Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos

[roadfro]

Lethal Weapon 4 didn't expect road geeks to be watching, but they filmed the chase seen on a Nevada highway (California doesn't use high-masts and external exit tabs are extremely rare in suburban California freeways.)  I'm assuming the freeway was I-515 or I-15 in Las Vegas.  

Oh, sorry.  I must have overlooked your post.  Isn't there a fairly long stretch of I-15 that's slightly suburban south of the strip?  

I didn't know I-215 existed back in 1998.    

That stretch of I-15 is slightly urban now, but the land around the highway south of roughly Blue Diamond Rd (SR 160) was just beginning to be developed twelve years ago. Much of that part of I-15 still doesn't have high-mast lighting.

The first section of I-215 was from I-15 to Warm Springs Road was completed in 1995. The section of the beltway used in the film was likely somewhere between Warm Springs and Pecos Road/St. Rose Pkwy (SR 146).

[thenetwork]

Although a TV show and not a movie, the opening sequence after the title card on the 70's Norman Lear television series "One Day at a Time" shows an I-70 BGS for Indianapolis. 

Along the same line, the opening for the 80s TV show "Simon and Simon" shows an "I-5 San Diego" sign.

And let us not forget the opening to "The Fall Guy" -- SB I-15 just north of I-215 in San Bernadino.

[Chris]

Several Los Angeles freeways are featured in the 1995 movie Heat. That movie has some awesome shots of Los Angeles, from ramps, fly-overs or other scenic locations.

[PAHighways]

Parts of US 11/Carlisle Pike, Market Street Bridge, and the Airport Connector are in Lucky Numbers which is loosely based on Nick Perry's rigging of the Pennsylvania Lottery's Daily Number drawing in 1980.

[PAHighways]

The trailer for The Next Three Days in which PA Turnpike 43/Mon-Fayette Expressway makes a cameo is now on IMDb (scene at the end of the trailer).

[Mergingtraffic]

"Without A Trace" from 1983 has good shots of I-287 & I-95 in Bridgeport, CT.  Complete with old button copy signage and classic CT Turnpike StreetLights with the bubble light bulb holders!

[D-Dey65]

I've mentioned this on another thread that I started, but the Elizabeth Taylor movie BUtterfield 8 has some scenes from the New York State Thruway. Some of these locations I already recognize:

http://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=53622

But the others I can only specualte about. Does anybody have any clues where they are?

[74/171FAN]

"The Core" has a scene where the Golden Gate Bridge is heated up extremely where it eventually collapses after a section of unfiltered sunlight arises over San Francisco.

[english si]

Golden Gate Bridge is a classic one - the diabolical disaster movie Earthquake 10.0 (which turns I-40 into a transcontinental route when the 10.0 earthquake hits LA, which is the only reason I mention it - the film doesn't, but the West Coast as far as Barstow falls into the sea for OTT dramatic effect) has about 30 seconds of it buckling and then falling down when a big quake hits SF. X Men 3 has it picked up and moved to be a bridge to Alcatraz.

It's the most famous bridge in the world, or at least the most famous big bridge - it's going to be in a lot of movies. It's like how any movie with Paris has to show the Eiffel Tower, anything with San Francisco has to show the Golden Gate Bridge.

28 days later has part of it filmed on the M1 (IIRC) near London, done at 4 or 5 am in the middle of summer with an illegal rolling-roadblock clearing the road of what little traffic there is.

[Stephane Dumas]

John Wayne did some car chases, in "Brannigan" in the streets of London including a jump on London Bridge at 2:17  

also another one on "McQ" around I-5 in Seattle as I mentionned in another thread https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=3316.0

Mr Majestik with Charles Bronson got a chase scene in some Colorado roads and trails
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXatUGIi9g

[MechaKnight]

Hopefully this hasn't been mentioned before, but at the scene where a pursuit is going on, the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious takes place at I-95 somewhere near Miami

[Stephane Dumas]

Not a road movie but the last scene of the movie with the song playing in the background can bring us tears in our eyes. When Thao drive the 1972 Ford Gran Torino in the movie Gran Torino on Lakeshore Drive/Jefferson Avenue in the area of Grosse Pointe near Detroit.

[english si]

John Wayne did some car chases, in "Brannigan" in the streets of London including a jump on London Bridge at 2:17

You mean Tower Bridge!

There's a bit of weird geography, but the back streets are Battersea (via Wikipedia - could have been anywhere Victorian with lots of rail bridges - it reminded me of Watford, for instance), and I don't know where that main road with the underpass is - it might be Trinity Way (A217) in Wandsworth, which is close to Battersea. This makes the chase have some geographical continuity, other than Tower Bridge.

[KEK Inc.]

The 1st-layer kick in Inception was on the Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge (CA-47). 

[Quillz]

Probably been mentioned by now, but the CA-103 freeway near Terminal Island is often used in movies that require an industrial setting. For example, the freeway chase scene near the end of T-2 was filmed on this freeway, although it's been used in many other movies.

On US-395 on the way to Mammoth near the town of Lone Pine, one will pass by the "Hollywood Desert" that has been used for filming many Western films, as well as being a Nevada replacement for the movie "Tremors."

[Quillz]

Also, "Live Free or Die Hard" supposedly takes place somewhere on the East Coast, yet the ridiculous freeway scene near the end very clearly shows that it was filmed on the CA-118 freeway, also known as the Simi Valley or Ronald Reagan freeway. You can make out the CA-118 miner's spades as well as several off-ramp names.

[RoadWarrior56]

Does anybody remember the short-lived TV series "Drive"?  It was on the Fox Broadcasting Network for several weeks back in 2007 or thereabouts.  It was a giant road trip.  The premise was a sort of a road rally that started in Key West and was supposed to end up somewhere on the west coast.  I think they broadcasted only 3 or 4 episodes before it was mercifully canceled.  They were all driving stretches of highway, and I don't think they got out of Georgia before the show ended.  I thought the show was horrible, but I was glued to the TV watching it, as somebody would be watching a slow motion car accident.

There were three things I remember most about the show.  It seemed all of the road scenes were shot on the same section of southern California Freeway (unopened I-210 I think), but that section of freeway was supposed to be virtually every section of roadway in the United States.  US 1 on the Keys looked like I-210, I-75 in Georgia looked like I-210, etc.  The exit names were even the same from episode to episode.  I live in Georgia, and neither the roadways or scenery look anything like the mountainous deserts of Southern California.

The second thing I remember was that all of the refreshment or other stops were made at a fictional chain with a name I can't remember anymore.  They even made up a logo for the place.  It so happened that these places so happened to be in virtually every exit that had a store that was involved in the plot.

Finally, the beginning of each episode showed a view of Google Earth so you would know where the episode was taking place.  That was the only geographic reality in the whole show.   Below is a copy of the link to read about the series on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_(TV_series)

Fixed link, and as requested, the very few and minor typos

[Grzrd]

Continuing the Georgia theme, parts of "Freejack" (Emilio Estevez, Rene Russo, and Mick Jagger) were filmed in Georgia.  The racing scene in which Estevez gets "freejacked" was filmed on the Road Atlanta (http://www.roadatlanta.com/) race course in Hall County, and one scene in which Jagger (commanding some sort of tank) is chasing Estevez was filmed under the viaduct near the Richard Russell Federal Building.

[Grzrd]

Movie to close part of I-49 starting Monday

The southbound lane of I-49 from Murphy Street to the ramp at Interstate 20 will be shut down starting Monday for the movie "Battle: Los Angeles." The interstate will be used to stage firefights between movie Marines and aliens from outer space...

One of the guys working on this movie sounds like a roadgeek at heart: "For McNamara it was also high-water-mark in a profession that constantly has him "trying to pull off the impossible on a deadline."... "When I was riding around the I-49 on a golf cart I realized it was really happening," McNamara says. "How many other jobs are there where you get to ride around the Interstate on a golf cart?""
(http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118026270?refCatId=13)

[Stephane Dumas]

You mean Tower Bridge!

Yes, Tower Bridge, the song "London Bridge is falling down...falling down!" did some confusion ^^;;

[jwolfer]

1979 "Amityville Horror" had scenese of driving across the Pt Pleasant Canal on(unsigned) NJ 13-(Lovelandtown Bridge on Bridge Ave) and also driving across the Mathis Bridge toward Seaside on NJ 37.  Which is of course away from the house where it was filmed in Toms River NJ

[english si]

Yes, Tower Bridge, the song "London Bridge is falling down...falling down!" did some confusion ^^;;

There's a falsehood in England, that the guy who bought London Bridge to put over the Colorado river between AZ and CA thought it was going to be Tower Bridge. I guess it comes from all those American tourists who get it wrong - at least they are adjacent bridges, and if you went to London Bridge (the bridge, not the station, though the station isn't far away from either bridge), you'd get better pictures of Tower Bridge than if you went to Tower Bridge itself.

[Quillz]

The movie "Sideways" took place in California's lesser known Wine Country, namely northern Santa Barbara County. I believe the two main cities in the movie were Solvang, a Danish tourist village, and Los Olivos. Anyway, to get to Solvang you have to drive east on CA-246 from US-101 or you can approach it by driving west on CA-246 from CA-154. In fact, in one of the scenes in the movie, you will recognize CA-246 as the large main road the main character is seen walking down, it has various motels and other services.

[Stephane Dumas]

Golden Gate Bridge is a classic one - the diabolical disaster movie Earthquake 10.0 (which turns I-40 into a transcontinental route when the 10.0 earthquake hits LA, which is the only reason I mention it - the film doesn't, but the West Coast as far as Barstow falls into the sea for OTT dramatic effect) has about 30 seconds of it buckling and then falling down when a big quake hits SF. X Men 3 has it picked up and moved to be a bridge to Alcatraz.

I read on IMDB they attempted to film a scene of the car chase of Bullitt on the Golden Bridge but they refused.

I spotted 2 exterpts where the Golden Gate do a cameo, in Superman 1978 and in James Bond movie "A view to a Kill"

[Quillz]

The very forgettable teen suspense movie "The Glass House" took place in Malibu. Several scenes took place on PCH, CA-1, while the climax took place on Malibu Cyn. Rd, which is a county route.