A security expert must infiltrate a burning skyscraper, 225 stories above ground, when his family is trapped inside by criminals.
FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Sawyer now assesses security for skyscrapers. On assignment in Hong Kong he finds the tallest, safest building in the world suddenly ablaze and he's been framed for it. A wanted man on the run, Will must find those responsible, clear his name and somehow rescue his family who are trapped inside the building - above the fire line.—ahmetkozan
Building security expert Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) is blamed when the tallest, most advanced building in the world, located in Hong Kong, bursts into flames. On the run from the police, the former FBI agent and amputee must infiltrate the inferno to rescue his wife (Neve Campbell) and children trapped inside, clear his name, and find out the truth behind the attack on the skyscraper.
Ten full years after that fateful hostage situation that cost him his left leg, the former leader of an FBI Hostage Rescue Team and now a private security consultant, Will Sawyer, travels with his family to exotic Hong Kong to certify the world's tallest skyscraper, the Pearl. However, a sinister conspiracy, and a team of ruthless, blackmailing mercenaries threaten to burn Chinese multi-billionaire Zhao Long Ji's prized possession to a crisp, when they manage to infiltrate the building and start a fire. Now, the city's safest building has trapped Will's family somewhere in the 96th floor, above the raging inferno, and Sawyer, with the police hot on his trail, must summon up the courage to enter the high-rise. But, can he reach his family before the all-consuming fire turns the skyscraper into a massive, 225-storey chimney?—Nick Riganas
A male security officer does everything that he can do to rescue his family who are trapped in a burning skyscraper. He must climb multiple levels to enter the skyscraper before time runs out and before everything inside is completely destroyed by the people in charge.—RECB3
Wealthy Chinese financier and entrepreneur Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han) has funded the construction of the world's tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, standing at 3,500 feet (1,100 m) and 225 stories tall, which they call "The Pearl". Although the building is structurally complete, the construction process has been not without complications and the building has yet to be opened to the public.
Marine war veteran and retired FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader, Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson), now assesses security for skyscrapers. Although having one leg amputated from the knee down from a previous mission, he is fitted with a modern prosthetic leg, which keeps his full mobility. Sawyer is tasked with inspecting the Pearl, and his family - wife Sarah (Neve Campbell) and twin children Georgia (McKenna Roberts) and Henry (Noah Cottrell) move into the building.
Sawyer confirms to Zhao, security directors Ajani Okeke (Adrian Holmes) and Sawyer's friend and fellow ex-FBI agent Ben Gillespie (Pablo Schreiber), and insurance executive Mr. Pierce (Noah Taylor), that the building's fire and security systems are secure, but he needs to inspect the off-site security center that controls the system. Zhao then hands Sawyer a tablet computer that gives full administrative access to The Pearl's computer systems that can only be unlocked by facial recognition.
While heading to the off-site security center, a thief working for Kores Botha (Roland Møller), an international terrorist with ties to many major crime syndicates, attempts to steal the tablet from Sawyer but fails, resulting in Ben revealing that he too is working with Botha so that he can ruin Sawyer out of envy, before attacking Sawyer to steal the tablet himself. In the struggle Ben is mortally wounded and warns Sawyer that Botha's men will kill him for the tablet before he dies.
As he leaves, Botha's subordinate Xia (Hannah Quinlivan) steals the tablet from Sawyer before infiltrating the security center and killing all the personnel there. Meanwhile, Botha and his men start a fire on the 96th floor of the building, triggering and activating the advanced computer-controlled fire extinguishing system installed throughout the skyscraper. A hacker at the security center then hacks the tablet, disabling the facial recognition and giving him access to The Pearl's security systems, locking out administrative access to The Pearl to Zhao and his team, as well as disabling all the fire extinguishing systems above the 95th floor, creating an impenetrable fire line that cuts off all rescue operations from below to assist the survivors on the upper floors. After doing so, Xia shoots the hacker.
The local police, led by Inspector Wu (Byron Mann), sends a team of officers to locate Sawyer, believing that he is involved with the incident at the skyscraper, and attempts to capture him as he makes his way to The Pearl. Sawyer, knowing that his family is trapped on the floors directly above the inferno, escapes from the police. He makes his way to a construction site adjacent to The Pearl, climbs a crane and leaps off it onto skyscraper, escaping Wu's team.
Zhao and Okeke send two security guards to rescue Sarah, Georgia, and Henry from the fire, but the guards are killed in an explosion that destroys the nearby elevator, forcing them to navigate through the flames to an upper lobby. Zhao and Okeke, believing Sawyer's family to be dead, decide to evacuate all remaining personnel on board a helicopter at Pierce's suggestion, only for Pierce to reveal it to be a trap and that he works for Botha. Okeke and the other workers are killed by Botha's men, but Zhao escapes and seals himself in his penthouse. Pierce is ordered to capture Sawyer's family and he attacks them, but Sawyer appears in time to kill Pierce. Georgia becomes separated from her family in the chaos of the growing fire, but Sawyer manages to get Sarah and Henry to a partially functioning elevator. Sarah and Henry use the elevator for a free-fall escape with the plan to engage the emergency brakes to reach the ground safely. Upon reaching the ground floor, Sarah helps the police identify Botha as the ringleader. Sarah then explains to the police that she saw the terrorists carrying parachutes, which explains how the terrorists plan to escape from the building and helps identify a potential drop zone.
When Sawyer finally locates Georgia, she has been abducted by Botha who uses her to negotiate his own escape from Sawyer and force him to capture Zhao. Sawyer is then forced to scale outside the building to a wiring panel to disable the doors to Zhao's penthouse. After entering the penthouse, Sawyer informs Zhao of his predicament as Zhao reveals the reasons for Botha's attack: halfway through the construction process, rival gangsters under the control of Botha decide to use their control of construction crews working on the skyscraper to extort millions of dollars in shakedown payments for preventing a massive strike of construction workers, potentially halting its progress. Zhao agrees to the shakedown payments, but not without carefully tracking and recording Botha's international money laundering scheme in his attempt to "legitimize" the funds he has extorted. Zhao believes that the memory card they have created containing the money laundering tracking information on Botha will provide them with insurance against any attempt by Botha to extort money from them a second time. Botha learns of the existence of the memory card and makes it a personal priority to retrieve the memory card in order to destroy it and the incriminating information it contains, because his bosses will kill him if he doesn't.
Sawyer and Zhao plan to rescue Georgia while Sarah accompanies Wu and several other police officers to Botha's drop zone, where they engage in a shootout with Xia and Botha's men. Most of Botha's men are killed, while Sarah knocks Xia unconscious. Sawyer pretends to hand Zhao over to Botha, only for Zhao to distract him allowing Sawyer to rescue Georgia. Zhao, Sawyer, and Georgia escape to the top of the Pearl, where Botha and his remaining men follow them. Zhao and Sawyer kill Botha's men, but Botha injures Zhao and takes Georgia hostage. Sawyer attacks Botha and pushes him off a ledge, where Botha is killed by his own grenade, and he rescues Georgia.
Sarah finds the stolen tablet dropped from Xia and discovers that she can override the shutdown of the fire extinguishing system built into the skyscraper by rebooting the entire computer system. The fire is rapidly brought under control, and a police helicopter rescues Sawyer, Georgia, and Zhao, who tells Sawyer he plans to rebuild the Pearl. Sawyer and Georgia reunite with Sarah and Henry, and the family leaves the premises.
