Story by Natalie Pomper
Design by Charlotte Cheng
 
Oregon has been the scene for more than 400 films since the debut of the The Fisherman’s Bride in 1908. The state’s dynamic landscapes have allowed producers to portray the spirit of a variety of genres, including the 1920s silent era film The General (1926), thrillers such as The Ring (2002), and comedies like Without a Paddle: Nature’s Calling (2009).
Producers have coveted Oregon’s notoriously ever-changing skies, dense forests, grassy meadows, rocky coastlines, and vast oceanic views. The state’s rowdy waves and towering rock formations have served as the backdrop for adventure, and small towns scattered across Oregon have provided versatile backgrounds for filmmakers. These settings can be easily transformed to profile the simple life of the 1800s or to mimic haunting twenty-first century crime scenes. The Twilight saga captures its supernatural ambiance by taking advantage of Oregon’s Victorian and rural architecture. Even the University of Oregon’s academic buildings—Johnson Hall, Fenton Hall, Gerlinger Hall, and the Erb Memorial Union (EMU)—served as iconic settings in National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). The locations on this map distinguish Oregon as a center of cinema.
The General (1927): Vast open grasslands and mysterious dark woods in Cottage Grove, Oregon were used to recreate the Civil War in Buster Keaton’s classic comedy. The silent film featured 500 Oregon National Guards acting as soldiers in the battle scenes.
Free Willy I and II (1993): Keiko, the star of this film, was the first and only whale to be held in captivity and later released into the wild. After Free Willy was filmed, Keiko spent time at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon. In 2002, he was transported to Iceland where he was released into the ocean.
The Shining (1977): Overlook Hotel’s eerie, ghost-like façade was shot using the exterior of the Timberline Lodge. The interior, as well as the back of the hotel, was built and filmed in London. The lodge staff requested that screenwriter Stanley Kubrick not use room number 217 in the film because they feared guests would no longer want to stay in that room. Kubrick changed the script to feature the nonexistent room 237.
The Goonies (1985): Haystack Rock at the southern tip of Cannon Beach is the first piece of the puzzle in The Goonies’ treasure map. On the film’s twenty-fifth anniversary, Astoria opened the Oregon Film Museum in the building featured as the jail in the film. As part of the celebration, Mayor Willis Van Dusen declared June 7 “Goonies Day.”
Twilight (2008): The film’s female protagonist, Bella, is sent to Forks, Washington, to reconnect with her father and attend high school. The small town of Vernonia represents Forks, and its local bank is featured as the Forks Police Station. St. Helens appears in the film as Port Angeles and is the setting for Bella’s house.
Point Break (1991): Indian Beach doubled as Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia, in this internationally renowned film. A legend of a “50 Year Storm” that causes lethal waves evolves into a reality throughout the plot; it is a surfers dream, and a suicide mission, to ride this wicked typhoon’s waves that were filmed at Indian Beach.
National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978): Nearly all of the buildings featured in University of Oregon’s college classic are still in use today. The film’s misfit Delta boys performed stunts across the campus, even initiating a massive food fight in the EMU food court. Reportedly, former University of Oregon president William P. Boyd was so delighted to have the comedy filmed on campus that he volunteered his own office to serve as Dean Wormer’s office for the glorious horse scene.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1976): The mental institution scenes in this film were shot at the Oregon State Hospital, where many actual patients played extras. The title of the film became a reality during production when a patient fell from a second story window. Despite these circumstances, in 1975 at the forty-eighth Academy Awards ceremony, the film flew to success as one of only three to have won the top five major awards: best picture, actor, actress, director, and screenplay.
The Great Race (1965): This Oscar-winning American classic about a car race spanning three continents was filmed in 14 locations worldwide, including Gearhart, Oregon. Final production costs for The Great Race peaked $12 million, and at its release, was considered to be the most expensive comedy ever produced.
Kindergarten Cop (1990): Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an undercover kindergarten teacher at Astor Elementary School in Astoria, Oregon. The film brought the community together by using Astor’s students, teachers, and neighbors as extras in the film. Students created most of the artwork inside Schwarzenegger’s classroom. As a bonus, Universal Studios hired local artists to paint murals on the school’s exterior and provided new playground equipment and a fresh lawn around the building.
Into the Wild (2007): Director Sean Penn recreated the true story of Christopher McCandless, a daring young man on a quest to fulfill his dreams. This film was based on Jon Krakauer’s 1996 best selling novel, Into the Wild, and won the sixty-fifth Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for a motion picture.