History Main / StarScraper

Compare SpaceElevator. When the Starscraper is the home of the villain, it becomes an EvilTowerOfOminousness.

* Sengoku and company must deal with a hostage situation in one of these in the first episode of ''Anime/CyberCityOedo808''. The building itself is tall enough to reach into low earth orbit.

* The Ziggurat in ''Anime/Metropolis2001'', which is directly compared to the Tower of Babel. The project director shoots this down by saying that the Tower was intended to mock God, whereas the Ziggurat is (ostensibly) to glorify him.
* In the first set of ending credits for the anime adaptation of ''VideoGame/MagiaRecordPuellaMagiMadokaMagicaSideStory'', Yachiyo is seen riding an elevator in a building that appears to have thousands of stories, judging from the floor number display

* The infinite tower where ''Manga/TheVerticalWorld'' takes place appears to be this, stretching 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.]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* The Megacities of ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' have this type of building.
* The Gates Tower in ''ComicBook/UniversalWarOne'', which is named after Bill Gates. They built a spaceport on the top of this tower.
[[/folder]]

* ''Fanfic/HalfLifeFullLifeConsequences'' featured "the tower that was big onto the sun" that the Dark Man and Combines resided in. Whether squirrelking meant the citadel or a different building is up for debate, but the ICTON ''VideoGame/GarrysMod'' production took it literally and used the Citadel model to stretch from ground to sun in the skybox.

* ''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.
* ''Film/TheFifthElement''. Made startlingly clear when Leeloo escapes from the medical facility, goes outside, and looks down, ''down''. Earth is starting to resemble Coruscant complete with oceans being drained. See how UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity looks when the starliner is leaving.
* ''Film/GodsOfEgypt'': Set's obelisk is 2,220 cubits tall, which makes it even taller than the Burj Khalifa.
* The Clamp office building in ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch''. One scene shows a jet airliner passing by.

* 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]]

* There are several planets covered in these in ''Franchise/StarWars'', they're called [[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ecumenopolis Ecumenopolis]]. The most prominent is the galactic capital, Coruscant.
-->'''Atton Rand:''' Watch your step, or you'll be falling for hours.
* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'', this is how Dinohattan appears on Koopa's toy globe, surrounded by desert and nothing else.
* 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 [[SpaceElevator space elevators]] 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.

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

* Not a skyscraper but a pyramid, the Last Redoubt/Great Redoubt from ''Literature/TheNightLand'' easily qualifies -- the main pyramid is seven miles tall, with a 3/4 mile observation tower on top of that.

* The New Tower, built of solidified magic, temporarily rose a mile above Ankh-Morpork in ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}''.
* 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]].

* Several examples exist in ''Series/DoctorWho''. Satellite 5, for instance.
* The Thompson Tower in ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' was one of these... until it came crashing down.

* Literature/TheBible subverts this trope. Rather than disperse across the earth as God instructed, mankind wanted to stay together and build a city to dwell in. They included plans to build a tower that reached not only the stars but heaven itself. Naturally this didn't sit too well with God and He put the kibosh on these plans by confusing the language of mankind (which until that point had only consisted of a single language, universally understood and spoken by everyone).
-->'''Genesis 11:4-8:''' And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.” 5 The LORD came down to look at the city and tower that humanity had built, 6 and the LORD said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. 7 Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another's speech.” 8 Thus the LORD scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

* Arcologies in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' can be this.
* Hive Cities in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', 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.
** ''The Fang'', the fortress of the [[Literature/SpaceWolf Space Wolves]]. It is so high, spaceships dock to its peak. A partial subversion however, as the complex is carved out from the inside of a naturally-occurring mountain(!). The air circulation currents running from bottom to top of the mountain are strong enough to be used as a transportation network between levels.
** Another non-hive example is the starscrapers of Extremis Six which housed the population of the mining world. They were toppled by Chaos Titans using Sonic weapons killing billions.
** 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.]]

* The Karma Temple in ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga''.

* The Citadel in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', although that is an alien entity.

* The Cardinal Shaft in ''VideoGame/{{Hellsinker}}''.

* The Tower of the Gods in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' is so tall it can be seen from almost anywhere on the map.
** You're tasked with turning Rupee Tower into one of these in ''VideoGame/FreshlyPickedTinglesRosyRupeeland''. As you throw more Rupees into the pool on top of it, it grows taller, allowing you to fly out to more distant locations. [[spoiler:Eventually, it becomes so tall it goes ''right through the freaking moon''... just in time for the final showdown with Uncle Rupee.]]

* Dr. Wily's fortress in ''VideoGame/MegaMan10''.
* 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/MegaManX Maverick]] [[GreatOffscreenWar Wars]], but its top floor is still high enough for the curvature of the Earth to be visible.

* The [[spoiler:Empire Porky Building]] in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' is made out to be one of these. Every elevator the party takes allegedly leads to the 100th floor where [[spoiler:Porky]] claims to be, and one of the floors hasn't even been fully constructed yet!
* The plastic administrations building of Shachihata, in ''VideoGame/{{OFF}}'', probably takes the cake. It's so tall that the elevator has you manually type in a five-digit floor number between 00000 and 99999. Yes, including the basement and [[spoiler:secret floor]][[note]]Typing in "99999" takes you to the roof, rather than an actual floor[[/note]], the building has a whopping '''100,000 floors'''. And that's not even counting the fact that at least one floor has several floors of its own. That's quite a lot of floors for a building that [[ItMakesSenseInContext merely imports parcels of plastic]].

* An expansion pack for ''VideoGame/SimCity'' has an addition called Mega-Towers which clearly fit this trope.
* The point of ''[=SimTower=]'', where the player can build a fully functioning hotel/office complex that spreads over several square blocks, ten underground levels, and up to 500 stories.

* The Tower of Salvation in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia''. It 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''.
* The Sunspire in ''VideoGame/{{Unreal|I}}'', which shows up in the skyboxes of several maps before you actually reach it. There are seven or eight regularly spaced levels near the entrance, another two near the top, and there is a lift that rides at such high speeds the Doppler effect comes into play, which you spend ''ten solid seconds'' on before you reach the other end. And ''that'' is because it's only the top half of the spire that's built into. Its purpose? To send you ''even higher up'' to a FloatingContinent.

* The TowerOfBabel in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', 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.]]

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'': The Tower probably puts most of the other examples to shame, considering it has more than 134 floors, with each floor covering an area the size of ''North America'', and the whole of the known universe exists within it.

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

* 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.]]

* The planned [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Mile_Tower Sky Mile Tower]] to be erected in Tokyo, which would be [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin 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.

* 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.)

* 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.)

* Literature/TheBible subverts this trope. Rather than disperse across the earth as God instructed, mankind wanted to stay together and build a city to dwell in. They included plans to build a tower that reached not only the stars but heaven itself. Naturally this didn't sit too well with God and he put the kibosh on these plans by confusing the language of mankind (which until that point had only consisted of a single language, universally understood and spoken by everyone).

[[quoteright:348:[[LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_index_movie_elevator.png]]]]

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'':

* The Mile High [=MacIlwaine=] from Nancy Farmer's ''The Eye, the Ear, and the Arm'' is... Well... ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin -- a hotel one mile tall.

* The Ziggurat in ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}'', which is directly compared to the Tower of Babel. The project director shoots this down by saying that the Tower was intended to mock God, whereas the Ziggurat is (ostensibly) to glorify him.

A ''seriously'' tall building. So tall, it may literally reach into outer space. So tall, it would be [[ArtisticLicensePhysics impossible according to real-life physics as we know them]].

* In the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games, the Hoenn region has the Sky Pillar. Its exact height is never clarified, but from the summit, the player can only see the blue sky and clouds drifting by below. [[FridgeLogic One wonders how such a tall structure has managed to remain hidden for so long.]] The Pillar may or may not be of human origin; little of its history is ever given. The player may battle Rayquaza at the summit.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros'', this is how Dinohattan appears on Koopa's toy globe, surrounded by desert and nothing else.

** Castle Aincrad. So big, it's essentially a world within a world (though it's actually the entire ''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.
** The ''Alicization'' arc has Central Cathedral, which is 100 floors tall, and is easily the tallest structure in the entire Underworld. Kirito and Eugeo are imprisoned in the basement, and are forced to fight their way to the top.

* The infinite tower where ''Manga/TheVerticalWorld'' takes place appears to be this, stretching 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 even more, there's a "true bottom" which represents the edge of the world's reality.]]

* While not quite an extremely tall building, the starscrapers in Peter F. Hamilton's ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy'' are named such -- as they are skyscrapers IN SPACE. Literally hanging off the outside edge of rotating space habitats. Planet-bound versions play the trope straight; they're even designed to bend slightly to reduce the strain from crosswinds.

-->'''Genesis 11:4-8:''' They said, “Come, let us build a city for ourselves, and a tower whose top will reach into the heavens, and let us make a [famous] name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered [into separate groups] and be dispersed over the surface of the entire earth [as the Lord instructed].” 5 Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one [unified] people, and they all have the same language. This is only the beginning of what they will do [in rebellion against Me], and now no evil thing they imagine they can do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) go down and there confuse and mix up their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the surface of the entire earth; and they stopped building the city.

** ''The Fang'', the fortress of the [[Literature/SpaceWolf Space Wolves]]. It is so high, spaceships dock to its peak. A partial subversion however, as the entire complex is carved out from the inside of a naturally-occurring mountain(!). The air circulation currents running from bottom to top of the mountain are strong enough to be used as a transportation network between levels.

* The eponymous [[VideoGame/ExaPico Ar tonelico]] actually reaches out into space. All of humanity lives on it or one of two similar towers, since they're the only things tall enough to reach over [[AfterTheEnd the cloud Sea of Death enveloping the entirety of Ar Ciel.]]

** {{Inverted|Trope}} (literally) in ''VideoGame/Halo4'': On the artificial "[[DysonSphere shield world]]" of Requiem, giant Forerunner structures hang down from the ceiling in the sky, dropping down to nearly ground level. It's actually rather striking, in a beautiful way, since because the "ceiling" is so high that it can't really be seen[[note]](the ceiling is actually visible, but is so distant that one has to look carefully beyond the clouds above to see its texture)[[/note]], the overall effect, visually, is of unimaginably tall skyscrapers that are floating off the ground.

* The entire point of ''[=SimTower=]'', where the player can build a fully functioning hotel/office complex that spreads over several square blocks, ten underground levels, and up to 500 stories.
* The Tower of Akenash in ''VideoGame/StyxMasterOfShadows'' looks to be about the same height as today's tallest buildings, but it is significantly wider: the interior vertically houses an entire medieval city, and the horizontal distances are closer to that of a town than a building. Furthermore, the Tower still extends some distance underground.
* The Tower of Salvation in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia''. It literally reaches "unto the heavens" and the player never sees its top from the outside.

* The Sunspire in ''VideoGame/{{Unreal|I}}'', which shows up in the skyboxes of several maps before you actually reach it. There are seven or eight regularly spaced levels near the entrance, another two near the top, and even then there is a lift that rides at such high speeds the Doppler effect comes into play, which you spend ''ten solid seconds'' on before you reach the other end. And ''that'' is because it's only the top half of the spire that's built into. Its purpose? To send you ''even higher up'' to a FloatingContinent.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', players of SBURB (or SGRUB) alter each others' houses with the game. Since one of the main goals is to reach increasingly high-up Gates in the sky, their houses eventually become these as a matter of necessity. Examples include [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/2681 John's]] house, [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/2576 Terezi's]], and [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/3304 Jade's]]. [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/5272 Later panels]] show that these towers are nearly as tall as the entire BabyPlanet's diameter in the late game. Even later on, they are [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/7912 tall enough to dwarf their planet]].

* ''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 literally 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.

* 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]], which would have been taller than Mt. Fuji (and shaped like it, too). The X-Seed 4000 is the tallest building fully envisioned with design plans. It's not meant for serious construction, though.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Seed_4000 This is the tallest building fully envisioned with design plans. It's not meant for serious construction, though.]]

* 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]], which would have been taller than Mt. Fuji (and shaped like it, too).

* The Neo Arcadia Tower in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero 3'' 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/MegaManX Maverick]] [[GreatOffscreenWar Wars]], but its top floor is still high enough for the curvature of the Earth to be visible.

* One of the arenas in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'', DM-Morpheus[[note]]inspired by the Jump Program scene from ''Film/TheMatrix'', hence the name[[/note]]. To quote the map description:

* The map returns in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004'' ([=DM-Morpheus3=]) with a similar companion in ''2003'' and ''2004'' (DM-Plunge).

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.

To qualify as a Starscraper, a building must be clearly over 1,000 metres tall. 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.

* ''Film/Oblivion2013''. The protagonist flies his FutureCopter from a Sky Tower located atop a 3000 foot spindle. Another such tower is simply placed on a high mountain.

* ''Manga/DragonBall'': Korin Tower is so tall that it takes days to get to the top, and not even aircraft can reach it. This is part of the challenge that Korin himself sets to people that seek the Sacred Water: to climb to his residence at the pinnacle of the tower without falling off by accident or from exhaustion. Taken UpToEleven when Korin's Tower is linked via the Power Pole to the ''even higher'' Kami's Lookout.

* ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'': The Gourmet Tower, a massive tower filled with gourmet eateries, so big it has [[UpToEleven Airships to bring people to the higher floors of the tower!]]

* The Megacities of ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' have type of building.

* The Megacities of ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' have these.

* Sharn, the City of Towers in ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}''. Its towers average at around 2 km tall with some of the tallest having half to a full kilometre more. Above them is a flying district of rich people called the Skyway. The city's three dimensional nature means most of the transit takes place with flying vehicles such as Soarsleds and Skybarges.

* 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.

* While not quite an extremely tall building, the starscrapers in Peter F. Hamilton's ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy'' are named such -- as they are skyscrapers IN SPACE. Literally hanging off the outside edge of rotating space habitats.

* [[BigBad Spectre's]] tower in the first VideoGame/ApeEscape game is so tall it extends into space.