Hollywood is drawn to multi-storey architecture like … well, like a colossal prehistoric gorilla is drawn to multi-storey architecture. From the caped crusader posing on rooftops in The Dark Knight to Phillipe Petit's death-defying walk between the twin towers in Man on Wire, here's a selection of the greatest movie moments involving everyone's favourite phallic symbol
Jeremy Renner and Tom Cruise, ahem, hang out in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)Photograph: Paramount/Everett/Rex FeaturesCruise as Ethan Hunt in the same filmPhotograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/AllstarSam Worthington as a suicidal ex-con in Man on a Ledge (2012)Photograph: PRChristian Bale's Batman takes off in The Dark Knight (2008)Photograph: Warner Bros/Everett/Rex FeaturesA still from Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)Photograph: Paramount/Everett/Rex FeaturesKing Kong stands on top of the Empire State Building in the original 1933 version Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/RKOPhotograph: O/Allstar/Cinetext/RKOAnd here's Kong at the same point in Peter Jackon's remake (2005)Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/AllstarSilent comedy titan Harold Lloyd in Safety Last! (1923)Photograph: Rex FeaturesPhilippe Petit balanced a quarter of a mile above the New York sidewalk in Man on Wire (2008). Here, he is pictured on a high wire in SydneyPhotograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/AllstarA shot from The Towering Inferno (1974)Photograph: 20th-Century Fox/Everett/Rex Features