# Movie Scenes that Involve a Shocking Change in the Natural Landscape or Famous Landmarks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 28, 2025, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549 "2025-08-28T05:18:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/1 "2025-08-28T05:18:22Z")
Sorry for the clunky title. I’m sure my explanation will be just as clear. What prompted me to start this is a film I’m currently watching called _Bring Out the Fear ._ It’s about a couple walking through a forest and getting lost and disoriented. At one point they end up where they started, high on a hill overlooking a seashore and village, except now everything has been replaced by mountainous forest. For whatever reason, I really enjoy this particular effect. Probably the most famous example of a ruined landmark is the ending of _Planet of the Apes_ and the Statue of Liberty. That is so creepy to me, no matter how many times I see it, it still freaks me a little. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/2 "2025-08-28T05:22:45Z")
The aliens in _Independence Day_ blowing up various worldwide landmarks comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/3 "2025-08-28T05:28:28Z")
Future San Francisco from the Star Trek franchise. It looks different every time it is depicted. [![](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/00/d1/68/00d168639641e9262acd714b1a1111a0.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/00/d1/68/00d168639641e9262acd714b1a1111a0.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/4 "2025-08-28T06:19:14Z")
Don’t watch any “Life after People” episodes. Creeeeee-py. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2025, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/5 "2025-08-28T11:13:32Z")
How about **Mars Attacks!** and Mount Rushmore? (Not to mention the Elizabeth Tower –”Big Ben”’s home – and the Taj Mahal and the Moai heads on Easter Island) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngth5FEALJ0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngth5FEALJ0) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/6 "2025-08-28T11:49:48Z")
But there’s always a Transamerica pyramid, because how else would you know it’s San Francisco? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/7 "2025-08-28T11:58:23Z")
This may not be exactly what the OP is looking for, but I remember watching the movie “Identity Thief” with Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. There’s an aerial shot where they are driving across a bridge into downtown St Louis from the Illinois side. The bridge in the scene is just south of the Arch, and having grown up in St Louis I knew damn well there was no bridge there. It was a jarring WTF moment for me. (The bridge was actually somewhere in Tennessee and was composited into into the scene.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/8 "2025-08-28T12:02:34Z")
At least they skipped the rice-a-roni. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/9 "2025-08-28T12:26:31Z")
The final scene of “Contact” shows Jodie Foster and the Very Large Array with a background of Canyon de Chelly AZ. But, actually the VLA is on the rather stark Plains of St. Augustine. At the time the wife and I had a B&B in Socorro NM. Lots of folks came to Socorro equipped to explore the canyon country they saw in the movie. We usually heard about it when they returned from a frustrating day in the dessert. A couple even got stuck and had to be rescued. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/10 "2025-08-28T13:01:44Z")
If we’re talking plain old disaster movie style destruction of landmarks / landscapes, can’t beat John Cusack’s ‘gotta pay the mortgage’ movie _2012_. Possible fun fact I just realized: Cusack may be the only actor to ever star in 2 different movies whose titles are just 4-digit numbers (the other one being the Stephen King adaption _1408_). ETA: I just realized I was still linked to @Shoeless’ post-- I was going to directly reply to that post, changed my intent but didn’t think to delete and recreate my post. ---
**Author:** ![Mortimus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Mortimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mortimus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/11 "2025-08-28T13:22:32Z")
Planet of the Apes, Statue of Liberty on the beach scene. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/12 "2025-08-28T13:38:03Z")
New York in the campy but supremely fun Escape from New York with Kurt Russell. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/13 "2025-08-28T14:02:18Z")
I think the first movie to show destruction of national landmarks in Washington DC was Ray Harryhausen’s **Earth vs. the Flying Saucers** (1957). Before this, you didn’t get to see destruction – it was implied, or you saw the aftermath. But Ray gave us the actual depiction of flying saucers cutting the Washington Monument in two, crashing int the capital dome, and running into the pillars at the Supreme Court. Great, great stuff [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGUhXiJe-W8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGUhXiJe-W8) They stole the one of the Washington monument for the otherwise laughably bad **The Giant Claw**. After this, and with increasingly better effects technology, we got Washington DC destruction in **Mars Attacks!** (obviously heavily influenced by the Harryhausen film) and **Independence Day**. **The Deadly Mantis** showed us a giant praying mantis perched on the WAshingtin Monument, but not destroying it. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/14 "2025-08-28T14:09:13Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **The Deadly Mantis** showed us a giant praying mantis perched on the WAshingtin Monument, but not destroying it. In the same vein, King Kong climbing the Empire State Building in 1933. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2025, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/15 "2025-08-28T14:31:08Z")
Eiffel would be pleased to know his iron skeleton held the copper skin together so well for so long. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/16 "2025-08-28T14:36:53Z")
Was it Deep Impact (speaking of the Statue of Liberty) that had the head of the statue rolling along the streets of Manhattan, under water? That statue seems a magnet for disasters. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/17 "2025-08-28T14:40:28Z")
I don’t recall that, but **Cloverfield** had the head rolling through the streets, inspired by the poster for _Escape from Manhattan_ (which didn’t have such a scene in it).. Hitchcock’s **Saboteur** and the movie **Remo Williams** had people climbing around on the Statue of Liberty, but no destruction [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwC9R63tW0w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwC9R63tW0w) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY0d09\_oXIQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY0d09_oXIQ) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/18 "2025-08-28T14:53:33Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Eiffel would be pleased to know his iron skeleton held the copper skin together so well for so long. And that she eventually found her way to Zuma Beach in California. Liberty also puts in an appearance after New York City was redesigned to fend off the effects of global warming in _The Expanse_ [![](https://tve-static-syfy.nbcuni.com/prod/image/666/483/150711_2880297_The_Expanse __What_s_It_About__ 3000x1688_482809923810.jpg) ](https://tve-static-syfy.nbcuni.com/prod/image/666/483/150711_2880297_The_Expanse __What_s_It_About__ 3000x1688_482809923810.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/19 "2025-08-28T16:42:02Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Was it Deep Impact (speaking of the Statue of Liberty) that had the head of the statue rolling along the streets of Manhattan, under water? Yep, here it is, at 1:22 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9LA5YCArpY4/maxresdefault.jpg "Deep Impact (1998) - Megatsunami in the Atlantic [1080p]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LA5YCArpY4) ---
**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:** [August 28, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549/20 "2025-08-28T16:55:10Z")
In the MCU, the statue of liberty has been rebuilt to hold Captain America’s shield, instead of a torch, and has had the green oxidation removed to return it to its original copper. [![](https://comicbook.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/01/bca09e6d-6849-407b-aadd-6814581fd77d.jpg?w=1200) ](https://comicbook.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/01/bca09e6d-6849-407b-aadd-6814581fd77d.jpg?w=1200) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-scenes-that-involve-a-shocking-change-in-the-natural-landscape-or-famous-landmarks/1022549.md?page=2)