TV-Movie Road inaccuracies that drive you crazy!

Started by Captain Jack, August 10, 2018, 02:48:47 PM

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ErmineNotyours

Or for that matter, the end of the British Queer As Folk has the characters traveling through Arizona, which was probably shot in Spain with a very off-model Interstate shield.


roadman65

Quote from: Big John on August 11, 2018, 07:54:44 PM
Quote from: roadman65 on August 11, 2018, 07:03:37 PM

In Bosom Buddies (late 80's sitcom on ABC) you see Larry Appleton driving from Madison, WI to Chicago in the first season passing beneath the Welcome to Chicago sign leaving ORD along I-190 E Bound.  Even though I-90 goes by O' Hare, it does not at all place you under that sign en route as you would have to go inside the airport to come out to experience the view of that assembly.
Perfect Strangers.
God, I am getting old lol!  I used to watch em both all the time they were on. 

Yes, Bosum Buddies is where Tom Hanks got his start in drag with Peter Scolari.  Unfortunately, Peter only got to be a supporting actor after this show's cancellation working long side Bob Newhart, while Hanks went on to big films like Forest Gump and such as the lead man.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

SP Cook

Route number issues do not bother me that much, although there are lots of movies and such where you see incorrect route makers (there are lots of Georgia SRs in Smokey and the Bandit when they were in other states) is just laziness on the part of the editors. 

Geographic wrongs are a bit more.  Especially when it is unnecessary to further the plot.

My biggest gripe is the idea that inter-regional travel is conducted on inadequate non-freeway roads where stops bring the traveler into contact with inadequate services staffed by hostile or incompetent hill jacks.  In fact, you can go most anywhere on freeways or near-freeways, and recieve, for better or worse, standardized chain business services. 

abefroman329

#28
Quote from: SteveG1988 on August 11, 2018, 10:22:03 PMAnd the 2nd..they probably had a Wisconsin state police costume in some closet they pulled out for the scene because they couldn't find the right one.
In this case, it would have had to have been a Wisconsin State Police uniform AND a patrol car, but point taken.
Quote from: SteveG1988 on August 11, 2018, 10:22:03 PMIt's like how in Animal house they use a Tennessee flag because they could not find a big enough Pennslyvania state flag, and the TN flag was the most generic one they could find in the right size.
At least in that case, they never said which state Faber College was in, save for a throwaway line about Flounder being from "Harrisburg" (though they never specified Harrisburg, PA, and it was entirely possible that he didn't go to college in his home state).

sparker

Even with poetic/cinematic license, the continuity in the film Bullitt, particularly the chase sequence in and around S.F., was, to say the least, problematic.  The chase started on Army Street (now Cesar Chavez), segued immediately to the north slope of Nob Hill, popped around the northeast quadrant of S.F. (generally north of California and east of Van Ness), and finally turned directly from the south gate of the Presidio onto San Bruno Mountain Road -- clear across town, about 8 miles away -- where the chase ended in the tank farm just outside Brisbane.  If you've never spent much time in S.F., the chase worked -- and worked well enough to become a benchmark classic of its kind!  Back about '84, a buddy and I -- in his '67 Mustang, no less -- took a camcorder (yeah, that certainly sets the time of that adventure) loaded with a VHS copy of Bullitt and attempted to trace the filming sequence of the famous chase.  Took all day, and we were still missing some of the streets.  But we did ascertain one thing:  the filming on San Bruno Mountain Road was done a couple of weeks prior to its opening to the public; the filmmakers had secured it as a "safe" location at which to conclude the chase in a violent fashion. 

But later in the film they did get something right:  coming back from an investigation at a San Mateo motel,  Bullitt (Steve McQueen) stops at the side of the US 101 freeway on the Candlestick Causeway when his GF, played by the wonderful Jacqueline Bisset, freaks out in the car and has to get out to compose herself (after inadvertently seeing a dead body at the motel).  Although today rising bay waters have inundated most of the freeway's shoulder, 51 years ago during filming there was ample room for a NB car to pull completely off the freeway and park at water's edge.   

abefroman329

Quote from: sparker on August 13, 2018, 01:32:27 PM
Even with poetic/cinematic license, the continuity in the film Bullitt, particularly the chase sequence in and around S.F., was, to say the least, problematic.  The chase started on Army Street (now Cesar Chavez), segued immediately to the north slope of Nob Hill, popped around the northeast quadrant of S.F. (generally north of California and east of Van Ness), and finally turned directly from the south gate of the Presidio onto San Bruno Mountain Road -- clear across town, about 8 miles away -- where the chase ended in the tank farm just outside Brisbane.  If you've never spent much time in S.F., the chase worked -- and worked well enough to become a benchmark classic of its kind!  Back about '84, a buddy and I -- in his '67 Mustang, no less -- took a camcorder (yeah, that certainly sets the time of that adventure) loaded with a VHS copy of Bullitt and attempted to trace the filming sequence of the famous chase.  Took all day, and we were still missing some of the streets.  But we did ascertain one thing:  the filming on San Bruno Mountain Road was done a couple of weeks prior to its opening to the public; the filmmakers had secured it as a "safe" location at which to conclude the chase in a violent fashion. 

But later in the film they did get something right:  coming back from an investigation at a San Mateo motel,  Bullitt (Steve McQueen) stops at the side of the US 101 freeway on the Candlestick Causeway when his GF, played by the wonderful Jacqueline Bisset, freaks out in the car and has to get out to compose herself (after inadvertently seeing a dead body at the motel).  Although today rising bay waters have inundated most of the freeway's shoulder, 51 years ago during filming there was ample room for a NB car to pull completely off the freeway and park at water's edge.
And, of course, there's The Graduate, with Benjamin driving from Southern California (?) to Berkeley by driving west on the Bay Bridge, though that's probably just because the only way to drive on the upper deck of the bridge is to drive westbound.

sparker

Quote from: abefroman329 on August 13, 2018, 01:47:55 PM
And, of course, there's The Graduate, with Benjamin driving from Southern California (?) to Berkeley by driving west on the Bay Bridge, though that's probably just because the only way to drive on the upper deck of the bridge is to drive westbound.

Not the only "reverse" shot in that film; he also went through the Gaviota tunnel on US 101 -- which is NB only -- on his way from the Bay Area down to L.A.  Dramatic license, of course; the other way wouldn't have been as striking.  I can see their point on the old Bay Bridge; EB was always akin to driving through the middle of a kid's Erector Set project (and once again dating myself!) -- now alleviated on at least the east span with the new cable-stay segment. 

That summer of '84 "Bullitt" spotting trip ended on another cinematic note:  they were filming the Bond flick A View To A Kill in S.F. at that time; that same day was the principal filming of the fire-engine chase on Upper Market St.; we were on the side of the old Chevron station at Market & Duboce that gets its logo sign clipped off in the movie watching the process.  Of course, no major actors anywhere in sight; just stunt and special-effects folks.  A week or so later was the filming of the external City Hall fire sequence -- where the crew almost actually burned the building down when their "stunt" fire proved difficult to extinguish!  Unfortunately, I had to work that day or I would have been in that crowd as well.   :-(   

skluth

Quote from: SteveG1988 on August 11, 2018, 10:22:03 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on August 11, 2018, 08:43:22 PM
Quote from: Gulol on August 11, 2018, 07:45:36 PM
Planes, Trains and Automobiles.  The train breaks down and they have to take a bus from Jefferson City, MO to St. Louis.  Why would the bus be crossing the Mississippi River from Illinois into St. Louis as shown?
It gets worse - they're driving from St. Louis to Chicago and they get pulled over by the Wisconsin State Police.

With that movie...the company driver was just inept and went around on the I-255 bridge (what it is called today) in 1987.

The I-255 bridge across the Mississippi is called the Jefferson Barracks Bridge. That's the official name, what you hear in traffic reports, and what the locals call it. It's sometimes called the 255 bridge but mostly in casual conversation. I lived three miles from the west approach until two months ago. I doubt things have changed since then.

Bobby5280

Movies and TV shows rarely ever make any attempts to treat geography or depictions of road signs with any accuracy at all. Sometimes it's worthy of big laughs though.

Patriot Games is a good 1990's action movie. But one car chase scene is pretty baffling. It starts out in Annapolis, near the US Naval Academy. The filmmakers actually got onto one freeway in that actual area (US-50) and you can spot an I-97 sign in one of the background shots. But then the rest of the chase magically teleports to I-105 in Los Angeles (which was still under construction at the time). The scenery around LA's I-105 looks nothing like the wooded scenery around the Baltimore-DC area.

Robocop is set in "New Detroit," so they used the Dallas skyline. The next sequel used Houston.

"Hey there's Lower Grand Ave" is a sort of game I'll play when watching movies. That street (both upper & lower levels of it) shows up in lots of movies, including many not set in Los Angeles. Hell, there's even a shot of Robocop driving down it. Live Free Die Hard had a smorgasbord of laughable BS geography, including a fake toll tunnel that's supposed to be in DC, but it's really Lower Grand Ave. One really big laugh is the movie Black Rain where Andy Garcia is fighting with murderous Japanese bikers while Michael Douglas passage to help Andy is blocked by a security fence. Douglas is screaming at his partner from a Japanese location, but Garcia is fighting on Lower Grand Ave. Yeah.

Logan has a good shot of a fairly accurate looking I-40 Oklahoma City limits sign. The problem is the twinkling night time skyline behind it is Albuquerque.

The Bourne Supremacy (or was it "Ultimatum") had a car chase on the FDR Drive freeway in Manhattan. But from one shot to the next the "filmmakers" (videographers) can't figure out which direction they're taking the chase. North or south.

This stuff goes on and on. I guess none of the producers or directors figure we have access to Google Street View and can look up shooting locations pretty fast.

Rothman

Anyone mention Salt, which was filmed in Albany, NY as some ridiculous attempt to pass it off as DC? :D
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

abefroman329

Quote from: Bobby5280 on August 14, 2018, 02:00:24 PMPatriot Games is a good 1990's action movie. But one car chase scene is pretty baffling. It starts out in Annapolis, near the US Naval Academy. The filmmakers actually got onto one freeway in that actual area (US-50) and you can spot an I-97 sign in one of the background shots. But then the rest of the chase magically teleports to I-105 in Los Angeles (which was still under construction at the time). The scenery around LA's I-105 looks nothing like the wooded scenery around the Baltimore-DC area.
The big chase scene towards the beginning of True Lies, where Ahnuld misses his birthday dinner, also switches freely between DC and LA.  You can tell because the street signs in DC and LA are dramatically different.  At least the scene where Ahnuld and Bill Paxton test-drive the convertible was filmed in its entirety in DC, though they drive past the Wendy's at New York and Florida numerous times.

Quote from: Bobby5280 on August 14, 2018, 02:00:24 PMRobocop is set in "New Detroit," so they used the Dallas skyline. The next sequel used Houston.
III was filmed in Atlanta - the bombed-out buildings used for filming were slated to be torn down and replaced with developments related to the Olympics.  There's one scene where you can clearly see a MARTA train roll past in the background.

Quote from: Bobby5280 on August 14, 2018, 02:00:24 PM"Hey there's Lower Grand Ave" is a sort of game I'll play when watching movies. That street (both upper & lower levels of it) shows up in lots of movies, including many not set in Los Angeles. Hell, there's even a shot of Robocop driving down it. Live Free Die Hard had a smorgasbord of laughable BS geography, including a fake toll tunnel that's supposed to be in DC, but it's really Lower Grand Ave. One really big laugh is the movie Black Rain where Andy Garcia is fighting with murderous Japanese bikers while Michael Douglas passage to help Andy is blocked by a security fence. Douglas is screaming at his partner from a Japanese location, but Garcia is fighting on Lower Grand Ave. Yeah.
To bring things full circle, Lower Grand stood in for an unnamed Japanese location in Austin Powers in Goldmember.  It was also replicated in Grand Theft Auto V.

roadman

As a radio hobbyist, here's one of my pet peeves.  Not a road issue directly, but a common gaffe in many road/pursuit movies of the 1970s/1980s was where they'd show people directly listening in on the police through their CB radios.  While this is now feasible with certain mobile ham radios that have extended receive capability, this has never been possible with CB radios.  Most movie/TV producers have since figured this out, and will now show a scanner in the vehicle instead, but the gaffe still shows up on occasion.

I also share great disdain for the "two lane road branded as an Interstate highway" gaffe others have noted.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)

SectorZ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_(2007_TV_series)#Filming_locations

This was intentionally done this way, but to me made the show unwatchable seeing everything look like southern California over a swath of the southeast US.

A different type of inaccuracy... 'Fringe' was my absolutely favorite TV show, and it chiefly took place 'in Boston', despite being filmed in NYC (season 1) and Vancouver (seasons 2-5). Frequently they would be in suburbs of Boston (including Fitchburg, which I lived in at the time) that didn't even remotely resemble the filming location. The best being a chase scene on a six-lane boulevard in a very urban setting that was supposed to be Westford.

vdeane

Quote from: SectorZ on August 14, 2018, 04:14:05 PM
A different type of inaccuracy... 'Fringe' was my absolutely favorite TV show, and it chiefly took place 'in Boston', despite being filmed in NYC (season 1) and Vancouver (seasons 2-5). Frequently they would be in suburbs of Boston (including Fitchburg, which I lived in at the time) that didn't even remotely resemble the filming location. The best being a chase scene on a six-lane boulevard in a very urban setting that was supposed to be Westford.
Not to mention all the times they'd be in "Pennsylvania" despite the scenery clearly being Canada (it's particularly prevalent in an episode of season 5), not to mention the Canadian railroad crossings as far back as season 1.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

skluth

The one that drove me crazy first time I saw it was in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (which could have its own thread for geographic booboos). Richard Dreyfus blows through the toll gate chasing a UFO on the Ohio border. While he would be correctly going from Indiana to Ohio, he started around Muncie which is nowhere near the Indiana Toll Road.

There's also one where I don't care because it's funny. All the Blues Brothers is filmed around Chicago except the scene where the Illinois Nazis drive off the stub end of a freeway. That was in Milwaukee. (The stub was eventually was completed as the Harbor Bridge.) Not much beats watching Nazis fly off the end of a bridge to nowhere.

jeffandnicole

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle: Their goal is to get to Cherry Hill, NJ. The White Castle is on a barren 5 lane roadway downwind from a cliff.  There is nothing remotely close to resembling any of that in the real Cherry Hill, to the point of wondering how they even picked Cherry Hill to be the home of the White Castle.

They did a pretty good job with the NJSP car and logo though.

roadman65

#41
According to Sidney Sheldon, Cocoa Beach, Florida has hills and a major city downtown street in I Dream Of Jeannie.

In The A Team, they used the streets of LA to shoot them driving in NYC.   However, NYC does not use back plates and dark signal heads.  Plus at the time LA did not use NYC's type of mast arm.

Kojak also used the streets of LA to shoot New York City in some episodes as well.  Remember, Theo Kojak was a liuetenant in NYC's Manhattan South Precinct during its run.  Also how can the cars when all the characters drove them on Manhattan Streets, drive a few whole minutes without stopping for a light.  Yes, it works on the FDR and parts of NY 9A, but these were supposed to be on surface streets.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

inkyatari

In, I think, My Best Friend's  Wedding, they're driving up Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, and you can seethe McCormick place expansion out the driver's side window.  Later in the same scene, you see an aerial shot of the car, now with the lake on the driver's side of the car.  Apparently there's a wormhole around Balbo that teleports you all the way north to Irving Park Rd.
I'm never wrong, just wildly inaccurate.

abefroman329

Quote from: skluth on August 14, 2018, 09:06:54 PMThere's also one where I don't care because it's funny. All the Blues Brothers is filmed around Chicago except the scene where the Illinois Nazis drive off the stub end of a freeway. That was in Milwaukee. (The stub was eventually was completed as the Harbor Bridge.) Not much beats watching Nazis fly off the end of a bridge to nowhere.
That whole sequence is so well-done, it's barely noticeable. I had to point it out to my wife.

In general I think the movie plays it fast and loose with geography (the L doesn't go to Calumet City, FFS). Anyone know the location of the Holiday Inn where Murph and the Magic Tones play?

Mr_Northside

QuoteIn general I think the movie plays it fast and loose with geography (the L doesn't go to Calumet City, FFS). Anyone know the location of the Holiday Inn where Murph and the Magic Tones play?

And time......  Seems a stretch to think they go straight from their concert (finishing probably no later than 11-11:30) straight to downtown to pay their tax bill - which doesn't seem like it would be earlier than 8am

So whever they were at took about 9 hours - at highway chase speeds from downtown Chicago.

I don't have opinions anymore. All I know is that no one is better than anyone else, and everyone is the best at everything

inkyatari

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, my all time favorite movie has geography inaccuracies that annoy me.

The first part of the movie takes place in and around Muncie, Indiana. There's a sequence where Roy Neary is chasing a UFO, and he goes through a pretty substantial tunnel.  In Indiana.  Northeast Indiana. (Most of the movie was filmed in Mobile, AL, but it still annoys me) THen, minutes later, he's seen crossing into Ohio on the Indiana Toll Road, as the UFO's, and  Indiana HIghway Patrol, precede Roy through a toll booth on the Ohio Turnpike.  Approximately 135 miles, 2 1/2 hours.
I'm never wrong, just wildly inaccurate.

abefroman329

Quote from: Mr_Northside on August 15, 2018, 03:58:48 PM
QuoteIn general I think the movie plays it fast and loose with geography (the L doesn't go to Calumet City, FFS). Anyone know the location of the Holiday Inn where Murph and the Magic Tones play?

And time......  Seems a stretch to think they go straight from their concert (finishing probably no later than 11-11:30) straight to downtown to pay their tax bill - which doesn't seem like it would be earlier than 8am

So whever they were at took about 9 hours - at highway chase speeds from downtown Chicago.
It's worse - the clerk at the tax assessor's office (played by Steven Spielberg!) is eating lunch when they arrive.

Of course, in the aforementioned Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, it takes about 24 hours to get from St. Louis to Chicago.

roadman65

Smokey and The Bandit shows that the Texas side of Texarkana is rural (hence the seen where Bandit picks up runaway bride Frog) when the urban is built up along the State Line.  Even the booze part the producers did not fact check either.  The Texas side of the city is part of Dry Baker County hence all the liquor stores on State Line Avenue on the AR side of the street.

Also the best route from Atlanta to Texarkana even in 1977 when it was filmed would have had the drive mostly along I-20. Most scenes were filmed along GA two lane roads making you think that a race for time would want to use substandard non freeway scenes.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

abefroman329

Quote from: roadman65 on August 15, 2018, 07:07:08 PM
Smokey and The Bandit shows that the Texas side of Texarkana is rural (hence the seen where Bandit picks up runaway bride Frog) when the urban is built up along the State Line.  Even the booze part the producers did not fact check either.  The Texas side of the city is part of Dry Baker County hence all the liquor stores on State Line Avenue on the AR side of the street.

Also the best route from Atlanta to Texarkana even in 1977 when it was filmed would have had the drive mostly along I-20. Most scenes were filmed along GA two lane roads making you think that a race for time would want to use substandard non freeway scenes.
The entire movie was filmed in GA. The scene where they get on I-85 north at Pleasant Hill Road is quite a thing to see if you know what that area looks like now.

jon daly

All this Blues Brothers talk reminds me that Aretha Franklin is ill. (and Matt "Guitar" Murphy passed away recently.) It's one of the triumvirate of comedies featuring early SNL castmembers that made our gang's canon. The other two are Animal House and Caddyshack.

I actually had the novelization in my personal library at one point.



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