From ‘Commando’ to ‘Spartacus’: These movies were filmed in SLO County
Bored stiff of sheltering at home?
Although many beaches, parks and other attractions have been off-limits due to the coronavirus pandemic, you can still explore the Central Coast through the magic of movies.
San Luis Obispo County has provided the backdrop for countless commercials, television shows and films ranging from Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 epic “The Ten Commandments” to the popular “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy. The region has doubled for Maine and the Midwest, ancient Rome and 1960s Vietnam.
With its sun-soaked beaches, winding country roads and acres of oak-covered hills, sand dunes and majestic ocean bluffs, it’s no wonder that Hollywood loves the Central Coast.
Here’s your cinematic guide to San Luis Obispo County.
Arroyo Grande
The historic Village of Arroyo Grande fills in for small-town Ohio in 1994’s “Little Giants.”
Rick Moranis and Ed O’Neill play brothers coaching rival peewee football teams in this cute sports comedy. Cal Poly graduate, coach and sportscaster John Madden, who coached the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl win, appears as himself with fellow football greats Emmitt Smith and Tim Brown.
Cambria
Giant killer spiders invade the fictional hamlet of Canaima in “Arachnophobia,” starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman.
The 1990 creature feature highlights Coast Union High School and Moonstone Beach in Cambria as well as the Adelaida region of Paso Robles. Wine lovers might recognize the Halter Ranch Victorian farmhouse and barn, now part of Halter Ranch Vineyards.
Cayucos
A 7-foot-tall crab man terrorizes the North Coast in 1959’s “The Monster of Piedras Blancas,” beheading its victims and sucking their bodies dry of blood.
Contrary to the title, the lighthouse depicted on screen isn’t the Piedras Blancas Light Station; it’s the Point Conception Light Station in Santa Barbara County. But other local landmarks, including Morro Rock, make appearances.
This low-budget B-movie is so beloved of local bad-movie lovers that it inspired a fan film back in 2012.
Los Osos
Hollywood transformed the coast south of Montaña de Oro State Park into Passamaquoddy, Maine, for 1977’s “Pete’s Dragon,” the classic Disney movie about a boy who befriends an animated dragon.
Production crews built a 19th-century lighthouse near Point Buchon that has since been removed.
The Point Buchon trail, currently closed due to coronavirus concerns, offers access to this bluff and its spectacular views.
Morro Bay
Morro Bay gets a supporting role in 2002’s “Murder by Numbers,” starring Sandra Bullock as a homicide detective on the trail of two teenage killers played by Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt.
The thriller is set in the fictional California coastal town of San Benito, but you’ll recognize local landmarks ranging from Morro Rock to the smokestacks of the now-shuttered Duke Energy power plant, which can be seen looming behind Bullock’s houseboat. She even hangs out at the bar at the Great American Fish Co. restaurant.
“Murder By Numbers,” which also showcases Montana de Oro State Park, Los Osos, Templeton High School and several San Luis Obispo spots, is far from the first movie to showcase Morro Bay’s beauty.
Film noir classic “The Lady from Shanghai” features footage shot at Morro Rock. And Beau Bridges and Maud Adams stroll down a Morro Bay boardwalk in 1971’s “The Christian Licorice Store.”
Nipomo
For nearly a century, the shifting sands of the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes concealed a secret: the remains of a massive movie set constructed by one of Hollywood’s most influential filmmakers.
Located near the border between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, the dunes served as a key location for Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 film “The Ten Commandments.” But DeMille buried his mammoth City of the Pharaohs once filming wrapped.
Artifacts including a giant terracota sphinx head were excavated decades later and put on display at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center.
After filling in for ancient Egypt in “The Ten Commandments,” the dunes masqueraded as the Middle East in “The Sheik,” “The Son of the Sheik” and “Morocco” in the 1920s and ’30s — as well as a spoof of those movies, 1977’s “The World’s Greatest Lover.”
Oceano
Tragedy struck during the filming of the 2003 Bruce Willis action movie “Tears of the Sun” near Oceano. A parachuting stuntman missed his target, landed about 300 yards offshore and drowned.
Willis plays a commander of a military unit sent into Africa to perform a search-and-rescue mission.
The Oceano Dunes also provided a backdrop for ”The Whole Ten Yards,” the 2004 sequel to “The Whole Nine Yards” starring Willis and Matthew Perry.
Paso Robles
From exploitation pictures to celebrity-studded romantic comedies, the rolling hills and vineyards of the North County offer plenty of pretty scenery for film productions.
In 1982’s “The Junkman,” Paso Robles serves as a backdrop for what the Los Angeles Times described as “an orgy of smashing, crashing and exploding vehicles.” At one point, a plane can been seen flying under the Whitley Gardens bridge.
The “Gone in 60 Seconds” sequel actually set a Guinness World Record for the most vehicles destroyed during a film production. About 250 cars, trucks, motorcycles and planes were wrecked during its 98 minutes of screentime — more than two vehicles per minute.
2018’s “Destination Wedding,” in contrast, finds the romance in its wine country setting.
Although the central couple, played by Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, meet at the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport and hang out at a room at San Luis Obispo’s Apple Farm Inn, they spent most of their time at Dubost Vineyard & Winery in Paso Robles — squabbling, sipping wine and even running into a mountain lion.
San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo has been a popular destination for filmmakers since the 1920s, when Universal Studios headed to town to shoot a “Dazzling Picture of the Younger Set.”
Reginald Denny stars as a daring racer in 1924 silent film “Sporting Youth,” — shot at the now-gone Exposition Park, then the fastest automobile dirt racetrack in the West.
Hollywood returned to San Luis Obispo to film the 1935 biopic “Diamond Jim,” starring Edward Arnold as legendary businessman “Diamond Jim” Brady. The movie’s splashiest scene involves a train car wreck on a local narrow-gauge railway.
Since then, the city has hosted a score of movie productions — from 1977’s “Stunts,” which staged a car crash steps away from the Fremont Theatre, to 1990’s “My Blue Heaven,” which finds mob informant Steve Martin and his buddies enjoying breakfast at the Apple Farm Inn restaurant.
Several San Luis Obispo landmarks show up in “I Know Who Killed Me,” including City Hall and San Luis Obispo High School. Lindsay Lohan won three Golden Raspberry Awards for her dual role in the 2007 psychodrama, playing a mild-mannered pianist and a down-on-her-luck stripper.
San Simeon
Hearst Castle masquerades as an ancient Roman villa in Stanley Kubrick’s 1960 historical epic “Spartacus.” In one sequence, you can see Crassus (Laurence Olivier) striding past the mansion’s famous Neptune Pool.
Meanwhile, nearby San Simeon Cove makes an explosive appearance in 1985 action blockbuster “Commando.”
Viewers can watch special forces soldier John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) blow up buildings, a watch tower and parts of a rock wall as he rescues his daughter from the fictional nation of Val Verde — actually William Randolph Hearst State Beach.
San Simeon was chosen for the set because, “We needed an area along the California coast with cliffs, beaches and a pier that looked like a remote South American island,” a publicist for the film told the Telegram-Tribune during filming.
Other movies filmed in SLO County
Based on John Steinbeck’s famous novel, 1939 drama ”Of Mice and Men” features scenes filmed at Hearst Ranch and in San Luis Obispo.
A poor girl (Jennifer Jones) marries a rich man she doesn’t love in 1952’s “Ruby Gentry,” filmed in Morro Bay, Paso Robles, Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo. Fun fact: Director King Vidor owned a ranch in Paso Robles.
A woman (Yvette Mimieux) lands behind bars in 1976 exploitation flick “Jackson County Jail,” filmed partially in Paso Robles.
A young man (Dennis Christopher) heads west to experience some ”California Dreaming” in this 1979 flick. Look out for vintage views of Avila Beach, Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo.
The 1982 movie ”Personal Best” uses Cal Poly, Morro Bay High School and Los Osos as settings for its story about a track star (Mariel Hemingway) vying for the national team. The athlete lives in the courtyard apartments at Palm Street and Johnson Avenue in San Luis Obispo and lunches at San Luis Obispo’s now-closed Cigar Factory restaurant, a spot occupied today by Novo Restaurant + Lounge.
Despite the title, 1985’s ”To Live and Die in L.A.” was shot partially at the California Men’s Colony just north of San Luis Obispo.
San Luis Obispo’s Madonna Inn gets a surreal role in 1987 art film “Aria.” The SLO-specific segment, set to music from Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” is a zany bedroom farce about a husband (Buck Henry) and wife (Anita Morris) carrying on simultaneous affairs.
A twisted killer takes his victims on a “Midnight Ride” through Grover Beach, Morro Bay, Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo in this 1990 thriller. Mark Hamill, best known as Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars,” stars as the psychotic hitchhiker who preys on a cop (Michael Dudikoff) and his wife.
Progressive rock band Yes shot its concert film “Yes: Keys to Ascension” at the Fremont Theatre in San Luis Obispo in 1996. Former Yes frontman Jon Anderson still lives in the area.
The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes can be seen in 2000’s “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle” and 2007’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
Two Central Coast military bases — Camp Roberts and Fort Hunter Liggett — appear in Mel Gibson’s Vietnam War drama “We Were Soldiers,” released in 2002.
A scene of 2019 science fiction film “Ad Astra,” starring Brad Pitt as an astronaut, was shot on a private ranch in the Arroyo Grande Valley.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "From ‘Commando’ to ‘Spartacus’: These movies were filmed in SLO County."