Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Films featuring the WTC

This is topic Films featuring the WTC in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 09-22-2001, 10:42 AM:

I'll start.

Godspell (1973.)

It features a dance number on the roof of the North tower. Good, though underrated film.

Posted by Arthur Allen (Member # 969) on 09-22-2001, 10:58 AM:

The ending of "Trading Places" takes place in a commodies trading room at or near the WTC. And there was a Simpsons episode that took place in the courtyard between the towers.

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 09-22-2001, 11:21 AM:

The WIz, where the big production number took place in the plaza below, the "horse of another color" (if you need to reference from the original "Wizard of Oz"

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 09-22-2001, 11:52 AM:

Wasn't it the WTC buildings that King Kong jumped between in the last remake a few years back

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Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 09-22-2001, 03:52 PM:

Your right Greg, the 1976 version of King Kong had the big ape climb one tower then jump to the second one. It starred Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 09-22-2001, 05:44 PM:

yep and he fell to his death right between the two towers...I remember seeing King Kong in theaters in 1976....Didn't someone try to walk a tightrope between the two buildings....I can't think of the guys name that did the walk....or if it was the twin towers that was featured in the stunt.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 09-22-2001, 06:04 PM:

Yes, Darryl, the tightrope walker was Philipe Petit, and it was 1984, as memory serves. He had an accomplice help him raise a wire and secure it between the two towers, and then he walked across it holding a balance bar. I recall that the police who were waiting for him on the top of the other tower were mightly impressed, they gave him a big round of appaluse before hauling him off. I think the charges were eventually dropped.

It's been over a week now, and it still won't sink in. I come into town on the train from New Jersey, getting off at Christopher Street in the Village, and the first thing I used to look for when I got up to street level was the WTC towers to get my bearings. Now, nothing. Unnerving to know that while you are buying your morning muffin and coffee, nearly 7000 people lay dead less than a mile away.

Posted by Joel Michalec (Member # 995) on 09-23-2001, 01:14 AM:

Nothing But Trouble - Chevy Chase,Demi Moore,John Candy

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 09-23-2001, 01:50 AM:

Didn't Men in Black wave the WTC in it?

It was kinda all over New York City, though, so I'm not entirely sure.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 09-23-2001, 03:30 AM:

Anyone know of any films that show the INSIDE of the buildings? The only one I've heard of is "Three Days of the Condor", which I have the original CAV DiscoVision laserdisc of and will have to check closely for.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 09-23-2001, 04:53 AM:

I think I'm totally wrong but isn't the wtc shown in A.I
there is a scene where Jude law and Haley Joel Osment are driving around a city with tower blocks.

Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 09-23-2001, 08:13 AM:

There's a shot of the Towers in MGMs "Heartbreakers".

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 09-23-2001, 03:35 PM:

How about "Home Alone II", or whatever the one was in which Macauley Calkin was left in New York. I remember watching the particular scene and thinking the sky line must have changed a lot since my great-grandparents were married there in 1910.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-24-2001, 09:38 PM:

How about "Superman: The Movie". It not only features a few shots of the real towers, but then also has one of the cheeziest models of the NYC Skyline with not too convincing replicas of the twin towers.

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 09-25-2001, 12:34 AM:

I counted over nine shots of the towers in Superman. Side note, I remember the huge pits when they excavated the foundations, looking down and seeing the Path tubes. Never cared for the towers that much, they seemed out of scale to me, kind of like buck teeth on the skyline. Still, I'd rather have them standing now.

Posted by Wes Hughes (Member # 981) on 09-27-2001, 10:44 AM:

I used to help my roomate sell sushi on the WTC Plaza when I lived in the city.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 09-27-2001, 11:41 AM:

The large-format film Across the Sea of Time: New York 3D and the Imax Branding Trailer (which has a clip from ATSOT) ...

And maybe Encounter in the Third Dimension, but I'll have to watch for that one at work tonight.

(Later that day ...) Nope. That wasn't NYC in E3D.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 09-28-2001, 07:00 AM:

We opened A.I. two days after the tragedy. It was (and still is) very sad to see it every day.

There are two major shots involving the WTC. One is as Hayley and Jude and Teddy fly into NYC to try and find the Blue Fairy. Most other buildings have collapsed or fallen over on their sides...but the two WTC are still there as tall as ever.

The other is 2000 years further on and all is snow and ice. There are hardly any other buildings around...either collapsed or covered in snow...but there they both are.

The term 'a tragedy' somehow just doesn't seem enough...

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 09-28-2001, 02:31 PM:

There are a couple scenes in 'Glitter' that start on the towers and then pan down to the street...

-Aaron

Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 10-02-2001, 11:45 AM:

Found another one! It's in 'The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle' (I LOVE that movie!!!).

There's a scene in which Rocky flies Karen Sympathy to New York. As they arrive, the New York skyline is shown with the WTC prominently displayed on the left of the frame.

Very, very funny movie, by the way, and very uplifting and cheerful.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 10-07-2001, 03:22 PM:

Ghostbusters 2

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 10-07-2001, 04:07 PM:

Old tv show....Barney Miller in the opening credits....

The toxic Avenger in the first five minutes......

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 10-09-2001, 07:16 PM:

I watched Moonstruck again the other night. It's a perennial favourite of ours...

I knew they would be there somewhere, but got quite a shock when they are both there right behind the opening title.

Several other places in the film also...a shot of the skyline with 'Cosmo's Moon' beside the towers and as Loretta (Cher) is walking home after the opera at the Met they are in the background as dawn breaks.

Still a fantastic movie with an excellent ensemble cast...but somehow a little different this time round...(sigh)

John

Posted by Gordon Hedges III (Member # 863) on 10-10-2001, 05:43 AM:

I'm surprised that nobody brought this one up. I just recently watched this movie the other day and was shocked at how close the burning towers were the real thing. ARMAGEDDON. I am talking about the opening sequence involving the little meteors that pummel NYC. The smoke and placement of the destruction on the WTC is unbelievable.

I would have to watch AMERICAN PSYCHO again to see if they are in it. I am pretty sure... I think.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 10-10-2001, 10:04 AM:

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo are walking down the street towards the end of the film , at night, and the WTC towers are in the distance

------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 10-10-2001, 05:40 PM:

The beginning of Loser features the NYC skyline with the WTC prominent.

Posted by Arthur Allen (Member # 969) on 10-12-2001, 10:09 AM:

I wonder if this year's Oscars will do a montage of the more upbeat WTC appearances in movies.

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 10-12-2001, 07:35 PM:

I havent seen or remember most of these movies, but it seems as if some of them only have the towers visible at some point.

How many of these other than the obvious examples given actually make use of them (King Kong, AI, Armageddon) rather that simply displaying them (Nothing But Trouble, Heartbreakers, Thomas Crown Affair)?

Posted by German Marin (Member # 918) on 10-14-2001, 05:11 AM:

What about "Spiderman"? in this trailer appears a helicopter traped into spider's web between two towers. Three days after tragedy we removed it. (I keep two frames).

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 10-23-2001, 03:19 PM:

Several pretty nightime shots of the NYC skyline from across the East River in "Stuart Little" feature the lit twin towers.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
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Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 10-23-2001, 03:48 PM:

The new Michael Douglas movie "Don't Say a Word" shows the twin towers way in the background in the scene when he is going across the bay to Hart Island with his patient.

Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 10-23-2001, 07:20 PM:

This post may be better placed in Films that DONT feature the WTC!

On flicking through an old Empire magazine, i came across an interview with Luc Besson, around the time The Fifth Element was released in the UK. There was some talk of critics slating his view of the future (or something like that). He said, and i paraphrase, "What do they know? i've been living in the 23rd century for ..years. they haven't even set foot in it"

Funnily enough the article is proceeded by a two-page image of Besson's image of NY in the 23rd century, and i can't spot the WTC anywhere. Granted i live in Scotland and i am not au-fait with the NY skyline, if it's there i'm sure you'll all spot it.

Here's a link to that pic
http://www.ozcraft.com/cgibin/picview.cgi?fifth_el/city.jpg

Posted by Anthony Reid (Member # 1009) on 11-08-2001, 04:19 PM:

American Pie 2, Nadia is speaking on the phone to Jim from a payphone in New York and the WTC can be seen in the background....

....and here's a long shot, The French Connection, I'm not sure but in a scene where the Frenchman is being interviewed on the dock, can you not see the WTC towers being constructed on Manhatten Island across the river.

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 11-09-2001, 01:47 AM:

The Cruise - 1998
Documentary of a Manhattan tourbus guide - Timothy 'Speed' Levitch. There are two predominant scenes where he talks about the trade center.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 11-09-2001, 04:27 PM:

Rented "Family Man" with Nicolas Cage and Tai Leoni last weekend. There was a good shot of the twin towers in that one. Cage was looking across the water toward the towers from Jersey. Don't know which body of water.... never been to NYC.

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Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Nashville, Tennessee
(Drive-In Theatre - Start-Up)

Posted by Aaron Haney (Member # 747) on 11-09-2001, 05:23 PM:

There is a very prominent shot of the WTC in Die Hard with a Vengeance. Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis are jogging down the street, and it pretty much is the whole background. It's about 70 minutes into the film. You just can't miss it.

I wonder: if that movie were released on DVD just after 9/11, rather than a couple of months prior, would they have taken it out? It sounds absurd, but you never know what people will do in a misguided attempt at sensitivity.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-09-2001, 09:16 PM:

I was in a store today and saw a "budget" DVD ($4.95) for the 1974 made-for-TV movie "Terror on the 40th Floor". The DVD cover art of the burning skyscaper (different than the VHS tape pictured on the IMDB) looked disturbingly similar to the burning WTC :

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0072268

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 11-09-2001, 10:03 PM:

Anyone know if the Towering Inferno was inspired by the building of WTC?

Posted by Aaron Haney (Member # 747) on 11-09-2001, 11:38 PM:

According to this, The Towering Inferno ... "is based on on two novels: The Tower by Stern, Richard Martin, and The Glass Inferno by Scortia, Thomas N. and Robinson, Frank M." The former sounds like a thinly veiled take on the WTC, but the latter is set in San Francisco. So I guess the answer is yes and no.

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 11-10-2001, 01:47 PM:

Barry, the body of water between the WTC and New Jersey would be the Hudson River.

Several local TV stations were broadcasting from the WTC, plus many radio stations and other communications services (pagers, two-way radio, etc.) Many are still off-the-air. You can get the TV stations if you have cable, but not with a regular TV antenna (apparently, 25% of NYC does not have cable.) Most TV stations had moved their transmitting facilities from the Empire State Building to the WTC shortly after it was built. They did this not only because the WTC was higher, but the WTC building was actually partially blocking the signal, causing ghosting on TV sets in parts of New Jersey.

When the TV stations left the Empire State Building, radio and other communications services filled up the avaiable bandwidth there, so they can't go back. There's a big scramble to find good locations for transmitting locations, but apparently there just isn't that many good places.

Posted by Tao Yue (Member # 836) on 11-10-2001, 04:44 PM:

WCBS was the only major station to maintain backup facilities on the Empire State Building. The other stations switched mostly to temporary facilities in Alpine, NJ. WABC also began transmitting from the Empire State building on October 29.

Not sure about what John said (no room on top of Empire). Perhaps on top of Chrysler? Using more compact transmitters might also squeeze them in there. Otherwise, how did WABC get on top of Empire?

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Tao Yue
MIT '04: Course VI-2, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Projectionist, MIT Lecture Series Committee

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 11-10-2001, 05:03 PM:

A single tethered balloon might be adequate. Air rights over the ex WTC site probably still exist. It could work with a three point tether, feeds for various antenna and a feed for helium.

Posted by Sterling Hedgpeth (Member # 779) on 11-13-2001, 02:59 PM:

I just saw "Escape from New York" again for the first time in ages and I'd forgotten that Kurt Russell sneaks into Manhattan by landing his glider on top of the WTC.

Long time lurker finally posting...

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 11-21-2001, 12:37 PM:

Sidewalks of New York has at least 2 shots with the WTC clearly visible.

Ironically, that picture was to have opened on 9/21 but was delayed until today due to the events of 9/11.

Posted by Arthur Allen (Member # 969) on 11-24-2001, 12:05 AM:

I heard that in the movie Mario Brothers one of the World Trade Center towers starts to disappear through magic, but I haven't seen the movie myself.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 11-27-2001, 11:50 PM:

There's a shot at the end of "Sid and Nancy" which features the WTC twin towers quite clearly.... (Just saw this at a midnight show over the weekend.)

Posted by Colin Wiseley (Member # 247) on 11-28-2001, 10:18 AM:

The towers are framed in the center of the screen during the opening credits for Crocodile Dundee II after he gets busted for fishing with dynamite by the NYPD.

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Colin Wiseley
Lyric Theatre
Blacksburg, VA
www.thelyric.com