History TelevisionGeography / FIlm

* At the end of ''Film/{{Splash}}'', TomHanks and his mermaid girlfriend jump off a wharf in New York City, swim a few hundred feet to get away from some scuba-clad pursuers, then stop to smooch against a glorious background of pristine tropical branch corals.

* The TomHanks vehicle ''Film/TurnerAndHooch'' includes a conversation scene that repeatedly switches back and forth between two camera angles -- one angle looking out at Moss Landing Harbor, and the other, looking inland at Pacific Grove, twenty or thirty miles south.

** * A possible exception being ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'' where the characters visit almost every landmark in Chicago in the span of a few hours and make it home in time for their parents to get back from work. Even if one were to assume they only spent a few minutes at the Cubs' game, a few minutes at the Sears Tower, etc., traffic and distance would stop them from visiting all of those places during a 9-5 workday.

* ''HighlanderIIITheSorcerer'' features a scene that takes place in Newark Airport. They don't have any giant signs that say "Bienvenue à Montreal".

* ''AGoodDayToDieHard'' contains a notorious example (much derided in the Russian press) where the protagonists drive from Moscow to Pripyat (the ghost city evacuated during the Chernobyl disaster) in about two or three hours like no big deal. In reality, it is 600 miles away, is a restricted zone, and, last but not the least, on the territory of another country (Ukraine).

* In ''TheWolverine'', the Yakuza attacks a funeral held at the Zojoji Temple, located next to Tokyo Tower as can be seen in the background. Wolverine and Mariko then flee on foot from the remaining 4-5 bad guys before losing them in a building and saying goodbye to each-other at Ueno Station, located about 7 kilometers north of from where they started. Not only that, but they must've ran/walked pretty much along the railway and passed half a dozen stations on their way. Logan also gets on the train without buying a ticket or knowing where he's going, which is impossible, and the train they get on should start from Tokyo Station, not Ueno, because it's going south.

* In ''TheGraduate'' the protagonist is headed to Berkeley from LA over [[SanFrancisco The Bay Bridge.]] Not only is it unnecessary since both of the major highways (101 & 5 to 580) going from LA to the San Francisco area could or would deposit him in the East Bay, but he's going across the bridge into San Francisco.

* It's terribly obvious they filmed ''Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse'' in {{Toronto}}. An opening shot in the theatrical version shows the CN Tower, and the climax of the movie occurs at another famous landmark -- Toronto's uniquely designed City Hall. Granted, a city so much like Raccoon City doesn't exist.

* ''AGoodDayToDieHard'' contains a notorious example (much derided in the Russian press) where the protagonists drive from Moscow to Pripyat (the ghost city evacuated during the Chernobyl disaster) in about two or three hours like no big deal. In reality, it is 600 miles away, is a restricted zone, and, last but not the least, on the territory of another state (Ukraine).

** In ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'', the main characters realize they have to run to DC. When they realize this, they are clearly on Light Street in Baltimore, MD. They manage this.

** In ''[[Film/SpiderMan]]'' birds of paradise flowers can be seen in the scene where Norman congratulates Peter on his graduation. Those flowers aren't found in New York but in Southern California.

* In ''TheWolverine'', the Yakuza attacks a funeral held at the Zojoji Temple, located next to Tokyo Tower as can be seen in the background. Wolverine and Mariko then flee on foot from the remaining 4-5 bad guys before losing them in a building and saying goodbye to each-other at Ueno Station, located about 7 kilometers north of from where they started. Not only that, but they must've ran/walked pretty much along the railway and passed half a dozen stations on their way.
Logan also gets on the train without buying a ticket or knowing where he's going, which is impossible, and the train they get on should start from Tokyo Station, not Ueno, because it's going south.

* ''LegallyBlonde 2'' takes place in Washington, D.C. Not a single scene was filmed there. Luckily for the filmmakers, plenty of states have state capitols that look very similar to the US capitol. They chose [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_State_Capitol Illinois']] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_State_Capitol Utah's,]] then hung around Salt Lake City to film other scenes in the Energy Solutions Arena's offices.

* In ''Jönssonligan får guldfeber'', a film in the Swedish version of the film series ''{{Olsen-Banden}}'', there's a memorable scene on the clock of the Stockholm City Hall main tower. Except that the tower has no such clock there. The reason is that in the original Danish version, they were at the Copenhagen Town Hall, which ''does'' have a clock on the tower.

* ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|TheVoyageHome}}'' generally wreaks havoc with the geography of the San Francisco Bay Area. A particularly notable moment comes when Kirk and Spock have just left the Cetacean Institute in Sausalito (for which the Monterey Bay Aquarium, well to the south of the Bay Area, is obviously being used). Gillian Taylor pulls over to offer them a lift back into San Francisco. In the background is the Golden Gate Bridge in all its glory, and they are already unmistakably on the San Francisco side of the bridge.

* The first ''Film/RoboCop'' is set in Detroit, but the skyline of Dallas is clearly visible in one chase scene. OCP headquarters is a matte painting featuring Dallas City Hall as its lower floors.

* ''Film/TheRock'': towards the climax of the movie, a nerve gas missile is fired from [[TheAlcatraz the titular island]], programmed to hit the Oakland Coliseum Stadium. Seconds later, when the missile is shown approaching its target, the stadium shown is actually Candlestick Park in San Francisco; it's most obvious when you consider the stadium's red seats, and that Candlestick is neighbored by the water and hills shown in the movie while the now-named [=McAfee=] Stadium is surrounded by flat dry land next to a basketball arena and a freeway.

* Part of ''Film/{{Spider-Man}} 3'' (which is nominally set and filmed in New York City) was filmed in Cleveland, Ohio, but you mostly can't tell because the empty, dilapidated buildings along Euclid Avenue were covered with shiny fake storefronts for the movie. The one exception is the brief shot where Spidey leaps in front of the Trust Company Building. The rotunda, and the concrete tower behind it are clearly recognizable to those in the know.
** Scenes from ''Film/{{Spider-Man}} 2'' (which is also set in New York) showing Spidey rescuing an elevated 'R' subway train, in Manhattan were actually filmed using the [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316654/trivia Chicago "L" as a stand-in]]. The "R" does not run aboveground in Manhattan.
** In ''[[Film/SpiderManTrilogy Spider-Man]]'' birds of paradise flowers can be seen in the scene where Norman congratulates Peter on his graduation. Those flowers aren't found in New York but in Southern California.

* ''Film/AlienVsPredator: Requiem'' is set in Gunnison, Colorado, a small mountain town of about 5,500 people. The establishing shot of the town is much, much larger than that, as they shot it in Canada at a town with 15x its population.

* Wherever the remake of ''AssaultOnPrecinct132005'' was filmed, it sure wasn't Detroit! Can somebody show me which ghetto was grown over by that forest?
** It was filmed in Toronto. Details [[http://torontoist.com/2009/07/reel_toronto_assault_on_precinct_13.php here.]]
* Averted in ''BallisticEcksVsSever'', which was both filmed and set in Vancouver. It seems odd that the authorities in Canada would allow Americans to run around blowing crap up and treating the city as a shooting gallery, but those who saw ''Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever'' and were unimpressed would likely argue the authorities were pretending that none of this was happening and ignored it.

** In ''{{Film/Skyfall}}'', Bond pursues the villain through two stations in UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground - Temple and Embankment, both on the sub-surface District and Circle lines. However, they're depicted as deep-level lines served by Jubilee Line train stock - most likely the shooting locating was the disused Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross, which are frequently hired out for filming. And when an exterior shot of "Embankment Station" is shown, that's actually the Northumberland Avenue exit of Charing Cross station - though that's very close to the real Embankment.

** In ''Live Free or Die Hard'', the main characters realize they have to run to DC. When they realize this, they are clearly on Light Street in Baltimore, MD. They manage this.

* The terrible ''Godsend'' is repeatedly said to take place in a "small American town." Not only does it not remotely look like a "small town," the father drives past the rather unique-looking Roy Thompson Hall of Toronto.

* ''DieHardWithAVengeance'' contains a notorious example (much derided in the Russian press) where the protagonists drive from Moscow to Pripyat (the ghost city evacuated during the Chernobyl disaster) in about two or three hours like no big deal. In reality, it is 600 miles away, is a restricted zone, and, last but not the least, on the territory of another state (Ukraine).

* Reviews of the low-budget ''AtlasShrugged'' movie reveled in poking fun at the movie's depiction of Wisconsin. The land of cheese has a surprising number of cacti.

* ''BrokebackMountain'' caused residents of Riverton, Wyoming, to look out on the dry, arid scorched land (residents of that area beam with pride that the desolate alien planet in ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' was filmed there) and ponder where these lush mountain vistas were that kept popping up.

** Considering Bond's globetrotter nature, there are many more examples from the movies. In ''TheLivingDaylights'', he seems to teleport randomly around Vienna.

* ''EnemyOfTheState'' was set in Washington DC, but filmed in both DC and Baltimore. Multiple scenes have characters walking from a location in one city to a location in the other city, even though they are about an hour's drive apart.

* ''HellboyII: The Golden Army'' ends at the Giant's Causeway, County Antrim. It's worth noting that the causeway, a formation of hexagonal pillars formed from volcanic rock (according to myth the foundations of a bridge to Scotland so that two giants may fight) does not appear. Not even a dodgy mock-up. Instead there is a large fallen statue of a giant. It's also worth noting that there is an island off the coast of County Kerry actually called "The Sleeping Giant" because it looks like one. One wonders why they didn't just set the climax there if they really wanted that kind of a landmark.