TF LIST

NOMADLAND WILL HAVE YOU ITCHING FOR AN AMERICAN ROAD TRIP, SO GET ON THE TRAIL WITH TOTAL FILM AS WE TAKE A CINEMATIC RIDE THROUGH EVERY US STATE. BRING THE CAR SNACKS AS WE HIT THE ASPHALT VIA 51* EVOCATIVE WANDERLUST FILMS… 

*50 STATES OF THE UNION + DC W ORDS JANE CROWTHER

LIONSGATE,SONY

1 CALIFORNIA

MOVIE LA LA LAND

ROUTE Let’s start at the Pacific – and while Vertigo and Bullitt sing with the streets of San Francisco and Sideways captures the rolling hills of wine country, LA is the CA city that’s most often captured on film. But has it been done with more nostalgic iridescence than in Damien Chazelle’s postcard-pretty salute, charting its charms from wild parks, magical observatories and buzzing freeways to pastel-hued piers and twinkling bars? MUST-SEE SPOT The Griffith Observatory – scene of Mia and Seb’s ceiling dance. Their twilight street boogie was in Griffith Park, at Cathy’s Corner.

2 OREGON

MOVIE STAND BY ME

ROUTE: Travelling north to the state that gave us the bucolic vistas of The Goonies and Leave No Trace, Oregon offers woozy nostalgia via quaint towns, verdant forests and dazzling rivers as a group of friends take an odyssey in search of a dead body. Yeah, there’s leeches, but this is really a good time. (That trestle train track was filmed in California, though.)

MUST-SEE SPOT: Brownsville is the town to head to if you want to tour ‘Castle Rock’. And the Timberline Lodge in Mount Hood for The Shining’s Overlook Hotel.

STATES

3 WASHINGTON

MOVIE SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE

ROUTE: Further north, the Evergreen State is known for its above-average precipitation, but that doesn’t dampen the love of Tom Hanks’ Seattle-dwelling widow and Meg Ryan’s swoony radio listener. Who wouldn’t want Hanks when he lives on an idyllic houseboat, eats at Pike Place Market (The Athenian Inn has Hanks’ lunch spot marked) and is never knowingly not standing next to the Space Needle?

MUST-SEE SPOT: Vampire fans should head to stunning Indian Beach in Ecola State Park, ‘La Push’ in Twilight.

DISNEY, SONY, PARAMOUNT, WARNER BROS, 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS, ENTERTAINMENT FILM, PEGASUS, PATHE UK, EUREKA

4 IDAHO

MOVIE NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

ROUTE Turning east, the moonboot-wearing high-schooler’s home state was repped by the small town of Preston – real-life childhood idyll of filmmakers Jared and Jerusha Hess. It may seem featureless and flat, but it’s so worth a visit that a ‘sweet’ Napoleon Dynamite map was created by the Preston Chamber of Commerce.

MUST-SEE SPOT Check out Wallace, the pretty former mining town that’s destroyed by Dante’s Peak in the film of the same name. While the townsfolk played themselves, the volcano did not: it’s CGI.

5 NEVADA

MOVIE VANISHING POINT

ROUTE Casino, The Hangover and Ocean’s Eleven have shown the twinkling gem in the silver state’s crown on film, but Vanishing Point gloriously showcases the neon-free desert vistas as a supercharged Dodge Challenger is gunned from Denver to San Francisco via the scorching asphalt and dirt tracks of small-town Nevada.

MUST-SEE SPOT Slip-slide a hire car down Virginia Hill in Austin, NV…

6 ARIZONA

MOVIE STAGECOACH

ROUTE Cross the border to take in the mesas and buttes of Monument Valley, John Ford’s favourite location for many of his classic westerns. Use your horsepower to channel your own Ringo Kid through the Navajo parkland where numerous films since have followed Ford’s footsteps.

MUST-SEE SPOT John Ford Point off Highway 42 gives that classic western vista for selfies.

7 NEW MEXICO

MOVIE THOR

ROUTE More majestic desert to take in driving through Arizona’s neighbour, the 47th state of the union – so impressive an Asgardian god pitched up here. The fictional town of Puente Antiguo was built from scratch at the Cerro Pelon Ranch in Galisteo (where Silverado, 3:10 To Yuma and Cowboys & Aliens filmed) to make the most of the cinematic landscape. 

MUST SEE SPOT Fancy getting Thor-drunk on boilermakers? That bar is the Cheeks strip club in Santa Fe.