History Main / StarScraper

* The Mile High [=MacIlwaine=] from Creator/NancyFarmer's ''Literature/TheEarTheEyeAndTheArm'' is... a hotel one mile tall.

* Tartarus in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' has [[spoiler:262]] floors[[note]]The reason why this is a spoiler is because when you reach the 164th floor, on top of the Harabah block, the game gives you the false impression that you reached the top[[/note]]. You spend most of the game climbing it, [[spoiler:and fight the final boss on top of the tower]].

* In August 2011, Saudi Arabia announced plans and contracts signed to build a [[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43988244/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/worlds-tallest-building-coming-saudi-arabia/#.Tj1YhGHdVpg 1,000-metre building]] called the Jeddah Tower (previously Kingdom Tower). Yep, that's an even kilometre. With the project put on hold just as a large foundation has already been constructed, construction finally resumed in 2023, time will tell if of when it will be completed in the future.

* In August 2011, Saudi Arabia announced plans and contracts signed to build a [[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43988244/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/worlds-tallest-building-coming-saudi-arabia/#.Tj1YhGHdVpg 1,000-metre building]] called the Jeddah Tower (previously Kingdom Tower). Yep, that's an even kilometre. With the project put on hold just as a large foundation has already been constructed, time will tell if it will be completed in the future.

** In ''VideoGame/Kirby64'', the second planet Rock Star's stage 4 and the subsequent boss take place in an impossibly grand octaeder-shaped building. The final part takes place in a tower that reaches so far into the sky that it's higher than the clouds.

* The Neo Arcadia Tower in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero3'' used to be a space elevator connecting Earth and the Moon. ([[AllThereInTheManual Official sourcebooks]] in fact state that this was none other than the [[VideoGame/MegaManX8 Jakob Orbital Elevator]].) It doesn't go quite that far anymore, thanks to the VideoGame/{{M|egaManX}}averick [[GreatOffscreenWar Wars]], but its top floor is still high enough for the curvature of the Earth to be visible.

* The Tower of Salvation in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' reaches "unto the heavens", and the player never sees its top from the outside.

%%* Whittlebone's (driver of Mr. Slamm) dream is to build one in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal 2''. %%Example needs context to make sense on its own.

[[caption-width-right:348:"1042nd floor, please."]]

Compare SpaceElevator, which is designed to extend past the atmosphere. When the Starscraper is the home of the villain, it becomes an EvilTowerOfOminousness.

* The mysterious tower in ''Anime/ThePlacePromisedInOurEarlyDays'' is so tall it surpasses clouds and mountains. Built in Hokkaido, it is visible from Tokyo on a clear day. That's a distance of more than 800 kilometres as the crow flies. For Europeans, that's more than double the distance between London and Paris. For Americans, that's one-fifth of the way between New York and Los Angeles.

* WesternAnimation/Hero108: In one episode, High Roller plans to conquer the Moon, but can’t figure out how to get there, not least because he can’t solve his city’s traffic problems without creating housing problems and vice versa. When Woo the Wise suggests he simply build taller and slimmer buildings for everyone to live in, he decides to use this scheme to instead travel to the Moon. [[spoiler:But when he gets there, he finds that there is nothing there to conquer.]]

* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': In '''Parallel Works 8''', Earth was shown with conical drill-themed buildings that reached the stars [[spoiler: during the first war between Lordgenome and the Anti-Spirals]].

* The infinite tower where ''Manga/TheVerticalWorld'' takes place stretches onwards in both directions with seemingly no end. Part of Ruska's goal is figuring out what's at the bottom. [[spoiler:Turns out there is a "bottom", but it's not connected to any kind of ground - and more, there's a "true bottom" which represents the edge of the world's reality.]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperMario63'' has the [[spoiler: central spire of Bowser's Castle]], which is so tall that it reaches into space.

* The setting of ''Film/TheToweringInferno'', which is set aflame by faulty wiring, is treated as one of these, even though it's only about half the necessary 1000+ metres. It's "the tallest building in the world" at 138 stories and 1673 feet (505 metres) tall, which, as of July 2014, would only put it at #5.

* Spearpoint, the last human city, and its [[spoiler:counterpart on the other side of the world]] in ''Literature/TerminalWorld'' stretches from the ground all the way past the planet's atmosphere, tapering continuously. One character theorizes that they are a form of SpaceElevator from before the fall of mankind and the creation of the [[TechnologyLevels Zones]]. [[spoiler: They are hollow, and lead to a portal inside the planet for starships to use -- hence why they extend out of the atmosphere]].

** ''Literature/TheForerunnerSaga'' novels mention that the [[RecursivePrecursors Precursors]] built towers that essentially ''bridged planets''. They were also completely indestructible [[spoiler: excluding a Halo's main weapon]].

* The TowerOfBabel in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' is an ancient hollow irregular metallic cylinder stretching kilometres into the sky. [[spoiler: It is actually the ancient hull of the kilometres-long spaceship that crashed on the planet in the DistantPrologue of the game, and how humanity first arrived on that world.]]

* In August 2011, Saudi Arabia announced plans and contracts signed to build a [[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43988244/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/worlds-tallest-building-coming-saudi-arabia/#.Tj1YhGHdVpg 1000-metre building]] called the Jeddah Tower (previously Kingdom Tower). Yep, that's an even kilometre. With the project put on hold just as a large foundation has already been constructed, time will tell if it will be completed in the future.

Common in SpeculativeFiction, these buildings tower over their surroundings, or may be part of a city of similar buildings.

To qualify as a Starscraper, a building must be clearly over 1,000 metres tall, or around 3,281 feet tall (for reference, a typical storey is about 3.3 metres (11 feet), although some storeys can be larger than others). The tallest building on Earth, the Burj Khalifa in UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}}, UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates, is 828 metres tall (or 2,717 feet tall). For a city entirely made of those, see SkyscraperCity.

* In the ending credits of the anime adaptation of ''VideoGame/MagiaRecordPuellaMagiMadokaMagicaSideStory'', Yachiyo rides an elevator. According to the floor numbers, the building she's in is at least ''2,611'' stories tall. The tower is actually a metaphor of her lifespan as a magical girl, and the floor number is the number of days she survived -- just a little above 7 years.

** The ''Alicization'' arc has Central Cathedral, which is 100 floors tall, and is easily the tallest structure in the Underworld. Kirito and Eugeo are imprisoned in the basement, and are forced to fight their way to the top.

%%* The Gates Tower in ''ComicBook/UniversalWarOne'', which is named after Bill Gates. They built a spaceport on the top of this tower. %%Mentioning a spaceport doesn't give much context, since those can be built onthe ground.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler:'' [=ZigZag=], the EvilChancellor, has a tower that is ridiculously tall. The minaret with the three golden balls is supposed to be the tallest in the city, but seems fairly normal in comparison.[[note]][[LoopholeAbuse Technically speaking]], Zigzag's tower is ''outside'' of the city.[[/note]]

%%* ''Film/BladeRunner'' has the Tyrell Corporation Headquarters. [[Film/BladeRunner2049 It's sequel]] introduces a much larger building in the form of the Wallace Earth Headquarters. %%Example needs context to make sense on its own.

* Arthur C. Clarke's ''[[Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries 3001]]'' contains four towers that reach from the earth to geostationary orbit. Which means they're about ''36 thousand kilometres'' tall -- nearly three times the diameter of the planet itself -- and several kilometres in diameter. "Seriously tall" doesn't begin to describe it. The engineering problem of actually making something that big and not collapsing under their own weight was solved by constructing them largely from diamond, which was harvested from space (huge amounts of it was ejected from Jupiter in ''2010''). They also double as {{space elevator}}s and people [[SkyscraperCity lived in every floor to create vertical communities]]. They also link up to a single ring structure at geostationary orbit that completely circles the world to form a massive spaceport. It was unfinished even a thousand years in the future, and Frank Poole ([[BackFromTheDead who was recovered and revived]] at this point) privately doubted that it ever could be finished.

* Earthport in Creator/CordwainerSmith's ''Instrumentality of Mankind'' stories is a vast, wineglass-shaped tower of virtually indestructible material reaching ''25 kilometres'' above the city of Meeya Meefla [[spoiler:(Miami, Fla)]], with foundations reaching down to the magma. It was built to absorb the exhaust from huge nuclear-powered spaceships, but was soon rendered obsolete by new technology and so large parts of it stand empty. Ancient elevated roads climb to partway up the tower, but since they are ''not'' made of indestructible material they are now abandoned and dangerous.

* The Tyrant's Dark Pyramid in ''Outernet'' is so high it reaches into outer space.
* ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'' by Creator/LarryNiven: The party pay a brief visit to the home world of the alien Puppeteers. It is mentioned that "on Earth few buildings were more than a mile high, here none were shorter."

* In the short story ''Tower of Babylon'' by Creator/TedChiang, the Tower of Babel does ''not'' get destroyed, and is built up so high that one of the stars crashed into it. (The story takes place in Babylonian cosmology, so the star is the size of a cow and made of metal.) By the time the story starts it literally scrapes the ceiling of the world.

* The tower of Asframore in ''Literature/TheWandering'' is an incredibly high one. Its Babel inferences are right there in the story, as Neshi and his team of Jerusalemites find plaques with Scripture quotes from the Literature/BookOfGenesis. The purpose for its height was to set up a demonic-looking statue in defiance of the Almighty.

%%** Hive Cities most notably Hive Primus from ''TabletopGame/{{Necromunda}}''. In most cases, it's a necessity: the lower atmosphere is so polluted by millenia of reckless industrial production that only fresh air pumped in from the top of the hive allows them to survive. %%Example needs context to make sense on its own.

* The geography of ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'' includes two continents which may be part of complete worlds, one of which happens to be above the other. (The bottom's sky and clouds eventually turn into the top's ocean and abyssal fogbanks... somehow.) There's a tower connecting them, which players will find fairly early on. While the playable area of the tower isn't that big, it's implied that as players work their way through the multiple in-tower dungeons, they're unlocking access to rapid transit systems and skipping over most of what really is a monumental climb.
* The Tower of Bab-il from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' has its foot in the underworld (which is deep enough that airships have ample sailing space above its mountains), crosses the surface through a huge hole and culminates high in the sky, way higher than the tallest mountains on the world map.

* The Neo Arcadia Tower in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero3'' used to be a space elevator connecting Earth and the Moon. ([[AllThereInTheManual Official sourcebooks]] in fact state that this was none other than the [[VideoGame/MegaManX8 Jakob Orbital Elevator]].) It doesn't go quite that far any more, thanks to the VideoGame/{{M|egaManX}}averick [[GreatOffscreenWar Wars]], but its top floor is still high enough for the curvature of the Earth to be visible.

* Steelport in ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'' has some belonging to the Syndicate. No heights or floor counts are explicitly given. They tower as far over normal skyscrapers as the normal skyscrapers tower over lesser buildings, with the tallest or them, [[EvilTowerOfOminousness the gigantic red-and-black Syndicate Tower]], measuring in at approximately 965 metres, about ''130 metres'' taller than the Burj.

* On Lua in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', there are six [[{{Precursors}} Orokin]]-[[CrystalSpiresAndTogas designed]] spires and three circumlunar rings connecting them, which are big enough to be seen with naked eye from Earth's surface [[spoiler:once Lua is shifted back from the Void in "The Second Dream"]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''. The title sequence highlights the scale by initially showing Old Gotham, a city whose skyscrapers are on par with a modern-day metropolis, before Neo Gotham comes into focus and dwarfs the older buildings in comparison. In addition to public transportation which travels from building to building, there are also elevators that go up-and-down as essentially vertical trams.

* The planned [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Mile_Tower Sky Mile Tower]] to be erected in Tokyo, which would be a mile tall (or about 1.6 kilometres), and closer to an {{arcology}} than a traditional sky scraper. If they get the go-ahead, it would be expected to be complete in 2045.
* During Japan's economic bubble in the 1980s, several megatall skyscrapers and arcologies were proposed for Tokyo, including [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_1000 Sky City 1000]], the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimizu_Mega-City_Pyramid Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeropolis_2001 Aeropolis 2001]], and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Seed_4000 X-Seed 4000]], the tallest building fully envisioned with design plans (taller than Mt. Fuji, and shaped like it, too). It's not meant for serious construction, though.

* One of the arenas in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'', DM-Morpheus.[[note]][[ShoutOut Inspired by]] the Jump Program scene from ''Film/TheMatrix'', hence the name[[/note]]. Successors also appear in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2003'' (DM-Plunge) and ''[[VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004 2004]]'' (DM-Morpheus3). To quote the map description:

* In ''VideoGame/Kirby64'', the second planet Rock Star's stage 4 and the subsequent boss take place in an impossibly grand octaeder-shaped building. The final part takes place in a tower that reaches so far into the sky that it's higher than the clouds.

To qualify as a Starscraper, a building must be clearly over 1,000 metres tall (for reference, a typical storey is about 3.3 metres, although some storeys can be larger than others). The tallest building on Earth, the Burj Khalifa in UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}}, UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates, is 828 metres tall. For a city entirely made of those, see SkyscraperCity.

** Castle Aincrad. So big, it's essentially a world within a world (though it's actually the ''playable'' world of the fictional SAO game, it does get ported to Alfheim in the second arc). The largest floor is 10 kilometers in diameter, and each one is 100 meters high. Given that there are 100 floors, that makes it 10 kilometers high. But then, that's not counting the fact that it all ''floats in the sky''. The anime also depicts a massive structure extending almost as far ''down'', below the first floor.

* While there's no definitive height given for the buildings in ''Film/JudgeDredd'', the 2012 reboot ''Film/{{Dredd}}'' places the height of the mega-structures dotting the landscape as over a kilometer tall.

* While its height is never mentioned, the model for Barad-dûr (Sauron's fortress) in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' movies would be over a kilometer high if scaled up to full human scale. Arguably justified since it takes a literal [[OurAngelsAreDifferent divine being]] to keep it together and [[LoadBearingBoss it promptly toppled over after he died]]. [[note]][[AllThereInTheManual Supplemental material]] indicates that it's a kilometer ''and a half'' high.[[/note]]

* The setting of ''Film/TheToweringInferno'', which is set aflame by faulty wiring, is treated as one of these, even though it's only about half the necessary 1000+ meters. It's "the tallest building in the world" at 138 stories and 1673 feet (505 meters) tall, which, as of July 2014, would only put it at #5.

* Arthur C. Clarke's ''[[Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries 3001]]'' contains four towers that reach from the earth to geostationary orbit. Which means they're about ''36 thousand kilometers'' tall -- nearly three times the diameter of the planet itself -- and several kilometers in diameter. "Seriously tall" doesn't begin to describe it. The engineering problem of actually making something that big and not collapsing under their own weight was solved by constructing them largely from diamond, which was harvested from space (huge amounts of it was ejected from Jupiter in ''2010''). They also double as {{space elevator}}s and people [[SkyscraperCity lived in every floor to create vertical communities]]. They also link up to a single ring structure at geostationary orbit that completely circles the world to form a massive spaceport. It was unfinished even a thousand years in the future, and Frank Poole ([[BackFromTheDead who was recovered and revived]] at this point) privately doubted that it ever could be finished.

* Earthport in Creator/CordwainerSmith's ''Instrumentality of Mankind'' stories is a vast, wineglass-shaped tower of virtually indestructible material reaching ''25 kilometers'' above the city of Meeya Meefla [[spoiler:(Miami, Fla)]], with foundations reaching down to the magma. It was built to absorb the exhaust from huge nuclear-powered spaceships, but was soon rendered obsolete by new technology and so large parts of it stand empty. Ancient elevated roads climb to partway up the tower, but since they are ''not'' made of indestructible material they are now abandoned and dangerous.

* In ''Series/AlteredCarbon'', the [[FictionFiveHundred ultra-wealthy Meths]] live in gigantic, architecturally impossible towers that pierce the world's perpetual cloud cover by several hundred meters, letting them enjoy perfectly sunny weather every day without the filthy masses toiling in the {{Wretched Hive}}s on the ground offending their sensibilities.

%%** The spires of Commorragh would be this, if there were any stars in the Webway. [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/File:Commorragh_View.jpg Note the kilometers-long spaceship impaled on the spire on the far right.]] %%Example needs context to make sense on its own, and weblinks are not examples.

* The Destiny Tower in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'' consists of 99 floors, and wild Steelix live there, so every floor is at least ten meters in height. Therefore, it's safe to assume that the tower is a thousand meters high at minimum.
* Steelport in ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'' has some belonging to the Syndicate. No heights or floor counts are explicitly given. They tower as far over normal skyscrapers as the normal skyscrapers tower over lesser buildings, with the tallest or them, [[EvilTowerOfOminousness the gigantic red-and-black Syndicate Tower]], measuring in at approximately 965 meters, about ''130 meters'' taller than the Burj.

* The TowerOfBabel in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' is an ancient hollow irregular metallic cylinder stretching kilometers into the sky. [[spoiler: It is actually the ancient hull of the kilometers-long spaceship that crashed on the planet in the DistantPrologue of the game, and how humanity first arrived on that world.]]

* In August 2011, Saudi Arabia announced plans and contracts signed to build a [[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43988244/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/worlds-tallest-building-coming-saudi-arabia/#.Tj1YhGHdVpg 1000-meter building]] called the Jeddah Tower (previously Kingdom Tower). Yep, that's an even kilometer. With the project put on hold just as a large foundation has already been constructed, time will tell if it will be completed in the future.
* The planned [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Mile_Tower Sky Mile Tower]] to be erected in Tokyo, which would be a mile tall (or about 1.6 kilometers), and closer to an {{arcology}} than a traditional sky scraper. If they get the go-ahead, it would be expected to be complete in 2045.

To qualify as a Starscraper, a building must be clearly over 1,000 metres tall (for reference, a typical story is about 3.3 metres, although some stories can be larger than others). The tallest building on Earth, the Burj Khalifa in UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}}, UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates, is 828 metres tall. For a city entirely made of those, see SkyscraperCity.

* One ''Blog/WhatIf'' article discusses a billion-story tower in "[[https://what-if.xkcd.com/94/ Billion-Story Building]]". The tower is so tall it extends ten times past the Moon's orbit.

Indeed, it is not uncommon for them to be [[{{Arcology}} a single city in their own right]].

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' galaxy has plenty of [[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ecumenopolis Ecumenopolis]] planets where [[CityPlanet seemingly every square kilometre of terrain]] is covered in kilometre-tall skyscrapers. The most prominent is the galactic capital, Coruscant. The peak of Coruscant's highest mountain, Umate, now forms the centerpiece of a public plaza, all its other mountains having long been swallowed by the city's endless vertical growth.

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' galaxy has plenty of [[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ecumenopolis Ecumenopolis]] planets where [[CityPlanet seemingly every square kilometre of terrain]] is covered in kilometre-tall skyscrapers. The most prominent is the galactic capital, Coruscant.

* The capital tower in ''Manga/UQHolder'': It's actually an [[SpaceElevator orbital elevator]].

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' galaxy has plenty of [[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ecumenopolis Ecumenopolis]] planets where [[SkyscraperCity seemingly every square kilometre of terrain]] is covered in kilometre-tall skyscrapers. The most prominent is the galactic capital, Coruscant.