TV-Movie Road inaccuracies that drive you crazy!

[bing101]

https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/movies-tv/a47369/13-reasons-why-filming-locations/

Yes 13 reasons why was actually filmed in the North Bay in the San Francisco area note the fictional city of Crestmont is really done in Downtown Vallejo and Mare Island, Sebastapol, Benicia and Crockett

Note the Al Zampa/carquinez bridge has an appearance on this show.

[roadman]

Not a movie, but in the song "Intentional Heartache" by Dwight Yoakam, the lines are "she drove south I-95 straight through Carolina", later to be followed by "she pulled off on a state route just north of Charlotte".  Not possible.

Also, "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show, they sing about being picked up by a trucker outta Philly who's headed west from the Cumberland Gap to Johnson City, Tennessee, which is the opposite direction.

If the person in Wagon Wheel is destined for Raleigh, then why are they heading due south out of Roanoke?

[hotdogPi]

Not a movie, but in the song "Intentional Heartache" by Dwight Yoakam, the lines are "she drove south I-95 straight through Carolina", later to be followed by "she pulled off on a state route just north of Charlotte".  Not possible.

Also, "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show, they sing about being picked up by a trucker outta Philly who's headed west from the Cumberland Gap to Johnson City, Tennessee, which is the opposite direction.

If the person in Wagon Wheel is destined for Raleigh, then why are they heading due south out of Roanoke?

Google Maps and Apple Maps both say to start on US 220, which is due south.

[bcroadguy]

"San Francisco" in the new Antman movie was filled with traffic lights that had yellow backs which were mounted on truss arms. I could instantly tell that it was filmed in Downtown Atlanta.

[abefroman329]

"San Francisco" in the new Antman movie was filled with traffic lights that had yellow backs which were mounted on truss arms. I could instantly tell that it was filmed in Downtown Atlanta.

The MCU in general is terrible about that. Spider-Man: Homecoming had a scene set in Queens where you could clearly see a MARTA bus in the background, and Black Panther had a scene supposedly set at an art museum in London that was clearly the High.

[jon daly]

Someone mentioned Vancouver upthread. A lot of shows are filmed up there; including the underrated and sorely missed USA Network funny cop show Psych.

[bing101]

In the Mickey Mouse Segment on San Francisco. Mickey and Minnie's cable car lands on a 3 tower Golden Gate Bridge.  The Mickey mouse division of Disney decided to do a hybrid of the Western half of the Bay Bridge and Golden gate Bridge for the segment and some of the cable car scenes has to be a parody of Bullitt though.

[sparker]

Not a movie, but in the song "Intentional Heartache" by Dwight Yoakam, the lines are "she drove south I-95 straight through Carolina", later to be followed by "she pulled off on a state route just north of Charlotte".  Not possible.

Also, "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show, they sing about being picked up by a trucker outta Philly who's headed west from the Cumberland Gap to Johnson City, Tennessee, which is the opposite direction.

If the person in Wagon Wheel is destined for Raleigh, then why are they heading due south out of Roanoke?

Someone jumped the gun and told them I-73 was finished!

[tdindy88]

In the Mickey Mouse Segment on San Francisco. Mickey and Minnie's cable car lands on a 3 tower Golden Gate Bridge.  The Mickey mouse division of Disney decided to do a hybrid of the Western half of the Bay Bridge and Golden gate Bridge for the segment and some of the cable car scenes has to be a parody of Bullitt though.

Of course that's inaccurate. To my knowledge you can't even ride a cable car today (Nov. 18.) Not to mention the air's way too clear. Where's the smoke and haze Disney?

[bing101]

In the Mickey Mouse Segment on San Francisco. Mickey and Minnie's cable car lands on a 3 tower Golden Gate Bridge.  The Mickey mouse division of Disney decided to do a hybrid of the Western half of the Bay Bridge and Golden gate Bridge for the segment and some of the cable car scenes has to be a parody of Bullitt though.

Of course that's inaccurate. To my knowledge you can't even ride a cable car today (Nov. 18.) Not to mention the air's way too clear. Where's the smoke and haze Disney?

  If you look at the description of the video the scene was made in 2014.

[bing101]

http://www.tu.edu/news/vn_themaster.html


http://www.visitvallejo.com/film-office/solano-county-feature-film-history


If your wondering where some of the "San Francisco" "Oakland" and "Napa Valley" Scenes in some of your movies and TV Shows are shot. According to this link its on Mare Island.

[DJ Particle]

How about a 2-lane I-25 in Doctor Who? The real life version of the road is 4 lanes at the sign for Truth or Consequences NM.

I know the episode in question...it's one of the two animated episodes featuring the Tenth Doctor - "Dreamland"

It's not the 2 lane road that stands out in and of itself, as they did mean to show the early days of the Interstate system (which did often have 2-lane roads signed as Interstates).

What stands out is that particular scene supposedly takes place in *1947*!!  It shows the fabled "Roswell crash" happening.

Um...there were NO Interstate highways in 1947...

Not only that, but Truth or Consequences, NM wasn't named such until the mid-1950s.

[DJ Particle]

Now for my own fave inaccuracy...

Not a TV Movie, but... themovie "One Crazy Summer" somehow had Hoops and his friend driving from Long Island to Woods Hole, MA...  by going WEST ON US-6 OVER BASS RIVER at the Dennis/Yarmouth line?!?   

[The Nature Boy]

Not a movie, but in the song "Intentional Heartache" by Dwight Yoakam, the lines are "she drove south I-95 straight through Carolina", later to be followed by "she pulled off on a state route just north of Charlotte".  Not possible.

Also, "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show, they sing about being picked up by a trucker outta Philly who's headed west from the Cumberland Gap to Johnson City, Tennessee, which is the opposite direction.

If the person in Wagon Wheel is destined for Raleigh, then why are they heading due south out of Roanoke?

Someone jumped the gun and told them I-73 was finished!

Better question: How does someone who is Raleigh bound from New England end up that far west? According to Wikipedia, the writer of the song (aside from the parts ripped from Bob Dylan) wrote it while a student in Exeter, NH so let's assume that that is the starting point. It can't be that difficult to hitchhike down I-95, the busiest corridor on the east coast, and not end up hundreds of miles off course.

I can understand that hitchhiking can take you some weird places.

[SP Cook]

Not a movie, but in the song "Intentional Heartache" by Dwight Yoakam, the lines are "she drove south I-95 straight through Carolina", later to be followed by "she pulled off on a state route just north of Charlotte".  Not possible.

All time worst geography in a song is, of course, Country Roads.  The song was originally written as "Almost Heaven, Massachusetts" as an attempt at a state song.  When John Denver decided to make the song country, he picked "West Virginia", where he had never been, to keep the number of syllables the same, picking it over Alabama.  He then changed the geographic items mentioned in the song, the Berkshire mountains and Naragansett Bay, with the Blue Ridge mountains and Shenandoah river, both of which are only in a tiny part of one county in WV, 99.9% in Virginia.  Other original lyrics included "fisherman's lady" "beautiful blue water" and "frosty taste of Falstaff's".  He kept the "radio reminds me of my home far away"  which worked for a song about someone driving east towards Boston, but not for someone driving (through Maryland) west towards the Shenandoah river, as the radio would be coming from behind you, from Washington and Baltimore, not from WV.

                                                                                   

[ErmineNotyours]

Another strange geographical reference in a song, Kim Wilde's "Kids of America": "New York to East California, there's a new wave comin' I warn ya."

[Finrod]

Another MCU road inaccuracy: In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, during the scene where Nick Fury is being chased by the fake police in what's supposed to be downtown Washington DC, you can clearly see a US 6 - US 322 sign that they pass.  Neither of those roads go anywhere near DC, and they only overlap in downtown Cleveland.  They could have at least digitally edited the sign to be US 1 and US 50.

[ipeters61]

Not a road inaccuracy but I was thinking of this throughout the thread.  One day I was watching the Six Million Dollar Man on TV and they said that they were "25 miles [some direction] from Philadelphia."  In the desert.  There are no deserts around here.

I do want to give The Office props for using PA-307, with an actual PA shield, in the clip where Michael drives his car into the lake somewhere in the Scranton area (link in my signature).

[MCRoads]

Not a road inaccuracy but I was thinking of this throughout the thread.  One day I was watching the Six Million Dollar Man on TV and they said that they were "25 miles [some direction] from Philadelphia."  In the desert.  There are no deserts around here.

I do want to give The Office props for using PA-307, with an actual PA shield, in the clip where Michael drives his car into the lake somewhere in the Scranton area (link in my signature).

I believe that is user error, as the GPS clearly wanted them to go over the bridge. Where they were turning wasn't even a road!

[ipeters61]

Not a road inaccuracy but I was thinking of this throughout the thread.  One day I was watching the Six Million Dollar Man on TV and they said that they were "25 miles [some direction] from Philadelphia."  In the desert.  There are no deserts around here.

I do want to give The Office props for using PA-307, with an actual PA shield, in the clip where Michael drives his car into the lake somewhere in the Scranton area (link in my signature).

I believe that is user error, as the GPS clearly wanted them to go over the bridge. Where they were turning wasn't even a road!

Maybe it's a shortcut, Dwight. 

[roadman]

Smokey and the Bandit: As someone else pointed out, the best route even then was via the road that would eventually be the I-22 corridor. This is about a 650 mile drive one way -- very doable in the amount of time they had -- rather than the 900 miles they claimed it was in the movie.

On the other hand, Atlanta to New England and back in 24 hours (the challenge they’re given at the end) would have been impossible.

The challenge was 18 hours, not 24.

[NWI_Irish96]

In the movie The American President, during a White House Christmas party, Sydney recounts an incident on Dupont Circle, prompting AJ to ask "What were you doing up on the Hill". But Dupont Circle is northwest of the White House and Capitol Hill is to the southeast.

[Rothman]

In the movie The American President, during a White House Christmas party, Sydney recounts an incident on Dupont Circle, prompting AJ to ask "What were you doing up on the Hill". But Dupont Circle is northwest of the White House and Capitol Hill is to the southeast.

I don't see the problem here.  Up does not always equal north.

[NWI_Irish96]

In the movie The American President, during a White House Christmas party, Sydney recounts an incident on Dupont Circle, prompting AJ to ask "What were you doing up on the Hill". But Dupont Circle is northwest of the White House and Capitol Hill is to the southeast.

I don't see the problem here.  Up does not always equal north.

There is a little bit more to the conversation than the snippet I posted, but the implication is that Dupont Circle is very near Capitol Hill which it is not.

[abefroman329]

In the movie The American President, during a White House Christmas party, Sydney recounts an incident on Dupont Circle, prompting AJ to ask "What were you doing up on the Hill". But Dupont Circle is northwest of the White House and Capitol Hill is to the southeast.

I believe she got stuck in rush hour traffic on Dupont Circle.  That's a rookie mistake right there.

Sorkin's grasp of DC geography isn't great.  I never watched The West Wing, but I understood it was impossible for characters on that show to travel between two points in DC without traveling via Dupont Circle.