Kentucky in fiction

Tskware

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A lot of Rain Man was filmed in Kentucky.

Restaurant scene where Hoffman counted matches that fell on the floor was filmed at Pompilios in Newport

That is a really good family restaurant, and I don't even really like Italian food.
 

Nightwish84

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Couple more for Louisville and one for Bowling Green:

There's an entire section of The Hustler where Newman spends time in Louisville. I think it's around Derby.
William Girdler, born in Louisville, directed a Pam Grier film called Sheba, Baby, in which Grier's character returns home to Louisville (from Chicago) to battle thugs who've been intimidating her father and his business.
John Carpenter (raised in BG) put a lot of little Bowling Green and the surrounding area easter eggs into Halloween, including using street and county names.
 

Warrior Poet31

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Which part in The Fugitive? I racked my brain for years trying to find which scenes as I thought so too. I know US Marshals, the sequel was and had the scene where Wesley Snipes had the truck driver and his wife at gun point and shot right through the KSP barricade with the semi on the bridge.
The filming didn't take place in Ky, but many places in Ky were referenced. The dam was supposed to be Barkley dam even though it was filmed in N.C.
 
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kyblue'92

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The filming didn't take place in Ky, but many places in Ky were referenced. The dam was supposed to be Barkley dam even though it was filmed in N.C.
I remember something about The Fugitive & Kentucky but we could never really find anything before. I think I remember a reference to Eddyville at one point in US Marshals about a jumpsuit from one of the escapees in the plane crash.
 
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Glenn's Take

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The farm scenes in Secretariat were filmed in Lexington. The Derby scenes were filmed at Churchill and the Belmont was at Keeneland.
 

WildcatFan1982

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Couple more for Louisville and one for Bowling Green:

There's an entire section of The Hustler where Newman spends time in Louisville. I think it's around Derby.
Correct. There are scenes that were filmed in The Oakroom at the Seelbach Hotel. It was a billiard room back in those days. Now it's just a room that can be rented out for events. Stupid owners ruined it.
 
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entropy13

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The Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones series of fantasy novels and follow-on TV show were loosely based around Kentucky politics at the turn of the 20th century. The Seven Kingdoms parallel the seven regions of the state: Inner Bluegrass, Outer Bluegrass, The Knobs, Eastern Coal Field, Western Coal Field, Pennyrile, and the Jackson Purchase.

Also of note, the character of Ned Stark parallels that of Gov. William Goebel, who was assassinated shortly after winning the election of 1899.

 

Warrior Poet31

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Thanks, I remember my Father saying something about The Fugitive & Kentucky but we could never really find anything before. I think I remember a reference to Eddyville at one point in US Marshals about a jumpsuit from one of the escapees in the plane crash.
The hospital scene was filmed in Marshall county.
 

J_Dee

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Longtime X-Men member Cannonball is from Harlan County. His dad was killed in a mine collapse.

 
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Which part in The Fugitive? I racked my brain for years trying to find which scenes as I thought so too. I know US Marshals, the sequel was and had the scene where Wesley Snipes had the truck driver and his wife at gun point and shot right through the KSP barricade with the semi on the bridge.
I'm pretty sure Tommy Lee Jones referenced Kentucky about the search dogs when he was trying to find Harrison Ford's character. Thought there was a Paducah reference but it might have been in the second movie.
 
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kyblue'92

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I'm pretty sure Tommy Lee Jones referenced Kentucky about the search dogs when he was trying to find Harrison Ford's character. Thought there was a Paducah reference but it might have been in the second movie.
I don't seem to recall dogs in the search for Harrison Ford's escape at the train scene and being set in the Chicago area though it may not all have been filmed there. Likely was the 2nd one with Wesley Snipes on the run in U.S. Marshals since the plane scene was set in that part of Western Kentucky/Illinois.
 

kyblue'92

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The obstacle course was at Ft. Knox. I think some of the barracks were too.
Yes, some of those old white barracks still there on post and can be seen from 31-W. I go over there a couple times a year for my VA appointments. There were definitely mess halls that my Grandfather was blocked off from getting to pick up the garbage while they were shooting. He would take the 'slop' back from there to the hog farm he worked on.
 
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I don't seem to recall dogs in the search for Harrison Ford's escape at the train scene and being set in the Chicago area though it may not all have been filmed there. Likely was the 2nd one with Wesley Snipes on the run in U.S. Marshals since the plane scene was set in that part of Western Kentucky/Illinois.
Took me a little bit but found this and uploaded it.
 

kyblue'92

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Took me a little bit but found this and uploaded it.


I must've forgot that line in The Fugitive but now that you took the time to find it, that segment does come back to me now. I got thrown off confusing a reference of Kentucky with an actual scene and what was set/filmed in Kentucky. U.S. Marshals definitely has some scenes in Kentucky. U.S. Marshals Filming Locations

There is a brief clip of some search dogs in the hunt for Snipes towards the end of this video.



I did a little uploading myself for the part in US Marshals when the semi runs through the KSP cars on the bridge. In 2022, shocked this scene wasn't already online.



Another clip of KSP/Kentucky in U.S. Marshals if anyone is interested.

 
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_ukcat

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The 1955 film "The Kentuckian" with Burt Lancaster has a scene in it what was filmed at the Mill at Levi Jackson Park in London,Ky.
 

Elbridge

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The 1979 movie Steel was filmed in Lexington with Lee Majors who grew up in Middlesboro and graduated from EKU.
 

Wildcats1st

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Kingsman 2 has a significant Kentucky plot element.
And the first one with the church scene

Another one is Greenland with Gerard butler. They spend half the movie trying to get to Lexington before the world ends. Then from there go to Greenland
 

WildcatFan1982

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something that has annoyed me since middle school. In Clueless the finale is Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd kissing, and she goes "you know what happened next right?" and then it cuts to a wedding and she goes "ewww, we're in California not Kentucky!"

So in California it's ok to bone your brother, but not marry them? I mean I'm 100% positive that if I go to work tomorrow and say "Hey guess what, totally had sex with my sister!" I won't be getting anything other than disgusted looks and I'd probably get something thrown at me.
 

mdlUK.1

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Wasn't part of Stripes filmed in KY as well?
Yes. Downtown Louisville at the start. The camp they were taken when captured was an old distillery warehouse off hwy 245 south of Sheperdsville. I lived out there and drove by it every day.
 

trueblujr

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‘Elizabethtown’ takes place in Louisville and Elizabethtown and Orlando Blooms character stays at the Brown Hotel. But it was shot in Versailles
What's funny for anyone from here, was when Orlando Bloom landed in KY and started to drive to E-Town, he took a very obscure route. Instead of just hopping on 65 South at the airport, he went through downtown, may have even crossed the bridge into Indiana if I'm not mistaken and drove through the Cochran Hill tunnel on I-64, complete opposite direction he needed to go, but glad they showed a little of the area in that clip.
 

WildcatFan1982

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What's funny for anyone from here, was when Orlando Bloom landed in KY and started to drive to E-Town, he took a very obscure route. Instead of just hopping on 65 South at the airport, he went through downtown, may have even crossed the bridge into Indiana if I'm not mistaken and drove through the Cochran Hill tunnel on I-64, complete opposite direction he needed to go, but glad they showed a little of the area in that clip.

yeah when I went with my friends to see it we were like ‘wtf is he doing?’
 

mdlUK.1

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What's funny for anyone from here, was when Orlando Bloom landed in KY and started to drive to E-Town, he took a very obscure route. Instead of just hopping on 65 South at the airport, he went through downtown, may have even crossed the bridge into Indiana if I'm not mistaken and drove through the Cochran Hill tunnel on I-64, complete opposite direction he needed to go, but glad they showed a little of the area in that clip.
They did the same in Stripes. Headed from Louisville to the airport but came back across the bridge. I guess to get the skyline.
 

trueblujr

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Correct. There are scenes that were filmed in The Oakroom at the Seelbach Hotel. It was a billiard room back in those days. Now it's just a room that can be rented out for events. Stupid owners ruined it.
Are you talking about the Oakroom Restaurant or the Rathskeller which is in the basement of the Seelbach. The Oakroom is still a restaurant if I'm not mistaken, but the Rathskeller is an event space. I know this because the wedding reception for my first marriage was held down in the Rathskeller.
 

WildcatFan1982

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Are you talking about the Oakroom Restaurant or the Rathskeller which is in the basement of the Seelbach. The Oakroom is still a restaurant if I'm not mistaken, but the Rathskeller is an event space. I know this because the wedding reception for my first marriage was held down in the Rathskeller.
I'm talking about The Oakroom. It stopped being a restaurant on 1/1/2018. I worked at The Seelbach when it happened. I don't remember his name, but the F&B manager very openly admitted that he was running it into the ground on purpose because he thought it would make more money as an event space. When Musselman bought the hotel from Interstate Hotels he was the only manager not retained.
 

kyblue'92

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What's funny for anyone from here, was when Orlando Bloom landed in KY and started to drive to E-Town, he took a very obscure route. Instead of just hopping on 65 South at the airport, he went through downtown, may have even crossed the bridge into Indiana if I'm not mistaken and drove through the Cochran Hill tunnel on I-64, complete opposite direction he needed to go, but glad they showed a little of the area in that clip.
It certainly was disappointing that more of E'town wasn't filmed in that movie as a resident, being born and raised here.
 

J_Dee

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With Patrick Patterson moving into movie business, I think it would be awesome if he adapted Don Rosa's Captain Kentucky into a film. :b