Eiffel Tower Effect: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Tour eiffel at sunrise from the trocadero.jpg|thumb|350px|No, really. [[You Can't Miss It|You can't miss it.]]]]
{{quote|''"The gay cafés,''
''The Eiffel Tower,''
''The mayonnaise,''
''The Eiffel Tower,''
''La Marseillaise,''
''The Eiffel Tower,''
''The awe inspiring but so tiring Eiffel Tower!"''
|"That's What Makes Paris, [[Gay Paree|Paree]]" from ''[[April in Paris]]''}}
Some cities are renowned for their industries. Hollywood makes movies, Detroit makes... [[Dying Town|made]] cars. Others are known as hotspots for the scientific community, like Geneva. Or for the political community, like... Geneva. And in some places, there is a landmark. Such as [[Rule of Three|Geneva]].
A few of these landmarks, in various locations around the globe, are so well-known by so many people that they've come to function as a sort of visual shorthand for the city, sometimes the ''country'', in which they're located to the point where some footage of the landmark in question must be portrayed on the screen, even when that landmark is largely (or sometimes totally) irrelevant to the plot. The National Mall in Washington DC, Westminster Palace (specifically,
Iconic structures such as these can also function as [[Red Shirt]]s. If they [[It's Going Down|are ever destroyed]], then circumstances have become dire indeed. Which naturally means that in a disaster movie, the landmark in question will probably be doomed to [[Monumental Damage|certain destruction]]. The remainder of the Hollywoodland sign in California and the [[Statue of Liberty]] are popular targets for CGI catastrophes. Alternatively, the structure will be [[The Constant|one of the few things left]] intact [[After the End]], either [[Monumental Damage Resistance|mostly undamaged]], to give the characters some kind of [[Hope Spot|hope for the future]], or nearly collapsed, as a testament to [[Planet of the Apes Ending|how much has been lost]].
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* [[Tokyo Tower]] functions this way in many anime; one of the most famous is in the ''[[X (manga)|X 1999]]'' manga, TV series and movie.
* ''[[Death Note]]'' uses both the Eiffel Tower and the London Eye for Paris and London at one point.
* In one episode of ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'', Section 9 assists
** [[Rule of Cool]]: It's a shout-out to ''[[Wings of Desire]]''.
* During the Doma Arc of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'', when the Orichalcos Soldiers were attacking everywhere on Earth, the cities they were attacking were identified with a single famous landmark (e.g. the [[Britain Is Only London|Palace of Westminster]], the [[Big Applesauce|Empire State Building]], [[Land Down Under|Sydney Opera House]], [[Tokyo Tower]], [[Gay Paree|l'Arc de Triomphe]], etc., etc.)
== [[Film]] ==
* In the [[Bollywood]] film ''[[Don:
* Both ''[[National Treasure]]'' films did this in every single scene set in a major city. The Lincoln Memorial is the backdrop for a very serious discussion between Ben and Riley early on in the first film, apparently just so that they could get it in there.
** Fun fact: That scene was filmed on a day when the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was drained for maintenance. They digitally added the water back in, in post production.
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* ''[[Zodiac (film)|Zodiac]]'' uses a number of icons to show San Francisco, the Ferry Building, the Transamerica pyramid is shown frequently, though it's still under construction, Melvin Belli's St. Francis Wood mansion is shown to have a close view of Downtown San Francisco. In reality, the neighborhood is miles from Downtown and the view is obscured by hills.
* The Trans America Pyramid appears in ''[[The Social Network]]'' which would almost be a [[Shout-Out]] to Fincher's ''Zodiac'' but Fincher says it was random stock footage they picked.
* In ''[[Lost in Translation (film)|Lost in Translation]]'', there are multiple shots of the NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building. The final sequence immediately preceding the credits also features the Tokyo Tower. Though also averted when Charlotte briefly goes to Kyoto late in the film; the sequence somehow goes by without a single shot of that city's iconic landmarks like Kinkaku-ji, Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto Tower or the thousand ''torii'' of Fushimi Inari-taisha.
== [[Literature]] ==
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* ''[[Poltergeist: The Legacy]]'' often had stock footage of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, and other San Francisco landmarks. There was also a scene in a bar in the Tenderloin (a famous [[San Francisco]] slum), with a crude mural of the Golden Gate, the Trans-America Pyramid, Coit Tower and a cable car.
* Virtually every episode of ''[[Charmed]]'' featured a montage of San Francisco aerial footage beneath the first-act credits, much like the ''CSI'' example below but even more extended. In later seasons, some of the main characters (with the ability to teleport at will) took to using the top of one of the Golden Gate Bridge's towers (or an approximation thereof on a Los Angeles soundstage) as a regular meeting place.
* ''[[CSI]]'' loves this. [[Vegas Montage|Vegas is shown in loving detail]] in nearly every episode. Expect to see tons of aerial shots of the Vegas strip at night. Especially of The Stratosphere.
* Spoofed on ''[[Joey]]'': Gina's appartment has a view of the Hollywood sign - if you lean back on the balcony. And then you only see the middle of it, so technically, it's a view of the OLLYWOO sign.
* ''[[Degrassi]]'''s rotation of [[Establishing Shot]]s include the CN Tower as well as several views of [[Toronto]] streetcars, a "De Grassi Street" sign and the exterior of the school itself.
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=== The Americas ===
==== Brazil ====
* [[Washington DC]] has a thirteen-story height cap on buildings within its city limits, so the Washington Monument is at least partly visible throughout a large portion of that city.▼
* Apparently, there's only one statue in the entire country: the Christ The Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.
** Supposedly some building codes in the area were made for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes.▼
==== Canada ====
* The aforementioned CN Tower is similar to the Washington Monument, but for different reasons. It's not that the buildings in [[Toronto]] are especially small, it's just the CN Tower ''really is that tall''.
** It can even been seen from some points north of the city.
*** It can be seen (on a very clear day) in ''Rochester, New York'', which is on the other side of a Great freakin' Lake and in another country.
* When you see Parliament Hill on a TV show, you know (a) the episode is set in Ottawa, and (b) the show was made by the [[CBC]].▼
==== Mexico ====
* [[Mexico]]'s main cities are not exempt from this. Mexico City has this with the Zócalo, a huge slab of concrete bearing a huge monumental flag, as well as with the Angel of Independence and the Reform Avenue, whereas Guadalajara has this with the cathedral, the Minerva Roundabout, and more recently, the small patch of skyscrapers near Puerta de Hierro in the northwest. Monterrey, however, is best represented by the prominent Saddle Hill (Cerro de la Silla).▼
==== The USA ====
▲* [[Washington DC]] has a thirteen-story height cap on buildings within its city limits, so the Washington Monument is at least partly visible throughout a large portion of that city.
▲** Supposedly some building codes in the area were made for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes.
* [[New York City]] used to be instantly recognizable by the Twin Towers. Since 9/11, the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, The Statue of Liberty or the UN headquarters building are forced to stand in instead.
** The Statue of Liberty has been used to establish a New York setting since the very beginning of film.
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* [[Los Angeles]] has the US Bank Tower, which is the tallest and usually the most recognizable skyscraper in the city. It's usually shown in establishing shots when the story takes place in Los Angeles, or they'll show the whole skyline if the shot is being taken from one of the many hills. Sometimes a shot of the Hollywood sign is used as well/instead (however the Hollywood sign can only be seen in Hollywood, and not throughout LA, unlike the Bank Tower.)
* In the ultra-rare instances where you're filming in Salt Lake City ([[California Doubling|And want the audience to know you're filming in Salt Lake City]]), the Salt Lake Mormon Temple will be briefly shown.
▲* [[Mexico]]'s main cities are not exempt from this. Mexico City has this with the Zócalo, a huge slab of concrete bearing a huge monumental flag, as well as with the Angel of Independence and the Reform Avenue, whereas Guadalajara has this with the cathedral, the Minerva Roundabout, and more recently, the small patch of skyscrapers near Puerta de Hierro in the northwest. Monterrey, however, is best represented by the prominent Saddle Hill (Cerro de la Silla).
* A supposedly rare example for lesser known state capitals would be Albany's [http://img.online-station.net/_news/2009/0303/23964_39TheEggEmpireStatePlazaAlbanyNewYo.jpg Empire State Plaza], which typically consists of a unique flying saucer-shaped venue called The Egg, and the Erastus Corning Tower, which is quite justified, considering that it happens to be the tallest building in Upstate New York.
▲* When you see Parliament Hill on a TV show, you know (a) the episode is set in Ottawa, and (b) the show was made by the [[CBC]].
=== Asia ===
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* In [[Taiwanese Series]], the Taipei 101 building in the country's capitol, is the tallest building on the island and tends to show up in the background of at least one episode.
* Thousands of Armenian paintings and photographs would suggest that Mt. Ararat is visible all over the country, when in fact it has to be a really clear day to be able to see it from its capital, Yerevan. And partly due to a long, sad history of horrible luck, Armenia's most iconic landmark isn't even in Armenia anymore but in Turkey.
* [[Tokyo]] is large enough that ''each ward'' has its own iconic landmarks. These include Shibuya's scramble crossing and ''109'' department store (both of which can be fit in the same shot) or NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building, the Akihabara strip
=== Europe ===
* In Paris itself this does happens to some degree with the Eiffel Tower, visible from the entire Western half of the city, and to the dismay of many Parisians, it also happens with the Montparnasse tower and the Southern half.
** Some go out of their way to avoid this effect: Novelist [[Guy de Maupassant]] supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that, as no big fan of the Tower, it was the one place in Paris where he knew he wouldn't see it.
* Probably even more visible (though far less spectacular) than the tower in Paris is the Petřínská rozhledna on a hilltop in Prague, a city with few skyscrapers. Unfortunately, despite being higher up than the real Eiffel Tower, it's still not as conspicuous in the skyline as [https://web.archive.org/web/20131106035803/http://members.virtualtourist.com/vt/t/354 the world's second ugliest building].
* Many recent{{when}} British productions have used [[wikipedia:30 St Mary Axe|the Gherkin]] in establishing montages because of its distinctive architecture. London's tallest tower [[wikipedia:Shard London Bridge|the Shard]] may be joining it once it's finished in 2012.{{verify}}
=== Elsewhere ===
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