6 Real Places That Show Up In The Background of Every Movie

In fact, it's so big that you can even have a car chase in it, like in Transformers when Sam, Mikaela, and Bumblebee encounter their first Decepticon.

In Gamer, it's the location of Gerard Butler's first arena fight, and the first live venue where an armed killer teabags someone in the flesh.

It also shows up in the pilot episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, as a safe house used when trying to evade the terminators.

And you may also remember seeing the exterior of The Yards in Terminator: Salvation ... if you remember having seen Terminator: Salvation. Check out the walkway coming from the roof ...

... and now see what that looks like during the robot apocalypse:

Originally built in 1925 for the "Benevolent Order of the Elks" (as opposed to the Malevolent Order of the Elks), the MacArthur was eventually sold and turned into a hotel. Then it was sold again and repurposed into every Art Deco building in every movie ever.

The entrance has appeared in some tense scenes in Tango & Cash ...

... The Bodyguard ...

... and Gangster Squad:

During When Harry Met Sally's climactic scene, in which Harry races to the NYE party to tell Sally his feelings for her, we can see the lobby and stairwell right beyond the doors.

The stairs feature in a whole bunch of movies, the most memorable of which is probably the violent opening scene of David Lynch's Wild At Heart, wherein Nicolas Cage breaks a dude's head open on the gorgeous marble floor.

But you might have also seen them in the parody of The Untouchables' Union Station scene from Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.

The MacArthur's cinematic piece de resistance has to be its majestic ballroom / banquet hall. This gorgeous throwback has been featured inThe Prestige, Hocus Pocus, Buffy The Vampire Slayer (the movie), and Changeling, to name a few.

Then there's the Terrace Room. You can recognize its Art Deco swank easily enough in the Coco Bongo club scene in The Mask.

But it's practically unrecognizable in the mock advertisement in Starship Troopers.

The Terrace Room is also the location of every apartment in the movie Drive. According to to the director, Nicolas Winding Refn, they built the entire apartment complex set inside the spacious MacArthur.

Even the MacArthur's toilets are famous! Tim Roth's legendary fake story in Reservoir Dogs was filmed there. And so was the awkward bathroom scene in Barton Fink.

Nothing says "Americana" like a good old-fashioned roadside diner. The space-age neon signs, the leather booths, the surly waitresses with their pointless white hats. But with the rise of Starbucks and cheap takeaway, these diners are slowly dying out. Fortunately, there's one place where root beer floats and jukeboxes will never die: Hollywood movies.

Meet Bob's Broiler, formerly known as Johnnie's Broiler, Archie's Broiler, or Harvey's Broiler, depending on the decade. Founded by Harvey and Minnie Ortner in 1958, the 24-hour diner is LA's go-to location whenever a director wants to tap into an ageless, nostalgic vibe. You know, like in Mad Men ...

... or the '80s flick License To Drive ...

... or the most erotic Jeff Goldblum alien sex romp (and he has many), Earth Girls Are Easy.

It's also where Ben Affleck parks his car in Bounce:

Here's Rose McGowan parking in the same place in Jawbreaker:

Inside, those green chairs have probably touched more famous butts than Harvey Weinstein, serving as a location for such fascinating sitdowns as the one in Heat ...

... or in Robin Williams' creepy stalker romp One Hour Photo ...

... Reality Bites ...

... The Game ...

... and What's Love Got To Do With It?.

And who better to investigate this weird celebrity nexus than Mulder and Scully?

Here it is in Sherlock ...

... Creep ...

... The Imitation Game ...

... and Atonement:

Aldwych's Platform B was shut down in 1917 (and is reportedly haunted), but Platform A was maintained until 1994, and still has a functioning train on its track -- a train that has a better resume than most working actors. You might recognize it from a scene-stealing turn in V For Vendetta:

And here's Superman squaring off against it as it speeds out of control in Superman: IV: The Quest For Peace:

People really didn't expect a lot from their superheroes in 1987.

It also shows up in Patriot Games and 28 Weeks Later, just to round off its IMDb page.

Torrance High serves as the shooting location of most high school stories in Hollywood. It's most well-known for standing in as West Beverly Hills High in Beverly Hills 90210:

But the stairs behind Jason Priestley and Shannon Doherty have seen a lot worse than teen drama and pregnancy scares.

Like the principal being eaten by a demon mayor in Buffy The Vampire Slayer:

Yup, West Beverly Hills High is also Sunnydale High, the most vampire-laden school outside of Transylvania.

While Torrance High School has been in movies as diverse as Bruce Almighty and Cursed ...

... it also serves as the main setting for just about every raunchy teen comedy from the last 30 years, like the James Franco romp Whatever it Takes ...

... or the original "nerd girl takes off glasses and turns out to be hot" teen movie, She's All That:

Torrance High has been in so many teen movies that it was the only logical choice for the teen movie spoofing all of those teen movies, Not Another Teen Movie.

It has classed up movies as varied as Charlie's Angels, Hail Caesar!, and The Muppets.

See that chandelier-thing behind Kermit's head? Here it is in The Master.

In fact, it's so classy that it even stood in as a casino in Batman Forever ...

... the best hotel in Escape From LA ...

... and even a strip club in Armageddon:

Aaron is a freelance writer and researcher who lives in Edinburgh. You can check out some of his other articles here, or follow him on Twitter here.

If you write your own scripts with a beginner's guide to Celtx, you could film at one of these places someday too.

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For more, check out 23 Props And Sets That Hollywood Won't Stop Reusing and 6 Places You'll Recognize From The Background Of Every Movie.

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