Here is a list of the top 10 movie lift scenes as complied by our readers:
No.10 – Final Destination 2 – 2003
Final Destination 2 is sequel to the 2000 hit Final Destination.
Ok, so this film really sucks and I’m not going to advise you to waste your time watching it as the only way to describe this film is a very bad version of the first. Twice as much death and twice as much gore is usually the only way to go with a horror sequels but when will Hollywood learn that we still need a bit of suspense.
I picked this scene as it’s a great death scene in a lift, which is after all, what we are after here. I advise you to just watch this scene and don’t watch the whole film because you will probably find it more interesting to put out your finger nails.
Nora (above) is travelling down in a passenger lift when she is told her impending death will be delivered by a man carrying hooks who just happens to be stood behind her at the time. She instantly panics and tries to jump out of the elevator but her hair gets caught on one of the hooks and she cannot get her head out of the lift before the doors close. As the lift drops it decapitates her, leaving her body on the second floor and her head still in the lift. Nasty way to go!!
No.9 – School for Scoundrels – 2006
Starring John Heder and Billy Bob Thornton, School for Scoundrels is a comedy about a young guy Roger (Heder) who is short on confidence and self-esteem who decides to enrol in a secret confidence-building class taught by the sneaky Dr P (Thornton) who claims his often dangerous techniques with release your Inner lion and sends your confidence sky high. Eventually Rogers’s confidence grows and he rises to the top of the class, he even plucks up the courage to ask out a girl he has fancied for years.
Just as things look like they are on the up Rogers teacher Dr P sees how far Roger has come and the challenge he has been waiting for begins, to destroy Rogers’s life professionally and personally.
In this hilarious scene Roger has been set up by Dr P by trashing his dream girls apartment making him look like a stalker. The two cops in the scene are also in Rogers’s class and pretend to arrest Roger before escorting him down in the lift. While in the lift one of the fake cops sprays pepper spray into the face of Roger which the both find extremely funny until they realise they have inhaled it too, very funny.
No.8 – The Eye (aka- Gin Gwai) – 2002
Not be confused with the awful 2008 U.S remake starring Jessica Alba. Gin Gwai stars Angelica Lee as a blind girl that gets a new corneas so she will be able to regain her sight, what she doesn’t know is that her new sight also allows her to see ghosts, some of which are not too pleasant at all. After several scary episodes she eventually tries to track down the previous owner of her new corneas to see how they perished.
In this scene our leading character enters a lift on her own but soon realises she is not alone when she spots a reflection of very scary looking chap with half his face missing appearing behind her. Slowly as the lifts rises floor by floor the man starts to turn and move towards her.
This is one of those scenes that make your legs start kicking as the ghost gets closer and closer. Its pretty rare I get scared watching films but this is defiantly an exception.
The thing to remember is the Japanese make great films especially in the horror stakes. There has been a spate of remakes of Japanese horror films recently like The Ring, The Eye, One Missed Call and The Grudge. Do yourself a favour, if you want to be scared watch the originals because all the U.S versions just don’t cut the mustard.
No .7 – Liar Liar – 1997
Jim Carrey plays Fletcher Reed a workaholic attorney that has lied and cheated his way through life until he lets his son Max down one to many times and Max makes a wish on his birthday that his dad cannot tell a lie for a whole day. When the wish comes true Fletcher cannot tell a single lie which causes him more than a few problems at home and at work.
Most of you probably already know which scene I’m getting to. Fletcher is in a lift with a beautiful new employee when he asks her how she is finding things at work. She replies by telling him “Everyone has been really nice to me” to which the newly truthful Fletcher tells her “That’s cost you have big jugs…. I mean your boobs are huge…….I mean….I wanna squeeze them”
This is Jim Carrey at his side-splitting best. Very funny scene and the last line he comes out with just finishes it off the perfect way. Mama!!!! I feel a slap coming on.
No .6 – Live Free or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4) – 2007
Yippee Ki Yay Muther Fu##er!!!! Brue Willis returns as John McClane for a forth outing to save America from the treat of global terrorism.
This time he is facing a new type of enemy in the shape I.T nerd Thomas Gabriel played by Timothy Olyphant. Gabrial rounds up all the best hackers in America to help him infiltrate the FBI’s Cyber Crime Division that controls all power and transport for the entire country attempting to bring America to its knees and make millions of dollars in the process.
McClane’s only hope rests in the hands of super hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long) who was one of the people recruited by Gabriel that he failed to bump off after his work had been completed.
This particular elevator scene sees Gabrial’s beautiful side kick Mia (Maggie Q) holding Matt at gun point after forcing him to undo changes he made to try and scupper the baddies plans. As Mia is about to put a bullet in the back of Matt’s head McClane comes crashing through office driving a 4×4 and smashing into the unsuspecting Mia eventually driving the car into a lift shaft leaving her dangling precariously of the front of the vehicle. A fight for survival begins as they both attempt to climb there way out of trouble before the car finally drops with Mia trapped inside falling to her death.
There are probably several great lifts sequences in the Die Hard films but this is my favourite. This particular scene is when Justin Longs character finally gets to save McClane by clubbing the baddie taking pot shots at him from the top of the lift shaft. Unfortunately for the baddie he drops head first down the lift shaft smashing into the rear of the car below.
Wicked scene and highly entertaining, the last film is a fitting ending to what are four very, very good action films. Bring on Die Hard 5!!!!
No .5 – Terminator 2 Judgement Day – 1991
One of the most long awaited sequels of all time Terminator 2 Judgement Day lived up to its billing as one of the greatest action films of all time. T2 is the follow up to the 1984 cult classic Terminator which rocketed Arnold Schwarzenegger to super stardom and has since spawned two more films Terminator 2 – Judgement Day, Terminator 3 – Rise of the Machines and a soon to be released forth film Terminator Salvation.
Terminator 2 sees Arnold return but this time instead of trying to kill John Conner he is sent from the future by John Connor to protect his younger self from a new improved model of Terminator, the T1000….still with me? The T1000 can morph himself into liquid metal taking on the form of anything it touches including people and is able to form weapons like blades with parts of its body making it a very efficient killer.
After the first film set around 15 years earlier Sarah Conner, Johns mum, is locked up in a metal facility after the authorities think she is crazy. John Conner and his new bodyguard Arnie must break into the metal facility to rescue Sarah before the T1000 finds and kills her to take on her form.
In this scene our three heroes they are attempting to escape the facility while being pursued by the T1000. As they enter the lift to get out of the building the T1000 forces open the doors only to be shot point blank with Arnies shotgun.
Once the T1000 has regained shape it jumps down the lift shaft and onto the top of the descending lift.
This is a great scene from a great movie and even now, eighteen years on, the special effects still look fantastic.
No .4 – The Silence of the Lambs – 1991
Cleaning up at the Oscars for Best Director (Jonathan Demme), Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins) and Best Actress (Jodie Foster) ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ is a modern classic that truly lives up to its billing.
FBI trainee agent Clarice Starling (Foster) is assigned to find and catch a psychopathic serial killer called Buffalo Bill who skins his victims before randomly dumping them. She gains insight and clues into the mind of Bill by talking to psychopathic cannibal killer Dr Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins). To find the information she needs Clarice must gain Lectors trust and confidence by sharing her own personal history which is the start of a warped relationship with Lecter she hopes will lead to the Bill.
The lift scene in question is Hannibal’s gruesome but very clever escape. After killing the two guards that are watching his cell he skins off the face of one of the guards and puts on his uniform and his face. Lecter then puts his prison clothes onto one of the guards and dumps him on top of the lift which is the only access from the top floor. Once communication is lost with the guards S.W.A.T are called and when the lift starts to come down they suspect Lecter is in the lift. At this point in the film you have no idea Lecter is already out of the building and think he is on top of the lift. Once S.W.AT realise who the body on the lift really is its too late.
My explanation does not do the scene justice, have a look for yourself if you the only person in the world who hasn’t seen this film.
No.3 – The Shining – 1980In my humble opinion this is the best horror film ever made, a true masterpiece and debatably Kubrick’s best film, although fans of ‘Full Metal Jacket’ may disagree.
The Shining was written by Stephen King and was brought to the big screen by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance ‘The Shining’ tells the story of a family that are hired to be winter caretakers of an isolated hotel. Everything seems fine at first until Jacks his son Danny starts to see disturbing visions of the hotels horrific past using his telepathic gift know as “The Shining”. Meanwhile Jack, who is trying to complete a writing project, starts to slip into insanity with the isolation of the hotel and the visits he receives from the ghosts of former guests before going completely mad and trying to kill his family with an axe. Here’s Johnny!!
The scenes I’m referring to has to be the scariest I have ever seen and sets the whole mood for the film. Helped along by a nerve gangling score it shows two lift doors, both closed. As the credits start to roll blood pours out of the lift doors splashing all over the walls and straight towards the camera.
The trailer spells out to the watching public that this film is going scare the pants of you…….and it does just that. You tell me another trailer with no dialogue that has the impact this does. I doubt you can.
No .2 – The Departed – 2006
Winner of 4 Oscars including Best Director ‘The Departed’ released in 2006 is directed by Martin Scorsese and can only be described as a true masterpiece of film making.
The cast reads like a who’s who of Hollywood greats, past and present, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin all giving stellar performances in there respective roles backed up by a fantastic supporting cast.
Set in present day Boston it tells the story two young officers that have just graduated from Massachusetts State Police Academy but have very different motives for wanting to work for the police. William Costigan (DeCaprio) is assigned to work undercover for Frank Costello (Nicholson) an Irish Mafia Boss to find credible evidence to bring him down.
William Costigan’s family has a very chequered background and ties to organised crime therefore his bosses see him as the perfect mole to infiltrate Nicholson’s Irish crime family. His true identity is only known by his superiors Dignam (Wahlburg) and Oliver Queenan (Sheen) much to the dislike of all the other officers on the task force.
At the same time and unknown to everybody in the department Colin Sullivan (Damon) works for Frank Costello as an informer feeding him information to keep him one step ahead of the police. As both men become obsessed with finding the others true identity they get caught up in a web of deceit and lies which leads to eventually leads to further corruption and murder.
The lift scene in question sees Costigan apprehending Sullivan on a roof top at gun point with the intention of taking him to the police to reveal he is the leek the cops have been looking for. Sullivan is dragged into a lift with a gun to his head but at the ground floor is shot point blank by a colleague of Sullivan’s who is also working for Costello.
When I first saw this scene I had no idea what was going to happen and remember my shock at DeCaprio characters sudden demise. It is a wonderful twist in an already fantastic movie and deserves its place in our top 2. Simply superb!!!
No .1 – Dressed To Kill – 1980
Dressed to Kill is a film that’s plays on the emotions that most thrillers try and fail to recreate, fear and suspense. Directed by Brian De Palma, Dressed to Kill stars Michael Caine and Angie Dickinson.
Kate Miller (Dickinson) is a bored and sexually frustrated housewife who has the desire to be raped one morning while taking a shower. She visits her psychiatrist Dr Elliott (Caine) that same day to discuss her husband’s sexual inadequacy after which she meets an interesting but strange man in a museum. Lust gets the better of both parties and couple end up at the strange mans apartment for a casual sexual encounter.
On leaving the apartment Kate finds a letter which reads that the man she has just slept with has a sexually transmitted disease. Panicked and confused she rushes out of the apartment to the passenger left but on reaching the ground floor realises she has left her wedding ring upstairs in the apartment. When the elevator doors open on her return Kate is brutally murdered with a cut throat razor by a blond woman wearing dark glasses.
Liz Blake (played by Nancy Allen) is the one and only witness to this shocking crime and becomes the killer’s next target.
This scene is absolutely terrifying; they quite simply do not make films like this anymore. For me the best thrillers and horror films were made in the 1970’s and 80’s. Whether it’s the clothes or the hair I don’t know but if you tried to make this film today it wouldn’t even come close.
De Palma is in his element and takes you on a rollercoaster ride you will be very relieved to get off. Even now, if you had just watched this film you would defiantly think twice about using the elevator. A wonderful piece of cinema that is sure to live long in the mind for another 30 years.
I really hope you have enjoyed my top 10 lift scenes in a movie. I’m sure there are others I have missed and I am intrigued to know if you have any that you think should be in the list.
