Hollywood in da Burgh: Dahntahn Movie Locations Virtual Cache

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF PITTSBURGHESE: Come visit beautiful downtown Pittsburgh, and take an easy walking tour of three locations that have been featured in seven Hollywood movies!

Did you know that Pittsburgh is frequently used as a movie location, both because it can "stand in" for other cities where it's more expensive to film, and because it's a cool city to feature in its own right? See this Wikipedia List of 93 Films set in Pittsburgh. And, to get you in the mood for this virtual tour of some downtown movie locations, watch this spectacular YouTube video that features clips from all seven movies covered by this cache, plus a whole lot more.

There are lots of locations around the Pittsburgh area that are featured in movies starring famous actors, from Jodie Foster in "Silence of the Lambs" to Emma Watson in "Love & Other Drugs" to Denzel Washington in "Fences," but I'm not going to make you drive all over. Instead, I ask you to walk a half mile to three spots that can be visited in less than an hour, and there are other caches to find along the way. The sites can be visited in any order, so park once and enjoy your walk. To fully experience this virtual, be sure to look at the images and text below so you'll know what spots were featured in which movies - although I've chosen three places that are worthy of a virtual cache all by themselves!

Logging Requirements

To minimize scrolling and searching, I've collected the four logging requirements here near the top of the cache page:

1. At Stage 1, the posted coordinates, you will be on the sidewalk to cross the Smithfield Street bridge. There's a utility pole between the sidewalk and the street. Look on the street side of the pole and spot the PGH DPW identification tag. In your message or email to the cache owner, please tell me seven-character number on the ID tag (two letters followed by five numbers, the last of which is a zero).
   
   
2. At Stage 2, the coordinates place you near a sign that lists Market Square Park's Rules and Regulations. In your message or email to the cache owner, please tell me what's prohibited by the fourth bullet pointed rule, and state the Ordinance number for that rule.
   
   
3. At Stage 3, there's a large, prominent electrical box on the grass separating the street from the pedestrian walk along the river. On that box is a Duquesne Light Company (D.L. CO.) electric meter. In your message or email to the cache owner, please tell me the identification code for this electric meter, which is found just below a large capital "F." It's an 8 digit number that begins with "77."
   
   
4. In your online log (NOT in your message or email to the cache owner), please post at least one photo taken at any one of the three waypoints. This photo must show you, your GPS or a personal signature item. I encourage you to be creative! Act out a scene from your favorite of the seven movies, take a picture of a trackable that matches one of the movies' themes, etc.
   

STAGE 1: "OH, WHAT A FEELING"

Location: Smithfield Street Bridge
N 40° 26.197' W 80° 00.069' (Posted Coordinates)

Our tour begins with this iconic photo from Flashdance (1983), because it puts me in the mood to go geocaching in the rain. Flashdance is my favorite Pittsburgh movie, because it came out shortly before I decided to move here and start my career. I've loved working in downtown Pittsburgh ever since!

In the movie's opening montage, Jennifer Beals rides her bicycle from her home to her job as a welder (the job site in the movie was the I-579 Veteran's Bridge, then under construction). In the process, she crosses the Smithfield Street bridge, captured in the screenshot below.

The next movie that featured the Bridge you're visiting is Striking Distance (1993), a Bruce Willis film that shows off Pittsburgh's three rivers, because Bruce's police officer character was assigned to the River Rescue patrol.

Think of "Striking Distance" as a mellow Burgh version of a "Die Hard" movie, without all the terrorists and exploding buildings. There are some nice car chase scenes, however, and one of them crossed the Smithfield Street Bridge:

Next, stop admiring the Bridge, and turn around to look down Smithfield Street. This was one of several downtown streets featured prominently in the final scenes of The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Pittsburgh stood in as "Gotham City" along with Manhattan. Here is a shot of the movie set, taken from a parking garage a few blocks down the street on the right hand side. Note the fake snow!

And here is an action screenshot from the climactic final chase scene, with Batman flying overhead on Smithfield Street:

Seriously, though - watch this scene in the YouTube video linked above. Batman flew all over dahntahn, but you will need to walk. I suggest going down Smithfield Street and taking a left on Fourth or Forbes Avenue to walk past some nice architecture on your way to Market Square.

STAGE 2: "THE CENTER OF IT ALL"

Location: Market Square
N 40° 26.425' W 80° 00.168' ("S2" Additional Waypoint)

She's Out of My League (2010) is a great Pittsburgh movie, because the girl (rating a "10") and the guy (rating a "5") go on dates in many scenic spots around downtown. Market Square is one of them. Originally, Market Square was the home of Pittsburgh's retail merchant market, so imagine the square filled with vendors (and later a market building with the streets passing underneath). The coordinates take you to the approximate location of this park bench:

The restaurant in the background of the photo is still there, even though the park bench disappeared when Market Square was renovated into its current incarnation, a large concrete circle.

There's another movie scene in the same corner of Market Square, depicted in the YouTube video linked above. Can anyone identify what movie those rough guys with guns are from?

Next, look up and to the south towards the complex of shiny glass buildings with castle spires on top. That's PPG Place, which was featured in Inspector Gadget (1999) as the headquarters of Scolex Industries where Inspector Gadget and his clone are made, as well as the final scene where Scolex is thwarted by Gadget.

At this point, you can either hang around Market Square in the hope of sighting Matthew Broderick flying through the air, or you can cross the square to exit via Market Street, then cross Fifth Avenue and Liberty Avenue to Sixth Street in order to reach Stage 3 along the Allegheny Riverfront.

STAGE 3: "THE GRAND FINALE"

Location: Allegheny River Boulevard, pedestrian walk
N 40° 26.647' W 80° 00.191' ("S3" Additional Waypoint)

You're now standing high above the Allegheny River along the nice Riverwalk, with the Roberto Clemente (Sixth Street) Bridge in front of you. This is the "Grand Finale" location. Just like the end of a Pittsburgh fireworks show launched off this bridge, this virtual saves the biggest bang for last: there are at least five different movie scene locations viewable from this one spot. Let's begin by returning to "Striking Distance." Here's Bruce Willis cruising on the Allegheny River in his River Rescue boat:

Look straight across the river to the opposite shore. Just to the left (south) of the Roberto Clemente bridge, you'll see a boathouse. That is the home of Pittsburgh River Rescue. Here is a close up picture I took, so that you don't have to walk across the river to see it. (Of course, if you DO choose to walk across the bridge, there are LOTS of great caches on the North Shore!)

Now, turn away from looking at the river. See the parking garage to the left (south) towards the Fort Duquesne Bridge, at the Stanwix Tower Apartments? In the opening scene of Jack Reacher (2012), a van drives into that garage, and a sniper sets up to kill five people across the river on the North Shore Trail. The scene from the movie below shows that view through the sniper's rifle scope. I do not recommend this method when a muggle is sitting on the bench you need to search for a nano cache.

Later, Tom Cruise (playing the title role) visits the location while investigating the crime. Here's Tom looking good on Sixth Street. See the bridge over his shoulder? You're standing next to it.

Don't forget our friend from Market Square, Inspector Gadget. The Sixth Street Bridge also serves as the setting of the final battle scene between Gadget and his evil clone Robo Gadget. Here is the victorious Matthew Broderick:

And here's an action screenshot when the battle was taking place atop the bridge.

Now fix your gaze on Pittsburgh's beautiful major league baseball stadium, PNC Park. The stadium is the setting for the final scenes of Abduction (2011). Taylor Lautner, playing a high school student who discovers that his life is filled with mysterious circumstances, arranges to meet a terrorist at a Pittsburgh Pirates game in order to return some super-secret spy data. There is danger and chase scenes that normally don't happen at Pirates games, and Taylor prevails at the end. He gets to have a date at PNC Park with the heroine before Taylor runs off to film another "Twilight" move. Here are two pictures of our hero in a Pirates uniform, front and back.

And now for the final stop on the grand finale portion of our virtual tour. We've covered the Pirates, and now it's time to look further down the river to your left, to see Heinz Field -- home of the PITTSBURGH STEELERS. In "The Dark Knight Rises," the exciting final conflict between Batman and Bane begins when Bane blows up Heinz Field during a football game. Real Pittsburgh Steelers, like Heinz Ward in the screen capture below, had the opportunity to pose as members of the Gotham City football team. The whole stunt looks like something from Bill Belichek's recurring dream.

I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour of Pittsburgh's downtown movie locations! I love Pittsburgh, and I love movies, so I was pleased to have an opportunity to share that with you through a virtual cache. I encourage you to talk about Pittsburgh movie locations in your log, whether it's one of the films featured here or otherwise. Thanks for trying out my virtual cache!

Virtual Reward - 2017/2018

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.