Skyscraper is a 2018 American action thriller film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. Produced by Legendary Pictures, Seven Bucks Productions and Flynn Picture Company, the film stars Dwayne Johnson in the lead role, with Neve Campbell, Chin Han
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Short filmTranscript
00:01Will Sawyer, the character that I play,
00:03he's different from every other character
00:05that I've ever played in my entire career.
00:08-♪♪
00:10He's a hostage rescue negotiator for the FBI.
00:13He was a teen guy, and he doesn't want to pick up
00:15his weapons anymore, because things went sideways.
00:17It turned into a shit show.
00:18No!
00:20When we first meet him, he's an amputee,
00:23and he's just trying to put his life back together,
00:24and the guy's struggling.
00:26I think everybody who's familiar with Dwayne's work
00:27knows he can pick up a dump truck
00:29and throw it through a brick wall.
00:30I mean, we've all seen that.
00:31But I didn't want to do that.
00:32This particular character,
00:34I was just really able to sink my teeth into
00:37in ways and exercise muscles that I hadn't before.
00:41-♪♪
00:44The big challenge with someone like Dwayne,
00:46as talented as he is,
00:47it's really hard to put him on the back foot,
00:50because he's 6'4", 265 pounds of granite.
00:54-♪♪
00:56He is larger than life in a lot of ways, obviously.
00:59And people really enjoy seeing him in that.
01:01But this character has flaws,
01:02and he's not a superhero, and struggles.
01:05And we don't get to see Dwayne do that a lot.
01:07I can hear your gears turning.
01:09What's going on?
01:10I just don't want to screw it up.
01:11And it's only when he's forced to take action,
01:13when his family is in jeopardy,
01:15that he saddles up and tries to right this wrong.
01:17-♪♪
01:21A good part of the film is us trying to find one another
01:23and save our children.
01:24You really have to believe that this couple
01:26loves each other and are desperate to find each other
01:29and desperate to save their family.
01:30Will is presented with these insurmountable odds,
01:33and he's willing to do whatever it takes
01:34to go get his family despite being in a foreign city,
01:37despite missing a leg and everything else
01:39that we possibly throw at him in the movie.
01:41-♪♪
01:43People are probably looking at him really crazy
01:46because he's going back into the fire.
01:48But I think I would, too, if my family was in there.
01:51Dwayne has this line that he says,
01:53you can't be brave if you're not scared,
01:55which I think is a really inspirational line.
01:57And I think it's one of the most important lines in the movie.
02:00I need you to be brave right now.
02:02Can you do that for me?
02:03Yeah.
02:04We talked a lot about modeling the Will Sawyer character
02:06much more closely to the Harrison Ford archetype,
02:09an everyman who is just doing anything he can
02:12to protect his family and survive
02:13the challenges that he's faced with.
02:15I felt like we had an opportunity here
02:16to create a character that maybe a lot of people
02:18around the world could relate to and could get behind.
02:21He's just trying to be the best man
02:22that he could possibly be.
02:24Your weakness is your family.
02:25So now we're going to find out
02:28how much you love your family, Will.
02:30I wanted to challenge him.
02:31I wanted to see him be vulnerable.
02:33I wanted to see him think his way out of a problem
02:35instead of punch his way out.
02:36All right, these elevators operate
02:37on electromagnetic induction.
02:39When I cut this cable, you're going to fall.
02:41This is crazy.
02:42Trust me.
02:43Dwayne went really deep with this character.
02:45It needed it.
02:46It's an intense character who's going through a great deal
02:49and trying to overcome a lot of emotional and physical trauma.
02:52And I think Dwayne took it on and really did a beautiful job.
02:55As soon as he has the drive, he'll kill us both.
02:58Maybe.
02:58But he has my daughter.
03:00Her life is what matters to me, not mine.
03:02Anybody who knows Dwayne knows there's one thing he
03:04loves more than anything, and that's a challenge.
03:06And if you tell him, people don't think you can do this,
03:09I think he rises to the occasion.
03:11Great, great, great, great, great.
03:12I've really been a lucky son of a bitch
03:14to have the career that I've had and be
03:16able to play some characters that have been
03:18pretty memorable over the years, some not so memorable.
03:21I love that he takes the work seriously,
03:23but not himself seriously.
03:24There's no diva nonsense with him.
03:27He'll do whatever it takes to win.
03:28And he's gracious, and he's humble,
03:30and he's hardworking, and people know that.
03:33They feel that.
03:33And it's not an act.
03:37When you have a character who's just barely surviving,
03:39but every inch of his fiber, his soul, his constitution,
03:42his DNA won't let him quit.
03:44He just keeps going, and going, and going.
03:46If you pull that off right, by the end of the movie,
03:49it should create an emotional reaction in people.
03:51And luckily enough, it does.
03:53And we made a great movie with Skyscraper
03:56that I'm extremely proud of.
04:00It was easily the most physically demanding role
04:03that I had ever played.
04:04And I really invested a lot of time into the character.
04:09There's a lot of things that I had to really keep
04:11in mind as an amputee, thinking about that every second
04:15of every frame, of every action, of every moment.
04:21And I really wanted to make sure that I
04:23was able to do that, and that I was able to do it right.
04:26Every second of every moment, I really
04:31wanted to make sure that I was doing right by amputees,
04:35what that looks like, and psychologically,
04:38what that feels like.
04:40There's a certain hitch in my step.
04:42There's a certain gait in my hips
04:45that these individuals go through when they're an amputee.
04:51Early on, I thought about creating an amputee hero.
04:54I'd never seen that before in an action picture,
04:55and the idea of Dwayne playing a wounded warrior,
04:57an amputee veteran, that just got me really excited.
05:01Dwayne's fascinated about playing a character like that
05:04and to engage in what the reality of that would be.
05:06And I think it's good for us to have a look at that,
05:08especially considering the amount of vets
05:10that we have coming home with these kinds of injuries
05:13and the sacrifices that they've made.
05:14I think it's good to take a look at that as well.
05:17Oh, my god.
05:18I know.
05:19I'm so good.
05:20You rock.
05:21What a pleasure, man.
05:22My main inspiration and resource was a gentleman
05:26by the name of Jeff Glassbenner.
05:28He is an amputee, and he is an extraordinary human being.
05:33I cold called him, tracked him down, introduced myself to him.
05:36I flew him to set.
05:38This man that I want to introduce
05:39is the inspiration for the character of Will
05:43that I am playing.
05:44He is the first American amputee to climb Mount Everest.
05:47He is a three-time Paralympian.
05:50He is also a world champion wheelchair basketball player.
05:54And he is also, for this character,
05:56my greatest inspiration.
05:57So ladies and gentlemen, Team Skyscraper,
06:00allow me to introduce the amazing Jeff Glassbenner.
06:03It was a proud day for all of us and an honored day for all of us
06:06to have Jeff on set for the very first time.
06:08Part of the reasons why I think this movie is so cool,
06:11because you're going to have an amputee that's
06:13going to show people that it is kick-ass to be an amputee.
06:15It's OK that you can get to any summit,
06:17you can do anything in life, but you've
06:19got to have it in here, and you've got to have it in here.
06:22Mr. Johnson studied the role, and he
06:24knows what it's like and some of the struggles,
06:26what it's like to be an amputee.
06:28We even had Jeff Glassbenner there
06:30when Dwayne was running on the super crane,
06:32and Jeff kind of consulted him on how he would run
06:35and how there'd be a little bit of a giddy-up in his stride.
06:38I sought out Jeff after that, and I said, what'd you think?
06:43And he was blown away.
06:44He's like, that's exactly how I run.
06:46God, you nailed it.
06:47And I was like, wow, really?
06:49I was like, somebody's getting this on camera, right?
06:50Jeff said that run was perfect.
06:53You actually did amazing on that.
06:54I was like, with the dips and stuff,
06:55I was like, honestly, spot on.
06:57I was like, it's awesome.
07:00And I was like, did I get it?
07:01And then I was like, I did.
07:02It was awesome.
07:03It was awesome.
07:04It was awesome.
07:05I was like, I did it.
07:06I did it.
07:07I didn't want to be a role model but life has taught me many things and it's
07:17taught me that I can inspire others to take on challenges that they never
07:20thought was possible and so a lot of times if you just have someone that
07:24believes in you or shows you what's possible then you can kind of believe in
07:28and achieve it so for me I want to show so many people out there that it's so
07:32important that they can do whatever they want if they surround themselves with
07:35the right people they have the right mental attitude
07:41to me it was really important to show that an amputee can be a hero just like
07:46anybody else and getting to portray someone with an amputation in this light
07:51that's worth the whole movie to me that's the whole reason to do it this is
07:55the coolest thing ever so I thank you guys so much so keep up the good work
08:00and I cannot wait to see the finished product thank you
08:20Neb Campbell came to the table wanting to bring it it's really fun to sort of
08:27kick ass a bit
08:29Neb Campbell is a badass and she shows in this movie if Dwayne Johnson's gonna
08:34marry her she's got to be a badass if she was amazing she got bashed around
08:37and thrown around she was really really into it I was a dancer so I was very
08:44physical my whole life and for me to do stunt work is a lot of fun because it's
08:48choreography so in a lot of ways it's very similar to dancing
08:57we were looking to cast Shia this ice-cold lady assassin and I was
09:04watching a bunch of audition tapes and I put in Hannah's tape and she just had a
09:07baby and her husband was pushing her in a wheelchair in the hospital and she
09:10held out two guns was firing them and saying all the lines and I just was
09:14whoever this is I gotta have her in my movie I thought she was perfect for this
09:18role and she's really good at her work she's just raised to be a killing
09:32machine so that is what she's doing I have no martial arts backgrounds but I
09:40did quite a lot for this and Alan's team was great she would come down and train
09:45and rehearse and she really wanted to bring it to the film and she was really
09:48great and one of the best scenes in the movie is when Sarah goes mano a mano
09:54with Shia in the backseat of a squad car
10:02we wanted to have a really intimate fight and I wanted to figure out a small
10:07space to do it in
10:10Shia is such a cold-blooded killer and I thought that if I put them in a small
10:16coffin-sized space maybe Sarah could use that to her advantage we're not trying
10:21to be a guy fight we do like what really girls would do you pull their hair you
10:25smash them the working theory there is Nev's character doesn't want to fight
10:31she wants to get the attention of the police officers she's just clawing to
10:35stay alive we worked on it quite a bit but it was a lot of fun and Hannah was
10:39great and I think it ended up being a really fun sequence
10:44you
10:46hey
10:54he's got my back
11:02when I first heard Pablo Schreiber was gonna be casted in the role I thought
11:06great I loved him as an actor and then I see him I meet him for the first time he
11:09is a big bastard this guy is big and I don't often kind of look up a little bit
11:13at guys but I look up at Pablo immediately informed what kind of fight
11:17this is gonna be I was supposed to have the advantage but Wayne's so darn heavy
11:27you know man works out like a beast a lot of times in Hollywood these days
11:31fights can have a little bit of a gloss to them if here's reality well it kind
11:35of floats up here into a reality that's kind of up here but this was just bare
11:40bones soup and nuts blood and guts it's a fight that I'm very proud of in the
11:47movie both Dwayne and Pablo did an incredible job as did our stunt
11:51coordinator Alan Poppleton and JJ Perry our second unit director the Ben's
12:01apartment fight it was up to eight or nine versions that we had prevised until
12:04everybody was kind of happy with what we were doing and the actors it's 80 to 90
12:10Pablo getting him up to speed getting him ready for what he had to do with
12:18Dwayne so he had a pretty extensive prep here I was there for maybe two or three
12:22weeks prior to filming and just training every day learning the fight working the
12:27fight training martial arts and jiu-jitsu it was a very long extended
12:33and complex fight sequence so without the prior work that we did there my
12:38stunt double would have been doing it all which he helped in bits and pieces
12:41but for the most part it's it's me I match his height pretty closely I'm one
12:53of the few people that Dwayne has fought in on-screen fight that is six five as
12:59he is I unfortunately don't weigh 280 pounds so he's got me by a few pounds
13:05there two giants fighting in a small apartment two big dudes in a little room
13:11so in my mind we would always just wreck the whole place because there's no way
13:14for two big guys to do that not just tear the place up you can come up with
13:17all the coolest moves under the Sun but then if you actually break it down it's
13:20like okay well why is he doing that these guys were best friends before
13:23everything kind of came together in a perfect storm the fight is very
13:27emotional it's very visceral it's very dirty and it's very raw and it's very
13:32intense he almost never gets the upper hand he's scrambling and spitting and
13:45scratching and clawing to stay one step ahead of the knife it feels like just
13:52survival feels like Will Sawyer's doing whatever it takes to survive seeing
13:59those two big bulls going at it in a china shop is pretty fantastic
14:05Oh cut it that's great
14:15this guy just choked my mom out and stabbed him with the scissors daddy loves
14:23me you know what you're both right because daddy loves you both a lot of
14:29times with the characters that I played in the past I'm either divorced or for
14:33whatever reason I'm single I can't find a wife but in this one I am in a solid
14:37relationship I am married and I have kids so once we found Nev then the
14:41challenge was well what happens if we make babies what do they look like gross
14:46and we scoured the earth to find our two young actors you find yourselves into a
14:52big forest fire and then the tree falls down and you get separated it was a
14:58massive countrywide search as we were looking for the right kind of actors
15:02right dynamic and we actually started with Noah Noah is a spitting image of
15:08Dwayne Johnson when Dwayne Johnson was a little kid and the first time we put
15:12McKenna Noah and Dwayne together we knew right away they're so adorable oh my god
15:17I love these children they're so beautiful and so wonderful and so
15:21enthusiastic it was a real fun surprise to have McKenna and Noah deliver in such
15:27a big way for the movie McKenna I need you to be right up against your shoulder
15:30almost touching this and no I need you to be right next to your sister it's
15:34really fun because you get to do all the action stuff and you can do some of the
15:38stunts and it's really fun
15:42I have four beautiful children myself so coming from that side of it we're never
15:46gonna put them in a position that I wouldn't put my own children in everyone
15:51on set is very responsible about the kids and they've been amazing really
15:54they get into character you believe them and they handle the action as well as
15:58anybody I know the movie is based in like one day but it takes three months
16:05so we have to keep getting dirtier and dirtier and dirtier it's really fun when
16:10you get to put all that dirt on yourself you just feel like you're so cool and
16:13you're ready to film everybody was like are you sure you want to do this are you
16:17sure but I like doing sets and everybody was so nice to me
16:24before the takes you'd see them and they'd be like dancing or singing a
16:28little song and then it was time to switch on and they both did they
16:35delivered they worked so hard they were right there with Dwayne right there with
16:39Neve they couldn't have been more polite or more hard-working and more serious
16:43and dedicated to it I'm really proud of their work in the film and I think they
16:47are too