Movie landmarks you can actually visit

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Angkor Wat and surrounding temples, Cambodia
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Angelina Jolie, 2001
Some of the most breathtaking scenes in this adventure film featuring Jolie and her bubbies required no editing work (ie. "enhancement") or camera trickery. Stretching over 400 square kilometres, Angkor Archeological Park houses the remains of the Khmer civilization between the 9th to the 15 century. Colossal tree roots gently entwine ancient temple ruins, which in themselves are masterful feats of construction. In scenes shot at Siem Reap, the bombastically fierce tomb raider Lara Croft (Jolie) must retrieve the other half of a triangle talisman that gives its possessor the ability to control time. Another scene shows off the sacred beauty of Ta Prohm, where overgrown, serpentine trees drape ancient chamber entrances. Here, Croft encounters a mysterious little girl, who presumably represents the spirit of her deceased father.


Petra, Jordan
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 1989
Harrison Ford, Sean Connery
As far as swashbuckling heroes of rugged good looks with great fedora-heads go, Indiana Jones is our favourite. In this installment of the franchise, audiences not only discover the complexities of "Junior's" character in the father-son relationship with dad Henry (Connery), but many get their first real glimpse of Petra. Lost to the western world after the 14th century, this staggeringly-beautiful desert city -- it's carved entirely into rock -- was rediscovered in 1812 by a Swiss explorer. In 1985, it was designated as a World Heritage Site.

Petra's Hollywood debut was dramatically revealed at the end of the movie, when cameras zoomed in on the entrance of the Treasury, also known as Al Khazneh, as the final resting place for the fabled Holy Grail.


Gloucester Cathedral
Harry Potter series, started in 2001-final film projected for 2011
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson
When location scouts set out to bring the magical halls of Hogwart's to life, Gloucester Cathedral was a natural choice for its famous cloisters and haunting Gothic architecture.

Remember the scenes where talking portraits come to life, as students climb the winding stairs of academia? Or toilet-dwelling ghost Moaning Myrtle and her annoying groanings in the ladies loo? And the mysterious, blood-red writing that appears on the walls in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? All shot in Gloucester Cathedral.

To disguise the famous landmark and make it unrecognizable, filmmakers hid modern signs, locks and electrics under panels painted to look like stone walls and covered the hundred tombstones on the cloister floors with roofing felt, also painted to match the stone-flagged floor.


The Colosseum, Rome
Gladiator
Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, 2000
It is Rome's arena of death, an amphitheater that could seat 50,000 roaring, blood-thirsty spectators who egged gladiators on as they plunged swords into their nemeses, or watched gruesome executions as though out for a day at the movies.

In Ridley Scott's movie, gladiators fight to the death in a colosseum recreated through the magic of CGI -- and movie-vigilantes have made a hobby of dissecting historical inaccuracies.
Some say, for instance, that the Colosseum was rebuilt out of proportion -- that the exterior looks about 1.5 times bigger than what it really is. Others point out that the movie depicts men watching the spectacles alongside women, when most of the seats would have been occupied by men. Similarly, a scene showing an aerial view of Rome also depicts the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, built more than a hundred years after the events in the film. So now you know.


Empire State Building
Sleepless in Seattle
Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, 1993
Scene: After confessing to her fiance that she is in love with a man she hasn't met, whom she heard speak on a call-in radio show, and who lives clear across the country, Annie Reed (played by an irresistible Meg Ryan) looks out the window of the restaurant and sees the Empire State Building light up in the shape of a big red heart.

"It's a sign," she says decidedly.

Inspired by one too many viewings of An Affair to Remember, in which the lovers promise to meet atop the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day, Reed races across town hoping that her fated love interest, Sam Baldwin (Hanks) is waiting for her. The movie may alternate between Seattle and Baltimore, but the Empire State Building gets all the good jokes and the final love scene.


Eiffel Tower
Paris When it Sizzles
Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, 1964
Why, out of the hundreds of movies to feature Europe's most recognizable and glamourous landmark (often portrayed in varying states of destruction from freak natural disasters or as a platform for swashbuckling fight scenes and death-defying falls), have we chosen an old, Audrey Hepburn movie from 1964?

Simple: Because in this flick, the Eiffel Tower is centred around lurve.

In Paris When It Sizzles, Hepburn plays an adorable yet naive secretary to writer Richard Benson (played by William Holden) who has two days to deliver a screenplay to his Hollywood producer. Together, they grind out a script that alternates comedically between suspense, cowboy western, romance and musical, with the Tour Eiffel in the backdrop. Throughout their collaboration, the unlikely pair fall in love. The title of the "film within the film": The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower.


The White House
Independence Day
Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, 1996
We're not so sure how well the blowing up of The White House would go down today -- alien invasion or not -- but in 1996 when Independence Day came out, the dramatic obliteration scene and marketing campaign that featured a giant mothership hovering over the U.S. capital raked in millions. At the time, the shot of the White House's destruction was described as a milestone in visual effects, and won the Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual effects, beating out Twister and Dragonheart. Detonating the model -- which measured 3 metres long and 1.5 m wide -- took a week to plan and required 40 explosive charges.


Pyramids of Egypt
The Mummy Returns
Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, 2001
Pyramids set the (blue) stage for this action-packed adventure film that weaves cursed mummies, scary underworld dealings, hybrid Scorpion-human kings and armies of jackal-headed warriors into your usual tale of love and deception.

In the desert oasis of Ahm Shere, sits a diamond-crested, Golden Pyramid, built in a deal with the underworld devil in exchange for conquering the world. Like all tales of hubris go, however, things don't happen exactly as planned, and the misguided warrior is transformed into a scorpion-beast, trapped inside the pyramid, and allowed to awaken every 5,000 years to give the business of world domination another go.

Throw in a magic bracelet, a precocious, 8-year-old troublemaker, mummy slayers in love, and a few duels to the death inside said mystical pyramid, and you've got yourself a blockbuster.


Buckingham Palace
The Queen
Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, 2006
There was, and perhaps never will be, no larger event in modern history that could bring the world to Buckingham Palace than the tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997. The outpouring of the world's grief landed square on the doorstep of this iconic British landmark -- the springboard for this Oscar-winning film. Audiences are given an intimate look into the British monarchy in the film and are made to empathize with Her Majesty the Queen, when at the time she was vilified for keeping well, mum, on the subject immediately following Diana's death.

Scenes in the movie alternate between London and Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the Queen and Prince Philip are summering. But some of the most poignant moments can be found along the flower-lined gates of Buckingham Palace, as the scenes aren't far from our collective memory and accurately depict the world in the mourning.


Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
Entrapment
Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, 1999
It's the setting of the movie's final and largest heist: $8 billion big ones from an international bank inside the twin towers to coincide with the countdown to the new millennium. When security catches on, the 88-story, 452-metre tall building serves as a dramatic backdrop for hot pursuit. In Tarzan-like stunts, insurance investigator Gin (Zeta-Jones) and art thief Mac (Connery) swing from -- what must be industrial-strength -- Christmas lights and parachute down canal-like ventilation shafts. I mean, really, Christmas lights?

Between 1998 and 2004, the Petronas towers were the tallest buildings in the world until the arrival of Taipei 101, a financial building and skyscraper in 2004. They remain the tallest twin towers in the world.

[Sarah]

I've been to the Palace of Fine Arts which was used in....the Rock I think. I've also been to Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, The Grand Canyon, have seen the building that was used in the Towering Inferno, various attractions in New York, I've seen the wall that was featured in Jaws when Chief Brody is running along in a panic, the Cavehill in Belfast (Closing the Ring) - I'm from Belfast so a lot of our locations have been used.

Buckingham Palace and the White House and Pentagon (don't ask, I was nearly arrested!)

Many more but of course my favourite remains:

Southfork Ranch

[Mel O'Drama]

Funny that this thread appeared today. I've just got in from Lacock Abbey. Apparently two of the Harry Potter films and The Other Boleyn Girl were both filmed there!!

[Jessie]

Sorry duplicate not sure what happened

[Jessie]

Great post, thanks for the info.
I always wanted to run up the stairs, where Rocky did in his films. I loved all the Rocky movies.

In 1982, Sylvester Stallone, Hollywood movie star and producer of the Rocky film series, donated a statue of his Rocky Balboa movie character to the City of Philadelphia. It was left near the entrance to the Philadelphia Art Museum, where it touched off a 20-year controversy over its location and artistic merit.

In the first Rocky movie of 1976-77 – which won the Academy Award for Best Picture – Rocky Balboa, South Philly’s “Italian Stallion,” is a down-and-out heavyweight boxer who is unexpectedly given an opportunity to fight in a world championship bout. In his training for the big fight, he runs the long series of steps that rise up to the entrance plaza at the Philadelphia Art Museum. The steps climb to a location that also offers one of the finest views of Philadelphia’s skyline.

In the film, Rocky, the underdog and out-of-shape contender, does a daily, pre-dawn “battle with the steps” while the city sleeps. Rocky is “beaten” by the steps day after day, but he keeps at it. Finally, in one scene he triumphs – now becoming fit – shown sprinting to the top of the steps with energy to spare. Arriving there, he does the “champ dance” with relish, arms raised in victory as the camera moves around him capturing the early morning city skyline over his shoulders. It’s a memorable film scene, and one that has survived in the hearts and minds of millions of filmgoers.


Philadelphia Art Museum and its long series of steps rising to the main entrance - steps now nick-named `the Rocky steps' after the 1976-77 `Rocky' movie.
In fact, even today, many tourists who come to Philadelphia go to the museum not for the art, but to run “the Rocky steps,” as they are called. Some of those Rocky imitators, reaching their goal, also do the “champ dance” at the top of the steps. Back in 1982, however, when it came time to finally place the donated “Rocky” statue, the top-of-the-steps location seemed to be the obvious choice – but not for everyone.

Statues & Icons
Series

This story is one in an occasional series that will explore how America, and other countries, honor their icons — from famous politicians and military leaders, to movie stars, TV celebrities, and sports heros. Societies have been erecting statues or otherwise commemorating their famous and beloved figures for thousands of years. But in modern times, even fictional characters, their ranks swelled by cinema and television, are now joining those up on the pedestal, some for purely commercial reasons. As statues and busts, the famous personages are typically cast in outsized proportions, some placed in parks or other public spaces. Still others are found on postage stamps, murals, buildings, near sports arenas, or used in various place names. Not all of those so honored, however, meet with public approval, though some have broad and continuing support. The stories offered in this series will include short sketches on some of these figures – past and present – providing a bit of the history and context on each and how the proposed honor came about.







“Not Art”

The 12′ - 8″ bronze “Rocky” statue had been commissioned by Sylvester Stallone in 1980 for use in a subsequent Rocky film – Rocky III, which came to theaters around Memorial Day, 1982. In the film, the statue makes its appearance atop the museum steps as part of the film’s storyline, as the fictional Rocky champ is honored by the city with a statue dedicated to him at that location. When the filming for Rocky III was completed, Stallone left the statue in place as a gift to the city.



pay tribute to his favorite film hero while doing something good for the village. “I felt as if Rocky has come from our village, and had to fight to win his place in society,” said Marceta. The town council hired Croatian artist Boris Staparac to create the statue. On August 18th, 2007 in the town of 3,000 people, a small ceremony was held to unveil the three-metre, bronze-and-concrete sculpture in the village square. “This is the chance to give a better, more positive image to Zitiste,” said Mayor Babic. The residents of Zitiste say they like Rocky’s underdog, overcoming-the-odds image and want the world to know that they’re not beaten. “Our idea has really stirred the public,” said local official Zoran Kasalovic. “Now, no one in Serbia can say they don’t know about Zitiste.”

The Rocky statue that now graces the village square of Zitiste is similar to, but is not a copy of the Rocky Balboa statue at the Philadelphia Art Museum.