# Obvious errors in Geography from movies set in your City **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379 "2003-01-28T01:09:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/41 "2003-01-30T05:45:47Z")
Well, in _Me, Myself, and Irene_ they called VT upsate NY. In that all the scenes shot in VT took placei n the movie in upstate NY. Also, they filmed scenes at the Ben and Jerry’s factory, but made it some amusment park, or something, I don’t know. In _What Lies Beneth_, there’s some scene with eith Harrison Ford or that woman driving across the bridge and not being able to get the cell phone to work until there are halfway across the bridge, in New York. First off, if the place in VT is that close to a bridge across the lake (of which there are few) then it has some kind of cellular service there. We are not that backwater. You can roam in VT almost anywhere, as long as you aren’t on the other side of the mountain from a tower. Also, I’m pretty sure they made up that “artsy” town that is “down route 7.” ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/42 "2003-01-30T05:53:15Z")
> [@](#): > > _The Lost World_ - Just how did that one ship get through the channel without a navigator? Just where the hell was the Ingen pier, anyway? Etc. Whoops, forgot to mention that I’m talking about San Diego here. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/43 "2003-01-30T06:07:07Z")
I’m from Los Angeles, and I’ll second the “24” reference. I’ve also seen films shot near Hollywood Blvd., where they got things _all_ wrong… A major error (in my opinion) was in the Mel Gibson version of “Maverick”, part of which was shot in Yosemite National Park. In one scene, Mel and company are in Yosemite Valley. Next thing you know, they’re up at Glacier Point! That’s about an hour’s drive by car on paved roads—both which they didn’t have back in the 1800s. The film was edited in such a way to make you think that they just wandered up to Glacier Point right then and there. In fact, it probably would have taken a day or more (I’m guessing) to get up there on horseback. It doesn’t make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![rmbnxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9e5f3/32.png) [@rmbnxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rmbnxs)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/44 "2003-01-30T09:22:29Z")
In _The Deer Hunter_, the main characters head into the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania to go hunting, and magically wind up on the slopes of Washington’s Mt. BakerÑnearly 3,000 miles away. As far as I know, there are no 10,000-feet, glacier-clad, volcanic peaks in Pennsylvania… ---
**Author:** ![Einmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Einmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Einmon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/45 "2003-01-30T10:52:32Z")
I don’t know why I would even admit to have seen the movie, but one scene of the abominable **Driven** takes place in Munich. To illustrate the “Grand European Tournament Of Race Car Driving” (or some such) they intersperse scenes from the city center with shots from the Olympic Stadium. Since that has no car race track whatsoever, they also cut in scenes from Indianapolis or something like that, which show a lot of clearly American folks milling about. We thought it was hysterical. Come to think of it, I laughed my ass off during the whole movie… ---
**Author:** ![woolly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/46 "2003-01-30T12:15:38Z")
During Bruce Beresfords 1981 “The Money Movers” is a car chase sequence that tracks a path across Sydney’s eastern suburbs (Bondi, Clovelly, Bronte, Vaucluse, Edgecliff et al) that couldn’t be repeated by a double jointed snake. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/47 "2003-01-30T12:21:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SNenc \* > **And I can’t remember the movie, but I know there’s a film where a character goes into the Georgetown Metro station. Any D.C. resident knows, much to their frustration, that no such stop exists. (And don’t blame WMATA for that, blame the 1960s Georgetown upper crust and their subtle racism.)** That would be [No Way Out](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0093640) starring Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman and Sean Young. After running along K-Street, he suddenly enters the Georgetown Mall on M-Street and then enters the Subway from inside the mall!! As far as I remember the closest station to where he was would probably be Foggy Bottom, which is a brisk 15 minute walk away, and not inside a shopping mall ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/48 "2003-01-30T13:45:32Z")
In **True Grit** , the girl (Kim Darby?) is from “Dardanelle, in Yell County” and while supposedly there, they show snow-capped peaks in the background. There are some mountains there, but they are 2000 foot flat-topped mountains. I’m originally from Dardanelle, and we always got a kick out of that and the fact that the girl pronounced it like DAR-DAN-ELLE, in Yell Coun-tee, while natives pronounce it like DARD NAIL in YALE COW-NEE. Well, it’s hard to depict in text, but hopefully, you get the idea. Aside: Charles Portis, who wrote the book, was a friend of my dad’s, but wrote the book before we moved to Dardanelle… ---
**Author:** ![blanx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f04885/32.png) [@blanx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blanx)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/49 "2003-01-30T14:08:44Z")
No, no… the absolute worst is **Bird on a Wire** with Goldie Hawn and Mel Gibson. In theory, they take the ferry from Detroit to Chicago. Which is pretty impressive, because it’s about a 5 hr drive, and by boat would take, oh, about a week! For those of you who don’t understand midwestern geography, hold your right hand palm side up. Detroit is essentially at the base of the thumb joint. Chicago is, of course, on the other side of a lake which is on the far left side of your hand. blanx ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/50 "2003-01-30T14:19:35Z")
Well, _Fargo_ is set in Minnesota, in spite of the fact that Fargo is in North Dakota… also, wherever they’re coming from is supposed to be northwest of the Twin Cities, but when they drive into town, they’re heading north. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/51 "2003-01-30T15:32:10Z")
SNenc The reason Georgetown doesn’t have a metro is that the land was too swampy to support tunnels when the system was built. There are plans for a station in development now. The snobbish resistance to a station thing is an UL. The Washington Post Sunday magazine had an article on this last year, but it’s not available for free on line. Any movie made in DC looks nothing like DC, but often much like Toronto with a monument money shot spliced in. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/52 "2003-01-30T16:21:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SNenc \* > **In one of those Morgan Freeman movies, either “Kiss The Girls” or “Along Came a Spider”, he runs across the entire NW portion of Washington, D.C., in about 10 minutes.** It’s “Along Came a Spider.” At the conclusion of the running scene, Freeman runs into a Metro station and somehow ends up on a train in a different city. DC Metro trains have a very distinct look, and this was not one of them. > [@](#): > > \*\*I haven’t seen “Minority Report,” but I’m sure it probably has similar problems. \*\* I actually didn’t think they did too bad a job. Yes, there were skyscrapers, but that might have been a result of the height ban being lifted at some point in the future. The worst part was at the climax, when Anderton and the bad guy leave a banquet to go out on the balcony. I happen to be sitting this very second in the building to which that balcony is attached – it’s an office building, and there’s no banquet room/auditorium anywhere in it. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/53 "2003-01-30T16:32:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mycroft Holmes \* > That would be [No Way Out](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0093640) starring Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman and Sean Young. After running along K-Street, he suddenly enters the Georgetown Mall on M-Street and then enters the Subway from inside the mall!! As far as I remember the closest station to where he was would probably be Foggy Bottom, which is a brisk 15 minute walk away, and not inside a shopping mall It’s been awhile since I’ve seen _No Way Out_, but I thought he was running along the C&O Towpath. Then he sees the Metro pillar/sign with “Georgetown” on it, and goes through a door that takes him into that fictitious subway station. And when he gets down to the subway, it’s clearly not the DC Metro, but some other city’s subway system. When he leaves the subway, the escalator takes him up into some shopping area which I don’t recognize from anywhere, but it could be in DC somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/54 "2003-01-30T16:33:44Z")
Well, in Jackie Chan’s “Rumble in the Bronx,” you can see mountains in the background. Ah… the mountains of New York City, I remember them well. And friends from West Texas howled when they watched “The Buddy Holly Story,” and saw mountains surrounding Lubbock (Lubbock sits on a plateau- there ain’t any mountains surrounding it). ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/55 "2003-01-30T16:51:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RTFirefly \* > \*\*It’s been awhile since I’ve seen _No Way Out_, but I thought he was running along the C&O Towpath. Then he sees the Metro pillar/sign with “Georgetown” on it, and goes through a door that takes him into that fictitious subway station. > > And when he gets down to the subway, it’s clearly not the DC Metro, but some other city’s subway system. > > When he leaves the subway, the escalator takes him up into some shopping area which I don’t recognize from anywhere, but it could be in DC somewhere. \*\* It’s been a while since I’ve seen the movia also, but you’re definitely right in remembering him running along the C&O towpath. And I think the subways used in the filming were actually from a city just up I95. IIRC they used the Baltimore subway. Actually I have never seen a movie use the actual DC METRO trains. Could METRO be hiding something? ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/56 "2003-01-30T17:19:18Z")
In **Saving Private Ryan** , the Ryans are from Iowa. They say so. Yet when the army men with the bad news drive up to Mrs. Ryan’s house, there’s mountains in the background (and it’s very hilly). While some parts of Iowa are hilly (and pretty too!), ain’t no mountains to be seen anywhere from that good country. My dad’s a native - I know. Mountains in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana; no mountains in Iowa. However, Spielburg does use an Iowan farmhouse for the one that got destroyed in the horrific **Twister**. It’s not far from one of my cousin’s farms near Iowa Falls - he took my dad to see it when it was more fixed up and less destroyed. That movie’s set in where? Texas? Oklahoma? Both? Also, **Grumpy Old Men** got Wabasha, MN all goofed up. Snicks ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/57 "2003-01-30T17:30:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Omorka \* > \*\*Oh, and there’s an impossible freeway sign in the one shot we see of Houston before it’s nuked in **ID4**. \*\* Speaking of **ID4** , There is no street that dead-ends into the Empire State Building. This one’s obscure, and I only know it because I used to live on that block, so it doesn’t count as “obvious” but in Die Hard 3, Bruce Willis runs westward on 8th st (away from broadway) and then is suddenly running northward on Broadway (towards 8th) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/58 "2003-01-30T18:03:44Z")
Real subtle _The Sixth Sense_ was filmed in my old neighborhood. In the scene where they are on the bus going to the little girl’s wake/funeral. They look out the window and see an urban mansion going by. For the angle they have on that mansion, they would need to be going the wrong way down Green St., a one-lane street with no buses travelling on it! (now **that’s** picky!) Oh, and _Trading Places_ has cop cars going the wrong way up certain streets. _12 Monkeys_ has the Wanamaker’s sign on its old building when it is supposed to be set in a year by which Wanamakers was defunct and the building under a different name. ---
**Author:** ![dwmacg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwmacg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwmacg)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/59 "2003-01-30T18:46:46Z")
The Washington Post ran an article a couple of weeks ago about movies shot in DC. Apparantly Metro is very picky about what can be shown. They don’t allow anything that is prohibited to normal customers–no eating, no drinking, no running–so most movie makers go elsewhere to avoid the hassle (Baltimore is a favorite). In **When Harry Met Sally** , Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal drive the University of Chicago, on the South side, to New York. After they leave the campus, they’re shown heading north on Lake Shore Drive, with the Loop in the background. That would make sense if they were planning to go by way of Sault Ste. Marie. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/60 "2003-01-30T18:51:16Z")
It’s _almost_ like movie makers are more concerned with having aesthetically pleasing shots, and shooting in places where they can afford, than they are with absolute geographic accuracy! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379.md?page=4)