The National Parks Starring Roles in Film

America’s national parks play a leading role in many of our lives, being the most popular vacation spot by far across the country. In 2022, more than 300 million people visited our national parks and memories. But did you know those parks and memorials have also played their own leading role across numerous popular films? In the spirit of The Magnificent Seven, here is the list of our own seven magnificent examples.

North by Northwest (1959): How much Alfred Hitchcock actually filed on location at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota may remain in dispute, but the iconic nature of this film’s seminal climax does not. Rumor has it that Hitchcock had envisioned a scene with a hero sliding down Abraham Lincoln’s face for years before Ernest Lehman’s scattershot script gave him the excuse he needed. The film that features Cary Grant at his charming best being mistaken for a spy who doesn’t exist may never have become the cinema classic it’s regarded as today, absent Grant and Eva Marie Saint desperately trying to escape the clutches of James Mason’s villainous Phillip Vandamm with an assist from none other than Leo G. Carrol of The Man from Uncle fame.

Planet of the Apes (1968): Large portions of the film were shot at the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area which straddles Arizona and Utah, but the film’s final beach scene featuring the Statue of Liberty’s shorn-off top section remains one of the most famous shots in the history of film. Charlton Heston’s famously overacted take on the realization he’s been home all along aside, seldom has a single movie moment packed the kind of visual and visceral impact than that of the sight of a national memorial as an artifact of Armageddon. Anyone who sees this movie will never look at the Statue of Liberty the same way again. So skip the remake.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969): Robert Redford, already living in Provo Canyon near Salt Lake City, was the chief advocate to shoot the bulk of the film’s exteriors in Utah’s Zion National Park, and quickly won over the film’s producer John Foreman. “Within 20 or 30 miles are deserts, high plateaus, heavily wooded timber country, alpine lakes and fantastic mountains,” Foreman said of his decision to set up shop in Zion. Both Redford and Paul Newman were at the height of their powers and George Roy Hill magnified their rugged machismo bromance by framing many of their scenes against a jagged backdrop that foretold the looming danger ahead of them.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): Some movie buffs will say this tops the list, specifically because of Wyoming’s Devils Tower National Monument, which is where the first of two Steven Spielberg films on our list climaxes. Richard Dreyfuss’ Roy Neary uses mashed potatoes to help figure out that extraterrestrial broadcasts are pointing toward Devils Tower as a landing site for the first interplanetary visitors to our world. And what better place to show off America’s best than this awesome site, to the point where you had to wonder whether the aliens had brought along a tour guide of America for the ride.

Rocky IV (1985): The last of the great “Rocky” movies, this one features Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky training in Siberia for his Moscow-based bout against Ivan Drago, played in truly menacing fashion by Dolph Lungren. Since shooting on location was obviously a non-starter, the producers shot those scenes to great effect in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. While Drago’s training makes full use of the best gym equipment money can buy, Rocky goes old school by crossing icy streams, lugging rocks about, lifting a horse carriage stuck in the snow and chopping down a tree in blinding fashion. No worries from the Park Service, though, because the tree was cut down outside of park grounds.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): The film’s terrific prologue introduces the world to the origins of Indiana Jones as played in magical fashion by River Phoenix as young Indy. That opening sequence was filmed almost entirely in Utah’s Arches National Park, and Spielberg second film to make this list knew exactly how to use the vast, open scenery to best depict the initial adventure that gave birth to a legend. Phoenix did all his own stunts, including dropping onto a horse from a moving train and running across that same train’s top while pursued by bad guys after the Cross of Coronado he’s stripped from their possession, both in one take. Spielberg also keeps River cast against that sprawling backdrop, accentuating the young actor’s natural beauty alongside the similarly natural beauty of Arches.

Into the Wild (2007): Sean Penn’s emotionally jarring and heart-wrenching tale of a young man’s well-meaning descent into self-destruction is framed by the expansive and dangerous allure of Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve. Played brilliantly by Emile Hirsch, tragic hero Christopher McCandless’s first tearful gaze into the abject wonder of the landscape serves as both a celebration and a harbinger of the trauma that is to come. Several hikers had to be rescued by park rangers, and one tourist actually died in 2010, tying to visit the actual “Magic Bus” that McCandless called home in the months preceding his death. No film has ever better captured the jaw-dropping magnificence of America’s national parks juxtaposed against the inherent danger in traversing some of them.