
“Ford's Final Narrative - The Beach Scene”

Q. What is it supposed to be on the show?
A. A beach at the Westworld resort, being used as a staging ground for presenting Ford's final narrative.
Q. When do we see it?
A. In the finale, Episode 10.
In what at first appears to be a genuine part of the real-life story,
we see Teddy ride along the beach on horseback, with a fatally-wounded
Dolores in his arms. He has brought her to die in the one spot she
always longed to see, "where the mountains meet the sea".
He cradles her in the sand, while waves crash against giant rocks, and
they share a touching and tragic death scene on the beach.
But when that scene ends, the camera pulls back to show that what we
were actually watching was simply a staged narrative, a fictional scene
being presented by Dr. Ford to the Delos corporate board, ahead of a
much darker real-life scenario that he has planned for them later.
( I find this somewhat illogical, given how it follows immediately on
the heels of the real-life incident of the Man in Black fatally
stabbing Dolores in front of Teddy. How could Ford have foreseen this
occurrence and worked it into his fictional narrative? The show failed
to explain the connection. )
The Delos group members are seated in a beach cove just a few feet away from the beach where Dolores "dies".
After the scene on the beach ends, the audience of corporate honchos
return to the town of Escalante for a celebration, and we are obviously
supposed to believe that Escalante is located right next to that beach.
Dolores is reawakened by Ford, and is given a pistol, which she uses (as
Ford expected she would) to assassinate him during his speech to the
Delos board members, followed by a general violent uprising of hosts against
humans.
Q. What is it in real life?
A. A beach.
Q. Where can I find it in real life?
A. This is quite literally "where the mountains meet the sea".
This is Leo Carrillo State Beach, off 36000 Pacific Coast Highway, in Malibu, CA, where the Santa Monica mountains meet the Pacific Ocean.
You have probably seen this beach before. Because of its large,
picturesque rocks, it has appeared in a number of movies over the
years. (Remember the opening scene of "Grease", with Sandy & Danny frolicking on the beach? Yes, that was the same beach.)
In appropriately-Hollywood fashion, this beach is named after a television star. And not just any TV star, but a Western TV star, doubly appropriate for this particular show.
Most people today won't remember Leo Carrillo (other than as the name
of the beach), but back in the 1950s, when early Western TV shows were
all the rage, one popular show was named "The Cisco Kid".
The title hero had a sidekick (as Western heroes usually did), and this
sidekick's name was 'Poncho'. The role of 'Poncho' was played by none
other than actor Leo Carrillo.
There if more than one collection of large, picturesque rocks at Leo
Carrillo beach, and this one is not the largest there. That
honor would go to the rocks at Sequit Point. This somewhat smaller
collection of large beach rocks is only 200 feet west of Sequit Point,
while the cove (where the audience sat) is directly north of those rocks,
about 300 feet northwest of the Point.
However, don't believe for a moment that it's within walking distance
of the white-church town of Escalante, where the rest of Ford's narrative plays out. That "town" is actually a
completely separate location, one about 20 miles away from Malibu, on the other
side of the Santa Monica mountains which separate the beach from the
Valley.
( You can read more about that white church/Escalante location here. )
Here is a Google map with the cove marked.
And here is an aerial photo of the cove and the rocks below.
The GPS coordinates for those rocks is approximately 34.043984, -118.937758.
Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?
A. I
was pretty sure that this was Leo Carrillo Beach when I first saw it,
since I've tracked down this beach location before for several
different productions.
But with this show you never can be too sure, so I double checked.
The tricky part was pinpointing precisely where on Leo Carrillo beach
they filmed the scene, because there is more than one collection of
large rocks, and more than one cove similar to the one seen on the show.
It took me a minute or two to pinpoint it, but I eventually found
matching photos of the rocks, and was able to use Bing's Birdseye view
to confirm that the cove in question was the one just west of Sequit
point.)
The Westworld screenshots from the show & all related characters &
elements are trademarks of and © HBO.
All other photos & text are Copyright © 2019-Gary Wayne
and may not be used without written permission.

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