# Hey, That's My Old House! Movies filmed in places you've lived **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 5, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111 "2008-04-05T19:41:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/21 "2008-04-06T02:23:30Z")
My apartment house is in the background in one scene from _The Tailor of Panama._ And I know a lot of the other locales very well. (I recently attended a meeting at the Union Club, the setting for one of the opening scenes.) There is a brief scene in the neighborhood where I grew up in the Bronx in _The Pope of Greenwich Village._ I used to live fairly close to _Mork and Mindy’s_ house in Boulder, Colorado. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/22 "2008-04-06T02:25:21Z")
Lots of shoots in Bangkok. Bangkok doubled as Saigon in _Good Morning, Vietnam_. And again in _Tomorrow Never Dies_. That’s Bangkok’s Chinatown that Pierce Brosnan as James Bond is driving his motorcycle over the roofs of. And early on, there’s a POV from the sky, showing the entire central portion of the city, and if you look closely on the river, you can see a Thai flag on a boat. Up in the North, Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai doubled as Laos in Mel Gibson’s _Air America_. (I’m one of the few people who know the temples in the movie are Burmese style, not Lao. The movie was filmed largely near the Burmese border.) I was living up there at the time, and all of the airport scenes were filmed at Mae Hong Son Airport. I even met Mel Gibson at the time. But in the movie, whenever there are scenes of the Air America pilots sitting around in a room with the airport runway out the window, and all of this airport activity is going on, you can clearly see a jeep driving back and forth. The driver of that jeep was a mysterious fellow American of my acquaintance named Dave. Dave lived in Chiang Mai at the time and got on as an extra somehow. I’d seen Dave around before, and we’d even shared a few drinks together in the past in Mae Hong Son. He was always very quiet about he was doing there. I’d always pegged him as CIA, a drug runner or a fugitive, maybe all three! But then he shows up on the set of that movie. He said that was his job, just driving the jeep back and forth back and forth. Dave disappeared shortly after that. But for years afterward, the airport at Mae Hong Son kept around all of the fake bombs from the set around the airport. New arrivals must have thought the area was heavily militarized! You’d walk in from the plane, and they were stacked up everywhere, looking ready to be loaded onto planes. Then they built a new airport and got rid of them. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/23 "2008-04-06T03:09:19Z")
The chase scene through the indoor mall in _The Blues Brothers_ was shot in Dixie Square, in my home town of Harvey, IL. I had already gone off to college, but the story I heard was that the producers had agreed to repair the damage after shooting the scenes, but had skipped out of town and left the place a wreck. It had been closed down and abandoned some years before, though, so it’s not like they destroyed a functioning enterprise. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/24 "2008-04-06T03:44:43Z")
P.S. on _Tomorrow Never Dies_: The fact that it’s actually Bangkok’s Chinatown is why all of the signs are in Thai and Chinese script and none in the Latin-based Vietnamese script. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/25 "2008-04-06T04:32:33Z")
_How to Eat Fried Worms_ was shot at my kids’ elementary school. It was strange seeing the principal of that school as a old fart disciplinarian; the last two principals have worked to make the school _fun_ and really good for kids. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/26 "2008-04-06T05:00:24Z")
The Harrisburg State Hospital complex used to be a mental hospital. Now the buildings are mostly filled with dull state workers pushing paper. It’s where I work. It’s also where _Girl, Interrupted_ was filmed. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/27 "2008-04-06T08:44:35Z")
[QUOTE=cornflakes] _How to Eat Fried Worms_ was shot at my kids’ elementary school. It was strange seeing the principal of that school as a old fart disciplinarian; the last two principals have worked to make the school _fun_ and really good for kids. [/QUOTE] That doesn’t fly in the movies. _All_ principals are old fart disciplinarians in the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/28 "2008-04-06T12:03:15Z")
Been to the little restaurant down on Mount Adams that was used in “Rain Man.” The place were Dustin threw down all the toothpicks or whatever it was. Been a long time since I saw the film. Sir Rhosis EDIT: I see I read the OP too quickly. He’s actually looking for dwellings we lived in that were used in films. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/29 "2008-04-06T13:28:45Z")
I’m not from either place but have visited both and Asheville and Savannah both make pretty big deals of the movies that were at least partially filmed there. The B&B in Asheville where we’ve stayed even has VHS’s of most of the movies filmed in the area, including Robert Mitchum’s _Thunder Road_. The many that have been filmed (at least in part) at the Biltmore Mansion make up a large portion of those videas. Savannah’s pride in _Forrest Gump_ and _Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil_ dominates the ones they brag on, but IMDB list oodles more done in that region. It goes without saying, but I did in the thread I started on “movies in your area that are faithful to the area” which is in progress these days in Cafe Society, is that Nashville has over 300 shows and movies (including sports shows) listed at IMDB. However, they haven’t made anything at any place (house or apartment) where I have ever lived. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/30 "2008-04-06T15:40:06Z")
[QUOTE=Oregon sunshine] We live in the town where _Animal House_ was filmed. [/QUOTE] Ditto. Also, _Paper Moon_ was filmed in the gorgeous farmland in Northern California around the small town where I grew up. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/31 "2008-04-06T19:32:42Z")
[QUOTE=Sir Rhosis] Been to the little restaurant down on Mount Adams that was used in “Rain Man.” The place were Dustin threw down all the toothpicks or whatever it was. Been a long time since I saw the film. [/QUOTE] That was shot at a crappy Italian restaurant in Newport, not Mt Adams. I think you might be confusing it with a different scene. ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/32 "2008-04-06T19:58:26Z")
San Francisco has lots of scenes - nothing like walking around a corner to catch a bus and finding the street full of old cars and snow! [Golden Gate](http://imdb.com/title/tt0109917/maindetails) was filming right in front of my apartment the day I moved in. Oddly, they had the cable cars running the wrong direction. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/33 "2008-04-06T20:21:45Z")
“Law & Order SVU” just shot several scenes around the corner from my office last Tuesday (that would be 5th Avenue, on 10th Street & 13 Street.) Aside= Mariska Hargitay is the tallest woman I have ever seen with my own eyes. She must be like 6’5". Although I didn’t actually live nearby at the time, I happened to walk by a movie set about a year & a half ago set near Bloomingdale’s. It turned out to be “Cloverfield.” For ten years, I lived in an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighborhood, so virtually every Woody Allen film has a scene set within ten blocks of where I lived (not to mention hundreds of other films…“Midnight Cowboy”, “the Fisher King”, etc.) The weirdest one to me though is a scene from the TV series “Sex & the City.” There is one episode in which the four gals meet to go to a Yankees game. They meet & get into a cab on the corner of my block. I lived in the same place for all the time that the series was being produced and several years before it debuted. I never saw them filming that scene, or saw any type of the usual camera crew set-up they usually have.) I always wondered when they shot that scene. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/34 "2008-04-06T20:54:57Z")
The internal cathedral shots for ‘The Da Vinci Code’ were filmed in Lincoln Cathedral. I was living in Lincoln at the time. The Cathedral was just up the hill from where I was staying. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/35 "2008-04-06T22:54:25Z")
In the movie _Avalon_, there’s a 4th of July scene where they’re at a pool. If I pause it at just the right moment, I can see the roof of my childhood house. We belonged to the pool where they shoot the movie, and went and watched them filming that scene. I think the scene lasts all of 2 or 3 minutes, but they were there for 2 or 3 days, all day and night. Parts of _Runaway Bride_ were filmed near my firehouse. There’s a scene in a small church (where she jumps on the Fed Ex truck to get away) that’s right down the street, and a house nearby was also used. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/36 "2008-04-07T02:32:24Z")
Well, I grew up in the eastern suburbs of Wellington - so just about every Peter Jackson movie (except LOTR) is a trip down memory lane for me. [hijack] PJ was at a Sci-Fi convention just after Bad Taste came out, I wanted to go say hi and tell him how much I loved the movie but my boyfriend dragged me away, saying that PJ was just some hack horror/comedy fan and would never amount to anything. I hate that ex-boyfriend.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/37 "2008-04-07T03:17:57Z")
The Bohemian Rhapsody scene of _Wayne’s World_ was filmed in downtown Covina, California, just a few streets from where I lived at the time. The same section of town was used in the TV show _Roswell_–it was pretty funny to go shopping and seeing the “Crashdown Cafe” with the big obnoxious UFO on it (and it was weird that the place looked liked a functioning restaurant–you could see the set tables, complete with ketchup bottles, through the windows–yet it had all these NO TRESPASSING signs all over it). Even funnier was just around the corner on an empty building was this HUGE neon green sign that said, “UFO Headquarters”. It’s a real head-turner when you have no idea a show is being filmed there–it’s a real, “WTF? We have one of those in our town??” moment. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/38 "2008-04-07T04:00:45Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] “Law & Order SVU” just shot several scenes around the corner from my office last Tuesday (that would be 5th Avenue, on 10th Street & 13 Street.) Aside= Mariska Hargitay is the tallest woman I have ever seen with my own eyes. She must be like 6’5". [/QUOTE] Maybe your eyes were playing tricks on you because IMDB lists her as 5’7". ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/39 "2008-04-07T04:06:18Z")
I watched a scene being filmed for \*Kickboxer \* (1989) on Khao San Road here in Bangkok. Jean-Claude Van Damme goes into a “boxing gym,” which is actually a Khao San Road Hotel, and comes out again. There are two small children in front on the sidewalk sparring with each other. I think he tousle’s one’s hair, then walks away. The scene inside the gym was filmed somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111/40 "2008-04-07T04:06:38Z")
Two scenes from _The Sixth Sense_ were filmed just down the block from where I live. _Trading Places_ was filmed a block away from where I lived when I was growing up. They were filming something in the school a block away from my place just the other day. Go four blocks from where I live and lots of things have been filmed in a certain defunct prison, including the institution scenes in _Twelve Monkeys_, a Dead Milkmen music video, several really badly done ghost shows, and many documentaries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-thats-my-old-house-movies-filmed-in-places-youve-lived/444111.md?page=3)