“Skyscraper” doesn’t expand the scope or the rules of the summer action blockbuster, but it does follow the recipe in a supremely satisfying way.
So yes, you’ll recognize the DNA of other movies here — not just obvious antecedents like “Die Hard” and “The Towering Inferno,” but also “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” and even “The Lady from Shanghai” — but that familiarity won’t interfere with the vertiginous thrills, the breathtaking stunts (and CG), and the near-constant state of adrenaline-fueled action.
Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber (“Central Intelligence”) sets up the pins to knock them down later: there’s nothing we learn in the first 10 minutes of the film that won’t come up again in the last 10 minutes.