High-Rise is a 2015 British dystopian thriller film directed by Ben Wheatley from a screenplay by Amy Jump, based on the 1975 novel of the same name by J. G.

[4] The film stars Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, and Elisabeth Moss.

In September 1975, Dr Robert Laing lives in a ravaged high-rise tower block, killing a dog and spit-roasting its leg.

Three months earlier, the 40-storey tower on the outskirts of London, built by esteemed architect Anthony Royal, is the epitome of chic, modern living.

With amenities including a pool, gym, spa, supermarket and primary school, the occupants have little reason to leave the building beyond working hours and become increasingly isolated from the outside world.

Laing, who moves onto the 25th floor after his sister dies, begins a sexual relationship with single mother Charlotte Melville and becomes a father figure to her son, Toby.

Laing also befriends documentary filmmaker Richard Wilder and his pregnant wife Helen, who live in a low-level apartment with their children.

While Laing leads a physiology class in examining a severed head, a student named Munrow faints and is given a precautionary brain scan.

The gathering turns out to be an 18th-century costume party where Laing's everyday suit is ridiculed by Ann and other guests, including Munrow, who also lives in the building.

Another power cut ignites a night of decadent partying throughout the high-rise, and a drunk Munrow commits suicide by jumping off the 39th floor.

Law and order in the building disintegrate as violence and debauchery become commonplace, garbage piles up, food becomes scarce, and class warfare erupts between floors.

Laing shows signs of mental disturbance, savagely beating a man, barricading himself in his apartment, and having sex with Helen.

The film concludes with Toby listening to a radio broadcast of Margaret Thatcher declaring that "where there is state capitalism there can never be political freedom."

[10][11] In the 2000s, Thomas began developing the project with screenwriter Richard Stanley and director Vincenzo Natali, with the film intended as a loose adaptation of the novel.

[22] On 6 August 2014, Hiddleston tweeted a photograph of himself from the set seen in character as Laing, together with Wheatley, Evans and director of photography Laurie Rose.

The site's critics consensus reads: "High-Rise may not quite live up to its classic source material, but it still offers an energetic, well-acted, and thought-provoking take on its timely socioeconomic themes.