Skyscraper 1996

Carrie Wink works as a helicopter pilot for Heliscort, a company that offers discreet heli-taxi transport to high-profile clients. She is married to Gordon Wisk, a detective with the LAPD, a partnership that quietly anchors her in a world where danger and duty intersect. When a South African mastermind, Fairfax, sets his sights on four interlocking electronic devices that could tilt the balance of global power, he has already secured three and is closing in on the fourth. The taunting plan rests on precision, deception, and a willingness to shed blood to obtain what he wants.

Unbeknownst to Carrie, she has already helped move two of Fairfax’s operatives toward a critical exchange, and the fourth device lies hidden inside the Zitex building, a towering 86-floor skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles. The assignment that follows pits Carrie against a deadly, meticulously organized conspiracy. She is summoned to pick up two VIPs, only to discover they are Fairfax and his French associate, Jacques. The pair seize control of the building’s security system and wipe out the guards, locking down an entire floor as the firefight erupts.

Fairfax then confronts Cranston, the actual keeper of the fourth device. Cranston is mortally wounded in the synched gun battle, yet his last move is to ensure his companion can escape unnoticed—before Cranston himself dies, he manages to flee with the suitcase containing the device and reappears on the roof to hand the burden to Carrie. The plea is blunt: keep this away from Fairfax at all costs. Carrie accepts the gravity of the moment and is drawn deeper into a life-or-death struggle that she never sought but for which she is, in truth, prepared.

As the rooftop pursuit heats up, a relentless terrorist closes in. Carrie, with a surge of instinct and training, makes a daring escape from the killer by leaping into a window-washer’s rig. She latches onto a heavy steel winch cable, swinging around gunfire and dashing through the building’s exterior as the winch is shot from its mount. The cable snaps free just as the antagonist closes in, and Carrie crashes through a window to safety. Not done yet, she conceals the suitcase in a nearby trash trolley and treads carefully through the chaos.

Her next move is to reclaim agency from the chaos around her. She tracks down a security guard to secure a weapon, arming herself for the dangerous floor-by-floor confrontation that follows. Back on the floor with the hostages, she employs a clever tactic to disrupt the terrorists’ surveillance: lighting fires in waste paper bins triggers the building’s fire alarm and confuses the attackers, giving the hostages a glimmer of hope as the monitors flicker and falter.

The situation intensifies when Fairfax and his gunmen recapture Carrie and demand the exact location of the suitcase in exchange for the hostages’ freedom. A brutal reminder of the stakes comes when a hostage is killed after attempting to swap his stolen money for his own escape. Carrie reveals the suitcase’s location, a moment that intensifies the chase and sets the stage for a showdown that will decide the fate of everyone trapped inside.

Meanwhile, Gordon Wisk follows a parallel path, drawn toward Zitex as part of the mounting concern for his wife’s safety. Not realizing Carrie is already there, he discovers her mobile and becomes an active participant in the escalating pursuit, chasing Fairfax’s men through a maze of corridors and stairwells. A violent confrontation unfolds when a guard tries to rape Carrie, and she responds with lethal precision, stabbing him in the leg and then turning her attention to Natasha, Natasha, shooting her in the back to free the remaining hostages. It’s clear that Carrie has learned from her husband’s tactical discipline, and she moves with the calm efficiency of a trained marksman.

Gordon’s valor and Carrie’s resolve converge as Fairfax locates the final device and eliminates Jacques. With the rooftop now within reach, Fairfax aims to coerce Carrie into flying him out, unaware that Gordon is also present. A brief clash leaves Gordon with a shoulder wound, but it is Carrie who ultimately decides the fight. She strips the weapon from Fairfax, delivers a flurry of kicks and punches, and sends him plummeting to the street below, a fatal fall that ends the danger at its source.

In the aftermath, the boy who had been involuntarily part of the chaos is finally reunited with his mother, who has survived the peril she faced earlier. Carrie, though battered and exhausted, makes it to an ambulance with Gordon by her side, the couple sharing a hard-earned moment of relief amid the wreckage of a night that tested them in every conceivable way. The Zitex ordeal closes with a fragile sense of closure, as the city’s fear dissipates and two spouses weather the storm together, their bond proven by fire, grit, and hand-to-hand resolve.