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Old Posted Jan 25, 2012, 8:19 PM
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Arrow Hollywood's love affair with the Skyscraper

I was thinking of compiling a list here of movies where skyscrapers play a central role, then came accross this article...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/...mpossible-bond
The height of suspense: Hollywood's love affair with the skyscraper
Nine of the world's 10 tallest buildings are now in Asia – and Hollywood wants to jump off all of them.




High anxiety ... Sam Worthington in Man on a Ledge Photograph: Myles Aronowitz


Steve Rose
25 January 2012

Quote:

Aerial shots over Manhattan's forest of skyscrapers. Yellow cabs crawling like ants through the city grid. The hero stands on a ledge 20 floors up, provoking a street theatre of police cordons, firetrucks, news crews and onlookers. Meanwhile, in a top-floor office, a corporate villain admires an architectural model of another shiny skyscraper. Elsewhere, an acrobatic thief hangs precariously in an elevator shaft, dropping a spanner that goes clanging down innumerable storeys to the ground. The ominous ping of an approaching elevator spells danger. The hero and villain finally meet for a climactic rooftop showdown.

These scenes could be from a hundred Hollywood movies or more, but in fact they're from just one: Man on a Ledge, an enjoyably silly new thriller that at least sets out its stall in the title. You can guess most of its plot from those generic snippets, but Man on a Ledge is just the latest piece of proof that movies love skyscrapers and skyscrapers love movies. They always have. In fact, they're practically twins. The exact date of birth could be disputed, but it's safe to say that while rising land prices and advances in steel were pushing buildings upwards in Chicago and New York at the end of the 19th century, inventors like Edison and the Lumière brothers were realising they might be on to something with their moving-picture machines.

Where would the movies be without the thrilling cinematic images tall buildings provide, both inside and out? The Empire State building alone is estimated to have featured in more than 250 movies. Then there's their crashingly unsubtle metaphorical value. It doesn't take a genius to fathom the symbolism at work with, say, the diminutive Tom Cruise scaling the world's tallest building in the latest Mission: Impossible; or a rampant King Kong roaring from the top of the Empire State Building; or San Francisco's Transamerica tower looming priapically in the background of Basic Instinct as Michael Douglas gets into a lather over Sharon Stone.

Where the skyscrapers have gone, the movies have had to follow – and nine of the world's 10 tallest buildings are now in Asia. That recent Mission: Impossible benefited greatly from the use of Dubai's 163-storey Burj Khalifa (over $500m at the box office and counting). Dubai hasn't done badly out of it either. When the Burj Khalifa opened two years ago, the emirate had an image problem, what with its economic and architectural bubble bursting. But Mission: Impossible seems to have fixed that. According to the movie's producers, the first time they visited Dubai, they said: "We have to come back here and shoot a movie." But Dubai was also a hefty financial backer of the film, and using the Burj as a major location appears to have been a condition....

So, begin the list!
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  #2  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2012, 8:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NYguy View Post
I was thinking of compiling a list here of movies where skyscrapers play a central role,

So, begin the list!

"king kong", "the towering inferno", and "die hard" come immediately to mind.
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Old Posted Jan 25, 2012, 8:30 PM
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"The Negotiator" might be able to be apart of this list. I haven't seen it in a while though...
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Old Posted Jan 25, 2012, 8:59 PM
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I'll throw in "Tower Heist", "Percy Jackson & the Olympians", "Transformers 3", and "Cloverfield"....
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Old Posted Jan 25, 2012, 9:53 PM
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wikimedia

Can't forget Metropolis.

Deep Impact, just because of the cool sequence involving the tsunami engulfing the skyscrapers of Manhattan.


Also, Blade Runner (Los Angeles of the Future), Robocop (Delta City in Detroit)
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Old Posted Jan 25, 2012, 9:56 PM
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"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."-President Lyndon B. Johnson Donald Trump is a poor man's idea of a rich man, a weak man's idea of a strong man, and a stupid man's idea of a smart man. Am I an Asseau?
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Old Posted Jan 25, 2012, 10:26 PM
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Old Posted Jan 25, 2012, 11:01 PM
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Old Posted Jan 26, 2012, 3:07 PM
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NEW YORK is Back!

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Last edited by NYguy; Jan 26, 2012 at 3:30 PM.
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Old Posted Jan 27, 2012, 12:48 AM
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I think it's safe to say that New York has been one of the best places for Hollywood movies to take place because of the tall skyscrapers, for one thing, that it will continue to rule on. It's not that other cities have skyscrapers too,with some of them being taller than whatever stood in Manhattan. It's the fact that it's the iconic status that draws them. But if Hollywood wants extreme and exotic as well,Dubai will become the answer.
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  #11  
Old Posted Jan 27, 2012, 5:13 AM
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Ferris Bueller' Day Off: Great Chicago movie with skyline shots and the only movie to my knowledge to be shot inside the 103rd floor observation deck of the Sears Tower and the height of the observatory, 1,353 feet, is actually mentioned in dialogue.

The Fugitive: There are some great skyscraper shots in it, such as some pretty awesome aerial shots over skyscrapers during transition scenes including one right over the Sears Tower, I mean above the antennas looking straight down. Then there is the climax in the Chicago Hilton and Towers about 30 stories up. IMO after The Blues Brothers the second best Chicago movie ever made.

Last edited by Chicago103; Jan 27, 2012 at 5:26 AM.
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Old Posted Jan 27, 2012, 6:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago103 View Post
Ferris Bueller' Day Off: Great Chicago movie with skyline shots and the only movie to my knowledge to be shot inside the 103rd floor observation deck of the Sears Tower and the height of the observatory, 1,353 feet, is actually mentioned in dialogue.
Yeah, another good one. Also, in the opening downtown scene, many shots of the skyline were featured.

(not the right soundtrack, but the right scene)
Video Link



Video Link




And while we're on Chicago, there's also "Adventures in Babysitting"


http://lastonetoleavethetheatre.blog...1/05/thor.html


Video Link
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“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Last edited by NYguy; Jan 27, 2012 at 8:52 PM.
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Old Posted Jan 27, 2012, 2:29 PM
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The Dark Knight definitely used Hong Kong's skyscrapers perfectly:





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Old Posted Jan 27, 2012, 6:32 PM
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ahh, mia sara in Feris Buehler's day off. I forgot about that.
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Old Posted Jan 27, 2012, 7:11 PM
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Old Posted Jan 30, 2012, 5:28 PM
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Earthquake to this day is one of the best disaster movies ever.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...uake_movie.jpg

Took place all over LA but it was focused on the Sunset and Vine tower in Hollywood.


http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/3231/equakem2.jpg

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Old Posted Feb 1, 2012, 12:33 PM
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^ Gotta check that out again...


Some filming for "Dark Knight", using Trump Tower...


http://www.onlocationvacations.com/2...omment-page-1/









Remember this "Spiderman" trailer...

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“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Last edited by NYguy; Feb 1, 2012 at 1:30 PM.
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Old Posted May 10, 2012, 12:55 AM
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http://www.rew-online.com/2012/05/09...-to-marvel-at/

Stark Tower: Something to Marvel at

May 9, 2012
BY SARAH TREFETHEN

Quote:

Among the superhero clashes and camaraderie of Marvel’s The Avengers, which shattered box-office records when it opened this weekend, the movie features another strong personality (and accomplished movie star) often left in the background: midtown Manhattan. For those in the real estate industry, the blockbuster’s buildings — both real and imaginary — may be as much fun to watch as Mark Ruffalo’s dramatic transformations into the Incredible Hulk.

The block of 42nd street in front of Grand Central Station is the scene of a final battle between Captain America et al and a flying army of alien invaders, with plenty of spillover into the surrounding neighborhood. “As a real estate person you’re sitting there, unlike a normal person, thinking about the buildings,” said Michael T. Cohen, president of Colliers Tri-State. “I saw 120 Park, 125 Park, and I said to myself, I wonder what the owners of those buildings feel, watching them getting torn up by extraterrestrials.”

Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, needing something to steady himself while shooting lightening bolts towards a wormhole the sky, turns to the spire of the Chrysler Building.

But the property that sees the most action isn’t part of anyone’s Manhattan portfolio. Stark Tower, the fictional creation of Tony Stark (also know as Iron Man, played in the movie by Robert Downey Jr.), looms above Grand Central, tapering slightly to a height of about 1,000 feet and topped with a specialized landing strip for Iron Man’s flying suit that also serves as a more conventional helicopter pad. The upper stories are Stark’s personal penthouse. “It’s clearly an office building that would attract high-end corporate users,” said Wes Rudes, senior vice president at the tenant representation firm Cresa, who watch the movie with his 8-year-old son over the weekend. “It is, however, way too big a target for alien terrorists to command top rents.”

“In choosing the MetLife location we were also recognizing the rich topography of the streets below … the ultimate conflagration of rich histories and futuristic ideas,” Chinlund said. But Cohen questioned the choice of neighborhood. “I don’t think they picked the most upscale location. The Grand Central market is kind of soft right now, and what sells is park views. If I were Tony Stark, I would have put Stark Tower up by the General Motors building,” he said. “The tower’s floor plates also looked a little on the small side.”

Like Rudes, Cohen worried that superhero use might not be compatible with midtown’s more traditional mix of banking, business and law. “The Hulk’s presence in any building would drive down rents,” he said. Nonetheless, Cohen was confident space in the building would lease for a more than $100 a foot. “It certainly looked to me like at least a million square foot tower,” he said, estimating a market value upwards of $1 billion...


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Old Posted May 10, 2012, 2:59 AM
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Chrome flashed a malware warning when I clicked the link to this thread.... be careful
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Old Posted Jun 19, 2012, 7:40 PM
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Towering Inferno was the first thing I thought of. Here's a picture of San Fran with the fictional skyscraper.

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