Have I Been Here Before?
Have you ever driven through a neighborhood in Los Angeles and thought a particular house or building looked familiar? You likely saw it in a movie. The vast neighborhoods of different architectural styles provides a rich canvas for movie makers to tell their stories. This is true not only for modern day settings, but movies set in the future as well. From alien invasions to flying cars, Los Angeles has been cinematic witness to a myriad of director’s visions of the city. And why not? LA offers everything from sleepy suburbs to towering skyscrapers, toney mansions to the poorest ghettos as a backdrop to tell a story.
Some movie locations of the future look just like they do in real life. Remember the scene where the Terminator and Jack Connor fly through the concrete channel on the motorcycle in T2? That was filmed in the LA river flood control basin.
Other movies take more imagination to see LA hiding underneath a science fiction theme. Blade Runner is a classic example of one director’s vision of LA in the future. Even the HG Wells classic “War of the Worlds” went on a futuristic film shoot throughout the city, 1950’s style.
So the next time you are house hunting in Pasadena and the home across the street jogs your memory, take stock, it could be Marty’s house from “Back to the Future” or the Myers home from Halloween. Happy house hunting!