This is a trailer clip from the movie Alien vs Preditor: Requiem released in 2007. If you watch nothing else, just watch the first few seconds of this clip.
Wait...what's that? Aliens invaded Colorado? My home state?
Whoa-- hold on a cotton-pickin' minute. That's not just any town. That's... that's MY town!
That's right, the setting for this movie was Gunnison, Colorado, a little known town in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Colorado. Our claims to fame are an annual national rodeo over 100 years old, our proximity to the ski resort, Crested Butte, a small state college, and apparently since 2007, the attack of slimy, blood-sucking extraterrestrials.
As writers, we're told over and over if we're going to pick a real place as a setting for our stories, do our research. Know the area. Make it real.
Pffffffft... Hollywood don't need no steenkin' reality.
According to wikia, and to the amusement and snickering of the locals, here's a few liberties taken with the truth:
- The shots of our little town? Turns out it's really filmed in Canada. So why choose a real-life town in Colorado for your setting if you don't film there? Hollywood's ways are mysterious.
- The Greyhound bus in the opening scene? It drops a character off in Gunnison, except a sign in the window of the bus says "Crested Butte". Hmm-- Crested Butte is actually 28 miles north of town, has no bus service and Greyhound doesn't actually run to Gunnison. In reality, (who needs that) they contract their services out to another bus line.
- Some scenes take place in an underground sewer system. Nope. Wrong again. We just have pipes. No tunnels. The town's only three square miles, for goodness sake
- The National Guard is called in from Colorado Springs and materializes with little time delay. Amazing-- since Colorado Springs is actually a solid three hours away, assuming the weather is good
- We have a nuclear power plant. Oh wait. No we don't. Gunnison doesn't have a power plant...of any kind.
But that's the beauty and power of fiction, right?
Still, AVPR is a claim to fame we take with good humor. And we still have the 1977 classic movie Snowbeast, actually filmed in Gunnison and Crested Butte to boast about. It also involved a rogue man-eating monster determined to reduce our population. What? You've never heard of Snowbeast? Oh my friends, you're missing out on some mighty fine acting and a chance to see several of my good friends playing extras when they were in high school (think mock-worthy 70's hair styles and clothing).
Or maybe you're better acquainted with the 1972 Disney movie Snowball Express starring Dean Jones and Harry Morgan also actually filmed in Crested Butte. But there was no monster terrorizing our little community in this film, so it doesn't really count...
Or maybe you're better acquainted with the 1972 Disney movie Snowball Express starring Dean Jones and Harry Morgan also actually filmed in Crested Butte. But there was no monster terrorizing our little community in this film, so it doesn't really count...
The high-intensity drama of Snowbeast:
If this little clip entices you, I believe this fine work of art is available on YouTube, in its entirety. Ooooo.
Keep writing and watch out for townavores (a monster who's mainstay diet is small town inhabitants),
Julie
I think I'd rather visit the real town. Hopefully others visiting aren't disappointed by the lack of underground sewers.
ReplyDeleteWell ok we have underground sewers, just no catwalk type edifices.
DeleteWonderful post. I totally agree that accuracy in fiction is so important. In my work, I have at least ten different settings around the world. Most of these I have never traveled to and some I have. My goal is for a reader in the town of Kennett Missouri to have a feeling that I have been there. Just as I want the resident of Las Vegas Nevada, Bangkok Thailand, Darwin Australia, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, and my hometown of Culloden West Virginia to all believe that I am intimately familiar with their area.
ReplyDeleteI use goggle earth, Wikipedia, and other internet sites to research. What do you use to research the locations you write about?
As an aside, you skipped a couple of other creative liberties that Hollywood might have taken with your hometown. I highly doubt that there are no actual snow monsters, aliens or predators walking the nice streets of Gunnison. At least, Wikipedia doesn’t site any mentions of that happening.
I haven't tried to set a book in a real town. I think, unless I knew the area well, I would go for a fictional place for that very reason.
DeleteMostly I just get a kick out of setting movies in our little area, although the setting does lend itself to snowy situations. And a yeti on the loose is an intriguing idea in Crested Butte (you have to know the area LOL).
I heard that the Yeti was actually Big Joe after a couple of drinks running the streets of Crested Butte.
DeleteHe's much furrier than I'd imagined...
DeleteWhat to do, what to do? No underground sewers? That presents a serious problem.
ReplyDeleteHa!
But, this is the beauty of fiction and the reason we call it fiction, right? I love making up pretend stuff about real places. To bad none of my writings include sewers...
Lovely post, Julie!
Well, as I told Alex above, the pipes are underground, but we don't have huge tunnels that would be useful for any search. ;)
DeleteYes, that's what fiction does and is!
Ha! This made me laugh. :) Very interesting stuff, though.
ReplyDeleteMakes me laugh too. Fun to watch a few clips and recognize places, except in AVPR, which has no recognizable clips!
DeleteWould we see you alongside your friends in the cast of extras? And I'm very sorry, but limited sewer infrastructure and no bus service knocks a star off the rating. ;-)
ReplyDeleteOh, and townavores are nothing. Just stay clear of metrovores; they're bigger.
No, I didn't grow up in this area. I'm a "new-comer", having only lived here since 1993. That's why I'm completely free to sit back and mock my friends. No chance of that coming back on me. ;)
DeleteMetrovores.. ooo.. shivers.
And you're still alive after the invasion? LOL!
ReplyDeleteIn one of the trailers for AVPR, they flash the dwindling numbers of inhabitants, starting with just over 5000 and quickly deteriorating by the end of the promo. I'm a hermit, so it works for me. ;)
DeleteHahaha! That is such a funny post! So many monster for just 3 miles . . .must be a popular monster vacation spot featured by monster travel agents. :-)
ReplyDeleteHollywood definitely gets away with more liberties than I think writers do. My hometown (where I live now and where I grew up) never featured in any movies, but my birthplace did. Even in Sleepless in Seattle, a movie I really enjoy, they have the characters strolling from one section of town to another and put some of the best known tourist features right next to each other. Strolling from Lake Union (houseboat) by the seafood restaurant and cook shop near Pike Place Market - not impossible, but more like an all day hike. The same goes for the boat ride that father and son take - not impossible, but definitely a lot longer and complicated from one location to another.
Oh see-- I think that's funny and those are details only someone very familiar with the area would ever pick up on!
DeleteI think AVPR chose Gunnison because it has that haunting, if-it can-happen-there-it-can-happen-in-YOUR-small-town-too feel to it. Because as far as I know, they didn't do a bit of filming here.
The Snowbeast was stopped before too many citizens died. We're so fortunate. But that was 30 years ago. Monsters have changed a lot since then.
Hollywood is all about distortion. Their errors are either a big oversight on their part, or they think we are too stupid to notice.
ReplyDeleteFunny-- well, and to be honest, unless you lived here, you wouldn't know nor probably give a rip about accuracy. After all, the premise of aliens invading and chowing on an entire town requires a suspension of belief anyway. ;)
DeleteLearned something new! I've never lived in a "movie town." You're practically a celebrity. ...Or that's how you should think of yourself! :-)
ReplyDeleteVicarious fame.. sigh.. someone has to live with it. ;) If you'd like my autograph, please, feel free to ask. I'm just like you. (OK I'm making myself gag, must stop.)
DeleteHaha--this ROCKS, Julie! What a fun post! I could totally live in Colorado... you're definitely a breed of people. A "cool" breed of people... I want to be one of you! :D
ReplyDeleteC'mon up. You can have a view of the mountains with accessible hiking out the back door and I'll set you up with a writing desk. It will be like a writing retreat. ;) You can help me keep an eye out for monsters.
Deletelol, I loved your insights into this. the story I'm writing now takes place in the British countryside, I've never been there so I'm making a lot of guesses. I don't name the town on purpose so I can play with it a little more. So awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I would do too. I would keep the area real but either make up the town or keep it unnamed so I could have a little leniency with the details. But ya know, like I said to someone else, the entire premise of the movie requires suspension of beliefs. ;)
DeleteThat's funny. I kind of get a kick out of finding the little snafu's. Not so funny when they are found in my own books though :(
ReplyDelete(I spelled a town name wrong on the football roster...seems like a little thing...but I got called on it!)
Elizabeth, when I read the book, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet", I thought it was a sweet little read. After, when I read the reviews on Goodreads, people really called the author out for a few mistakes including technology the author cited the characters using, even though it didn't exist during the time setting in which he wrote. I never caught any of that. If the story is good and believable, I really get oblivious to details like that.
DeleteHa! Wow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by.
DeleteLOL! I'm still giggling, because I completely understand. I only use locations I've actually lived ... which luckily, is plenty of places LOL!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved this blog!
Thanks TJ-- I enjoyed writing it. Just for fun. I noticed the Denver references!
DeleteOh wow. Talk about taking liberties!
ReplyDeleteKind of funny but I doubt too unusual for movies!
DeleteDo you know how many times a movie is supposed to take place in a US town but was actually shot in Canada???? The City of Bones movie (due out in August) takes place in NYC, but the movie was actually shot in Toronto.
ReplyDeleteWell I had no idea it was that common. I wonder why? Maybe it's less expensive to film there. Certainly it has a wide variety of settings too.
DeleteFunny stuff! Hollywood can do whatever they want, while writers research until our eyes bleed to get it right! LOL
ReplyDeleteLol that feels so true sometimes!
DeleteThere's not a lot of excuses for getting it wrong anymore, Google Maps means you can see everything in the street view and the internet offers so much information. I'd be reluctant to write about a location I'd never been, I'd rather make up an imaginary town!
ReplyDeleteSo very true and I'm with you. I'd rather just create a completely fictional setting. On the other hand, it gives the locals a good chuckle. Thanks for stopping by.
DeleteYa gotta love Hollywood—they know that most people have never been to Gunnison, and bank on the fact that, with a few convincing details, people will believe it, whether it's wrong or not. Of course, those in the know, like you, know otherwise. :o)
ReplyDeleteI bet it's that way with a lot of tv and movies filmed in FL or really, as you said, any area! No of course no one would really know and for their purposes, a mountain town with a small population is really all they needed.
DeleteAs for Snowbeast... ;)
Cool clips! That's awesome that your town was featured! So cool! :D
ReplyDeleteWe're monster-bait.
DeleteTownavores! Love it. I haven't seen ANY of these movies. Pitiful, isn't it? It seems so odd that your town would be continually picked on like that. Is there something peculiar about the population you're not telling us? ;)
ReplyDeletePerhaps NOT coincidentally, we don't have a lot of sheep here, Laura. Goats, yes. Cows, plenty. But sheep??? Something strange is afoot.
DeleteHaha! This is too funny. You're town is now famous - or is it? Maybe it's the place in Canada that's famous.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the laugh:)
Good- glad it made you laugh. That was my purpose.
DeleteWe're infamous. There's a line in the Three Amigos: We're more than famous. We're IN famous.
That's us. Our area is beautiful and sans monsters. Come visit. ;)
Most movies would probably be like that if you broke them down. It's why I'd rather not use real places as locations, in case someone complained if I got something wrong!
ReplyDeleteYour little town has a rich movie history - very fun!
Or it at least has a dubious movie history! Thanks for stopping by, Nick.
DeleteLOL. I created a small coastal town because I didn't want any of this to happen. And I love Snowball Express. ;)
ReplyDeleteOh Jenny, you're one of the few I've ever known who actually have watched that movie. You should get some kind of prize. I'll send you the link to Snowbeast....
DeleteThe ways of Hollywood are, indeed, mysterious.
ReplyDeleteI figure if I ever write a book they want to turn into a movie, they can set it any darn place they please. :)
DeleteFantastic post. In movies, I laugh. E.g., Quigley Down Under has young Tom riding his horse from central Oz, and then, after a day's ride, he's on the coast. That's one champion horse.
ReplyDeleteTo me, books are different. I agree with Grisham's approach. If we take a restaurant from Chicago and plonk it in L.A., who cares? These are dynamic details. But when I read about Stieg Larsson's sheep station in central Oz (lizard and cattle country), the excellent book became a joke. To the credit of Hollywood, the scene was changed to London in the movie.
I love your analysis. I can picture the flooded bathrooms because aliens are stuck in the 12" pipes. Superintelligence? I think not.
Thanks Erica-- was fun to write.
DeleteGrisham's approach is great. And truly, unless you lived here, I doubt you'd even know any of these details.
I do keep a lookout for the yeti though. He might just be lurking in the mountains somewhere. Locals blame dumped garbage cans on the bears, but that might be a gross injustice...
Well then, you'd be proud of me. I actually looked up airports and flights for my first novel and only tweaked the arrival time by two minutes. LOL
ReplyDeleteOh Melissa-- now that is definitely attention to details. I think some people get a kick out of finding the inconsistencies in movies and books. I mentioned in another response above, about reading a book where they technology the author says the characters used, didn't even exist in the time period the book was set. I never caught that detail. I was too into the story. But boy, the reviews on Goodreads didn't let him get away with it!
Deletewell that was fun & reminiscent! how cool!
ReplyDeleteStroll down the movie history of our small town. ;)
DeleteLoved this post, Julie.
ReplyDeleteWe were in Germany visiting our daughter when this movie came out. We all went for a two-hour taste of home. Ha!
We could only decide it was so bad because we were watching it dubbed auf Deutsch. When we got stateside, we later Netflixed it.
It was better in German.
I thought of you both when I wrote this post, being natives and all. Were you here during the Snowbeast days? I have sat down with friends who were extras in that movie, and watched it with them. They pointed out different people and scenes. It was fun-- not only for the people involved, but also because it was just horrendous acting.
DeleteI actually don't think I watched Aliens in full. It's definitely not my kind of movie. Even if I should have maybe studied up on alien invasion in our little mountain valley.
You two write your books in real settings. I'd be curious how you balance the reality vs fiction aspect. I'll look for a post on that soon!
Townavores - I love it. ;) What a fun post to read!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. It was fun to write, made me laugh.
DeleteI'm a little ashamed to admit I've taken liberties with my home town - I've added a town square that we don't have and moved a bridge... you know, just little things :-/ I don't mention the name of the town, but I have used its geography, so if someone knew the area they'd be able to guess.
ReplyDeleteWith my one stab at fiction, I wrote about a town in Nebraska (never been, but did do a little research on the history and landscape), kept the town completely fictional, but plunked my little town into it. It gave me a visual to work from.
DeleteHow funny and cute! You're telling me you weren't taught about creative license? That's the backbone of Hollywood movies Julie! :)
ReplyDeleteI feel I hadn't been around in a while. :( It's great to meet new blogs, but don't ever want to forget about my first ones - the ones who introduced me to this wonderful world.
Nancy, when I was at your blog recently, I was thinking about how much your site has grown and how much confidence and blogging savvy you've gained. You're a bright spot in the blog world.
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