Kentucky in fiction

J_Dee

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What are some examples of Kentucky in popular fiction? The more obscure, the better.

In the GI Joe episode "Battle for the Train of Gold" (October 16, 1985), COBRA steals the gold from Fort Knox by building a giant gilded snake train right outside of Elizabethtown that somehow nobody notices, so the Joes commandeer a bunch of Thoroughbreds from Murphy's Stables, a Kentucky horse farm, to catch 'em.

The episode features Thunder, the only Joe from Kentucky. I assume he's named after John Breckinridge and maybe also Matthew Harris Jouett.





 

WildcatFan1982

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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
 
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WildcatFan1982

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The movie ‘dreamer’ was filmed in Kentucky and the Breeders Cup was at Keeneland (about a decade before that really happened)

I did find it funny that the movie starts out with Dakota Fanning talking about life in Lexington and then immediately gets on a school bus that says ‘woodford county’ on it.
Also I worked at the Kernel when that movie came out and I got to interview the director/writer and Oded Feher who was the middle eastern guy that helped finance the horse (and in Deuce Bigalow)

they both told me how much they loved Kentucky and loved visiting. And they seemed quite sincere
 

UKUGA

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In the book, “Where the Red Fern Grows”, the boy sneaks off to Kentucky to pick up his dogs.
 

berniecarbo

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Parts of How The West Was Won was filmed around Paducah and Smithland around the Ohio and Cumberland rivers. The stars like John Wayne stayed at the old Holiday Inn. The river pirate scenes were filmed in southern Illinois at Cave in Rock. They paid a guy full time to shoot snakes to keep them away from the stars.
 

Nightwish84

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In The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the character of Ned (Owen Wilson) was a pilot from Louisville. The city is mentioned several times and Wilson has a midwestern/southern type accent throughout the film.
In The Return of the Living Dead, even though the film was shot in LA, the story takes place in Louisville. The climax of course, involves several city blocks destroyed by a nuclear warhead.
The Nic Cage film, Mom and Dad, was filmed in Louisville and there's a scene involving parents chasing their kids across a football field. That field belongs to Saint X high school.
The Netflix limited series, The Queen's Gambit, primarily takes place in Kentucky, with the lead being from Lexington I believe.
 
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UK_Dallas

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River Rat and In Country were filmed near or in Paducah also.

- Bruce Willis and Demi Moore's first kid was born in Paducah.
- I was an extra in US Marshals. The plane crash and after scene.
 
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J_Dee

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Anyone remember the 1969-1971 television movie and show "The Immortal"? I've never seen it before. It's set in Kentucky but I don't know if it was filmed here (I doubt it was).

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065303/

An immortal man whose blood can have miraculous health benefits is a fugitive from those who would exploit both him and his brother he seeks.

 

J_Dee

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My Old Kentucky home is the first sound cartoon ever produced and finds a dog getting ready for dinner as the story takes us into a sing-a-long with "My Old Kentucky Home".

 

Spica Orbit

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This is really obscure & weird, since it was the only mention of Kentucky in the whole movie. In the western A Distant Trumpet, one character asks another where in Kentucky he's from & he replies "Lancaster. Me & Daniel Boone".
 

UK_Dallas

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If you've read the book Without Remorse by Clancy then you know that Mr. Clark(John Kelly) is from KY.
 

Rebelfreedomeagle

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The Flim Flam Man filmed in Anderson and Woodford counties. They used locals as extras so, yeah, they used genuine rubes.
 
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A mix of fiction and non fiction, Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) in Brady Bunch introduced Great Grandma Hutchins from Owensboro, she’s from Owensboro.

“ I’d like you to meet the pride of Owensboro, Kentucky. The one and only Connie Hutchins.”
 
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lex cath

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A judge asked me one time after we broke for lunch if I had ever seen the movie coal miners daughter which of course I had not but I did the next week 🍺 some hardcore stuff for sure. Those people remind me of the Cajuns with how they lived
 
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While it wasn't filmed here, the first Return of the Living Dead took place in Louisville.

Bill Paxton's character in Edge of Tomorrow was from Science Hill, Kentucky.

The building that blew up in Demolition Man was done in Louisville.

A crappy low budget horror movie was filmed here in Louisville at Waverly Hills called Death Tunnel.
 

KentuckyTexan

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Racing Stripes was set in Kentucky but I think most of the filming was down in South Africa so the geography looks a bit wonky. lol
 

kyblue'92

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The Fugitive and U.S. Marshalls
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.