I really hate it when movies fuck up the geography of Washington DC

[MrScorpio]

Movies like NO WAY OUT AND TRUE LIES make the mistake of portraying Georgetown as the center of the Universe.

BURN AFTER READING did the same thing... It's hard to believe to directors and editors won't figure out that moviegoers can't detect that shit.

[Orsino]

1. They put the US Cpital building on a hill...

...so that it would be visible from every window in DC. As with the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

[charlie and algernon]

2. My broher and I cracked up in Transformers 2

when they go to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. They proceed to walk out the back and right onto an airfield filled with TONS of old aircraft with SNOW TOPPED MOUNTAINS in the background!

:wtf:

[TommyO]

3. When it's released on DVD, I'll have to add it to my Netflix queue

just to see how bad it truly is!

Edited to add: since part of it was filmed in Bethlehem, PA, not far from where I lived when it was filmed, I want to see how the Stacks look.

[charlie and algernon]

4. oh cool, I lived near Bethlehem too

Yes, it's pretty obvious that it's Bethlehem Steel and NOT Asia.

[TommyO]

6. But people who don't know the area

would probably never even bat an eye at it.

I was back there, last week, for the first time since my move to NJ, the road changes right near the casino aren't too bad, though figuring how to get out of the casino to the Minsi Trail bridge took a few minutes.

[JTG of the PRB]

11. Yeah, that one REALLY distracted me.

"Huh, there's a giant grassy field outside the Air and Space Museum in the middle of Washington, D.C., and there are big mountains within sight. Ooookay..."

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. I'd sure like to be on one of those snow-topped mountains today!

:rofl:

[Captain Hilts]

30. Well, there's a breeze at the intersection of Woodmont and Leyland in Bethesda...

you'll just have to settle for that!

[Bucky]

27. Yes, that totally ruined the movie's believability for me too.

[joeybee12]

5. Don't watch Sleepless in Seattle, then...

...talk about moving the geography around! ;(

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. I just like the scene in The Day After Tommorow.....

....where the Dennis Quade character, in Washington DC at the time, draws a line where the world will freeze over and become uninhabitable.

The first shot of the map shows the line crossing immediately above Washington, DC. Then then pan away from the map, and when they pan back, the line is now drawn below Washington, DC. (and right through Southern Maryland where I grew up).

[KamaAina]

8. A Married... with Children rerun yesterday had a real howler

for whatever reason, Al Bundy was playing baseball in Kankakee, Ill. (it was clearly a takeoff on baseball movies, with Peg playing the Susan Sarandon :loveya: role from Bull Durham)

There was a substantial mountain range behind the outfield fence.

There is no mountain range within 500 miles of Kankakee, Ill. FAIL.

[LeftyMom]

9. Sort of like who no place in California is not within walking distance of the ocean?

[Strong Atheist]

10. Diehard II. Pacific bell on the phones of "Dulles Airport"; and

nowhere else in the area for planes to land...


:rofl:

[charlie and algernon]

12. Lol, they have enough fuel to circle for hours

But apparently not enough to get to National, BWI, Philly, Dover, Richmond...

:rofl:

[Strong Atheist]

35. Andrews... nt.

[Captain Hilts]

31. That one still ranks as THE stoopidest mistake in depicting DC. nt

[TZ]

13. TV shows are worse.

The X-files was simply awful when it came to metro area geography. I remember one episode that took place in a harbor in GERMANTOWN...ummm hello? :wtf:

[Deep13]

14. I saw one episode set in Cleveland.

They showed a shiney new building with the label "Cleveland Police Headquarters" or something like that. All I could say was, "Um, no it isn't."

How come every city in that show looked like Toronto?

[TZ]

15. Vancouver is where they filmed it I think.

[charlie and algernon]

16. They did an episode set in Allentown, PA: pop. 100,000

They turned it into a sleepy little town, lol.

[jmm]

17. I hate listening to bad Boston accents.

Nothing quite as painful as listening to somebody get paid to sound like a bad stereotype of people from the Boston area.

[HughBeaumont]

18. Visiting Georgetown after watching The Exorcist was when I realized this.

There's no house adjacent to the top of those steps (I visit the steps every time I go, which is 5 - 8 times a year). There's a GU law college on the right and a fence on the left, but no house to the direct left. Was there ever one there? How would Father Karras made the life-ending dive?

[Captain Hilts]

32. It's amazing how few folks that live in DC know those steps are in town or that they are THE steps.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. TV shows and movies do it in Miami as well.

I can't count how many times I've seen a shot of a car supposedly driving TO Miami Beach and they show the cruise ships on the drivers left. The MacArthur Causeway is NORTH of Dodge Island/Port of Miami so if you are driving to Miami Beach, the cruise ships are on the RIGHT.

The second Transformers movie had a bunch of those geographical fuckups, for instance;
They supposedly have a base on Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean. One of the scenes clearly shows a mountain range in the background.
Another scene has the principals at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Steven Udvar Hazy center at Dulles Airport. They go crashing out the back door of the museum and they are instantly at the airplane storage facility at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ.

[Bucky]

28. Oh, they do that to every city. Team America World Police did a good parody of that

Every world city, from Paris to Cairo, had all its best known monuments within a couple of blocks from each other. I've seen movies set in Houston where in the space of a few minutes people drive from Inner Loop neighborhoods out to NASA... just in time to catch or stop the rockets taking off. Nevermind that NASA isn't even in Houston (it's just that "Clear Lake, the Eagle has landed" sounds kinda stupid), NASA rockets aren't launched from Texas.

[LibertyLover]

20. It can sometimes be amusing - like on NCIS

when they are talking about going to Quantico like it's just two doors down from the Navy Yard or they mention a particular street, then show an exterior and there is no way on this green earth that it's in DC. They start doing that and I immediately say to my husband something like, 'gosh I love how they moved the apartment building that's on the corner' or 'hmm, where's the Mexican embassy?'. When "Patriot Games" was filmed, they actual did some of the filming in Annapolis, my hometown. I even went to the movies to see it when it came out. One scene in particular was amusing - it was the scene where Ford is trying to get to Baltimore. It starts with an aerial shot of Harrison Ford driving from the Academy via Maryland Avenue to Rowe Blvd., but then the next shot is a ground shot of his car supposedly getting onto Route 50. That exit is on Riva Road, not too far from where I live and believe me when I tell you that 50 won't take you to Baltimore. But the next shot in the scene is not Rt. 50 or I-97 or anything remotely resembling the roads around here - it's a freeway in Los Angeles. Oh well, at least they showed State Circle.

[Yavin4]

21. The Worst Is "24"

Jack Bauer can get from point A to point B in Los Angeles like it was nothing.

[unpossibles]

23. they do that for NYC too

Like when a character is listening to a song when he leaves his office downtown, somehow crosses one of the bridges for no reason and ends up in Central Park and the same song is still playing.

[Captain Hilts]

34. University Ave. in Toronto subs for 5th Ave. in so many movies I've lost count. nt

[kentauros]

24. Well, I can't tell the difference

so I'm happy with it :)
And I loved No Way Out :D

I think the last time I was in DC I was like, five. No, I don't remember the layout at all.

However, I do object to lazy Hollywood location filming that depicts the mountains of California in the background of any supposed Houston location. It's flat here. The nearest mountains are in West Texas

[XemaSab]

25. In Star Trek 4

They were on multiple sides of the bay in adjacent shots.

The film still kicks ass though. :D

[Bucky]

26. Remember when Wesley Snipes jumped out of a White House window & into that back alley?

You know... that back alley behind the White House? C'mon, man, it's a critical plot element!

[Captain Hilts]

29. In No Way Out the MGM headquarters in Culver city were a good substitute for the Pentagon. nt

[DU GrovelBot]

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