TV FILMS of the week
1 SKYSCRAPER Tonight, Channel 4, 9.30pm
Former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) lost a leg in the line of duty and is now a security expert. He’s spent six months rigorously assessing the safety of The Pearl, the world’s tallest superstructure. A band of terrorists led by Scandinavian thug Botha (Roland Moller) and henchwoman Xia (Hannah Quinlivan) storms The Pearl and sets the 96th floor ablaze. Will is framed for the crime and must evade police as he regains access to the flaming structure, where his wife Sarah (Neve Campbell) and kids are trapped above the inferno.
2 CON AIR Tomorrow, ITV, 10.20pm
After spending eight years in jail for killing a drunk man who attacked his pregnant wife, Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage, left) can finally go home. On the flight are dangerous criminals who hijack the plane. As Cameron fights back, it’s up to a US Marshal (John Cusack) on the ground to convince authorities not to blow the plane out of the sky.
3 ERIN BROCKOVICH Monday, 5STAR, 11.30pm
Sassy, twice-divorced single mum Erin Brockovich (Oscar winner Julia Roberts, left) has learned there is only one person in life she can rely upon – herself. She talks her way into a junior position at Albert Finney’s law office, and stumbles upon medical records relating to a community ravaged by an abnormally high number of serious illnesses.
4 FIRST MAN Tuesday, Film4, 9pm
Ryan Gosling stars in this biopic of the first man on the Moon. Neil Armstrong (Gosling, left) is a key participant in the space race between the US and the Soviet Union during the 1960s. However, tragedy casts a long shadow over Neil and wife Janet (Claire Foy) as the couple struggle to cope with the death of their young daughter Karen.
5 CRANK Wednesday, ITV4, 10.30pm
Hit man Chev Chelios (Jason Statham, left) is injected with a deadly poison and has just an hour to live. The only way to delay death is to keep his adrenalin pumping. So he does everything he can to keep his heart rate up, including taking drugs and getting into fights. Crank is a hyperviolent assault on the senses.
6 PULP FICTION Thursday, GREAT! movies, 9pm
Mob boss Marsellus (Ving Rhames) entrusts hit men Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L Jackson) to collect a stolen briefcase. He also pays ageing boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) to throw a fight. The characters’ fates collide after Marsellus asks Vincent to entertain his wife Mia (Uma Thurman, left) in director Quentin Tarantino’s hit.
7 MUM’S LIST Friday, BBC1, 11.25pm
Singe Greene (Rafe Spall) and his wife Kate (Emilia Fox, left) live in bucolic North Somerset with their two sons. Kate is diagnosed with incurable breast cancer and in her final days she creates a list of thoughts and memories for her boys when she is gone. Mum’s List is a moving drama based on a true story.