A lot of scenes get shot in Longbeach, California. It’s one of the most popular places to go when shooting a film because of the culture, the nightlife, and the all around sights that are there to be seen. But there are films that you don’t realize were shot in Longbeach simply because they show bits and pieces that you don’t immediately recognize. It could be a house, a bridge, or even just a street that you don’t recognize at first. But those that live around the area tend to recognize these locations and will gladly call them out when they see them. After all, it’s kind of exciting when you live in an area where movies are almost always being shot for a least a scene or two.
Here’s just a few movies that were shot in some part in Longbeach, CA.
5. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off might be set in Chicago but his house is firmly ensconced in the Bixby Knolls neighborhood in Long Beach. You can actually visit this house if you want to but like most homes that were used in film it pays to be respectful and look from a distance if at all. It’s interesting to think that a home in Long Beach can be confused for a home in Chicago, but there are at least a few similarities.
4. Donnie Darko
Here’s another house that is filmed presumably in a different location even though it’s in Long Beach as well. Neighborhoods must be built with an astounding number of similarities for directors and film makers to actually want to get people thinking that the film is being shot entirely on location. I also wonder what the criteria is for selecting the homes they want to use.
3. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Despite claiming San Diego throughout the whole movie this scene between rival news groups is firmly set in Long Beach around Shoreline Village. I’m betting that Long Beach natives were easily able to identify parts of their home that were being used so extensively. I wonder if there was ever a feud over whether it was really San Diego or Long Beach. Probably not.
2. La La Land
La La Land relies heavily on Long Beach’s style and aesthetic touches when taking a look at the surroundings and the homes within the film. The best part about it all is that this film is actually set in LA so you can easily recognize a lot of the area and understand that Long Beach isn’t too far off the mark. This was at least a film that was identifying with its location in a major way.
1. Inception
The big giveaway for the Long Beach reference in this film is the draw bridge that connects Long Beach to Terminal Island. The van in which the unconscious dreamers are being kept is run off the road at one point and then eventually driven off a bridge to wake the dreamers up using the ‘kick’. If anyone recognized this they were probably residents or frequent visitors.
There have been a lot of films that have taken place in Long Beach without question, but sometimes it’s fun to point out which scenes are from Long Beach that people didn’t know about.
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