Oscar Week is once again upon us. If you’re an aficionado of Hollywood movies, you’re likely attuned to the fact that some film settings are far more hyperbolic than others. Plots that take place in cities like Los Angeles or New York, for instance, can be pretty cliché if we’re being honest.
On the flip side, many regions throughout the United States often miss out on the limelight. Here in the Mid-Atlantic region, states like Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and other surrounding D.C. locales do get their fair share of attention in some Hollywood productions. Rarer are the times, however, that you see smaller states like Delaware getting even 15 minutes of fame, let alone a movie plot taking place there. But it’s still been known to happen on occasion. Here are just a few films that have come out over the last few decades that take place in the unassuming state of Delaware.
Blue Ruin
Released in 2013, this revenge-themed movie about a vagrant living out of a dilapidated blue Pontiac Bonneville takes place in none other than Delaware.
Days of Thunder
This 1990 throwback film, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Tony Scott, stars Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes, Caroline Williams, and Michael Rooker. With its prevalent NASCAR theme, it shouldn’t be surprising to learn that Dover, Delaware, is one of the featured locations highlighted in the plot.
Empire Records
This coming-of-age comedy/drama from 1995 takes place in an undisclosed independent record store—the titular Empire Records. The store’s location is confirmed to be somewhere in the state of Delaware.
Fight Club
While it’s easy to miss, the 1999 psychological thriller Flight Club, starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter, is set in Wilmington, Delaware. Evidence for this can be gathered via references to Delaware City, Franklin, and Harrison Streets, the use of a Wilmington zip code on the business card for the soap company, and the visible Delaware State license plates on vehicles.
Goosebumps
When the 2015 feature-film adaptation of the popular book series Goosebumps came out, the plot was revealed to be set in the fictional town of Madison, Delaware. Not only was this the community the primary character relocated to live in with his mother, but it ended up being the remote, unlikely locale where writer R.L. Stein, portrayed by Jack Black, was living low in.
Hiding Out
Speaking of living low, that’s pretty much the overarching premise of the movie Hiding Out from 1987. Coincidentally, the film is set in the fictional town of Topsail Bay, Delaware.
I Can See You
This psychological horror from 2008 centers around a camping trip in the woods that tests the sanity of a couple of coworkers in a most unconventional out-of-office team-building exercise. That said, the camping destination just happens to be based in Delaware.
Meet the People
Here’s a true oldie but goodie from 1944, which leads a cast-of-a-thousand ensemble that includes Lucille Ball, Dick Powell, June, Allyson, Bert Lahr, and others. The story is set at a war bond rally in a Delaware shipyard.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
For an apocalyptic storyline, this 2012 film starring Steve Carell and Kiera Knightley covers the terrain of several locales. The primary destination they initially set out for when the action gets underway happens to be Delaware—to Carell’s character’s hometown and where Knightley can pick up a plane ride back to the U.K.
Survival of the Dead
If it’s not an asteroid set on destroying the world, it might as well be the outbreak of a zombie plague. That is the case in this 2009 film, which just happens to be based on Plum Island, just off the coast of Delaware.
Trigger Man
It’s a matter of the hunters becoming the hunted in 2007, which is based in rural Delaware.
These are just a few examples of feature-length films that have taken place in Delaware. When you add those films that were filmed on location but did not actually take place here, the list is significantly longer. It goes to show that even those unassuming locales you may not consider as often gets to experience the limelight from time to time.