Mount Rushmore in popular culture

Mount Rushmore as depicted on the South Dakota state quarter.

Because of its fame as a monument, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota has appeared frequently in works of fiction, and has been discussed or depicted in other popular works.

As a cover for a secret location

Several films and other media depict Mount Rushmore as a secret base of operations for the government or another clandestine group, or as having some comparable significance other than as a monument. In the early 1980s television series, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, a flashback sequence in the episode, "Testimony of a Traitor", shows Rogers meeting with the President of the United States in a secret base inside Mount Rushmore. In Team America: World Police, it is the secret base of operations for the protagonists. In the film, the base, along with the sculptures on the surface, are severely damaged in a suicide bombing by Michael Moore.

In the universe of the Ben 10 franchise, Mount Rushmore is the location of the main Plumbers (a sort of intergalactic police force) complex, and plays a key role in multiple episodes of the series, including "Secrets," "Truth", the "Ben 10,000" episodes, and "Ben 10 vs. The Negative 10." The monument is inadvertently destroyed by Upchuck in the latter episode, during the final battle with the Forever King. Another group shown as having a secret base inside the mountain is the "All Purpose Enforcement Squad" of Young Justice, in the DC Universe series. The comic book superhero, Mister Majestic from Wildstorm Productions, also had a secret base of operations inside Mount Rushmore, analogous to Superman's "Fortress of Solitude". In Ultraman: The Adventure Begins, a 1981 animated movie jointly produced by Hanna-Barbera and Tsuburaya Productions, the heroic Ultra Force is headquartered within Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore was a primary location of interest in the plot of the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets starring Nicolas Cage.[1] In the film, Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) discovers in the titular Book Of Secrets that the location of the monument was chosen to erase landmarks in a map that leads to the golden city of Cíbola, hidden deep underground behind the mountain. In the film, the golden city appears to be beneath a lake to the north of the monument - this would likely be Horse Thief Lake, about 1.5 miles to the northwest of the monument, but the lake actually used in the film is the nearby Sylvan Lake, five miles southwest of the monument.

Alterations and additions to the faces

Mount Rushmore with a fifth President in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
Mountain overlooking the fictional town of Konohagakure, from Naruto. For a broader view, see this image.

The large carved faces of the monument have made it a target for parodies and other symbolic alterations of its appearance in media:

Cartoonists have added more famous faces, real and imaginary, to Mount Rushmore, or show the four presidents talking. Toothpaste companies have made commercials showing how Roosevelt's teeth could be brushed if he'd only smile again!"[2]

Replacement or destruction of the existing faces

Alterations in media have frequently included replacement of one or more of the four presidents' faces with other people or characters, or the addition of another face:

Addition of extra faces

Depictions of a fifth (and occasionally, sixth) face usually place it to the left of George Washington or to the right of Abraham Lincoln, at about the same height as other presidents:

Imitation of the style

Deep Purple's 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock has a cover inspired by Mount Rushmore depicting the five members' faces instead of the four presidents. The title is an obvious pun, the music genre of the album being rock music, while the monument is carved from what is essentially a very large rock. In turn, the English cover of the volume 4 DVD release of the anime series Cromartie High School (entitled "Mount Rockmore") is a parody of the Deep Purple album. Here, the anime characters' faces replace those of the band members.

In the Japanese manga, Naruto, four of the main leaders (Hokage) of Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf Village) have had their faces carved into a mountain overlooking the village of Konohagakure, in a style similar to that of Mount Rushmore (with Tsunade's face added later, in Shippuuden. (Hatake Kakashi) and (Uzumaki Naruto) were the 6th and 7th face to be added to the mountain in the last chapter). The village was designed by Japanese manga artist Masashi Kishimoto. The fictional nuclear-equipped warship Outer Haven, in the video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, features a Mount Rushmore-esque sculpture of the four "Snake" characters that have appeared thorough the Metal Gear series (Solidus Snake, Old Snake, Liquid Snake and Big Boss).

In the 1994 live action version of Richie Rich starring Macaulay Culkin, the Rich family has their own version of Mount Rushmore, named Mount Richmore in the movie, built on their property with their own faces sculpted into it. It becomes the setting for the film's finale, echoing the finale of North by Northwest.

The WWE had their own version of Mount Rushmore consisting of the best wrestlers in the company's history. The ones sculpted into the mountain are The Undertaker, Steve Austin, John Cena, and Hulk Hogan.

In North by Northwest

Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) and Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) dangle precipitously from the sculpture of George Washington in North by Northwest.
Sign near the mountain

The memorial was famously used as the location of the climactic chase scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 movie North by Northwest. The scene was developed in the course of screenwriting, as Hitchcock and scriptwriter Ernest Lehman were struggling to develop an idea. As Lehman would later recall, Hitchcock "murmured wistfully, 'I always wanted to do a chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore.'"[9] While writing the script, Lehman took a trip to Mount Rushmore to scale the faces of the famous monument; he only got halfway to the top, and bought a camera to give to the park ranger to photograph the famous monument for him. However, the scene was not actually filmed at the monument, since permission to shoot an attempted killing on the face of a national monument was refused by the National Park Service. In the movie, the villain's house is located on a fictitious forested plateau above the monument.

Other scenes, including the view of the Memorial's parking lot, the patio at the Memorial concession, the scene in the dining room of the concession and the loading of the body into the ambulance, were actually shot at Mount Rushmore. All of the other scenes involving Mount Rushmore were filmed on Hollywood soundstages. The reference in the movie to the Sheraton-Johnson Hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota is accurate, the hotel still operates as the Hotel Alex Johnson.

The North by Northwest appearance has been parodied in several venues. In "North by North Quahog", a 2005 episode of the animated series Family Guy, Mount Rushmore's forested plateau was the location of the villain's home, and characters Peter and Lois are chased down the monument by Mel Gibson. In Richie Rich, the Rich family's imitation of Mount Rushmore becomes the setting for the film's finale, echoing the finale of North by Northwest.

Other appearances

Appearances set in the future

Alan Weisman, in his book The World Without Us,[10] suggests that the Mount Rushmore memorial could last up to 7.2 million years and thus be one of the longest-lasting human artifacts. Because of this enduring structure, it has appeared in some science fiction set in the distant future:

In theme parks

In video games

In addition to in Pilotwings 64, Mount Rushmore also appears:

In comics and cartoons

In music

American composer Michael Daugherty's 2010 piece for chorus and orchestra, "Mount Rushmore," depicts each of the four presidents in separate movements. The piece sets texts by George Washington, William Billings, Thomas Jefferson, Maria Cosway, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.[13]

In government media

Mount Rushmore National Memorial 1927-1952 Black Hills, South Dakota
Mount Rushmore commemorative half dollar obverse.

In other media

References

  1. Real Movie News, National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (2007) Movie Information.
  2. Thomas S. Owens, Mount Rushmore (1997), p. 21.
  3. "'Mario Series'". NinDB. Retrieved 2008-01-04. External link in |work= (help)
  4. YouTube video, "The Keene Act and You" (at 0:26).
  5. Youtube Video, "Wolfenstein - 'BOOM BOOM' Gameplay Trailer"
  6. Greenpeace Gets Badass, Drapes Pic Of Obama Over Mt. Rushmore Calling For Climate Action
  7. Obama Makes Early, Unflattering Appearance on Mount Rushmore
  8. Greenpeace members charged in Mount Rushmore G-8 protest - CNN.com
  9. Barbara Straumann, "Rewriting American Foundational Myths in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest", in Martin Heusser and Gudrun Grabher, American Foundational Myths (2002), p. 201.
  10. Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (St. Martin's Press, 2007) ISBN 0-312-34729-4
  11. Answers.com, Flip Out!.
  12. http://www.comicbookbin.com/Johnny_Bullet004.html
  13. "Michael Daugherty’s Mount Rushmore Premieres with the Pacific Symphony and Chorale" Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  14. "Mount Rushmore Golden Anniversary Half Dollar". United States Mint. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  15. "Mount Rushmore Golden Anniversary Dollar". United States Mint. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  16. "Mount Rushmore Golden Anniversary Gold $5". United States Mint. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  17. Racing Presidents homepage.
  18. "'Teddy' wins for 1st time in 534 races". ESPN.
  19. GEICO Gecko's Journey to Mount Rushmore, ispot.tv (July 18, 2012).
  20. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla: The Battle of Los Angeles 2013 Night 2
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