# Places in movies you have seen in real life -- different? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972 "2006-01-14T16:28:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/21 "2006-01-14T22:38:26Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > You lived in Read? Which wing? Curry, I think. It’s been a couple years. ---
**Author:** ![Stillwell\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Stillwell\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stillwell_Angel)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/22 "2006-01-14T22:40:44Z")
I second the Statue of Liberty. When we went it was post 9/11 so no one was allowed inside, but I remember approaching it on the ferry and thinking that can’t be it. It’s about a third of the size I always thought it was. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/23 "2006-01-14T23:05:09Z")
When in high school, we watched a science film which seemed to take place in a densely forested area, turns out it was shot in a park in downtown Columbus, OH (I lived just outside of Columbus at the time, and was able to recognize the buildings when they appeared at the end of the film). Oh, and the house that Johnny Cash lived in looks **nothing** like the one in _Walk the Line._ From the outside, it doesn’t look quite as nice as the one in the film, and it’s a lot closer to the road. (You’d have a hard time knowing it was his, if someone didn’t tell you. Roy Orbison’s house, which is closeby, is the same way.) The WTC was also _freakin’ huge._ I’ve not seen a film which does justice to how big the towers were, even the videos of 9/11 don’t really convey the scale of those things. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/24 "2006-01-14T23:11:52Z")
The sphinx is smaller than you might think, but the pyramids are impressive. Victoria Falls is every bit as impressive (and more so) than photos would indicate. The Eiffel Tower is impressive. The Valley of The Kings is mostly a pile of rocks, but Luxor gives you a sense of Egypt’s power. Mt. McKinley is massive. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/25 "2006-01-14T23:19:22Z")
_Footloose_ was filmed at my high school when I was a junior. The movie is a conglomeration of shots from my hometown and throughout Utah county. It pretty much looks like a collage of the “real thing” (I think it was supposed to be set in the Midwest, though, and Utah doesn’t really look like the MW.) My parents live outside of Preston, Idaho where parts of _ND_ were filmed. Though the filmmakers snuck over the border into Northern Utah to film as well, the movie is dead on in scenery and cultural. The “real life” thing that most surprised me in person was Plymouth Rock. I thought it would be large, jagged, and heroic . . . it’s just a medium rock sunk down in the ground :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/26 "2006-01-14T23:24:40Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > _Footloose_ was filmed at my high school when I was a junior. The movie is a conglomeration of shots from my hometown and throughout Utah county. It pretty much looks like a collage of the “real thing” (I think it was supposed to be set in the Midwest, though, and Utah doesn’t really look like the MW.) > > My parents live outside of Preston, Idaho where parts of _ND_ were filmed. Though the filmmakers snuck over the border into Northern Utah to film as well, the movie is dead on in scenery and cultural. > > The “real life” thing that most surprised me in person was Plymouth Rock. I thought it would be large, jagged, and heroic . . . it’s just a medium rock sunk down in the ground :dubious: Whoops . . . “dead on in scenery and cultural aspects.” ---
**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 14, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/27 "2006-01-14T23:25:49Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > It’s been so far back that I last was in Texas that I can’t call it back from memory, but I get the feeling it’s got way more grass and trees and vegetation in general than most movies show it. East Texas is green but the panhandle & west Texas are dusty. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/28 "2006-01-14T23:28:41Z")
I’ve only ever seen places I’ve had prior knowledge of. The reactions is “It’s never that empty” (London), or “it’s never that clean” (Manchester). I can’t think of anywhere else obvious. ---
**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 14, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/29 "2006-01-14T23:30:39Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > The “real life” thing that most surprised me in person was Plymouth Rock. I thought it would be large, jagged, and heroic . . . it’s just a medium rock sunk down in the ground :dubious: Of course, half of the rock was moved to Pilgrim Hall and the remaining half had to endure a century’s worth of tourists chipping away at it. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/30 "2006-01-14T23:45:23Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Of course, half of the rock was moved to Pilgrim Hall and the remaining half had to endure a century’s worth of tourists chipping away at it. Perhaps I formed a picture of what I perceived it to be from my sixth grade history book. I dimly remember an illustration of a brave pilgrim standing on Plymouth Rock in a lashing storm with waves washing over his feet. Hmmmm. I have to add that Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philly looked _exactly_ as I’ve always pictured them. That was nice. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/31 "2006-01-14T23:50:19Z")
Plymouth Rock is a sham anyway. The whole thing is a 19th century fabrication for the tourists. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis lived up to its hype. Sucker is huge! ---
**Author:** ![threeorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/32 "2006-01-14T23:53:11Z")
> [@Caractacus Pott](#): > > The Eiffel Tower is HUGE! In movies and pictures it doesn’t look as tall as the Chrysler Building in NYC. [Nitpick]It’s not. The Eiffel Tower is 300 meters tall; the Chrysler Building is 319 meters tall.[/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/33 "2006-01-15T00:04:27Z")
The Alamo is a pretty puny building but it’s true that it has no basement. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/34 "2006-01-15T00:20:46Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > The Gateway Arch in St. Louis lived up to its hype. Sucker is huge! Agreed. I’ve been to St. Louis several times (one of my best friends lives there and it’s a nice train ride from Chicago) but for whatever reason, I’d never been near the arch in the daytime until the last time I was there. Damn! I was impressed. Not that I can think of any movies that take place in St. Louis. I, too, was impressed by the Mississippi River. It’s fucking huge. The last time I flew west from Chicago, it was daytime and very clear, so I kept my eyes open for the river. (I like knowing what I’m flying over, and the Mississippi is the border between Illinois and Iowa.) We went over a number of rivers and I kept saying to myself “Okay, that’s the Mississippi. No, wait, that’s it. No, this one is bigger.” But when we finally did fly over the Mississippi, it was unmistakeable, and all the other rivers we’d passed by seemed laughably small in comparison. The thing about the Eiffel Tower that startled me is that it is _brown_. A deep, chocolately brown. I’d always had the impression it was black. Movie car chases in San Francisco do not resemble reality very closely. Lots of jumping around between places not close together. Not that the movie is _set_ there, but _Peggy Sue Got Married_ was filmed in my hometown of Petaluma, CA - except for the high school, which was in nearby Santa Rosa, CA. There’s a scene where they drive out of of the school parking lot in Santa Rosa, turn the corner, and are in Petaluma. Very weird. Same thing in _American Graffiti_, which is also filmed mostly (but not entirely) in Petaluma. (The high school in the movie is my beloved alma mater. Odd to see my PE locker room in a movie!) ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/35 "2006-01-15T00:20:47Z")
I don’t know if they were filming on-location, but the parts of **Fargo** that took place in rural Minnesota were pretty accurate. The bar where Gunderson meets the hitmen for the first time, while supposedly in Grand Forks, ND in real life (70 miles up I29N from Fargo), looks just like the sort of place you might see right off the interstate in the industrial areas and car dealerships on Main Avenue, though. **Mona Lisa Smile** used a bunch of shots of Yale that were supposed to be Welsleyan and Harvard. I remember when they had a few of vintage area cars parked on the streets here for filming. And I sure haven’t seen all that many mansions in Westchester county, but I just drove through it once. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/36 "2006-01-15T00:36:18Z")
This is a bit dorky, but when I was a kid we were visiting some family friends, and they took us to see Daddy Warbuck’s Mansion from “Annie.” IIRC, it’s actually a college administrative building; it was closed up that day, and looked a lot smaller and less exciting than what I remembered from the movie… As a kid, my family also took the “Sound of Music” tour in Salzburg; most of the things looked pretty close to how they seemed in the movie, but (again, IIRC), the mountaintop where Julie Andrews is spinning around at the beginning didn’t actually seem too mountainous – just a hilly area near the road, with some mountains in the background. But that was many years ago, and I might not be remembering correctly. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/37 "2006-01-15T00:36:27Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > … > And I sure haven’t seen all that many mansions in Westchester county, but I just drove through it once. I guess it depends on what exactly defines a mansion to you. There are areas of Westchester where the houses are ridiculously expensive and some of them are quite large, with expansive grounds. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/38 "2006-01-15T00:51:15Z")
> [@Laughing Lagomorph](#): > > I guess it depends on what exactly defines a mansion to you. There are areas of Westchester where the houses are ridiculously expensive and some of them are quite large, with expansive grounds. Yeah, Xavier-style is what I had in mind. Any hangars under basketball courts (or was it tennis)? Also, I hear the former MCAS El Toro is actually in a mountainous, well-forested area. It was out in the desert as shown in **ID4**. Something about the location of Andrews, AFB in that film wasn’t right either; I forget exactly. And on Ceti Alpha V there was life. A fair chance… ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/39 "2006-01-15T00:57:29Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > Yeah, Xavier-style is what I had in mind. Any hangars under basketball courts (or was it tennis)? > > Also, I hear the former MCAS El Toro is actually in a mountainous, well-forested area. It was out in the desert as shown in **ID4**. Something about the location of Andrews, AFB in that film wasn’t right either; I forget exactly. I dunno about Andrews, but the Area 51 external shots were shot in the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah, and Area 51 _ain’t_ in Utah (unless they moved it and didn’t tell us about it). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972/40 "2006-01-15T01:40:51Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > Also, I hear the former MCAS El Toro is actually in a mountainous, well-forested area. It was out in the desert as shown in **ID4**. Something about the location of Andrews, AFB in that film wasn’t right either; I forget exactly. Hardly. MCAS El Toro is right smack in the middle of Orange County. A few hills, some scrub, and a whole buncha Republicans. 😃 In any case, not like the movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-in-movies-you-have-seen-in-real-life-different/339972.md?page=3)