Standing at 1,018 feet tall, the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles is the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. It has the unfortunate designation of being a building that’s often “destroyed” in disaster and alien invasion movies, specifically ones directed by Roland Emmerich. It’s the first building destroyed by alien spaceships in the 1996 Will Smith epic “Independence Day,” whose sequel is scheduled to premiere in June. In “The Day After Tomorrow,” the tower was hit by an F5 tornado, and in 2009’s end-of-the-world epic “2012” and the 2015 movie “San Andreas,” the skyscraper is seen crumbling in massive earthquakes.
New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel is considered one of the world’s most famous. Designated as an official city-wide landmark in 1993, the hotel was sold in 2015 to China’s Anbang Insurance for $1.95 billion, a record for a US hotel. The hotel was the main setting for the 1945 Ginger Roberts film “Week-End at the Waldorf.” Since then, more than a dozen movies have been shot or set in the Waldorf, including “Coming to America,” “Scent of a Woman” and “Maid in Manhattan.”
Standing at 779 feet, 555 California Street is the second-tallest building in San Francisco. The 52-story office tower, which is owned by Vornado Realty Trust (the majority owner) and the Trump Organization, was featured in the opening scene of the 1971 Clint Eastwood action classic “Dirty Harry,” in which Scorpio uses a sniper rifle to shoot a girl in a swimming pool on a hotel roof. The skyscraper was also used in last year’s disaster movie “San Andreas” as a meeting point between three main characters. But the building is most famous for appearing in the 1974 Oscar award-winning film “The Towering Inferno,” about a massive fire that threatens to destroy a colossal office building.
Fox Plaza in Los Angeles is the setting of the original 1988 “Die Hard,” the spot where Bruce Willis, as Officer John McClane, goes up against Alan Rickman, as German terrorist Hans Gruber. In the movie, the tower is known as Nakatomi Plaza. The building is owned and operated by the Irvine Group, and is a LEED Gold-certified property.
One of the world’s most iconic structures, the Empire State Building has appeared in more than 250 films, whether in shots of New York City’s famous skyline, in the background of scenes, or as the location for the dramatic climax. Owned by Empire State Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust that focuses on retail and office holdings in Manhattan and the greater New York area, the skyscraper has been a staple of NYC-based films since shortly after its completion in 1931, when it held the title of tallest building in the world. The Empire State Building has made notable appearances in “An Affair to Remember,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and the 2003 Will Ferrell comedy “Elf,” but none more iconic than “King Kong.” Both the original 1933 film and the 2005 remake feature the climactic final showdown atop the tower, which King Kong climbs in an attempt to escape his captors, only to be shot down by warplanes.