Artistic License Geography: Difference between revisions
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* In [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'', Düsseldorf is depicted as [[Yodel Land|a quaint little Alpine town with half-timbered houses and tall mountains in the background]] instead of the modern industrial city on the Rhine, not in plain view of any mountains.
* In the opening of ''[[Left Behind]]'', a shot labeled "Israeli-Syrian Border" shows tanks driving over desert. The border of Israel and Syria, which is called the Golan Heights, is actually green and mountainous (and is a subject of dispute partially for this very reason).
** Fred Clark, in his brilliant analysis of the ''[[Left Behind]]'' series, is ruthless in [https://web.archive.org/web/20110907100605/http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2008/11/lbtm-thats-our-buck.html his dissection] of this series of shots. The film opens with a shot of Jerusalem, with the ''morning'' sun glinting off the ''eastern'' face of the Dome of the Rock, and the subtitle, "Jerusalem, 6:00 '''p.m.'''" A moment later we see the title "Iraq, 6:03 p.m.", as Iraqi fighter planes stream west into the setting sun; and then, "Syrian-Israeli border, 6:03 p.m.", and flocks of helicopters and tanks with their shadows stretching out ''in front of them''—except that Syria is east of Israel, so these helicopters and tanks appear to be invading ''Syria'' from ''Israel'' (Clark gave up after the next shot, "Mediterranean Sea 6:04 p.m.", which showed fighter planes with the sun directly overhead).
*** Not to mention that Iraq is an hour ahead of Israel and Syria.
* Parodied repeatedly in the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movies. In the second, Austin and Felicity are driving through "[[California Doubling|the English countryside]]", and Austin remarks how "[[Lampshade Hanging|the English countryside looks nothing like southern California]]". In the third, special effects were purposely used to put Mount Fuji in the background of every single exterior shot in Japan.
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* Fictional example of a Geography error: in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' live-action film adaptation, Legolas proclaims "the Uruks turn northeast. They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" If the Uruks were taking the hobbits to Isengard, they would be going ''west'' (as shown in [http://www.strefarpg.pl/gfx/tworcy/middle-earth.jpg this Middle Earth Map]).
* In ''[[10,000 BC]]'' the protagonist lives in a massive Ice Age mountain range, filled with tundra, glaciers, and mammoths. He then treks down from those mountains, almost immediately entering a verdant jungle with a transitional climate about ten yards across. On exiting said jungle and crossing another ten yard transition, he's in an arid desert.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130731203018/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/fbv/bmbe/28660-10000-bc Film Brain] from [[That Guy With The Glasses]] has a lot to say about the absurd geography in this film.
* In ''[[Speed]]'', the freeway depicted as I-10 is actually I-105, which was already complete in real life, and the I-105 sequence was filmed on I-110, which actually was unfinished at the time.
** The bus also exits the east I-10 freeway onto Western (south) using a cloverleaf ramp that doesn't exist in [[Real Life]], then goes from there to the I-105 in El Segundo (around 18 miles away) in ''under a minute.''
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** She also seems to have forgotten that, yes, the Pacific Northwest does have a summer. A very sunny summer. It could go all of July and August, and sometimes September, without being completely overcast. Do the Cullens go on a three month camping trip every year? Not to mention that most areas in the Pacific Northwest aren't under complete cloud cover all day.
** Meyer was working from a grain of truth. Thanks to the Olympic Mountains blocking clouds coming in off the Pacific, Forks is beside a [[The Other Rainforest|literal rainforest]]. Forks really does get a lot of rain, even compared to the rest of Western Washington State. Grain of truth or not, however, it's still a nasty stereotype about a geographic location that came from inadequate research. Simply googling "Rainiest Town in America", which is more or less all Meyer did by her own admission in the introduction, does not adequate geographic research make.
** Regarding the infamous "west coast of Brazil" line...although everyone remembers the line, it never occurs in Meyer's work. The actual phrase from ''Breaking Dawn'' is: ''The taxi continued through the swarming crowds until they thinned somewhat, and we appeared to be nearing the extreme western edge of the city [Rio de Janeiro], heading into the ocean.'' That last word is what has led to so much confusion. Meyer was wrong; the western site of Rio ''doesn't'' lead to the ocean, because the Atlantic Ocean is the southern border of Rio, not the western one. However, Rio ''is'' bordered on the west by Sepetiba Bay, as can be seen on the map [https://web.archive.org/web/20160401073604/http://www.rio.com/practical-rio/rio-de-janeiro-map on this site]. And Sepetiba Bay does feature a lot of day cruises to nearby tropical islands. Sailing from Sepetiba Bay to a private island is within the realm of possibility. So Meyer should have had Bella say "bay," not "ocean"--but she did not create an entirely new Brazilian coastline.
** Also referring to Lake Union as "Union Lake", not unreasonable...if you're only ever seen a map of Seattle. Actually there are multiple problems with Seattle geography. The shady part of town that Bella visits in the last book is vaguely reminiscent of some parts of Aurora Ave. but doesn't come close enough to any real part of the city to be believable.
* In ''The Terror of Blue John Gap'', the narrator at one point travels from the eponymous cave (which of course is a source of the semi-precious stone Blue John) to Castleton in Derbyshire, some 14 miles away. In reality, Blue John is found only in the vicinity of Castleton, a roughly 3-mile radius. Maybe this one is also [[You Fail Geology Forever]].
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* There is a US state called Georgia [[Name's the Same|and]] [[Why We're Bummed Communism Fell|ex-"republic" in USSR]], now the nation called Georgia. Naturally, a few citizens from the former expressed confusion when they heard about the Russian invasion of the latter. Google didn't help any, when their automatic Google Maps integration on Google News was helpfully showing a map of the former. [[Troll]]s even supplied a few "panicked logs of the invasion". At least, by [http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100907134922AACWd2q the next time] enough people learned that it wasn't repeated even despite early [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/14/russia-georgia-fake-invasion-report overblown rumors].
** This is the reason that at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the country that got the most applause other than the United States, was Georgia.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150905163248/http://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/hundredsstates.jpg This headline.]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws "I've now been in fifty.... seven states?"] - President Barack Obama.
** To be fair, that incident sounds more like he started to claim that he'd been in every state, realized that he hadn't, and fumbled the correction.
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