Table Of Content
Lights, Camera, Salem: Unveiling Movie Magic in Oregon
Lights, camera, action! If you’re a movie buff in search of a real-life cinematic adventure, then you’ve come to the right place. Salem, Oregon, may be known for its natural beauty and charming vibes, but did you know it has also played a starring role in numerous films? Buckle up and get ready to explore the iconic filming locations that have graced the silver screen. Trust us, this is one trip you won’t want to miss!
The Exciting World of Movie Filming Locations Awaits
Welcome to the enchanting universe where your favorite movies come to life! Whether you’re feeling a bit bored or simply seeking an adventure, visiting the filming locations in Salem, Oregon is an unbeatable option.
Prepare to be transported into the very heart of cinema as you wander the same streets, parks, and landmarks that your favorite actors once walked. It’s like being a character in the movie yourself, minus the dramatic plot twists or vampire love interests (although we can’t promise you won’t bump into a few Twilight fans along the way).
Key Takeaways
Ready to dive into Salem’s reel-life scene? Here are a few key takeaways to keep in mind:
- Salem, Oregon has been a backdrop for several notable movies.
- Exploring movie filming locations adds an exciting dimension to your travel adventures.
- You’ll have the chance to stand in the exact spots where your favorite scenes were filmed.
- Discover hidden gems and lesser-known areas of Salem that you might not have stumbled upon otherwise.
Reel in the Fun: Why Visit Movie Filming Locations?
Picture this: you’ve just finished watching an intense action sequence, and now you have an incredible opportunity to experience it firsthand. By stepping foot in Salem’s movie filming locations, you bring the movies from the screen to reality. It’s a chance to feel the energy of a Hollywood set, even if you’re nowhere near Tinseltown.
But it’s not just about reliving cinematic moments. Visiting filming locations can lead you to explore unique neighborhoods, stumble upon charming cafes, or even discover your new favorite park. It’s an adventure that blends the reel world with the real world, making for unforgettable memories and unexpected encounters.
Who knows, you might even end up discovering a hidden talent for screenwriting or become the next Hollywood star. Salem, Oregon might just be the beginning of your journey!
So, what are you waiting for? Grab your camera, pack your bags, and get ready to embark on a movie-inspired escapade. Unleash your inner movie critic and explore the streets where your favorite actors once walked. We promise laughter, adventure, and perhaps a splash of movie magic along the way. Lights, camera, Salem!
Lights, camera, action! Explore the Movies Filmed in Salem, Oregon
Now, it’s time to unleash the movie buff within! Click below to dive into the listicle featuring a compilation of awe-inspiring flicks filmed in the beautiful city of Salem, Oregon.
From heartwarming stories to thrilling adventures, these movies have captured the essence of this enchanting place. Lights. Camera. Check it out!
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest-US Box Office: USD$108,981,275
Director: Milos Foreman
Main Cast: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco, Dean Brooks, Alonzo Brown, Scatman Crothers
Release Date: November 19, 1975
Filming Locations: Oregon State Mental Hospital – 2600 Center Street NE, Salem, Oregon, USA; Depoe Bay, Oregon, USA; Salem, Oregon, USA; Fort Bragg, California, USA; Oregon, USA
Main Plot: McMurphy, a man with multiple convictions, returns to prison. This time the charge was statutory rape, when it turned out his girlfriend lied about being 18 when she was 15 (or, as McMurphy puts it, “15 to 35”). Rather than serve time in prison, he convinced guards that he was crazy enough to require psychiatric treatment and was taken to a hospital. He was a good fit, and his different perspectives started to move some patients toward progress. Nurse Ratched becomes his rival because his resistance to the hospital routine makes him nervous.
Famous quotes:
McMurphy: “Jesus, I mean, you guys do nothing but complain about how you can’t stand it in this place here, and you don’t have the guts to walk out? What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or something? Well, you’re not! You’re not! You’re no crazier than the average asshole out walkin’ around on the streets, and that’s it.”
Chief Bromden: “Mac… they said you escaped. I knew you wouldn’t leave without me. I was waiting for you. Now we can make it, Mac; I feel big as a damn mountain.”
McMurphy: “[about shock treatments] They gave me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I’m hot to trot! The next woman takes me one that will light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars!”
Chief Bromden: “My poop was huge. He did as he pleased. That’s why everybody worked on him. The last time I saw my father, he was blind and diseased from drinking. And every time he put the bottle to his mouth, he didn’t suck out of it. It sucked out of him until he shrunk so wrinkled and yellow that even the dogs didn’t know him.”
McMurphy: “She was fifteen years old, going on thirty-five, Doc, and she told me she was eighteen. She was very willing, and I practically had to take to sewing my pants shut. Between you and me, uh, she might have been fifteen, but when you get that little red beaver right up there in front of you, I don’t think it’s crazy at all, and I don’t think you do either.”
Sequel: The Silence of Lambs; Schindler’s List
Fun facts about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest:
- In the film, many actors are actual mental patients.
- During filming, a crew member running cables left a second-floor window of the Oregon State Psychiatric Hospital open. An actual patient climbed through the bars and fell on the floor, injuring himself. The following day, the Statesman Journal of Salem, Oregon, reported the incident with the front-page headline “One Flew Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Bandits- US Box Office: USD$41,575,141
Director: Barry Levinson
Main Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Kate Blanchette, Troy Garity, Brian Byrne, Stacey Travis, Bruce Willis
Release Date: October 12, 2001
Filming Locations: Crown Point, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA; Silverton, Oregon, USA; Lake Oswego, Oregon, USA; Salem, Oregon, USA; Bodega Bay, California, USA
Main Plot: Two inmates, one charismatic and the other hypochondriac (Thornton), escape from prison and immediately embark on a bank robbery and kidnap bank managers. They spend the night with their families and go with managers in the morning to rob banks. With the help of a stupid stuntman as driver and lookout, the three manage to do various jobs. They even capture the attention of a TV show about American criminals. They became known as “The Sleepover Bandits.” Things are fine until the bank executives realize that the robbers are not violent and therefore pose no threat to them or their employees, changing the game for the Bandits. In addition to the complications, a bored and unhappy housewife (Blanchett) ends up in the hands of criminals and develops romantic feelings for both Willis and Thornton, triggering a sticky love triangle.
Famous quotes:
Terry: “Vaginitis. She’s been suffering from an abnormal vaginal discharge. You know the common symptoms, a viscous fluid, usually associated with vaginitis.”
Terry: “You’re going to knock over a bank with a Magic Marker? What are you going to do? Write about them?”
Terry: “One, I had no choice, two, I may have suffered a slight concussion,n and three, she is mentally imbalanced to a spectacular degree.”
Terry: “You know the hardest thing about being smart?”
Terry: “I always pretty much know what’s going to happen next. There’s no suspense.”
Sequel: Hart’s War; Hostage
Fun facts about Bandits:
- The plot is loosely based on real-life bank robbers Terry Lee Connor and Joseph Daugherty. Many elements of their robberies are accurately depicted in this film, including breaking into a bank manager’s home and a drink for one of their victims.
- The little girl burping during the dinner scene is Bruce Willis’ daughter, Scout Willis, and according to him, that burp wasn’t amplified. The other daughter is another of Willis’ daughters, Tallulah Willis.
The Hunted- US Box Office: USD$34,244,097
Director: William Friedkin
Main Cast: John Belushi, Cab Calloway, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Donald Dunn, Willie Hall, Lou Marini, Alan Rubin, Henry Gibson, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Ray Charles, Steve Cropper, Murphy Dunne, Tom Malone, Matt Murphy, Carrie Fisher, John Lee Hooker
Release Date: 20 June 1980
Filming Locations: Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA; Mount Hood, Oregon, USA; Hawthorne Bridge, Portland, Oregon, USA; Old Town, Portland, Oregon, USA; Ross Island, Portland, Oregon, USA
Main Plot: In the verdant forests of Silver Falls, Oregon, Aaron Hallam, a trained Special Forces assassin AWOL, watches over wildlife. After four deer hunters are brutally murdered in the Harlem area, FBI agent Abby Darrell turns to L.T. Bonham – the man who could stop him. At first, L.T. rejected the mission. Satisfied with his retirement, he is close to his past, the years he spent in the special forces training soldiers to be skilled assassins. But when he realized that these recent murders were the work of someone he trained, he felt obligated to stop him. L.T. took the tasks while working alone and headed into the woods, unarmed. He was haunted by memories of his best student and guilt over not answering Aaron’s tormented letters as he began to slip over the edge of sanity. Aaron is angry that his former mentor ignored his pleas for help, but he knows he has an inextricable and tragic bond with L.T.
Famous quotes:
Narrator: “[voiceover] God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son.” Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on.” God says, “no”; Abe says, “what?” God said, “You can do what you want, Abe, but the next time you see me comin’, you better run.” Abe says, “Where do you want this killing done?” God says, “Out on Highway 61.”
Aaron Hallam: “What if there was a species above us in the food chain? How would you feel if that species lost total respect for us and started slaughtering us wholesale?”
L.T.: “[talking about Aaron Hallam] He’s unusual. He can kill anybody without regret. Most people he killed never knew he was in the same room as them.”
Aaron Hallam: “If you cross this line, you better be ready to kill me.”
L.T.: “[speaks to a group of elite US soldiers] I will teach you how to kill. Quickly. Accurately. Efficiently. It will become a reflex action. You will learn how to enter a combat zone and evaporate into shadow. You will learn how to survive… or you will not!”
Sequel: Rules of Engagement; Basic
Fun facts about The Hunted:
- The martial art Bonham Hallam teaches and uses against each other is called Sayoc Kali. It is a variant of Eskrima, the Filipino martial arts system dedicated to weapons. Sayoc Kali deals exclusively with knives in extreme melee combat.
- Tommy Lee Jones had a good working relationship with William Friedkin. He agreed to sign on for the film after reading the script. He was reportedly paid nearly twenty million dollars for the role, his highest payday.
10 Days in a Madhouse-US Box Office: USD$14,616
Director: Timothy Hines
Main Cast: Caroline Barry, Christopher Lambert, Kelly Lebrock, Julia Chantrey, Shasha Kerbel, David Mitchum
Release Date: November 11, 2015
Filming Locations: Salem, Oregon, USA; Anaheim, California, USA; Culver City, California, USA
Main Plot: The film follows 23-year-old journalist Nellie Bly (Caroline Barry) as she embarks on her first undercover assignment for famed newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Long fake insanity, Bly is arrested and declared insane in front of a judge for being undercover at Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum for women, run by EC Dent (Christopher Lambert). Behind the thick walls and bars of the asylum, Nellie Bly, faced with a life-threatening threat, searches for institutional corruption, abuse, and murder. The Blys article initiates eleven judicial investigations, including the grand jury, which ultimately lead to the closure of Blackwell’s Asylum. Nellie Bly is the first woman to write serious investigative news on the front page.
Famous quotes:
Nellie Bly: “If you give up now, the good may come along, and you will not know it.”
Nellie Bly: “Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything.”
Dr. Dent: “There are many truths here at Blackwell’s.”
Dr. Dent: “It is, after all, an asylum for the insane.”
Miss Grupe: “Inmates running the Asylum. I don’t think so.”
Sequel: Tomorrow’s Today
Fun facts about 10 Days in a Madhouse:
- Filmed mainly in Salem, Oregon, another film about institutional care for the mentally ill.
- Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) was also shot in Salem. Principal photography takes place at the Fairview Learning Center, built in the early 1900s to care for people with cognitive disabilities.
Evil Under the Skin
Director: Jeffrey Schneider
Main Cast: Helene Udy, Pamela Sutch, Carl Bailey, Donna Hamblin, Jeffrey Schneider, Tim O’Hearn
Release Date: June 1, 2019
Filming Locations: Salem, Oregon, USA
Main Plot: Sophie (Udy) and her daughter Rosalie (Barajas) spend time together at their lake house to reconnect. Evil begins to lurk beneath the surface when locals Carla (Hamblin) and Matt (O’Hearn) find out the two are together, wondering if there is a noise from the house at night. As time passes, there is uncertainty about the truth and whether something happened in the place, which Sofia denies.
Famous quotes:
Sheriff: “Did you hear a disturbance last Thursday at about 10 pm?”
Mother: “My daughter and I were eating, sleeping, and sunbathing,g and that’s all.”
Mother: “Is everything okay?”
Sheriff: “That’s why we are here, miss.”
Sheriff: “Kids do things sometimes they don’t want to talk about.”
Sequel: Evil Under the Sun
Fun fact about Evil Under the Skin:
- The film only consists of six characters; a mother and daughter, a couple who have plans for the people in the house, and a sheriff and park ranger who are in the house’s past.
- The movie is also known as Maldad Bajo la piel.
