28 Classic Movie Scenes Involving Stairs

16. Parade - Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqQFTq2FIdY This is a link more tenuous than most, but one that still has to be mentioned, if for no other reason than because of its glorious randomness. We are hardly talking Mac-and-Me-McDonald€™s-dance-random, here, but it is not far off. Ferris Bueller€™s Day Off suddenly becomes a musical, when Ferris (Matthew Broderick) climbs aboard a parade float, and proceeds to mime to €˜Twist and Shout€™. Stairs come into play, when a (supposed) nearby group of conveniently colour coordinated and professionally trained dancers, mount a series of steps and break out into a routine. Are the stairs central to the scene? No. Are they a significant part of the moment? Maybe for aesthetics and logistics. Does it mean this film belongs on this list? Maybe not, but it will still bring a smile to your day. In case you had not already noticed, the entirety of the steps dance moves are from Michael Jackson€™s Thriller. The scariest thing, however, is Matthew Broderick€™s dress sense.

15. Teahouse - Hard-Boiled (1992)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOHODwiEt5s It is odd to think that there was once a time when action heroes did not fire guns simultaneously with both hands. There was once a time when single gun combat was considered the limit of any action man€™s ability. Then in 1992, Chow Yun-Fat came sliding down the banisters of a teahouse, blasting two chambers at any bad guy stupid enough to get in his way. In one 20-second moment, director John Woo turned his leading man into an action legend, popularized the two-handed gunshot, perfected the slow-mo shoot out and made banisters cool. The scene is an ingenious use of surroundings, and helps move the restaurant shoot out from one room to another to another without once being trite, or stumbling for pace. The way in which Fat€™s Inspector €˜Tequila€™ Yuen, adapts to each scenario emphasis the resourcefulness of his character; and the use of banister to at once draw fire from bystanders AND waste two bad guys in one go, is a testament to just how badass he really is. Sadly, fans of Hard Boiled will be unable to visit the location featured, and attempt their own banister slide, as the building was demolished five days after filming there had finished. However, the legacy of Hard Boiled lives on and can be felt even today - most recently being echoed in the train station pursuit from Skyfall. Not bad for a scene that was improvised on set.

14. Arbogast Meets Mother - Psycho (1960)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bieIiX5KLQ There are precisely three moments in Psycho, where Mother pops up just enough to make us crap our pants. The second of these moments, is in this glorious scene; when she (or he), meets Detective Arbogast (Martin Balsam) at the top of the stairs with a carving knife. It is well known that Hitchcock was ill when this sequence was originally shot, and after seeing the rushes, insisted on re-shooting it himself. The stairs feature quite heavily in the build up, and when watched retrospectively, almost hint at the central role they are about to play. The sudden burst of score adds a chilling terror to the moment when Arbogast reaches the summit of the stairs. Hitchcock€™s choice of aerial perspective at this time, frames all three players (Arbogast, Mother, the stairs), and also generates an intelligent sustained fear - as we see Mother emerge from the door and make her way to the unsuspecting victim. This kind of well-crafted cat scare is now hard to come by in Western cinema, and is more often seen in Asian film-making. The hammy back projection and physics-defying tumble that Arbogast takes, is an iconic image, and it shows that surroundings can become an integral part of building tension. The tumble that Arbogast takes gives us the moment of thought, that he could potentially escape the situation. However, we also know better and secretly suspect the fall might well kill him before Mother gets a chance to. Of course, it also came to develop a now infamous horror convention €“ "never go up the stairs."