Case Closed: The Time Bombed Skyscraper

Case Closed: The Time Bombed Skyscraper, known as Detective Conan: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper (名探偵コナン 時計じかけの摩天楼) in Japan, is a 1997 Japanese animated feature film based on Gosho Aoyama's Case Closed manga series and featuring detective Jimmy Kudo. The film takes place between episodes 54 and 55. Funimation released the film in North America.

Plot
Mortimer Cornhouser, a wealthy heart surgeon, is murdered in his own home, bludgeoned with a miniature statue that was left behind. Also at the scene is an unnatural bloodstain on the floor near the body. He left a dying message using his blood to type the keys on his computer’s keyboard: JUN. The suspects are Mortimer’s wife, Mina, his son Magnum, and housekeeper Manami Goodsbe. When Richard wrongly accuses Mina on the grounds that “JUN” in Japan is “Minazuki” and Mina was born in June, Conan tranquilizes him.

Conan uses Richard’s voice to explain that the killer snuck up on Mortimer and bludgeoned him. The victim turned around and was stuck again, causing his hand to brush the keyboard to the ground and accidentally switch it to hiragana. Barely alive, Mortimer typed the message “JUN” but when the facts come in play, reads "Ma-Na-Mi” for Manami Goodsbe, revealing her as the killer. As evidence, blood is found on Manami’s sock; she removed her footwear to reduce the chance of being caught when she snuck up on Mortimer, explaining the unnatural bloodstain found at the crime scene. Manami confesses, stating Mortimer was drunk when he performed surgery on her husband Kevin, who passed away as a result. She altered her identity and gave herself a Japanese name knowing Mortimer would hire her and today is Kevin’s death anniversary. Manami is arrested.

The next day while sorting mail at Dr. Agasa's house, Conan finds an invitation addressed to Jimmy from Leo Joel, a famous architect. Jimmy calls Rachel using his voice-changing bowtie and asks her to go in his place. Rachel agrees, on the condition that Jimmy goes to see a movie with her on Saturday at the City Center Tower. She explains how Saturday is May 4th, Jimmy’s birthday, and she will surprise Jimmy with a red polo shirt when they meet. At the tea party, Professor Leo Joel introduce himself and proposes a small riddle for Richard to solve; it ends up being solved by Conan instead. Joel makes a subtle comment about architecture and the people involved in the field who are only chasing a paycheck.

That morning, Conan receives a call from a strange man asking for Jimmy, who has recently stolen C-4 explosives and challenges him to a game of cat-and-mouse. Conan accepts the challenge, and the mystery caller gives him clues leading to bombs hidden all over Tokyo.

Conan finds, intercepts, and destroys all of the bombs, injuring himself in the line of fire while transporting one out of harm’s way. He notes that the location of the bombs were or near structures that professor Joel designed. On one occasion, members of the Junior Detective League received a toy plane which is actually rigged with explosives from the bomber. Amy remembers the man having a sweet scent emitting from him, wore a long jacket, had a beard and wore sunglasses but is likely a disguise.

Some of Professor Joel’s projects are burned to the ground, including the Kurokawa, Mizushima, Yasuda, and Akutsu households. Professor Joel is interviewed as a precaution. Inspector Meguire recalls a case where Jimmy Kudo was called to assist and deduced that a city councilman fatally struck an office worker while under the influence; his son attempted to take the blame instead. The councilman was a supporter for one of Professor Joel’s projects. With the councilman arrested, support stopped, but Joel holds no grudges. While transporting a bomb to a safe location, Conan notices the timer has stopped. He backtracks his steps pointing out the park nearby which has English style gas lamps nearby.

After stopping another round of bombs on the city’s railroad loop line, Conan visits Professor Joel once again to investigate, viewing a perfectly symmetrical model project. He notes the similarities between the gas lights near the park and the one in the model. Seeing the connection between the arson and bombings, Conan understands the truth of the matter.

Conan calls the authorities using Jimmy’s voice and lures them to Leo’s gallery where he promptly deduces that professor Leo Joel to be both the serial bomber and recent arsonist. Having inherited his knowledge from his father, Lionel, Leo exceeded expectations in his field. After gaining fame and fortune from the Loop Line Bridge, Leo quietly snapped with a desire to destroy some of his award-winning projects. This is evidenced by his own sentiments how today’s generation of architects are only in the field for a paycheck and lack beauty in their work.

The Kurokawa, Mizushima, Yasuda, and Akutsu buildings, and the Loop Line Bridge were all built in classic English styles, but were not symmetrical. After stealing C-4 from the plant, Leo sat out and planned to destroy and replace them with symmetrical structures (all of the bomb targets were either at or near buildings he designed). His insanity came after being forced to make drawbacks, either due to customers' preferences, city standards, or neighborhood guidelines. Additionally, Leo challenged Jimmy Kudo for his own revenge, after Jimmy convicted the councilman for his hit-and-run, who supported his Lilly Valley West project, subsequently halting his building plan. Leo stopped the cat carrier bomb as it was near the gas lamps that he designed after the ones from his hometown of London.

To seal Leo for his wrongdoings, Conan reveals the bomber’s disguise near his model project, tricking Leo into revealing the real disguise is hidden in his study. He is also responsible for giving the Junior Detective League the toy plane bomb earlier, evidenced by the sweet scent Amy noticed coming from Leo’s smoke pipe. Leo attempts to detonate the bombs inside his house, but is stopped when Conan reveals that he removed the batteries earlier. Leo is arrested but taunts the group that he has "one more" place that he wants to destroy, the City Center Tower, which happens to be the venue for Jimmy and Rachel's date. Leo angrily cites that the tower is his least greatest achievement due to the local economy bursting during its construction, selfish taxpayers and drawbacks made because of them, then counts down the time as Richard, Meguire, and Santos watch in horror. Conan steals the bomb's blueprints from Leo's coat pocket and sets out on his own to disarm the final bomb.

The bombs cut off the exits and entrances, killing and injuring a number of innocent people, trapping Rachel and more inside. Conan makes his way through the collapsing building, but a warped door blocks him off from Rachel. Using his tie and cell phone, he calls Rachel and asks her to look for the bomb which is hidden in a large shopping bag. To disarm the bomb, Jimmy tells Rachel which wires to cut. Joel has made two extra wires at the last minute, one red, one blue, one of which is booby-trapped and coldly taunts Richard over Rachel's dire situation. He also gave Jimmy 3 extra minutes.

Jimmy tells Rachel to cut whichever one, having gave up hope and riding on faith. As the rescue team arrives and carries him away, Jimmy realizes that Joel knew that Rachel's favorite color was red and booby-trapped the red one and that the 3 extra minutes were meant for Jimmy to enjoy his birthday. In the last few minutes, Rachel makes a desperate decision and cuts the blue wire because the red wire represents the red string of fate between Jimmy and herself. A celebration ensures and the injured are tended to. Joel, shocked and disgusted that his bomb was successfully disarmed, is finally defeated and arrested for his various crimes.

Production
For the last scene of the film, an "episode" that original creator Gosho Aoyama wanted to include in the manga was used. He even got to draw the originals himself.

Release
The film was released in 13 theaters in Japan on April 19, 1997. On opening weekend, it grossed ¥8,554,500 ($68,965). It went on to gross a total of ¥1.1 billion in Japan.

VHS
The VHS of the film was released on October 19, 1997. Its production was discontinued after switching to DVD in 2006.

Region 1 DVD
Funimation released the English dub of The Time Bombed Skyscraper on bilingual DVD on October 3, 2006. Unlike the series, the film left the original animation entirely intact with no translations except for the opening title and ending credits. The opening title was replaced with an English version. The original Japanese credits were changed from a tour of Tokyo and recap of the film to a capture of the final shot of the film (an aerial view of the characters and police cars at the crime scene).

Region 2 DVD
The DVD of the film was released on March 28, 2001. A new DVD was released on February 25, 2011, significantly lowering the original price and added the trailer as a special feature.

Blu-ray
The Blu-ray version of the film was released on August 26, 2011. The Blu-ray contains the same content as the DVD plus a mini-booklet explaining the film and the BD-live function.