Line #3 Film/TheTower


1	[[quoteright:214:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_tower_poster_132.jpg]]
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3	''The Tower'' (or ''Tae-wo'') is a 2012 [[UsefulNotes/{{SouthKorea}} Korean]] SpiritualSuccessor to Film/TheToweringInferno.
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5	The setting is the fictional Tower Sky, the tallest buildings in the world, modeled after the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, home to some of the wealthiest people in UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}} and cutting-edge in both technology and luxury. To celebrate Christmas, a [=VIP=] party is held in the "Sky garden" of the tower overlooking the river. Dae-ho, the manager of the building and single father, is forced to cancel plans with his daughter Ha-na to coordinate the event. However, Yoon-hee, the food mall manager (with a [[TheNotSecret secret crush on Dae-ho]]), offers to babysit Ha-na during the party. Meanwhile, Kang Young-ki, the legendary fire captain of Yoido Station, has at the urging of Sergeant Oh Byung-Man and the rest of the crew, finally promised his first Christmas date night to his long suffering wife, while the station's new probationary fightfighter gets the sort of hazing [[InitiationCeremony that shows some things are universal the world over.]] During the party, it is discovered that the exterior pipes in the building have frozen over, rendering the sprinklers above the 60th floor inoperable. The party is in full swing when a fleet of helicopters fly overhead with snow-making machines, giving the building's [=VIPs=] [[DreamingOfAWhiteChristmas a white Christmas, indoors!]]
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7	WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong
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9	Not to be confused with TheTower trope.
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11	----
12	!!''The Tower'' features examples of:
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14	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Quite a bit ''less'' then Film/TheToweringInferno. The fire spreads the way you'd expect a fire to spread in such a building, and the [[spoiler:inevitable WaterTowerDown gambit]] only buys minutes. Plus, during such an intense fire, the structural integrity of the tower quickly becomes compromised - [[spoiler:leading to the decision to bring the burning tower down with a controlled detonation, to prevent it from taking the other tower with it and wiping out half of downtown Seoul...]]
15	** Still, the actual fire suppression in the movie is grounded ''much'' more in RuleOfCool than anything like reality.
16	* ConvectionSchmonvection: Averted thoroughly [[spoiler:and horribly in the case of the elevator full of panicking people...]]
17	* CorruptBureaucrat: The Fire Commissioner. He has a VIP list and they get rescue priority over all other residents, seriously hampering firefighting efforts. [[spoiler: Captain Kang finally tells him what to do with his priority rescue list.]]
18	* DarkerAndEdgier: To Film/TheToweringInferno, which already was a really dark movie to begin with. [[spoiler:The arc of the disaster is very similar to 9/11, though the crash that starts the fire in the movie is purely accidental.]]
19	* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: Typical for a disaster movie, [[spoiler:though most of the main protagonists do survive.]]
20	* DwindlingParty: As expected in a disaster movie, the protagonists get thinned at every turn, often in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath nightmare-inducing]] ways.
21	* ElevatorFailure: [[spoiler:An elevator gets trapped on a fire floor, quickly illustrating why you ''don't take elevators in a fire'']]. Later, the protagonists ''deliberately'' induce an ElevatorFailure to quickly get down past the fire floors.
22	* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler:Captain Kang Young-ki. The moment you see the photo of his wife, you just ''know'' he won't make it out of the Tower Sky fire alive.]]
23	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Remember those sprinklers with frozen pipes? [[spoiler:They sure would have come in handy when a helicopter crashes into the 68th floor...]]
24	** The Skybridge gets several loving camera flybys before the fire. [[spoiler:Guess what happens when our protagonists try to cross it during the fire?]]
25	** Young-ki's [[spoiler:death isn't just telegraphed - it's shouted from the rooftops. The FatalFamilyPhoto, the holiday cake for his wife, refusing the offer of his station to go home before they dispatch to Tower Sky...]]
26	* HellishCopter: [[spoiler:A helicopter crash starts the fire.]] Unlike Film/TheToweringInferno, though, the chopper evac from the neighboring building goes without incident.
27	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Young-ki stays behind to set off the rainwater tank bombs, washing the rest of the protagonists out to the river ''just'' before the River Tower is collapsed.]]
28	* HopeSpot: The captain, his probie, and the last survivors have found a way out of the building before [[spoiler:it's supposed to be brought down.]] - setting bombs on the rainwater tanks, to be washed into the nearby river. [[spoiler:Then a falling elevator takes out the remote detonator, forcing him to stay behind to blow the tanks.]]
29	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: [[spoiler:Played absolutely straight in the case of Ha-na. Suggested, though, that there are many other kids in the burning tower, though whether they escape or not is left to the viewer.]]
30	* JerkAss: The wealthy lady with her Lhasa Apso; dog poop at the party? Someone else can clean it up! [[spoiler: Safe far from the fire? She starts screaming about her ''baby'' missing!]] Young-ki gives her the contempt she deserves, but she [[spoiler:does survive the fire.]]
31	* KarmaHoudini: The building owner, who practically caused the accident [[spoiler: by ignoring the glaring safety concerns with the sprinklers and insisting on the helicopters despite the dangerous updrafts]]. There are numerous other architectural faults with the building that are implied to be his doing, as well. Later on, he tries to save the building by closing the fire doors, despite knowing that people would be trapped inside. He receives no comeuppance at all in the movie, other than the destruction of his prized tower (and presumably the huge financial loss that goes along with it).
32	** To a lesser extent, the Fire Commissioner and the RichBitch.
33	* MadeOfIron: Sergeant Oh survives a lot of near-fatal events.
34	* ManOnFire: This movie is ''made'' of this trope, but it gets particularly horrifying when - just like with the World Trade Center towers - people start getting blown out of the building, on fire, raining down on the crowd below.
35	* {{Melodrama}}: As only the Koreans can do it.
36	* PluckyComicRelief: The group of Christians, found by Sergeant Oh after he gets separated from the other firemen, noisily praying at every turn. [[spoiler:Their prayers have the most uncanny way of coming true, though!]]
37	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: More then being a remake of Film/TheToweringInferno, this movie was almost a note for note reproduction of 9/11, with all the NightmareFuel that implies. [[spoiler:The only real differences was that the crash was accidental, and only one of the towers caught fire.]] %invoked%
38	* RedHerring: It's mentioned repeatedly that the kitchen has far too many stoves and far too little sprinkler coverage; at one point a chef even starts a fire with a wok, triggering an alarm at Yoido. [[spoiler:That fire is quickly extinguished; the real source of the disaster is a crashing helicopter.]]
39	* SerialEscalation: Happens with incredible speed, unlike Film/TheToweringInferno; pretty soon the protagonists don't just have to contend with the fire, but the building literally crumbling around them.
40	* ShoutOut: Many to Film/TheToweringInferno, which this is a SpiritualSuccessor to.
41	** For example, the outside Scenic Elevator, which people are caught in during the fire. [[spoiler:They get out safely though.]]
42	** The people rushing the elevators. [[spoiler:They come to a horrible end, though the mechanism is ''even worse'' then before.]]
43	** The WaterTowerDown gambit. [[spoiler:This time it only buys the protagonists minutes, slowing but not stopping the collapse of the River Tower.]]
44	* TooDumbToLive: This being a disaster movie, there's plenty of examples, but the crowner has to be [[spoiler:the helicopter pilot; he gets caught in a spiraling updraft, which starts the snow machine swinging - and rather then cut the load (and ''maybe'' injure or kill a few on the ground) he rides that load right into the building, touching off the inferno and ending up killing ''hundreds'', including himself and his crew.]]
45	* WaterTowerDown: As a ShoutOut to ''Film/TheToweringInferno'', the protagonists use the water tank at the top of the building to try and solve the crisis. Unfortunately, it only buys them minutes, slowing but not stopping the collapse of the River Tower.

Context Film / TheTower