Favorite climactic battles in media?

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

What are your favorite climactic battles in anything? Me I have only 4 on the top of my head and ironically all 4 of them takes place during rain and thunder:

The Battle of the Hornburg in Two Towers:


Neo vs Smith in the Climax of Revolutions:


The fucking Maelstrom in Pirates 3: At World's End:


And Wind Waker's Ganondorf battle, and I will give it to you Wind Waker fans, at least that game had the best climax of all the Zelda games combined with Ocarina of Time followed Second:


What is it about Rain and Thunder that makes battle more epic than it needs to be?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Does it count if there isn't actually a battle?

Cause I always liked the end of Season 2 of Blake's 7, the ship moves off to stop/slow down the approaching alien fleet, to a chorus of radio chatter from the human military, giving various ETAs of around 4 or 5 hours. Couldn't show a big battle onscreen, no budget, (the beginning of the next season they sorta tried, and really shouldn't have) so had to get creative and did something much more memorable.

 

[American Tanker]

Both Death Star battles, Star Wars Classic Trilogy, later made interactive in the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron trilogy.

Also, the Suicide Mission, Mass Effect 2.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

not sure if it counts as a "battle" in this context, but it did melt my brain with unbridled wowsies that am still waiting to be topped; that being the Church scene from the first Kingsman film. I have an emotional investment in the music used, so am so very biased in that regard you might as well have not bothered reading this

 

[Silvanus]

Battle of the Hornburg, LotR: Two Towers.
Sekigahara, Nioh.
Battle of Blackwater Bay, ASoIaF: Clash of Kings/ GoT.
Siege of Ba Sing Se, Avatar: TLA.
Siege of Thunderhead Keep, Guild Wars: Prophecies.
Battle against Sky Fortress Bahamut, Final Fantasy XII.

EDIT: Battle of the Gardens, Final Fantasy VIII.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

God no taste the lot of you! This is how you do climactic battles!

 

[404notfound]

Remember the Wrathgate!


I recently got back into WoW. I originally started in WotLK and this was the first truly big impactful story moment (the expansion) for me. I still distrust those soulless walking corpses that call themselves the Forsaken.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

God no taste the lot of you! This is how you do climactic battles!

Matrix Revolutions had that kind of fight but with ROBOTS!!!

Remember the Wrathgate!


I recently got back into WoW. I originally started in WotLK and this was the first truly big impactful story moment (the expansion) for me. I still distrust those soulless walking corpses that call themselves the Forsaken.

I think the recent Cinematic Trailers has since eclipsed the Wrathgate:

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The final battles/arc in Season 3 of Reboot. Rebels vs. viral army. Matrix vs. Megabyte (who has been the most physically powerful character for the entire series and still is here). Bob vs. Hexadecimal. Everybody vs. all the Users throughout the entire series. Mainframe vs. utter deletion.

The Prewitt building sequence in The Dark Knight. I firmly believe this to be one of the main inspirations for various gameplay aspects in the Arkham games such as detective mode, and everything works beautifully. The fact that the site used for it is the then-incomplete Trump International Hotel and Tower does nothing to diminish its awesomeness.

The final battle of SMT IV: Apocalypse certainly caught my eye even if the final dungeon hadn't. The endgame parties of two separate games teaming up against a visually interesting foe who definitely requires the extra firepower. Also a foe who can only be hurt in the first phase by each member of the team denying their enemy's claims of virtue. I think it edges out Persona 5's finale, and is certainly tougher.

 

[Asita]

Undertale (Pacifist run). You've got the emotional roller coaster starting with the antagonist's appearance, the turnaround as you get your second wind, the build up to the final fight...and then this starts playing and the bullet hell begins. I love it.

Sword of the Stranger. For all that the central conflict is over, you still have the antagonists' ace in the hole to deal with...granted, he has no loyalty to the antagonists. He simply wants a good fight and identified the protagonist as someone he really wants to fight. The entire movie comes to a head with these two characters coming to a head and gains strength through their nature as foils to one another. "Nanashi" (literally "no-name") is veteran ronin who left the army and sees penance for his actions through protecting and coming to care for Kotaro and who spends most of the movie with his sword tied into its sheath to make killing an uphill battle for him. On a minor note, the guy also makes a point of hiding his red hair, which tended to get him ostracized in the mistaken belief that he was a foreigner. Luo-Lang, in contrast, is a foreign mercenary (described by his own comrades as a "western barbarian", not that he seems to care) for the invading Ming army who picks lethal fights simply because he enjoys them and is openly contemptuous of the people he works for (especially their use of a pain-deadening drug). Cue then the final fight. No taunts, no secret techniques, and - by the standards of the medium - only somewhat implausible fight choreography.

Mass Effect 2's Suicide Mission (Giant Terminator notwithstanding), which I hold as a great example of a 'choices matter' finale done right.

 

[Trunkage]

33 or Exodus Pt 2 of BSG
Severed Dreams from B5
I felt like the Nameless Island boss fight in D:OS2 was pretty epic, unlike the actual ending battle.
Sine you had a one v one battle, I'm going to pick Mr Freeze battle in Arkham City. The game should have wrapped up after that.
But if we're going to do that than any Dynasty Warrior game. Also, the movie Red Cliff

 

[Imre Csete]

Borderlands 2 - Where Angels Fear to Thread.

That's how you do a boss battles in FPS games, *cough Ken Levine *cough*.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

A Bridge Too Far, despite taking extensive liberties with history, and downplays the faults and problems given the failure of taking Nijmegen Bridge in a timely manner, is one of the best war movies ever made.

 

[Hawki]

I'm not criticizing, but I'm really surprised that you nominate the Matrix: Revolutions fights over that of the previous films. Yes, the Zion battle is visually impressive, as is the Neo vs. Smith one, but Neo vs. Smith in the first film easily trumps them. It feels more 'real' (ironic, given that this is the Matrix), and the subway battle and aftermath has far more character relevance to Neo, as he completes his arc. Likewise the maelstrom in Pirates 3 - there's just so much going on, I miss the intimacy of the first film. We didn't need a whirlpool, we just needed Jack vs. Barbossa, Will/Elizabeth vs. pirates, and Dauntless vs. pirates, and it worked, because we cared about the characters, and the stakes felt real enough.

Anyway, there's far too many battles in far too many medias for me to list them all, so I'll just go by the medias people have already listed:

-The Matrix: Neo vs. Smith (first film, though the burly brawl in the second is a close second)
-The Lord of the Rings: Siege of Minas Tirth/Battle of the Pelennor Fields
-Pirates of the Caribbean: Final battle(s) in the first film
-Star Wars: Battle of Endor, followed by the Battle of Yavin
-Game of Thrones: Battle of Castle Black (season 4), followed by Hardhome (season 5)
-Starship Troopers: Probably Whiskey Outpost, but I feel Roughnecks deserves honorable mention for its Pluto and Klendathu campaigns, in selling the feeling of a longer conflict)
-Warcraft: Either Mount Hyjal (Warcraft 3), the Broken Shore (Legion), or the forest battle (Warcraft movie)
-Mass Effect: Citadel attack (ME1)
-Avatar (cartoon): Either the season 3 finale three way battle (Aang vs. Ozai, Iroh and Ba-sing Seh, Zuko vs. Azula), or, funnily enough, Korra vs. Unalaq (really dislike season 2 of LoK, but as pure spectacle goes, that battle was a treat)

Does it count if there isn't actually a battle?

Cause I always liked the end of Season 2 of Blake's 7, the ship moves off to stop/slow down the approaching alien fleet, to a chorus of radio chatter from the human military, giving various ETAs of around 4 or 5 hours. Couldn't show a big battle onscreen, no budget, (the beginning of the next season they sorta tried, and really shouldn't have) so had to get creative and did something much more memorable.

Oh...that.

You mean where season 2 does an excellent job of selling the stakes of the invasion from Andromeda, and then in season 3 has Blake and Janna disappear off-screen? THAT?!

Yeah.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I'm not criticizing, but I'm really surprised that you nominate the Matrix: Revolutions fights over that of the previous films. Yes, the Zion battle is visually impressive, as is the Neo vs. Smith one, but Neo vs. Smith in the first film easily trumps them. It feels more 'real' (ironic, given that this is the Matrix), and the subway battle and aftermath has far more character relevance to Neo, as he completes his arc. Likewise the maelstrom in Pirates 3 - there's just so much going on, I miss the intimacy of the first film. We didn't need a whirlpool, we just needed Jack vs. Barbossa, Will/Elizabeth vs. pirates, and Dauntless vs. pirates, and it worked, because we cared about the characters, and the stakes felt real enough.

Anyway, there's far too many battles in far too many medias for me to list them all, so I'll just go by the medias people have already listed:

-The Matrix: Neo vs. Smith (first film, though the burly brawl in the second is a close second)
-The Lord of the Rings: Siege of Minas Tirth/Battle of the Pelennor Fields
-Pirates of the Caribbean: Final battle(s) in the first film
-Star Wars: Battle of Endor, followed by the Battle of Yavin
-Game of Thrones: Battle of Castle Black (season 4), followed by Hardhome (season 5)
-Starship Troopers: Probably Whiskey Outpost, but I feel Roughnecks deserves honorable mention for its Pluto and Klendathu campaigns, in selling the feeling of a longer conflict)
-Warcraft: Either Mount Hyjal (Warcraft 3), the Broken Shore (Legion), or the forest battle (Warcraft movie)
-Mass Effect: Citadel attack (ME1)
-Avatar (cartoon): Either the season 3 finale three way battle (Aang vs. Ozai, Iroh and Ba-sing Seh, Zuko vs. Azula), or, funnily enough, Korra vs. Unalaq (really dislike season 2 of LoK, but as pure spectacle goes, that battle was a treat)

Does it count if there isn't actually a battle?

Cause I always liked the end of Season 2 of Blake's 7, the ship moves off to stop/slow down the approaching alien fleet, to a chorus of radio chatter from the human military, giving various ETAs of around 4 or 5 hours. Couldn't show a big battle onscreen, no budget, (the beginning of the next season they sorta tried, and really shouldn't have) so had to get creative and did something much more memorable.

Oh...that.

You mean where season 2 does an excellent job of selling the stakes of the invasion from Andromeda, and then in season 3 has Blake and Janna disappear off-screen? THAT?!

Yeah.

You lecture me about how the fight between Neo and Smith in the third movie, and the Maelstrom in Pirates 3 were basically overblown and had no stakes and such, and you vote for the battle of Minis Tirith which is just as guilty of being Overblown and too much going on as the former 2 battles I mentioned?

Also I never grew up watching the first Matrix movie when it came out, I started at the Second One Reloaded and the action just blew my mind that I cared dick for the "philisophical" aspects of it.

And Pirates of the Carribean, I know the popular opinion that the sequels to Pirates movies got way out of hand and such, but goddamn you know At World's End story and setpieces would be great if it was the finale to One Piece, I mean how epic a pirate ship battle can you get by fighting in a fucking Whirlpool with hurricane winds battering you?

As for your list:

People criticized the hell out of Reloaded's Neo vs Smith Army because the CGI looked bad, when I say it, I didn't care, all I saw was "dude this guy is fighting 100s of badguys all by himself)

Yes Siege of Minas Tirith was awesome regardless, just doesn't have the stormy atmosphere of Helm's Deep

Only the Space Battle with the Death Star and Luke vs Vader and the Emperor was the best part of Endor.

I still think no battle in Game of Thrones have toppled the Battle of Blackwater Bay.

Battle of Icecrown Citadel or GTFO.

Mass Effect, imo its the start of Mass Effect 3 on Earth that blew me away.

Hmm its like picking your favorite kids with Avatar but I still think the Siege of the North was the peak.

 

[PapaGreg096]

The fight with Richard Aldana and Gemini Kross from the french animated series Lastman

 

[Hawki]

You lecture me about how the fight between Neo and Smith in the third movie, and the Maelstrom in Pirates 3 were basically overblown and had no stakes and such, and you vote for the battle of Minis Tirith which is just as guilty of being Overblown and too much going on as the former 2 battles I mentioned?

Minas Tirth isn't overblown. It's paced in a natural sequence of events, and always remembers to cut back to the more intimate moments with the characters when it needs to. It likewise doesn't have the "sensory overload" factor. With Neo and Smith, it looks fancy, but it doesn't have the "oomph" feel of the first movie.

And Pirates of the Carribean, I know the popular opinion that the sequels to Pirates movies got way out of hand and such, but goddamn you know At World's End story and setpieces would be great if it was the finale to One Piece, I mean how epic a pirate ship battle can you get by fighting in a fucking Whirlpool with hurricane winds battering you?

It's epic, but there's just too much stuff going on. In the span of the movie, we have the Breathren Court pirates, the East India Trading Company, Davy Jones, and Calypso. This in comparison to the first movie, which was far more intimate.

Is it a visual treat? Yes. But narratively, it's bloated.

Yes Siege of Minas Tirith was awesome regardless, just doesn't have the stormy atmosphere of Helm's Deep

If it was Minas Tirth by itself I'd give it to Helm's Deep, but I feel the Pelenor sequence (which I treat as part of the same overall battle) gives it the overall win. Helm's Deep is a close second.

Only the Space Battle with the Death Star and Luke vs Vader and the Emperor was the best part of Endor.

They're the best parts, but even the ground battle has value.

Yavin is a great space battle, no doubt, but I feel Endor does better. You have the emotional stakes of Luke vs. Vader, the space battle itself (in great spectacle), and the ground battle, ewoks aside, is still well done, given how our heroes still need to fight tooth and nail to destroy the generator, and the ewoks need to use their ingenuity to defeat the Empire.

In essence, Yavin does one thing very well. Endor does two things very well, and one thing quite well. In the end, Endor wins.

I still think no battle in Game of Thrones have toppled the Battle of Blackwater Bay.

Blackwater Bay is decent, but it does lack the budget of later battles, and it shows. It's arguably the best in terms of atmosphere, but I'd still rank the North battles above it. I'd also argue that Castle Black has better story beats with the characters - Jon, Sam, and even Allister rise to the challenge, while we lose Genn and Pyp. Plus there's Ygritte. Oh, and giants. And an incredible tracking shot in the castle courtyard.

Blackwater is good, but Black is better.

 

[Squilookle]

It's probably Battle of Britain. I love aerial combat, and by combat I mean they actually dive, swoop, and look like they're fighting for their lives as opposed to the sunday-driving easy does it approach they took in Dunkirk.

Anyway, this film has a lot of aerial combat. It's probably the only film where I was satisfied that they had enough of the stuff. The climax depicts the events of September 15th, 1940. This was the largest single aerial dogfight in human history, with over a thousand planes engaged simultaneously in a 10 mile area of the sky over London (although Kursk would later boast similar numbers, it was unlikely a single engagement in a single area).

And the film delivers, showing a giant chaotic tangle of warplanes in a 2 minute sequence where everything else just pulls back. There's no sound effects, almost no dialogue, just the visuals accompanied by a terrifying orchestral score that rams home how horrifying it was to be stuck up there among the tracer fire and tumbling, burning airframes.

With Star Wars, it's a tough choice between New Hope and Jedi. I think the Jedi space battle is strategically the best space battle ever filmed, but I still think tactically the Yavin raid is better. Everything is clearly shown, in a perfect rising tension as the Rebels feel out their way towards their objective and mount their assault, with zero other story threads to distract from its importance to the story.

I'd also rate The Spy Who Loved me and You Only Live Twice as having the best climactic battles in a Bond film.

 

[Worgen]

Undertale pacifist run, holy shit man. so good.

The last fight in FLCL.

The last fight in Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Mad Max Fury Road.

Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2. You want over the top you got it.

Axiom Verge has a pretty cool final fight, involving a giant gun centipede.

 

[Hawki]

With Star Wars, it's a tough choice between New Hope and Jedi. I think the Jedi space battle is strategically the best space battle ever filmed, but I still think tactically the Yavin raid is better. Everything is clearly shown, in a perfect rising tension as the Rebels feel out their way towards their objective and mount their assault, with zero other story threads to distract from its importance to the story.

What's the difference between "strategically" and "tactically?"

I would say that Return is better "tactically" because while you're right in that ANH does a great job in building up tension, and does show the Rebels as a competent, well organized military force, part of the reason the Empire loses is that Tarkin refused to commit the Death Star's full complement of TIE fighters - part of the reason the rebels win is that the Empire is fighting with one hand behind its back. In Return, the Empire commits itself fully to the fight - in it, the Rebels' victory feels more earned.

Oh, and I feel I should give a shoutout to the Battle of Scarif. While I'm not fond of Rogue One, I think it has a stellar battle in its third act.

I'd also rate The Spy Who Loved me and You Only Live Twice as having the best climactic battles in a Bond film.

For ranking Bond climax battles, I'd give the #1 spot to GoldenEye. Course, the game kind of helps with that, but even so, film has a great climax (also helps that I quite like the film itself, taking my #3 Bond film position).