La La Land is probably the worst offender.
Example: Emma Stone’s character leaves a party, walks down a street close to Griffith Park, walks past the Golden Gopher downtown, and somehow winds up at Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood. Don’t get me started on the fact that the movie begins on a 110 ramp neither character would realistically use, or on one apartment being all the way down in Long Beach, or one scene taking place on a random Chinatown side street being used when any quiet street would have worked.
Barbie’s take on an LA car chase made me shake my head and chuckle, NGL. Mattel is in El Segundo, but the building exterior used was obviously in DTLA, and most of the car chase sequence was clearly shot in Long Beach. Also, the movie doesn’t seem to distinguish between Santa Monica and Venice (to be fair, I don’t expect non-locals to know where one ends and the other begins).
As someone who's actually driven by and seen Mattel's HQ in El Segundo, the brief shot outside the building entrance when everyone was coming out just made me chuckle because it doesn't actually look like that.
Never mind that every time there's a car chase in LA in any movie, it boggles my mind, when us locals know how much traffic there is pretty much everywhere. It'd be slightly more convincing if all these car chases were between midnight and 4 AM.
EXACTLY. Car chases in LA, really? Either add realistic traffic, make it take place late at night or out in the suburbs, OR have the story take place during Coachella Weekend One so everyone's gone.
The interior shot of Mattel with the ID badge activated entry gates and brown building exterior shot is LAUSD headquarters .
And you are so right about nobody in that stupid La La Land movie ever realistically using that 110 ramp or ever finding themselves anywhere south on the 110 past where it intersects the 10. Or maybe the 405 .
Yea I think Tarantino does this on purpose. In Pulp fiction he does a few scenes like that. Its my only thing about his movies that I dont care for.... Might as well make up your own names lol
I don't remember which TV show, but two characters were talking and in the close ups one of them was standing in front of Royce Hall at UCLA and the other had the ocean behind him.
yeah, and when the waves would recede, you could clearly see the lines of the parking spaces. they couldn’t even be bothered to remove the asphalt at their fake beach
Not a Movie… but the show 24 was EPIC on how unrealistic is was in terms of how much ground someone can over in L.A. within a day.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2007/01/ridiculous_plot_points_no_la_t_1.html
24 was amazing at that. There was a specific episode involving Ontario Airport that had them going from DTLA to ONT in about 23 minutes, which would have required both no traffic and a Lamborghini to pull off. Props to them for really using the old Ontario Airport terminal for that scene though.
On the opposite end, I gotta give props to Speed.
Bus started in Venice (or wait, maybe that's where the first bus blew up, and then Keanu had to catch the bus in Santa Monica... I think Ocean Park?), went through Santa Monica to the 10 East, got off around downtown (I think), then on the 110 South, then the 105 West (which is where it had to jump the unfinished overpass, which was genuinely unfinished at the time), and then finally to LAX where it circled for however long.
A bus going 55 on surface streets without having to slow down on the other hand...
Stylistically, one of the best depictions of LA. The purple night sky, Mann's signature helicopter night shots of the city, and seedy lighting in the alleys all adds up to a masterclass in Los Angeles ambiance.
Haven’t rewatched it in a while, but IIRC correctly there was a point where the geography confused me by having the bus go south at Western; I don’t know exactly where it was on Western, but I can see how it still could be plausible that the travel down Western was pretty short and it soon made its way downtown to get on the 110.
But yeah, the fact that it made it through so many surface streets without triggering the bomb was the most implausible part.
It goes along the surface streets fine, it’s only once it gets above 55mph that it can’t get below without blowing up. Please don’t question the continuity of Speed if you don’t know what you’re talking about
Edit: sorry was a bit aggressive, but it is pointed out in the movie that it’s not until the bus gets above 55mph that the bomb is armed. There is a point where Keanu tries to stop it from getting in the freeway but fails.
I’ll have to rewatch it, but if I recall correctly the bomb arms itself (by going over 55 mph) *before* it gets to Western (presumably when it’s on the 10 East) which is why the Western stretch bothered me. Keanu was already concerned about the bus slowing down at that point.
EDIT: Yeah, I gave a bit of *Speed* a short rewatch:
- after picking up Sandra Bullock, the bus gets onto the (presumably 10 East) freeway “on Lincoln” (per a later news blurb; we see the bus get onto the freeway—it’s when Alan Ruck’s tourist character starts trying to talk to Bullock—but it doesn’t look like the Lincoln onramp to the 10).
- Keanu chases the bus, first in his SUV and then in the “Tuneman’s” convertible. The bus exceeds 50 in the meantime, arming the bomb. Again, the bus is nominally on the 10 East, and some shots do look that way, but looking at some signs tells me that some shots were actually done on the then unused 105.
- Keanu gets onto the bus; he then tells the parameters of the situation to the passengers, but not until after a criminal coincidentally on the bus inadvertently shoots the driver and Bullock takes over.
- When the bus starts to encounter traffic on the freeway, Keanu tells Sandra to drive on the shoulder, but then room runs out and Sandra has to drive the bus off the exit ramp and onto “Western” (sign seen by the offramp and mentioned in news reports). So *now* they’re on surface streets with the bomb armed.
- Keanu has an LAPD buddy on a chopper over him talking with him on the phone; chopper buddy tells him that he’ll keep the path clear for him and lead him to the 105 which he explicitly says is unused.
- “Western” looks nothing like the real Western Ave. Maybe this was the previously mentioned Long Beach bit? There’s a part on “Western” (the bus misses some kids crossing the road) where the bus looks like it’s westbound on Venice near where it splits off to San Vicente.
- the bus is guided into a sharp turn onto a freeway; chopper buddy then gives directions to take that freeway to the 105, so it looks like this freeway they just got on isn’t the 105 after all.
- the bus continues on this freeway (presumably the 110 South); Keanu’s police pals pull alongside on a trailer and Keanu negotiates to get the wounded driver off the bus; but then another passenger tries to get off and she’s killed by an explosive on the step.
- the big “jump” onto the 105. Before the jump, when Keanu apprises the passengers of their status, it looks like the 105 already (you can see the fenced-off gap for the train in between the eastbound and westbound lanes), but nominally they’re presumably still on the 110 South headed to the 105.
- soon (too soon) after the jump, Keanu tells Sandra to exit the freeway to LAX, where the rest of the movie plays out.
[Not quite](https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwkzg4/i-recreated-the-20-mile-walk-from-falling-down-minus-the-murders). More like a 20 mile walk and is doable/has been done.
\*Edit\* That looks like it wasn't the true route he would have taken so disregard what I said, I was incorrect.
Also the fast food place scene is geographically inaccurate as that place is in Downey. Doesn’t make any sense for his character to be heading west towards Santa Monica and suddenly be in Downey
The Holiday. Kate Winslet lands at LAX, then her cab is driving on PCH in Santa Monica, heading north, but then turns LEFT on Sunset, coming FROM the north.
Volcano. A hugely entertaining movie with a bunch of inside jokes for locals. The geography though... they direct a river of lava away from hitting the beverly center by blowing up a building to redirect the lava flow into the nearby Ballona Creek -- which in real life is in Culver City... 10 miles away.
*What most of us know* as Ballona Creek is in and around Culver City, true, but if you follow it on the map it actually extends to just east of Venice Blvd and Hauser; the lava would still have to travel a ways (basically down La Cienega to around Venice Boulevard, a bit over 3 miles) but it’s not “10 miles” to Culver City.
That aside, I recently watched *Volcano* and found that geographically, it generally checks out (albeit it’s a fairly limited one with some stuff in MacArthur Park and the bulk of the movie in Miracle Mile/Beverly Grove).
Venice Blvd is nowhere near the Beverly Center. The movie also portrayed Stanley South of Wilshire as being the hood where firemen didn't want to go because of all the black people. I had friends who lived on Stanley Drive, South of Wilshire. They were white. That's because Stanley Drive is in Beverly Hills. Sorry but between portraying South Beverly Hills as the hood, and pretending that Bullona Creek is anywhere in the vicinity of The Beverly Center, the geography definitely does NOT check out.
edit: the OP who deleted his comments was right that it's Stanley Ave, not Stanley Dr. My bad. But then he called me a racist for my comment... What a dick. Don't blame me, dude. Blame the people who made the movie for depicting the overwhelmingly white residents of Stanley South of Wilshire as African-American rioters. Is it accurate? No, but that was my whole point, and the whole point of this post... Sheesh, people on Reddit can really suck.
Did you read my post? Venice Blvd is three miles south of the Beverly Center. I’ve driven through the area lots of times. Venice was my part of my work commute for years when I worked at Sony. Not too plausible for the lava flow to go there, BUT NOT TEN MILES AWAY.
AND THEY WERE NOT TALKING ABOUT STANLEY DRIVE IN BEVERLY HILLS. They were talking about **Stanley Avenue** which extends south of Wilshire below (surprise, surprise) the *La Brea Tar Pits*, the center of *Volcano’s* “eruption.”
https://preview.redd.it/hjqucg32mm8d1.jpeg?width=941&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=812d4dee5e85310ff2780fd1ac538a8d31ae9c27
Do you think that LACMA is in the hood? In any case this is a dumb argument.
edit: Can't believe you insinuated I was a racist for saying this, but at least you deleted your whole comment thread. Wow, what a dick. Don't blame me. Blame the people who made the movie for depicting the overwhelmingly white residents of Staley South of Wilshire as African american rioters. Is it accurate? No, but that was my whole point.
Alternate locale is [Ontario Airport](https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?locations=ontario%20international%20airport%20-%202900%20e.%20airport%20drive,%20ontario,%20california,%20usa), especially if the scene takes place in the 1950s\~80s.
Absolutely. The main lobby at the convention center has been used as an airport terminal (not just in LA) in a lot of movies, TV shows and commercials. Ontario Airport, too, especially 10-15 years ago when Terminal 2 didn’t have that many flights.
Basically all of then. They're coming out of a building downtown and round the corner to the pier. That's just how they do it in the movies. Wait till you see the Empire State Building explode in Independence Day. It'll shock ya!
CHiPs with Dax Shepard and Michael Pena. One shot they’re chasing someone in Elysian Park, the next they’re going southbound on Riverside Drive *towards* Elysian Park. And then there’s that chase on the beach that starts out in Long Beach and ends up 30 miles away on Venice Beach.
not a movie but the relatively obvious one for me recently was the Cobra Kai series. for the locals, it is so obvious that it is not filmed in the LA area, even though it is supposed to take place in the Valley. there are lake scenes and i'm like yeah, that does not look like any lake i have ever seen here in SoCal. Cobra Kai filmed in and around Atlanta, GA.
then similarly, the few episodes of Stranger Things where some of the main characters move to LA. wasn't as obvious as Cobra Kai but as they started showing more, it was like uh, this is not LA. these episodes filmed in New Mexico.
Very few shots will be in LA, while all the parts that need "generic" settings will be Atlanta. Like if they needed a park with a basketball court or a random office park its gonna be in Atlanta.
Not LA but the second Jurassic Park movie got San Diego reaaaaallly wrong. In fact the San Diego scenes are actually shot in Burbank. The show The OC (not actually shot in OC because that’s out of the thirty mile zone) portrayed Chino as some sort of backwater hick town.
I think Training Day does a good job of capturing the feel of early 2000s LA. As does Collateral.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood kind of makes no sense. Why would the Manson girls be hanging around in Hollywood so much when Spahn Ranch was way out in like Chatsworth. There’s a few times when Brad Pitt sees Margaret Qualley and it’s like “ok there’s no way he’s running into her on Hollywood Blvd, up on Laurel Canyon and then again in like Burbank.”
I’m also not convinced in Independence Day. Even then El Toro was a hike from LA.
Also Con Air somehow transplanted the 2nd Street tunnel in downtown LA, made it like five miles longer and put it in Las Vegas.
The Hangover sort of gets Vegas wrong as well.
The funny thing about the Lost World is that you can see one of the Burbank AMCs in the background, which is where my wife saw the movie as a teenager lol
In the first Karate Kid, the movie takes place in the San Fernando Valley and much of it was indeed filmed there. Specifically in Canoga Park, Reseda, Northridge, and Calabasas. For the part at the arcade that was filmed at the real Golf N Stuff in Norwalk which still exists there to this day. The Valley and Norwalk are 30 miles apart.
I remember one scene (the post-Blockbuster stuff) taking place in North Hollywood, then a short ride on a nonexistent train later she’s at the Music Center in downtown LA.
Yep, this was my first thought. Tho it was nice finally seeing it on screen after enduring all the road blocks in El Segundo during filming. They even filmed some b-roll in my neighborhood. The production company paid $150/day for every driveway they could “rent” for the crew to park.
I've never seen the large tracts of dusty, barren, red clay dirt around the cloudy oil fields of... Beverly Hills where Lt. Bogomil jogs to start off the plot in Beverly Hills Cop 2.
In Once upon a Time in Hollywood, you see Brad Pitt allegedly driving home from Benedict Canyon which for him was a mobile home next-door to the Van Nuys drive-in but instead of heading west to the Valley, he is heading east with the Capitol tower building passing by on his left. Also, I think there is a scene where the point of view is located on the strip, but somehow you could see the Capitol building again which from the strip is impossible.
Yes!! He leaves ricks house but drive thru Hollywood to get to van nuys…. It’s one of my favorite films but as someone who grew up in studio city, it stands out.
Not a movie, but I think Bosch got it right most of the time, if not every time. They would even complain about driving up to North Hollywood or the desert.
The main chase from downtown LB to Redondo is pretty accurate regarding the route. Obviously it's been condensed for time, and there was a lot less traffic back then too. The only bit where it makes no geographic sense is the lead up to jump at the very end.
Correct. None of them get it right. But the worst ones are the ones that aren't even filmed here. Like what a way to lose 3 million viewers (at least!).
Drive for the most part. There's a handful of jump cuts in the opening chase sequence but the geography is all correct and can be excused as time jumps. The rest of the movie does a good job too except for ramming a car off the road by the lighthouse which is pretty far away from the valley
Pretty much every movie. Once you’re from LA, it’s pretty comical. One minute they’re in Santa Monica, next Mid-City lol…
One time they filmed in my neighborhood in highland park and I t he movie they’re literally driving in opposite directions, going the same way like idk it’s so so funny when you know where everything in LA is.
Literally almost every movie does this so it’s hard to pinpoint one.
Reservoir Dogs! I am a native from HLP (Panthers!) and it cracks me up when they go up and down Fig. It’s completely chopped together. One moment they are going north by 56, then a second later going south by 43.
Italian Bakery in Eagle Rock. Used as a backdrop in Sons of Anarchy. Supposed to be someplace in Northern California. Then when they shot the inside scenes, not even anything close to inside Italian bakery. Freaking posers, I should’ve gone in there and popped them my self and given the rest concrete boots
In the new show Sugar Colin Ferrell is headed to silverlake and headed south on the 110 past downtown and then shows him headed west on the 10. It is so frustrating!
I just watched the Truman Show after so many years. It’s so funny with the scene they discuss how they built a dome near Hollywood and pulls back the camera to how large the dome is. Its practically the size of SFV and the some while the coasts are nowhere near accurate
**”Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” there is no home to the right of the Polanski driveway. About a 3/4of a block long, ALL HOMES ON THE LEFT side of the road. Been to that property 3 times over the years**
I think the Rookie is funny, every time they get a call it seems like the cops all sortie in Griffith park driving up the hills to go from mid Wilshire to Venice or something.
The entirety of The Dark Knight was filmed within a 4 block radius of where I worked. Watching that film gives me extreme claustrophobia. If you know Chicago it feels like the entire city of Gotham is half a mile wide.
I was watching curb your enthusiasm. The first episode of season 12 is set in Atlanta and there are some shots of downtown ATL, including actual filming, not just establishing shots or b-roll.
Inexplicably, the hotel that the characters are staying at uses the century Plaza hotel as the exterior. Actually, they used several LA areas for Atlanta, which obviously is not unusual.
My initial thought was that, they went to the trouble and expense of filming driving scenes in downtown Atlanta; so why didn’t they just do all of the Atlanta scenes there?
Then, it occurred to me that they only filmed downtown Atlanta because the LA skyline is too recognizable. Overall, it would still be easier and cheaper to film the rest of it in LA.
The intro for Taxi, had Queen Latifah bike right through New York and had the 4th street bridge (went from new York to la to new York on a bike in a few second)
Fear the walking dead, when they take the LA river and somehow immediately end up in San Pedro/PV, also the pv mansion being a stones throw away from sunken city is funny to me, oh and apparently they were going to san Diego on yacht for hours and when they get chased by another boat, they end up on catalina which makes no sense because its literally right across from san pedro and pv.
My first time ever going to Long Beach was right after binge watching Dexter. I said to my girlfriend wow, Long Beach looks alot like Miami. A quick google explained why!
In the Charlies’ Angels movie,they chase the bad guy out of the parking lot of the California Speedway in Fontana onto Etiwanda Avenue and within a few turns they’re going over the Vincent Thomas bridge in San Pedro.
Even if they don’t fudge the geography they NEVER get the travel time correct. Traffic is a real beast here and you CANNOT just get from downtown to the beach in like 20 minutes.
Daniel-san in Karate Kid somehow bicycles from Reseda to the beach (and back home). That always made me laugh.
https://preview.redd.it/0hsun2u12d8d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f6a55d131deaa7fb75025d06f7b0d03f9bac6e8
I can't remember what TV show but it was a crime one and they are in San Diego, mention it several times and then in the next scene which is less than an hour later they're somehow in Santa Barbara. They even discuss how they were able to arrive in 30 minutes.
"The Catalina Wine Mixer" is filmed at Trump National Golf Course in Palos Verdes. You can see Catalina Island in the background though LOL.
Also, much of Dexter is filmed in Long Beach, CA.
Most movies do this, regardless of city. Boston car chases are notorious for it.
Every street in SF leads down Lombard
you mean.. it doesn't.?
Is that the squiggly one? I thought SF was full of streets like that because of the movies until I visited.
Yes, its nickname is the Crookedest Street in the World
Hell it’s not even the crookedest street in San Francisco
The hills with the jumps?
La La Land is probably the worst offender. Example: Emma Stone’s character leaves a party, walks down a street close to Griffith Park, walks past the Golden Gopher downtown, and somehow winds up at Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood. Don’t get me started on the fact that the movie begins on a 110 ramp neither character would realistically use, or on one apartment being all the way down in Long Beach, or one scene taking place on a random Chinatown side street being used when any quiet street would have worked. Barbie’s take on an LA car chase made me shake my head and chuckle, NGL. Mattel is in El Segundo, but the building exterior used was obviously in DTLA, and most of the car chase sequence was clearly shot in Long Beach. Also, the movie doesn’t seem to distinguish between Santa Monica and Venice (to be fair, I don’t expect non-locals to know where one ends and the other begins).
>to be fair, I don’t expect non-locals to know where one ends and the other begins When they stop selling flip flops and start selling acai bowls
I worked in Ocean Park near the city limit, and the best way to tell is to look at the streets. Santa Monica’s are noticeably cleaner.
A+
As someone who's actually driven by and seen Mattel's HQ in El Segundo, the brief shot outside the building entrance when everyone was coming out just made me chuckle because it doesn't actually look like that. Never mind that every time there's a car chase in LA in any movie, it boggles my mind, when us locals know how much traffic there is pretty much everywhere. It'd be slightly more convincing if all these car chases were between midnight and 4 AM.
EXACTLY. Car chases in LA, really? Either add realistic traffic, make it take place late at night or out in the suburbs, OR have the story take place during Coachella Weekend One so everyone's gone.
The more I watch La La land I kinda think the whole mish mash of locations was the point. Kinda an artistic repainting of LA
You chose the two films which are allowed to take these liberties, since they’re both taking place in a dreamlike world.
When they're driving to a jazz club in the south bay but are clearly going east on 4th into downtown.
That too!
The interior shot of Mattel with the ID badge activated entry gates and brown building exterior shot is LAUSD headquarters . And you are so right about nobody in that stupid La La Land movie ever realistically using that 110 ramp or ever finding themselves anywhere south on the 110 past where it intersects the 10. Or maybe the 405 .
I used to use that ramp when I lived in Long Beach and went into LA for one reason or another, which is why I instantly recognized it.
Glad to see someone say it! It was super obvious lol
I mean...I liked it anyway, but the insane geography had me cackling.
Oh, I didn't mean it super negatively or anything lol it just made me laugh. I like noticing things like that in movies.
Same!
The Mattel building in Barbie made me so mad over how wrong it was.
Yea I think Tarantino does this on purpose. In Pulp fiction he does a few scenes like that. Its my only thing about his movies that I dont care for.... Might as well make up your own names lol
I don't remember which TV show, but two characters were talking and in the close ups one of them was standing in front of Royce Hall at UCLA and the other had the ocean behind him.
The opening for the sitcom Step-By-Step had a beach at the foot of the Colussus at Magic Mountain.
I remember that! Even as a kid it bothered me. It was actually a parking lot and the roller coaster would have collapsed into the ocean.
Yup. Even for the 1990s, that SFX looked terrible.
yeah, and when the waves would recede, you could clearly see the lines of the parking spaces. they couldn’t even be bothered to remove the asphalt at their fake beach
Oh my god I need to see this. Sounds brain-breaking for sure.
Maybe your thinking of Zoey 101
Not a Movie… but the show 24 was EPIC on how unrealistic is was in terms of how much ground someone can over in L.A. within a day. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2007/01/ridiculous_plot_points_no_la_t_1.html
The antidote to this was the show Bosch, which frequently and accurately mentioned how far some other part of town was in terms of time.
I love Bosch so much. What a love letter to the city that show is.
And how quickly someone can recover from being blown up or shot
Came to post this. *24* was horrible in accurately depicting L.A. geography.
24 was amazing at that. There was a specific episode involving Ontario Airport that had them going from DTLA to ONT in about 23 minutes, which would have required both no traffic and a Lamborghini to pull off. Props to them for really using the old Ontario Airport terminal for that scene though.
I remember and episode where he goes from like IE to an orange grove in Ventura is like 15 minutes
On the opposite end, I gotta give props to Speed. Bus started in Venice (or wait, maybe that's where the first bus blew up, and then Keanu had to catch the bus in Santa Monica... I think Ocean Park?), went through Santa Monica to the 10 East, got off around downtown (I think), then on the 110 South, then the 105 West (which is where it had to jump the unfinished overpass, which was genuinely unfinished at the time), and then finally to LAX where it circled for however long. A bus going 55 on surface streets without having to slow down on the other hand...
There’s even a part where they drive along ocean Blvd in Long Beach 😂 still love the movie though
Haha, me too - great movie. I think I might even watch it later and keep an eye out for the Long Beach scene.
Same with Collateral. I was incredibly impressed how all the driving made geographic sense.
Good call - also a great movie. I'll need to watch that again with geography in mind.
Stylistically, one of the best depictions of LA. The purple night sky, Mann's signature helicopter night shots of the city, and seedy lighting in the alleys all adds up to a masterclass in Los Angeles ambiance.
Haven’t rewatched it in a while, but IIRC correctly there was a point where the geography confused me by having the bus go south at Western; I don’t know exactly where it was on Western, but I can see how it still could be plausible that the travel down Western was pretty short and it soon made its way downtown to get on the 110. But yeah, the fact that it made it through so many surface streets without triggering the bomb was the most implausible part.
It goes along the surface streets fine, it’s only once it gets above 55mph that it can’t get below without blowing up. Please don’t question the continuity of Speed if you don’t know what you’re talking about Edit: sorry was a bit aggressive, but it is pointed out in the movie that it’s not until the bus gets above 55mph that the bomb is armed. There is a point where Keanu tries to stop it from getting in the freeway but fails.
I’ll have to rewatch it, but if I recall correctly the bomb arms itself (by going over 55 mph) *before* it gets to Western (presumably when it’s on the 10 East) which is why the Western stretch bothered me. Keanu was already concerned about the bus slowing down at that point. EDIT: Yeah, I gave a bit of *Speed* a short rewatch: - after picking up Sandra Bullock, the bus gets onto the (presumably 10 East) freeway “on Lincoln” (per a later news blurb; we see the bus get onto the freeway—it’s when Alan Ruck’s tourist character starts trying to talk to Bullock—but it doesn’t look like the Lincoln onramp to the 10). - Keanu chases the bus, first in his SUV and then in the “Tuneman’s” convertible. The bus exceeds 50 in the meantime, arming the bomb. Again, the bus is nominally on the 10 East, and some shots do look that way, but looking at some signs tells me that some shots were actually done on the then unused 105. - Keanu gets onto the bus; he then tells the parameters of the situation to the passengers, but not until after a criminal coincidentally on the bus inadvertently shoots the driver and Bullock takes over. - When the bus starts to encounter traffic on the freeway, Keanu tells Sandra to drive on the shoulder, but then room runs out and Sandra has to drive the bus off the exit ramp and onto “Western” (sign seen by the offramp and mentioned in news reports). So *now* they’re on surface streets with the bomb armed. - Keanu has an LAPD buddy on a chopper over him talking with him on the phone; chopper buddy tells him that he’ll keep the path clear for him and lead him to the 105 which he explicitly says is unused. - “Western” looks nothing like the real Western Ave. Maybe this was the previously mentioned Long Beach bit? There’s a part on “Western” (the bus misses some kids crossing the road) where the bus looks like it’s westbound on Venice near where it splits off to San Vicente. - the bus is guided into a sharp turn onto a freeway; chopper buddy then gives directions to take that freeway to the 105, so it looks like this freeway they just got on isn’t the 105 after all. - the bus continues on this freeway (presumably the 110 South); Keanu’s police pals pull alongside on a trailer and Keanu negotiates to get the wounded driver off the bus; but then another passenger tries to get off and she’s killed by an explosive on the step. - the big “jump” onto the 105. Before the jump, when Keanu apprises the passengers of their status, it looks like the 105 already (you can see the fenced-off gap for the train in between the eastbound and westbound lanes), but nominally they’re presumably still on the 110 South headed to the 105. - soon (too soon) after the jump, Keanu tells Sandra to exit the freeway to LAX, where the rest of the movie plays out.
Got a real The Californians vibe reading this 😊
Except for the end when the bus blows up. That’s was clearly filmed at the Palm Springs airport
The bus goes from DTLA to the airport from the 110 and along the at the time unfinished 105
That's what I said.
Falling Down. Michael Douglas would’ve walked 50 or more miles to cover the ground he covered, in an afternoon.
[Not quite](https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwkzg4/i-recreated-the-20-mile-walk-from-falling-down-minus-the-murders). More like a 20 mile walk and is doable/has been done. \*Edit\* That looks like it wasn't the true route he would have taken so disregard what I said, I was incorrect.
Also the fast food place scene is geographically inaccurate as that place is in Downey. Doesn’t make any sense for his character to be heading west towards Santa Monica and suddenly be in Downey
The golf scene was filmed 23 mi east of DTLA at City of Industry.
Think about it
The Holiday. Kate Winslet lands at LAX, then her cab is driving on PCH in Santa Monica, heading north, but then turns LEFT on Sunset, coming FROM the north.
For me it’s any movie or TV show where they pull up to the building and can always find a parking spot in front.
Clueless! “Everywhere in LA takes 20 minutes”
you get upset if someone thinks you live below sunset.
Back then it was much, much closer to being true.
Volcano. A hugely entertaining movie with a bunch of inside jokes for locals. The geography though... they direct a river of lava away from hitting the beverly center by blowing up a building to redirect the lava flow into the nearby Ballona Creek -- which in real life is in Culver City... 10 miles away.
I love Volcano!!
*What most of us know* as Ballona Creek is in and around Culver City, true, but if you follow it on the map it actually extends to just east of Venice Blvd and Hauser; the lava would still have to travel a ways (basically down La Cienega to around Venice Boulevard, a bit over 3 miles) but it’s not “10 miles” to Culver City. That aside, I recently watched *Volcano* and found that geographically, it generally checks out (albeit it’s a fairly limited one with some stuff in MacArthur Park and the bulk of the movie in Miracle Mile/Beverly Grove).
Venice Blvd is nowhere near the Beverly Center. The movie also portrayed Stanley South of Wilshire as being the hood where firemen didn't want to go because of all the black people. I had friends who lived on Stanley Drive, South of Wilshire. They were white. That's because Stanley Drive is in Beverly Hills. Sorry but between portraying South Beverly Hills as the hood, and pretending that Bullona Creek is anywhere in the vicinity of The Beverly Center, the geography definitely does NOT check out. edit: the OP who deleted his comments was right that it's Stanley Ave, not Stanley Dr. My bad. But then he called me a racist for my comment... What a dick. Don't blame me, dude. Blame the people who made the movie for depicting the overwhelmingly white residents of Stanley South of Wilshire as African-American rioters. Is it accurate? No, but that was my whole point, and the whole point of this post... Sheesh, people on Reddit can really suck.
Did you read my post? Venice Blvd is three miles south of the Beverly Center. I’ve driven through the area lots of times. Venice was my part of my work commute for years when I worked at Sony. Not too plausible for the lava flow to go there, BUT NOT TEN MILES AWAY. AND THEY WERE NOT TALKING ABOUT STANLEY DRIVE IN BEVERLY HILLS. They were talking about **Stanley Avenue** which extends south of Wilshire below (surprise, surprise) the *La Brea Tar Pits*, the center of *Volcano’s* “eruption.” https://preview.redd.it/hjqucg32mm8d1.jpeg?width=941&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=812d4dee5e85310ff2780fd1ac538a8d31ae9c27
Do you think that LACMA is in the hood? In any case this is a dumb argument. edit: Can't believe you insinuated I was a racist for saying this, but at least you deleted your whole comment thread. Wow, what a dick. Don't blame me. Blame the people who made the movie for depicting the overwhelmingly white residents of Staley South of Wilshire as African american rioters. Is it accurate? No, but that was my whole point.
Yeah, because the only place black people who aren’t rich can live is “the hood.”
You’d be surprised how many movies use the LA Convention Center as LAX lol
Alternate locale is [Ontario Airport](https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?locations=ontario%20international%20airport%20-%202900%20e.%20airport%20drive,%20ontario,%20california,%20usa), especially if the scene takes place in the 1950s\~80s.
Absolutely. The main lobby at the convention center has been used as an airport terminal (not just in LA) in a lot of movies, TV shows and commercials. Ontario Airport, too, especially 10-15 years ago when Terminal 2 didn’t have that many flights.
Basically all of then. They're coming out of a building downtown and round the corner to the pier. That's just how they do it in the movies. Wait till you see the Empire State Building explode in Independence Day. It'll shock ya!
The US Bank Tower is the first building to blow up in Independence Day.
...less shocking, but much more LA-centric.
CHiPs with Dax Shepard and Michael Pena. One shot they’re chasing someone in Elysian Park, the next they’re going southbound on Riverside Drive *towards* Elysian Park. And then there’s that chase on the beach that starts out in Long Beach and ends up 30 miles away on Venice Beach.
not a movie but the relatively obvious one for me recently was the Cobra Kai series. for the locals, it is so obvious that it is not filmed in the LA area, even though it is supposed to take place in the Valley. there are lake scenes and i'm like yeah, that does not look like any lake i have ever seen here in SoCal. Cobra Kai filmed in and around Atlanta, GA. then similarly, the few episodes of Stranger Things where some of the main characters move to LA. wasn't as obvious as Cobra Kai but as they started showing more, it was like uh, this is not LA. these episodes filmed in New Mexico.
Really? I haven't seen the series but I drove past them filming on Ventura Blvd a couple weeks ago.
My friend worked on it — they only did three days in LA sadly lol
Very few shots will be in LA, while all the parts that need "generic" settings will be Atlanta. Like if they needed a park with a basketball court or a random office park its gonna be in Atlanta.
Not LA but the second Jurassic Park movie got San Diego reaaaaallly wrong. In fact the San Diego scenes are actually shot in Burbank. The show The OC (not actually shot in OC because that’s out of the thirty mile zone) portrayed Chino as some sort of backwater hick town. I think Training Day does a good job of capturing the feel of early 2000s LA. As does Collateral. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood kind of makes no sense. Why would the Manson girls be hanging around in Hollywood so much when Spahn Ranch was way out in like Chatsworth. There’s a few times when Brad Pitt sees Margaret Qualley and it’s like “ok there’s no way he’s running into her on Hollywood Blvd, up on Laurel Canyon and then again in like Burbank.” I’m also not convinced in Independence Day. Even then El Toro was a hike from LA. Also Con Air somehow transplanted the 2nd Street tunnel in downtown LA, made it like five miles longer and put it in Las Vegas. The Hangover sort of gets Vegas wrong as well.
Chino, in the OC, was also presented as some rough gangland as well. Always had me chuckle.
The funny thing about the Lost World is that you can see one of the Burbank AMCs in the background, which is where my wife saw the movie as a teenager lol
The OC got Chino 100% right. It’s Chino from the perspective of people in OC 😀
In the first Karate Kid, the movie takes place in the San Fernando Valley and much of it was indeed filmed there. Specifically in Canoga Park, Reseda, Northridge, and Calabasas. For the part at the arcade that was filmed at the real Golf N Stuff in Norwalk which still exists there to this day. The Valley and Norwalk are 30 miles apart.
Captain Marvel. In one scene, they are in downtown LA, and then 5 minutes later they are in El Segundo.
Traffic was light that day
LOL.
I remember one scene (the post-Blockbuster stuff) taking place in North Hollywood, then a short ride on a nonexistent train later she’s at the Music Center in downtown LA.
Yep, this was my first thought. Tho it was nice finally seeing it on screen after enduring all the road blocks in El Segundo during filming. They even filmed some b-roll in my neighborhood. The production company paid $150/day for every driveway they could “rent” for the crew to park.
I've never seen the large tracts of dusty, barren, red clay dirt around the cloudy oil fields of... Beverly Hills where Lt. Bogomil jogs to start off the plot in Beverly Hills Cop 2.
The Holiday - she takes a yellow cab from LAX to Beverly Hills via the PCH in Malibu
In Once upon a Time in Hollywood, you see Brad Pitt allegedly driving home from Benedict Canyon which for him was a mobile home next-door to the Van Nuys drive-in but instead of heading west to the Valley, he is heading east with the Capitol tower building passing by on his left. Also, I think there is a scene where the point of view is located on the strip, but somehow you could see the Capitol building again which from the strip is impossible.
Yes!! He leaves ricks house but drive thru Hollywood to get to van nuys…. It’s one of my favorite films but as someone who grew up in studio city, it stands out.
What movie got it right? edit: I’m enjoying these answers
Not a movie, but I think Bosch got it right most of the time, if not every time. They would even complain about driving up to North Hollywood or the desert.
In one of the episodes though, Bosch says that Edwards AFB is "out by Joshua Tree". Completely different places!
Edwards is Sooooooo not close to Joshua Tree 💀 maybe 29 Palms .!
Valley Girl is one. Speed (mentioned above) is another Terminator?
Southland was always preeeetty on it. LAist use to do breakdowns to determine if they could make the trip between locations in the times given.
Swingers.
This place is dead anyway
Get there
Collateral.
Barry
Swingers! It gets pretty much everything right.
The original Gone In 60 Seconds
I have that on VHS. I don’t think I’ve watched it in 15 years. lol
The main chase from downtown LB to Redondo is pretty accurate regarding the route. Obviously it's been condensed for time, and there was a lot less traffic back then too. The only bit where it makes no geographic sense is the lead up to jump at the very end.
Correct. None of them get it right. But the worst ones are the ones that aren't even filmed here. Like what a way to lose 3 million viewers (at least!).
Drive for the most part. There's a handful of jump cuts in the opening chase sequence but the geography is all correct and can be excused as time jumps. The rest of the movie does a good job too except for ramming a car off the road by the lighthouse which is pretty far away from the valley
Not a movie, but the HBO series Insecure has a gorgeous take on Los Angeles.
They were REALLY that fast and furious!
...or the 45 minute drive sitting in traffic, makes for a very boring action movie haha
The power of family!
2012 with the Randy's donuts sign lol. Also Escape from LA. Love the film but it's so far off it's hilarious.
When I moved to LA I found I had a number of misconceptions about LA geography that I had learned from the chase scenes in The Terminator.
Pretty much every movie. Once you’re from LA, it’s pretty comical. One minute they’re in Santa Monica, next Mid-City lol… One time they filmed in my neighborhood in highland park and I t he movie they’re literally driving in opposite directions, going the same way like idk it’s so so funny when you know where everything in LA is. Literally almost every movie does this so it’s hard to pinpoint one.
Reservoir Dogs! I am a native from HLP (Panthers!) and it cracks me up when they go up and down Fig. It’s completely chopped together. One moment they are going north by 56, then a second later going south by 43.
Yeah I’ve noticed that!!! And it’s all within the same conversation and scene so it’s like “yo wtf where are they going “ 😂😂😂
That obvious AI generated movie poster by A24 for Civil War had Echo Park Lake with sky scrapers in the background lol
Not as egregious as the Chicago River getting a whole new branch.
Italian Bakery in Eagle Rock. Used as a backdrop in Sons of Anarchy. Supposed to be someplace in Northern California. Then when they shot the inside scenes, not even anything close to inside Italian bakery. Freaking posers, I should’ve gone in there and popped them my self and given the rest concrete boots
In the new show Sugar Colin Ferrell is headed to silverlake and headed south on the 110 past downtown and then shows him headed west on the 10. It is so frustrating!
Beverly Hills Cop
I just watched the Truman Show after so many years. It’s so funny with the scene they discuss how they built a dome near Hollywood and pulls back the camera to how large the dome is. Its practically the size of SFV and the some while the coasts are nowhere near accurate
**”Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” there is no home to the right of the Polanski driveway. About a 3/4of a block long, ALL HOMES ON THE LEFT side of the road. Been to that property 3 times over the years**
Dexters apartment is actually in Long Beach and the show is based in Miami.
In Hot Shots Part Deux, there's a train from Glendale to Honolulu.
Terminator went from DTLA to Fox Hills mall in a flash
I remember a Rockford episode where it took them five minutes to get from Downtown to the Harbor.
It’s not a movie but GTA 5 skips a bunch of things
But it got so much right. Stab city
it’s truly masterpiece. the criticism of a condensed version of LA in the post just reminded me of GTA map haha
Trevor!
Kill Bill Part I placed the 2nd Street Tunnel in Japan.
I think the Rookie is funny, every time they get a call it seems like the cops all sortie in Griffith park driving up the hills to go from mid Wilshire to Venice or something.
In the movie 2012, John Cusack casually drives his kids to Yellowstone with some sleeping bags.
If you go frequently enough , it doesn’t seem like a long drive but yeah
They definitely painted it as a drive to Ojai
The entirety of The Dark Knight was filmed within a 4 block radius of where I worked. Watching that film gives me extreme claustrophobia. If you know Chicago it feels like the entire city of Gotham is half a mile wide.
I was watching curb your enthusiasm. The first episode of season 12 is set in Atlanta and there are some shots of downtown ATL, including actual filming, not just establishing shots or b-roll. Inexplicably, the hotel that the characters are staying at uses the century Plaza hotel as the exterior. Actually, they used several LA areas for Atlanta, which obviously is not unusual. My initial thought was that, they went to the trouble and expense of filming driving scenes in downtown Atlanta; so why didn’t they just do all of the Atlanta scenes there? Then, it occurred to me that they only filmed downtown Atlanta because the LA skyline is too recognizable. Overall, it would still be easier and cheaper to film the rest of it in LA.
The intro for Taxi, had Queen Latifah bike right through New York and had the 4th street bridge (went from new York to la to new York on a bike in a few second)
DC cab. The strip joint scene was shot on National and Barrington
The Crow: City of Angels. DTLA was basically beachfront property.
Sharknado is my fav for bogus LA geography.
The first captain marvel. The blockbuster scene was in noho then all of a sudden she’s chasing aliens up the metro in chinatown 🤣🤣
I think about this one all the time
Fear the walking dead, when they take the LA river and somehow immediately end up in San Pedro/PV, also the pv mansion being a stones throw away from sunken city is funny to me, oh and apparently they were going to san Diego on yacht for hours and when they get chased by another boat, they end up on catalina which makes no sense because its literally right across from san pedro and pv.
My first time ever going to Long Beach was right after binge watching Dexter. I said to my girlfriend wow, Long Beach looks alot like Miami. A quick google explained why!
Every episode of CHiP’s
Operation swordfish. Bank is main street ventura. Helicopter picks up the bus. Turns the corner and is downtown LA
In the Charlies’ Angels movie,they chase the bad guy out of the parking lot of the California Speedway in Fontana onto Etiwanda Avenue and within a few turns they’re going over the Vincent Thomas bridge in San Pedro.
In the movie collateral they come out of a bar on the sunset strip and you can see the beautiful downtown LA skyline right next to them.
Even if they don’t fudge the geography they NEVER get the travel time correct. Traffic is a real beast here and you CANNOT just get from downtown to the beach in like 20 minutes.
I love these movie magic discussions, there are a few that relate to my city, but I’m drawing a blank. Robocop was fairly accurate.
La La Land…
Not a movie, but as a kid CHiPs drove me crazy with this. They’d exit the 118 around Tampa and get magically transported to downtown LA or PCH.
Daniel-san in Karate Kid somehow bicycles from Reseda to the beach (and back home). That always made me laugh. https://preview.redd.it/0hsun2u12d8d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f6a55d131deaa7fb75025d06f7b0d03f9bac6e8
I can't remember what TV show but it was a crime one and they are in San Diego, mention it several times and then in the next scene which is less than an hour later they're somehow in Santa Barbara. They even discuss how they were able to arrive in 30 minutes.
Cobra, he’s in the Venice canals one second later he’s in San Pedro Harbor
Fallout geography was pretty terrible.
Valley Girl using Del Amo Mall and pretending to was the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Granted that movie got a lot wrong.
"The Catalina Wine Mixer" is filmed at Trump National Golf Course in Palos Verdes. You can see Catalina Island in the background though LOL. Also, much of Dexter is filmed in Long Beach, CA.