# Movies with no sense of Geography **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882 "2003-07-12T02:16:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [July 12, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/21 "2003-07-12T13:48:02Z")
Michael Cimino wanted to set some of the scenes in _Heaven’s Gate_ at Harvard, but was denied permission to film there. He decided to film at Oxford instead and pretend it was Harvard. I guess he figured all those old universities look alike. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/22 "2003-07-12T14:07:26Z")
_The Deer Hunter_ featured a hunting trip that was set in Western Pennsylvanian woodland- hilly, green, all Appalachian-looking. The scene was actually shot in the Rockies, and the terrian is very peaky and piney. Totally wrong. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/23 "2003-07-12T15:11:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*My perennial favorite “Los Angeles geography blooper” example is **Speed** – as a long-time native, it tickles me to see that pokey blue bus go from Pico-La Brea to El Segundo (twelve miles away) in the blink of an eye. 😉 \*\* When did they go through El Segundo?? That’s a good mile SOUTH of LAX, and they never went that direction, IIRC. What really gets me is when they got on the (under construction) 105 Freeway, it took them over 15 minutes to drive from Western Ave. to LAX, a 1.5-mile distance. Apparently the “Bus Go BOOM If You Fall Under 50MPH” sensor was broken… Not to mention that the first freeway they were on (I-10) looked suspiciously like the 105 as well…and wait a sec, didn’t they exit that freeway on a cloverleaf exit?? That would make them going NORTH on Western (or whatever street it was) instead of SOUTH, which is where the 105 lies… ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/24 "2003-07-12T15:14:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*In the “unused scenes” part of the _Spy Game_ DVD, it introduces a scene set in “Karachi, India”. \*\* Well, that **would** be correct if the adventure in question took place before the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan… ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/25 "2003-07-12T15:18:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen \* > Yes, but do we _know_ he’s supposed to be facing east? Some of the Vietnam coastline does face west, you know; the area around [Vung Tau](http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/maps/images/vietnam.jpg), for example. Vung Tau isn’t the best example you could have chosen because there’d be so much more coastline in shot from there. Somewhere on the coast facing Thailand might give you a sunset without land in view though. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/26 "2003-07-12T15:28:34Z")
There’s a scene in _Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me_ that supposedly takes place on Carnaby Street in London, but where you can see mountains in the background. Earlier in the movie Austin mentions this lack of georgraphical continuity: as he and Felicity are driving in the country, Austin says: “You know what’s amazing? How much England looks _in no way_ like southern California!” FTR, in the video for _Karma Chameleon_ by Culture Club, they’re on a boat that is supposed to represent a steamboat traversing the Mississippi river. Trouble is, at the end you can clearly see the skyline of London in the background. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/27 "2003-07-12T18:41:56Z")
I’m surprised this goof is NOT in the IMDB. (Seems they love continuity errors there more than anything else - button missing, button there again, etc) Anyway, this is a fairly famous goof and I copied and pasted the following: * * * John Wayne and the vietnamese girl are walking on the beach watching the sun set over the ocean. As we all know, the sun sets in the west - so how could they see it from a beach in vietnam? \*\*\* from this site: [http://www.slipups.com/items/48.html](http://www.slipups.com/items/48.html) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/28 "2003-07-12T18:44:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wolf\_meister \* > \*\*I’m surprised this goof is NOT in the IMDB. \*\* Maybe they don’t list it becaue the goof in question is not outside the realm of possibility? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/29 "2003-07-12T19:05:03Z")
Perhaps they were somewhere in [Kien Giang Province](http://www.vietnamtourism.com/f_pages/vietnam/provinces/map_pages/fr_kiengiang.htm). [Phu Quoc Island](http://www.vietmedia.com/landscape/images/kiengiang/phuquoc.jpg), for example. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/30 "2003-07-12T19:30:17Z")
**IMDB Errors** Jeff, as I said, the IMDB “goofs” section seems to be obsessed with continuity errors more than anything else. The movie “Under Siege” has MANY errors concerning US Navy conduct, uniforms, procedure, etc but the IMDB likes to list the “important” stuff - movie crew visible, phone being used has cable unplugged, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/31 "2003-07-12T20:41:09Z")
The chase scene from “Bullitt” has them jumping all over San Francisco. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/32 "2003-07-12T20:56:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HeyHomie \* > \*\*There’s a scene in _Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me_ that supposedly takes place on Carnaby Street in London, but where you can see mountains in the background. > > Earlier in the movie Austin mentions this lack of georgraphical continuity: as he and Felicity are driving in the country, Austin says: “You know what’s amazing? How much England looks _in no way_ like southern California!”\*\* This is a parody of such. I believe they pointed out that the mountains were added in, poking fun at the way that old films would use soundstages for far-off locations such as London. ---
**Author:** ![Doubting\_Robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Doubting\_Robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubting_Robert)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/33 "2003-07-12T21:32:14Z")
The IMBD lists several “Errors in geography” for the movie “The X Files.” “Dr. Kurtzweil’s office is located at Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. However, when the police search it, some of the officers are wearing patches of the Arlington, Virginia, police department.” (That seems more like a costume problem to me, but I copied it anyhow.) "The coordinates that the Well-Manicured Man gives Mulder to locate Scully are not in Wilkes Land. 83 degrees latitude South & 63 degrees longitude East are indeed in Antarctica but hundreds of miles from Wilkes Land, closer to the South Pole. “In an early scene where “North Texas” appears on the screen, mountains can be seen off in the distance.” (EVen without the mountains, the area supposedly just outside of Dallas does not look anything like any part of North Texas.) I remember an episode of the old TV series “Banacek” in which the hero travels north from Dallas into Oklahoma without crossing a river at the border. It’s been a long time since I saw “The X Files,” but doesn’t something like that happen there too? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/34 "2003-07-12T23:20:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wolf\_meister \* > \*\*Jeff, as I said, the IMDB “goofs” section seems to be obsessed with continuity errors more than anything else. The movie “Under Siege” has MANY errors concerning US Navy conduct, uniforms, procedure, etc but the IMDB likes to list the “important” stuff - movie crew visible, phone being used has cable unplugged, etc. \*\* Yes, I know. They also tend to only list verifiable goofs. Problem with **The Green Berets** is that it’s impossible to verify whether that’s a goof or not without having someone go to the actual beach and see if it actually faces east or not. If the beach is found to face west, it would get the “incorrectly regarded as a goof” tag. I don’t think anyone is going to check the miles of Vietnamese coastline just to verify a goof. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/35 "2003-07-12T23:45:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KGS \* > When did they go through El Segundo?? That’s a good mile SOUTH of LAX, and they never went that direction, IIRC. When the bus first pulls onto the 105, that’s Century Boulevard right smack in El Segundo. I worked in El Segundo for two years, and used to take that onramp every night to go home. And I’m pretty sure LAX is _in_ El Segundo. It’s certainly not a mile away. > [@](#): > > What really gets me is when they got on the (under construction) 105 Freeway, it took them over 15 minutes to drive from Western Ave. to LAX, a 1.5-mile distance. Well, I’m pretty sure that going from Western to LAX is more than 1.5 miles, but it definitely doesn’t take 15 minutes. I can do it in six if the freeway isn’t congested. > [@](#): > > Not to mention that the first freeway they were on (I-10) looked suspiciously like the 105 as well…and wait a sec, didn’t they exit that freeway on a cloverleaf exit?? That would make them going NORTH on Western (or whatever street it was) instead of SOUTH, which is where the 105 lies… Yep, you sound like me watching **Speed.** 😉 “Waitaminute, I _know_ the 10 east offramp at Western, there’s no cloverleaf there…” ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/36 "2003-07-12T23:45:27Z")
“Arlington Road” was obviously filmed in two separate cities. It was funny to see Houston’s museum district being passed off as metropolitan DC, and strange when he answered a payphone near a local movie theatre (in Houston). I read in an issue of the “Houston Press” that there’s an action film currently being made set in Houston, but filmed in Belgium. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Dizzy\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dizzy\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dizzy_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/37 "2003-07-13T01:14:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > \*\*Michael Cimino wanted to set some of the scenes in _Heaven’s Gate_ at Harvard, but was denied permission to film there. He decided to film at Oxford instead and pretend it was Harvard. I guess he figured all those old universities look alike. \*\* In a related vein, Comedy Central’s “Porn and Chicken” takes place at Yale, but several scenes were shot at . . . the Union Theological Seminary. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/38 "2003-07-13T03:24:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*When the bus first pulls onto the 105, that’s Century Boulevard right smack in El Segundo. I worked in El Segundo for two years, and used to take that onramp every night to go home. > > And I’m pretty sure LAX is _in_ El Segundo. It’s certainly not a mile away. > \*\* Ok I checked my handy Thomas Bros. mapbook, and while LAX is definitely within the city limits of Los Angeles, it _is_ smack dab up against the city limits of El Segundo. But I guess I can weasel out of that one by saying if you leave the 105 freeway and head south for a mile, you’d still be in El Segundo. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![maddiesilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@maddiesilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maddiesilver)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/39 "2003-07-13T03:33:45Z")
How about Gladiator, where Russell Crowe is walked (partially unconscious) from somewhere in Europe, through a desert, and ends up in what looks like North Africa, without ever having crossed water? Or did I miss something? ---
**Author:** ![LWL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@LWL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LWL)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/40 "2003-07-13T06:49:49Z")
The movie _Battle of the Bulge_, starring Henry Fonda, is supposed to be set in the Ardennes Forest during the winter. However, during the final epic tank battle, it looks like they’re fighting in the middle of some dry plains! According to the IMDB, the movie was so inaccurate in many respects that Dwight D. Eisenhower himself complained! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882.md?page=3)