# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**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:** [April 25, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/102 "2014-04-25T15:51:43Z")
Zombies have no sense of geography. Most movies and TV shows simply don’t care about geography, being more concerned about interesting visuals than consistencuy. The car chase sequence in the James Bond film **Diamonds are Forever** makes zero sense. Pepper Mill and I were watching a movbie set in Boston not long ago, and laughed when we saw the landmarks a car was passing – they would’ve had to have been driving in big backtracking loops. My favorite Syupid Geoghraphy movie is **10,000 B.C.** – a movie that is suyperlatively stupid on masny levels, even after you grant them the basic asumptions. It starts out in some practically arctic frozen wasteland, with cavemen and mammoths, which would seem to be northern Europe, then goes through hot and steamy lowland swamps and wetlands before ending up in a desert with a single river in it that leads to another desert place having pyramids, which is supposed to be (one guesses) Egypt. They cross no major bodies of water (the ships the slavers are shown using appear to be the height of technology, and they only go on rivers). Whgere the hell is this supposed to be taking place? Where, for that matter, could you engage in a chase that will take you through such vast changes in terrain and climate in the few days it seems to? ---
**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:** [April 25, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/103 "2014-04-25T16:17:59Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > In movie-land, there are no freeways in the desert southwest. The only way to travel from L.A. to Las Vegas or Phoenix (or even S.F. sometimes, which is a major WTF?!?) is on that desolate two-lane road that goes by the windmill farm. But there’s no need for desert freeways, because as those movies show, there’s never any other traffic on that isolated two-lane road. In _Romy and Michelle’s HS Reunion_, R&M are traveling from LA to Tuscon, and they are shown to be on some desert two lane road. Silly girls, you get on the 10 and don’t turn off until Tuscon. No wonder you didn’t invent Post-its. The worst I saw was in a movie (I forget which, maybe _Someone to Watch Over Me_?). In a scene set in a NYC high rise, the characters get on an elevator, and get off in the 2nd class pool of the Queen Mary! Holy turbolifts, batman! ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/104 "2014-04-25T16:39:07Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > Have you taken I10? Next, you will be suggesting that characters should take I5 when going from LA to SF. Shoot me now! 😛 > > Can you take 62 from Palm Springs to LA? I thought it only went east. It goes both [ways](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_62). It’s the Anne Heche Highway Ba-Ding!😛 No, seriously, 62 starts at 1-10 and goes up to Twentynine Palms. it’s a pretty crappy rod so even if they weren’t in a hurry to get out of PS it makes you wonder why they would have taken that route. And I have taken both the PCH and I-5 to LA. While the 5 is faster, the PCH is much more scenic. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/105 "2014-04-25T17:19:55Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > And I have taken both the PCH and I-5 to LA. While the 5 is faster, the PCH is much more scenic. Or you can split the difference and travel [U.S. 101](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_101_in_CA), which is more scenic than I-5 but only takes an extra hour or two (whereas PCH is a pretty slow drive.) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/106 "2014-04-25T17:25:04Z")
Not exactly wrong geography since the river _is_ there, but in _Rambo III_ I believe it was, when Stallone paddles his boat all the way down to Bangkok from northern Thailand, we were wondering why the fuck he didn’t hop a bus and use the perfectly good highway that runs all the way down the country not far from the river. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/107 "2014-04-25T17:56:13Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Not exactly wrong geography since the river _is_ there, but in _Rambo III_ I believe it was, when Stallone paddles his boat all the way down to Bangkok from northern Thailand, we were wondering why the fuck he didn’t hop a bus and use the perfectly good highway that runs all the way down the country not far from the river. Or hire a car. Drivers and fuel are pretty cheap over there.😕 ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/108 "2014-04-25T21:09:16Z")
I loved **Braveheart** , but I remember a Scottish friend complaining bitterly about it. In particular, he was incensed by the fact that: 1. The real WIlliam Wallace was a Lowlander, not a Highlander, and yet Wallace is always shown in Highlander garb (kilts) and fighting in the mountains. 2. “It’s the Battle of Stirling BRIDGE! Where’s the bloody BRIDGE?” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/109 "2014-04-26T05:44:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Just the movie. The novel (which has its own innacuracies) has him crashing in a freshly-plowed field. IIRC, his Skyhawk is hit and disintegrates over the desert hills (described as rocky terrain), and the bomb continues on its own momentum to land in the farmer’s garden. Nitpick about _ **The Green Berets** _: Wayne was walking with a little boy, not a girl. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882/110 "2014-04-26T06:21:58Z")
> [@maddiesilver](#): > > 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? Not to mention that he jumps on a horse in Germany, bleeding from a battle wound, and reaches his home in Spain, on the same horse, still bleeding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-sense-of-geography/187882.md?page=5)