Need for Speed: The Run races across the United States, from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco through Death Valley, Las Vegas, Denver and Chicago to Times Square in New York.
The racing game is an illegal street race from San Francisco to New York City with the Mob and the police in pursuit. Wikipedia records two plots: the Black Box version, starring street racer Jack Rourke, and a Firebrand version, starring a former pro racer called Matt. Most scenes here come from the Firebrand version; each stop says which. The roads are real, but scenes are not tied to exact spots, so most pins mark the city or region.
Spoiler notice: the last stop reveals the ending.
Finland's national epic was gathered, not invented: a country doctor named Elias Lönnrot walked into the forests of Karelia and wrote down what the old singers recited.
The route follows his collecting trips from 1832 to 1834, from Viena Karelia to his home at Kajaani and the first draft at Kuhmo, then visits three places the runes name: the Imatra rapids, the island of Saari and the Kemi river. The poem's geography is loose, so the last two pins are marked as guesses.
John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps sends Richard Hannay from a flat behind London's Langham Place onto the 7.10 from St Pancras and north to Galloway's Cairnsmore of Fleet and the spa town of Moffat, while a German spy ring hunts him. Hannay has three weeks to survive before he can warn the government. The title comes from a real stair in Broadstairs: 78 steps, not 39.
This is John Buchan's 1915 novel, not Hitchcock's very different film. London, St Pancras, Cairnsmore of Fleet and Moffat are named in the book; Hannay's hiding places on the moors and the Kent resort of Bradgate are not real, but the steps that gave the book its title are.
In 1970s Kabul, Amir, the son of a rich merchant, and Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant, grow up as near-brothers and fly fighting kites together. In the winter of 1975 Amir wins the city's kite tournament — and fails Hassan at the moment Hassan needs him most. War sends Amir into exile in California; a phone call from Peshawar a quarter of a century later sends him back into Taliban Kabul to make amends.
Khaled Hosseini's 2003 debut follows real places in Afghanistan, Pakistan and California. Homes and alleys in the story are not identified, so those pins mark neighbourhoods; the route offers no travel advice for Afghanistan or Peshawar.
Queen Elizabeth I's life runs through Greenwich, the Tower of London, Hatfield, Westminster Abbey, Tilbury Fort and Richmond: where she was born, imprisoned, crowned, made her Armada speech and died.
The route follows her from her birth in 1533 to her death in 1603. Some palaces are gone, so three pins mark the nearest surviving site.
The Battle of Trafalgar was fought off Cape Trafalgar in Spain, but Nelson's story runs from Portsmouth and HMS Victory to Gibraltar, Greenwich and St Paul's Cathedral in London.
This route follows Nelson's last journey in order: his farewell at Portsmouth in September 1805, the battle on 21 October, the tow to Gibraltar, his lying in state at Greenwich, the funeral at St Paul's, and Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. The Portsmouth and Gibraltar pins are approximate.
Attila the Hun's campaigns run from Margus and Viminacium on the Danube to Orléans, the Catalaunian Plains in France and Aquileia in Italy. This route follows the Hun king from the 435 treaty to his 452 meeting with Pope Leo I.
Six stops trace his rise as ruler of the Huns, the sack of Danube cities, the check in Gaul and the invasion of Italy. Several battle sites are approximate or disputed, and the pins say so.
Richard the Lionheart's Third Crusade and captivity run from Limassol and Acre to Arsuf, Dürnstein Castle, Trifels Castle and Château Gaillard in Normandy.
The king of England took Cyprus in 1191 and reached Acre, then won at Arsuf. On the way home he was captured and held for ransom, and later built Château Gaillard above the Seine. The Cyprus wedding is only a tradition.
The Chronicles of Narnia began in C. S. Lewis's Belfast and Oxford, and the films were shot in New Zealand, Slovenia and Queensland. This route runs from the Digory statue at the Holywood Arches to The Kilns, the Eagle and Child pub, Elephant Rocks, Bovec and Cleveland Point.
Three stops follow the author: his birthplace, the Oxford house where he wrote every Narnia book, and the pub where he handed round the proofs of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Three follow the cameras, one for each film. Film sites are marked as the places where scenes were shot, not as Narnia itself.
Suleiman the Magnificent's campaigns run from Belgrade Fortress to Mohács, Vienna and Szigetvár, with the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul as his monument.
The route follows the sultan through the sieges and battles of 1521–1566, from the fall of Belgrade and the battle of Mohács to the failed siege of Vienna in 1529 and his death during the siege of Szigetvár. The Mohács pin marks the town, not the battlefield itself.
Thomas Hardy's Wessex is the real Dorset and Wiltshire under invented names: Puddletown becomes Weatherbury, Bere Regis becomes Kingsbere, and Stonehenge keeps its own name in Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
The route starts at Hardy's birthplace cottage and his house Max Gate, then follows his novels to the real villages and ancient sites behind them: Puddletown, Maiden Castle, Bere Regis and finally Stonehenge. Hardy himself called Wessex a "partly real, partly dream-country", so some pins mark the area rather than one building.
Grigori Rasputin's story runs from the village of Pokrovskoye to Saint Petersburg's Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Peterhof and the Yusupov Palace on the Moika, where he was killed in December 1916.
The route follows the peasant who became the tsar's controversial confidant: his birthplace, his first steps in the capital, his meeting with Nicholas II, the murder, the bridge where his body was found and his burial at Tsarskoye Selo. Much about his death is disputed, and the stops say so.
Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna's Hofburg, married at the Palace of Versailles, played at country life in the Petit Trianon and was held in the Conciergerie before her execution on the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
This route follows the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa from the Habsburg palaces of Vienna to the royal court of France and the guillotine, in six stops you can still visit.
The Shawshank Redemption was filmed mostly in Ohio: Shawshank State Prison is the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, the opening trial is the Wyandot County Courthouse in Upper Sandusky, and the final beach is on Saint Croix.
The route follows Andy Dufresne from his trial to the Mansfield prison, the woodshop where Red hears Figaro, Brooks's halfway house and the Caribbean beach that stands in for Zihuatanejo.
Groundhog Day is set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, but it was filmed almost entirely in Woodstock, Illinois, around the town square and the Opera House.
A weatherman arrives for the real February 2 festival and wakes up to the same day again and again. The route follows the film from its Pennsylvania setting to the Woodstock square, the diner, the hotel tower, a railway museum and the quarry where the cliff scene was shot.
Battlefield V sends you to Narvik in Norway, Tobruk in Libya, Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, Rjukan in Norway and the Nijmegen railway bridge in the Netherlands, all real places of the war.
The game's prologue jumps between fronts, and the "Nordlys" war story follows a Norwegian resistance fight over heavy water. This route lines up those settings with the real history of each place. Only the places named in the game's own plot summary are included.
Big Little Lies is set in Monterey, California, and filmed around Monterey, Pacific Grove and Big Sur. Real places include Old Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Lovers Point and Bixby Bridge.
The series follows five women drawn into a homicide investigation. This route moves from the wharf and beaches of Monterey to the cliffs and bridge of the Big Sur coast; some cafes you see on screen were sets, so those stops are marked as approximate.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 was filmed at the Dartford Crossing, Lavenham, Hardwick Hall and Freshwater West, with the Forest of Dean as its story setting.
This route follows the film's road-movie plot from the Death Eaters chase to Godric's Hollow, the frozen pond, Malfoy Manor and Shell Cottage. Two stops are approximate; each says why.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was filmed at London's Millennium Bridge, Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, Fort William in Scotland, Norway's Rauma Line and the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.
The route follows the 2009 film's scenes in order, from the bridge collapse that opens it to the sea cave where Harry and Dumbledore hunt a Horcrux. Hogwarts Express shots even left the UK for snow in Norway.
Most spots are real places you can visit; the cave interior itself was computer-generated.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was filmed on the River Thames, in Westminster Underground station, at the Glenfinnan Viaduct and in Glen Etive in the Scottish Highlands.
The route follows the film in order: the Order's night flight over London, Harry's walk to his hearing at the Ministry of Magic, the Hogwarts Express in the Highlands, the empty glens of the aerial shots and the Thestral flight to the Ministry over the Thames. Interiors were built at Leavesden Studios in Watford, so only the exteriors can be visited.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was filmed on Lambeth Bridge and Stoney Street in London, the Glenfinnan Viaduct and Glen Coe in Scotland, Virginia Water in Surrey and the Divinity School in Oxford.
The third film was the first to use real locations extensively, so this route follows the story in film order, from the Knight Bus in London to the Dementors on the Highland train and the hospital wing in Oxford. Several lakes stood in for the Black Lake, so some pins are approximate.
Jack the Ripper's Whitechapel murders of 1888 happened along a few Whitechapel and Spitalfields streets: Durward Street (then Buck's Row), Hanbury Street, Berner Street, Mitre Square and Miller's Court in Spitalfields. Five killings are generally attributed to the unidentified murderer.
This route follows the canonical victims in date order, with the Goulston Street graffito and the Ten Bells pub. Some sites are gone or renamed, and Miller's Court has no pin.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is set in St. Petersburg, a town based on Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up: the Boyhood Home, Cardiff Hill and Mark Twain Cave.
Five stops follow the novel from the whitewashed fence to the cave where Tom and Becky Thatcher get lost, on the Mississippi's west bank. Jackson's Island, the pirates' hideaway, has no identified real model, so that stop marks the town and the river.
A Plague Tale: Innocence is set in Aquitaine in 1348, with landscapes inspired by Saint-Émilion, a town gate modelled on Carcassonne and a final cathedral based on Reims. Its sequel, Requiem, moves to Provence and Marseille in 1349.
The route follows Amicia and Hugo de Rune from their family estate through plague-ridden France to the Order's city of Marseille. Most pins are real stand-ins or regions, and each stop says how close the game comes to the real place.
