''The Tower'' (; "Tower") is a 2012 South Korean

disaster A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources ...

thriller film about a fire that breaks out in a luxury

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

in central Seoul on Christmas Eve after an

aviation accident An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of fl ...

involving a

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

. The film is directed by Kim Ji-hoon, and stars

Sol Kyung-gu Sol Kyung-gu (born May 14, 1967) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in ''Public Enemy (2002 film), Public Enemy'' film series, ''Peppermint Candy'', ''Oasis (2002 film), Oasis'', ''Silmido (film), Silmido'', ''Hope (2013 film ...

Son Ye-jin Son Ye-jin (born Son Eon-jin on January 11, 1982) is a South Korean actress. She rose to fame in 2003 for '' The Classic'' and ''Summer Scent'', which were followed by the commercially successful ''A Moment to Remember'' (2004) and '' April Snow ...

and

Kim Sang-kyung Kim Sang-kyung (born June 1, 1972; ) is a South Korean actor. He is known for his leading roles in ''Memories of Murder'' (2003) and ''May 18'' (2007). Two of his films directed by Hong Sang-soo, ''Tale of Cinema'' (2005) and '' Ha Ha Ha'' (20 ...

in the lead roles. It was released in theaters on December 25, 2012.

Plot

Lee Dae-ho (

) is a single father and manager of Tower Sky, a 120 story luxurious landmark building complex in

Yeouido Yeouido (Hangul: 여의도, en, Yoi Island or Yeoui Island) is a large island (or eyot) on the Han River in Seoul, South Korea. It is Seoul's main finance and investment banking district. Its 8.4 square kilometers are home to some 30,988 people ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. He is an earnest employee liked by his colleagues and is secretly in love with Seo Yoon-hee (

), a restaurant manager. Mr. Jo, the owner of the complex, decides to hold a "White Christmas" party for tenants and VIPs on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...

, with

s circling above with huge lights attached below them, sprinkling snow onto the party. Dae-ho has promised to spend the day at an amusement park with his daughter Ha-na, but had to cancel as he is needed at the party. However, the building has faulty water sprinklers due to frozen pipes, but Mr. Cha, the ''Tower Skys safety section head, is more concerned for the party than any possible architectural errors within the building, despite warnings from his fellow employers about these errors. (One example of their warnings is when cook Young-cheol (Jeon Bae-soo) accidentally leaves a stove on for too long and causes a minor fire.) Young-cheo is in love with a receptionist within the building named Min-jung, and even sneaks out of the kitchen while on duty to make her an ice cream. Meanwhile, Lee Seon-woo (

Do Ji-han Do Ji-han (born September 24, 1991) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his supporting roles in the film '' The Tower'' (2012), which earned him a Baeksang Arts Award nomination for Best New Actor, and on the KBS2's television series ' ...

) is a rookie fireman entering the

Fire Station. When he gets accepted, he learns that many of the firefighters get more breaks than actual firefighting. In a prank to fool Seon-woo, the other firefighters ring the fire alarm for the squad to assemble while he takes a shower, causing him to appear in front of his entire team naked, much to the other firefighters' amusement. They take the opportunity to show their acceptance of Seon-woo as one of them, putting his helmet on his head for the first time. While the party is in full swing, and while Young-cheo proposes a rose to Min-jung in an elevator, huge gusts of wind cause one of the helicopters to lose control and the attached lights crash into the glass bridge connecting the two ''Tower Sky'' buildings and into a side of one of the buildings. Another one of the helicopters then crashes into the building, causing the helicopter to leak fuel and the building catches fire. Shards of glass fall onto the partygoers below, which include Mr. Yoon (

Song Jae-ho Song Jae-ho (born Song Jae-eon; 10 March 1937 – 7 November 2020) was a South Korean actor. Career He made his acting debut in 1959, and became best known for his work in 1970s and 1980s Korean cinema, notably ''Yeong-ja's Heydays'' (1975). S ...

) and his friend Mrs. Jung (Lee Joo-shil), while another one of the huge lights falls and crashes onto a bus. At one point, while evacuating, some people, including a security guard, board an elevator despite warnings not to use it, as the security guard rejects Yoon-hee and Ha-na from entering just as they are about to board. While traveling down, an explosion occurs below the elevator, which stops it in its path. This literally fries the people inside while melting their shoes until the elevator explodes, killing everyone in it. Dae-ho moves quickly to save Ha-na, Yoon-hee and his colleagues. At the same time, firefighters Kang Young-ki (

) and Seon-woo fight to bring the blaze under control, helping Dae-ho in the process. Together they fight to save the lives of everyone. While Yoon-hee, Ha-na, Young-cheol, Ming-jung and the others take refuge in the building's Chinese restaurant, the firefighters decide to contain the blaze at its origin, the 63rd floor, where the helicopter crashed. Despite containing the fire on that floor, it spreads further within the building. In the end, Young-ki sacrifices his own life to save not only Seon-woo, but for all people in the future by detonating the switch manually inside the water storage tanks to allow the current to carry the remaining survivors through the sewers and out into the Han River since he accidentally dropped the remote control switch while on his way. Meanwhile, the Mayor of Seoul orders the firefighters to detonate a bomb to demolish the building in order to prevent it from toppling over onto the other twin tower, which will result in

cascade effect A cascade effect is an inevitable and sometimes unforeseen chain of events due to an act affecting a system. If there is a possibility that the cascade effect will have a negative impact on the system, it is possible to analyze the effects with a ...

structural failure Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...

of Tower Sky and decimate the portion of the island district of

, causing colossal damage and casualties. Before the credits roll, the camera points out in the air towards

63 Building The 63 Building ( ko, 63빌딩), officially called 63 SQUARE (formerly Hanwha 63 City), is a skyscraper on Yeouido island, overlooking the Han River in Seoul, South Korea. At 249 meters (817 ft) high, it was the tallest building outside N ...

, with the remains of Tower Sky seen in the background as morning rises on Christmas Day, which is now left with a single 108-story skyscraper, with Yeouido District shrouded below by a cloud of dust generated by the collapsing ruins of the Riverview Tower.

Cast

– Captain Kang Young-ki *

– Seo Yoon-hee *

– Lee Dae-ho *

Kim In-kwon Kim In-kwon (born January 20, 1978) is a South Korean actor. Known for playing memorable supporting characters, he starred in his first leading role in the sleeper hit ''He's on Duty'' (2010), followed by ''Almost Che'' (2012), '' Born to Sing'' ( ...

– Sergeant Oh Byung-man *

Ahn Sung-ki Ahn Sung-ki (born January 1, 1952) is a South Korean actor. One of the country's most respected actors, he has appeared in more than 130 films during his career of over 60 years. Career A native of Seoul, Ahn was the son of a veteran filmmaker ...

–

Fire Station chief *

– Mr. Yoon, the old man * Lee Joo-shil – Mrs. Jung, Mr. Yoon's friend *

Lee Han-wi Lee Han-wi (born June 17, 1961) is a South Korean actor. Since his acting debut in 1983, Lee has become a prolific supporting actor on Korean film and television. He is particularly known for his mastery of ad-libbing In music and other pe ...

– Mr. Kim, church elder * Kwon Tae-won – Jang, the Fire Commissioner * Jeon Guk-hyang – Ae-ja *

Jung In-gi Jung In-gi (born September 12, 1966) is a South Korean actor. Jung made his acting debut in 1990, and has remained active in mainstream and independent film as well as television, notably in ''Jury'' (2013), '' The Five'' (2013) and ''Gap-dong ...

– Cha, the safety section head *

Cha In-pyo Cha In-pyo (; born October 14, 1967) is a South Korean actor and director. Early life Cha graduated from Rutgers University in the U.S. with a degree in economics. His father ran a shipping company and had intended for Cha to take over the f ...

– President Jo *

Jeon Bae-soo Jeon Bae-soo (Korean: 전배수, born 2 June 1970) is a South Korean theatre, film and television actor. He is known for his supporting roles in various TV series and films. His better known works are: 2016 TV series ''The K2'', 2019 romantic c ...

– Young-chul, the cook *

Kim Sung-oh Kim Sung-oh (born September 15, 1978) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his supporting roles ''Supporting Roles'' ( es, Papeles secundarios) is a 1989 Cuban drama film directed by Orlando Rojas. The film was selected as the Cub ...

– In-gun * Min Young – Nam-ok, the pregnant woman * Park Jun-seo – aide * Lee Joo-ha – Min-jung, the receptionist *

– Lee Sun-woo, the rookie fireman * Jo Min-ah – Lee Ha-na, Dae-ho's daughter * Lee Sang-hong – Yeouido fireman * Jin Mo – Yeouido fireman * Chu Min-ki – Yeouido fireman * Kang Poong – Yeouido fireman *

Kwon Hyun-sang Im Dong-jae (born July 2, 1981), better known professionally as Kwon Hyun-sang, is a South Korean actor. Career Kwon Hyun-Sang made his acting debut in the 2008 horror movie ''Death Bell'', which was followed by supporting roles in several film ...

– Young-hoon * Lee Chang-yong – command HQ specialist * Lee Chang-joo – Jo's private secretary *

Park Chul-min Park Chul-min (born January 18, 1967) is a South Korean actor. Career Park Chul-min began acting in his high school drama club at Chosun University High School, and though he majored in Business Administration at Chung-Ang University, he spent ...

– head cook *

Kim Eung-soo Kim Eung-soo (; born February 12, 1961) is a South Korean actor. Kim lived in Japan for seven years, where he studied filmmaking at the Japan Institute of the Moving Image The , formerly known as the Yokohama Broadcasting Technical School, is a ...

– Jin * Park Jeong-hak – Jung * Park Yong-su – Park * Kim Soo-jin – Kang Young-ki's wife * Nam Sang-seok – reporter in front of Tower Sky * Kwon Young-hee – reporter in front of Tower Sky * Lee Min-woo – reporter in front of Tower Sky

English dubbing

*Captain Kang Young-ki - Buba Kachow *Lee Dae-ho -

Patrick Seitz David Patrick Seitz (born March 17, 1978) is an American voice actor Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists ...

*Seo Yoon-hee -

Erin Fitzgerald Erin Fitzgerald is a Canadian voice actress who provides voice-overs for a number of cartoons, video games and English language dubs of Japanese anime. In animation, she voices Raven Queen in ''Ever After High'' and C.A. Cupid in both ''Monster ...

*Sergeant Oh Byung-man -

Sean Chiplock Sean Edward Chiplock (born June 21, 1990) is an American voice actor who is known for voicing English versions of Japanese video games and anime. Based in Los Angeles, Chiplock is known as the voice of Rean Schwarzer from '' The Legend of Heroe ...

*In-geon -

Lucien Dodge Lucien Dodge (born June 24, 1984) is an American voice actor who does work in animation, anime and video games. He is mostly known for his characters in anime such as Waver Velvet in '' Fate/Zero'', Maron and Chili in ''Pokémon'', K1-B0 in '' Da ...

*Lee Seon-woo -

Johnny Yong Bosch Johnny Yong Bosch (born January 6, 1976) is an American actor, musician, singer, and martial artist. His first major role was the portrayal of Adam Park, the second Black Power Ranger and later, the Green Zeo Ranger and first Green Turbo Ranger i ...

*Lee Ha-na -

Cassandra Lee Cassandra Lee Morris (born April 19, 1982) is an American voice actress. After starting her career as a teenage program host for an educational video series called ''Real World Science'', she worked as a journalist in New York City and Los Ang ...

*Cha - Russel Jimmies *Mr. Kim -

Kyle Hebert Kyle Henry Hebert ( ) is an American voice actor and DJ who works for anime and video game series, such as the teenage/adult Gohan and the narrator in the Funimation dub of the ''Dragon Ball series'', Sōsuke Aizen in '' Bleach'', Ryu in the ...

*Mr. Yoon - Steve Mann *Young-cheol -

Todd Haberkorn Todd Haberkorn is an American voice actor and director, who has dubbed in anime, films, and video games. Career While Haberkorn was working in theater, he joined Funimation as a voice actor, with minor roles in ''One Piece'', ''Black Cat'', a ...

*Min-jung -

Erika Harlacher Erika Lynn Harlacher-Stone (; born August 29, 1990) is an American voice actress based in the Los Angeles area who has provided voices for English dubbed Japanese anime shows and video games. Some of her major roles in anime include: Yugo in W ...

Production

Director Kim Ji-hoon (who previously helmed ''

Sector 7 Sector Seven, Sector 7, or variations thereon may refer to: * Sector 7 (book), ''Sector 7'' (book), a wordless picture book created and illustrated by David Wiesner * Sector 7 (film), ''Sector 7'' (film), a 2011 South Korean 3D science fiction acti ...

'' and ''

May 18 Events Pre-1600 * 332 – Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople. * 872 – Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Holy Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of 4 ...

'') was inspired by the 1974 Hollywood film ''

The Towering Inferno ''The Towering Inferno'' is a 1974 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin and produced by Irwin Allen, featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels '' The Towe ...

'', and his personal experience seeing the

for the first time as a middle school student and imagining how it would feel to be trapped inside. The crew built 26 different sets to create various spaces in the fictional 108-story Tower Sky such as a Chinese restaurant, elevators and a pedestrian overpass between the two blocks. For the scenes involving water on the 80th floor, actors

and

filmed in a water container set in Goyang City,

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

, without using stuntmen. Kim worked on the film's

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

for two years. 1,700

cut Cut may refer to: Common uses * The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force ** A type of wound ** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past ** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment ** Cut (ea ...

s out of 3,000 were based on CGI and 500 of the CG cuts were full 3-D cut scenes. For more authenticity, live action shoots were combined with CGI, such as the shooting of a

miniature A miniature is a small-scale reproduction, or a small version. It may refer to: * Portrait miniature, a miniature portrait painting * Miniature art, miniature painting, engraving and sculpture * Miniature (chess), a masterful chess game or probl ...

in the United States with a motion control camera for the ending scene.

Box office

On its theater release on December 25, 2012, ''The Tower'' drew 431,759 admissions, the second highest opening day ticket sales in the history of Korean cinema (after ''

The Thieves ''The Thieves'' () is a 2012 South Korean heist action comedy film directed by Choi Dong-hoon with an ensemble cast. With over 12.9 million ticket sales, the action comedy is the ninth highest-grossing film in Korean film history. Plot Yen ...

'' 436,628). It sold two million tickets in its first week, 3.54 million by its second week, and 4.45 million by its third week. On January 22, 2013, it became the first Korean film in 2013 to reach the five million mark.

International

The film was pre-sold by

CJ Entertainment CJ Entertainment (Hangul: CJ 엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean film production and distribution company under CJ ENM. The company operates as a film production company, film publishing house, investment and exhibition. History During early 1 ...

to Entertainment One in UK, Splendid in Germany, Benelux, Zylo for French-speaking territories, Horizon International in Turkey, Rainbow Entertainment in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia; and Jonon Source in Mongolia. ''The Tower'' earned at the

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

box office.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tower, The 2012 films 2010s thriller films South Korean thriller films South Korean disaster films Films about firefighting South Korean Christmas films Films set in Seoul Films shot in Seoul Films shot in Incheon Films directed by Kim Ji-hoon CJ Entertainment films 2010s Korean-language films Films about high-rise fires 2010s South Korean films