To make the building look appropriate, as a piece of architecture, that was a real challenge
The first real challenge was to make a very, very tall building with a pearl at the end, and not make it look phallic. The second is that, because it is so overbearing on the skyline, it's so prominent – and believe me I had no delusions about the fact that it was going to incite the ire of many of my architectural peers – I did want to try to give it some kind of real character.
Unlike The Towering Inferno, or unlike even Die Hard to a degree, but especially Towering Inferno – the building is a character in the sense that its destruction is not due to the architect's negligence or the corruption of a contractor, or something like that. This building is actually really cool, it's a strong character and it's trying to fight and preserve itself, while Dwayne Johnson is trying to fight and save his family.
So the desire on a dramatic level is to make the building a character that you're rooting for.
Dan Howarth: So how did you go about doing that?
Jim Bissell:It was something that I think that many architects do in their work, and they've stolen it from us – dramatic designers – is that they give their building a narrative and a context. The narrative and context that we tried to give our building, The Pearl, were based on cultural icons of the area, as well as myths of the area.
In the preliminary research that we did, we discovered the myth of The Dragon's Pearl, which has to do with the region around the Pearl River, very close to Hong Kong.
In that myth, you begin to see that the pearl is the pearl of wisdom. The dragon is the river itself, snaking through the area. And the dragon has a greater and more transcendent meaning: the dragon that is celebrated in Asian culture as one of strength and courage and fortitude, and resilience.
So this is what we started basing the design on, which was for a self-sustaining building. We wanted to design in artificial rice paddies that were also very decorative, that grew food for the residents. All the energy that was needed to power the building was self-generated through tidal generators, solar panels and the double-helix wind generators that became the eye of the dragon.
The desire on a dramatic level is to make the building a character that you're rooting for
And that the parts were all part of the dragon. Dramatically, we used the singularist forms to try to articulate this strength and elegance as the dragon reaches up out of these rice paddies and holds the pearl of wisdom in the sky. Also, the tail of the dragon scoops and is a cultural centre, where the concert halls are etc.
As this singular form reaches up, right in the centre – which is where our action takes place – is a 30-storey atrium. That's sort of the belly of the beast.
The atrium was very useful for us, because rather than having Dwayne Johnson dangling constantly on the outside the building, in jeopardy, now he was on the inside of the building. And you can see the fire leach around these floors and terraces of the 30-storey atrium.
這個虛構的摩天大樓是由Bissell和他的團隊設計的，以滿足電影的敘述／The imaginary skyscraper was designed by Bissell and his team to satisfy the narrative of the movie
Dan Howarth：珍珠塔被認為是世界上最安全的建築，但顯然不是這樣。發生了什麼嗎?
Jim Bissell：在整個建築中都存在著用於滅火和安全的冗餘系統，還有一個非常腐敗的組織，他們試圖利用建築來挾持建築的所有者和開發商——他們是我們的英雄之一——人質。
順便說一句，設計一座具有真正力量的建築的另一個原因是，它反映了開發這個建築的中國人的性格。我們想確保這些關聯是好的。
所有這些事情可能導致火災，但是，我不想放棄太多的故事——他們找到一種方法，非常巧妙地利用道恩·強森（Dwayne Johnson）的角色進入大樓計算機系統並關閉這些系統讓他們不工作。
如果你能捕捉到眩暈的感覺，那真的很令人興奮
正是由於道恩·強森（Dwayne Johnson）和大廈主人的智慧，他們才最終撲滅了大火，我們最終看到他們將重建家園。所以這座建築倖存下來，將成為英雄。
Dan Howarth：你提到了《火燒摩天樓》，還有許多其他的動作和驚悚電影以摩天大樓為中心。是什麼讓高樓大廈成為這類電影如此受歡迎的題材?
Jim Bissell：它的高度。相信我當你站在那裡，如果你能捕捉到眩暈的感覺，這真的很刺激。這是發自肺腑的，你仍然坐在自己的座位上，而不是坐在過山車上或從天上掉下來，你是在看著別人這麼做。但是你的神經細胞在加班。這是很有趣的。
我的女兒是電影藝術系的助理，她參加了演員和劇組人員的放映，她一直坐在座位的邊緣。她看過模特，看過片場，她知道發生了什麼。但她的手心仍是汗涔涔的，看著道恩蹦蹦跳跳，她一直都很興奮。
Dan Howarth：所以這是關於捕捉不安的感覺，在屏幕上?
Jim Bissell：我想是的，這是為了製造一種樂趣；一個替代刺激。
Dan Howarth: The Pearl is branded as the safest building in the world, but obviously that's not the case. What happens to it?
Jim Bissell: There are redundant systems for fire suppression and for safety all through the building, and a very corrupt group who are trying to use the building to hold the owner and the developer of the building – who's one of our heroes – hostage.
Incidentally, another reason for designing the building to have a character of real strength is that it reflects this Chinese character who develops the building. We wanted to make sure the associations are good.
There are all these things that could cause the fire to be contained, but – I don't want to give away too much of the story – they find a way, very deviously, using Dwayne Johnson's character to get into the computer systems of the building and shut those systems down so they don't work.
If you can capture that feeling of vertigo, it's really quite thrilling
It's through the cleverness of both Dwayne Johnson and the building's owner that they're eventually able to put the fire out, and we see in the end that they will rebuild. So the building survives and will be a hero.
Dan Howarth: You mentioned The Towering Inferno, and there have been many other action and thriller movies centred around skyscrapers. What is it about tall buildings that make them such popular subjects for these types of movies?
Jim Bissell: It's height. You get up there and believe me, if you can capture that feeling of vertigo, it's really quite thrilling. It's visceral and you're still sitting in your seat, rather than riding around on a rollercoaster or dropping out of the sky, you're watching somebody else do it. But your neurones are working overtime. It's pretty interesting.
My daughter, who was an assistant in the art department on the movie, went to the cast and crew screening and she was on the edge of her seat the whole time. She'd seen the models, she's seen the sets, she knew what was going on. But she still had sweaty palms and she was having the thrill of a lifetime watching Dwayne leap around
Dan Howarth: So it's about capturing the feeling of unease you might get from being so high up, on screen?
Jim Bissell: I think so yes, it's about creating a bit of a joyride; a vicarious thrill.
摩天樓導演羅森·馬歇爾·瑟伯（左）和製作設計師Jim Bissell／Skyscraper's director Rawson Marshall Thurber (left) and production designer Jim Bissell
Dan Howarth：有趣的是，在這些電影中建築物是如何扮演角色的。這座建築本身就扮演著一個角色，並且是一個非常關鍵的角色。它的設計和造型可以是好的也可以是壞的。
Jim Bissell：這是真的。我和一位記者討論了她寫的一篇文章，關於為什麼壞人總是居住在當代或現代建築中。有趣的是，特定類型的建築如何代表特定的性格。
Dan Howarth：這座建築是基於任何現存的建築或建築風格嗎?
Jim Bissell：我們受到了聖地亞哥·卡拉特拉瓦（Santiago Calatrava）, 扎哈·哈迪德（Zaha Hadid）的影響——你可以看看那棟建築，發現它有很多當代建築的影響。
但與此同時，它堅定地建立在試圖以一種優雅的方式捕捉這條龍的性格。這就是我們把它塑造成一個角色的方法，避免了明顯的把它塑造成特別的男性化。我想，那些美妙的彎曲的形式使它更女性化。
Dan Howarth:It's interesting how buildings can play characters in these movies. The building itself plays a character and a very pivotal one at that. The way it's designed and shaped, it can either be a good guy or a bad guy.
Jim Bissell:It's true. I had this discussion with a journalist about an article she had done about why the villain always resides in contemporary or modern architecture. It's interesting how certain types of architecture represent certain characters.
Dan Howarth: Was the building based on any particular existing structures or architectural style?
Jim Bissell: We were influenced by [Santiago] Calatrava, Zaha Hadid – you could look at that building and see that it has a lot of contemporary architectural influence.
But at the same time, it was solidly based on trying to capture, in an elegant way, the character of this dragon. That was our solution to making it a character, and avoiding the obvious footfall of making it extraordinarily phallic. Those wonderful sinuous form make it more feminine I think.
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