Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos

[the49erfan15]

I noticed this in Eastbound & Down - it supposedly takes place in Mexico, but the shield is a diamond similar to North Carolina's. You can see it at the very end for a split second over the right rear window of the car, I'll get a better pic later when I'm at home.

[agentsteel53]

looks to me like a circle with a small three-digit number on it, so maybe a Virginia state secondary marker?

[rawmustard]

looks to me like a circle with a small three-digit number on it, so maybe a Virginia state secondary marker?

Supposedly the season in Mexico was filmed in Puerto Rico, which uses round markers for tertiary highways.

[hm insulators]

Another MST3K favorite: "Mitchell", featuring car chases at up to 25 mph and HOT MERGING ACTION!! 

It's on one of the LA-area freeways, but I couldn't tell you which one, unless someone local recognizes it

The freeway is I-405 north of Sunset Boulevard; the chase is headed northbound. Later, the dirt road is the dirt section of Mulholland Drive which overlooks the San Fernando Valley.

[the49erfan15]

Supposedly the season in Mexico was filmed in Puerto Rico, which uses round markers for tertiary highways.

[agentsteel53]

that license plate looks Mexican, but the ones parked on the side look to have six digits in a vaguely US format.  can anyone with more familiarity than me identify the license plates as being Puerto Rican or not Puerto Rican?

[the49erfan15]

I had the shield shape wrong - it is a circle and not a diamond, and the license plates in another scene look to be the 2010 Puerto Rico issued license plates seen here:

[D-Dey65]

How can we possibly exclude the defective chase between Bill Hickman, Richard Lynch, and Roy Scheider in 1973's The Seven-Ups? The one that started on Manhattan's Upper West Side and led to the George Washington Bridge onto the Palisades Interstate Parkway, but suddenly wound up on the Taconic State Parkway and included trucks and buses.

I've even got a still frame of the site of the alleged interchange where Hickman ran Scheider off the road into that truck.



To be honest, that site looked more like the northbound New York State Thruway at the interchange with the Cross Westchester Expressway.

[BamaZeus]

I did an entire personal Google map based on that chase, just for my own curiosity.  I was able to match up pretty evenly the movie with the map, as there were enough landmarks to help me map it out.

I was inspired by an article I read about a year ago, matching up a moving Google map with the Bullitt chase.  As you watched the scene, the map cursor moved along with the action.   http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/08/bullitt-google-map/  The movie/map link is within the story.

There are a couple of gaps in the chase sequence in Manhattan, then the large one going from the Palisades Parkway to the Taconic.  The ones in Manhattan were probably contiguous, but cut from the movie itself, but a 10 mile jaunt eastward to another road altogether is just movie magic

[SidS1045]

I've even got a still frame of the site of the alleged interchange where Hickman ran Scheider off the road into that truck.



To be honest, that site looked more like the northbound New York State Thruway at the interchange with the Cross Westchester Expressway.

IIRC that's an exit from the Taconic State Parkway.

[D-Dey65]

IIRC that's an exit from the Taconic State Parkway.

I know. But the actual site of the crash beneath the truck didn't look like it was from there to me.

[Stephane Dumas]

Part of the car chase in the movie "Short Time" with Dabney Coleman was filmed around Vancouver, including the newly-then opened gap of Richmond freeway (BC-91)

This one from a movie named "Blazing Magnum" or "Special Magnum" depending of the old VHS releases, was filmed in 1975 around Montreal. Footage of that chase was used in a Geigo commercial.

[Stephane Dumas]

In Butterfield 8, you got a nice vintage view of the NYS Thruway and the Tappan Zee bridge.

[BamaZeus]

In Butterfield 8, you got a nice vintage view of the NYS Thruway and the Tappan Zee bridge.

Fascinating seeing the Tappan Zee before the zipper lane was configured in.  It also has the old-style signage for the Thruway, as one would expect.

Of course, the era of $.50 tolls has long passed, although I still remember the GWB being only $2 to cross

I do wonder, though, how she missed where every other car was getting off the highway at the previous exit to avoid the construction

[vtk]

From a Futurama that aired last week:

[Kacie Jane]

From a Futurama that aired last week:

So much win.  New desktop wallpaper found.
W

[StogieGuy7]

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.

I don't know if this was pointed out yet (haven't read through the 11 pages of this thread yet), but a lot of the freeway scenes were not filmed in PA, but rather on the Amstutz Expressway in Waukegan, IL.  A lot of films and TV shows are filmed on this 'freeway to nowhere' which is a short, 3 mile segment of a freeway that was once envisioned as an Interstate highway connecting downtown Chicago with Green Bay, WI.  Another segment of this long-dead project is known as Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.   

They also filmed parts of Transformers II and several other films on this stretch of road.  Just last week, the Amstutz was closed for 24 hours in order to film an episode of a new TV show that is set in Chicago.  Too bad I can't recall the name of it.   

[StogieGuy7]

In Butterfield 8, you got a nice vintage view of the NYS Thruway and the Tappan Zee bridge.

Fascinating seeing the Tappan Zee before the zipper lane was configured in.  It also has the old-style signage for the Thruway, as one would expect.

Of course, the era of $.50 tolls has long passed, although I still remember the GWB being only $2 to cross

I do wonder, though, how she missed where every other car was getting off the highway at the previous exit to avoid the construction

And, I wonder how she then vaulted up over the sand/rock pile - only to drop at a 90 degree angle!  Ending up just off of - and perpendicular to - the Thruway.....

Still, what a wonderful glimpse into the NYS Thruway of the 1960s.  And, it jogged a long-forgotten memory that I had about the Thruway and it's former use of so many blue signs!  Now that I think back on it, the NYS Thruway used a lot of blue, while the NJ Turnpike had black guide signs.   At least that's how I recall it.

[agentsteel53]

does that say ROUTE 9/Tarrytown at 2:42?

[Desert Man]

I believe Cal. Route 14 in Palmdale-Lancaster north of L.A. was featured on "Mac and Me", the movie about an alien stranded on earth befriends a young boy, not quite a replica of "E.T." filmed in the San Fernando Valley. My hometown Indio and nearby towns of the Palm Springs area was the setting of films like "29 Palms" and "The Salton Sea", two real places have drew more interest by tourists and moviegoers.

[StogieGuy7]

does that say ROUTE 9/Tarrytown at 2:42?

It does!  My guess is that's on the west side of the Hudson, facing the eastbound lanes.  Back in 1960 when this was filmed, the NYS Thruway looked brand new and was only 4-6 lanes wide in that area.  The surrounding scenery looks as if you're in the wilds of the Taconic or Berkshire hills up north and nothing like the tightly-packed suburban area that is now Rockland County.

Wow, how things change. 

[Alps]

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.

I don't know if this was pointed out yet (haven't read through the 11 pages of this thread yet), but a lot of the freeway scenes were not filmed in PA, but rather on the Amstutz Expressway in Waukegan, IL.  A lot of films and TV shows are filmed on this 'freeway to nowhere' which is a short, 3 mile segment of a freeway that was once envisioned as an Interstate highway connecting downtown Chicago with Green Bay, WI.  Another segment of this long-dead project is known as Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.   

They also filmed parts of Transformers II and several other films on this stretch of road.  Just last week, the Amstutz was closed for 24 hours in order to film an episode of a new TV show that is set in Chicago.  Too bad I can't recall the name of it.   

How many roads NOT under construction have half-SPUIs?? (See northern end of Amstutz - there's also a full one farther down.) How old are those things, by the way?

[PurdueBill]

How many roads NOT under construction have half-SPUIs?? (See northern end of Amstutz - there's also a full one farther down.) How old are those things, by the way?

Not many unsignalized SPUIs out there either, are there?  Guess the traffic counts on that road really are pretty low!

[kphoger]

that license plate looks Mexican, but the ones parked on the side look to have six digits in a vaguely US format.  can anyone with more familiarity than me identify the license plates as being Puerto Rican or not Puerto Rican?

It's pretty clear to me that the one in the foreground is an altered 2002-issue Jalisco license plate.  Please compare this example:


The license plate is obviously phony, though, as no Mexican license plates use a serial number beginning with letter-numeral-letter.  And, even if they did, then Y9C would be from either Veracruz or Yucatán.

Also, Google returns a hit for Carrasquillo Discount Inc. as being a furniture store in the municipality of Gurabo, Puerto Rico.  However, the route shield also appears to be doctored; although I am not having any luck verifying that "INT" is not used as a plaque in Puerto Rico, the letters don't really mean anything, and there isn't a highway 941 anywhere on the island anyway.

[StogieGuy7]

However, the route shield also appears to be doctored; although I am not having any luck verifying that "INT" is not used as a plaque in Puerto Rico, the letters don't really mean anything, and there isn't a highway 941 anywhere on the island anyway.

Yes INT is indeed used (commonly) in Puerto Rico as is documented in this Puerto Rican transit manual (2/3 of the way down):

http://www.dtop.gov.pr/pdf/SenalesdeTransito.pdf

The manual is from 1979 and predates the realignment of shields, so it describes the old circle as seen in the film.  I believe that INT means "Interseccion" (like JCT).  However, in all of my travels through the rest of Latin America, I do not recall this type of marking used anywhere aside from Puerto Rico.  Based on what I saw in the video, there's no question in my mind that this was filmed on la isla del encanto, a.k.a. the home of the coqui.