Skyscraper Built on Solid Rock
Skyscraper is the love child of The Towering Inferno and the original Die Hard, updated for today.
Dwayne Johnson plays Will Sawyer, an Army vet and former FBI agent who’s now getting a security consulting business off the ground after losing part of his leg in the line of duty. Neve Campbell, a welcome sight, plays his wife Sarah, a former combat surgeon who saved Will’s life. Ten years later, they’re happily married with two kids.
As the film opens, they’re in Hong Kong to give a report on the safety and security of The Pearl, the world’s tallest building. Will’s family and the billionaire backer of the building, Zhao Long-ji (Chin Han), are the only residents until Will declares the building safe for tenants.
Little do they know that some Bad Guys have conspired to sabotage the building, to get their hands on something the billionaire has. Will is framed for the fire that’s broken out on the 96th floor, and the rest of the movie sees Will fighting for his life, his reputation, and his family, who’s trapped above the fire line.
It’s not often you see a character with a prosthetic limb be the hero, and it’s even rarer to see the prosthetic used (along with duct tape) as a crucial element of the hero’s plan. Dwayne Johnson isn’t playing a larger-than-life demigod in this one; he’s an Everyman with mental and physical challenges, and he plays it well. Is there anything the man can’t do? (With the understanding that casting an actual amputee would be better, of course.)
Neve Campbell, most recently seen in House of Cards, gets the chance here to use her fighting skills along with her brains. This is no damsel in distress–a nice change.
The effects are fine. Although there’s no “money shot” in this one, writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber does scatter some nice images of destruction throughout. The standout set piece is when Will climbs and then uses a crane in an attempt to enter the building on one of the higher floors. (See also: the famous poster wherein Our Hero defies physics.) And in an update on the hall-of-mirrors, is it the REAL good guy/bad guy? trope, we now get a virtual reality equivalent that’s fun to watch.
I do wish the music hadn’t telegraphed the bad guy’s identity from the beginning–I would have liked even a pretense of surprise.
All in all, it’s a solid movie, with a nice turn in the evolution of Dwayne Johnson’s acting career.
Related Content
Leave a Reply