Hiking With Dinosaurs

Previously:

The Adventures of Jurassic Pet  - -  Where the Red Fern Grows  

Possums  - -  Thunderstruck  - -  Bringing Up Bobby

 

 Oklahoma filmmaker Ryan Bellgardt's entry into to the world of cinema in 2018 was the scifi/action film "Jurassic Games."  It takes place in a semi-futuristic world that lets violent criminals have a chance at freedom by taking part in a virtual reality game involving running from dinosaurs in Oklahoma state parks.

Okay, so the plot doesn't involve state parks but the production definitely did.  I spotted Little Sahara and (possibly) Red Rock Canyon being used as locations but one of the most noticeable was Robbers Cave State Park near Wilburton.   

The park is located in the eastern part of the state and used to be a hiding spot for outlaws like Belle Starr and Jesse James but in this movie it was the home of raptors, giant spiders and vicious trilobites.  However the park's unmistakable exposed rock outcrops remained the same.  So, like any normal person I tried to match up some of the rocks to some of the shots in the movie.  Let's see how I did:

One of the game playing convicts is accosted by his fellow bad guys in a little grotto area.  This is not too far from the beginning of the park's main hike and it's a nice little area surrounded by steep rock cliffs.  Notice the slanted crack in the rock behind the character and the two trees.  Those are good markers if you want to find the spot yourself.

These friendly little guys coming to bite the heads off the film's cast were perched atop some fallen boulders found not too far from the first spot.  So if you'd like to hop around pretending to be a computer generated raptor, look for the twin trees.

Near the beginning of the hiking trail there's a narrow crack in the rocks you have to traverse to get to the rest of the trail.  It's gets so tight that some of the more claustrophobic visitors might have some issues.  But it opens up into a wider area after a short walk.  I think I got the location right in my pic based on the curve of the rock but I'm not 100% sure.

So those are the movie star rocks I could find.  Feel free to go on your own rock hunt.  But check out the movie first.  You might be able to find it in a Red Box or maybe just buy the DVD and support Oklahoma film.  The more movies that film here, the more blog entries I can do.  That's win/win.

Where the Red Fern Grew

Previously:

Thunderstruck  - -  Bringing Up Bobby

If you went to grade school at a certain point in the 80's then wheeling in the projector for "movie day" meant a pull from only a handful of movies.  It seemed like one of the ones that was in the heaviest rotation was 1974's "Where the Red Fern Grows," based on the book by the same name.

The Depression era story is a coming of age tale about a boy growing up in the Ozarks with his two beloved hounds and his quest to hunt raccoons for some reason.  It's a "dog movie" for kids so, of course, the dogs die at the end.  Spoilers, I guess.  Despite the downer of an ending, the film does take advantage of some great Oklahoma scenery for its locations.

Natural Falls State Park in the eastern part of the state, near the Arkansas border, was the filming location for many shots in the film.  Formerly known as Dripping Springs, the park has a 77 foot waterfall that the filmmakers used as a backdrop for a few scenes in the movie.  Here's the view of it from the park's observation platform:

Here's a look at it in the film (it's around the 31 minute mark):

Some other scenes were shot in the nearby town of Tahlequah.  But with a period piece it's always hard to try to match up locations since filmmakers try to stay away from big buildings that might create any anachronisms.  Occasionally some signage will leak through the Hollywood magic though:

So the next time you're in that area maybe stop by the falls to take in some famous scenery.  According to the park's website pets are welcome too so bring the dogs.  Just try not to tree any raccoons.

On Location: Thunderstruck

It's not uncommon for professional athletes to make the transition into acting. Sometimes it turns into a prosperous second career and sometimes...you get movies like Thunderstruck. The 2012 film was legendary baller Kevin Durant's foray into movie stardom and featured the OKC Thunder in all their glory (kind of). So let's pop the top off this can of Pringles:

A fair amount of the movie was shot in Arkansas but since it takes place in Oklahoma City hey made sure to include some obvious local settings.  The most obvious, of course, is Chesapeake Energy Arena.  Plenty of game scenes were shot there:

The story is essentially your basic body-swap-without-a-body-swap story.  Young Brian is an Oklahoma high school student with dreams of being a basketball star but no actual talent.  After getting the opportunity to try to sink a basket from half court during a game, Brian screws it up monumentally and is consoled by KD.  And that's when this Friday gets freaky:

For no apparent reason they switch basketball ability.  Brian becomes incredible talented while Durant starts to play like a high school bench warmer.  As you can imagine, wacky hijinks ensue.  Instead of breaking down the plot (or "plot") let's take a quick look at the few Oklahoma filming locations they used, like this shot outside the Chesapeake Arena exterior:

Later in the film there's a nice establishing shot of downtown that shows crane work being done on the Devon Energy Center.   It was under construction from around 2009 to around 2012 with the cranes arriving around 2010 giving us a nice little time capsule moment for the movie.

Toward the end of the movie our hero Brian hastily heads over the bridge into the Bricktown area on his way to swap back b-ball powers with KD and you get a nice little look at the area:

Once he gets there it's time to de-magic the magic.  But who was the sinister fiend behind the curse this whole time?  It occurs to the guys that the switch first happened after the basketball bounced off Rumble the Mascot's head so they recreate the incident:

Yep, Rumble was apparently (perhaps unknowingly) the mastermind behind this entire voodoo dumpster fire.  At least the guys got their payback.  That monstrous, cheer mongering prairie dweller will think twice before he curses an NBA legend and some rando kid.

So after that, both of the guys win their respective games (spoiler warning, I guess) and we all learned some kind of valuable lesson...The End.  (Also, Jim Belushi was in this movie.)