Support for LAist comes from
Made of L.A.
Stay Connected

Share This

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

News

Movies Are Real in L.A.

Support your source for local news!
The local news you read here every day is crafted for you, but right now, we need your help to keep it going. In these uncertain times, your support is even more important. Today, put a dollar value on the trustworthy reporting you rely on all year long. We can't hold those in power accountable and uplift voices from the community without your partnership. Thank you.

Here in Los Angeles, they say you should write about what you know.

Which gets us to thinking about the whole Raiders of the Lost Ark scenario where a movie presents a classic sequence involving a dirty, unshaven college professor who is running for his life as an unwieldy boulder chases after him, threatening to end his life once and for all.

Support for LAist comes from

And that, of course, makes us think about the Topanga Canyon folks who found themselves dirty and unshaven, running for their lives from an unwieldy boulder which both (a) closed the city streets, (b) threatened to end people's lives and homes and (c) looks way cooler as the real thing, Harrison Ford or no-Harrison Ford.

This got LAist, of course, thinking about the other movies that have obviously been based on Los Angeles events which we have outlined for you below:

The Day After Tomorrow's New York City, Covered In Ice: Inspired by a not-so-defrosted salmon steak, as ill-prepared at The Ivy, Santa Monica.

Twister's Tornados: Inspired by publicists, so great at multi-tasking, that papers and loose post-its often go swirling off desktops and onto carpeted floors.

Titanic's Boat Disaster: Inspired obviously by a variety of huge motion pictures hailed to be the next-best thing (i.e. Heaven's Gate, Howard the Duck, and Alexander) which, upon release -- sunk to the murky depths of insignificance.

Million Dollar Baby's Head-Crushing Boxing Sequences: Inspired by the car-crash intersection pummeling that Gene Hackman exercised upon a pair of hoodlums who figured they could take "the old guy."

Meet the Fockers' Interfaith Wedding Ceremony: Inspired obviously by the Jewish development executive and the Christian development executive overseeing the development obviously of the sequel's script.

The reality is this -- everything that happens in Los Angeles, ends up in a movie. Everything that plagues our city, ends up as a set-piece in a blockbuster movie. Everything that you see on the news, you'll eventually pay $12.50 to see in a theater.

Yes, that's right. We're the chumps.

Most Read