Movies set in a high-rise building are not necessarily a new concept. There have been many films over the years set in a tall building, whether it’s silent films like Safety Last! and Metropolis, action classics like The Towering Inferno or Die Hard, and more recent favorites like Land of the Dead and Dredd. Hell, there have even been horror movies set in a high-rise, such as Poltergeist III and Gremlins 2: The New Batch. For whatever reason, Hollywood really likes to use high-rise buildings as a setting for just about any type of film. This year, we’ve got another one to add to the list, Skyscraper. Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, the director of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, We’re The Millers, and Central Intelligence, this is a major departure since this is his first non-comedy movie. So, with this being his first straight-up action film, does this movie rise to the top of other high-rise movies, or does it come crashing down in smoldering ruins?
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The film opens at a snowy cabin where the police, SWAT teams, and FBI have surrounded the area after receiving a domestic disturbance call. A group of soldiers led by Will Sawyer, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is sent in to deal with the situation, which results in the abusive father blowing himself up with a vest bomb. While the explosion left Will horribly scarred and without his left leg, it does lead to him meeting Sarah, played by Neve Campbell, a military nurse who ends up being his wife. Ten years later, Will has moved on to working as a security consultant and is hired by multi-billionaire Zhao Long Ji, played by Chin Han, to evaluate the security systems of his new skyscraper known as The Pearl, which is being touted as the tallest building in the world. Things seem to be going well until a group of terrorists invade the building and start a massive fire that engulfs the top half of the building. Will finds himself being framed for the attack, and he must find a way to clear his name, stop the terrorists, and save his family who are still trapped in the burning building.
Obviously, when you look at the plot of this film, it doesn’t exactly read as something original or something that’s never really been done before. The movie borrows elements from a lot of much better action movies, mostly Die Hard and The Towering Inferno, with some taken from The Fugitive, namely how the hero is trying to clear his name while a police officer is trying to capture him. Of course, just because a movie takes elements from other films doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. What it comes down to is how the filmmakers handle the material and if they can make it work. For the most part, it does work here, largely due to the cast they’ve assembled and some of the action set pieces on display. Regardless of how you may feel about a lot of the movies he’s done, Dwayne Johnson is so likable and so charismatic that you can’t help but get behind him and want to see him win. In this, he is an insanely likable guy, who actually takes a few hits in the film and has some more human/vulnerable scenes throughout. Much like Die Hard, his character does go through the ringer and gets beaten and bruised quite a bit, and the fact that he has to do many of these scenes with a prosthetic leg makes him somewhat more relatable. Neve Campbell, known mostly for her role as Sidney Prescott from the Scream franchise, is also a stand-out here. She actually gets to kick some ass in the film and get really into some of the bigger action sequences, which is refreshing to see in such a big movie with a larger-than-life actor like Johnson. The child actors who play their kids, McKenna Roberts and Noah Cottrell, are not too bad here, not overly annoying like most child actors can be and are actually pretty competent throughout. The rest of the cast, while not necessarily amazing in their roles, still do a serviceable job here as well. The action scenes, while obviously done digitally for the most part, are a fun spectacle to watch, especially a scene where Dwayne Johnson makes a long jump off a multi-story crane into the building, as well as a scene where Neve Campbell and the kids run through a park in the building as it’s going up in flames.
Now comes the part where I have to get into what doesn’t really work about the movie. With a movie like this, it might seem pointless to talk about the flaws and the things that don’t make sense here, but as someone who cares about film and like to examine movies beyond just what’s on screen, I feel that I should, or else I wouldn’t be doing my job very well. For one, Will’s son has asthma that really only acts up when the script calls for it. Also, the movie is full of action movie cliches, whether it’s the villain who just keeps talking and talking while one of the good characters is taking the time to get a shot off on them, the main character having a tragic backstory that makes them promise never to do something only to do that thing later on, or the main character having a best friend who ends up betraying them at some point. Of course, a lot of these are nothing new, but it is both funny/annoying when these cliches pop up. As I mentioned before, Dwayne Johnson is supposed to be more of an everyman who gets beaten, bruised, and takes several hits in the movie, much like John McClane in Die Hard. But what made it work in Die Hard was that Bruce Willis, unlike many other action heroes of the time, wasn’t built like a brick house with tons of muscle. He really just looked like a regular guy who was stuck in a horrible situation and just had to make the most of it. Here, because Dwayne Johnson is so shredded and incredibly buff, it makes it somewhat laughable that he’s supposed to be scared of doing some of the crazier stuff his character does. The movie also has a lot of conveniences throughout, where a seemingly impossible-to-solve situation is resolved by something so simple. I don’t want to spoil too much of the plot for anyone who goes to see it, but when you see it, you’ll know what I mean. Lastly, when you find out why the terrorists are doing what they’re doing, you stop and wonder how and why something like this would happen.
Flaws aside, I still think this is an enjoyable if wildly predictable film. Largely thanks to a likable and talented cast and some pretty fun action sequences throughout, Skyscraper doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to action movies and doesn’t rise to the top like similar films, but it is still a fun movie to watch when you need something to put on for 90 minutes that you don’t have to think about too much and just sit back and enjoy the ride.
