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.
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.
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.
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”?
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.
I’ve seen a TV movie that used a Metro train & station. I believe that movie was Popeye Doyle.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You didn’t catch the disaster-movie subplot where the coast is submerged by a tidal wave? 
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.
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:
Just what do you think they do with all those pumps along the levees when the river’s not high? 
…Now.
…probably in bars (elsewhere than Nightmute, of course!)
That’d be fizzesfromthetop’s hometown, up in Virginia (where, IIRC, the nearest city is Johnson City, TN.)
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 . . . .
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?
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!
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.
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.
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.
Like Springfield, there’s really no set location for Hazzard but the first few episodes were filmed in Georgia. Accordint to this site, the original Boar’s Nest building still exists in Oxford, GA.
“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.