game ends from the train derailing.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' seems to like this trope. In ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'' there is an entire act with a railway system. Mostly you just "grind" down the rails, but a tunnel area has you doing exactly this trope, fighting off minor enemies on the train that try to push you off.
** ''Sonic Triple Trouble'''s Sunset Park Act 3 takes place on a train, with the boss apparently being the engine.
** ''[[Sonic Shuffle]]'' has the Riot Train board.
* The video game [[Ur Example]] is probably the first stage of [[Hudson Soft]]'s ''[[Stop The Express]]''. The second stage goes inside the train.
* ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' had a stage where the second portion was on and in a train and the boss was inside the engine.
** ''Zero 2'' had an entire stage that was a train, with the boss pulling up on another train at the end and the battle involving both of you jumping between the trains.
** ''Zero 4'''s ''intro'' stage took place on fast-moving trucks.
* ''[[Mega Man X]] 5'' had Grizzly Slash/Crescent Grizzly's stage, which was technically centered around trucks, but it's the same idea.
** Slash Beast in ''X4''. His entire stage was composed of several trains, barring a small section between the areas, when the first one crashes.
* Of course, Charge Man in ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]] 5'' beat them all to the punch, and even resembles a steam locomotive himself for added fun.
** This is reaching [[Once an Episode]] status for the series. The first real boss battle of ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'' starts out on top of a train car, then falls inside it as the boss slowly demolishes the roof.
** Don't forget ''[[Mega Man Legends]]'' where Mega has to fight two out of three of the [[Goldfish Poop Gang
* Yet another game with a train-battle level: ''[[Bubsy]]''. Though that one's probably forgettable.
* The Ord Mantell Junkyard hovertrain in the video game of ''[[Shadows of the Empire]]''.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' had a series of battles on top of a train.
** ''[[Crisis Core]]'': The opening cutscene involves Zack jumping from a helicopter onto the roof of a speeding train and fighting off attackers.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' doesn't have an actual battle, but it has a (kinda) traintop stealth mission.
* The battle against Janus and crew in the Prologue of ''[[Wild
* Terry Bogard's stage in ''[[Fatal Fury]] 2'' is on top of a train.
* The final battle against Karai in the SNES version of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters]]'' takes place on top of a commuter train.
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* The second stage of ''[[Time Crisis]] 2'' has this where you fight along not one but ''two'' speeding trains (the first the the passenger compartment and the second alongside an adjacent train). After fighting off the mooks you deal with the boss who takes you on with a gun turret, swings a missile around at you (no, really) and lastly tries to take you down with a rail gun while holding onto a helicopter before you blow him up. Likewise in TC3, the end of the second area has you fighting atop a speeding train. The difference here is at the end of the stage, the bridge is blow out from underneath, resulting in the heroes being forced to climb their way up from the still attached dangling compartments.
* The N64 ''[[Spider-Man]]'' game features a level where Spidey has to hold off hordes of lizard men while atop a subway car.
* ''[[Tomb Raider]] IV'' has one of these. With ninjas.
* An obscure action-adventure game for the first Playstation, ''Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn'' (known also as ''Chase the Express''), has one of these due to taking place onboard a high-speed train. You have to shoot a boss, jump over to his train, pull some switches and jump back to your train.
* One of the stages in ''[[
* The Sega shooter ''Confidential Mission'' 2nd stage is set on a train which not surprisingly forces the heroes on top of the train in few occasions
* Luis of ''[[Grand Theft Auto:
* ''[[Uncharted]] 2'': Among Thieves has the [[Best Level Ever|best Traintop Battle]] yet seen; starting at the caboose, Nathan Drake works his way to the front one car at a time, alternating between gunfights and crawling along the sides of the cars while dodging passing signal
** Not an exaggeration. This is the level developers should look to for thrilling train sequences.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks]]'' features a train-top battle as part of the final boss fight.
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* Every other level of [[Data East]]'s ''Express Raider'' is a train top [[Beat'Em Up]].
* The fourth stage of ''Super [[Double Dragon]]'' is a truck-top battle, which may be a [[Shout-Out]] to the second level of ''[[Bad Dudes]]''.
* Two back-to-back levels of ''[[Syphon Filter]] 2'' have you racing to the front of a train to stop it before it reaches a blown-out bridge. You fail to stop it, but jump onto a chopper stolen by Lian just before it falls through.
* ''Smokin' Guns'', being a Western mod, has this. "Santa Fe Express" Deathmatch map is on a moving train plus terrain buzzing by (you fall, you die), where train top is mostly for long-range engagement (due to lack of cover) and the inside for short-range. Also, there's a stopped train in "Backwater" Deathmatch/Robbery map, but its top, while accessible, is useful mostly in that you can jump from it in either direction, otherwise it's just exposed for other high places and semi-exposed for low.
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
▲== Web Original ==
* ''[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/501313 The Ballad of Cripple Kane]'' starts out with of course, a saloon brawl, a horse chase, but it ends up on a ''train''. Oh wait you knew that, reading the trope and all. It's still ''''awesome''''!
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* In one ''[[Family Guy]]'' fantasy sequence, Stewie has an [[Imagine Spot]] about a fist and knife fight with someone on top of a moving 19th century train over a [[MacGuffin]].
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* In one ''[[Family Guy]]'' fantasy sequence, Stewie has an [[Imagine Spot]] about a fist and knife fight with someone on top of a moving 19th century train over a [[MacGuffin]].
* In the third episode of ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', Spidey fights The Lizard on top of a moving subway.
* In an episode of ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', Jack fights two bounty hunters (one a [[Cowboy]] and the other a saloon-girl [[Femme Fatale]]) on top of a train.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' had this happen during the season 1 final.
* Done twice in ''[[Kim Possible]]''.
* Done in ''[[Winx Club]]'' S4 episode 13, Layla, Nabu and Sky fight Ogron, the leader of the Black Circle on top of a moving train. It quickly becomes just a fight between Ogron and Sky when Nabu is knocked off the train and Layla had to catch him before he hit the ground.
* This is how Rainbow Dash of ''[[My Little Pony:
* In the ''[[G.I. Joe: Renegades]]'' episode "Homecoming, part 2", Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow fight on top of the train, while [[The Baroness]] takes out soldiers within the train.
* The ''[[Archer]]'' episode "The Limited" has ISIS escorting a radical Nova Scotian separatist (yes, really) back across the Canadian border via train. Archer keeps talking about how it's been, like, his life-long dream to fight on top of a train. And in the show's semi-deconstructive spirit, when the time comes, he finds it's not all it's cracked up to be.
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