Conan Edogawa: Come to think of it, Shin’ichi-niichan did seem puzzled! He thought you’d pick the red wire for sure, so he was wondering why you cut the blue one instead…
Ran Mouri: I didn’t want to cut it. After all, Shin’ichi and I…might be connected!
Detective Conan: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper is the 1st Detective Conan Theatrical Film in the franchise. It was directed by Kenji Kodama, written by Kazunari Kouchi, produced by Michihiko Suwa and scored by Katsuo Ono. It was released on April 19, 1997.
Shin’ichi Kudō is invited to a tea party by famous architect Teiji Moriya. Of course, he cannot attend so he lets Kogoro and Ran Mouri go in his stead. However, Shin’ichi is challenged to a game over the phone. He must find bombs planted all over Tokyo before they detonate. Can Conan find and disarm all the bombs before it’s too late?
Trailer
The Time-Bombed Skyscraper provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Evil: Ninzaburo Shiratori is frequently seen smiling or glaring suspiciously, until The Reveal of the true Big Bad.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Conan is shocked when Ran tells him why she could not cut the red wire.
- Big Bad: Ultimately, Teiji Moriya is the psychotic bomber. His plan was to blow up his older, less symmetrical buildings and replace them with symmetrical structures (all of the bomb targets were either at or near buildings he designed)
- Canon Immigrant: Shiratori debuted here before moving into the manga and the anime.
- Forgot Their Own Birthday: Ran asks her not-boyfriend Shin’ichi to the movies on May 4. Shinichi is puzzled on the significance of the date, only recalling that's the day Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty fell off the Reichenbach Fall, not knowing that it is his own birthday.
- Go Fast or Go Boom: The Mad Bomber announced he put bombs in several places along the Tohto Ring Line, which is the Fictional Counterpart to the Yamanote Line, and it will set off if the trains are running slower than 50kph or at sunset. The trains are forced to run in rounds non-stop with all the passengers on it. Conan realizes the bombs in question are set between the tracks and are light-activated. Specifically, a certain length of darkness that equates to the time a train passes through it at 50kph, will set it off, so the matter is mostly resolved by having the trains leave the Ring Line, and allow the police to locate and dissemble the explosives.
- Red Herring: Shiratori is played up as a possible suspect until the end of the film. Hilariously, Kogoro accuses him of being the culprit.
- Red String of Fate: Ran believes the bomb’s red wire is a representation of this, and thus she cannot bring herself to cut it.
- Wire Dilemma: The film ends with this situation, in which Ran has to pick the red or blue wire (which weren't in the schematics they were using until this point). Throughout the whole movie it has been explained that Ran and Shin’ichi ichi's lucky color for the month is red (for this reason, Ran got Shin’ichi a red sweatshirt for his birthday), so it seems like the correct wire would be the red one until you realize that Ran actually told the villain who built the bomb about the lucky color thing. The correct wire ends up being the blue one, because Ran didn't want to cut the Red String of Fate
