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A subtrope of [[Television Geography]]. See also [[Misplaced Vegetation]]. While examples of this trope need not actually take place in Illinois or the midwestern United States, they must indeed involve mountains or hills appearing where they should not be. Inversions—when mountains ''don't'' appear where they should—are okay, but all non-mountain-related tropes belong on [[Television Geography]].
[[Here There Be Lions]] is a
{{examples}}
== Anime ==
* Promotional material for ''[[World Masterpiece Theater|Rascal the Raccoon]]'' often featured mountains in the background. Wisconsin isn't as flat as Illinois, but it does not have that kind of mountains.
* ''[[Miami Guns]]'' parodies Japanese cop show cliches, and is set in ostensibly-Miami. Various episodes have villains illegally drift racing through the mountains of Florida (max. elevation 346 feet).
* Volume 1 of ''[[Vinland Saga]]'' shows us the majestic mountains on the coast of the Jutland Peninsula. In reality, the Danish coast is as flat as the Netherlands.
* ''[http://digipedia.db-destiny.net/fanatics_guide/fanatics_movie.htm The Fanatic's Guide to Digimon: The Movie]'' has this tidbit:
{{quote|The Japanese DigiDestined accompany Willis back to Manhattan. He is then seen phoning his mother, and informs her that he's "back on the island." And yet, in the background, are... mountains (see screenshot [on the linked page]). Yep, good ol' mountainous Manhattan.}}
== Comics ==
* During the ''[[X-Men|Magneto War]]'' crossover, Magneto met up with the Acolytes in an alpine-looking location, which the caption box says is "the Netherlands". Given that the word "Netherlands" means "lowlands", this is a ''[[All the Tropes Wiki Drinking Game|particularly]]'' [[Egregious]] example.
* An early issue of ''[[Alpha Flight]]'' showed mountains in the distance in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which is located in the Red River Valley, one of the flattest areas on Earth. The nearest mountains are nearly 900 miles (1400
* The original headquarters of the [[Justice League of America]], the "Secret Sanctuary," is inside a mountain near Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. In [[Real Life]], the highest point in Rhode Island is a mere 812 feet above sea level.
* Geography is [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|a tricky subject at best]] in [[The DCU]], but various depictions of Central City and Smallville in particular include nearby mountains which would be at odds with the
== Film ==
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* Named for the opening scene of ''[[Beginning of the End]]'', as [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''.
** And the episode for the movie ''[[The Rebel Set]]'' features a car chase through the mountains we all know are right outside of Chicago.
* Exceptionally unacceptable since it's animation, ''[[Beowulf (film)|Beowulf]]'' opens with a wide shot of the majestic mountains of Denmark -- a country ''so'' flat its highest point is ''a TV tower'' (and said TV tower is twice as tall as the highest ''natural'' point).
* Some of the early scenes of ''[[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]]'' depict what seem to be mountains and cliffs in what is supposed to be Muncie, Indiana.
* In ''[[Cold Mountain]]'' (set in the Appalachian Mountains region of North Carolina), the Romanian location is mostly accurate....until giant craggy peaks appear towards the end.
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** The first ''[[National Lampoon's Vacation|Vacation]]'' movie shows palm trees, and maybe some mountains as well, in the background of the car dealership scenes.
*** The first film also shows mountains visible from Cousin Eddie's farm outside Coolidge, Kansas. Coolidge is a real place and it's just six miles east of the Colorado state line. But even once you drive into Colorado, you'll still have to drive a few hours before you begin to see the mountains. The terrain of eastern Colorado makes ''Kansas'' look mountainous in comparison.
* Much snark has been made about [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney's]] ''[[Pocahontas]]'' filling the flat area around Jamestown, Virginia with mountains and cliffs. While there are some tall mountains in Virginia, there are none anywhere near Jamestown. Which is one of the reasons why the location was ''chosen'' for a settlement.
** Or Norfolk, despite the fact that in ''[[Down Periscope]]'' peaks are visible from the naval base.
* The [[Jackie Chan]] film ''[[Rumble in The Bronx]]'' is supposed to take place in [[Big Applesauce|the Bronx, New York City]]. Of course it was filmed nowhere ''near'' the Bronx, but rather in [[California Doubling|Vancouver, British Columbia]]. The only remotely mountain-like higher land within view of New York City are [[wikipedia:The Palisades (Hudson River)|The Palisades]] in [[New Jersey]], which look ''nothing like'' the towering mist-shrouded Coast Mountains you can very clearly see in the background of several scenes in ''Rumble''.
* ''[[The Rundown]]'' has some hills in [[The Amazon]]... considering the [[wikipedia:File:Brazil topo.jpg|highest places in the forest]] are nowhere near the Amazon river...
* The 1950s Hollywood Mountie movie ''Saskatchewan'' had the Mounties riding through the majestic snowcapped mountains of said province. A province which, in reality, is so stereotypically flat that Canadians make jokes about roof repair guys being treated in Saskatchewan like astronauts. (The pre-1905 District of Saskatchewan had considerably different boundaries, but still encompassed no mountain ranges.)
* ''[[Starman]]'' begins with the titular character crashing to earth in Wisconsin... with mountains clearly visible in the background. While the country is certainly hilly, there are no mountains in Wisconsin.
* ''[[The Thief of Bagdad]]'' (1940) depicts the city of Bagdad as surrounded by craggy peaks. The real city stands in a perfectly flat plain.
* ''[[Deep Impact]]'' shows a packed highway fleeing Virginia Beach from the impending titular impact. While the movie did film that scene in Virginia, they did so several hours northwest,<ref>specifically on what is now the VA-234 bypass west of Manassas, which was nearing completion at the time filming was done; the mountains in this case are the Bull Run Mountains, an outpost of the Blue Ridge not far from there</ref> and thus, has mountains visible that should be well over the horizon.
* In ''[[Stick It]]'', neither Plano nor Houston has elevation changes large enough to help your bike downhill, much less to perform stunts. The film was so obviously made in Arizona and California that it isn't funny.
* Since ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, there are mountains in most of the scenes. Which is fine, when they are traveling through the Middle Earth countries that are supposed to be mountainous. Except Rohan is supposed to be a huge grassland for as long as the eye can see. In the [[DVD Commentary]] [[Peter Jackson]] admits that New Zealand simply didn't have any suitable location for that description, so instead they went to show off the most interesting rock formations they could find to produce a cool
* ''[[Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle]]
** Especially considering ''there isn't a White Castle in Cherry Hill''. The nearest one is an hour and a half away, in Toms River.
* In the movie ''[[Swordfish]]'', the main character is shown at one point to be practicing his golf swing off the top of trailer house in Odessa, Texas with mountains picturesquely in the background sunset. Anyone who has been to Odessa falls over laughing at this.
* ''[[North by Northwest]]'' features a treacherous drunken car chase along the Cliffs of Glen Cove, played in this picture by the cliffs of the California coastline. The north shore of Long Island is rocky, but not THAT rocky.
* ''[[Footloose]]'': The film takes place in the
* The [[Disney Channel]] Original Movie ''[[Princess Protection Program]]'' takes place on the Louisiana bayou. Since the movie was filmed in Puerto Rico, it's a good deal more mountainous than Louisiana, where any hills in proximity to a bayou rise no higher than about 10 feet (3 meters).
* ''[[Braveheart]]'' opens with a sweeping vista of crags and mountains. William Wallace was born near the Ayrshire/Renfrewshire border, a region more noted for its lush fields and coastal plains than craggy mountains. (Ironically, the movie was shot in ''Ireland'', which doesn't exactly lack in green fields and coastline.)
* [[Dean Martin]]'s ''[[Matt Helm]]'' movie ''The Wrecking Crew'' may have been the direct inspiration for the ''Austin Powers'' gag that leads off this section. The movie takes place in Denmark. ''Some'' portions of the film, though perhaps only second-unit stuff, appear to have been shot in Denmark. The finale, however, with its exciting car chase along twisty mountain roads that ends with a confrontation on a cable car connecting two of the Danish Alps... wasn't. In reality, the highest point in Denmark, Møllehøj, is 170.86m high. The caption for Wikipedia's picture of [[wikipedia:Mollehoj|Møllehøj]], notes that the actual high point is "obscured by the farm buildings" in the picture's foreground. California locations doubled for the "Danish Alps".
* ''[[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra]]'' has mountains on the Arctic ice cap... which is in the middle of the frozen ocean, with no land in sight for miles.
* Parodied in a deleted scene from ''[[Airplane!]]'':
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* The ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' franchise is a particularly bad offender. While some of the islands of the Caribbean do share traits with Hawaii, there is no excuse for portraying South Florida and the Everglades as a mountainous region with waterfalls and cenotes among a lush tropical jungle. The Everglades is an open grass swamp with occasional hammocks (islands) of palm, cypress and live oak. You can see for miles in the open areas and there is not even a hill in sight. A hammock of 2–5 feet above the water level is considered a significant rise.
* While it doesn't appear in the actual movie itself, the poster for the movie ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'' features the main characters in front of a backdrop of what appears to be New Orleans, with mountains behind it.
* A particularly grievous example is shown in the [[Based on a Great Big Lie|alleged documentary]] ''[[The Fourth Kind]]'', which supposedly takes place in Nome, Alaska. Anyone who has been within ''several hundred miles'' of Nome can tell you that there are no mountains or lush evergreen forests anywhere near the city- [[Did Not Do the Research|it's surrounded on all sides by tundra or
* In ''[[The Birdcage]]'', mountains are visible outside Katherine's office window. Her office is in Florida.
* ''Pathfinder'' has Native Americans fighting Viking warriors in a version of New England that closely resembles a mashup of Switzerland's Alps and the Olympic Peninsula's temperate rain forest.
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Detroit 1-8-7
* One episode of ''[[Sister, Sister]]'' had the twins trapped in a mountain cabin by an avalanche while on a skiing trip to Mt. Brighton, Michigan. While Mt. Brighton certainly does exist, and it is a ski resort, it is merely a prominent hill with one side altered for skiing. There are no cabins, no avalanches, no forest rangers (also seen in the episode), and absolutely no way to get lost while on Mt. Brighton- you can see the whole thing from the parking lot. The only mountains in Michigan are in the ''Upper Peninsula,'' hundreds of miles away.
* The fourth season of ''[[24]]'' had terrorists hiding a nuclear missile in the mountains of Iowa, a state that, like Illinois, has no point higher than 1700 feet.
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** It goes much further than an isolated incident in ''[[Smallville]]''. [http://www.supermanhomepage.com/tv/tv.php?topic=reviews/smallville-knockout This] site has an entertaining list of many unlikely elements of the show, but scroll down to about 2/3rds of the way down for a list of appearances of "Mountains in Kansas"
* The same Kansas Problems for Clark and the gang also apply to ''[[Jericho]]''.
* An episode of ''[[The X-Files]]'' featured the
** ''The X-Files'' ran into this a few times. The first five seasons were shot in Vancouver, which helped mask some of the variances between places. However, it was noticeable a few times. The season 2 episode "Die Hand Die Verletzt" was set in New Hampshire forest, though the woods of Vancouver and the woods of New Hampshire contain noticeably different vegetation. For a straighter version of this trope, the season 6 episode "The Rain King" (filmed in California) featured the agents flying into a particularly mountainous region of Kansas farmland....
* ''[[The Commish]]'' was supposedly set on Long Island, but one [[Chase Scene]] showed the Rocky Mountains prominently in the background.
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* The [[Made for TV Movie]] ''Spring Break Shark Attack'' was supposed to be set in Florida but was shot in South Africa... with lots of nice shots of the mountains near "Miami Beach".
* Inversion: The first episode of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' has a Klingon ship crash-land in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Since Oklahoma is right in the middle of [[Flyover Country]], the writers apparently assumed that it was nothing but a big, flat, cornfield. Except that Broken Bow is actually in a fairly mountainous and forested part of the state.
* Another inversion in ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'': Worf and Alexander get stuck in Alexander's Ancient West holodeck program set in Deadwood. The real Deadwood is at the bottom of a deep gulch yet there is not a mountain in sight. Deadwood is
** Notably, Deadwood is surrounded by the Black Hills. The town did have most of the trappings of a Wild West Town, but the fights were over the area's gold and silver mining.
* The syndicated cop show ''[[Silk Stalkings]]'' was filmed in San Diego, but supposedly took place in Palm Beach, Florida. Of course, Mount Soledad, the Laguna mountains and many lesser hills were prominent in the backgrounds of many exterior shots. Several Floridian fans of the show joked that it was obviously Mount Dora we were seeing in the background.
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* Inverted in the US version of ''[[Queer as Folk]]''. It takes place in [[Pittsburgh]], which is located entirely within the Appalachian Mountains. You wouldn't know this from watching the show, however, since it was filmed in the rather flat [[Toronto]].
** To elaborate, a standard joke told to out-of-towners is that if a marble were placed on top of Mt. Washington in the city, it would not stop rolling until it reached Ohio.
* There's at least one shot from ''[[Bewitched]]'' showing mountains in the background. While the show took place in suburban
* The miniseries of ''[[The Stand]]'' had a case of The Mountains of Indiana, during the scene where Trash Can Man blows up the refinery that's supposedly in north central Indiana, yet there are tall mountains clearly visible in the background.
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* In the first ''[[Call of Duty]]'' game there's a mission where you have to blow up the Eder Dam. The background is hilarious to any German; the Alpine peaks definitely don't look much like Hesse.
** In the expansion United Offensive, a mission takes place "somewhere in Holland" (presumably near Rotterdam, since that was what the plane you were in was bombing before it was shot down), yet features hills and even some rocky cliffs (there are no cliffs in the Netherlands, and the only hills are in the southeast, about 150 kilometers from Rotterdam).
* ''[[Command & Conquer|Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath]]'' has the Rivers of Johannesburg, which are an obstacle during the first half of the mission there; during the second half, there are cliffs in your way. Johannesburg is the largest city in the world to have no significant surface water. Also, there aren't any cliffs.
== Web Original ==
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