Montana’s 10 Greatest Hollywood Moments
The Oscars are less than a week away. In the lead up to its big night, we wanted to reexamine some of Hollywood’s biggest moments in Montana. This article originally ran in March 2014.
Hollywood loves Montana. Big time. These are Montana’s 10 greatest Hollywood moments.
10. When Cuba Gooding Jr. drove a chemical weapon to Missoula in an ice cream truck.
In 1999’s Chill Factor, Cuba had to keep the weapon below 50 degrees or it would detonate. (this movie actually happened)
9. When, in Beavis and Butthead Do America, Beavis and Butthead travel through Butte and call it “butt.”
8. When The Shining opens with scenes from Glacier National Park.
7. When Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges get in the wrong car in Montana.
1974’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot has some great Montana shots, and gets really weird around 0:48.
6. When Russian Captain Vasili Borodin (played by Sam Neill) won’t shut up about Montana in Hunt for Red October.
and again…
5. When Tom Hanks ran across Montana in Forrest Gump.
Look close at 0:18
4. When Nebraska was filmed mostly in Montana.
Don’t let the title fool you. Much of the Academy Award nominated “Nebraska” was filmed in Montana, and included shots of the Crown Plaza and Stella’s in Billings. The success of Nebraska may help bring more movies our way.
3. The “you are alive when they start to eat you” scene from Jurassic Park in Montana’s badlands (Sam Neill again!)
2. The “I’ll never leave Montana” scene from a River Runs Through It.
1. When Meryl Streep ran Kootenai Falls in a raft in The River Wild.
She should have been nominated for an Oscar.
Dishonorable Mention: Holy Matrimony
A young Hutterite boy must marry his late brother’s wife who comes from outside the community. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Patricia Arquette, and Leonard Nemoy team up in what one critic described as “a total embarrassment” and another as ” laughably bad.” The movie received a 25 from Rotten Tomatoes. It is so bad that it is seemingly lost from time… the trailer doesn’t exist on YouTube. Instead we leave you with this disjointed scene.
