Line #8 UsefulNotes/Denver


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/denver225.jpg]]
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6	Denver is the largest city and the capital of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Colorado}} State of Colorado]]. With a population of about 735,538 in the city proper (as of 2020) and nearly 3,000,000 in the metro area, and in one of the more sparsely populated regions of the country, it is also the largest city for nearly 600 miles in every direction [[note]] (The nearest larger city is Phoenix, Arizona)[[/note]]. It is nicknamed the "Mile High City", due to its elevation of 5,280 feet (1 mile) above sea level. It has sports teams in all four American major leagues, (the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]]'s Denver Broncos, [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeaguebaseball MLB]]'s Colorado Rockies, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]]'s Denver Nuggets, and the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL]]'s Colorado Avalanche) as well as having teams in other sports (Soccer, Lacrosse, Arena Football, Rugby, a few minor league teams, and even served until 2018 as the home base of Furniture Row Racing, one of the few UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} teams based outside Charlotte, North Carolina; let's just say it's a sports obsessed town). The team with the biggest following are the Broncos, in part thanks to them being the most successful of the four.
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8	It is home to several universities, among them Metropolitan State University of Denver ("Metro State"), University of Colorado Denver, University of Denver, and Regis University. The Molly Brown House, the residence of one of the most famous ''[[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic Titanic]]'' survivors, is there. The South Platte River flows through the city.
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10	Despite having a high level of local government corruption (police corruption was once ranked as highest in the US) and ranking fourteen in the US for ozone pollution, Denver is generally portrayed as clean. Though the city is typically shown with the nearby Rocky Mountains in the background, Denver lies on the high plains[[note]](In pictures facing west, Denver has mountains; in pictures facing east, it has far flatter terrain.)[[/note]] and late spring through early fall can be hot, while fall through early spring can be significantly colder. Throughout the year Denver is mostly dry, and due to the lack of a large body of water nearby, the temperature can fluctuate as much as 45° F in a day. Climatically Denver is on the edge of a climate more typical of mountains and a climate more typical of the high plains, both being semi-arid.
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12	Due to its location, the city has a very outdoorsy culture. Residents naturally love heading up to the mountains on weekends for activities like skiing, camping, hiking, and kayaking. Denver is also a very 'blue' city, almost always being represented by a Democrat, which is partly due to being more diverse than most other places in Colorado. A quarter of the city is Hispanic and around a fifth speaks Spanish at home. There are also significant Asian and African-American minority groups in the city.
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14	Much of both the city of Denver and the state as a whole migrate from other parts of the country; as a result, the accent is sometimes perceived as 'neutral' due to having similarities with areas all over the country. This has also caused a great deal of traffic and gridlock.
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16	Beginning around the turn of the millennium (these sorts of timelines are never precise), Denver became something of a magnet for young, well-educated professionals looking for a "cool" place to live that wasn't a hideously expensive coastal city. Proximity to winter sports sites, a thriving downtown area and a growing tech scene made Denver an attractive option. That put Denver on a lot of "best places to live" lists, which, in turn, attracted even more people. The explosive population growth in Denver has had significant effects on state politics (Colorado has evolved into a solidly Democratic state, thanks mostly to the Denver area) and the local economy -- Denver might have been an affordable option in 2000, but it's now one of the most expensive cities in the country (albeit still cheaper than New York or San Francisco).
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19	!!Denver in fiction:
20	* ''Series/Dynasty1981''.
21	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' ventures there on occasion, and South Park itself is "[[HollywoodAtlas close enough]]" to Denver anyway (the real place is a street in Littleton, a suburb near Denver).
22	* Featured as "Devil's Grief" in ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn''.
23	* The Creator/EddieMurphy film ''Imagine That'' was set here.
24	* ''Film/ThingsToDoInDenverWhenYoureDead'': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Yeah....]]
25	* ''Film/WereTheMillers'' starts here before the main characters drive to Mexico.
26	* In some episodes of ''Series/MorkAndMindy'' (set in nearby Boulder), the gang would come to Denver.
27	* It gets blown up in the novel ''Literature/TheSumOfAllFears''. [[spoiler: This is changed to UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}} in the FilmOfTheBook]].
28	* It gets destroyed by a nuclear bomb in ''Series/Jericho2006'' too.
29	* ''Film/AboutSchmidt'' is partly set in Denver.
30	* The ruins of Denver was the setting of ''Literature/BattlefieldEarth'' as well as the film adaptation of the same name.
31	%%* ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie''
32	* ''Series/{{Community}}'' (Jeff and Shirley are from there, and Greendale is implied to be located near Denver and/or Colorado Springs.)
33	%%* ''Series/LastManStanding''
34	* ''Series/Warehouse13'' sets several episodes here, as Mycah is a native of nearby Colorado Springs, and her MyGreatestFailure moment occurred in Denver.
35	* Denver is visited by Raiden in ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance''. The town has a privatized police force made up of cyborg [=PMCs=] due to being the headquarters of World Marshal Inc., of which Colorado Senator Steven Armstrong is a backer.
36	* At the start of ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' series, Denver is the capital of the United States, though it's eventually evacuated as it's impossible to keep secure.
37	** Denver also becomes the U.S. capital in Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheDoorIntoSummer'' (after [[WorldWarIII The Six Weeks War]] devastates the Northeast) and Creator/MarvelComics' [[ComicBook/TheNewUniverse New Universe]] (after UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC is trashed by a fight between two paranormals).
38	** Also the US Capital in ''[[VideoGame/{{Resistance}} Resistance 2]]'', after DC is trashed by the Chimera in the tie-in book ''The Gathering Storm''. The city is destroyed off-screen (and most of the government killed) late in the game.
39	** In ''Literature/WorldWar'', Denver becomes capital of the US after Washington DC and other East Coast cities are lost to [[AlienInvasion the Race]].
40	* The ''Franchise/PerryMason'' TV movies of the 1980s and 1990s were set in Denver.
41	* Percy Jackson and friends have a run-in with Ares here in ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Lightning Thief]]''.
42	* It's implied that The Capitol of Panem, from ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', is located in what was once Denver (the book describes the "Rocky Mountains", and the film series definitely evokes the "mountainous" feel).
43	* ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'': In ''The Death Cure'', Thomas and co. visit Denver in search for a former WICKED scientist who can remove the mind-controlling chip from Thomas and Minho. It's also revealed to house the other surviving Gladers after WICKED released them.
44	* Denver International Airport infamously became a darling of conspiracy theories after somebody came up with the idea that the airport, in aerial photos, looks a bit like a swastika if you squint and believe in it really hard. It's also decorated with creepy murals, so it must obviously be an obvious secret NWO headquarters. The conspiracy theories have been around for so long that airport officials now gleefully play along with them and put out marketing materials riffing on them.
45	* In what is almost certainly a nod to the above theory, the final mission of ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Blacklist'' takes place in an ElaborateUndergroundBase beneath Denver International Airport called "Site F."
46	* The world map in ''VideoGame/MegaMan8'' heavily suggests that Dr. Light's laboratory is located in Denver. The city itself is never seen, though Mega Man can visit Light Labs to obtain upgrades using bolts collected in-game. It is also unknown if certain levels in other titles like the opening stage of ''VideoGame/MegaMan7'', the Robot Museum in ''[=MM7=]'' and ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'', and the Towntown Stage in ''VideoGame/MegaManPoweredUp'' are meant to represent various locations in Denver.
47	* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Centurions}}'' episode "Denver Is Down" has BigBad Doc Terror sinking the entire city into an underground cavern, where he intends to [[UnwillingRoboticization turn the populace into]] {{cyborg}}s.
48	* It's off-handedly mentioned to be [[TheSiege under siege]] by the Soviet Army in ''Film/RedDawn1984''. ''Roleplay/RedDawnPlus20'' expanded on this.
49	* The 2005 version of ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' had Mike Teavee and his family be from suburban Denver. Given that his vice had been updated from watching too much TV to [[UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 playing too many violent video games]], and that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJpLEbkfXXQ our introduction to him]] is of the sound of gunfire and flashes of light in the windows of his home (before we find out that it's a game), the choice of hometown was likely a reference to the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} massacre, which took place in a Denver suburb. (Ironically, Creator/AnnaSophiaRobb, who played UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}-based Violet Beauregarde in the film, is actually from Denver.)
50	* Mentioned in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' as the furthest eastward expansion of Caesar's Legion due to a grueling attrition war between the Legion and the tribes living there. Known as "Dog City" as the city is overrun with packs of ferocious feral dogs, but some of the finest canines in all the wasteland come from there (including the Legion's mongrels and the recruitable cyberdog companion Rex).
51	* It's also the main setting for the ''New Vegas'' mod ''VideoGame/DogCityDenver''.
52	* ''VideoGame/Wasteland3'': the bombed out post-apocalyptic ruins of Denver are home to a fanatic cult known as "The Gippers" who have taken up residence in the Colorado State Capitol and worship an AI copy of Ronald Reagan's brain as a living god.
53	* ''Film/IdentityThief'' partly takes place in Denver, since the protagonist's from there.
54	* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' had an episode set in Cherry Creek, a Denver suburb.
55	* ''Shoplifters Of The World'' is set in Denver [[TheEighties during 1987]] just after Music/TheSmiths broke up, with their fans mourning the fact (one goes so far as to hold a radio DJ hostage, making him play their music over the entire night).
56	* ''ComicStrip/{{Walkyverse}}'': SEMME's HQ is located on the outskirts of Denver, and subsequently many of the abductees end up settling there, such as Joyce and Walky, Joe and Rachel, and eventually [[spoiler:Mike and Amber.]] The {{Muggles}} Billie and Danny also make their home there.
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58
59	'''Shows based in Denver:'''
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61	* As the hometown of Duane "Dog" Chapman and his wife Beth, it's frequently featured in ''Series/DogTheBountyHunter''.
62	* The Creator/AnimalPlanet series ''Emergency Vets'' and its spinoff ''E-Vets Interns'' were shot at the city's Alameda East Veterinary Hospital.
63	* ''WebOriginal/TheFastLane'' is based in the Denver area, and has taken advantage of its location with, among other things, its "Ike Gauntlet" high-altitude towing tests where pickup trucks and the like are loaded to capacity and run from Silverthorne to the Eisenhower Tunnel, a rise from 9035' to 11,158' in eight miles' road distance (2754m to 3401m in about 13 km) and down again from there.

Context UsefulNotes / Denver