Catalog
Long Way Down follows Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's 2007 motorbike ride from John o' Groats in Scotland through Silverstone, Tunisia and the pyramids of Giza to Cape Agulhas and Cape Town. The route picks five stops along the 12 May to 4 August 2007 journey, from the Scottish start to the southernmost tip of Africa. Pins at Tunisia and Giza are approximate.
Pole to Pole with Michael Palin is a 1992 BBC series that follows the 30-degree east line of longitude from the North Pole to the South Pole, through Spitsbergen, Chernobyl, Istanbul, Wadi Halfa, the Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Tanganyika and Victoria Falls. The route picks eight stops from the eight episodes, in order, ending at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Several are named only as towns or regions in the series summary, so those pins are approximate.
John Muir's 1867 walk from Kentucky to the Gulf of Mexico passed Mammoth Cave, the Cumberland Mountains, Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery and Cedar Key. He told it in A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. The route follows the book from Louisville to Florida, then on to Yosemite Valley in 1868. Some stops are general areas rather than exact spots, as marked on each point.
Leif Erikson's voyage runs from Eiríksstaðir in Iceland through Brattahlíð in Greenland to L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, the only confirmed Norse site in North America outside Greenland. The route follows the sagas: a boyhood on Erik the Red's farms, a crew of thirty-five, and the lands Leif named Helluland and Markland. The saga lands are only traditionally identified, so their pins are approximate regions rather than exact spots.
Wyatt Earp's story runs from the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City, Kansas, to the Oriental Saloon, the lot beside Fly's and Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, Arizona, and on to the railroad tracks of Tucson. It follows the lawman from his 1878 job as a Dodge City assistant marshal through the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on 26 October 1881 to the killings that followed in 1882. Exact buildings are uncertain for several stops, and those pins are marked approximate.
Admiral Yi Sun-sin fought Japan's invasion fleets in 1592–1598 along Korea's south coast, from his base at Yeosu to Okpo, Hansan Island, the Myeongnyang Strait and the Noryang Strait, where he died in the last major battle. The route follows five places in order: the headquarters, the first victory, the crane-wing trap, the strait where 13 ships faced a far larger fleet, and the final night. Several pins mark waters or harbours rather than exact battle spots.
The Cathar story runs through Béziers, Carcassonne and Montségur: six places in southern France where the Albigensian Crusade of 1209 to 1255 left its mark. The route starts with the fall of Béziers and Carcassonne in 1209, continues through the castles of Lastours and the well of Minerve, and ends at Montségur and Quéribus, the last strongholds. Several stops are ruins or later rebuilds, so what you see is not always the medieval Cathar castle.
The route from the Varangians to the Greeks ran from Staraya Ladoga by the Volkhov and Lake Ilmen, down the Dnieper past Kyiv and Khortytsia, to Berezan and the Golden Horn of Constantinople. It is the river road that linked the Baltic to the Byzantine capital. The six stops follow Rurik, Oleg and Sviatoslav along it, through the Primary Chronicle's tales of 862, 882, 907 and 972. Several accounts are legend-tinged, and the stops are not in strict date order because they follow the river.
Detroit: Become Human is set in a near-future Detroit, 2038, where androids work and revolt among real landmarks like the Spirit of Detroit, the Monument to Joe Louis and Belle Isle. The route follows six places where the game meets the real city, from downtown sculptures and Eastern Market murals to the suburb of Ferndale, the Packard plant and Belle Isle. The game is an approximation, not a recreation, so several stops are marked approximate or fictional.
Tomihiko Morimi's The Tatami Galaxy and The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl are set among Kyoto University students, on Kiyamachi Street, the Kamo Delta, Pontochō and the grounds of Shimogamo Shrine. The Tatami Galaxy replays one student's college years in parallel timelines that always end on a bridge over the river. The Night Is Short follows a black-haired heroine through a night of drinking in Pontochō and a used book fair. The stops are real Kyoto places; the boarding house exists only in the story.
Trainspotting is set in Leith, Edinburgh, but was filmed almost entirely in Glasgow: only the opening chase down Princes Street and Calton Road was shot in the capital. Rouken Glen Park, Jordanhill School and a pub on Queen Margaret Drive fill in for Edinburgh, and Corrour station supplies the film's "great outdoors" scene. The route follows Renton and his friends from Leith through the chase, the park, the bar and the school to a remote Highland platform. Where a location guide's pub or a bridge name is uncertain, the stop says so.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert starts at Sydney's Imperial Hotel in Erskineville, crosses the outback through Broken Hill's Palace Hotel and Coober Pedy, and ends at a casino in Alice Springs and the cliffs of Kings Canyon. Three performers ride a bus named Priscilla to a four-week booking, and the film was shot at many of the places on the road. This route follows their trip in story order. The exact spot of the breakdown is approximate, and the Coober Pedy and Kings Canyon pins mark the town and the park.
Cast Away strands a FedEx troubleshooter on a Pacific island that is really Monuriki in Fiji, with a failed raft escape shot on Namotu. Its Memphis scenes draw on FedEx's real home base, and its opening and closing crossroads lie near Canadian, Texas. The route follows Chuck Noland from a Moscow street off Red Square and the FedEx hub in Memphis to the two islands in Fiji, then back to the Texas Panhandle for the last scene. The island is never named in the film, so two stops are filming stand-ins.
50 First Dates is set and mostly filmed on Oʻahu, Hawaii: Henry Roth works at Sea Life Park, near Makapuʻu Point, and falls for Lucy Whitmore, who loses every day's memories overnight. Kāneʻohe Bay, Laie, Kualoa Ranch and Makapuʻu Point's lighthouse all appear. The route follows Henry's courtship from the film's opening shot of the islet Mokoliʻi to a first kiss by the lighthouse. Some interiors, such as the walrus habitat, were shot in California, and the café's exact filming spot is uncertain.
Yellowstone is set in Montana, but the Dutton ranch house is the Chief Joseph Ranch near Darby, Montana, and much of the rest was filmed in Utah, in Park City and Ogden, before the shoot moved to Missoula. The route follows the production from August 2017 near Darby and at Utah Film Studios, through Utah stand-ins for Montana, to the move to Missoula in 2020. The locations are listed in filming order, not story order.
Easy Rider sends two bikers east from Los Angeles toward Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and the film really was shot along the way: at Los Angeles airport, on Route 66 in Flagstaff, in Monument Valley, in New Mexico and in Louisiana, ending at a cemetery in New Orleans and a country road near Krotz Springs. The route follows Wyatt and Billy from the drug sale in Los Angeles to the final scene in Louisiana, with a stop at each place the film is known to have used. The commune was a stand-in staged in Malibu, and some sites are approximate.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) was filmed at a Scottish railway viaduct, Glasgow's streets dressed as 1969 New York, the streets of Fez playing Tangier, and Sicily around Syracuse, including the Ear of Dionysius and Castello Maniace. Six stops follow the story from a 1944 train to the Siege of Syracuse in 214 BC. Filming ran from June 2021, and Archimedes' tomb was filmed at Pinewood rather than on location.
Spectre opens in Mexico City, where Bond chases an assassin through the Gran Hotel and the Zócalo, then moves to Rome, Altaussee, Tangier and the desert near Erfoud. It was filmed at many of those places, including the Ponte Sisto bridge and the Gara Medouar crater. The route follows Bond from the Day of the Dead parade to a car chase on the Tiber, a dying Mr White in the Austrian Alps and Spectre's base in the Sahara. It ends on Westminster Bridge in London. Tangier's hotel L'Américain exists only in the story.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout was filmed across Paris, London, New Zealand and Norway, from the Grand Palais and St Paul's Cathedral to the cliff of Preikestolen. Ethan Hunt chases stolen plutonium cores through real streets, rooftops and a fjord-side dream. The route follows the film's order: the Paris gala and convoy chase, the London rooftop run, then the "Kashmir" finale, shot near Queenstown and on Norway's Pulpit Rock. The HALO jump was filmed in Abu Dhabi, so it has no stop.
Out of Africa was filmed around Nairobi and the Ngong Hills in Kenya, with the Danish scenes shot at Castle Rising in Norfolk, England. Sydney Pollack's 1985 film, based on Karen Blixen's memoir, uses the Muthaiga Country Club, the coffee farm that is now the Karen Blixen Museum and the Chyulu Hills standing in for the Ngong Hills. This route follows Blixen's years in Kenya and the places the film made famous: the railway museum whose locomotive pulls the opening train, the club where Farah is turned away, the farm at the foot of the Ngong Hills, the Norfolk castle that plays Denmark, Voi Airport where Denys Finch Hatton's plane went down, and the obelisk grave on the hillside above Nairobi.
First Blood turns Hope, British Columbia into Hope, Washington: Wallace Street is the main street, the 3rd Avenue railway crossing is the motorcycle leap, and the Othello Tunnels stand in for Chapman Gorge. The 1982 film was shot almost entirely in and around the town, with its mountains and canyon doing the work of the story's backcountry. The route follows John Rambo from the Pitt River cabin where he learns his old army buddy has died, through his arrest and escape in Hope, the manhunt above Coquihalla Canyon, and the National Guard headquarters at Golden Ears Park, ending at the gas station and gunshop of the final showdown. Some stops are exact streets and trails; several were film sets, and the Kawkawa Bridge has been demolished.
Verano Azul was filmed in Nerja on Spain's Costa del Sol: Burriana beach, the Balcón de Europa, Cala Chica (La Caleta de Maro) and the Cueva de Nerja. The route follows the gang's summer from the first day of shooting on Burriana, past the Parque Verano Azul and its replica of La Dorada, to the fake cemetery at Almuñécar where Chanquete is buried. The town is never named on screen, but the locations run from Nerja and Maro to Vélez-Málaga and Motril.
The 1990s sitcom Mr. Bean was filmed across London, Sussex and the south coast: the Surbiton street used for his flat, Stanmer Church, Peacehaven beach, Battersea Park and Clarence Pier. On screen he lives at Flat 2, 12 Arbour Road, Highbury; the front door was filmed in Surbiton. This route follows the episodes from the 1990 pilot to the 1995 golf sketch: eight stops through a Henry Moore sculpture, a Kingston market, a Southsea hotel room and a runaway golf ball. Most are public places; the Surbiton house is a private home, so it is one to see from the street.
GTA: San Andreas turns California and Nevada into one state: Los Santos is Los Angeles, San Fierro is San Francisco, Las Venturas is Las Vegas. The 2004 game follows CJ from Grove Street to stand-ins for the Golden Gate, Hoover Dam and the Las Vegas Strip. This route visits seven real stand-ins behind the game, from Compton and the Hollywood Sign to Mount Diablo, the Golden Gate Bridge, Area 51, Hoover Dam and the Las Vegas Strip. Every pin marks the real place, and each stop names the in-game location it doubles for. Expect city traffic, desert heat and long drives between stops.