We’re not talking about your average apartment rooftop or platform before a roller coaster ride. We mean really really tall towers that almost grace with the clouds in the sky.
So speaking of tall buildings, we have seen quite a number of scenes featuring skyscrapers in many action movies that just mess with our minds, especially some of us who are afraid of heights.
We don’t exactly know why Hollywood producers use skyscrapers as the backdrop of a blockbuster movie, but hey, they absolutely work!
So, here are some of the best skyscraper scenes in movies that we cannot forget, and some of them still make our knees tremble.
#1 Transformers: Dark of the Moon
In the third installment of the Transformers film series, we were introduced to the Driller, a giant Decepticon with tentacles, spinning rotator, blades and a body that moves like a snake.In what seems like one of the most nerve-wracking scenes in the entire Transformers franchise, the Driller is seen gliding through a tall building where Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), Carly Spencer (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) and the NEST task force are trapped in.
They managed to escape (barely!) by jumping out the window and sliding down the now-tilted building like a water slide, while the Driller later wraps around the skyscraper and crushes it as a python does to its prey.
#2 Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
The Mission Impossible franchise is likely Tom Cruise’s biggest success in his film career. His character Ethan Hunt takes stunt work to the next level, especially in a scene featuring Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.In this scene, Hunt scales the side of the building to break into a server room on the 130th floor. He climbs up effortlessly with the help of special high-tech gloves. After his nearly-failed mission, he escapes by crashing out of one of the windows and running down the building vertically while strapped to a dangling harness.
In case you didn’t know, Cruise performed the stunts in this scene without the use of a stunt double!
#3 Furious 7
If this scene isn’t one of the most unforgettable skyscraper scenes, we don’t know what is.Fast and Furious has always raced with the ‘go big or go home’ motto. And they certainly went big in the movie’s seventh installment, Furious 7, when Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) crashes a rare sports car through a skyscraper in Abu Dhabi and leaps to another.
Then when he realises that the brakes don’t work, he crashes and jumps yet again to another skyscraper.
As the late Paul Walker’s character Brian O’Conner said, “Cars don’t fly.”
They certainly went to insane heights with this one.
#4 Tower Heist
Unlike the other films we mentioned, Tower Heist is more of a comedy with a bit of action.Employees of an exclusive apartment building try to break into a tenant’s penthouse to steal money from his safe.
The climax kicks in when Josh Kovaks (Ben Stiller) and Slide (Eddie Murphy) climb the side of the tower, which was patterned after the Trump International Hotel and Tower, on a cable that also happens to be securing a sports car with Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick) hanging underneath.
And this whole time, there is a Thanksgiving Day Parade taking place just below them. What a celebration!
#5 Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell became a much talked-about film for various reasons we won’t discuss here.The film opens with Scarlett Johansson’s Major standing at the top of a building, on a mission to observe negotiations between a businessman and the President of an African country.
As the meeting goes out of hand and bullets start firing, Major strips off her coat and literally jumps off the tower, gliding down like an eagle, into the hotel restaurant.
We can’t help but imagine how Black Widow would have done it.
#6 World War Z
Nothing is more terrifying that trying to escape a bunch of violent zombies out to eat our brains.Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family are being terrorised in a city overrun by zombies that are attracted to sound. As things get more chaotic, they escape to New Jersey and take refuge in an apartment.
However, their apartment stay was short-lived when the zombies detected them there as well. So, the United Nation sends a helicopter to their rescue.
As Lane tries to hold off the door of the rooftop exit, his family makes their way to the helicopter. And when it was his turn to run, he had no other choice but to leave the door unguarded and make his escape.
He manages to jump off the rooftop and hop onto the helicopter, while the zombies attempt to leap off and take a bite off the humans.
Shudders.
#7 Rampage
What are tall buildings when you have a bunch of giant animals prancing around the city? It’s like having your pet cat destroy your perfect Lego sets.That’s exactly what you see in Rampage.
You know, just another day in the city where a giant mutant gorilla, flying wolf and crocodile are galivanting around.
Willis Tower is being attacked by the creatures as they climb up the side of the building effortlessly. But the problem is, David Okoye (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson) and Dr Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) are stranded on the roof after attempting to steal a counter-serum from the building.
And since it’s The Rock we’re talking about, they both enter a broken helicopter, hover over the falling building, take advantage of the debris from the destruction and somehow manage to land safely. If you don’t look properly, you would think that their helicopter has a parachute above.
Watch this scene again and you will understand how insane it sounds.
#8 Ghost Rider
Ahhh… the good old days of Nicolas Cage.He plays a demonic motorcyclist, Johnny Blaze, who can burst into flames as and when he likes.
In a death-defying scene, Blaze jumps off the rooftop with his bike and uses the side of the building to ride all the way down, almost like a roller coaster, and crash lands right in front of the authorities who were ready to arrest him there and then
Wait, is it still considered death-defying if he is not exactly human?
#9 Die Hard
The Die Hard films transformed Bruce Willis into one of the most sought-after action stars of his time.In an unforgettable scene, John McClane (Willis) leaps off a tower with nothing but a fire hose wrapped around his waist. As he is jumping off, the building explodes right behind him in slow-mo.
This quickly became one of the most iconic moments in the history of action movies because it is almost too real to be merely a scene from a movie. You can practically feel his nerves right before he jumps off and he is obviously scared to death.
But still, he did the unthinkable, as all action stars seem to do in this list.
#10 Skyscraper
Now, we need to talk about this movie because, well, the title says it all. And it is apparently inspired by Die Hard!Starring one of the world’s biggest action stars, Dwayne Johnson (again), Skyscraper features a disabled war veteran Will Sawyer who now assess security for skyscrapers.
One day, what was supposedly the safest (and tallest) building in the world called Pearl comes under attack by terrorists and he is somehow framed for it.
Now a wanted man, Sawyer has to hunt down those who are responsible to clear his name and rescue his family who are trapped inside the building on fire.
We can surely expect some death-defying stunts from The Rock, who is almost like a modern-day Chuck Norris, don’t you think?
But in one scene that defies all laws of gravity, Sawyer jumps off a big crane at least 100ft (with no safety gear whatsoever, mind you) towards the skyscraper on fire.
Of course, he “lands” successfully and manages to hang on for dear life at the side of the building.
What?
No matter what, just remember this: Don't try any of these stunts at home.
So which scene is your favourite one so far?