Having just seen the old flic on tv yesterday raised a question I think I already asked myself many years ago. Now I've here the right audience for asking:

The people in the movie have this vision and the urge to recreate the Devil's Tower. Sooner or later they succeed but they only recognize it when they see it on tv.

Now, I, as an Old European, have to admit that I didn't knew Devil's Tower and that I even thought it may not be real, but just for the movie. But I later learned it really exists.

Now I asked myself why all these people didn't recognize it? Devil's Tower seems to be pretty famous and I can imagine that sooner or later every school kid in the US learns about it. And it's so remarkable that when you've seen it one time, you shouldn't forget.

So, is this a "plot hole" or isn't Devil's Tower as well known as I assume?

Harald

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It's one of many plot holes and inaccuracies in the movie. For instance, there's no "box canyon" on the "other side" of the tower. There are no elevations in Muncie, Indiana that would afford the view where the cop car goes sailing into the void. The position of the "arms" of the mothership as first seen by Roy Neary from the side of the tower would indicate that other parts of the ship would be impacting the tower. Restricted area 2508 is in Nevada and California. Teri Garr is nowhere as busty as she was in Young Frankenstein. Artistic license I guess.

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Well ...

For One Thing, it's Mostly Famous, in The Rocky Mountain States.

Also ...

The Movie Itself, has Done a Lot, for The Mountain's Popularity.

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Yeah, I think Zaphod's right - it's not as famous as you might think, and a lot of the people who do know about it now found out about it, as you did, from the movie. So, watching the movie now, it seems like they should have known about it.

This kind of thing happens, though. The Omen used the name Damien for the kid because Damien is a biblical name, a saint's name, and it provided a contradiction to his nature. Same with Orwell using the term "Big Brother" in 1984. Now, of course, those names inherently bring to mind the meanings that they were originally supposed to contradict! #-o

Funny story about Devil's Tower - I've been there, got the t-shirt (literally). A few years ago, we went on a Caribbean cruise and I wore the t-shirt one day. One of the cruise ship employees (not American) pointed at my shirt and said, "I know that! That's from..." then she kind of paused, then did the hand motions and hummed the musical notes from the movie!

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And they didn't even get the lat/long coordinates right, which I though was one of the glaring errors in the movie.

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For those of us old timers who had geology and geography in high school way back when, the Devil's Tower was a familiar item, being used as the archetypal example of an eroded volcanic plug. Until the middle 1960s I had never been west of the Mississippi River, but if shown a picture of said volcanic plug, would immediately reply: "Devil's Tower".

Speaking of devils, it's pretty obvious the use of the name "Damien" in The Omen was to make mileage out of its obvious homophonic proximity to the word "Demon", yet another aspect of the movie that had me laughing.

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Hey, you noticed that too! Plus what was the big deal about kidnapping the expensive globe, except to artificially create a "dramatic" scene? What kept them from using it in situ? I mean, they had two numbers they had to remember and work with... :roll:

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I don't think I knew about the Devil's Tower before the movie. I certainly haven't seen many mentions of it since that weren't associated with the movie.

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Restricted area 2508 is in Nevada and California.

Was this mentioned during the ATC scene? I didn't remember the number.

On an odd related note, on my (now out of date) Instrument Charts, there is no R2508, yet the Air Force has a definiton of the R2508 Complex which comprises several connected Restricted areas around and mostly North of Edwards AFB.

I don't think I knew about the Devil's Tower before the movie.

Nor did I. The movie DID however prompt me to go looking for data about it.

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Dang! I wondered about this, but whenever I see the movie (one of my favorites) I am too "into" it to remember to check the numbers! I'll have to rent it and see what numbers they give.

And the globe scene always made me laugh for some reason.

CJSF

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IMDB says it's 250 miles away, in Colorado.

In Wyoming, where I first saw the film, the biggest laugh from the audience was at the display of Wyoming license plates--WY plates have the county number followed by the bucking bronc followed by the plate designation. WY has only 23 counties. I can't remember what the plate read.

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I had heard of the Devil's tower well before the movie made it famous having lived in the Western United States all of my life, but even I knew it was not widely known. It is, afterall, just a national monument, not a national park. I even visited the site in 1982, while living in nearby Gillette, WY.

I had to laugh when I saw there was no large hill or bluff overlooking the base of the tower, and no canyon -- there is just flat plain. I was also suprised to find other smaller/lesser volcanic plugs within a 10 or 20 mile radius.

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Sure, like the Statue of Liberty NM, or Mt. Rushmore NM, not like Isle Royale NP or Great Basin NP
In the movie, they climb up over the shoulder of the tower, I think, and look over to the backside

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That rock would be awesome to climb. Remind me to pay a visit if I am in the neighbourhood.

Here's how you first see Devil's Tower -- at least how I first saw Devil's Tower. It was delicious.

After sunset, driving along Interstate 90, you see a sign for Devil's Tower, and decide to go for it. It takes a while to get there, and it is now very dark, moonless.

You finally pull into the official parking lot and wonder how far away Devil's Tower is. Do you have to hike to see it? Where is it?

Then you get out and notice there are stars missing from a big part of the sky.

You're there. Spooky!

Heh, I was just perusing a list of National Monuments (Wikipedia). There are a few familiar ones there -- I've been to maybe 10 -- but the vast majority I've never even heard of. It's good to know there are still some parts of the US I haven't seen. Maybe they'll show up in movies. Fossil Butte sounds like a good movie title.

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Plan ahead. I haven't been there in a while, I understand that the climbing is more limited now, because of religious reasons. Maybe restrictions have lifted.

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Buggers I guess some local climber aren't too happy about loosing such treasure. Oh well, I'm probably not going anywhere near it anytime soon anyway.

Looks like it's not too bad. Just don't make the trip in June.

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