A sense of place: The geography of Die hard and Dawn of the Dead

They are both easily on my list of top 10 films of all time, but superficially, Die Hard and Dawn of the Dead look like two very different movies. One is about the desperate attempts to survive the zombie apocalypse, and the one is about a guy who just wants to save his wife from the most stylish villains in cinematic history.

They do both have lots of people getting shot in the head, and are both ruthlessly entertaining, and both happen to say something on the state of the American psyche in between all the gunplay. But the one thing they have most in common is a masterful use of geography, and a specific place that adds tension and clarity, even as the events in that space get increasingly crazy.

Both films are almost entirely set in one building, that is so large it's more of a complex, with different levels, obstacles and challenges, all clearly mapped out. When the Dawn of the Dead crew go from the roof of the mall they land on to the department store below, the viewer can follow all the different steps that need to be taken, right down to the use of a specific corridor that is later blocked off for security.

(It is interesting that it only happens in the mall in the movie, I still think it's unclear where the cops are standing outside the apartment block in the opening sequence, with just a dark glom behind them, which makes it feel like they're standing on the roof of the building they're holding siege.)

Meanwhile, over at Nakatomi Tower, the geography is tighter, just the tall skyscraper, and is just as clearly set out - there are levels still under construction, parts that are full of the latest computer and office equipment, and the roof area that plays host to several major sequences. 

It was so successful at making the geography such a big part of the movie that every action film for the next 10 years was described as Die Hard In A Certain Place, but nobody did it better than the first adventure of John McClane.

So many filmmakers get hung up on spectacle and plot that they forget about using the local geography like this, but it's a good lesson to learn. When your audience knows the setting, it doesn't get in the way of the story, or can be used to take that story down unexpected paths. When it's all about the one place, it can feel like half of the hard work of a film has already been done.