The Lift

Poster for the 1983 Film in Dutch

***The Lift*** (*DeLift* in Dutch) was a sci-fi / horror film filmed and directed by Dick Maas and was released in theaters in the Netherlands on May 11, 1983 and later in the United States on July 1, 1985. The film's story line centers around an elevator which mysteriously began operating on its own and began killing numerous people in a hotel in Amsterdam. It's role in the Transformers franchise serves as a prequel for one of the most feared Decepticons ever in transformers history.

## Synopsis

Weird events began to unfold at a hotel in Amsterdam when one of the elevators began to "malfunction" when a lighting storm causes the power to go out. The power outage traps four passengers onboard who try to wait for the power to be restored but discovered that the air began to run out. Meanwhile , the hotel employees tried to get the power back on and find out the suspect elevator refused to move even when power is restored.

Later, the hotel staff, surprisingly saw the elevator move down and rushed to the lobby to rescue the trapped passengers but it was to late, all of the passengers are dead due to suffocation. Things then spiraled downhill further when a blind man fell down the empty shaft and one of the security guards was decapitated and a janitor was burned and hanged surprisingly by the third elevator although it was the middle elevator which was responsible for the carnage

Things then later took a darker turn when the elevator tried to trick a little girl into getting into the elevator but she was able to avoid danger when the elevator doors closed on her suddenly trapping her doll. The whole commotion caused her mother and another employee to rush to the scene and the girls mother scolded the little girl after seeing the broken doll near the elevator doors.

All of this chaos resulted in the manager of the hotel to call the elevator company, Delta Liften to send a technician to find out whats going on. The technician , Felix Adelaar searched up and down through the elevator system and during these inspections, he meets with Mieke de Beer an investigative reporter from for the newspaper *De Nieuwe Revu.* Together , Felix and Mieke began investigating, going so far as going to the Rising Sun , a company that manufactures microprocessors and automated systems. It was also the company which supplied the components to Delta Liften (in secret). After meeting with the company's CEO who was nervous at their arrival , the two was sent to the research lab where the meet with Mieke's former university professor who specializes in electronics. The professor explains the microprocessors sensibility to external factors such as electric fields, magnetic fields, and radioactivity and their negative effects on the functionally of the microprocessors.

Later, the professor tells about a computer built years ago that suddenly became self-aware and went out of control. Despite all of this, the investigation by Felix Adelaar began to take its toll as his boss suspended him due to unauthorized access to the Rising Sun facility and his wife left him thinking that Felix was having with an affair. During through out this whole ordeal, Felix's boss and the CEO of Rising Sun secretly had an emergency meeting in their car regarding the renegade computer processor and how to stop it.

Meanwhile Felix determined to get to the bottom of the situation, took matters in his own hands as he broke into the hotel and gained access to the elevators and discovers the elevator has a sentient mind and is preventing him from accessing the microprocessor in the elevator shaft. Because of this, Felix climbed up to the microprocessor panel, took off the cover and discovers the living pulsating box with slimy, sticky goo and a pulsating heart. Realizing what he has seen, Felix attacks the box with wrench , however the elevator uses it counterweight to knock Felix and then the elevator began running him over numerous times with the elevator car and the counterweight before deciding to cut the cables one by one. Severely injured, Felix tried to open the elevator doors manually before the cables snaps and the elevator call began to fall , however, Felix was saved by Mieke as the elevator car rapidly plummeted down to the basement with a loud crash.

Shortly thereafter , the CEO of Rising Sun arrives at the scene and saw what has happened. Seeing that the experiment has failed, the CEO pulls out his pistol and began shooting at the computer chip responded by shooting out one of the broken cables which wrapped around the CEO's neck before dragging him back into the elevator shaft and hanging him. Felix and Mieke then headed down the stairs , shocked at what has happened as the computer chip's heart continuing to beat , indicating that it will make its return in the future.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Lift