Watch: Vancouver Has Stood In for Many Cities, But Rarely Plays Itself

Moviegoers are, by definition, trusting souls. When a film begins, we block more avenues to skepticism than we could possibly imagine. We believe that animals talk, aliens burst from people’s stomachs, and giant, strangely human-looking gorillas crush skyscrapers–or at least we want to believe these things. We also believe that if a film tells us it is taking place in Chicago, boom: we ‘re in Chicago. If it tells us we’re in New York, voila: we’re in New York, in the middle of Bronx traffic. And yet, as this new video essay by Tony Zhou points out, often, we’re actually in Vancouver. The piece is one part homage, one part truth-telling mission, as Zhou goes through all the different films that have used Vancouver as their backdrop while calling it something (or somewhere) else: everything from Christopher Nolan’s ‘Insomnia‘ to Mike Nichols’ ‘Carnal Knowledge.’ Take a look, and see how many films you recognize–or, as it were, don’t recognize.