Getting Up Close And Personal With A Plane Wreck – Thankfully, This One’s For The Big Screen

Seeing movie trailers, cables, cameras, lights and crew members with walkie-talkies in hand has long been a common occurence throughout the streets of Hollywood North. Every person living in Vancouver has either been on a movie set or knows someone who is “in the business”, so this ain’t no novelty.

But stumbling across the wreckage from a plane, hunks of metal puked all over the beaches of Point Grey on Vancouver’s west side, was a spectacular site to behold. Eerie in fact. Once the initial shock is over, after about 3.7 seconds, one can quickly decipher, “Oh, this must be for a film”. Phew. The movie Passengers is shooting here in Vancouver until mid- March, starring Anne Hathaway, and this on-location film set took up residence along the Spanish Banks for the last few weeks. (Just around the corner from the burned out 747 is Wreck Beach, the infamous year-round hang-out for hippies and nudists with hot pizza, cold beer and plenty of herb.)

The film industry in Vancouver has had its’ fair share of ups and downs, but this set was a strong reminder, and was as in-your-face as it gets, that movies are made here: Made In Canada. And Vancouver’s sophisticated film studios and flexible outdoor backdrop aren’t just attracting feature films. The television series Smallville has long been a Vancouver-shot mainstay. Anne Heche’s new series Men In Trees resides here as well. And let’s not forget the days of X-Files, Dark Angel, X-Men, the list goes on and on. From the BC Film Commission list, there are currently 9 features, 12 televisions series, 5 MOW’s, 3 short films, 8 animations, 3 documentaries, and a handful of pilots and mini series. And this is the SLOW season!

So for all of us in Vancouver, when we’re slaggin’ the back-up of traffic and the no parking zones due to movie trailers and film sets, smile and remember that this industry keeps many Canadians employed and north of the border. And, hey, one of these days you may get lucky and stumble across a gnarly plane crash, or two.

I hope I never get that close again.