The mountains hold a prominent place not only in our collective hearts, but also on the proverbial Silver Screen.
I’m not talking about documentaries about mountain exploits, like Free Solo or Meru. I’m talking about movies where mountains aren’t central to the plot; instead, they provide the cinematic backdrop to some of our favorite films.
You might be thinking, “This is dumb, they were obviously filmed where they take place, duh.” Wrong! One of the most fascinating aspects is that many of these films were not actually filmed in their supposed locations.
Anyone who’s been to Colorado knows that it’s not just the climbing sequences in Cliffhanger that are far-fetched. And, unfortunately, logistical difficulties rendered Middle Earth an unfeasible option for filming The Lord of the Rings, so they had to settle for New Zealand (which, few will deny, is the next best alternative).
For this article, I handpicked a selection of films that prominently feature mountains. These movies run the gamut from full-on comedies to dramas to superhero blockbusters to romcoms. I’m not a big fan of horror-genre films, so a noticeable lack of those; The Shining is the most striking omission, famously filmed at the Timberline Lodge in Oregon (it’s the only Kubrick film I haven’t watched yet).
If it’s not mountains that inspire you, but you’ve still stumbled upon this article, it’s still a great list of movies to dive into if you’re looking for something to watch!
Where Was The Revenant Filmed?
The Revenant is one of the 21st century’s masterpieces. The film follows Hugh Glass (Leo DiCaprio as he recovers from a grizzly bear attack and embarks on a journey of vengeance to find the man who betrayed him and murdered his son.
Few films showcase the natural landscapes of western North America as well as this one. While the movie takes place in Montana, most filming took place thousands of kilometers farther north in Alberta, specifically Fortress Mountain, the Kananaskis Range, the Bow Valley near Canmore, and the Drumheller Badlands. The northern Rockies are more dramatic, but the natural snow cover was also a necessity. In fact, the set had to relocate to Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego to get natural snow because the Canadian Rockies melted out early that year.
Some filming, like the harrowing river scene (video linked below, narrated by director Alejandro González Iñárritu), was done in Montana; the rivers of western Canada were simply too cold. The production was immensely hard on the cast and crew. DiCaprio says it was the hardest film he’s ever done; he finally received his first Oscar for Best Actor.
Where Was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Filmed?
This ain’t no spaghetti western, folks. A few minutes into this film, and you’ll realize you’re witnessing a great moment in American cinema. It’s not just Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Katherine Ross that draw your eye in; the landscapes are exceptional, contributing as much to the idealistic aura of the film as the plot and characters. This is the West of opportunity, where it all could happen at any moment.
The film's plot is an idealized version of the real-life outlaw Robert LeRoy Parker (Alias: Butch Cassidy) and his Wild Bunch gang. The group robs the West blind, evading the sheriffs and seducing beautiful women. Eventually, they head down to Bolivia and can’t resist a final heist.
The movie is largely filmed in Zion National Park, one of the most beautiful in the U.S., a major reason why the film achieves greatness. The scenes in “Bolivia” were filmed around Cuernavaca and Tlayacapan, Mexico, not far from Mexico City.
The Mormon settlement ghost town of Grafton, Utah, near Zion, was used for scenes at the hideout
Where Was Cliffhanger Filmed?
Cliffhanger isn’t a great movie, or even a good one. It’s pretty cheesy and jumps the shark many, many times, including at the beginning with the botched rescue (a professional rescue team would never set up this way—beleive me, we work with plenty of them). And besides, Sylvester Stallone has been accused of sexual assault a few too many times for the aggressive flirting to be charming.
But we had to include it in the article. Why? It’s the movie that brought rock climbing into the mainstream, and it’s become iconic in its own way. Owning up to its ridiculousness a bit. Rock climbing legend and pioneer John Long helped write the script, and that alone makes it worth watching. Plus, it was filmed right in PeakVisor’s backyard, in the Italian Dolomites.
The plot centers around Stallone’s character, Gabe, a guilt-ridden mountain rescuer who was involved in the fatal scene at the beginning of the movie. Gabe and his fellow rescuer, Hal (who blames him for the death), are then forced to guide thieves who are desperately searching for their cash after their plane crashes in the mountains.
The film supposedly takes place in Colorado, but there are only a few aerial shots of Durango, CO, in the movie. Most of it was filmed around Cortina, hence all the rock spires that are a signature of the Dolomites. Much of the filming takes place around the legendary Tofana group. It’s probably for the best; the Dolomites are steeper than the Colorado Rockies and make for more dramatic cinematography. It may also have saved the producers money compared to filming in the U.S.
Ang Lee: The Taiwanese Director With a Mountain Soul
Ang Lee is one of the all-time great directors. His films are profoundly moving. He’s a master of emotion, but he is also dedicated to using natural landscapes to enhance his films.
Where Was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Filmed?
This is one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s a classic wuxia film, a Chinese genre that dates back to the 1920s, almost as far as the silver screen itself. However, Ang Lee was uniquely suited to bring this film to an international audience. He was raised in Taiwan but did his graduate education in the U.S. Because he speaks Chinese and English fluently, he did the English subtitles himself, to make sure they were suitable for international audiences.
Moreover, some of the film's flaws went unnoticed by an international audience: for example, the actors all had different accents, and Michele Yeoh, being Malay, did not even speak Chinese, instead using phonetic pronunciations.
The plot is complicated. It revolves around a coveted sword, following several martial arts masters through love and betrayal. The film’s cinematography brings out what Ang Lee calls “the China of the imagination” (Peter Pau won an Oscar for Best Cinematography).
The film features many filming locations throughout China, but there are three unforgettable scenes, at least for me. The artful fight scene in the Anhui Province bamboo forest, the love scenes in the Gobi Desert, and the final scene at the mystical Wudang Mountain.
The logistics involved in dragging the crew around to these locations, thousands of kilometers apart, nearly killed Ang Lee. He’s explained that he worked 15-hour days for 8 months without a break to bring the film to completion. He probably could have cut some corners in a studio, but his dedication to getting the location shots contributed to this masterpiece.
Where Was Brokeback Mountain Filmed?
The movie is a love story between cowboys Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal). Over the years, both marry and start families, living in constant fear of being discovered.
Like The Revenant, Brokeback Mountain was filmed primarily around Kananaskis Country, the Bow River Valley, and the Canadian Rockies near Fort Macleod. However, director Ang Lee wasn’t looking for more snow cover or dramatic scenery, but undeveloped, open country that would be easier to convert to a historical period piece. Less development means less disguising of modern buildings and infrastructure, like telephone lines.
Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, though he lost to Memoirs of a Geisha. Still, Brokeback Mountain received 3 Academy Awards, including Best Director for Ang Lee and Best Actor for Heath Ledger.
Notably, the movie is an example of how pop culture can influence policy. The movie was overwhelmingly popular, and you could argue that it was partly responsible for the legalization of gay marriage in the U.S. some years later. A similar anecdote from the book Careless People makes the case that the film Finding Nemo had done more for modern ocean conservation than any recent government policy.
Where was Anatomy of a Fall Filmed?
Directed by Justine Triet, Anatomie d’une Chute is a 2022 French film that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. It’s a psychological thriller about justice set against the backdrop of the Savoie region of France. Ostensibly, the film centers around a murder trial involving Sandra (played by actress Sandra Hüller) and the death of her husband.
Anatomy of a Fall was filmed entirely in France, mainly in the French Alps, though the courthouse scenes were filmed in western France. While Ang Lee uses the mountains to emphasize the romanticism of his films, Justine Triet uses the impenetrable Alps as a metaphor for the murkiness and ambiguity of justice.
Where Was Cold Mountain Filmed?
Cold Mountain is a Civil War period piece set in North Carolina toward the end of the war. The film is similar to The Revenant in that it involves a man recovering from a near-death injury, in this case a war injury, while attempting to make his way home. The Appalachian Mountains serve as a backdrop to that journey.
We follow our main character, Inman (Jude Law), through forests, hills, swamps, and coastlines as he attempts to return home as a deserter from the Confederate Army. Meanwhile, his lover (Nicole Kidman) remains at her farm in North Carolina, trying not to lose hope.
Some of the scenes were filmed in the U.S., like the town scenes in Charleston, South Carolina. However, most of the movie was filmed in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains. It’s impressive how similar the Carpathians are to Appalachia. It helps that the Cold Mountain village was constructed from scratch for the movie using various mid-nineteenth-century homesteads as inspiration.
A great scene, where the movie’s best character, Ruby (Renée Zellweger), is introduced
Where was The Last of the Mohicans Filmed?
Based on the book by James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans is the most recent film adaptation starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Hawkeye, the adopted white son of the Mohican chief Chingachgook (Russell Means). The book is the most famous of a five-part series detailing their adventures; it propelled Fenimore Cooper to fame in the mid-nineteenth century.
The movie is more of a dual love story, where both Hawkeye and his adopted Mohican brother Uncas fall in love with the two Munro sisters, whom they are trying to transport to safety during the French and Indian War in the mid-18th-century colonial U.S.
The movie supposedly takes place in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York, but it was actually filmed in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Chimney Rock State Park, the Pisgah National Forest, Lake James, and the Linville Gorge Wilderness provided the film’s backdrop. The memorable chase and waterfall scenes toward the end were filmed at Chimney Rock’s Hickory Nut Gorge.
The cinematography is incredible, some of the best representations of East Coast forests I’ve seen in film (I grew up in Connecticut), though you can tell it’s the Blue Ridge Mountains and not New York; the forests are too lush. In fact, some parts of Pisgah National Forest are considered a temperate rainforest.
James Bond Films
Where Was On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Filmed?
Some have said it’s the best James Bond film. It’s also the most mountain-centric, as most of the movie takes place in the mountains. Coincidence? Hardly. Did Bond singlehandedly alter the future of freeskiing with the epic ski chases? It seems likely.
In this episode, Bond (George Lazenby’s only Bond movie) is after a villain running a biological warfare operation atop a mountain in the Swiss Alps. The mountains and the unusual plot (for a Bond movie) make this a great Bond film, despite Lazenby’s one-off performance in the hot seat.
The filming mostly took place in the Swiss Bernese Alps, with Schilthorn Peak serving as Piz Gloria. The revolving restaurant had just been built, and the movie obtained exclusive filming rights (by paying for part of the construction). The ski chases were filmed around Murren and Wengen. Avalanches were the product of filming the work of Swiss control teams over the course of the winter.
The legendary ski chase, filmed at Murren and Wengen
Where Was The World is Not Enough Filmed?
This might be the first Bond movie I ever saw, being around 7 or 8 when it came out. The plot leaves a bit to be desired (really, nuclear weapons?), but I hardly noticed that as an 8-year-old. Overall, it’s a good Bond movie.
The primary mountain sequences supposedly take place in the Caucasus, but were filmed at the Grands Montets ski resort in Chamonix (the nuclear weapons are sitting on the Glacier d’Argentiere). The ski chase starts with some great powder skiing and quickly introduces memorable flying snowmobiles to the mix.
Where Was Into the Wild Filmed?
Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s book is a masterpiece. The film follows Chris McCandless, an idealistic college graduate who becomes disenchanted with his picture-perfect family and the modern world and runs off to seek adventure in the great unknown of Alaska. There’s healthy controversy surrounding the story; the tale of youthful idealism and tragedy captured many people’s hearts, while others view McCandless as an idiot and a homewrecker who threw his life away in a final act of stupidity.
One of the best things about this movie is that it seems like most of the $20 million budget was spent on dragging the set around to various locations across the U.S., recounting McCandless’s journey to Alaska. Cinematographer Eric Gautier does a great job presenting scenes of America without trying to over-dramatize everything. In many of the films on this list, other film locations are used to make a more dramatic cinematic experience, but Gautier shows the West just as it is…and it’s beautiful.
The film features some memorable scenes in Mushroom Rocks, outside Lee’s Ferry, Arizona, and Anza Borrego, California. The Grand Canyon scene is not actually the Grand Canyon, but a bit further down the Colorado River. I love how he adds a quick flash of how the river turns to irrigation canals by the end. The Alaska scenes aren’t actually on the Stampede trail, where the original bus once stood, but they’re still filmed in Denali National Park using an exact replica of the bus.
Where Was The Lord of the Rings Filmed?
Everybody knows The Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand. All three films, in their entirety. These films singlehandedly cemented New Zealand in the public imagination for generations.
The plot? To put it very simply, Frodo and Samwise traverse Middle Earth on their quest to destroy “the one ring to rule them all.” Having rewatched these recently on a flight, the cinematography holds up better than anything, in my opinion.
With the three movies totaling about 10 hours of footage, there’s ample time to showcase a wide range of locations. Any place you can think of in New Zealand, some of LOTR was probably filmed there. Even a park in downtown Wellington, the capital, was used for the scene where the hobbits are hiding under roots in the forest from the Dark Rider, at the beginning of the first movie. Fjordland and Mount Aspiring National Parks feature prominently. Helms Deep is a working quarry, where they built and dismantled the stone fortifications just for filming.
The best resource for the beta on every film location is this user-submitted map I found on Reddit (thanks, Noel Anthony).
Where Was A River Runs Through It Filmed?
The aforementioned Robert Redford (the legendary “Sundance Kid”) hit the nail on the head in directing A River Runs Through It. The story revolves around two brothers growing up in Montana, one of whom eventually falls into the wrong crowd. Fly fishing is the central theme in the film, and the fishing sequences are incredible because of the genuine Montana rivers and the careful attention to the actors’ fishing technique. Actors trained with pros to make sure the fishing was up to par.
At first, this movie can seem a bit cliché, like with the narration style, but the story, acting, and, most of all, the beautiful Montana riverscapes set it apart. The movie was filmed using the Gallatin, Yellowstone, and Boulder Rivers in Montana. Oftentimes, historical fiction movies like this are forced to film elsewhere because the places they are meant to depict have become too developed. Redford manages to film most of the film in Montana, with some filming in southern Alberta as well.
Where Was Continental Divide Filmed?
A Chicago reporter (John Belushi) is sent west to profile a female biologist, studying eagles in Wyoming. He arrives laughably unprepared for altitude (he’s a chainsmoker) and the general rhythm of backcountry life. Eventually, he has to go back to Chicago, but not before the two start to fall in love. Even if you don’t love romcoms, you probably love both mountains and Belushi, so this is a worthy flick.
The movie was filmed at various locations across Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana (staying true to the “Continental Divide” theme), as well as Washington and Idaho (decidedly West of the Continental Divide). The eagle poachers scene was shot in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, while the scene where a cougar attacks John Belushi was filmed in Pueblo, Colorado. Another scene, where Belushi takes a tumble, was filmed in Glacier National Park in Montana.
The log cabin scene with Max was filmed at Royal Gorge, Colorado
Using the PeakVisor App
At PeakVisor, we love information. Without our app, we wouldn’t be able to write articles like this one.
While we love seeing mountains portrayed in film, we’re all about getting into the mountains ourselves. And that means having a great map. The PeakVisor App is a 3D map on your smartphone that includes information on thousands of hikes, ski tours, ski resorts, cross-country ski trails, mountaineering routes, and more, all across the world.
That’s right, we’ve compiled information on all publicly-maintained worldwide, formatted onto our 3D maps.
Other PeakVisor Tools
PeakVisor started as a peak identification tool—you’ll have noticed the photos throughout this article—but we’ve evolved into purveyors of the finest 3D maps available. We continue to expand our offerings. You can track your hikes directly on the app, upload pictures for other users, and keep a diary of all your outdoor adventures.
Most recently, the PeakVisor App has included up-to-date weather reports, including snow depths, at any destination. We've also been hard at work adding the details of hundreds of mountain huts, including information on overnight accommodation, dining options, and opening hours. You can also use our Hiking Map on your desktop to create GPX files for routes to follow later on the app.
