Skyscraper (2018 film)

Skyscraper is a 2018 American action film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, and starring Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Roland Møller, Noah Taylor, Byron Mann, Pablo Schreiber and Hannah Quinlivan. The film follows Johnson as a former FBI agent who must rescue his family from a newly built Hong Kong skyscraper, the tallest in the world, after it is taken over by criminals and set on fire. The first non-comedy of Thurber's career, it also marks his second collaboration with Johnson, following Central Intelligence (2016).

Filming began in September 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The film was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on July 13, 2018, in 2D and Real D 3D, and has grossed over $304 million worldwide against its production budget of $125 million. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Johnson's performance and the film's suspenseful scenes, but criticized the script as clichéd and too similar to The Towering Inferno and Die Hard.

Plot
Will Sawyer, a U.S. Marine war veteran and now an FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) leader, loses a leg when he and HRT colleague Ben Gillespie encounter a hostage taker with a suicide bomb.

Ten years later, Sawyer is a private security consultant who, on a recommendation from Gillespie, is hired to review security for the world’s tallest skyscraper, Hong Kong’s 225-storey "The Pearl", for owner Zhao Long Ji. Sawyer is joined by his wife, Sarah, and twin children, Georgia and Henry, staying with him on the not-yet-opened residential floors.

Sawyer meets with Zhao, Gillespie, security director Okeke and head insurance underwriter Pierce, to report that the computerized fire and security systems have passed his tests, though he needs to inspect the offsite security center. Zhao provides him with a tablet that gives Sawyer complete control over the Pearl’s systems. Sawyer and Gillespie head to the offsite location, but a thief hired by international terrorist Kores Botha attempts to steal the tablet. Gillespie reveals he is also working for Botha and attacks Sawyer for the tablet, ending with Gillespie’s death.

Botha and a group of his men break into the Pearl and start a fire on the 96th floor, creating a barrier preventing entry to or exit from the upper 130 floors. Sawyer tries to return to the Pearl, but is attacked by Xia, one of Botha's associates. Xia and her agents take the tablet and kill everyone at the offsite center, then use the tablet to disable the fire-extinguishing systems in the Pearl.

Zhao and Okeke send security guards to rescue Sawyer's family, but the guards are killed and the family is believed dead. Urged on by Pierce, Zhao orders the remaining personnel to evacuate via helicopter, but Pierce reveals he is also an agent for Botha, killing all but Zhao, who escapes into his penthouse apartment, locking it down from any intrusion.

Inspector Wu leads the local police to secure the Pearl and capture Sawyer, who is believed to be behind the incidents. Sawyer evades them and makes his way into the Pearl above the fire barrier via construction equipment from a neighboring building. Sawyer kills Pierce before Pierce can kill Sawyer's family, though Georgia is separated from the others. Sawyer has Sarah and Henry ride through the fire barrier in a free-fall elevator before applying the emergency brakes, letting them escape safely; Sarah immediately explains the situation to Wu and that Botha's men will likely escape via parachute to a nearby landing zone.

Sawyer searches for Georgia, finding she has been captured by Botha, who demands Zhao in return for Georgia. Sawyer is forced to scale the outside of the building to access the security panel for Zhao's penthouse, then enters and confronts Zhao. Zhao explains that Botha had coerced him to launder money through the construction contracts. When Botha learned that Zhao kept a detailed log of the transactions, Botha attacked the tower to get the records.

Sawyer brings Zhao to Botha at the top of the skyscraper, acquiescing to the trade for Georgia. However, Zhao distracts Botha, allowing Sawyer to kill Botha's thugs. Botha grabs Georgia and threatens to drop her over the edge of the building, but Sawyer beats him, rescues Georgia, and lets Botha die in a grenade explosion on a lower level.

Wu leads an attack on the likely dropzone, securing Xia and killing her thugs. Sarah recovers the tablet and uses it to restart the Pearl’s systems, extinguishing the blaze. Sawyer, Georgia, and Zhao are brought down safely by helicopter, and Sawyer happily reunites with his family. Zhao states his intention to rebuild the Pearl, shown to have massive burn damage that extends from the 96th floor to the top of the building.

Cast

 * Dwayne Johnson as Will Sawyer, a former US marine, FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and amputee, who now assesses security for skyscrapers.
 * Neve Campbell as Sarah Sawyer, Will's wife.
 * Chin Han as Zhao Long Ji, a wealthy Chinese tech entrepreneur and financier of the Pearl.
 * Roland Møller as Kores Botha, a Scandinavian terrorist kingpin.
 * Noah Taylor as Mr. Pierce, one of Botha's mercenaries, impersonating an insurance agent.
 * Byron Mann as Inspector Wu, leader of the HKPF response team.
 * Pablo Schreiber as Ben Gillespie, Will's former colleague and friend, now secretly working for Botha.
 * Hannah Quinlivan as Xia, Botha's henchwoman
 * Matt O'Leary as Skinny Hacker, Botha's resident computer expert.
 * McKenna Roberts as Georgia Sawyer, Will and Sarah’s daughter.
 * Noah Cottrell as Henry Sawyer, Will and Sarah’s son.
 * Adrian Holmes as Ajani Okeke, Zhao's head-of-security and personal bodyguard
 * Tzi Ma as Fire Chief Shen
 * Kevin Rankin as Ray
 * Venus Terzo as Hostage Negotiator

Development
On May 26, 2016, it was announced that Legendary Entertainment had won the bidding war for a Chinese-set action adventure film, Skyscraper, in which Dwayne Johnson was set to play the lead. Rawson Marshall Thurber was attached as the film's scriptwriter, director and producer, with Beau Flynn producing the film through his Flynn Picture Company, alongside Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions, with Universal Pictures handling distribution rights.

Casting
On June 22, 2017, it was reported that Neve Campbell had signed on to star with Johnson, who plays a former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and war veteran, who is the head of security for skyscrapers. Maggie Q, Rachel Bilson, Jaimie Alexander and Mira Sorvino were also considered. In July 2017, Chin Han and Pablo Schreiber joined the cast of the film, in August 2017, Byron Mann and Hannah Quinlivan also joined, and a few days later, Variety reported that Noah Taylor had also been selected. On August 22, 2017, Roland Møller was added to the cast of the film, in one of the main roles.

Design
The architectural rendering of the 225-story tall skyscraper was based on Chinese inspirations. According to the New York Post - "tasked with envisioning the architectural wonder at the center of the Hong Kong-set Skyscraper, production designer Jim Bissell and his team researched local myths for inspiration and came upon a Chinese fable they could work with."

Filming
Principal photography on the film began on August 14, 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Music
Steve Jablonsky composed the film's score which uses elements of guitars, synthesised drums and traditional orchestra. The soundtrack was digitally released on July 13, 2018 by Milan Records with the physical soundtrack being released later on August 3, 2018. . British singer and songwriter Jamie N Commons performed the song Walls which plays in the end credits of the film.

Visual effects
The visual effects were provided by Moving Picture Company, Method Studios, Image Engine and Industrial Light & Magic;the visuals were supervised by Craig Hammack, Jose Burgos, Bernhard Kimbacher and Jason Billington.

Marketing
Universal released the first official trailer in February 2018 and the second trailer on May 23, 2018. Promo posters in the form of The Towering Inferno (1974) and Die Hard (1988) were created, referencing the stylistic links between those films and Skyscraper.

Release
Skyscraper was released in the United States, as well as several international territories, in 3D and standard formats on July 13, 2018 by Universal Pictures. The film also secured a July 20, 2018 release date in China, a rarity as mainstream Hollywood films are seldom released there during the month of July, to make room for domestic films. Skyscraper premiered in Beijing, on July 1, 2018 and also held a screening in Hong Kong on July 7, 2018.

Home media
Skyscraper was released digitally on September 25, 2018, and released on Blu-ray, DVD, Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray on October 9, 2018.

Box office
Skyscraper grossed $68.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $236.4 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $304.9 million, against a production budget of $125 million.

In the United States and Canada, Skyscraper was released alongside the opening of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, as well as the wide expansion of Sorry to Bother You, and was initially projected to gross $32–40 million from 3,782 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after making $1.95 million during Thursday night screenings (down from the $2.4 million made by Johnson's Rampage the past April) and $9.3 million on its first day, weekend estimates were lowered to $24 million. The film ended up debuting to $24.9 million, finishing third, behind Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation and Ant-Man and the Wasp. Deadline Hollywood attributed the low figure to audiences having seen the plot before in other films and the July release date being in the height of the crowded summer movie season, as well as the possibility that filmgoers had become tired of seeing Johnson so frequently (although the site noted that 72% of people who bought tickets to Skyscraper did so because of him). In its second weekend the film made $11.4 million and finished sixth, and in its third made $5.4 million, finishing ninth.

The film debuted to $47.7 million in China, finishing first at the country's box office and bringing the two-week global foreign total to $132.8 million. In its third weekend of international release the film added another $17.8 million, including $7 million in China (for a running-cume of $86 million).

Skyscraper concluded 2018 as the 31st highest-grossing film of the year worldwide.

Critical reception
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 46% based on 200 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Well-cast yet derivative, Skyscraper isn't exactly a towering action thriller feat, but it's solidly constructed enough to stand among the genre's more mildly diverting features." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film has a score of 51 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Alonso Duralde of TheWrap called the film a "satisfying summer thriller," while acknowledging the familiar plot, and writing, "Skyscraper doesn't change the action-movie game the way Die Hard did, but it's a solidly entertaining summer diversion best enjoyed on the biggest theater — or even better, drive-in — screen you can find." Variety's Peter Debruge was more critical of the story but praised Johnson, saying, "This is escapism, pure and simple, and though the structure is rickety, by enlisting Johnson, Thurber ensures that his Skyscraper is built on solid Rock."

Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty found the film to be a weak remake of Die Hard, giving it a "C-" rating and stating: "It's all passively watchable, but the main problem is that writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Central Intelligence) hasn't come up with a villain nearly as memorable as Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber. I know that comparison may seem unfair, but when you're ripping off Die Hard this shamelessly, it's kind of not."