# Movies filmed on a location you know well **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 13, 2022, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515 "2022-09-13T19:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/61 "2022-09-14T10:42:59Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > The old Del Amo food court from _Jackie Brown_ and the diner that is robbed in _Pulp Fiction_. The Hawthorne Grill was the _Pulp Fiction_ diner. I ate there a couple of times as well, but it sadly closed in 1997 or so (I moved out of L.A. in 2000 so I have no idea if it’s reopened since). They had a Pulp Fiction mural on the wall, which kinda spoiled the fun, I thought. I remember driving from Hollywood to Hawthorne one rainy night to take my then-girlfriend there, only to be disappointed at the empty building upon arrival. A couple of months later, we did eat at the diner from _Heat_, the one in which Dennis Haysbert is recruited for the big heist. ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfyre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfyre/32/9972_2.png) [@Shadowfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfyre)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/62 "2022-09-14T12:29:45Z")
The Johnny Depp movie Public Enemies filmed in my hometown of Lockport IL. It filmed many other places as well, but there was a lot of “I know that place!”. Just 5 minutes down the road is the Old Joliet Prison where they filmed the beginning of the OG Blues Brothers. On a related note, the HBO Max series [Someone Somewhere](https://www.hbo.com/somebody-somewhere) with Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller is mainly filmed in Lockport IL which is doubling for some fictional Kansas town. The shows’ main breakfast restaurant is a small wine bar where I regularly play at the open mic nights. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/63 "2022-09-14T12:49:34Z")
Atlantans should also get a pass on this, as well – there have been literally dozens of films and TV shows maded in and around the city (T_he Walking Dead, Watchmen_, parts of all _The Hunger Games_ movies, _Ant-Man, Change-Up, Hawkeye_); I was bemused to see the highly distinctive Fox Theatre standing in for a Jersey City mosque in _Ms. Marvel_. I can think of a least two movies/shows filmed within a quarter mile of my house (_The Duff_ was filmed at a high school one block up, as was another production that’s not out yet, so I don’t know if it’s a movie or a TV show). But my hometown of Hudson, Ohio stood in for a New England town in a made-for-TV Christmas movie starring Ed Asner: _The Gathering_. And my mother watches _A Christmas Story_ every year to be reminded of the east side of Cleveland as it looked when she was a girl; the opening Christmas parade scene was shot in Public Square, and the house is in the Tremont neighborhood, not far from her childhood home. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2022, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/64 "2022-09-14T12:51:26Z")
As I’ve noted many times, a lot of the opening of **Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade** was filmed at Arches National Park i n Utah. I had spent the previous two summers hiking through it, so when the Paramount logo blended into that sandstone corner and panned down past what looked like the Bust of Nefertiti I immediately said “I Know Those Rocks!” It was Courthouse Towers at Arches. Although it looks like they’re in the middle of nowhere, the camera is actually on a relatively recently paved road, shooting down into a landscape that is usually covered with sticks and string intended to keep the tourists off the cryptogamic soil. If they hadn’t closed off the road you might even have been able to catch a car driving byy in the distance. During the opening sequence they also pass Balanced Rock, the Three Gossips, Skull Arch, and Double Arch. Not in the order they shot them in, of course – they put them on screen just so they’d look pretty. Once the chase begins and they’re heading for the railroad they’re in Arizona or something – you’ll notice that the mountains in the background disappear… Lots of other movies were filmed at Arches, including the end of **Thelma and Louise** , **City Slickers II** , and others. The scene with the Beryllium sphere in **Galaxy Quest** was shot nearby at Goblin Valley near Moab. Several movies were shot where I now live, in Saugus, MA. Part of the opening of **Ted II** was shot at the now-departed miniature golf course on Route 1. The course is gone, but its iconic T. Rex, with fluorescent body and fluorescent green eyes, is still there. They also shot part of **Grown Ups 2** at the football stadium in town, not far from my house. But there’s a new athletic stadium at the new high school now. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/65 "2022-09-14T13:18:34Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Edit: I also remembered that a few scenes from the Samuel L. Jackson / Kevin Spacey film _The Negotiator,_ involving a helicopter, were filmed in the vicinity of my office at Quaker Oats, also in downtown Chicago. One scene had the helicopter making close flybys of our building, which was very distracting the afternoon that they were filming it. I was living in Chicago then, as well, and I recall coming across the set while wandering around the Loop one evening. And didn’t they shot the later parts of the movie - the scenes set in Kevin Spacey’s character’s home - in one of the Chicago suburbs? River Forest or Berwyn or something? I remember seeing a Pace bus in one shot. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/66 "2022-09-14T13:38:03Z")
I doubt anyone will name “[Smile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_(1975_film)),” a film from 1975 about a beauty pageant in Santa Rosa, CA. When I watch it, I recognize the mall where my wife had her first job, the Macy’s my mother-in-law single-handedly keeps afloat, the Veteran’s Memorial Building where lots of big public event happen, the Denny’s I’ve never bothered to eat at, the mobile home park that was destroyed in a fire a few years ago,… ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/67 "2022-09-14T13:40:16Z")
One of the shooting locations for _The Fugitive_ sequel _US Marshalls_ was Chicago. I remember watching a video about a shot they were filming that was standing in for New York so they dumped some garbage and papers in the street to make it look like New York (their words not mine). The location was right in the Loop off Jackson Street where I used to work. Lots of movies have parts filmed in downtown Chicago, _The Fugitive_, of course, but also _Blues Brothers_, _The Package_, and _Ferris Bueller’s Day Off_. _My Bodyguard_ is also another movie filmed in Chicago and has some distinctive locations, notably the Lincoln Park Zoo Lagoon. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2022, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/68 "2022-09-14T13:41:55Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > _Night of the Living Dead._ I grew up just south of the border. SW PA is very recognizable terrain. I’ve never even been to Western PA, but when I was 15, I made some extra cash reading to an eccentric blind man who had a weird obsession with bus schedules. One that I read to him had the same towns and stops as those featured in the news reports in the Romero film that I had just seen on TV a few days earlier. It made a creepy job even creepier. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2022, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/69 "2022-09-14T13:51:42Z")
I used to visit and participate in a late night radio show hosted by a friend on KUCI located on the campus of UC Irvine. My shortcut to the studio took me up and down several outdoor stairs that I only later recognized as those used in several scenes in _Conquest of the Planet of the Apes_. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/70 "2022-09-14T14:07:37Z")
Part of one of the Airport movies was shot in my former squadron’s hangar. I’d already transferred, but one of my friends was still there and she got to watch the goings-on. I also recognized a couple scenes in House of Cards that were shot around Baltimore, especially the ones in Fells’ Point. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/71 "2022-09-14T14:21:49Z")
The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London is _constantly_ in use for film and television shoots. [Here’s a partial list](https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?locations=Old+Royal+Naval+College%2C+Greenwich%2C+London%2C+England%2C+UK). Note that this includes the Painted Hall and the Chapel as well as various exteriors. To pick a recent example: the episode of _The Sandman_ with Johanna Constantine used the Painted Hall for the “wedding” scene, the exterior of the Painted Hall including the road, the courtyard of King Charles Court (to which they added lampposts), and a doorway and stairwell at the far end of KCC (not sure whether the flat shown was also there - there are a few down at that end of the building). The Chapel isn’t in that one but you can see it, for example, at the end of the second _Kingsman_ film, for Eggsy’s wedding. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/72 "2022-09-14T14:25:01Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > _Just Friends_ with Ryan Reynolds was filmed in Regina and Moose Jaw. I go to the shopping mall where a small scene was shot nearly every work day, and drive by the house that had the wrecked Christmas decorations almost as often. Have had a few beers in the pub in Moose Jaw where some of the action took place. I rode the bus past that house with the broken Christmas decorations every day. It was set up like that all winter. Some of that movie was filmed in the building I work in. I spent part of a lunch break looking down from above at take after take of a posh Christmas party where the women all wore tiny cocktail dresses. There was a kind of wireframe Christmas tree with an actress on a swing inside. She needed a ladder to get on and off the swing between takes. The scene started with the camera on a crane pointing down at the woman on the swing then panning across the crowd and ending up pointing a a man at the bar (might have been Ryan Reynolds) where a woman says something to him. Over and over. When I saw the movie, the costumes in that scene were all different. Not much of a movie but it was good to see some local actors get work including, now that I look at the credits, a high school friend. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/73 "2022-09-14T14:35:06Z")
> [@rippingtons\_fan](#): > > **An Officer and a Gentleman** was filmed at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, Washington, where we held the annual Fort Worden Kitemaker’s Conference. I own a piece of property about 4 miles from the state park and visit the town often. One of the scenes was shot at the Bayview Cafe near the ferry dock. My wife and I have sat at the same table a couple times. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/74 "2022-09-14T14:43:39Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > They filmed some scenes In Boston in the early-70s. Mostly establishing shots and credit shots. Banacek, like San Francisco’s McMillan and Wife and NYC McCloud were filmed in LA. I didn’t notice at the time they were new (and I lived well east of LA) but it’s obvious now. My childhood illusions have been destroyed! ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/75 "2022-09-14T15:05:26Z")
In 1993 Brooke Shields was in a TV movie titled “The Stalking of Laura Black” I wouldn’t have bothered with it but a number of scenes were filmed in my home town of Topeka, Kansas. There was another TV movie titled “Cross of Fire” that had some scenes filmed in Topeka. One was in our state capitol building, which stood in for the capitol building of Indiana. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/76 "2022-09-14T15:34:36Z")
The 1955 movie _Picnic_, starring William Holden and Kim Novak, was partially filmed in the small town of Halstead, Kansas, which is about 10 miles from where I live. Interestingly, filming was interrupted due to a tornado in the area. The tornado missed Halstead, but completely devastated the town of Udall, about 60 miles away. The film crew drove their trucks and other equipment to Udall to help with the cleanup. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/77 "2022-09-14T16:00:30Z")
_Super Troopers_ was set in Vermont but it was filmed in Beacon, NY and the surrounding area, where I have lived in (although not at the time they were filming the movie). I recognize a lot of the locations in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/78 "2022-09-14T16:07:36Z")
There is a scene in Dumb and Dumber that was on a street that was my regular “bike ride route” when I was growing up. However, the area changed since then and I don’t really recognize it. There is a scene in Stripes on the bridge I crossed over every working day when I lived in the Louisville area. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/79 "2022-09-14T16:09:23Z")
> [@rippingtons\_fan](#): > > **An Officer and a Gentleman** was filmed at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, Washington, where we held the annual Fort Worden Kitemaker’s Conference. A friend from college lives in the Seattle area. Several years ago on a visit up there, they took us on a day trip out to the Port Townsend/Fort Worden area. As we were driving through the fort, I had this weird feeling, not exactly deja vu, but just that it seemed _really_ familiar even though I had never been there before. Then suddenly it hit me - “An Officer and a Gentleman”! I was a student at the University of Kansas in the early 80’s when they filmed “The Day After” there. My roommate was an extra in the scene in Allen Field House where they had all the casualties spread out across the floor. (Unfortunately I had classes that day and couldn’t do it.) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515/80 "2022-09-14T16:30:21Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Mostly establishing shots and credit shots. Banacek, like San Francisco’s McMillan and Wife and NYC McCloud were filmed in LA. I didn’t notice at the time they were new (and I lived well east of LA) but it’s obvious now. My childhood illusions have been destroyed! Mostly establishing and credit shots, but not exclusively. There’s one scene I remember where Banacek is having a picnic on the Esplanade right by the Hatch Shell. There’s another one on Beacon St. just a few blocks down from the State House, in front of Felix’s bookshop. I think there’s even one shot out in Wayland, not too far from my curling club. The building that stood in as Mulholland’s Rare Books and Prints looks to be just an ordinary townhouse now, although in quite a nice neighborhood. I always kinda wonder if the people who live there know that their home was in a TV show 50 years ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-filmed-on-a-location-you-know-well/971515.md?page=5)