Top 10 Movie Fights on Rooftops

In this reboot of the classic superhero series, Spidey is seen clashing with Dr. Connors as the Lizard in the movie’s climactic scene. The two go to war on each other on several occasions throughout the film, but not quite like this. After the Lizard tries to make everyone become lizard-like, they battle on the roof of Oscorp Tower, ending with Spidey unleashing an antidote that makes Dr. Connors’ plan backfire on him.

During the final fight scene of this film, these two get into a sword fight on top of a church while rain absolutely pours down on them. Top Dollar has the advantage at first as he stabs Eric with his sword, but things take an interesting twist. Once the gang boss admits to being responsible for the death of Eric’s fiancée, Eric uses his telepathic powers to get his ultimate revenge.

While this film has eye-popping action and special effects all over the place, this fight between Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane is arguably one of its high points. These two go at it for several minutes – including fighting each other with cars with families inside them – but things start to look bleak for Iron Man as he doesn’t have his new reactor yet. However, once they get on top of the Stark Industries building, it’s a completely different story.

Although this particular rooftop battle is definitely meant more as satire than anything else, it’s still pretty entertaining. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a fictional action hero in a series of Jack Slater action movies from within the film’s universe. On a rooftop, Jack encounters the Ripper, a villain who killed Slater’s son. The scene starts to take on eerie similarities with the Slater films once the Ripper throws Danny Madigan off the roof. Fortunately, the Ripper gets exactly what’s coming to him courtesy of the last action hero.

Okay, so it’s technically a high up landing platform, but when these two meet on the planet of Kamino, Obi-Wan takes the opportunity to confront Jango before he can bail. This face-off has everything, from a laser gun to a light saber to a missile launcher and even a jetpack! Of course, it ends up in old-fashioned fisticuffs in the pouring rain. The intense fight between the Jedi Knight and bounty hunter even leads to the duo falling off the side and being suspended in mid-air!

In this classic Hong Kong action flick, we see Jackie get involved in an all-out martial arts battle in the movie’s climactic scene. As his character is confronted by two hit men over a disc with information about a compound being sold to an arms dealer, one of them gives Jackie a virtual staring contest before they go to war on each other. The result? A rooftop battle that’s one of Chan’s all-time greatest fight scenes.

Going all the way back to the first ever movie in this franchise, we see Shredder kidnapping Splinter, which brings us to a battle between him and the four turtles on a New York rooftop. Following an individual and combined confrontation against the turtles, the armored Shredder proves unbeatable, and the villain even begins to gloat while he prepares to kill Leonardo! Fortunately for the turtles, their freed Sensei arrives just in time to flip Shredder's hatred and rage towards him.

As opposed to when Batman and Catwoman fought against each other 20 years earlier in “Batman Returns,” “The Dark Knight Rises” sees the two teamed up on a rooftop battle this time around. When Christian Bale’s Batman and Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman find each other high up in the Gotham skyline, they join forces to fight off a group of Bane’s thugs. After they’re done, you could say things get a little bit flirtatious... that is, until Catwoman disappears into thin air.

This remake of the classic ‘30s movie takes a scene from the original film and updates it to be even more intense and full of high production value. As Ann Darrow waits on top of the Empire State Building, Kong fights off a horde of navy planes. Unfortunately, Kong gets gunned down off the top of the building, but the special effects make this as memorable as rooftop fights come.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- Mike Harrigan vs. The Predator
“Predator 2” (1990)
- Joe Gavilan vs. Antoine Sartain
“Hollywood Homicide” (2003)
- Violet Song Jat Shariff vs. Asian gangsters
“Ultraviolet” (2006)
- Leonardo vs. Raphael
“TMNT” (2007)
- Rick Deckard vs. Roy Batty
“Blade Runner” (1982)

Not only is this particular part of their daring rescue of leader Morpheus full of rapid action and intensity, it’s just plain badass. There’s plenty of gun fighting and shooting on the rooftop, but there’s also a breathtaking bullet time scene, which reveals to all that Neo is, in fact, The One. Simply put, Neo and Trinity’s victory against the Agents is another incredible example of how “The Matrix”’s slow motion action and unique special effects work no matter where the fights are located. Dodge this, indeed.

Do you agree with our list? Which movie rooftop fight is your favorite? With new Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.