I watched Die Hard this Christmas – as ever, on Christmas Eve, wearing my Nakatomi Plaza T-shirt. It’s a fantastic movie and, in this house at least, it’s a Christmas movie – the best Christmas movie. It’s also one of the most interesting architectural movies ever made – I am sure I have bored people with this before, but in Die Hard architecture is destiny. As the film unfolds you learn your way around the upper floors of Nakatomi Plaza. By the end of the film you know where everything is located – the final act kind of depends upon it. (That bit with the fire hose now reminds me of Dark Souls – you sort of know which room he’s going to end up in.) When I went to a talk by BLDGBLOG’s Geoff Manaugh a few years back – I am sure I have bored people with this before – so many of the questions in the post-talk Q&A were about Die Hard. Manaugh was in town to discuss his brilliant book A Burglar’s Guide to the City – a book that truly contains multitudes. Please buy it.
Anyway, every time I watch Die Hard I end up thinking about elevators and how much I love them. More specifically I end up thinking about cinematic elevators. It’s made me wonder: is there a more cinematic object than an elevator? Why do they go together so well?
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