Tarentino's 1995's "PULP FICTION" begins and ends with hit-men John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson dining in a booth at a small coffee shop, when a young couple try to rob the place.

That coffee shop was actually the "Hawthorne Grill"; it was at 13763 S. Hawthorne Blvd. (at 137th Street ), in the city of Hawthorne, less than two miles north of the San Diego (405) Freeway. Unfortunately, the restaurant was recently torn down; in in its place now stands an "Auto Zone" shop.*  [Buy the Movie.]

Much of the action in the 1995 movie "THE USUAL SUSPECTS" (starring Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Spacey and Gabriel Byrne) was set in city of San Pedro, near the L.A. Harbor. Two key scenes took place atop a hill, next to what appeared to be an ornate Japanese temple.

This is actually "The Korean Friendship Bell," a gift to America from the people of South Korea. You can find this giant bell atop the hill in Angel's Gate Park, near the south end of Gaffey Street (at 3601 Gaffey Street, in San Pedro). [Buy the Movie.]

Next to the Queen Mary ocean liner in Long Beach is a giant 180'-tall geodesic dome, originally built to house the Howard Hughes' huge airplane, the Spruce Goose.

When the Spruce Goose left for new lodgings in Seattle, the empty interior of this enormous dome was turned into a massive movie set.


In 1995's "BATMAN FOREVER," Gotham City, the 60-foot-tall Bat Cave, the interior of Wayne Manor, and Two Face's hideout were all built inside the giant dome. The movie's final scenes, involving the Batboat, were also filmed nearby, in the harbor waters near the Queen Mary. In fact, hundreds of tourists walking the decks of the Queen Mary stopped to watch the shooting. (In fact, the Bat Cave set was preserved inside the dome, and re-used for the next Batman movie.) [Buy the Movie.]

• As soon as "BATMAN FOREVER" was finished filming, another studio moved into the same dome and began building the 52'-high virtual-reality simulator for the 1995 movie "VIRTUOSITY," starring Denzel Washington.
  
  
• In 1996, Warner Bros. returned to film the sequel "BATMAN & ROBIN" there.
  
  
• 1998 saw the filming of the holiday snowman fantasy "JACK FROST" at the dome (starring Michael Keaton and Kelly Preston.)
  
  
• In 1999, DreamWorks built an extremely elaborate set inside the dome to film "THE HAUNTING." starring Liam Neeson, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. (They built a "Great Hall" set with marble floors and stone columns.)
  
  
• And in 2000, they worked on Steven Spielberg's sci-fi epic, "A.I. :Artificial Intelligence" inside the dome (the Gondola and Flesh Fair sequences). [Buy the Movie.]
  
  
• Also, parts of the 2001 movie "JOY RIDE" (which was being called "Squelch" when it filmed there), 2001's "VANILLA SKY" (with Tom Cruise), and "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN" (with Johnny Depp).
  

The ship & the dome are located at the south end of the Long Beach (710) Freeway in Long Beach.

Speaking of "THE HAUNTING," you can see its gothic sets in a rather unlikely place today: the offices of an architecture firm, Bastien and Associates offices in Orange County, at 2961 Edinger Ave, in Tustin, CA. They bought the elaborate movie sets (for the Grand Hallway and Cleo's Bedroom) from DreamWorks and installed them in their office building! If you'd like to see them, the sets are visible when you first walk in.