# Is it True that Stanley Kubrick is the only person that has been allowed to film within the Pentagon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 8, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855 "2021-06-08T17:28:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![breakneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e99b99/32.png) [@breakneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breakneck)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/1 "2021-06-08T17:28:16Z")
Was Stanley Kubrick the only person ever in history to film within the pentagon? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/2 "2021-06-08T17:39:18Z")
Who is saying that he did film in the Pentagon? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/3 "2021-06-08T17:48:40Z")
Maybe the OP is assuming that the Pentagon war room was a real one. > **[Dr. Strangelove](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove)** > > Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, known simply and more commonly as Dr. Strangelove, is a 1964 political satire black comedy film directed, co-written, and produced by Stanley Kubrick and starring Peter Sellers in three roles, including the title character. The film also stars George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, and Tracy Reed. The film, which satirizes the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and the United ... > _Dr. Strangelove_ was filmed at [Shepperton Studios](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepperton_Studios), near [London](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London), as Sellers was in the middle of a divorce at the time and unable to leave England.[[41]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove#cite_note-interview69-41) The sets occupied three main [sound stages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_stage): the Pentagon War Room, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber and the last one containing both the motel room and General Ripper’s office and outside corridor.[[11]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove#cite_note-Southern-11) The studio’s buildings were also used as the Air Force base exterior. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/4 "2021-06-08T18:22:46Z")
Maybe the OP is referring to the never-challenged legend that the Korova Milk Bar in _A Clockwork Orange_ was not a set built for the movie. It was filmed (without permission!) in the fabled “Seventh Sub-Level” of the Pentagon, which housed the Wisconsin Milk Bar, among other perversions (each funded by a different state). [![](https://filmandfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/a-clockwork-orange-korova-milk-bar-film-and-furniture-1024x614.jpg) ](https://filmandfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/a-clockwork-orange-korova-milk-bar-film-and-furniture-1024x614.jpg) When it was discovered that Kubrick had secretly filmed in their favorite after-work hangout, the brass threatened to deport him. But, as we all know now, a deal was cut whereby Stan The Man would direct a short propaganda film for NASA … _(And now you know … the rest of the story)._ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/5 "2021-06-08T18:51:32Z")
The War Room that Kubrick had designed and built for **Dr. Strangelove** is definitely iconic. It inspired similar scenes in the movies **Watchmen** and **Monsters vs. Aliens** and, I’m sure, a great many others. It’s what the War Room _should_ look like. But it’s not. Pictures of Obama’s actual situation room (like this image from 2011) look so crowded an unimpressive [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Obama_and_Biden_await_updates_on_bin_Laden.jpg) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Obama_and_Biden_await_updates_on_bin_Laden.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/6 "2021-06-08T18:56:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Pictures of Obama’s actual situation room (like this image from 2011) I’m guessing that the “actual” situation room may have changed many times during those 47 years. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/7 "2021-06-08T19:31:53Z")
The latest replies point to a usual misconception that Reagan also got. That the war room was supposed to be in the White House. As per the movie, there is an outside shot of the Pentagon at night before going into the war room. I always wondered where the idea that the big fictional war room was in the White House. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/8 "2021-06-08T19:35:16Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > I’m guessing that the “actual” situation room may have changed many times during those 47 years. I don’t doubt it – there have been several reworkings of the WH since then. My point is, seriously doubt if anything looking like Kubrick’s War Room ever existed, whether in the White House or the Pentagon. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/9 "2021-06-08T19:41:14Z")
How would the brass have threatened to deport Stanley Kubrick? While he spent most of his adult life in the greater London area after moving there and preferring it to the United States, he was born in the Bronx and was a natural born citizen, not sure he could be “deported” for anything. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/10 "2021-06-08T19:44:18Z")
I don’t think any part of that posts was meant to be taken seriously. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/11 "2021-06-08T19:59:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Pictures of Obama’s actual situation room (like this image from 2011) look so crowded an unimpressive The Situation Room is actually a suite of rooms, and that pic you refer to was from one of the smaller conference rooms set up as a command center for that particular mission. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/T7ch13ZuMu8/hqdefault.jpg "Inside the White House: The Situation Room") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7ch13ZuMu8) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/12 "2021-06-08T21:50:21Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I don’t think any part of that posts was meant to be taken seriously. But this post can be taken seriously. Thanks, Sith Mod. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/13 "2021-06-08T23:30:46Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Maybe the OP is referring to the never-challenged legend that the Korova Milk Bar in _A Clockwork Orange_ was not a set built for the movie. It was filmed (without permission!) in the fabled “Seventh Sub-Level” of the Pentagon, which housed the Wisconsin Milk Bar, among other perversions (each funded by a different state). > > [http://www.filmandfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/a-clockwork-orange-korova-milk-bar-film-and-furniture-1024x614.jpg](http://www.filmandfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/a-clockwork-orange-korova-milk-bar-film-and-furniture-1024x614.jpg) > > When it was discovered that Kubrick had secretly filmed in their favorite after-work hangout, the brass threatened to deport him. But, as we all know now, a deal was cut whereby Stan The Man would direct a short propaganda film for NASA … > > _(And now you know … the rest of the story)._ Good day! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/14 "2021-06-09T00:07:28Z")
Stanley Kubrick had so many problems trying to simulate the freefall conditions and get the lunar lighting correct in _2001: A Space Odyssey_ that he secretly contracted with NASA to actually take his cast and crew to space and allow him to film on their secret Moonbase. The film shifted the destination of _Discovery_ to Jupiter because they were afraid that the rings of a model Saturn in Earth orbit would be observable by competing studios 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures which would use their anti-satellite weapons developed by Syd Mead and John Stears to disrupt production; such studio infighting and strategic weapon exchange was surprisingly common in the pre-CGI era. This is why the sets were allegedly destroyed after filming, and why the effects in Peter Hyams-helmed sequel _2010: The Year We Made Contact_ looks so inferior despite twelve years of progressive improvement in film special effects. Unfortunately, Kubrick refused to share the secrets of orbital film production with other filmmakers and not only had the entire crew signed to iron-clad NDAs but also had small explosive capsules implanted in the base of everyone’s skulls to prevent anyone from making a similar looking film, hence why _Star Wars_ has crappy looking matte artifacts and artificial gravity on all ships even when the power is shut down. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2021, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/15 "2021-06-09T02:04:13Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The War Room that Kubrick had designed and built for **Dr. Strangelove** is definitely iconic. It inspired similar scenes in the movies **Watchmen** and **Monsters vs. Aliens** and, I’m sure, a great many others. It’s what the War Room _should_ look like. But it’s not. The traveling Kubrick exhibition from a few years back had a panel on the design of the war room. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2021, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/16 "2021-06-09T02:06:29Z")
Your sources aren’t good. They also had artificial gravity in orbit during filming, which is why the fluid in Floyd’s straw went down. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2021, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/17 "2021-06-09T03:38:50Z")
That was due to flying in a powered orbit in order to stay in range of Kubrick’s direction from a ground station. There are rumors that Kubrick also tried contacting aliens to get their technical guidance on what traveling through a wormhole would look like but they just sent him unintelligible messages in the form of Apollonian spheres, which didn’t translate well to film, so he and Doug Trumball came up with the now iconic slit-scan technique after a night of binge drinking discount absinthe infused with _Panaeolus_ and lysergic acid diethylamide. And so, cinematic history was made. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Kzbre5m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kzbre5m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kzbre5m)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2021, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/18 "2021-06-09T09:47:20Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Your sources aren’t good. They also had artificial gravity in orbit during filming, which is why the fluid in Floyd’s straw went down. I guess that explains why they walked pretty normally (“Earth-like”) in the conference room on the Moon. (Which always bugged me.) Looking at the Dr. Strangelove War Room pictures again, how can they even see the maps on the walls, with that circle light looming over them at the table? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-stanley-kubrick-is-the-only-person-that-has-been-allowed-to-film-within-the-pentagon/943855/19 "2021-06-10T01:10:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Pictures of Obama’s actual situation room (like this image from 2011) look so crowded an unimpressive I have read that the Osama raid photo was taken in a small conference room close to the main situation room. Apparently a few officials had gathered in that room earlier and more entered over time eventually including POTUS and other heavy hitters so it became the de facto situation room for that raid. ETA: sorta ninja’d by Mike Curtis