In the Movies: Elevator Shafts

Shane Gorski under Creative Commons

Settings in movies tend to be places the average person doesn't spend a lot of time in, be it a beach in the South of France, or in outer space, or elsewhere. The exotic nature of a particular scene stimulates the imagination, and pulls the viewer in deeper. Our interest perks up when the characters on-screen find themselves in strange locales; and one of these locales is the dreaded, beloved, and mysterious elevator shaft.

Found almost exclusively in the action/thriller genres, scenes involving elevator shafts take us into the forbidden area above and below the cars we generally ride in when traveling tall buildings. While it's true that the concept of a mechanical lift has been around for centuries, modern elevators (and the dangers associated with them) have sparked the imaginations of filmmakers since the days of black and white. And although the typical elevator shaft is not a grandiose space that would allow for such dramatics as Hollywood would like us to think, many timeless classics have portrayed them as such.  Let's take a look at some.

Death by Shaft

In John Farrow's classic, The Big Clock, Charles Laughton's character Janoth plummets to his death when he steps into an open shaft; this is after killing his accuser, so it's justified. Things don't end up so satisfying for Emilio Estevez's character in Mission Impossible's opening sequence, as the car he's hiding atop takes him to the top of the shaft, where he meets a steely, gruesome end.




There's even a horror movie starring Naomi Watts about a killer, evil, possessed elevator called The Shaft: YouTube Link

Hop on board, and hit the jump button for more elevator shaftness.

Surviving the Danger

Detective John McClane is pretty well-versed in dispatching the villains he encounters via elevator shaft. Whether he's dropping C-4 down the Nakatomi Plaza's well, or battling a henchwoman in a power station's, he definitely "dies hard" in this sort of hostile environment.

The opening of Speed features a breathtaking rescue effort as a group of office workers are held hostage in an elevator car, Dennis Hopper's madman ready to blow the cables at a moment's notice. Enter Keanu Reeves and Jeff Daniels, who go into the shaft above the imperiled car and save lives in a most excellent fashion. Director Jan de Bont was the cinematographer for Die Hard, and the influence shows in this taut sequence.

Narrow escapes are plentiful in each movie about an unstoppable cyborg trying to kill the Connors, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day includes many, including this scene where the T-1000, having just missed the elevator going down with his prey aboard, deftly opens the doors and jumps down onto the top of the car. Multiple stabbing attempts later, he oozes into the elevator after failing to kill his quarry... again.

Other examples of surviving the danger include Backdraft, and I assume Salt. In the former, a firefighter is rescued from a burning shaft, and the latter ostensibly has Angelina Jolie eluding her pursuers in some acrobatic way. Has anyone seen it?

Use it or Lose it

Some films have a scene in an elevator shaft for utilitarian purposes. There's not a lot of danger, and nobody dies. The characters just need to use the shaft in order to do something.

In Sneakers, River Phoenix's Carl uses the shaft to navigate into a service duct, where he can manipulate an office's security measures. He spends about five seconds in the shaft, but there it is.

And finally, a scene involving an elevator shaft unlike any other.

Without giving too much away, this scene from Inception is hands down the most creative use of an elevator shaft I can think of. Joseph Gordon-Leavitt's Arthur puts the shaft, the car, and the cables into a cinematic spin that completely makes sense... once you've seen the movie a couple of times. :)

Okay, here's where I turn it over to you, reader. What did I miss? Sound off in the comments.

Previously: In the Movies: Drive-In Movie Theaters