# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Asylum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@Asylum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asylum)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/61 "2003-01-30T18:55:40Z")
**The Sum of All Fears** , when the blast levels part of Baltimore you get a shot of the President’s limousine being knocked over on a road going through a field. There ain’t no fields between Baltimore and DC folks. Tain’t nothin’ but trees and strip malls. ---
**Author:** ![Asylum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@Asylum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asylum)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/62 "2003-01-30T18:58:38Z")
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention a quick bit of trivia about that **Sum of All Fears** scene. It was actually shot across the border in Canada using real U.S. military. They were carrying fake weapons however, because Canada wasn’t real thrilled with the idea of having armed U.S. soldiers wandering around their country. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/63 "2003-01-30T19:16:20Z")
Just been watching the 30’s version of David Copperfield ( the one with W.C.Fields ) on TCM. One scene is on Yarmouth beach , the home of David’s relations. Two characters are discussing the sunset over the ocean in front of them . The only trouble is that Yarmouth is on the east coast of England and you would get a sunrise over the sea , not a sunset. ---
**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:** [January 30, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/64 "2003-01-30T20:38:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bup \* > \*\*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! \*\* Thank you for that insight. No one in this thread was aware of it. Shouldn’t you be posting in LOTR threads and saying it was “just a stupid movie”? ---
**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:** [January 30, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/65 "2003-01-30T20:56:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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. \*\* When I worked a the Old Post Office building in '89, my brother mentioned that some movie was shot in the food court/shopping area there. The scene involved some character entering or exiting Metro and may well be the one you remember from _No Way Out_. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Mycroft Holmes_ > **Actually I have never seen a movie use the actual DC METRO trains.** I’ve seen a TV movie that used a Metro train & station. I believe that movie was [Popeye Doyle](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0091780). ---
**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/66 "2003-01-30T21:24:23Z")
The remake of **Insomnia** is set in Nightmute, Alaska (not my hometown, but close enough). Except the characters in the movie have drinks at a bar (alcohol is banned in the real Nightmute), drive around in cars (no roads IRL), and wander around in old-growth forests (no trees, either). In the movie, the town is billed as the “Halibut Capital of the World” – a title claimed by Homer, AK (among others, I’m sure). Oh, and there is one token Indian guy, in a village that is supposed to be 98% Yupik Eskimo. They also perform an autopsy in the village rather than at the state lab in Anchorage, but that’s more of a plot hole than a geography blooper. The funny thing is that the screenwriter reportedly spent a year doing research in Alaska. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/67 "2003-01-30T21:50:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dwmacg \* > \*\*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. \*\* The original **National Lampoon’s Vacation** also includes a gratuitous driving shot on Lake Shore Drive (I believe they are at least headed south) even though there is little reason for a suburban family to begin a road trip out west by first heading into downtown via the LSD. On the other hand, the LSD is much more photogenic then the Edens/Kennedy or the Tri-State, and probably a lot easier to get permits to do filming on too. ---
**Author:** ![rsvp9146](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rsvp9146](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsvp9146)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/68 "2003-01-30T22:14:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SolGrundy \* > \*\* > As for my other home, “The Dukes of Hazzard” was actually filmed in my hometown in Georgia, and they still managed to screw up. Frequently they’d show the Duke boys driving past farms with a majestic snow-peaked mountain in the background. Even in the mountains in GA you don’t get vistas like that, and they were supposed to be in the farmlands in central & southern GA. \*\* I beg to differ. Dukes of Hazzard was filmed around Lake Sherwood, CA. I grew up in the area and remember them shutting down Potrero road all the time to do shooting. This road is used ALL the time for location work. You see a horse ranch with a white picket fence and mountains in the background. it’s Potrero Rd. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/69 "2003-01-30T22:31:46Z")
I vividly recall a scene in **Tommy Boy** , which is supposedly set in Sandusky, Ohio. I think Tommy Boy’s girlfriend was calling him from the airport in Sandusky… she was about to get on a flight to Cleveland. a) There is no airport in Sandusky. Certainly not a commercial one. b) Sandusky is only 60-90 minute drive from Cleveland. Nobody would fly. You could drive there before you could get through security, even IF there was an airport in Sandusky. And, FTR, I thought **Dukes of Hazzard** was supposed to be set in Hazzard County Kentucky. Which I’ve driven though, shouting “Yeeeeeeee-HAW” at the top of my lungs. Couldn’t resist. ---
**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:** [January 30, 2003, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/70 "2003-01-30T22:32:11Z")
Couple of John Wayne movies: _The Alamo_ told us that San Antonio is on the Rio Grande. _The Green Berets_ had the sun going down into the ocean on a Vietnam beach that would be facing east. The tv show “Wiseguys” had an episode in which the main character was sent by his boss to deal with a problem in his drug empire. He flew into Johnson City, Tennessee (my home town), landing in the imaginary “Johnson City Airport”, then taking a short drive to a farm that we’re told is “40 miles from the nearest town.” I don’t think there is such a place in Tennessee. ---
**Author:** ![Ivar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ivar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivar)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/71 "2003-01-30T22:46:11Z")
OK, let’s start with Drop Dead Fred. Following the food fight they get in the elevator at the top of the IDS Center (in which I am currently, 39th fl.) in downtown Minneapolis, and when they get out of the elevator, they are in Galtier Plaza, which is downtown St. Paul. On to Untamed Heart. You would never take the Burnsville Parkway while driving from Minnepolis to the Met Center. You would never cross the bridge to walk home if you already live ON THAT SIDE OF THE RIVER. And you can’t get to Marisa Tomei’s residential neighborhood by walking across that bridge either, unless you are prepared to walk quite a way. To me, the house looked typical of South Mpls, I just don’t see anyone walking that far. How about taking the 6 bus across Central Ave. Bridge instead of walking the Hennepin Ave. Bridge? Fargo. Apparently (I have no cite for this, just the rumors I remember) the working title of the movie was “Brainerd” which is where the police officer is from in the movie. The big wigs in Hollywood asked them to change the name because noone knows what the hell a “Brainerd” is, but Fargo, seemed recognizable. The bar where they meet in the beginning is in Nordeast (Mpls.), not Fargo or Brainerd. It’s the King of Clubs on Central Ave. And no one who lives in the western suburbs of Minneapolis talks like that! OK That’s enough for now. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/72 "2003-01-30T23:21:57Z")
> [@](#): > > In the movie For Love of the Game, Kevin Costner’s character is at spring training in Lakeland, FL (where I live). He’s staying in a several hundred thousand dollar condo ON THE BEACH with palm trees, surf, etc… > Lakeland is about 50 miles inland. You didn’t catch the disaster-movie subplot where the coast is submerged by a tidal wave? 😉 > [@](#): > > In Forest Gump, the park bench Forest is waiting on is on the inside of a square. In order for this to be correct, the bus would have to go one-way the wrong way past the bench. However, they did get the correct logo on the bus. At the time the story takes place (early 80’s), the local transit company was known as the Savannah Transit Authority (STA). > > In case you’re wondering, the bench used in the movie resides in the Tourist Info Center on MLK Blvd. Mentioning that you’re from Savannah, **Mr Blue Sky** , makes me wonder what’s been done along the lines of tourist-izing the setting for _Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil_ – quasi-true story that it was. > [@](#): > > My favorite one, and it is in a thousand movies of DC big wigs, in their offices, is the view out the great man’s window. Everyone has a nearly straight on view of the Capitol, just off center to the right, and including all the steps and such. > > It’s amazing just how many secret offices there are at the Mellon Gallery, which is the only place not actually on the grass of the Mall itself where you can get that view. Uh, **Tris**? You know you’re giving away government secrets here, don’t you? (Why do you think the Smithsonian got the money it took to refurbish that particular building? And have you ever heard of the contractor who did the work again?) :eek: > [@](#): > > but they then have a battle in the “miles of underground caverns beneath the city”. The city, of course, lies at 6 feet below sea level, so those would be miles of SUBMERGED underground caverns, if they existed. Just what do you think they do with all those pumps along the levees when the river’s not high? 🙂 > [@](#): > > 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. …Now. 🙂 > [@](#): > > The remake of Insomnia is set in Nightmute, Alaska (not my hometown, but close enough). Except the characters in the movie have drinks at a bar (alcohol is banned in the real Nightmute), drive around in cars (no roads IRL), and wander around in old-growth forests (no trees, either). In the movie, the town is billed as the “Halibut Capital of the World” – a title claimed by Homer, AK (among others, I’m sure). > > Oh, and there is one token Indian guy, in a village that is supposed to be 98% Yupik Eskimo. They also perform an autopsy in the village rather than at the state lab in Anchorage, but that’s more of a plot hole than a geography blooper. > > The funny thing is that the screenwriter reportedly spent a year doing research in Alaska. …probably in bars (elsewhere than Nightmute, of course!) 🙂 > [@](#): > > The tv show “Wiseguys” had an episode in which the main character was sent by his boss to deal with a problem in his drug empire. He flew into Johnson City, Tennessee (my home town), landing in the imaginary “Johnson City Airport”, then taking a short drive to a farm that we’re told is “40 miles from the nearest town.” I don’t think there is such a place in Tennessee. That’d be **fizzesfromthetop** ’s hometown, up in Virginia (where, IIRC, the nearest city _is_ Johnson City, TN.) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bbonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecb155/32.png) [@bbonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbonden)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/73 "2003-01-30T23:27:38Z")
> [@](#): > > The biggest error of this type I’ve ever seen was in “Taffic.” Michael Douglas plays an Ohio Supreme Court justice appointed federal “drug czar.” In his first scene he is supposedly sitting on the bench in Columbus, but that courtroom is pure Hollywood. I’ve been in the real thing, and it is much more boring, with no exterior windows. **Lizard** , this is actually a problem of being ahead of the real thing. The courtroom used in _Traffic_ is in the Ohio Departments Building. But the entire building has been remodeled and will become the Ohio Supreme Court’s home next year – and the _Traffic_ courtroom will be the new Ohio Supreme Court courtroom, starting next year. Perhaps as interesting, the “justices” sitting with Michael Douglas were not typical extras – they were local officials, including various state and federal judges (none, though, from the real Ohio Supreme Court). Michael Douglas’s chambers were even a real judge’s chambers, and his personal effects were not props – they were that judge’s stuff. You are right about the movie showing Douglas leaving the statehouse, but that happened because the Ohio Departments Building had construction fencing around it. And it does not have a parking garage, so the judges may have to walk outside. Oh – and the reporters who interviewed him? Real Columbus reporters. Ok, so maybe I know too much about this . . . . ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/74 "2003-01-30T23:34:17Z")
More Minnesota trivia: In the movie the Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, Jesse James and gang stop to play baseball shortly before heading into Northfield to knock over the bank. The camera must have had an abnormally powerful lens, because you can clearly see the majestic Rocky Mountains in the background … I also recall an X-Files where a scene was supposedly set in Minnesota in the dead of night on Halloween … and yet you could hear crickets chirping away loudly in the background. Guess it must have been an unseasonably warm fall that year, huh? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pucky\_Schumer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Pucky\_Schumer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pucky_Schumer)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/75 "2003-01-31T00:45:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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 \*\* You’re right, it’s definitely “No Way Out.” In that scene, Costner: [ul] [li]Enters the Georgetown Metro, which doesn’t exist[/li][li]Boards a train that obviously is not the D.C. Metro[/li][li]Exits inside the Old Post Office building – which doesn’t have a Metro, either.[/li][/ul] This is also the movie in which they search the entire Pentagon, room by room, in about an hour. Then do it again! ---
**Author:** ![Pucky\_Schumer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Pucky\_Schumer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pucky_Schumer)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/76 "2003-01-31T00:58:17Z")
In "Die Hard II,’’ Bruce Willis is supposedly at Dulles airport outside Washington, D.C. He makes a call from a pay phone that says Pacific Bell. ---
**Author:** ![rsvp9146](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rsvp9146](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsvp9146)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/77 "2003-01-31T01:01:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dogzilla \* > \*\* > > And, FTR, I thought **Dukes of Hazzard** was supposed to be set in Hazzard County Kentucky. Which I’ve driven though, shouting “Yeeeeeeee-HAW” at the top of my lungs. Couldn’t resist. \*\* Nope, shot in Lake Sherwood/Thousand Oaks area, CA. I remember they also used to shoot CHiPs in the same area as well. They actually left some of the wrecked Chargers in one of the gulleys down there. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/78 "2003-01-31T14:40:13Z")
Well, of course it was **shot** in CA. (Aren’t all cheesy TV shows filmed in CA?) What I said was, I thought it was supposed to be **SET** in KY, not in GA as a previous poster mentioned. Sheesh. Reading is fundamental. ---
**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:** [January 31, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/79 "2003-01-31T16:26:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dogzilla \* > \*\*Well, of course it was **shot** in CA. (Aren’t all cheesy TV shows filmed in CA?) What I said was, I thought it was supposed to be **SET** in KY, not in GA as a previous poster mentioned. > \*\* Like Springfield, there’s really no set location for Hazzard but the first few episodes were filmed in Georgia. Accordint to [this site](http://www.buyersmls.com/americantv/dukes.htm), the original Boar’s Nest building still exists in Oxford, GA. ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379/80 "2003-02-01T02:02:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guy Propski \* > \*\*Houston Knights–an old, short-lived cop show. I loved when they drove an evil Mexican crime lord from Houston back to Mexico. First, they start off driving east on the Allen Parkway. Then they randomly cover all the highways around downton Houston. Finally, after reaching the Tex/Mex border (about an 8 to 10 hour drive in the real world), they come to a 2 foot wide stream, which I suppose was supposed to be the Rio Grande! \*\* “Houston Knights” was just a stupid show. One of their much-rehashed “character details” was that one of the cops had been a star quarterback at Texas A&M. Every time he parked his Jeep, however, he put a big, orange-and-white Texas Longhorns sunshade on the windshield. Orange and white. Longhorns. Yeah, some former A&M football player is gonna use a University of Texas sunshade on his jeep. Right. Lack of research? No, just too lazy to learn _anything_ about the state they’re filming in. I just love it when every city in Texas is portrayed as being surrounded by desert and scrub brush with mountains in the far distance. Yeah, a good portion of the state looks like that, but the only major city like that is El Paso - and the mountains outside El Paso are right there - not much distance. Austin and San Antonio are both surrounded by rolling green hills. Dallas is on the high plains and is also surrounded by greenery - it’s also mostly flat. Houston is down near the coast, and is practically tropical most of the year - again, lots of green plus tall pine trees, to boot. Santa Ana’s soldiers didn’t march across a desert to reach San Antonio, by the way…unless they detoured to New Mexico or Arizona on the way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-errors-in-geography-from-movies-set-in-your-city/151379.md?page=5)