In a ground lease a tenant rents land and builds on it while the landowner keeps the land. Terms of 50 to 99 years are common, and at the end the land and the building usually return to the landowner.
What the film says
In real estate, you can own the tower, and not the ground under it. It's called a ground lease. Say a landowner leases a plot for ninety-nine years. Fifty to ninety-nine is common. A developer pays rent, and builds. It never had to buy the land. For decades, it looks like owning. Tenants pay. The tower earns. But the clock keeps running. Sell the tower in year seventy, and the next owner gets twenty-nine years. When the lease ends, the land and the building usually go back to the landowner. So why do investors care? The fewer years left, the less there is to own. You bought the tower. You rented the time.
A simple example with round numbers, not advice. Terms vary by fund.
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