The young ones may think the miracle jump in Assassin’s Creed was the be all-end all. However, that distinction belongs to two fellas by the names of Redford and Newman, who robbed trains in Durango, Colorado, and then took the largest leap of faith into the Animas River at Trimble Bridge.
Most folks have images of ski mountains or maybe even beanie-clad users of a certain legal substance in the state when they think of Colorado. Before all that, the Centennial State was part of the American frontier. That's cowboy territory.
Kevin Bacon left his mark on our hearts and added a little rhythm to our feet with the musical film set in the ‘tight-ass’ town of Bomont, a fictional place in Utah. Much of the filming took place in Payson, just south of Provo. Bomont First Christian Church is actually Community Presbyterian, where they don’t mind the dancing so much. Visit Lehi Roller Mills for the famous warehouse dance and the fields of Allred Orchards and the tractor chicken showdown.
A story about strict religious practice seems quite appropriate for Utah, considering two thirds of the state's population are Mormon. That didn't seem to be a problem for Kevin Bacon. We're just happy we all got to kick off our Sunday shoes.
Everyone is gonna yell Gone with The Wind for Georgia, but the filming actually happened in Los Angeles. Driving Miss Daisy was set in Atlanta in the 1940s and tells the story of a white Jewish woman and her Black driver—and the friendship that develops over a 30-year period. While Jessica Tandy was sunsetting her career, a youngish (52) Morgan Freeman was just getting warmed up.
The film caught flack in recent years for painting what some would consider an optimistic perspective toward southern racism, but at the time, it took home the Best Picture Award at the Oscars.
Your best bet for finding those pesky CGI dinosaurs will be in the islands of Hawaii, namely the tiny Kauai. The entire island is featured in one way or another throughout the films, especially the National Tropical Botanical Gardens and the green slopes of Na Pali Coast.
Between tropical storms and erupting volcanos, there's enough trying to kill you in Hawaii. We definitely don't need to add dinosaurs to the list of things to look out for down there.
This film was shot almost entirely in Idaho. Following a bunch of awkward, oddly named teen boys through high school, it’s easy to spot nearly every single location that were actually filmed in or near Preston, Idaho. Preston High School served as the backdrop for one of the most amazing talent show performances ever.
Even a 'frickin' idiot" could tell these high schoolers had a special brand of small town American ungainliness. Mid to Northwestern states like Idaho are perfect for breeding exactly that.
Set entirely in the 313, 8 Mile focuses on a stretch of highway between the predominantly black city of Detroit, Michigan and the largely white suburbs. 8 Mile was a critical success and nabbed the Oscar for Best Song for Eminem, who didn’t even show up to get it. This all-star cast includes some pretty heavy hitters in John Singleton, Anthony Mackie and Brittany Murphy.
"Lose Yourself," the track from the film, still gets airplay and leaves everyone who hears it hungry for their mom's spaghetti.
Loosely based on the story of Seabiscuit, a champion thoroughbred racehorse of small stature, the horse became a media sensation and symbol of hope during the Great Depression. The film was shot in and around Lexington’s Keeneland as well as Paris, Kentucky—some of the most beautiful country you’ll ever see is amassed in this film.
The film was nominated for several Academy Awards and didn't end up winning any. Regardless, Seabiscuit galloped fast into the hearts of countless Americans, and we have the Kentucky backdrop in part to thank for that.
John Keeting inspired students to take more chances and live beyond their parents’ expectations—which was easier to do in the St. Andrews School, located about two miles from Noxontown Pond. The Everett Theatre still stands at 51 West Main in Middleton, while the state’s only cave, Beaver Valley Cave, is the iconic meeting spot for the DPS.
Of course, for all the memorable locations in this film, the real notoriety around Dead Poets Society is the absolutely heartbreaking performance by Robin Williams. You inspired us all.
The first of the sportsball movies to hit this list, it’s hard to imagine Indiana and not think of the Hoosiers. Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper deliver a fantastic coaching job to a down and out team from a small-town high school to become a top contender for the state championship.
Dennis Hopper asked for a warning before any scenes in which he was supposed to appear drunk so he could spin himself around to match the dizziness. Though, knowing Hopper, he may have had more inspiration for looking like he'd had a drink or two.
This film is set in Missoula, Montana between World War I and the Great Depression—and featured a love letter to fly fishing for trout in the Blackfoot River.
Filmed in Livingston and Bozeman, Montana, they also won the Oscar for cinematography. It’s a beautiful example of the natural wilds of Montana.
A film that captured a nation’s collective sigh of how high school works, The Breakfast Club was shot exclusively in Chicago and Maine North High School. These five teens helped capture a vision of the cliques and groups that are still somewhat present today.
A classic tale like this, which cuts right through the clique system in high schools only to teach kids to change themselves for other people's approval, could only have come from the suburbs of Chicago.
Moving from the court to the field, arguably the most famous film to come out of Iowa is Field of Dreams.
Kevin Costner’s continued sportsball role was a big draw coming on the heels of Bull Durham (which you may see later in this list) and the real story of how Ray Kinsella mowed down his corn crop to build a baseball field in the middle of nowhere. Bonus: The soundtrack is lit!
While the majority of this movie happens in the fictional Oz, the message is clear. There’s no place like home in Kansas, twisters and all. The notable difference between Kansas in the 1930s and Oz was the usage of technicolor and musical score.
It’s hard to believe this movie was considered a box office failure, as it failed to make a profit for MGM.
Set in the town of Natchitoches, Louisiana (pronounced nak-o-dish) and the home of the meat pie, this drama surrounded the lives of southern women and their interactions.
The film featured an ensemble cast, including acting veterans Sally Field and Shirley MacLaine, while launching the career of Julia Roberts into the stratosphere. Much of the house where the film was shot is now a B&B.
Kicking all the way back to 1981 to feature the story of the Thayer family and featuring heavy hitters like Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, and Jane Fonda. The film was principally made on Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire.
With a second-highest grossing box office take of $119,285,432 in 1981, the film harkened back to simpler times still fraught with family squabbles.
It’s hard to look past the significance of Selma and its iconic location. The Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama was the site of conflict known as Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965. The bridge, named for a former confederate general and KKK leader, was declared a National Historic Landmark in February 2013.
Ava DuVernay offers a much more raw look into the life of this American hero than most of us are used to, during one of the most pivotal moments of his career. Who knows what our country would be today without his work in Alabama.
The original 1975 version that left no doubt that everyone was safer on land in Martha’s Vineyard, Jaws was filmed all over the tiny state from Edgartown to Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Based on a novel by Peter Benchley and directed by Stephen Spielberg (some guy that got famous in 1977 for a movie set out of this world), Jaws was a watershed moment of combining editing with sound to create suspense without actually showing the villain until the end.
Many film historians still cite Jaws as the first real American blockbuster that changed the way we all go to the movies. Either way, that shark can still scare just about anyone, even though we know it's mechanical.
Nothing captures North Dakota like Frances McDormand as Officer Marge Gunderson. Filming took place across both Minnesota and North Dakota, but the crime and money were buried in Grafton.
Like the Blair Witch Project, this film was first presented as a “true story” to the public.
Slingblade features Billy Bob Thornton as Karl Childers, as an intellectually disabled Arkansas man who kills people with a Kaiser blade (aka sling blade), bush axe, or a ditch witch.
The film was shot in Benton, Arkansas, including the Benton Services Center serving as the mental hospital.
Whether you visit the Shawshank State Prison in Mansfield Ohio or hit the halfway house in the Hunted Bissman Building, you can also find remnants of this movie all over Mansfiel—in the Huntington Bank, Carrousel Antiques, and finally the hayfield near Malabar Farm.
That old oak, though, was damaged by lightning and cut down in 2016. Thankfully, it served its purpose in its time.
Raising Arizona was one of the earliest Coen Brothers’ movies, and it took place in and around Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe, Arizona. The iconic Jokake Inn was the home of HI and Ed Arizona.
Nick Cage's Woody Woodpecker inspired haircut increases in size relative to the amount of trouble he's in. How's that for attention to detail!
Mel Gibson’s turn as a widowed father set loosely to the backdrop of the Revolutionary War features the beautiful rolling hills of South Carolina and historic locations in Brattonsville, Chester, and Charleston.
Much attention was paid to the costuming and details of period dresses.
One of the most famous mansions in Connecticut served as the creepy background for The Men’s association house in both movies.
This real-life museum, completed in 1868 for the sum of $2mm, went through numerous owners—including the Vanderbilts, Mathews, and of course, the Lockwoods.
Tony Montana and his “little friend” said hello to federal agents at the end of the film Scarface by shooting up his Miami estate. Outside shots are actually of the house located at 485 West Matheson Drive in Key Biscayne.
Only Florida could be home to that ludicrous amount of drugs.
But wait, there's a tie for Florida! On the opposite spectrum, everyone in America saw the stunning Seahaven community and assumed The Truman Show was shot on a set in sunny California.
In reality, the entirety of the show was filmed in a once-sleepy, planned community called Seaside, FL, where these houses, picket fences, and business district still are well traversed by the bougie traveler today.
Although set in Jackson, Mississippi, The Help was filmed in the untouched city of Greenwood on the Yazoo River. All of the houses are still there and private homes, so don’t go lookin' for no trouble.
But for those seeking an experience, head on over to the Mayflower Café in Jackson, the oldest operating restaurant in the city.
Adapted from a Larry McMurtry novel, the film takes place in both Texas and Nebraska—but it's Nebraska where the tearjerker and five-time Oscar winner pulled out all the stops.
Leon’s Gourmet Grocer in Lincoln is an institution that’s been around since 1933, and the ending happens at Lincoln General Hospital and Lincoln Airport.
It's no coincidence that Costner ends up on this list so many times; he just makes really good movies shot on location! Filmed near the Triple U Standing Butte Ranch outside of Pierre, South Dakota, it required that the location and culture be changed from the Comanche to the Sioux.
The purpose-built set was re-sited to the Dances with Wolves film set at Fort Hays.
All of the landmarks shot in this film are easily identified in and around Seattle, including Alki Beach Park, Pike Place Market, and the Dahlia Lounge.
And while the ending happens in NYC, it's still easy to see why anyone would fall in love with Washington state.
Written, produced, and directed by Sean Penn, this adaptation tells the story of Christopher McCandless, who hiked across North America into Alaska in the early '90s.
The film was actually filmed along the path he traveled, known as Stampede Trail. The bus featured in the film can still be found as a tourist attraction in Healy, Alaska.
Any movie featuring Johnny Depp as Dillinger is good for me, and although this film hit 114 locations across four states, Michael Mann used every bit of Wisconsin he could find to transform into the 1930s.
The Masonic Temple in Oshkosh is the location for the robbery, while Milwaukee’s Art Deco Building showed downtown ‘Chicago’ and Madison served as D.C. When he’s finally arrested “in Tucson”, it's actually the apartment building called the Rogers in beaver Dam.
Set in the fictitious North Carthage, Gone Girl was shot almost exclusively in Cape Girardeau. Bringing Gillian Flynn’s surprise novel to life included shots of The Bar on Themis Street and the Common Pleas Courthouse on Lorimier Street, the most prominent landmark in the area and an important landmark as the story unfolds.
Ben Affleck's weight changes throughout the film since he was simultaneously cast as Batman.
Shot on location in Tulsa, Oklahoma and based on the novel by S.E. Hinton, Coppola craved the reality of the mundane in his location shots and the all-star ensemble cast of Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Tom Cruise made for easy filming.
Coppola shot only 133 minutes of actual film, which was edited down to 91 for the theatrical cut. The house featured for the film, 731 Curtis Brothers Lane, is being prepped for a museum.
Narrowing Nevada down to four movies, when in reality there are over a dozen to mention, I chose this series for two reasons: 1.) The scenery in both versions (1960 and 2001) are astounding views of the Las Vegas Strip both in its past and current glory. 2.)
The cast of the 1960s version was considered extraordinary at the time and the 2001 version was stratospheric.
A quirky film by the Farrelly brothers, starring Jim Carrey, you’d never realize that its actually shot in Vermont and Rhode Island.
You get a gander at the famous Ben & Jerry’s Waterbury Factory, Green Mountain Coffee Visitor Center, and Essex Junction Amtrak station just east of Burlington.
The films are synonymous with the location, and no one goes to Philadelphia without trying to run those 68 iconic steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
And you have to run them, folks. Otherwise, the tourists just laugh at ya.
A remake of the 1940s classic, The Philadelphia Story, High Society changed names and locations to Clarenden Court, Newport, Rhode Island. Its notable that this was Grace Kelly’s last film and she played Katharine Hepburn’s role of Tracy Lord.
The mansion, incidentally, is the home of Claus Von Bulow, the millionaire businessman accused of attempted murder twice of his wife, Sunny.
This John Grisham novel, which catapulted him to fame (although it was his second), was set in Tennessee. It starred Tom Cruise and was directed by Sydney Pollack.
The film was shot at the famous Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis, as well as the Elmwood Cemetery. And Cotton Exchange Building. Other Grisham novels shot in Tennessee include The Client and The Rainmaker.
Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Oliver Stone, Natural Born Killers featured the beauty of New Mexico in Albuquerque, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in Taos, Gallup and Redrock.
This film was named the eighth-most controversial film in history by Entertainment Weekly in 2006 for its glorification of violence and how mass murders were glorified by the mass media. Enter the 2000s…
Horror master Stephen King set this story in his beloved state of Maine, where pets die and come back to life and kill people.
Filmed in Bangor, Hancock and Mount Hope Cemetery for the graveyard scenes, keep the lights on when you watch this one.
This famous movie was set in Hoboken, New Jersey featured acting legend Marlon Brando and director Elia Kazan.
Every part of the movie was shot in Hoboken, and while the piers and warehouses are long gone, you can still see Our Lady of Grace Church and Stevens Park.
Shooting in a wing of the Oregon State Mental Hospital about 50 miles south of Portland led to the realism of this film.
The wing has since been demolished, along with that awful Nurse Rached, but you can still see props from the movie displayed in the Museum of Mental Health.
This 2011 summer blockbuster starring Elle Fanning and Kyle Chandler was filmed in the Wheeling-Ohio County airport and the towns of Weirton, New Cumberland, New Manchester, and Follansbee.
You can visit DeStafano’s Spaghetti House or the Maryland Heights Deli (which served as the 7-Eleven in the movie).
Thinking of Minnesota leads me to one singular artist: Prince. Principal photography took place almost entirely in the state, including the Crystal Court of IDS Center, the legendary First Avenue nightclub and of course, Henderson where the town unveiled a Prince statue in July 2020.
This film proves what we all knew to be true: Prince can do anything and we'll love him all the more for it.
Honestly, there are much better quotes than the one above, but they all feature a certain word we can’t feature here.
Based on the minor league team from Durham, North Carolina and filmed on location, director Ron Shelton knew he had a hit on his hands with Kevin Costner (again, sportsball), Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins with a strong supporting cast. (Author note: Top 10 movie of mine.)
Another state teeming with movies, but you can’t ignore the granddaddy of all horror flicks and Leatherface.
You can still visit the Sawyer family home in Kingsland, Texas. Or head to the desecrated cemetery in Leander or visit Bilbo’s in Bastrop, Texas.
Loving is a film about the first interracial plaintiffs in a Supreme Court case that decided the Lovings could be a formally recognized couple, invalidating a Virginia law. Filming took place in Caroline County and Dinwiddie County.
The discerning eye might recognize the Lawrenceville Airport that served for the Richmond Dragway and the Bowling Green for the courthouse and jail scenes.
Like Nevada, there are 100 movies I could list, but this one is the “Godfather” of them all.
Encompassing the Corleone family from their arrival at Staten Island to the historical Mietz Building in Little Italy as the Genoa Olive Oil company to the St. Regis, the movie showcased unknown director Francis Ford Coppola’s vision of Mario Puzo’s Corleone family.
One of the most iconic shots in the movie happens at Devils’ Tower National Monument, which Richard Dreyfuss makes out of mashed potatoes at his house (in Mobile, Alabama).
If it wasn’t for all of the allusion to the monument, I might have picked another movie, but it’s hard to resist that ALIENS landed in the Black Hills National Forest.
That perennial Christmas favorite with everyone’s favorite tagline: Yippee KI Yay, MF’s! You know that Hans Gruber was a bad man and that Detective John McClane had to take him down.
Fox Plaza in San Francisco served as the building for the movie’s explosive shots.
Set in Maryland, this was the first internet-promoted movie. People didn’t understand if this was real film footage by three student filmmakers who disappeared in the woods or an elaborate hoax about the Blair Witch legend.
Taking place in Seneca Creek State Park and Patapsco Valley State Park, I wouldn’t go wandering around after midnight.
