Mount Rushmore in popular culture

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

Contents 1 As a cover for a secret location 2 Alterations and additions to the faces 3 Appearances set in the future 4 In North by Northwest 5 Other appearances 5.1 In theme parks 5.2 In video games 5.3 Other venues 6 References

[edit] 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 that the monument was built 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 - this would likely be Horse Thief Lake, about two miles to the northeast of the monument.

[edit] Alterations and additions to the faces

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

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

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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. In Superman II, General Zod and his criminal partners use their superpowers to replace three of the carvings with their own faces and wipe out the fourth. Similarly, in Mars Attacks!, the Martians in a UFO carve their faces into Mount Rushmore, replacing the Presidents' heads. Deep Purple's album 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 and roll, while the monument is carved from what is essentially a very large rock. The cover of the Chipmunks' album, Chipmunk Rock, depicts Roosevelt replaced by Alvin Chipmunk. Similarly, the Nintendo 64 video game Pilotwings 64 (which features a level based on United States geography and landmarks) shows the monument in the approximate location of South Dakota, but replaces Washington's head with that of Nintendo's mascot Mario.^[3] In the Japanese anime, Naruto, four of the main leaders (Kage) 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.

In the final scene of the film Head of State, fictional president Mays Gilliam's face has been added into Mount Rushmore next to Abraham Lincoln. In the extended edition of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, a fifth face carved into the mountain is that of fictional president Elaine Salinger, an African-American Woman. The cover of the February 1957 issue of MAD Magazine Issue #31, also depicts Mount Rushmore with a fifth face: that of Alfred E. Neuman.

[edit] Appearances set in the future

Alan Weisman, in his book The World Without Us,^[4] 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 the Red Dwarf novel Better Than Life, Dave Lister finds Mount Rushmore half-buried underneath garbage, which causes him to realize he is back on Earth (a usage reminiscent of Astronaut Taylor's discovery of the Statue of Liberty in the original Planet of the Apes film). A 1980 episode of the post-apocalyptic cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian, "Attack of the Amazon Women", uses Mount Rushmore as its setting.

[edit] In North by Northwest

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 and idea. As Lehman would later recall, Hitchcock "murmured wistfully, 'I always wanted to do a chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore.'"^[5] 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. Despite this visit, the film incorrectly depicted a forested plateau and the house of the villain atop the monument. 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.

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 Alex Johnson Hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota is accurate, and the hotel still exists.

The North by Northwest appearance was later parodied in "North by North Quahog", a 2005 episode of the animated series Family Guy, where once again Mount Rushmore was depicted as harboring the villain's home atop its forested plateau. Peter and Lois are chased down the monument by Mel Gibson after stealing a copy of his new movie, Passion of the Christ 2: Crucify This. in a spoof of the North by Northwest chase scene. During the scene, Peter ignorantly refers to one of the faces as "President Rushmore".

[edit] Other appearances

In the film, The Truman Show, the protagonist pages through a scrapbook of his childhood memories, which his mother quickly slams shut when he picture of a visit to an obviously fake Mount Rushmore. Despite its literal hardiness, in the disaster film, 10.5: Apocalypse, it is depicted as being destroyed by a massive earthquake.

Beginning in 1975, Mount Rushmore was referenced, featured and spoofed by the Muppets on over half a dozen separate occasions, including through the use of a puppet version of the monument in which the heads speak with one another.

Mount Rushmore appears in a number of episodes of The Simpsons. A singing version appears in the episode, "I Love Lisa". In "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington", a congressman representing Springfield wants to drill for oil on Teddy Roosevelt's head. In "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", Lisa Simpson's face is carved into a mountain in a manner that resembles the carvings of Mount Rushmore.

In an episode of Dexter's Laboratory, Dexter summons Washington while Mandark summons Lincoln; the two stone Presidential monoliths that emerge begin to fight each other. They eventually end the argument when they find that they have similar views much to the chagrin of the boy geniuses. The ending scene in later seasons of Pee-wee's Playhouse showed the title character flying past Mount Rushmore after leaving the house and before hitting the road. A children's show on public television called Postcards From Buster has shown Buster going to South Dakota and learning the history of the mountain.

A 2007 episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! titled "Mount Rushmore" investigates the origins of the monument and attempts to highlight the positive and negative aspects of patriotism. Chuck Norris made an appearance on The Best Damn Sports Show, Period to comment on the fictional and comically absurd Chuck Norris Facts, declaring his favorite to be: "They once tried to carve Chuck Norris's face into Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn't hard enough for his beard".

[edit] In theme parks

Mount Rushmore is one of the landmarks reproduced at the Window of the World theme park located in the western part of the city of Shenzhen in the People's Republic of China. A version made out of Lego blocks is featured at Legoland Billund in Denmark.

[edit] In video games

In addition to the above-mentioned appearance in Pilotwings 64, Mount Rushmore also appears as a Wonder of the World in the PC game Civilization IV, and in Capcom's Street Fighter video game, it is the "stage" (background setting) for the fighter, Mike. In the 1993 computer game Sam & Max Hit the Road, one scene features Dinosaur Tar Pit at Mount Rushmore, where the character Sam can be made to sing "The Name Game" with the names of the Presidents depicted on the mountain.

[edit] Other venues

In the Justice League Adventures comics, Superman is shown as going to Mount Rushmore to seek solitude on at least one occasion.

The Washington Nationals baseball club uses large foam rubber depictions of the "Rushmore Four" in both their marketing campaigns and in a series of in-stadium promotions, which include the "Racing Presidents".^[6] George, Abe, TJ and Teddy appear in the fourth inning of home games at RFK Stadium. That tradition will continue at the new Nationals Park. To date, the Teddy character has never won a Racing Presidents event, causing Nationals fans to chant his name in the hope that the race they view will be Teddy's first win.

A 1960s rock band also bears the same name as the monument.

[edit] References