28 Classic Movie Scenes Involving Stairs

25. Murder - Death Becomes Her (1992)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErqotNH65_E Bruce Willis has done a terrible, terrible thing. He has grown a moustache, and he has killed everyone€™s favourite Auntie figure, Meryl Streep. Well, he would have killed her, had she not downed the potent Elixir of life. When Streep€™s Madeline Ashton takes a nasty spill down her gigantic marble staircase, and snaps pretty much in half, the last thing anyone would expect is for her to then stand up and twist her head back around. Death Becomes Her is a biting black comedy that plays with themes of death and murder like a child playing with ants and a magnifying glass. The film€™s director Robert Zemeckis uses the staircase to great dramatic effect, in drawing the moment between €œflaccid€ Ernest (Bruce Willis) thinking he has done the unthinkable, and Madeline realizing that the Elixir has done more than shave off a few wrinkles - it is the turning point of the second act. The use of marble adds real crunch to Madeline€™s tumble, and makes it all the more believable that anyone would indeed become pulp after falling down it. The ugly veins of each step accentuate both the ugliness of Ernest€™s actions, and the ugliness of Madeline€™s behaviour No one deserves to be pushed to his or her death, and especially not down such hideous décor But had you asked me during the height of 2008€™s Mamma Mia! fever, I might we have said Meryll Streep deserved every single gory moment of that fall.

24. The Choice - A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXAEqBywUt8 A Matter Of Life And Death is one of the most celebrated films by British directing duo Pressburger and Powell. For the uninitiated, it is the story of British R.A.F pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) who escapes death when his €˜other world€™ guide Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) fails to catch him. Peter continues life, but is soon tracked down by Conductor 71 and is given three days to prepare for an appeal to stay alive. In this famous staircase scene, Peter and Conductor 71 sit on a giant elevator discussing whom Peter will choose to defend him in Heaven. The scene utilizes a literal €˜stairway to Heaven€™ that was labelled Operation Ethel by the film engineers. The stairs took three months to build; had 106 steps, each 20 feet wide, and was driven by a 12 h.p. engine. Pressburger and Powell€™s use of stairs to link Heaven and Earth is hardly a new concept, but the Pantheon-esque feeling of €˜great€™ people in statue form, littering the edge of the moving stairs, add an ethereal aura that is unmistakable. Stairs can come to represent a plethora of things, but with this use of monument and movement, the stairs suddenly become an almost living organism. Where most would portray the stairway to Heaven as a positive thing, Carter€™s unwillingness to accept death turn it into a dreadful mausoleum. A greedy tractor beam, sucking souls to an unknown destination, collecting the willing and unwilling alike: always moving upward, forever to a celestial prison above. If that doesn't sound all that bad to you, then imagine knowing that Conductor 71 and his irritating faux French accent will be with you the whole time. I choose life, I choose life!

23. Training - Rocky (1976)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NubH5BDOaD8 Rocky is in shape and ready to knock Apollo Creed€™s block off. We know this because he is running, and running, and running. Way before Forest Gump decided to just take off and run around the country, Rocky was pounding the streets of Philadelphia with a trail of supporters behind. Like a pumped up Pied Piper, the soon to be champion finishes his heroic jog with a series of not-cool leaps over some benches and then a climbs up the steps outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Turning around to punch the air (thankfully not clipping any overzealous child supporters), Rocky surveys the city before him. Taking the scene apart bit by bit, it is a classic rise of the hero set piece. He is daring and blue collar, because he runs between the train tracks. He is well known and respected, because people want to shake his hand. He is Italian €“ notice the flags, and he is American €“ flags again. As he approaches the end of his training, more and more support is gathering, and the kids have accepted him as their idol; he is now an inspiration. This in turn fires him up, and he rushes off in a euphoric state of readiness. The stairs are a statement, a confirmation that Rocky has overcome all odds, and is quite literally €˜rising up€™. For the trivia nerds among us - Stallone originally filmed the sequence whilst trying to carry Rocky€™s dog Butkus up the steps. But the weighty bull-mastiff was just too much for the poor Italian Stallion. Instead, Stallone decided to reshoot the scene sans canine, and inspired a tourism legacy that, to this very day, still sees thousands of people a year posing in that very place.