Depiction of Modern Skyscapers in Sci-Fi Cinema

Modernist Skyscrapers have long featured in Science Fiction films as a short-hand for ‘the future’. This can be either be our future near or distant, either utopian or dystopian- they remain a constant icon. Looking at science fiction films since the 1980s I would like to explore the span of these futures and look at why Modernist Skyscrapers often feature as metaphors for the future.

It was the emergence of new technical advances (elevators and using ‘Bessemer’ beams to construct a steel ‘skeleton’ to the building which would bear the weight) that paved the way for Modernist architecture as a building style that developed in the early-twentieth century. In part a reaction to WW1 and the reevaluating of society- Modernism gave much thought to the functions of building, was enthusiastic about the use of modern building materials and favoured a clean style, free of adornment. Focus was first on the function of the interior of the building and this should dictate the form- designing “from the inside out”.

Post-WW1 German architects and designers started to look forward, towards redesigning a better future, both in terms of architecture and product but also socially (ideas of communal living, and an idealistic culture).The two architects most widely associated with the modernist style were two Europeans, Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School in Germany and Le Corbusier, the Swiss architect, designer, author and urban-planner.

The Modernist Skyscraper can be seen as a display of man’s vaulting ambition and looking towards a more perfect future. The Modernist minimalist style and it’s use of modern materials is a design style that looks clear and unfussy on paper- “it must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheers exultation that from bottom to top it us a unit without a dissenting line” (Sullivan, 1896, “The tall office building artistically considered”). And. indeed, it should not be discounted how well Modernist Architecture looks on film. This image of glistening glass skyscrapers representing an ideal society can be seen in various science fiction films- from “Gattaca” (1997) to “Starship Troopers” (1997) to “Aeon Flux” (2005). These societies have a sheen of calm on the surface but are greatly troubled beneath. The Modernist buildings of these films with their clean lines and glass finish reflect this, and create a manufactured calm for these manipulated and meticulously cultivated societies. The lack of clutter and disorder in the design of these skyscrapers (and so, in these films) and the lack of any softer human elements creates an eerie disquiet.

It is also important to note who resides in these Modernist Skyscrapers on film. “Evil Corporations” (the common antagonist in many 1980s Sci-Fi films) appear to be big fans of the late-Modernist and Brutalist style skyscrapers. Whether, most famously, the menacing design of Tyrell Corporation headquarters from “Blade Runner”, Omni Consumer Products in “Robocop” using the Brutalist Dallas City Hall (built in 1978) or The Metacortex headquarters from “The Matrix' (using Sydney’s Met Center, actually a shopping centre, built in 1980). These tall, featureless Skyscrapers represent the intimating dominance and facelessness of the corporations.

One can also see this in real life buildings- the Long Lines Building in New York city is a fortified, windowless, 550-foot-tall AT&T building in Lower Manhattan which has been identified as a National Security Agency listening post. Skyscrapers can be scary. Bond villains also customarily favour a headquarters in the Modernist style- playing on, what is now a film cliche, the connection between minimal style and emotional detachment. These Bond villains and indeed most villains found in American films are usually found to be British or European elitist. They can ‘know what’s best‘ for society and can want to dictate how we should live. This has been an argument levelled against the Modernists.

This desire of the Modernists to not only design buildings and products but to reassess and redesign how we live could be read as slightly overbearing by those they intended to help. Although staunchly Socialist in their politics they were attempting to alter living conditions with the goal of a future utopian society. Architectural historian Witold Rybczynski wrote of Le Corbusier, “his urban vision was authoritarian, inflexible and simplistic. Wherever it was tried… it failed. Standardisation proved inhuman and disorienting. The open spaces were inhospitable; the bureaucratically imposed plan, socially destructive” (Rybczynski, 1998, Time magazine).

But Modernist Skyscrapers are also found in our most optimistic futures on films. Wakanda in the Black Panther film is a recent example of a future, albeit isolationist, utopia. When it came to designing this futurist and wealthy city it is Modernist Skyscrapers that were chosen to fill the cityscape. These are flavours of Futurist and afro-Futurism in the designs but steel and glass dominates.The 2018 film ‘Skyscraper’ featuring The Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gave us ‘The Pearl’ a near future skyscraper of glass and steel reaching into and above the clouds. “More than a skyscraper... it is an idea, a philosophy, a dream. A marvel of technology and architectural design” according to the promotional website for the fictional tower. And the tower is indeed impressive- considerably taller, of course, than any tower yet. As a utopian views of the near future they have the promote “bigger is better”- vaulting architecture, reaching for heaven.

Modernist Skyscrapers can also feature in films as metaphors for the protagonist’s future or goal- they are a route to success made solid. The successful and envied always occupying the upper strata of these towers- near unobtainable. The building in these films work as a track or trail our characters must follow- constantly upward through the tower as they succeed. Much like Norville Barnes in “The Hudsucker Proxy”, from basement mailroom to his penthouse office. As critic John Harkness comments of the Hudsucker Building is ”a world that seems to have been created by Fritz Lang – the mechanistic monstrousness of the mailroom contrasted with the Bauhaus gigantism of the corporate offices perfectly matches the boss-labour split in Metropolis” (Harkness, 1994, Sight and Sound, 'The Sphinx Without A Riddle”).

Similar to this upward movement, Skyscrapers can also be seen as Architecture as plot. Giving a physical structure to the story much like the river in Apocalypse Now. Skyscrapers give films the simple structure of a computer game- progressing floor by floor, level by level, always ascending- both Dredd (2011) and The Raid (2011 too) use this structure.

Skyscrapers can also be used to tackle the near future issues of overpopulation- they are one of the only viable architectural response to global hyper-urbanisation. Massive structures are a staple of science fiction novels- “The World Inside” is a 1971 science fiction novel by American writer Robert Silverberg featuring an earth with a population of 74 billion. The solution to this future is to build a 3km high city tower called ‘Urban Monad 116’. The enormous “Cylinder” K. W. Jeter’s “Farewell Horizontal” which houses perhaps earths entire population or the arcology (a portmanteau of 'architecture' and “ecology”) Todos Santos in the 1981 novel “Oath of Fealty” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are all examples of the future represented in ‘Skyscraper’ form.

Overpopulation when represented in film tends to give a dystopian flavour to things- world of ruins and apocalyptic landscapes. Judge Dredd’s Mega City One features ‘Blocks”- massive in scale and prone to hostilities (“Block Wars”). “Elysium” by director Neill Blomkamp takes place an earth of 2154 who the rich and powerful have abandoned to live in a luxurious space habitat The ravaged earth is home to Frankenstein-ed Skyscrapers, all bolted on extensions and platforms, maximising their use. The book/film “Ready Player One” features in it’s ‘real’ world the towered slums of ‘The Stacks’- crude, vertical trailer parks housing most of the population. These work as dark parodies to the sparkling glass towers which appear in it’s utopian computer simulation “The Oasis”.

Because Modernist Skyscraper appear too in the simulated/virtual computer worlds of films. When the internet is to be depicted in 2018’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet” it is depicted as a world of Modernist skyscrapers reaching immensely upwards to infinity. Similarly in the Matrix films the idea of the towers extending forever into the expanse, much like the future they are a metaphor for- vast, unquantifiable and unknowable.

Recently various movies have taken these same metaphors on the move. Snowpiercer from 2013 features a skyscraper on tracks- a sleek, minimalist modern train travelling a blasted frozen earth. The lower class citizens from the rear of the train work their way horizontally to “them bastards in front with their steak dinners and string quartets”. Finally arriving in Ed Harris’s ultra Modernist carriage all sleek lines and functional kitchen- various kitchen elements integrated in drawers (in true Frankfurt kitchen style). “Mortal Engines” (2018) takes whole cities and drives like predators across the landscape (like a more energetic version of Christopher Priest’s novel “Inverted World”) but the plot mechanics remain the same- the subjugated, underclasses work manual jobs below, before rises up against the elite penthouse residents.

Skyscrapers are, as Paul Virilio comments (in 'City of Panic”), “naturally vulnerable and inviting targets.” These mighty metaphors for the civilised future can be be thrown into relief when invaded by the Old World. The most obvious of these being King Kong- featuring, of course, the ‘primitive’ Kong climbing the Empire State Building. Similarly “Q: The Winged Serpent” features a South American god nesting in the Chrysler Building and feasting on the denizens of New York. In both films, as well as various creature-features from the 1950s, the Skyscraper being used to represent the pinnacle of our progress- there to be conquered or destroyed. Our arrogance at having progressed and conquered the earth also draws the ire of Mother Nature. From films like “Geostorm” (2017) and “San Andreas” (2015) to “The Day after Tomorrow” (2004) and Volcano (1997)- all films more viscerally entertaining than intellectually challenging, all featuring Skyscrapers gleefully destroyed with monotonous regularity.

Parodies of future living also feature on film. Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” (1985) finds great humour in a ‘gag’ involving a building project clearly modelled on Unité d'Habitation by Le Corbusier and it’s current dystopian use- a wasteland filled with feral children. Gilliam’s (1983) short film“The Crimson Permanent Assurance” is another parody featuring a sailing Skyscraper taking down the sleek, glass towers of “The Very Big Corporation of America”. For a true masterpiece satire of modernist architecture we must look at French director Jacques Tati’s 1967 comedy “Play Time”.

The lead character, M.Hulot (played by Tati, who also wrote & produced) attempts to navigate an ultra-modern Paris- a city of cold, glass and steel constructions from the high-rises to the furniture. “In this modern, nearly unrecognisable version of Paris that was entirely constructed for the film, the viewer is repeatedly shown the absurd relationship between people and a modern environment in which everything has been standardised”. It is an extraordinary film about a future of impersonal, sterile Modernist environments- hilariously unfit for human life.

Skyscrapers fit well as a metaphor for the future because that is exactly what was in mind when they were proposed and built. They are symbols of our progress and our unflagging questioning of conventions. Additionally they give the movies in which they have featured a dimension of credibility and authenticity with which to persuade people of the future visions. Sometimes these are not the most welcome futures on display- but from the dank, repressive futures of “Brazil” or “Blade Runner” to the clinical, threatening universe of “Gattaca”, the referencing of Modernist Architecture in Science Fiction can always be taken as a tribute. It demonstrates that Modernist Architecture is viewed as having a place in our future and that Le Corbusier’s (et al) goal of moulding that future has been somewhat successful.