In the same way that the setting of New York City is often referred to as its own character, buildings and infrastructure (while almost always overlooked) should only help to compliment a character and their journey. Take Woody Allan’s love letter to Manhattan, or the chaotic energy of Adam Sandler frantically trying to make desperate deals in the Diamond District of Uncut Gems.

As art will directly affect the look of a building itself, the art world in turn will always have an effect on the reels. Take the first-hand input of an artist like H.R. Giger on 1979’s Alien. The sci-fi/horror classic and its follow-ups would have come off as far less grotesquely sexualized if not for the cavernous designs of the foreign ships and the dark architecture in alien planets for the human crew to stumble upon, be it massive prisons, underwater sewers, or cavernous alien habitats.

Elsewhere, architecture has informed some iconic sequences in film and television, from the amazing shootout in the Guggenheim from The International to M.C. Escher’s Relativity drawing of endless staircases being used directly as a set on screen by David Bowie (below), Freddy Krueger, and Futurama’s Bender. In this list, we climb the stairs to the top of some of the best architecture seen on film.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

6 The Revolving Corridors of Inception

     Warner Bros.

In a dreamworld, anything is possible, something shown in this epic, instantly classic fight from Inception, which takes place in the corridors of a hotel. What on paper would seem like a straightforward action set up (’two men fight in a hotel’) becomes so much more exciting when the footing itself is a shifting kaleidoscopic arena.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

The men aren’t merely testing each other’s strength, but their own balance as well, as the actual corridor turns and shifts while the dreamscape the characters are in get disrupted. Incredibly, this was all done practically with a rotating set and a variety of cameras on tracks. As Christopher Nolan drifts further away from straightforward (and coherent) storylines, his effects and scope remain jaw-dropping, showcased here best of all.

5 Labyrinth

     Tri-Star PicturesEMI-Columbia

Refreshing to look back on now (in the contemporary set-up of green screens and CGI), Labyrinth had The Muppet’s felt fingerprints all over its world. With major input from Jim Henson, this is a movie filled with puppetry and grand set designs. With trap doors, swamps, hedgerows, and catacombs in this magnificently designed fantasy world, you’ll believe that Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) and her baby brother really could be trapped in there forever. David Bowie’s inclusion obviously makes the scenery look even more fabulous.

4 The Volcano Lair in You Only Live Twice

     MGM Studios

This is what Bond lairs can only measure up to. Housing a rocket, no less, Blofeld’s base of operations is hidden away under the ruse of being an everyday volcano. In a last ditch final act assault on the evil villain, James Bond and a bunch of ninjas attempt to save the world. As this was a Bond production, it is of course an entirely practical set, with 007.com quoting the stand-in volcano at: “200ft across, 55ft high on the side (rising on a slope to 125ft), 70ft in diameter,” and “compris[ing] 700 tons of steelwork [which] took 50 plasterers and 60 riggers working day and night.”

Speaking to Todd Longwell of The Hollywood Reporter, set designer Ken Adams said: “I’ll never forget [Bond producer] Cubby Broccoli asking me how much it was going to cost. I had no idea, obviously. And he said, ‘Well, will a million dollars be enough?’ And I said, “Sure.’ A million dollars in 1966 was a fortune!” (To put this in perspective, this set alone cost more than the entirety of the budget for Dr No.)

The You Only Live Twice volcano lair was so iconic that Austin Powers, The Incredibles and The Simpsons (in their wonderful You Only Move Twice episode) would spoof this setting directly. They don’t make them like this anymore!

3 The Death Star in Star Wars

     20th Century Fox

That’s no moon…

Not merely content with dressing like Nazis, the Empire in Star Wars also resides inside a weapon. Hulking in its size, this residential building/spaceship/weapon is a system capable of destroying whole planets with a push of a button. Before we had been given the prequels, this was a brand-new world in a universe full of potential, where highly detailed starships and space battles were revealed before our eyes.

The Death Star houses multiple levels, corridors, and vents, making a real funhouse for our heroes to get lost in. Outside, the final assault on the Death Star and its “trench run” remains one of the finest moments in film history.

2 Gotham City in Batman

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Created for real by designer Anton Furst, Gotham is a mix of old and new. Cold concrete meshes with colloquial designs like the Spanish inspired church tower in the final showdown between Batman and The Joker. The city as a whole is a place of total comic lunacy, an ’80s neo-noir landscape so detailed that you believe the improbable. You believe that Bruce Wayne’s parents can be murdered by 1940s suited gangsters, or that would-be super villains can drop into chemical vats.

In 1989, a whole $2 million was dedicated to Gotham and its look alone, with the results more than panning out: Furst and Peter Young (set designer) would go on to win the Oscar in 1990 for Best Production Design.

1 Everything in Blade Runner

Cult is the word of the day here, as everything on view in Blade Runner is stunning. Amplified by its blasé attitude to ultra-violence, Blade Runner’s far-off future of 2019 suggests an LA with an Asian twist. Marketplaces are drenched in rain, while skyscrapers with aristocrats and inventors look down from above. Cleverly utilizing recognizable real world aspects, like dreary weather and banal advertising for products such as Coca-Cola, Blade Runner’s Los Angeles is a lived in world where people are merely trying to get by. The sequel, released a gargantuan 35 years later, would expand on this world and its unique architectural landscape in an excellent follow-up film, though Ridley Scott’s original is a perfectly designed, intellectual sci-fi masterpiece.