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Not for lack of trying, however. Penn State researchers announced in 2014 that they had created diamond nanothreads in the lab, which modeled in computer simulations by Australian researchers suggest they could be stronger and more flexible than first believed. Research into carbon nanotube (CNT) technology continues, and new advances in graphene research seem to be announced every month.

In Sky Line, filmmakers Jonny Leahan and Miguel Drake-McLaughlin profile a group of people who have worked closely on the space elevator concept. The story follows the most thorough effort to date to get a space elevator built, including funding by NASA for research, design and even XPRIZE-style challenges held through 2011. Their motivation to create the film stems from ongoing discussions between each other and friends about the current state of American space technology.

“There’s this idea that we’ve given up on space, since NASA has retired the shuttle and we’re not doing anything to replace it,” Leahan says. “But people don’t understand that NASA is very much alive and well, and working on an incredible number of visionary things. We realized there’s a lot going on, even if they may not be currently working on an elevator.”

The idea of an elevator itself had been a topic of debate between the filmmakers, and looking further into it, they discovered two chief characters, Bradley Edwards and Michael Laine.

“We noticed a lot of the people we spoke to had dreams when they were younger of being astronauts,” Leahan says. “They persist because they’re frustrated that they have the will to go to space, but there’s not the technology or resources to send very many people to space. They just want to do something about it.”

You walk to the elevator bay, hit the "up" button, and stand around for what feels like forever before hearing that reassuring "ding." It's enough to make you scream, especially as you look up at the cars' current locations and wonder why one can't just come for you.

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