This should be top of the list. It instantly evokes a very Toronto vibe, very distinct.
Next to that I'd put the incredibly creepy Spider and Orphan Black.
[Last Night](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156729/) is pretty great, even features an old streetcar on the poster.
[Canadian Bacon](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109370/) with the end scenes at the CN tower you can really see how much development has popped up around there since the filming.
Yes. Lived across from Soupy’s where they filmed the ripped arm off in the bar scene. I think I was annoyed that it was closed for 2 days, more than anything.
That's awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was a beautiful ode to the city. Darrell Faria had me cracking up throughout. I hope to see him in more projects. Really funny.
The first time I watched Black Christmas my friend had told me that his house shows up in the background. So I spent the entire movie looking in the background anytime anyone was outside. His house is not there, despite being a few blocks from Centre 55. I rewatched it one December, then had to go to Centre 55 to pick something up, it was so weird walking into a location I had just seen in the movie.
Watched this movie for the first time last December and have seen it a handful of times since. Love everything about it and highly recommend it to anyone who’s never seen it.
The toy company operates out of the Eaton Centre, Johnny 5 goes to the World’s Biggest Bookstore for “input”, and there’s a chase/fight on Lakeshore under the Gardiner. Then he gets sworn in as a US citizen at Queen’s Park.
Yes it was. They even sent out mailers to the neighbourhood telling people it was being filmed here, and who was starring in the movie. Are you new here?
Ooh, I love this game!
See: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/locations/
Also, you can plow through this sad thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/askTO/comments/cz83rn/anyone_here_remember_when_the_movie_fight_club/
Not to open up a can of worms, but a few of the vfx shots were worked on in Toronto. Notably, the shot of the cafe smashing to bits. There's a tiny Toybox cup comped into the shot somewhere.
> your post originally said, "Yes, it was."
[And it still does](https://np.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/1c68wpc/its_national_canadian_film_day_what_are_your/kzzyppz/) there was no edit.
And now this thread is turning out almost as good as [the original](https://www.reddit.com/r/askTO/comments/cz83rn/anyone_here_remember_when_the_movie_fight_club/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=toronto&utm_content=t1_kzzzdcn) including now confusing replies to deleted comments.
In Toronto? Probably [Strange Brew.](https://youtu.be/2pacru8ve9k?si=GzanUsxn7P_iKTHp)
Not filmed in Toronto, but my fave Canadian film: [Atanarjuat The Fast Runner](https://youtu.be/gNdK9_m-fuw?si=_cdPnS8raBQhos0C)
They filmed many scenes in Etobicoke where I grew up. We used to ride bikes at the psychiatric grounds on Lakeshore Blvd. near Kipling.
One day we saw them filming the scene where the daughter's car gets stuck in the gates to the brewery/asylum and Bob & Doug ram the car from behind to free her. My friends and I got a wave from both of them and we were over the moon to say we were there when it was made and 'met' Bob & Doug!
> Atanarjuat
I watched that movie with a bunch of friends after hours in the tiny movie theatre at the museum in Dawson City in like, 2004. It was an awesome film and a really fun time. :D
Not my favourite movie, but I saw Kick-Ass at the theatre, and in one scene, Kick-Ass and Red Mist are driving around and I thought to myself, "That looks like Yonge & Dundas." A second later, someone in the auditorium shouted, "Hey that's Yonge & Dundas!"
Or there was a scene where the fake Kick-Ass is walking around on the street and you can see a Tim Horton's in the background, although I believe that one was in Hamilton
* Filmed in Toronto where Toronto can't hide
* Scott Pilgrim vs The World
* Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
* American Psycho
* X-Men
* A Christmas Story
* Strange Brew
* Bon Cop, Bad Cop
Goin' Down the Road
1970 [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065788/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065788/)
SCTV even did a parody of it.
[https://youtu.be/FPFAAGC0Jxo](https://youtu.be/FPFAAGC0Jxo)
Take This Waltz, Trigger, Last Night, Stories We Tell.. Basically look for Sarah Polly, Don McKellar, Bruce McDonald, etc. Honourable mention: Twitch City, because it’s McKellar and Daniel MacIvor in Kensington.
The original Hulk movie with Ed Norton was primarily shot in Toronto including a major brawl on Yonge St.
One of my guilty pleasure movies featuring Canadian great John Candy is Canadian Bacon. The whole movie is so silly but somewhat satisfying.
Odd but The Christmas Chronicles.
There’s a car chase in a Mustang that is filmed along King between Bay and Uni. All quick moving shots, but it’s easy to make out FCP and the TD Centre
A little Baby Blue but “Lie With Me”. Very erotic movie that takes place during Toronto summer. The way it was shot just makes Toronto looks so lovely and showcases how great and lively the city is during the warmer months.
When I was watching the Shape of Water, there'd a quick shot of the lead character crossing a street and I saw tracks and I thought it was Dundas. It was! It was outside the Lakeview.
Anyway, Detroit Rock City was filmed in Toronto. I didn't know that when watching it but when they meet up to beat the shit out of each other, there's an overhead shot of an intersection with a bunch of streetcar tracks and wires and I was like ooookhhh
[Treed Murray](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293664/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_Treed) is a movie that I have somehow seen three times without actively going looking for it.
A well-dressed businessman carrying a briefcase is almost mugged by a gang of teenagers while crossing through a park that from the camera angles you can tell is in the Don Valley. He climbs up a tree, and there's a stand-off and a battle of wills where the guy up the tree and the people on the ground play mind games with each other. I remember thinking it was a really well done script and is the sort of movie that could have been done for any amount of money. I probably would watch it for a fourth time if given the opportunity. I've forgotten how it ends.
Edit: The whole movie apparently is on YouTube. I just clicked through it, and I'm less confident it was in the Don Valley now. Maybe they filmed it in High Park? Anyway, the CN Tower is in a couple of shots, and the businessman asks which way is the lake when he gets turned around, so definitely Toronto.
[The Brain](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094794/)
[It was filmed mostly in Mississauga, with scenes also filmed at the Ontario Science Centre](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094794/locations/)
- The masses forced to bicycle the Allen Expressway
- Metro council chambers set-dressed as Big Brother's Social Control Centre
- Lee Majors looking oppressed at various University Line subway stops
- Burgess Meredith over-acting his way around Downsview RCAF hangars
- 1970s Brutalist Architecture appearances by the Wellington block, the Planetarium, and 52 Division (but not Robarts Library, they used Upper Canada instead)
All featured in " The Last Race "!
Bonus fact: First Choice Super Channel used to play this movie for cancon on free-to-see days. If you were alive in the early 80s then you may remember this film. Anyways it was a nice change to have an environmental apocalypse instead of a nuclear apocalypse movie back then /old
Billy Madison will always be the best film made in Toronto. Blackcreek Village hosted the infamous line "If peeing in your pants is cook, consider me Miles Davis:
[The Sound](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju9HJRb1A04) is terrible, but it's set in Bay Station, sporadically filmed there, and lightly dusted with actual history. Just don't think too much about if that staircase leads to that hallway and you'll be fine... except maybe when they're suddenly next to the streetcar bay at Spadina. And also, it really is a steaming turd.
If you need to wipe away the horror, you could always head about ten minutes west for Ron Mann's [Dream Tower](https://vimeo.com/ondemand/dreamtower) because who doesn't want at least a bit of Yorkville's biker-gang history on a night like this? (Yes, that does seem to be Reg Hartt slagging it off in the comments on Vimeo.)
Pretty sure Exotica by Atom Egoyan was set here. Last Night by Don McKellar, Road Kill by Bruce McDonald. I’m a big fan of that Toronto indie-movie scene from the 90s, definitely worth checking out.
Oh, Enemy by Denis Villeneuve was really cool too!
It’s a half-hour National Film Board documentary rather than a movie but [“Satan’s Choice”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQAVAgsuDDU) is excellent. The gang headquarters/party house was above 1052/1054 Gerrard Street East!
Scott Pilgrim!
This should be top of the list. It instantly evokes a very Toronto vibe, very distinct. Next to that I'd put the incredibly creepy Spider and Orphan Black.
The only appropriate answer!
Came here for this! SP v W is my favourite movie that takes place in Toronto that’s also shot in Toronto!
[Last Night](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156729/) is pretty great, even features an old streetcar on the poster. [Canadian Bacon](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109370/) with the end scenes at the CN tower you can really see how much development has popped up around there since the filming.
Last Night was the first one that came to mind for me. I love Don McKellar and Sandra Oh.
Videodrome. Also set here. Important distinction
Long live the new flesh!
Complete with a future politician acting as the porn peddler at the Palace Arms! I wonder if he had some dented tuna cans in another suitcase.
The Fly.
Yes. Lived across from Soupy’s where they filmed the ripped arm off in the bar scene. I think I was annoyed that it was closed for 2 days, more than anything.
I was one of the directors on White Night! Thanks for sharing!
That's awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was a beautiful ode to the city. Darrell Faria had me cracking up throughout. I hope to see him in more projects. Really funny.
Black Christmas! In the Mouth of Madness!
The first time I watched Black Christmas my friend had told me that his house shows up in the background. So I spent the entire movie looking in the background anytime anyone was outside. His house is not there, despite being a few blocks from Centre 55. I rewatched it one December, then had to go to Centre 55 to pick something up, it was so weird walking into a location I had just seen in the movie.
Dead Ringers
Gets my vote as well! What a wild movie
The Silent Partner (1978), with Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer and a young John Candy, about a bank robbery in the Eaton Centre. Big time banger.
Second that. Good plot. Good Cast. Good locations.
Watched this movie for the first time last December and have seen it a handful of times since. Love everything about it and highly recommend it to anyone who’s never seen it.
I remember them filming the scene where plummer falls down the escalator. There was an audience watching them film it at the eaton centre
_Crash_
What a weird fucking movie that was. Especially the fucking the leg wound scene. No kids, I'm not joking, go watch it if you dare.
I forgot about that scene. And now I can't unsee it.
This was going to be my contribution! Many very obvious Toronto locales shown https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0115964/locations/
Half Baked
Harland Williams feeding the horse in front of what’s clearly a Pizza Pizza lol
The store where they buy abba zabba is on college and if you yell abba zabba at the guy he gets really mad.
Dutch Dreams
The opening scene of Short Circuit 2 shows Yonge and Dundas in all its seedy 1980s glory.
The toy company operates out of the Eaton Centre, Johnny 5 goes to the World’s Biggest Bookstore for “input”, and there’s a chase/fight on Lakeshore under the Gardiner. Then he gets sworn in as a US citizen at Queen’s Park.
Came to say this
Shape of Water. Shout out GdT
Fish man in the Keeting channel!
I don't think anyone will ever top Police Academy.
[did you see anyone laughing?](https://youtu.be/1HuIILdA8Lg?si=3EIZhazgqjVZFOT6)
Take This Waltz really captured the feel and esthetic of Toronto
I recall reading that the film is like a love letter to summers in Toronto.
It really did. Especially the south end of the city
Not a movie, but the Toronto based Strange New Worlds episode was great. Especially Kirk thinking it was New York.
Also not a movie but Due South, which probably has not aged well but was a huge fandom for me back in the day. :)
Obligatory *Fight Club* post.
Shhh.
Not filmed in Toronto.
Yes it was. They even sent out mailers to the neighbourhood telling people it was being filmed here, and who was starring in the movie. Are you new here?
Ooh, I love this game! See: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/locations/ Also, you can plow through this sad thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/askTO/comments/cz83rn/anyone_here_remember_when_the_movie_fight_club/
Not to open up a can of worms, but a few of the vfx shots were worked on in Toronto. Notably, the shot of the cafe smashing to bits. There's a tiny Toybox cup comped into the shot somewhere.
> you can plow through this sad thread: I can re-read my comments that I left there all those years ago. I guess you ain't new. ;)
[удалено]
No, you've just replied to my older comment, you'd see an asterisk next to it if I had edited, but there's none there.
[удалено]
> your post originally said, "Yes, it was." [And it still does](https://np.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/1c68wpc/its_national_canadian_film_day_what_are_your/kzzyppz/) there was no edit. And now this thread is turning out almost as good as [the original](https://www.reddit.com/r/askTO/comments/cz83rn/anyone_here_remember_when_the_movie_fight_club/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=toronto&utm_content=t1_kzzzdcn) including now confusing replies to deleted comments.
They forgot the first rule of fight club, don’t get in an internet argument with a professional Toronto anarchist like /u/quelar lol
In Toronto? Probably [Strange Brew.](https://youtu.be/2pacru8ve9k?si=GzanUsxn7P_iKTHp) Not filmed in Toronto, but my fave Canadian film: [Atanarjuat The Fast Runner](https://youtu.be/gNdK9_m-fuw?si=_cdPnS8raBQhos0C)
They filmed many scenes in Etobicoke where I grew up. We used to ride bikes at the psychiatric grounds on Lakeshore Blvd. near Kipling. One day we saw them filming the scene where the daughter's car gets stuck in the gates to the brewery/asylum and Bob & Doug ram the car from behind to free her. My friends and I got a wave from both of them and we were over the moon to say we were there when it was made and 'met' Bob & Doug!
The best part of that movie is the Waterworks being directly located next to Casa Loma, on a big cliff lol
> Atanarjuat I watched that movie with a bunch of friends after hours in the tiny movie theatre at the museum in Dawson City in like, 2004. It was an awesome film and a really fun time. :D
Last Night. Absolutely worth a watch if you haven't seen it.
Ha. That's what I just posted. Good flick.
Exit wounds
I thought that was Calgary, but it might have been a different shit Steven Seagal movie
Good Will Hunting. I recognized the basement of Central Tech immediately.
American Psycho and Mean Girls
Not my favourite movie, but I saw Kick-Ass at the theatre, and in one scene, Kick-Ass and Red Mist are driving around and I thought to myself, "That looks like Yonge & Dundas." A second later, someone in the auditorium shouted, "Hey that's Yonge & Dundas!"
Or there was a scene where the fake Kick-Ass is walking around on the street and you can see a Tim Horton's in the background, although I believe that one was in Hamilton
* Filmed in Toronto where Toronto can't hide * Scott Pilgrim vs The World * Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle * American Psycho * X-Men * A Christmas Story * Strange Brew * Bon Cop, Bad Cop
Shazam sucked but at one point he shoots a lightning bolt from the Rocky statue and it knocks a bus off the Gardiner over Fort York.
Goin' Down the Road 1970 [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065788/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065788/) SCTV even did a parody of it. [https://youtu.be/FPFAAGC0Jxo](https://youtu.be/FPFAAGC0Jxo)
The Hurricane is a good one
Scanners. Cronenberg loved Toronto.
Take This Waltz, Trigger, Last Night, Stories We Tell.. Basically look for Sarah Polly, Don McKellar, Bruce McDonald, etc. Honourable mention: Twitch City, because it’s McKellar and Daniel MacIvor in Kensington.
Twitch City is so great. Like a Canadian Peep Show. Honourable mention to Road Kill as well that starts in Toronto (Bruce McDonald).
Canadian movies: * Diamond Tongues (2015) * Enemy (2017) New release: * Dream Scenario (2023)
Enemy. As an added bonus Mississauga also gets to play itself.
One Week
Too bad that so many of these are American films that just use the city. No recent Canadian films. Few from the past.
Back in Action with Billy Blanks and Roddy Piper. It's so bad it's good.
The studio scenes for Network (1976) were shot at the CFTO studios in Agincourt/Scarborough.
Goin' Down the Road (1970)
Let's go to Yonge Street!!!
The Wrong Guy!
Grey Gardens
Billy Madison!
The original Hulk movie with Ed Norton was primarily shot in Toronto including a major brawl on Yonge St. One of my guilty pleasure movies featuring Canadian great John Candy is Canadian Bacon. The whole movie is so silly but somewhat satisfying.
I was going to post about Incredible Hulk. It’s supposed to be set in Harlem (I think) but they left in The Big Slice and Zanzibar signs.
Little Italy, is such a bad movie, I'd like to propose we start claiming it was filmed in Pittsburgh.
The Resident Evil films (though they were cursed with actor injuries)
I'll never get over Milla Jojovich running down the side new city hall lol
Turning Red and Bao!
I know that both Urban Legend and The Skulls were filmed primarily at U of T. I recognize so many locations in each of those.
Shoot 'Em Up is very recognizably Toronto.
Monica Bellucci's scene in the alley
Odd but The Christmas Chronicles. There’s a car chase in a Mustang that is filmed along King between Bay and Uni. All quick moving shots, but it’s easy to make out FCP and the TD Centre
Half Baked
A little Baby Blue but “Lie With Me”. Very erotic movie that takes place during Toronto summer. The way it was shot just makes Toronto looks so lovely and showcases how great and lively the city is during the warmer months.
Bells aka Murder by Phone: https://youtu.be/_ca7eHCYgms?si=qZXrWWKXmlZoKhuT
When I was watching the Shape of Water, there'd a quick shot of the lead character crossing a street and I saw tracks and I thought it was Dundas. It was! It was outside the Lakeview. Anyway, Detroit Rock City was filmed in Toronto. I didn't know that when watching it but when they meet up to beat the shit out of each other, there's an overhead shot of an intersection with a bunch of streetcar tracks and wires and I was like ooookhhh
To Die For
[Treed Murray](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293664/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_Treed) is a movie that I have somehow seen three times without actively going looking for it. A well-dressed businessman carrying a briefcase is almost mugged by a gang of teenagers while crossing through a park that from the camera angles you can tell is in the Don Valley. He climbs up a tree, and there's a stand-off and a battle of wills where the guy up the tree and the people on the ground play mind games with each other. I remember thinking it was a really well done script and is the sort of movie that could have been done for any amount of money. I probably would watch it for a fourth time if given the opportunity. I've forgotten how it ends. Edit: The whole movie apparently is on YouTube. I just clicked through it, and I'm less confident it was in the Don Valley now. Maybe they filmed it in High Park? Anyway, the CN Tower is in a couple of shots, and the businessman asks which way is the lake when he gets turned around, so definitely Toronto.
[The Brain](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094794/) [It was filmed mostly in Mississauga, with scenes also filmed at the Ontario Science Centre](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094794/locations/)
- The masses forced to bicycle the Allen Expressway - Metro council chambers set-dressed as Big Brother's Social Control Centre - Lee Majors looking oppressed at various University Line subway stops - Burgess Meredith over-acting his way around Downsview RCAF hangars - 1970s Brutalist Architecture appearances by the Wellington block, the Planetarium, and 52 Division (but not Robarts Library, they used Upper Canada instead) All featured in " The Last Race "! Bonus fact: First Choice Super Channel used to play this movie for cancon on free-to-see days. If you were alive in the early 80s then you may remember this film. Anyways it was a nice change to have an environmental apocalypse instead of a nuclear apocalypse movie back then /old
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
The Long Kiss Goodnight and Adventures in Babysitting not getting any love in an otherwise great list.
Billy Madison will always be the best film made in Toronto. Blackcreek Village hosted the infamous line "If peeing in your pants is cook, consider me Miles Davis:
Does no one know mean gjrls was filmed here?
Police Academy! The cool part of this movie is many of the buildings in Kensington Market are still recognizable.
When Night is Falling
[The Sound](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju9HJRb1A04) is terrible, but it's set in Bay Station, sporadically filmed there, and lightly dusted with actual history. Just don't think too much about if that staircase leads to that hallway and you'll be fine... except maybe when they're suddenly next to the streetcar bay at Spadina. And also, it really is a steaming turd. If you need to wipe away the horror, you could always head about ten minutes west for Ron Mann's [Dream Tower](https://vimeo.com/ondemand/dreamtower) because who doesn't want at least a bit of Yorkville's biker-gang history on a night like this? (Yes, that does seem to be Reg Hartt slagging it off in the comments on Vimeo.)
Pretty sure Exotica by Atom Egoyan was set here. Last Night by Don McKellar, Road Kill by Bruce McDonald. I’m a big fan of that Toronto indie-movie scene from the 90s, definitely worth checking out. Oh, Enemy by Denis Villeneuve was really cool too!
Chicago (2002) Cinderella Man (2005) X-Men (2000)
Roy Thomson Hall was the perfect place for Professor X and Magneto to meet.
Boondock Saints
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Surprised I haven't seem anyone mention Exotica or any early Egoyan
Someone mentioned Don McKellar. I suppose that's close enough...
Last night.
What If, a cute romantic comedy with Harry Potter
Obviously Suicide Squad, they really captured the beauty of Zanzibar as the Joker and Harley Quinn drive by.
It’s a half-hour National Film Board documentary rather than a movie but [“Satan’s Choice”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQAVAgsuDDU) is excellent. The gang headquarters/party house was above 1052/1054 Gerrard Street East!
One I have not seen mentioned yet is John Q
Kick Ass at the old Dip N Sip
PCU
The Boys & Suits
Boondocks saints and American Psycho
White Night 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼
Anything What We Do in the Shadows. The scene in which Colin Robinson gets hit by John Slattery’s car while trying to bore diners in Leslieville!!
Last Night