# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![rmbnxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9e5f3/32.png) [@rmbnxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rmbnxs)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/61 "2003-07-14T19:39:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sugaree \* > \*\*_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. \*\* That scene wasn’t shot in the Rockies; it was shot on the slopes of Mt. Baker, a 10,775-ft. volcano in the North Cascades in Washington State. Stratovolcanoes are as rare in the Rockies as they are in Appalachia; i.e., there are none. ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/62 "2003-07-14T19:47:28Z")
As a Toronto-area resident, I’ve seen many movies which jump about the city in a rather alarming way. Most recently, “Bulletproof Monk” in which the characters make it from Nathan Phillips Square to the Eaton’s Centre in about twelve steps (you’d have to have LONG legs…) Also, maybe someone can help me here. I have vague memories of an American detective movie, black and white, in which somebody mentions driving from Toronto to Saskatoon, Saksatchewan in an hour and a half. That’s one fast car. Thwartme ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/63 "2003-07-14T19:49:27Z")
As a Toronto-area resident, I’ve seen many movies which jump about the city in a rather alarming way. Most recently, “Bulletproof Monk” in which the characters make it from Nathan Phillips Square to the Eaton’s Centre in about twelve steps (you’d have to have LONG legs…) But as Toronto is usually doubling for some other city, it does’t bother me much. Also, maybe someone can help me here. I have vague memories of an American detective movie, black and white, in which somebody mentions driving from Toronto to Saskatoon, Saksatchewan in an hour and a half. That’s one fast car. Thwartme ---
**Author:** ![aleong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@aleong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aleong)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/64 "2003-07-14T19:52:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by thwartme \* > \*\*As a Toronto-area resident, I’ve seen many movies which jump about the city in a rather alarming way. Most recently, “Bulletproof Monk” in which the characters make it from Nathan Phillips Square to the Eaton’s Centre in about twelve steps (you’d have to have LONG legs…) > > But as Toronto is usually doubling for some other city, it does’t bother me much. > > Also, maybe someone can help me here. I have vague memories of an American detective movie, black and white, in which somebody mentions driving from Toronto to Saskatoon, Saksatchewan in an hour and a half. That’s one fast car. > > Thwartme \*\* Yeah… Canada’s a small place where everything is within an hour. Reminds of the “South Park” episode where Saddam Hussein takes over Canada during a Roughriders-Roughriders football game-- there were scene locations such as ‘Downtown Canada’ and the ‘Canada Courthouse’. ---
**Author:** ![carimwc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac8455/32.png) [@carimwc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carimwc)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/65 "2003-07-14T20:37:39Z")
One of the most egregious mistakes I’ve seen is in _The Sound of Music_. The mountains that the Von Trapp family crosses to get to Switzerland, don’t actually go there. They lead to Germany, where they would have been arrested. Most West Wing scenes never get DC right. Not everything is located by the pretty monuments. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/66 "2003-07-14T21:07:19Z")
In Being John Malkovich, there is no way they can get from the office to the Jersey Turnpike (through the tunnel) in enough time - and yes I know it is late at night. They never worried about making it on time. The MIT scenes of A Beautiful Mind were not filmed at MIT. The Princeton scenes were filmed at Princeton, and the MIT ones looked a bit like Princeton, though I’m not sure where. A '50s monster movie, The Beginning of the End, had giant grasshoppers walking from Champaign to Chicago with those high Illinois mountains in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/67 "2003-07-14T22:19:45Z")
I think it was Hard Target that had the famous mountains of New Orleans in several shots. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/68 "2003-07-14T22:27:12Z")
I just remembered, an episode of “The West Wing” mentioned “crossing the border from Ontario to Vermont.” ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/69 "2003-07-14T22:58:50Z")
_Terms of Endearment_ has Jack Nicholson taking Shirley Maclaine on a date where they drive from the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston and drive by the beach in Galveston (about 50 miles away) on the way to a restaurant downtown that is about 15 minutes away from River Oaks. They take a 100-mile, probably 2 hour detour EACH WAY. Also in Houston, _Capricorn One_ has a character look at an envelope with a return address in Houston featuring a zip code beginning with 8. All the zip codes in Houston (and all of Texas, for that matter) begin with 7. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/70 "2003-07-14T23:03:58Z")
I’ll just point to [my thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=159296) about this, rather than repost everything from that one. [sub]Doesn’t anybody Search anymore? Mine even had “Geography” and “movies” in the title…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/71 "2003-07-14T23:06:52Z")
Yeah, but yours was back in January, **Dooku**. A lot of people have joined since then, and a lot of others were here but didn’t read or contribute to your earlier thread. YMMV. ---
**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 14, 2003, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/72 "2003-07-14T23:39:19Z")
It’s difficult enough for me to remember threads from two months ago, much less January. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/73 "2003-07-14T23:47:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rmbnxs \* > \*\*That scene wasn’t shot in the Rockies; it was shot on the slopes of Mt. Baker, a 10,775-ft. volcano in the North Cascades in Washington State. Stratovolcanoes are as rare in the Rockies as they are in Appalachia; i.e., there are none. \*\* Thank you. The scene was even further off base than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/74 "2003-07-14T23:48:07Z")
I realize mine is pretty old, but I thought you were **supposed** to search before starting a new topic? Because it’s taboo to create a new OP that has been asked before? Is that not the case if the question hasn’t been asked in 6 months or so? ---
**Author:** ![Maria](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Maria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maria)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/75 "2003-07-14T23:58:16Z")
If Sean Connery (Incredible Men movie this week) can have a car chase in Venice, then anything is possible! ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/76 "2003-07-15T00:04:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dooku \* > \*\*I realize mine is pretty old, but I thought you were **supposed** to search before starting a new topic? Because it’s taboo to create a new OP that has been asked before? Is that not the case if the question hasn’t been asked in 6 months or so? \*\* Well, I don’t know if it’s a hard-and-fast rule. If it is, I can’t remember it being one. How’s that for ironic? 😉 Sure, you should search before beginning most new topics. (I’d think this is more of a problem in GQ, GD, CCC, CSR, and IMHO; MPSIMS and Pit threads are usually highly personalized.) Perhaps the OP searched but didn’t search threads beyond the past three months or so. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/77 "2003-07-15T00:12:03Z")
Yeah, OK. I’m never even sure what to do when I actually find a topic on a Search - if I bump it everyone gets crabby. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2003, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/78 "2003-07-15T10:00:03Z")
This is less a geographical error than a “let’s use a different building because it’s more impressive looking”, but in the BBC show _Spooks_, the building shown as the MI5 headquarters (which apparently is actually located next to the famously anonymous MI6 building by Vauxhall Bridge) is the Grand Masonic Lodge on Great Queen Street in Covent Garden. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/79 "2003-07-15T10:52:20Z")
_Enemy of the State_, directed by Tony Scott. Got DC geography backwards! The fleeing biologist Zavitz runs into a lingerie store on Columbia Road (which, as all DC residents know, is in Adams-Morgan). The G-men tracking him with satellite surveillance say “Target northbound on Connecticut”—the very next thing, he is actually heading _south_ on Connecticut Avenue into the tunnel under Dupont Circle where he gets creamed by a truck. Hel-LO? Dupont Circle is about a mile south of Columbia Road and Adams-Morgan! How did he get there by fleeing north, unless he circumnavigated the globe in a matter of minutes? The Hindi film _Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam_ supposedly has its second half set in Italy. Everybody says they’re in Italy. Guess what. They really filmed it in Budapest. They used Hungarian actors speaking Hungarian. The signs were of course all in Hungarian. Budapest doesn’t even look like anyplace in Italy. They played and danced a Hungarian _csárdás_ which of course does not resemble Italian music in the least. It has become fashionable in Hindi movies to show the romantic couple going to Europe. Usually they go to Switzerland, but that’s kind of expensive. The director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, probably was trying to save money by shooting in a cheaper country and figured what the hell, who will know the difference? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/80 "2003-07-15T12:19:32Z")
Do scifi movies count? It mostly takes a few hours to get anywhere in the solar system, and a coupla weeks to get to the other side of the galaxy. No-one realises this is like taking a second to stand up, and hence assuming you can get to the sun in 10 min. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882.md?page=5)