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Author Topic: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos  (Read 361366 times)

Alex

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Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« on: February 11, 2009, 05:44:18 PM »

Speaking of the movie Transformers, the scene where Bonecrusher and Optimus Prime do battle was filmed on the then unopened section of the 210 near San Bernardino. With so few freeways being built anymore it makes you wonder where future highway scenes may be shot.

Another very popular highway for the filming of movies, tv shows, and commercials is an old section of U.S. 99, north of the Los Angeles area that is four-lanes wide (I believe its the Piru Gorge section). I've seen this scene in 24 among other shows.

The 6th Street Bridge over the Los Angeles River is also very popular for the shooting of commercials. Mike Ballard toured me around downtown Los Angeles in 2005, showing me just about all of the bridges. Not soon after we took the 6th Street bridge, it appeared in a Dick's Sporting Goods commercial.

The 1971 movie Duel was filmed on a number of roads around the Santa Clarita area. Additionally there is a fantastic stretch of video shot along the 110 (then California 11) and along Interstate 5 northward through the Sylmar interchange. I watched this with Mike Ballard and he recognized every single highway shot in the movie!

So, feel free to share any movie highway scenes that you recognized and perhaps we can catalog them all someday.

[Changed color for readability. -S.]
« Last Edit: December 10, 2014, 11:19:05 AM by Zeffy »
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DrZoidberg

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2009, 05:51:30 PM »

Easy Rider comes to mind for having some great highway shots, though I'm not sure what locations were used. 

Another highway scene of recent memory was from Wayne's World (saw it on Comedy Central a few weekends ago.  Classic.) where the van being driven by Russel knocks over an I-88 shield.  I'm assuming they were really along I-88??
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Hellfighter

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2009, 05:55:39 PM »

In "Dante's Peak", the shooting of the freeway collapse was I-90 in Idaho
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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2009, 05:56:50 PM »

Duel is one of my favorite movies!
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Alex

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2009, 05:57:19 PM »

The 1999 movie Being John Malkovich shows a scene that is supposed to be along the New Jersey Turnpike. The shields were quite authentic actually, including a state-named Interstate 95 and N.J. Turnpike Trailblazer. That's where the authenticity ends, as the rest of the shot is recognizable at the Terminal Island Freeway (CA-47/103).

Voyager

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2009, 05:57:59 PM »

There's a scene from Charlie's Angels that takes place on the Terminal Island Freeway along with the Vincent Thomas Bridge, and obviously the movie Speed takes place on the unconstructed at the time I-105.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2009, 05:59:44 PM by voyager »
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Alex

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2009, 05:58:40 PM »

Duel is one of my favorite movies!

I have a copy of that movie, and when Mike and I watched it, it was insane at how often they used the same roads or how they just simply switched directions for the next scene. Also in the movie is white centerline striping, which was phased out in California right around the time of shooting.  :crazy:

mightyace

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2009, 05:59:25 PM »

There's a scene from Charlie's Angels that takes place on the Terminal Island Freeway along with the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

The 70's TV show or the more recent movies?
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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2009, 06:00:10 PM »

The first newer movie.
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mightyace

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2009, 06:02:35 PM »

Does anyone know what stretches of highway that CHiPs usually filmed on?

From what I remember, it looked like they used the same unopened stretch of freeway over and over.

On a different vein, the highway scenes at the beginning of Groundhog Day (before they got to "Punxatawney") are authentic.  I said before because the town scene were filmed in Illinois!  :colorful:
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deathtopumpkins

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #10 on: February 11, 2009, 06:14:12 PM »

Well I watched Minority Report the other day and recognized a stretch of the Colonial Parkway in it... there was even one of the little pull-offs with the big green wooden historical info sign.
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ctsignguy

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #11 on: February 11, 2009, 06:27:30 PM »

Not a movie per se, but when i was in high school back in the mid-70s, our Drivers Ed films in the driving simulator were supplied by the Aetna Insurance Company....scenes were shot in Florida and Connecticut.....

well, one day we were being simulated on manual transmissions, i recognized the film as being shot on a stretch of the Connecticut Turnpike that i knew quite well.....so, instead of paying attention to my driving, i started to wax nostalgic about that area while watching the signs fly by...suddenly i heard the instructor yell "CAR 13!!! You have been in reverse gear the last THIRTY miles!!!"

Ohh, that was me!

I told the instructor afterward that i didnt mind being in reverse as 'i could see where I had been..."
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Alex

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #12 on: February 11, 2009, 06:39:31 PM »

Does anyone know what stretches of highway that CHiPs usually filmed on?


I'll have to ask Mike Ballard for the specifics, but they used a stretch of the 210 at the 2 before the Interstate opened to traffic quite several times.

Not a movie per se, but when i was in high school back in the mid-70s, our Drivers Ed films in the driving simulator were supplied by the Aetna Insurance Company....scenes were shot in Florida and Connecticut.....


I know that the footage that we were shown was quite old as well. I enjoyed watching the road scenes and seem to recall an Interstate 94 Illinois shield in there. The traffic standards of the film were reminiscent of my early childhood road experiences, so like you, I was quite nostalgic!  :cheers:

ctsignguy

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2009, 06:54:18 PM »


I know that the footage that we were shown was quite old as well. I enjoyed watching the road scenes and seem to recall an Interstate 94 Illinois shield in there. The traffic standards of the film were reminiscent of my early childhood road experiences, so like you, I was quite nostalgic!  :cheers:

the film they showed showed a lot of the classic wood Connecticut signs.....and the classic Turnpike exit markers.....wow.....yeah waxing nostalgia is great!   :cheers:
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Urban Prairie Schooner

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #14 on: February 11, 2009, 07:31:42 PM »

The 1971 movie Duel was filmed on a number of roads around the Santa Clarita area. Additionally there is a fantastic stretch of video shot along the 110 (then California 11) and along Interstate 5 northward through the Sylmar interchange. I watched this with Mike Ballard and he recognized every single highway shot in the movie!

Also love how at the beginning, when the main character is leaving Los Angeles, he passes through the tunnels on the NB Pasadena Freeway and then comes out at the left exit turnoff to I-5 NB (which looks nearly exactly the same as today, BTW), with the control city of "Bakersfield." I'm guessing the same exact sign is still there, but heavily revised per green-out.

Parts of the Dukes of Hazzard film were filmed around freeways in La. In one particular scene the Duke boys are driving under the Pontchartrain Expressway in New Orleans, then they jump the car up a concrete abutment and wind up flying onto I-110 in Baton Rouge at Chippewa Street!  :wow: :wow:

I always get a kick out of that. Love to know how the Dukes got hold of a teletransporter... :-D
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PAHighways

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #15 on: February 11, 2009, 08:24:44 PM »

On a different vein, the highway scenes at the beginning of Groundhog Day (before they got to "Punxatawney") are authentic.

The only authentic part was the opening shot of their leaving Pittsburgh, except they were going the wrong direction.  I'm surprised they actually got the US 119 shield on the fake BGS correct but not the control cities.
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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #16 on: February 11, 2009, 08:30:00 PM »

A lot of Pittsburgh's roadways can be seen in the opening sequence of Striking Distance.
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CityBoy1986

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #17 on: February 11, 2009, 08:36:52 PM »

The movie _Primary Colors_ shows a couple of Interstate and U.S. shields (I-12 and U.S. 190, IIRC).

_Vertigo_ has a few scenes near the Golden Gate Bridge and along the Pacific Coast Highway (I think).

Related to the school videos, one summer I went to the Bay Area of Calif. with my dad, where we rode down I-880.  That fall I had to watch a movie at school with a highway scene showing the "Whipple Rd" exit.  I was surprised at the time (this was before I understood exactly what Silicon Valley was).
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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #18 on: February 11, 2009, 10:36:06 PM »

The movie "My Cousin Vinny" takes place in Alabama, but if you look closely at the highway shields in the town scene, you'll notice they're Georgia shields, not Alabama shields.
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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #19 on: February 11, 2009, 10:43:34 PM »

IIRC, a Men in Black scene where a woman was giving birth to an alien baby appeared to take place in the Liberty State Park area and showed a New Jersey Turnpike trailblazer and the World Trade Center in the background.

I also think some travel scenes in Patriot Games were filmed along I-95 in downtown Baltimore and along U.S. 50 in the Annapolis area.
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haljackey

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #20 on: February 12, 2009, 01:14:26 AM »

Martix Reloaded.

They had to build their own highway for it!



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« Last Edit: February 12, 2009, 07:43:45 PM by deathtopumpkins »
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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #21 on: February 12, 2009, 02:20:49 AM »

The 1987 bomb "Three for the Road", starring a younger Charlie Sheen, filmed most of its highway and freeway scenes in and around the Little Rock area, mostly on I-30 and I-430.
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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #22 on: February 12, 2009, 03:21:31 AM »

The movie Speed features several LA freeways, including the then-under-construction I-105.

The movies Fast and Furious I and II also feature several highways.

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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #23 on: February 12, 2009, 12:10:38 PM »

"The Blues Brothers" from 1980

They have an I-90 shield shot along the Eisenhower Expy. Also, they show lower wacker drive in a chase scene (1 of many). They go down IL-47 which is quoted in the movie.

They also used the un-finished I-794 bridge in Milwaukee for the last chase scene.

Stephen
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Re: Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos
« Reply #24 on: February 12, 2009, 04:16:18 PM »

Okay, anyone seen the movie The Happening? The scene where they are at that restaurant in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania and they start driving off, that road looks too much like US 322 in the Amish country of PA.

i.c.
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