美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Skyscraper' Director Made A 'Love Letter' To The Classic Action Blockbusters

 

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Friends and neighbors, a new movie is making its way to your town from The Rock - Dwayne Johnson, former pro¹ wrestler², current action movie superstar. It's called "Skyscraper³."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SKYSCRAPER")

DWAYNE JOHNSON: (As Will Sawyer) My family is trapped 240 floors in the air.

NG CHIN HAN: (As Zhao Long Ji) So what's the plan?

JOHNSON: (As Will Sawyer) Whatever it takes.

WERTHEIMER: It brings together lots of threads - world's tallest building on fire with thousands of people inside, including the hero's beautiful family. Johnson is, of course, the hero, a war veteran with only one leg who must save the day. There are lots of scary moments, lots of tension, and if you're afraid of heights, really lots of tension. The director, Rawson Marshall Thurber, is writing and directing his second film with Mr. Johnson. Thurber joins us to talk about "Skyscraper." Thank you so much for doing this.

RAWSON MARSHALL THURBER: Well, thank you for having me.

WERTHEIMER: Now, you are in Hong Kong, which is where the movie is set. Is that right?

THURBER: That's correct.

WERTHEIMER: Is it true that you are personally scared of heights? I mean, did you search your soul for something that would scare you to death?

THURBER: (Laughter) I am scared of heights. My mom's scared of heights. I'm scared of heights. Yeah. I guess maybe I made the wrong movie. Maybe I should have made a ranch⁴ house or something.

WERTHEIMER: (Laughter) Do you find skyscrapers⁵ scary?

THURBER: I do. In fact, I'm talking to you right now from the Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong on the Kowloon side. I'm on the 116th floor. And I'm very, very far away from the windows.

(LAUGHTER)

WERTHEIMER: You do have some very high-value stunts⁶ in this movie. Dwayne Johnson climbs up the superstructure of a massive crane, which is - is this crane used in building the huge skyscraper or is it just parked out there?

THURBER: Well, in the movie, the super crane that Dwayne uses to jump off and enter the burning building is perched atop a building that's under construction adjacent to The Pearl.

WERTHEIMER: So The Pearl, which is the name of the skyscraper, he climbs up the superstructure of a huge crane, then realizes he's not going to make it, so he swings out on the hook of the crane and jumps across the gap when crane plus chain is not quite long enough to get him into the burning building. Now, I feel free to mention this in some detail because it's in the trailer.

THURBER: Yeah. It sounds like a great movie to me.

WERTHEIMER: (Laughter) Tell us how you arrived at the idea of a crane with a too-short chain and bursting through the glass of a burning building, yadda, yadda, yadda.

THURBER: Well. I think a couple things. The first is how do you get into a burning building when your family is trapped above the fire line 100 stories in the air? Because you can't go through the bottom and climb your way up.

WERTHEIMER: Right.

THURBER: So how do you do it, right? So first, I faced myself with that puzzle. And then there's that light bulb moment, and I remember it distinctly. And I got really excited because I'd never seen anything like it. And it seemed appropriately kind of over the top for this kind of picture. And then the sort of beats that you talk about were Dwayne's character, Will Sawyer, first, you know, attempts to use the crane hook to get in, and then that goes wrong, and then he doubles back and is going to try to - another way, but he can't and he's cut off and he's forced to make this leap of faith, you know, this is all sort of stuff that you learn from Spielberg, I suppose, in the kind of escalation⁷ of tension and escalation of problem that pushes you toward character, toward revealing character. So Dwayne Johnson has to make a choice. You know, what does his family mean to him? What is he willing to sacrifice? What is he willing to risk? And it turns out, he's willing to risk everything.

WERTHEIMER: Now, you, and I believe Dwayne Johnson as well, like to leave little scraps⁸ of humor around the wreckage⁹ of your movies, isn't that right?

THURBER: (Laughter) It's a nice way of putting it.

WERTHEIMER: It's interesting that you build up the scary tension, and then there's a tiny taste of humor, and then you go back to the bad stuff.

THURBER: You know, I mean, "Die Hard" is one of my all-time favorite films. It's on the Mount Rushmore of action pictures. But that movie is about three jokes shy of a straight-up comedy. Now, certainly, "Skyscraper" isn't quite as funny as "Die Hard," but we found the moments, the moments of levity¹⁰. And I think the film is so tense and people are gripping their chairs and kind of watching it through their fingers that you want those moments of relief so people can kind of shake the tension out and laugh and then buckle¹¹ up again.

WERTHEIMER: So did you think, you know, thinking about your audience and what does your audience want to see and all that kind of stuff, do you think this is a good year for heroes?

THURBER: It's clearly a good year for superheroes. But I think that's what's so interesting about "Skyscraper" is that it isn't about a superhero. We have sequels on either side of us. We have 11 sequels in sort of a five-week corridor, and we're the only original picture there. And we're the only picture that doesn't really have a superhero at its center when you talk about these big temples. And I'm really proud of that, and they don't really make these movies anymore. And this is like - "Skyscraper" is, like, the kind of movie I grew up watching - "Die Hard," "Towering Inferno," "The Fugitive¹²." I don't know. I guess it's my love letter to those movies.

WERTHEIMER: Rawson Marshall Thurber - he wrote and directed "Skyscraper," which stars a really big, strong collaborator¹³ who climbs the building. The movie is out next Friday. Thank you very much for joining us.

THURBER: Linda, it was a real pleasure. Thank you.

1 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

2 wrestler   

n.摔角选手，扭

参考例句：

• The wrestler tripped up his opponent.那个摔跤运动员把对手绊倒在地。
• The stronger wrestler won the first throw.较壮的那个摔跤手第一跤就赢了。

3 skyscraper   

n.摩天大楼

参考例句：

• The skyscraper towers into the clouds.那幢摩天大楼高耸入云。
• The skyscraper was wrapped in fog.摩天楼为雾所笼罩。

4 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

5 skyscrapers   

n.摩天大楼

参考例句：

• A lot of skyscrapers in Manhattan are rising up to the skies. 曼哈顿有许多摩天大楼耸入云霄。
• On all sides, skyscrapers rose like jagged teeth. 四周耸起的摩天大楼参差不齐。

6 stunts   

n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He did all his own stunts. 所有特技都是他自己演的。
• The plane did a few stunts before landing. 飞机着陆前做了一些特技。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 escalation   

n.扩大，增加

参考例句：

• The threat of nuclear escalation remains. 核升级的威胁仍旧存在。 来自辞典例句
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。 来自辞典例句

8 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

9 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

10 levity   

n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变

参考例句：

• His remarks injected a note of levity into the proceedings.他的话将一丝轻率带入了议事过程中。
• At the time,Arnold had disapproved of such levity.那时候的阿诺德对这种轻浮行为很看不惯。

11 buckle   

n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲

参考例句：

• The two ends buckle at the back.带子两端在背后扣起来。
• She found it hard to buckle down.她很难专心做一件事情。

12 fugitive   

adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者

参考例句：

• The police were able to deduce where the fugitive was hiding.警方成功地推断出那逃亡者躲藏的地方。
• The fugitive is believed to be headed for the border.逃犯被认为在向国境线逃窜。

13 collaborator   

n.合作者，协作者

参考例句：

• I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作，帮我的忙。
• His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。