Elevators

Have you ever seen the outside of an elevator car, the side that faces the shaft? Not in a movie, IRL? I'm an architect (sort of, long story) and I've worked construction but I have never seen the outside of an elevator car, never climbed onto the roof of one through the access panel movies assure us exists but I've never looked for, never stood on top of a car or dangled beneath one, holding on with one hand while fighting ninja assassins with the other.

Think about how many times you've seen people climbing on elevator cars or moving through elevator shafts in movies and on television. It happens all the time! Not just in action movies either. Let me think of some prime examples. I'm not going to give the dates of the movies because I don't want to look them all up on the IMDB.

Silence of the Lambs, the original. Lecter escapes by throwing Sgt. Pembry (sp?) on to the top of an elevator car, Chris Isaak shoots Pembry in the leg thinking it's Lecter. You remember the scene.

Die Hard. The whole series takes place in elevator shafts. My particular favourite is in Live Free or Die Hard when McClane and Maggie Q have a fight in and out of an SUV falling down an elevator shaft.

Star Trek TNG. The Enterprise has elevator shafts, who knew? I don't know the episode name but Picard gets trapped in an elevator with a bunch of kids. His leg is broken (or something) and they have to escape.

Star Wars Episode Three. Obi Wan and Anakin use the elevators to rescue the Chancellor. Really awful scenes in a really awful movie.

Mission Impossible. Again, a whole series that takes place in elevator shafts. And garage elevators. Although the case could be made more action occurs in air ducts than elevator shafts. Similar to Jurassic Park. The elevator is at least possible. Or, I assume it's possible. Most people don't know enough about elevators, myself included, to know whether or not it's possible. But air ducts are made of the flimsiest steel imaginable. They will hold the weight of a cat but not a person - not even a kid.

I watched a YouTube video in which Slavoj Zizek was attempting to analyze a similar problem (the incongruities between interior and exterior space) and his conclusion was the inside of walls, including plumbing, wiring, etc, was a metaphor for our sub-conscious. That is why the exploitation of these spaces as unknown and possibly dangerous is a trope in so many horror movies. But the movies I've mentioned aren't horror movies. Typically they are action movies but some (like Star Trek TNG) are just about over-coming obstacles. So I don't think Zizek's explanation applies in this case.

I think the explanation is simpler. We know the world is governed by rules but we don't know how to navigate the complexity. Moreover, we don't even know who makes the rules. They are just there - like elevators or air ducts. They are part of the architecture (metaphorically) of our society. So people who are extremely capable (the secret agents, with emphasis on agent, of the world) can use them but most of us are just reliant on them working as we expect them to.

Anyone reading these posts will be forced to conclude I, myself, feel powerless and am projecting my own feelings on to cultural phenomena. I think that is probably true but I doubt my situation is peculiar, or even noteworthy. While I am at a point in my life where uncertainty is very high and, consequently, I feel unprotected against the random shocks life delivers, all that has changed from periods of high-confidence and a sense of protection is the subjective emotions. We are all constantly prey to events over which we have no control. Small wonder we admire people who can leap into the hidden structure of our lives and force conditions to suit themselves.

This is the same reason magic appeals to us. It is all part of the same fantasy. Our control over the events which dominate our lives (from the workplace to the nation and beyond) is almost nothing. We do what we can but, in our weaker (or more objective) moments, we must admit this is very little. We aim for a goal and whether or not we achieve it is not determined by our indomitable will or the strength of our character. It is determined only in small part by anything we do, possess, or are. And when we are blocked from achieving a goal, who wouldn't want to be able, more precisely, to be the agent who can get on top of the elevator we were riding and climb to the top, even if the elevator refuses to move? This fantasy, of the ability to manipulate the world to make it as we please, is the motivator and attractor for movies as varied as The Matrix and the Harry Potter franchise. It is clearest in the Potter books and films - although I can't remember any elevators.

Potter is a mistreated orphan with no control over his own situation until he finds out he is a wizard. He then receives all kinds of magical implements that provide him almost complete control over his fate. He can be invisible, or someone else whenever he wants. He can fly. He can fight. And he is rich, something the books kind of gloss over. If there was an elevator in Hogwarts you can bet Harry, Ron, and Hermione would have been on top of it at one time or another.