MERTIN FLEMMER BUILDING, a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in the United States. The building was constructed in the late nineteenth century by the sea captain James Mertin. Currently it houses a large number of companies including several law firms, travel agencies and design studios.

The building is famous for the unusual proportions of its 7 1/2 floor, of which the ceilings are less than five feet high. Reportedly Captain Mertin designed the extra story to accomodate his dwarf wife. To access the floor a visitor must push the emergency stop button between the seventh and eighth floor to halt the elevator, then use a crowbar to pry the doors open. Only four companies have offices on this level, the most notable being the filing company Lester Corp.

In one of the back offices of Lester Corp a visitor will find a small wooden door hidden behind a filing cabinet. Through this door is a small, slimy tunnel into which the visitor will be sucked completely through and into another person's head. This other person is known as the vessel, and the visitor is able to experience everything the vessel sees and feels. The vessel will stay active until their forty-fourth birthday. At midnight on that day the visitor may take over the vessel's body completely and make the transfer permanent. Any visitor entering the tunnel after the appointed time will be diverted to a newly-forming vessel, trapped permanently inside the infant mind. The current vessel is a young girl named Emily, previously it was the famous actor John Malkovich.

(Being John Malkovich, directed by Spike Jonze, USA, 1999)