Home > BART in the Movies (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
BART in the Movies (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
Why this page?
Well, I love BART, the main heavy rail transit system in the San Francisco Bay Area (yes, there’s CalTrain also, but it doesn’t carry nearly as many passengers, and being from the East side of the Bay I’m a bit subjective about what’s more important). I love movies. I love seeing BART in the movies. I just saw a nice shot of Gene Hackman riding BART in The Domino Principle. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if there were a web site that listed all the movies with BART in it?” I searched BART’s web site (update: BART now has a web page with BART in the movies). I Googled. I Yahood. I even MSNed. No luck. (But that little guy with spikey hair sure does come up a bunch.)
Well, sometimes you just have to do it yourself.
This page is not approved or sanctioned by BART.It is an independent project by Lee Trampleasure. If you’d like to visit BART’s web site, click their logo on the right.
So, here’s the start of my list. Please email me (form will be at the bottom of this page soon) with the names of any other movies you know that have BART featured in them, and I’ll add them to the list.
Movies / TV with BART in them
Title
Notes (what does it show? what stations? what trains? etc.)
This movie was shot in 2005/6, but the story takes place in the early 80’s. The director did a good job of “restoring” things to 80’s look, including much of BART.
First BART scene is about 14 minutes into the film. Will Smith/Chris Gardner has run into a BART station to chase the guitar gal who has his machine. The office scene and the BART station is actually in downtown Oakland. The BART station is 19th Street, and the ads in the staion are changed to ads from the period. The station scene was shot at night. (Can you catch the first hint that it’s in Oakland? Mouse over this area for the answer: There’s an Oakland “Oak” sticker on the light pole outside the Dean Whitter office.)
The next train scene (immediately following) was shot in a still train, in the storage yard.
Then Will/Chris is leaving the station, but I can’t identify the station. If you recognize it, let me know.
At about 30 minutes, Will/Chris runs into a mocked up BART entrance at the park near where the N Judah enters the tunnel westbound at Duboce and Noe. According to the dirctor’s talk-over, they dug a whole and made the mock up and some of the neighbors thought there was a new station being built.
When Will/Chris does make it down into the station, it’s one of the SF downtown stations with the white bumpy walls. I’m not sure which one. The BART system map in the train is one of from the 80’s. (But they didn’t strip up the yellow bumpy warning tiles from next to the tracks.)
At about 1 hour 20 minutes, Chris and his son are in the train again. These three quick scencs wer shot while the train was still and the lights in the tunnel were added digitally.
At 1:24, Chris and son are on the platform at the Glen Park station (sign is visible on left side of screen). Again, the station map signs have been re-posted with 80’s era signs. The two then appear on the wooden benches that are in the Transbay Terminal, complete with a “To All Trains” BART sign in the background, even though BART has never run through this terminal. (Note: This terminal is scheduled to be “urban renewed” shortly, so this scene will become part of history.) (The bathroom scene was shot on stage, not in the terminal, however they made it the same scale and tile as the terminal. The director said that the real bathroom was just too dirty to film in.)
Note: Reverend Cecil Williams appears in the film (playing himself at Glide), and they had to give him a wig so he would look like he did in the 80’s.
That’s all I found on a quick skim through the movie. I’ll probably watch it all the way through soon to look for any I may have missed.
