Dawn of the Dead - in the original Dawn of the Dead, the zombies aren’t really necessarily much of a threat unless you’re unlucky or stupid and they corner you in groups. Stephen is a combination of the two. You can run from zombies, you can throw cream pies in their faces, but when they corner you in an elevator then you’re basically lunch.
Deep Rising - as well as violence, there’s also often a feeling of being quite secure and safe in an elevator. I think it’s no secret that a lot of horror films use a mad dash into an elevator to escape the monster. In Deep Rising, one of my favourite monster movies, this is played to a T as the characters take the elevator through the levels of the cruise ship and, we’re given a moment of levity when one of them sings along to the muzak. It’s a good chance to catch our breath, along with the people we’re watching.
Aliens - as it’s a 3x3 and not a 2x2, I think it’s worth revisiting the Aliens scene where Ripley descends into the heart of the nest to save Newt. Again, as elevators can’t be hurried and move at their own pace, it’s a good chance for the viewers to catch their breath a bit whilst Ripley gears up for battle.
Ghostbusters: they activate Dan Ackroyd’s nuclear accelerator and then move away from him. As far as they’re able.
I never remember to actually email my picks in anymore, oh well. For some reason elevators spell horror movies to me, and not particularly good ones, so here are the first bunch that popped I to my head:
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The Omen, where dude gets cut in half by the falling piece of junk or something? Sorry, haven’t seen this in forever.
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Thirteen Ghosts, where the guy gets vivisected lengthwise by a piece of glass. Which was unfortunate for me, because I spent the rest of the movie wondering if that could actually happen, and I don’t know how the movie ended.
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Dressed to Kill, when Angie Dickinson gets knifed to death at the beginning of the movie. I really shouldn’t have seen that as an 8 year old.
Here’s the Hudsucker Proxy scene I was talking about. It’s hard to describe, so you really have to see it to appreciate it.
Awesome. That almost makes me want to watch Hudsucker Proxy again!
-Tom
Angel Heart -Mickey Rourke’s ride to his final destination.
Heaven Can Wait (1943) - Don Ameche to his final destination
Dreamscape - Snake monster…enough said.
The elevator scenes that came to mind were all from things that struck me as odd/notable as a kid.
In Halloween II, Jamie Lee Curtis is able to get into an elevator while escaping Michael Myers in the hospital. There’s the now-standard “jam on the buttons, watch the lights SLOOOOWLY blink from floor to floor, get in and jam on the Door Close buttons” as Myers approaches, jamming his knife in just as the door closes. Somehow, unlike any other elevator in existence, the door continues closing and Curtis escapes.
I was always confused by the scene from Empire Strikes Back when Lando goes up the little lift to save Luke from the bottom of Bespin. They show him go up, then it almost seems like they just show the exact same sequence from the last bit except the top hatch opens and light pours in.
And Dawn of the Dead for the reason John Merva describes.
That’s because in the original cut it had one hatch, which is shown opening from below & then again from above. So in the 1997 version onwards, there’s a silly double hatch, with one opening in the shot below & the top hatch opening in the cut above.
In all honesty, it’s one of the only changes to Empire I actually like. It fixes a minor continuity error & looks super Star Wars-y while doing it, all without changing a bit of dialog.
The Omen II, actually (aka I Was a Teenage Anti-Christ). Great scene, effectively staged. That flick is so much fun, in no small part because of Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack.
Yes. This would be my pick for the most awesome elevator scene ever.
Devil - nearly the whole movie was a great mystery taking place on an elevator. Someone among them was a killer when the lights go out, but who?
Just kidding, that movie sucked.
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Macbeth (Stewart version)
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Elevator Trap
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High Anxiety
Gremlins 2: The New Batch: Phoebe Cates is stuck in an elevator with Gremlin arms trying to get her. The elevator crashes and crushes a bunch of gremlins to green mush.
The Untouchables: the accountant lies dead in an elevator, with the word “touchable” painted on the wall with his blood.
I really like the sort of interplay that comes from using glass-sided elevators in movies. They allow for an entirely different take on elevator scenes overall; the feeling of confinement or sense of separation from the outside world is still the same, but riders are still able to interact with others beyond the walls of the elevator. People can see out, others can see in, but there is that (near) invisible divide that raises the dramatic tension.
The horse chase scene from True Lies is a great example of this.
Hah. I was trying to think of an elevator chase, although I admittedly wouldn’t have thought to include one with a horse in an elevator.
You know what other movie has an elevator-chase scene? 3 Men and a Baby. That’s the only one I could think of, somehow.
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Willy Wonka
Doesn’t the elevator at the end turn into a spaceship, or at least some kind of plane? Very cool. -
October Sky
This may not be long enough to qualify as a ‘scene.’ Just after Jake Jill-enhaal has failed to escape his career in the mine there’s a shot of him descending in the elevator. Those few moments sum up the whole movie. As he’s heading down into a difficult, dirty and dead end future, he’s gazing up into the clear blue sky. The work he dreams of doing happens in that sky, and he’ll be so far removed from it he won’t even be able to see it. -
Diamonds Are Forever (No, NOT the fight scene)
One of the quintessential Bond moments revolves around an elevator. He needs to sneak into the top floor of a Vegas hotel, so after climbing around on the outside (in a tux), he jumps onto the top of an outdoor elevator. With a quick primp of his tie and sleeves, he enjoys the rest of the ride nonchalantly and perfectly in control - just in case someone’s watching or maybe just to please himself. The shot from outside frames him slowly rising along the outside of the building.
That moment in October Sky is so powerful. What a great pick.
Thanks for sharing information. Actually I had also the same question in mind for a long time anyways you started this thread & I am so happy.
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And since posting is playing -
Hans Gruber discussing Yassir Arafat’s tailor, Die Hard
Exploding elevator due to targeted C4 explosion, Die Hard
Elevator says “ding” and explodes after the roof goes missing, Die Hard
I know. Old topic and Kent specifically noted not the fight scene, but I’m going to have to give it to the fight scene. It’s amazing. James Bond and smuggler Peter Franks grapple to the death in a rickety apartment elevator and it’s not the normal James Bond/Captain Kirk one judo chop and it’s over fist-fight. It’s a clumsy, desperate, shuffling, grunting, awkward middle-aged men shoving each other in a closet type fight. It spills out into the hallway and ends with the application of a fire extinguisher, but the 30 seconds or so on the lift is probably the most realistic melee combat in all of the Bond movies. In fact, I’m a bit in awe that was even allowed in the movie because it makes Bond seem positively mediocre.