Which movies were filmed in New Mexico?
The magic of Hollywood is that oftentimes movies aren't filmed anywhere near where they purport to be taking place. California may be home to Hollywood, but so many of your favorite films were set against backdrops far removed from the glitterati of the West Coast.
With huge studios like Warner Bros., MGM, and RKO Pictures churning out film after film during the heyday of the silver screen, California made a name for itself as the cornerstone for all things movies. As the industry has continued to shift, however, that has begun to change.
From the need for more rural settings to a director's desire to get everything as historically accurate as possible, not to mention the attractive tax incentives offered by states outside of California, crews are increasingly enticed to look elsewhere when filming. More and more, shoots take place in the most unexpected places in a quest to entertain, and sometimes, to make film history. Have you ever wondered where the Cullen house in the "Twilight" movies actually is? (The answer is Oregon.) How about the location of where the wasteland astronauts trekked in "Planet of the Apes" from 1968? (Answer: Arizona.)
With that in mind, Stacker compiled a list of movies filmed in New Mexico using data from Movie Locations. Additional information about each film was collected from IMDb. Some films may have been omitted due to data dissimilarities and lack of corresponding information found on IMDb.
21 Grams (2003)
- Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
- IMDb user rating: 7.6 (243K reviews)
- Runtime: 124 minutes
- Genres: Crime, Drama, and Thriller
- Cast: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Naomi Watts
Armageddon (1998)
- Director: Michael Bay
- IMDb user rating: 6.7 (442K reviews)
- Runtime: 151 minutes
- Genres: Action, Adventure, and Sci-Fi
- Cast: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Ben Affleck
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- Director: Ang Lee
- IMDb user rating: 7.7 (373K reviews)
- Runtime: 134 minutes
- Genres: Drama and Romance
- Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, and Michelle Williams
City Slickers (1991)
- Director: Ron Underwood
- IMDb user rating: 6.8 (61K reviews)
- Runtime: 113 minutes
- Genres: Comedy and Western
- Cast: Billy Crystal, Jack Palance, and Daniel Stern
Contact (1997)
- Director: Robert Zemeckis
- IMDb user rating: 7.5 (286K reviews)
- Runtime: 150 minutes
- Genres: Drama, Mystery, and Sci-Fi
- Cast: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Skerritt
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
- Director: Jon Favreau
- IMDb user rating: 6.0 (228K reviews)
- Runtime: 119 minutes
- Genres: Action, Drama, and Sci-Fi
- Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde
Easy Rider (1969)
- Director: Dennis Hopper
- IMDb user rating: 7.3 (115K reviews)
- Runtime: 95 minutes
- Genres: Adventure and Drama
- Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson
Every Which Way But Loose (1978)
- Director: James Fargo
- IMDb user rating: 6.3 (29K reviews)
- Runtime: 114 minutes
- Genres: Action and Comedy
- Cast: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, and Geoffrey Lewis
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- Director: John Ford
- IMDb user rating: 8.1 (98K reviews)
- Runtime: 129 minutes
- Genres: Drama
- Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, and John Carradine
Hell or High Water (2016)
- Director: David Mackenzie
- IMDb user rating: 7.6 (243K reviews)
- Runtime: 102 minutes
- Genres: Crime, Drama, and Thriller
- Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Jeff Bridges
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- IMDb user rating: 6.2 (481K reviews)
- Runtime: 122 minutes
- Genres: Action and Adventure
- Cast: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, and Shia LaBeouf
Lolita (1997)
- Director: Adrian Lyne
- IMDb user rating: 6.8 (64K reviews)
- Runtime: 137 minutes
- Genres: Drama and Romance
- Cast: Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, and Melanie Griffith
Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
- Director: David Miller
- IMDb user rating: 7.6 (9.6K reviews)
- Runtime: 107 minutes
- Genres: Drama and Western
- Cast: Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, and Walter Matthau
The Man from Laramie (1955)
- Director: Anthony Mann
- IMDb user rating: 7.3 (12K reviews)
- Runtime: 103 minutes
- Genres: Drama and Western
- Cast: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, and Donald Crisp
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
- Director: Robert Redford
- IMDb user rating: 6.8 (6.6K reviews)
- Runtime: 117 minutes
- Genres: Comedy, Drama, and Fantasy
- Cast: Rubén Blades, Richard Bradford, and Sonia Braga
Natural Born Killers (1994)
- Director: Oliver Stone
- IMDb user rating: 7.2 (245K reviews)
- Runtime: 119 minutes
- Genres: Action, Crime, and Romance
- Cast: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, and Tom Sizemore
No Country for Old Men (2007)
- Director: Ethan Coen
- IMDb user rating: 8.2 (1M reviews)
- Runtime: 122 minutes
- Genres: Crime, Drama, and Thriller
- Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin
Superman (1978)
- Director: Richard Donner
- IMDb user rating: 7.4 (183K reviews)
- Runtime: 143 minutes
- Genres: Action, Adventure, and Sci-Fi
- Cast: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, and Gene Hackman
Them! (1954)
- Director: Gordon Douglas
- IMDb user rating: 7.2 (23K reviews)
- Runtime: 94 minutes
- Genres: Horror and Sci-Fi
- Cast: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, and Joan Weldon
Thor (2011)
- Director: Kenneth Branagh
- IMDb user rating: 7.0 (881K reviews)
- Runtime: 115 minutes
- Genres: Action and Fantasy
- Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, and Natalie Portman
Traffic (2000)
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- IMDb user rating: 7.6 (216K reviews)
- Runtime: 147 minutes
- Genres: Crime, Drama, and Thriller
- Cast: Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, and Catherine Zeta-Jones
Transformers (2007)
- Director: Michael Bay
- IMDb user rating: 7.0 (663K reviews)
- Runtime: 144 minutes
- Genres: Action, Adventure, and Sci-Fi
- Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, and Josh Duhamel
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
- Director: Michael Bay
- IMDb user rating: 5.9 (422K reviews)
- Runtime: 149 minutes
- Genres: Action, Adventure, and Sci-Fi
- Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, and Josh Duhamel
True Grit (2010)
- Director: Ethan Coen
- IMDb user rating: 7.6 (351K reviews)
- Runtime: 110 minutes
- Genres: Drama and Western
- Cast: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Hailee Steinfeld
Twins (1988)
- Director: Ivan Reitman
- IMDb user rating: 6.1 (133K reviews)
- Runtime: 107 minutes
- Genres: Comedy and Crime
- Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, and Kelly Preston
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
- Director: Monte Hellman
- IMDb user rating: 7.2 (13K reviews)
- Runtime: 102 minutes
- Genres: Drama
- Cast: James Taylor, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird
Vampires (1998)
- Director: John Carpenter
- IMDb user rating: 6.1 (62K reviews)
- Runtime: 108 minutes
- Genres: Action, Horror, and Thriller
- Cast: James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, and Sheryl Lee
Young Guns (1988)
- Director: Christopher Cain
- IMDb user rating: 6.8 (66K reviews)
- Runtime: 107 minutes
- Genres: Action, Drama, and Western
- Cast: Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, and Lou Diamond Phillips
This story features data reporting by Karim Noorani, writing by Olivia Monahan, and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 48 states.
