Display scrimmage: Well-known scenes shot at Stanford and Berkeley

About an hour and quarter-hour into “Excessive Faculty Musical 3,” Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) steps into an arcade close to Primary Quad’s East Gateway, smiles within the courtyard behind Wallenberg Corridor and bikes previous the Papua New Guinea backyard. 

Past “Excessive Faculty Musical,” Stanford and UC Berkeley’s campuses have been settings for some iconic movies and TV exhibits. How do the scenes shot on every campus evaluate? On this article, I’ll stroll you thru some notable films and TV exhibits that present snippets of our and our rival’s college grounds. 

Scenes shot on Stanford campus

“Excessive Faculty Musical 3” (2008)

To many, Stanford realized its declare to fame in movie by means of Gabriella’s campus strolls. Regardless of filming being restricted by Stanford directors, the College made a particular exception for “HSM 3” to shoot on campus as a result of the storyline mirrored the message about accessibility that the College desires to convey.

Though “Excessive Faculty Musical 2” is my favourite of the franchise for its catty plot and catchy songs (how may something ever prime “Guess On It” or “Work This Out”), “HSM 3” can be unforgettable attributable to its Stanford setting. Briefly seeing the Product Realization Lab within the background struck a private chord with me. Gabriella’s story is inspiring, displaying college students from numerous backgrounds that they, too, may pursue an schooling at Stanford. 

“The Internship” (2013)

Two tech-unsavvy salesmen (Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson) find yourself at Google internships after dropping their jobs. In a single scene, they attempt to search assist from fictional Stanford Professor Charles Xavier, who aggressively rebuffs their pleas for assist in the arcades of Primary Quad. Solely a Stanford pupil will discover the inconsistencies within the scene’s various backgrounds. 

“The Internship” actually is an oddball movie, with humor that actually hits house for all of us looking for these coveted massive tech internships. I used to be charmed by the chemistry between Vaughn and Wilson; the duo provides off a chaotic but “bromantic” vitality much like that between Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill within the “Bounce Avenue” films. 

“Flubber” (1997)

“Flubber” was the final movie whose crew was permitted to movie on campus earlier than “HSM 3.” Within the film, mad scientist Philip Brainard (Robin Williams) invents a bouncy, blubbery substance in his efforts to develop a brand new vitality supply. Given the substance’s elastic properties, Brainard lends it to his college’s struggling basketball staff, who wins a recreation with their newly bestowed springiness. Though the basketball recreation was filmed at a set on Treasure Island, a scene displaying Brainard and others exterior the stadium appears to have been taken at Maples Pavilion.

“Invoice Nye the Science Man”

Each episode of “Invoice Nye” was constructed utilizing a collection of quick segments, equivalent to ones that includes scientists discussing their analysis. Within the episode “Air pollution Options,” former Stanford professor Chris Somerville spoke about his analysis with biodegradable plant-based plastics. Somerville and others found that they may genetically engineer Arabidopsis, the thale cress plant, to supply granules of polyhydroxybutyrate, a polyester used for biodegradable plastic containers. Apparently sufficient, Somerville is now a professor emeritus at Berkeley. 

“MythBusters”

The cult basic TV present filmed a number of scenes at Stanford. In an episode about driving with hands-free gadgets, the MythBusters ran an (uncontrolled) experiment with the driving simulator at Stanford’s Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab. The MythBusters additionally swung by campus to make use of a mass spectrometer in an episode about germs. One ultimate episode sees the Mythbusters recruiting student-athletes from the lads’s rowing staff to see whether or not “row-skiing” — having a ship of eight rowers pull a skier throughout water — could be possible. Certainly, it was. The MythBusters by no means fail to check some outlandish concept, and their experiments at Stanford make the present much more endearing to me.

Scenes shot on Berkeley campus

“Oppenheimer” (2023)

One of many summer time’s blockbusters, “Oppenheimer,” is predicated on the lifetime of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was a professor at Berkeley earlier than beginning the Manhattan Undertaking. The film exhibits Oppenheimer strolling throughout Edwards Discipline, by means of the School Glade and into Sather Tower. Though the film was critically acclaimed, I need to be aware that I discovered the scene during which Oppenheimer utters traces of the “Bhagavad Gita” throughout intercourse to be deeply disrespectful. 

“Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018)

Once I watched this film with my mother and brother, we have been shocked when everybody turned to mud after sending Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) deep into the Quantum Realm. What an important cliffhanger. A while earlier, Ant-Man and his colleague Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) search for Pym’s lab. They head to Pym’s former associate Invoice Foster’s area at UC Berkeley, passing by means of Cal’s well-known Sather Gate, a scene during which Rudd seems to be as ageless as ever.

“The Graduate” (1967)

This movie tells the unstable story of a current school graduate who’s having dalliances with each a mom, Mrs. Robinson, and her daughter Elaine, a Berkeley pupil. Benjamin goes to Berkeley to attempt to reconcile with the daughter after she learns of his two-timing, the place finally Mr. Robinson arrives to offer Benjamin a chunk of his thoughts. Some scenes show elements of Berkeley, just like the Theta Delta Chi Home and Sproul Plaza. 

“Hulk” (2003)

Some scenes of “Hulk” have been shot on the Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), which is presided over by the UC system. Protagonist Bruce Banner receives successful of gamma radiation from the Gammasphere within the Berkeley Lab. Ultimately, he wreaks nice destruction throughout this lab. 

“Ocean’s Eleven” (2001)

The “Ocean’s” collection has all the time been considered one of my favorites, principally due to the characters’ infallible propensity to scheme and rip-off. They all the time handle to steal tens of millions of {dollars} however in some way spin their heists as moral conduct, which is one of the best half. I used to be intrigued to study that the primary movie of the collection had a scene taken exterior the Berkeley Lab, from which the staff steals the “pinch,” a tool ostensibly able to taking down a metropolis’s energy grid.

Stanford vs. Berkeley: The decision

From this choice, evidently Berkeley’s scenes are related to darker themes like conflict, destruction and betrayal, whereas Stanford’s function new beginnings, comedy and wacky experiments. As a Stanford pupil, I discover the clips at Stanford to be significantly resonant, having walked by means of a few of these areas innumerable instances and made irreplaceable reminiscences.

Editor’s Observe: This text is a evaluation and contains subjective ideas, opinions and critiques.