Waterfalls In The Movies

11-October 2008: Ever since our honeymoon in

It turned out that we were influenced by the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy. I don't know whether it was the breathtaking scenery of the Southern Alps, the computer-generated (CGI) makeover of Tongariro National Park, or the multitude of waterfalls (both CGI modified and CGI made up) that were present in the movie.

At the time, Julie and I had already been waterfalling locally in the Southern California area as well as Yosemite National Park, and even Maui.

So the waterfalls in the movie (e.g. Mangawhero Falls posing as the Forbidden Pool in The Two Towers) definitely got our attention, and it became some of the goals we were aiming for when honeymooning in New Zealand became more appealing and closer to reality.

So given the role that the Lord of the Rings played in turning our waterfalling into a global endeavor, I started to wonder what other examples of waterfalls in the movies existed.

Have you seen a movie featuring waterfalls? Click here to share!

One of the most recent that comes to mind is the latest installment of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones (i.e. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) where the mighty Iguazu Falls was featured. Although some creative liberties were taken with this waterfall (e.g. that there were three drops, that you could survive going over the Devil's Throat, and that there was some hidden lost world somewhere behind the waterfall), the movie made us look back upon our experience at the falls and identify where the camera crew got their shots from. Speaking of which, if you've seen the movie, that very first waterfall the main characters went over wasn't even at Iguazú Falls at all, but it was at the Big Island's Kulaniapia Falls in Hawaii.

Plus, who can forget the waterfalls in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park series (Manawaiopuna Falls in Kaua'i and Honokohau Falls in Maui come to mind)?

Or what about the movie The Blue Lagoon (1980) starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins, where they slid down the Waitavala Water Slide in Taveuni, Fiji?

Even waterfalls that weren't filmed on location like in the movie I remember seeing as a kid (somehow I associate this with Cyndi Lauper) The Goonies (1985), which had a young Sean Astin (you know, Sam - Frodo's sidekick) and a young Cory Feldman amongst others. The scene I'm thinking about had a waterfall in some underground cavern that eventually became the scene of the kids' escape back into the outside world.

Some other examples of waterfalls in the movies that are out there include:

• Niagara (1953) starring Marilyn Monroe
• Dr No (1962), a James Bond movie starring Sean Connery
• Cocktail (1988) starring Tom Cruise
• Blue Hawaii (1961) starring Elvis Presley
• Disney's Lilo & Stitch (2002)

And finally, there's the soon-to-be-released movie starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann's Australia where movie trailers (check out second 56 of this trailer) have shown the remote Mitchell Falls in the Kimberley and the Emma Gorge Waterfall near the exclusive El Questro Lodge on the Gibb's River Road west of Kununurra. In a move where I'm not sure whether Kidman is trying to bring more attention to the movie through a publicity stunt or not, she claims that she and several other women got pregnant after waterfall swims because the waters near Kununurra somehow enhanced fertility. Uh, OK...

Indeed, Hollywood is attracted to waterfalls and I guess that also makes them waterfallers!

Have you seen a movie with a waterfall (or waterfalls) in it?

Any of these movies your favorites or bring back memories?

Have you visited any of the waterfalls featured in Hollywood movies?

Share your story with us.