Superman 1978 Then & Now: Below the Dam

Before you venture in too deep, this is a nonsensical time wasting post and the amount of work to that went into it will make you chuckle. Our subject scene comes from the epic film Superman 1978 and it’s such brief one, you’ll be questioning our motivations. You wasted that many hours looking for an obscure movie location? With that comes a raucous “yes!” but we’re a bit weird that way.

Where as most locations from this movie are common knowledge, this one appears undocumented, so we knew much work lay ahead. That it was part of a minor byline made it all the more interesting to us and while it took a while, with a bit of elbow grease and much Google Streetview surfing, it was eventually found. We had a hunch the location was in Calgary, but that’s all we had to go with, so mostly we flew blind. As it played out our instincts were correct.

That said, we’re here and ready to show you. First…what are we looking at in the movie? It’s a scene, only a few seconds long, showing a group of duplexes on a dead-end street. Big deal, right? Turns out they’re in the path of a wall of water, brought on by the partial failure of a huge (unseen) dam upstream, caused by an earthquake. Come on, who builds below a dam?! Either way, it’s a grim scenario and only Superman can clean up the mess, all the while the clock is ticking.

Clearly residents of the this street have heard to the news and they’re seen running about madly. “We’re all going to die!” I’d be in that Punch Buggy so quick your head would spin.

Of course all this mayhem can be traced back to the antics of supervillian Lex Luthor. Seems he got a hold a missile and decided the San Andreas Fault looked like a nice target to cause some earth-shaking chaos and this is the result. Still, it’s best to see the movie to know more.

Then Superman comes to the rescue and on building a wall of boulders a bit upstream to hold back the deluge, saves the community. How climatic! So this street has a brief brush with fame and is never seen again. I know…why bother?

Given the brevity of it all, it seems no one recorded where shooting took place. At least no one’s posted it in a public place. We know this – a lot of the movie was shot in Southern Alberta, so it seemed a natural this was also from the area.

The more distant houses and rock faces seen in back are a special effect, so we knew it was a simple cul-de-sac somewhere. That’s makes it an easy start as most streets (of the time) here in Calgary were not dead-ends.

Calgary often made sidewalks with those curved curbs so that was also a hint. They’re not unique to here, but were super common especially in the 1970s. And the storm doors on the houses, also common to the area, similarly suggested we were somewhere up this way. Again, there are not exclusive to here, but you’ll see most houses of the era have them. Even our shack had one till we got a new, modern double-duty door.

We knew the buildings seen were new-ish at the time of filming (the neighbourhood is mostly from the first half of 1970s), so that offered yet another clue. So all we did was fly around on Google Earth, in neighbourhoods of the era and look for cul-de-sacs. It was a painfully simple process and one dreadfully labourious, but after an hour or two (done over lunch and while waiting for calls) we had our target. Bingo!

We’re in the Northwest Community of Huntington Hills and why this location got specifically picked by the producers we can’t say. That it was just so typical? Anyway, here we are and this non-descript corner is the place.

You’ll have to take our word for it that change here has been minimal since the movie guys left. All those trees are kind of in the way. Still, I can see it being a hard sell. Sure the sidewalk is as it was, but all we have left to connect then and now is a door. A plain old door. Everything else remains blocked from view – damn pesky Mother Nature. It is the place.

We wonder how many people living here today know the connection? All things considered, few if any we bet. We got some quizzical looks, incidentally, from people out in their yards. “What are those guys with cameras up to?”

Interestingly, it’s something we never noticed before about the movie scene…the house on the left I guess is a restaurant in the film. See the sign? Cheeseburger to go please! And make it quick.

This may be one of the last Superman 1978 Then & Nows we’ll do. We’ve shot them all already, or most I think (search Superman on this website and see – warning some cringe attempts in there) and so have run out of subjects. That is unless we revisit the ones we already did in the past – yeah we could do that. We’re better at it now than when we started and anyway, we really enjoy the process. Now all we have to do is find the time and that’s been lacking lately. Then & Nows are always done for fun so a low priority compared to work that brings in income to support this crappy website.

Now wasn’t that a cool diversion? We had a blast and till we do it again, good day and stay super…

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To know more about where it was shot, go here (new tab): Superman 1978 Filming Locations.

They’re saying…

”The subject matter is always interesting and Chris & Connie do an amazing job on studying their subject matter.” Rik Barry.

More movie Then & Now posts…
Superman 3 Then & Now – Lana Lang’s.
Brokeback Mountain then and now – Twist Ranch.
Journey of Natty Gann – town scenes.

Something to say and no one to say it to? Go here: contact us!

Date of Adventure: May, 2020.
Location: Calgary, AB.
Article references and thanks: Jim Bowers of the Caped Wonder Superman Podcast and the City of Calgary.

A Superman 1978 Then & Now!

It’s a non-descript cul-de-sac in Calgary’s NW.

The door ties it all together.