28 Classic Movie Scenes Involving Stairs

4. Freefall - The Bourne Indentity (2002)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhpJ11dNp2o Leaving the 7th floor of an apartment building in a rush? No lift option, and the stairs are backed up with gunfire? Then why not ride a henchman to the ground floor! That sort of crazy-assed stuff sounds just as ridiculous as it looks, but man is it awesome! There are two significant stair related scenes in The Bourne Identity €“ the first involving a Mini. But I personally feel that simply because of sheer audacity, this scene from the climax deserves a place on the list. Not only are the physics of the situation totally ludicrous, but also director Doug Liman even felt it appropriate for Jason Bourne to deliver a perfect head-shot to a gunman on the way down. There are apparently 8 kills by Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity, and this scene accounts for three of them. Mathematically, that makes this gloriously OTT moment the most violent 60 seconds in the film. It is the kind of moment that undoes any real sense of authenticity accomplished to that point, and is the sort of thing you would expect from Schwarzenegger, not Matt Damon. However, it was still awesome enough to get away with it and thankfully led onto the two far superior sequels. Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum€™s perfection may have had something to do with Paul Greengrass€™ exceptional direction, or maybe it was because Jason Bourne didn€™t do any more cadaver base jumping. But either way, it is mental s**t like that, which leads to serious head trauma. Not the sort of thing an amnesiac can afford to suffer again.

3. The Return - Titanic (1997)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi4fXir6Fm4 I have never been quite sure how much James Cameron intended Titanic to end on a bummer, but it kind of does. When you think of it objectively, Rose (Kate Winslet) essentially dies, and her spirit returns to the ruins of the Titanic, where it will forever remain trapped with the souls who died there. The fact that Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) is there is immaterial, because basically this is the closet to Heaven any of them will ever get. So according to James Cameron, when we die we just€ remain. That grand staircase on the Titanic crops up periodically throughout the film, and is seen to take part in most of the major events experienced by Jack and Rose. It is the meeting place of their first dinner date, it is devoured by water when the ship sinks, and it is a key location in the reunion of the two lovers when mega old Rose eventually dies. The closing moments of Titanic are framed beautifully, and really demonstrate the affluence of Cameron€™s visual technique. From the murky depths, we track in to the rotting hull of the great ship (establishing shot). Sweeping through the halls, we are almost floating as history appears to take hold, and the halls are transformed back to their original beauty (storytelling technique €“ turning back time). As we turn to a stedi-cam shot, it is very clear we are in Rose€™s perspective as two men open a door for us (perception). Those who died are here to greet us, and then we climb the staircase where Jack is waiting (establishment of ethereal setting). Just as the camera reaches Jack it pulls away to a medium shot of the two lovers embracing for the first time since the ship sank (completion of a personal journey). From descent into water to elevation on stairs, Rose has €˜risen€™ to be with her true love. And James Cameron chose to set it all on those giant ornate stairs. So I guess, in a way, it is still a happy ending after all.

2. "Bash Your Brains In" - The Shining (1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sMmgIVJFms The Shining is without a doubt the most articulate and well-structured horror film in the history of the genre. It is visually beguiling, and has the psychological impact of bathing in a pool of severed limbs. This will divide critics, but I would suggest that The Shining is Stanley Kubrick€™s most accomplished film; it is at once utterly mystifying yet wholly absorbing. One of the film€™s key scenes, and one of the oft quoted, involves Wendy (Shelley Duvall) cowering from her nut-ball husband Jack (Jack Nicholson), whilst waving a baseball bat and ascending a staircase backwards. Kubrick reportedly made Nicholson and Duvall repeat the scene some 127 times (there is some debate about that number), adding to the near breakdown the actress experienced due to working with the director. But it was all worth it, and the end result is a seething trickle of hate and fear that blasts the emotional dam created up to that point, and floods the third act with a gnarly revulsion. This was one of the first times a stedi-cam was used, and is a prime example of just how brilliant it is as a storytelling tool. Kubrick€™s insistence of treading the camera up the same steps as his characters submerges the viewer in the scene and violently awakens us to the jarring inversion of a classic theme; the dominant character is being seen from a high angle (indicative of €˜smallness€™), yet his ascension signifies a coming victory and power, whereas the victim is seen from a low angle (symbolic of power) whilst stumbling backwards up the stairs, giving a sense of vulnerability and a movement toward the unknown. Never mind a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack part of an amazing scene.