I remember seeing the trailer for this and then it never showed up at any theater. When it popped up on Netflix, I pounced on the opportunity to see another JG Ballard story brought to life. His other most famous novel-turned-into-film was Crash starring James Spader. I’ve never seen that yet I want to thanks to Joe Bob Briggs’ compelling piece in his book Profoundly Disturbing. Ergo, High-Rise isn’t for the squeamish.
In an alternate future’s Seventies, there is a series of high-rise towers being built outside of London. The architect’s objective is to have five buildings positioned around like fingers on a hand with the parking lot in the middle as the palm. Only one has been completed. Inside it is everything you really need for modern living. A grocery store on the 15th floor, a gym on the 30th, there’s a swimming pool too but I forgot which floor, same goes for the school. The architect himself (the always creepy Jeremy Irons) lives on the top floor (the 40th) with his resentful wife; she grew up in the countryside so as a compromise, there are live farm animals roaming the penthouse’s lush gardens.
The protagonist is Dr. Laing (Tom Hiddleston), a new resident on the 25th floor. He experiences the building’s luxuries, even gets invited to a game of squash against the architect. He also gets entangled with Charlotte on the 26th, a secretary on many of the high-rise’s community boards. Rumor has it, she is or was the architect’s mistress.
The whole premise comes off like a soap opera initially. However, this is a Ballard story and matters begin to sour with the tower’s sudden power outages. The architect dismisses the events as “the building is just settling.” People on the lower floors don’t agree. Due to their lower socio-economic status, they accuse the higher floors of trying to flex their muscle: rationing electricity, taking away pool privileges, hoarding the better food for the supermarket, etc. Inevitably the various floors go to war with each other. This leads to the entire building being looted, squalor and killing. Everyone involved, including Laing, become so enthralled with the turf war, they’ve all lost interest in the outside world. The police come by at least once to see if everything is alright but the architect has enough clout to dismiss their curiosity. How it all ends if left up to interpretation or maybe the original novel has a stronger clue.
This being a JG Ballard story, there are scenes not for the faint of heart: decadent parties with nudity; horrible, gruesome beatings/stabbings; drugs and rape. I think there’s a point trying to be made about humans in a microcosm, especially when you telegraph the social classes via floors. I also believe the story is an inspiration for the numerous Bloc Wars in Judge Dredd stories. Overall I did like it despite seeing humanity giving into base desires and “retro” Sci-Fi is very rare in our era of “tent-pole” movies.