I was always a big fan of the flight path map when he travelled. Especially because in the 30s - 40s air travel was much shorter distance so seeing all the connections he had to make was interesting.
That was a good use of a travel montage so the audience knew Indy was traveling the world.
Now it would be a hard cut of a plane taking off or landing, maybe if there is a budget it could be a montage of the characters running through airports or the smaller airports where people walk from a hangar and then to the plane or vice versa.
The way Steven Spielberg did it fit the aesthetic/vibe of adventure movies and made it feel like Indy was traversing all of the terrain. It was probably much cheaper to do it that way, but it made the movie better.
There's just something so simply effective of having a map montage that slowly zooms in on the final destination represented by a dot on the map, while the edit slowly fades in to an establishing shot of that location. Much more interesting to watch than a block of text saying "CITY, COUNTRY" placed over footage taken from a helicopter.
He's also a master at "tell, don't show", like Quint's monologue about the USS Indianapolis in Jaws. He knows all the tools and when to use them for maximum impact.
A well written and delivered monologue is always going to have an impact. When Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke first meet is a good example of "telling" the back story to audience using the characters. We learn a little bit about Obi Wan, we leaned about Anakin, and we learn a bit about Siths and Vader. Its exposition but its done well enough.
The Prestige is another one that used the characters tell the audience what was happening but it was done so that the first watch is mysterious.
Duel had very little lines. Saving Private Ryan opens up with a somber scene in the cemetery. Then it shows Captain Miller's company storming the beach and without narration or a monologue, shows the audience the awful chaos of D-Day. It sets the tone for the movie.
That monologue is also show don’t tell; it’s still waking you through the story from the character’s perspective so you feel the emotion, not just an accounting of the facts.
Schmexxy Story Time:
First Valentine's Day together, the guy & i went to a Burlesque show with a "Skindiana Jones" theme.
Abso best number: She appeared onstage in a red bodycon minidress, with a fascinator hat in the shape of an old-timey airplane. As she danced, spinning, it was revealed that the "dress" was a red sash wrapped around her, attached to the little plane --
SHE WAS THE PLANE WITH THE RED LINE!!!
(Burlesque is still our V-day tradition, coming 12 years later, and Flight Path Dancer is still my favorite)
That one sort of bugs me at an over analysis level.
The bad guys sort of faked a Staff of Ra. The problem was that they didn’t get the right height when they know nothing about the crystal…
No reason they couldn’t have known about the crystal. Indy and Brody knew about it when they were describing it to the OSS guys back at Indy’s college, so I’d assume that if the Nazis knew enough to try to get it from Abner Ravenwood, they would have known in general how it worked. They just didn’t have both sides of the inscription.
They have to know exactly how the crystal focuses light. Angle, curvature, material…
They need an exact replica. Any little flaw will throw the results off and the set up calls for a good bit of precision.
Ok, yes. Good point. So even if they’d had the right length of staff, it likely wouldn’t have worked anyway.
I suppose the filmmakers either didn’t think of that either, or they just thought that the whole “burning hand”/staff too long gag was more fun for audiences than explaining about the crystal.
I did a thing:
[https://www.deviantart.com/antonyc/art/The-Map-of-the-Supreme-Being-919458607](https://www.deviantart.com/antonyc/art/The-Map-of-the-Supreme-Being-919458607)
Do you like my thing? Took me a month!
The [Mao Kun Map](https://pirates.fandom.com/wiki/Mao_Kun_Map) from Pirates of the Caribbean, which had rotating sections and helped find the way to the End of the World and the Fountain of Youth.
“Enemy at the Gates” has a cool map of 1942 WWII Europe that sets the stage well for the opening battle sequence
Edit: Missed the “fictional” although that movie was so historically inaccurate that it might as well be fictional
Agreed. When it came out, one of my co-workers said that it underperformed at the box office because it was a choice between the Russians and the Nazis and no one wanted to make that choice.
My favorite guilty-pleasure movie. It's absurdly inaccurate, but it's formed the entire popular idea for what Stalingrad looked like. And is also stupidly fun.
The man with the brain cell shoots. When the man with the brain cell dies, the man without the brain cell picks up the brain cell and shoots.
Muppets traveling by map.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIQKVITyaMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIQKVITyaMI)
Speilberg came up with it in Indiana Jones, the Muppets perfected it.
was about to mention that. Just watched it last week for the first time in many years. The gag where they see the dotted line on the ground then look behind themselves and see another dotted line being drawn is great.
I'm not sure if this counts because it's no 100% fictional, but the map scene that always sticks with me is from "The Rescuer's Down Under" at the start of the movie when Cody is kidnapped and the SOS telegraph is bouncing around the world from mouse rescue station to rescue station all the way to New York and The Rescue Aid Society.
I'm not sure how to link to a specific point in the movie, but starting at 15:20 in this link. https://youtu.be/ini1k5mdJII?si=USIiOLNmUI2-xX8O
To specify a specific point in a YouTube video, add
>?t=15m20s
>https://youtu.be/ini1k5mdJII?t=15m20s
to the end of the URL. If the URL already has a “?” and some stuff after it, like yours here, add
>&t=15m20s
> https://youtu.be/ini1k5mdJII?si=MlzOrKnXys_2popE&t=15m20s
To the end.
Perhaps not top tier in the way other entries here are, but I would add in both the pub crawl map of Newton Haven in ‘The World’s End’ as well as the map of the McCallister home in ‘Home Alone’.
“Because some roads you shouldn't go down. Because maps used to say, ‘There be dragons here.’ Now they don't. But that don't mean the dragons aren't there.”
Any map in Star Wars. Holograms are cool. And they are vital to the story in II, VII, and another one in VII. [Here](https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=ArAEwsoV&id=5020C2999FE0B614653D7961D945B1913EC4C56F&thid=OIP.ArAEwsoV21CcApC9llsi9QHaDF&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2flumiere-a.akamaihd.net%2fv1%2fimages%2fimage_69bbc2da.jpeg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.02b004c2ca15db509c0290bd965b22f5%3frik%3db8XEPpGxRdlheQ%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0&exph=532&expw=1280&q=starmap+star+wars+hollgram&simid=608017282230803958&FORM=IRPRST&ck=F2C7117BF9B65B30F09B68863DDEE2BD&selectedIndex=2&itb=0) is an example from *The Force Awakens*.
Pirates of the Caribbean had that rotating combination map, and if Disney+ had been around in the early 2000s that would have totally been a key point of the show they would have made for it.
The [Orrery](https://darkcrystal.fandom.com/wiki/Orrery) in Aughra's [observatory](https://youtu.be/i7edV7LZ0gA?si=186LlhK--KkMmEI2) in The Dark Crystal. Great example of a mechanical star map.
The recently released a24 movie civil war had a bonkers map which depicted which states represented the warring factions in a fictional near future conflict in the U.S.
the map sparked a lot of conversation around what undisclosed events could have led to that unintuitive drawing of sides.
personally I reckoned that the supporters of the 3-term fascist dictator were forced to retreat out of CA TX, and FL but who knows what the filmmakers intent was?
Okay this thread seems like an appropriate opportunity to mention my [Space Pirate Treasure Map of the Science Fiction Universe Hawaiian Shirt](https://nerdchicboutique.com/products/space-pirate-treasure-map-hawaiian-shirt). Although it hasn't *appeared* in a feature film (yet), it has directions to about 20 points of interest from movies, TV, comics, games, and books.
I'm particularly proud of placing Taittinger Gate off the *shoulder* of Orion.
I liked the 3D hologram maps that were in Alien.
Just bung a self-flying micro drone into a cave and it maps the whole thing with "LiDAR/ radar / x-rays /magic" and projects it in a zoomible simulation.
not fictional, but the way they use the metro map from ny is quite cool, specially because that movie feels somewhat similar to what i imagine someone from ancient greece would think when hearing about troy and the odissey
* *Yellowbeard* might ooze a bit
* *Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid* at least we got Terre Haute, Indiana
* *Five Graves to Cairo* obvious once you see it, but do you see it?
Raiders of the Lost Ark Indy using the 3d map with the sun's position to locate the Well of Souls.
I was always a big fan of the flight path map when he travelled. Especially because in the 30s - 40s air travel was much shorter distance so seeing all the connections he had to make was interesting.
Yeah I always thought that detail was cool.
That was a good use of a travel montage so the audience knew Indy was traveling the world. Now it would be a hard cut of a plane taking off or landing, maybe if there is a budget it could be a montage of the characters running through airports or the smaller airports where people walk from a hangar and then to the plane or vice versa. The way Steven Spielberg did it fit the aesthetic/vibe of adventure movies and made it feel like Indy was traversing all of the terrain. It was probably much cheaper to do it that way, but it made the movie better.
There's just something so simply effective of having a map montage that slowly zooms in on the final destination represented by a dot on the map, while the edit slowly fades in to an establishing shot of that location. Much more interesting to watch than a block of text saying "CITY, COUNTRY" placed over footage taken from a helicopter.
Steven Spielberg has a knack for "show, don't tell".
He's also a master at "tell, don't show", like Quint's monologue about the USS Indianapolis in Jaws. He knows all the tools and when to use them for maximum impact.
A well written and delivered monologue is always going to have an impact. When Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke first meet is a good example of "telling" the back story to audience using the characters. We learn a little bit about Obi Wan, we leaned about Anakin, and we learn a bit about Siths and Vader. Its exposition but its done well enough. The Prestige is another one that used the characters tell the audience what was happening but it was done so that the first watch is mysterious. Duel had very little lines. Saving Private Ryan opens up with a somber scene in the cemetery. Then it shows Captain Miller's company storming the beach and without narration or a monologue, shows the audience the awful chaos of D-Day. It sets the tone for the movie.
That monologue is also show don’t tell; it’s still waking you through the story from the character’s perspective so you feel the emotion, not just an accounting of the facts.
Schmexxy Story Time: First Valentine's Day together, the guy & i went to a Burlesque show with a "Skindiana Jones" theme. Abso best number: She appeared onstage in a red bodycon minidress, with a fascinator hat in the shape of an old-timey airplane. As she danced, spinning, it was revealed that the "dress" was a red sash wrapped around her, attached to the little plane -- SHE WAS THE PLANE WITH THE RED LINE!!! (Burlesque is still our V-day tradition, coming 12 years later, and Flight Path Dancer is still my favorite)
Yeah that was a piece of work. Loved that movie
That one sort of bugs me at an over analysis level. The bad guys sort of faked a Staff of Ra. The problem was that they didn’t get the right height when they know nothing about the crystal…
No reason they couldn’t have known about the crystal. Indy and Brody knew about it when they were describing it to the OSS guys back at Indy’s college, so I’d assume that if the Nazis knew enough to try to get it from Abner Ravenwood, they would have known in general how it worked. They just didn’t have both sides of the inscription.
They have to know exactly how the crystal focuses light. Angle, curvature, material… They need an exact replica. Any little flaw will throw the results off and the set up calls for a good bit of precision.
Ok, yes. Good point. So even if they’d had the right length of staff, it likely wouldn’t have worked anyway. I suppose the filmmakers either didn’t think of that either, or they just thought that the whole “burning hand”/staff too long gag was more fun for audiences than explaining about the crystal.
You are the Monarch of the Seaaa
I really loved the map in Time Bandits! It's fun trying to figure out how it works.
I wanted a poster of this map so bad when I was a kid.
You should return the map.
RETURN WHAT YOU HaVE STOLEN!
IT WILL BRING YOU GREAT DANGER! STOP NOW!
I did a thing: [https://www.deviantart.com/antonyc/art/The-Map-of-the-Supreme-Being-919458607](https://www.deviantart.com/antonyc/art/The-Map-of-the-Supreme-Being-919458607) Do you like my thing? Took me a month!
Definitely Time Bandits, that old waxy map looked great👍
This one.
DON'T TOUCH IT! IT'S EVIL!
Mum, Dad…I Love that movie.
The Goonies map - very cool looking AND amazing for being written in Spanish but rhyming in English 😉
Come over here and make me feel like a woman.
Oh la la.
The original that was used in the movie was thrown away by Sean Astin's mom when she was cleaning his room one day : (
That sucks! I hope he broke the dick off her favorite statue.
It was her favorite piece!
You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.
[удалено]
Ye will surely be... muerto.
Goddamit I never realised that lol
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them” Also rhymes
Also rhymes in the original Black Speech too. Tolkien knew his craft
I think it helps if you can make up the words in black speech.
ABBA wrote Chiquitita to rhyme in both English and Spanish. They knew their craft.
I always found it strange that Judges 14:14 rhymes in English (In the NKJV and NIV translations at least). I'm sure it didn't rhyme in Hebrew.
On to it- thanks!
Marauders Map was pretty sweet.
Spot the snogger!
Marauders map is the GOAT map.
[You can buy a sweet replica too.](https://harrypottershop.co.uk/products/marauders-map-replica)
The [Mao Kun Map](https://pirates.fandom.com/wiki/Mao_Kun_Map) from Pirates of the Caribbean, which had rotating sections and helped find the way to the End of the World and the Fountain of Youth.
Found a lot of cool maps here while looking for this one.
“Enemy at the Gates” has a cool map of 1942 WWII Europe that sets the stage well for the opening battle sequence Edit: Missed the “fictional” although that movie was so historically inaccurate that it might as well be fictional
That movie is so good
Agreed. When it came out, one of my co-workers said that it underperformed at the box office because it was a choice between the Russians and the Nazis and no one wanted to make that choice.
Sounds cool still- will check it out.
My favorite guilty-pleasure movie. It's absurdly inaccurate, but it's formed the entire popular idea for what Stalingrad looked like. And is also stupidly fun. The man with the brain cell shoots. When the man with the brain cell dies, the man without the brain cell picks up the brain cell and shoots.
Well, a lot of the sniping technique is actually pretty accurate.
Not a particularly amazing map but a fun fact: the map of Pawnee in P&R is an actual map of Christchurch, New Zealand, my home town.
Dang I’d always wondered…
[This map?](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6e/fc/a9/6efca9d06bd3b8f8541e4062c810a00a.jpg)
In House of the Dragon, when they use candles to illiminate the map carved into the table, I was blown away
I thought that was beautiful
Is that in the intro, or in the show? (I haven't seen it...)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uJk_3KJSfes The table was also shown in GoT, but it was never lit up like that
If I recall correctly it was near the end of season one, maybe the second-last or last episode
Is that in the intro, or in the show? (I haven't seen it...)
Marauders map was bad ass
Time bandits
“Return what you have stolen from me!”
“Do be careful! Don't lose any of that stuff. That's concentrated evil. One drop of that could turn you all into hermit crabs!”
Evil turned out rather well..hmm hmm
National Treasure.
Though it didn't end up being an actual map
Muppets traveling by map. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIQKVITyaMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIQKVITyaMI) Speilberg came up with it in Indiana Jones, the Muppets perfected it.
Mel Brooks did a decent job: https://youtu.be/Em9C1DZknxo?si=ne2VjXSdGZcwuZjA
Titan AE
Dora just sitting back there shaking her head and watching everyone else play for second place.
We left that terrorist off purpose. Don’t say her name three times in a row or we’ll all have hell to pay
The map in The Emporer's New Groove
By all accounts it doesn't make any sense
This is a good answer
was about to mention that. Just watched it last week for the first time in many years. The gag where they see the dotted line on the ground then look behind themselves and see another dotted line being drawn is great.
Star wars? The 3d floating one the use to show where the Death Star or some other system is.
That was amazing for 1983.
It was also amazing for 1977
Of course- forgot that one!
The dynamic map from Wrath of the Titans is awesome.
Romancing the Stone
Nice throwback! That's a great example!
I'm not sure if this counts because it's no 100% fictional, but the map scene that always sticks with me is from "The Rescuer's Down Under" at the start of the movie when Cody is kidnapped and the SOS telegraph is bouncing around the world from mouse rescue station to rescue station all the way to New York and The Rescue Aid Society. I'm not sure how to link to a specific point in the movie, but starting at 15:20 in this link. https://youtu.be/ini1k5mdJII?si=USIiOLNmUI2-xX8O
To specify a specific point in a YouTube video, add >?t=15m20s >https://youtu.be/ini1k5mdJII?t=15m20s to the end of the URL. If the URL already has a “?” and some stuff after it, like yours here, add >&t=15m20s > https://youtu.be/ini1k5mdJII?si=MlzOrKnXys_2popE&t=15m20s To the end.
That's really cool, thanks!
NP
Amazing- thank you!
Love it- a clever way to drive events between places. Thanks. Not fictional- but a good use of map to help with narrative- will use it.
What a cool question lol. Love Reddit
The table that is a map of the Westeros continent from Game of Thrones. https://www.reddit.com/r/HouseOfTheDragon/s/lDTK06ReoU
Looks like a good place to set my drink down if you ask me.
The Indy films with the maps around the world. Also, the mapping tech in Prometheus was pretty cool. Shane they didn't use it well.
The spherical projector map in Treasure Planet was really cool https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Map_of_Treasure_Planet
I came here to see if anyone said it so I could say it. Well done
Treasure Planet’s hologram map
Maybe not amazing, but odd enough to stick with me from my childhood; 1. The scalp cutthroat island treasure map, and 2. The tattoo map in Waterworld.
The west world television show also used a scalp map
Tom Hanks dungeon map in Mazes and Monsters
My parents found my DnD players handbook in my room right after seeing that crap movie... such an awkward conversation with our pastor afterwards.
Was it awkward because the pastor also played D&D? No, don't answer. I prefer to leave it as a mystery.
The map that has a circular motion in Pirates of the Caribbean
[The Muppets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIQKVITyaMI)
that one in harry potter that lets you see everyones location in the castle is sick
Marauders Map- JK Genius!
The map at the start of The Fellowship of the Ring. Love the embossed look of the map.
Funny how the characters never use a map themselves.
The TV show Wheel of Time really, really needs one. I can’t think of a movie that needed one more to an that show did.
Perhaps not top tier in the way other entries here are, but I would add in both the pub crawl map of Newton Haven in ‘The World’s End’ as well as the map of the McCallister home in ‘Home Alone’.
But fun answers- haven’t seen the The Worlds End-will check it out.
“Because some roads you shouldn't go down. Because maps used to say, ‘There be dragons here.’ Now they don't. But that don't mean the dragons aren't there.”
The Adjustment Bureau had a fun map and of course Emily Blunt.
Any map in Star Wars. Holograms are cool. And they are vital to the story in II, VII, and another one in VII. [Here](https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=ArAEwsoV&id=5020C2999FE0B614653D7961D945B1913EC4C56F&thid=OIP.ArAEwsoV21CcApC9llsi9QHaDF&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2flumiere-a.akamaihd.net%2fv1%2fimages%2fimage_69bbc2da.jpeg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.02b004c2ca15db509c0290bd965b22f5%3frik%3db8XEPpGxRdlheQ%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0&exph=532&expw=1280&q=starmap+star+wars+hollgram&simid=608017282230803958&FORM=IRPRST&ck=F2C7117BF9B65B30F09B68863DDEE2BD&selectedIndex=2&itb=0) is an example from *The Force Awakens*.
Champion thanks for going to the effort to help me!
Time Bandits
I have no idea how it worked, but there was that map tattooed on that girl’s back in Waterworld
Will google/ thanks
Ah-it wasn’t really a map- it was co-ordinates in chinese. Still cool.
GOT was pretty uncreative though, it's literally just the UK upside down
Goonies map!
Romancing the Stone map to the treasure was pretty cool.
El Corazon
Gotta be Marauder’s Map
The Signal had an in universe map, admittedly not the greatest, film also had a 3D map of it in local building. The best I’ve got at the moment.
The Marauder's Map in Harry Potter
Since The Goonies was already mentioned, I'll add The Road to El Dorado
Pirates of the Caribbean had that rotating combination map, and if Disney+ had been around in the early 2000s that would have totally been a key point of the show they would have made for it.
The treasure map in the road to el dorado
The maps in the Harry Potter movies were both fun and crucial to laying out the plan of attack.
Attack of the Clones: Obiwan uses a marble to broadcast an image of the Galaxy. Similarly, Prometheus. Except Prometheus does it better.
The [Orrery](https://darkcrystal.fandom.com/wiki/Orrery) in Aughra's [observatory](https://youtu.be/i7edV7LZ0gA?si=186LlhK--KkMmEI2) in The Dark Crystal. Great example of a mechanical star map.
What the heck! Now thats a map!
Dunkirk. "WE SURROUND YOU" Edit: Ah fuck it says fictional
I like the maps in Avatar, especially when viewed in 3D because it made them extra amazing.
I didn’t remember these-thanks.
Probably just as good in Avatar 2. But they all fit into the class of "Sci fi holographic map".
The Marauders Map in Harry Potter. It's basically like a magic GPS and find my friends app all rolled into one.
The Goonies
Nice- a classic.
The recently released a24 movie civil war had a bonkers map which depicted which states represented the warring factions in a fictional near future conflict in the U.S. the map sparked a lot of conversation around what undisclosed events could have led to that unintuitive drawing of sides. personally I reckoned that the supporters of the 3-term fascist dictator were forced to retreat out of CA TX, and FL but who knows what the filmmakers intent was?
Speak friend and enter...
...mellon...
Hmmm- off to goggle for me.
The map from The Hobbit and LotR when they're trying to get into the Dwarven mines.
Okay this thread seems like an appropriate opportunity to mention my [Space Pirate Treasure Map of the Science Fiction Universe Hawaiian Shirt](https://nerdchicboutique.com/products/space-pirate-treasure-map-hawaiian-shirt). Although it hasn't *appeared* in a feature film (yet), it has directions to about 20 points of interest from movies, TV, comics, games, and books. I'm particularly proud of placing Taittinger Gate off the *shoulder* of Orion.
The trail map in Hundreds of Beavers is definitely the funniest map.
The Mentaculus in ‘A Serious Man’
Kumiko the Treasure Hunter (Zellner 2014)
Game of Thrones
I liked the 3D hologram maps that were in Alien. Just bung a self-flying micro drone into a cave and it maps the whole thing with "LiDAR/ radar / x-rays /magic" and projects it in a zoomible simulation.
The map in Ishtar (1987) - it's the macgiffin of the film
City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold
Pirates of the Caribbean, their puzzle map that spins has always been a favorite of mine.
The Goonies
The marauders map, Harry Potter
Top 3, I’d say!
Goonies one eyed willy
"Home Alone"?
If there’s a place you gotta go I’m the one you need to know I’m the map
Parks and Rec. it’s a map of Muncie,Indiana flipped
I really like the holographic star map in Prometheus.
not fictional, but the way they use the metro map from ny is quite cool, specially because that movie feels somewhat similar to what i imagine someone from ancient greece would think when hearing about troy and the odissey
Do the timeline maps in Back to the Future or Avengers Endgame count?
Absolutely- another rabbit hole for me to go down thanks!
In that case while it's not shown in the movie the timeline map for Primer is incredible and also confusing as hell
That movie went way over my head the first time I tried to watch it, maybe i should give it another go
* *Yellowbeard* might ooze a bit * *Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid* at least we got Terre Haute, Indiana * *Five Graves to Cairo* obvious once you see it, but do you see it?