In the film, Will Sawyer, a former FBI agent, must rescue his family from a newly built Hong Kong skyscraper, the tallest in the world, after terrorists set the building on fire in an attempt to extort the property developer.

Development started in May 2016 when Legendary Entertainment won the bidding war for a Chinese-set action adventure film.

Will and Ben head to the offsite facility, but a thief hired by international terrorist Kores Botha attempts to steal the tablet.

Hong Kong Police Force Inspector Wu and his team attempt to secure the Pearl and capture Will, who is believed to be behind the incidents.

Will, Georgia, and Zhao are brought down safely by helicopter, and the Will family happily reunites while Wu acknowledges and finally meets and greets Will.

Zhao states his intention to rebuild the Pearl, shown to have massive fire damage extending from the 96th floor to the roof.

On May 26, 2016, it was announced that Legendary Entertainment had won the bidding war for a Chinese-set action adventure film, Skyscraper, in which Dwayne Johnson was set to play the lead.

[7] On June 22, 2017, it was reported that Neve Campbell had signed on to play the wife of Johnson's character, a role where Maggie Q, Rachel Bilson, Jaimie Alexander and Mira Sorvino were also considered.

[9][10] In August 2017, Byron Mann, Hannah Quinlivan, Noah Taylor, and Roland Møller were added to the cast.

According to the New York Post, "production designer Jim Bissell and his team researched local myths for inspiration and came upon a Chinese fable they could work with."

[23] British singer and songwriter Jamie N Commons performed the song "Walls" which plays in the end credits of the film.

[25] Promo posters in the form of The Towering Inferno (1974) and Die Hard (1988) were created, referencing the stylistic links between those films and Skyscraper.

Deadline Hollywood attributed the low figure to audiences having seen the plot before in other films and the July release date being at the height of the crowded summer movie season, as well as the possibility that filmgoers had become tired of seeing Johnson so frequently (although the site noted that 72% of people who bought tickets to Skyscraper did so because of him).

The website's consensus reads: "Well-cast yet derivative, Skyscraper isn't exactly a towering action thriller feat, but it's solidly constructed enough to stand among the genre's more mildly diverting features.

[33] Alonso Duralde of TheWrap called the film a "satisfying summer thriller," while acknowledging the familiar plot, and writing, "Skyscraper doesn't change the action-movie game the way Die Hard did, but it's a solidly entertaining summer diversion best enjoyed on the biggest theater — or even better, drive-in — screen you can find.

"[42] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty found the film to be a weak clone of Die Hard, giving it a "C−" rating and stating: "It's all passively watchable, but the main problem is that writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Central Intelligence) hasn't come up with a villain nearly as memorable as Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber.