GROUPON GUIDE TO LAS VEGAS

Five Famous Movie Scenes Shot in Las Vegas

BY: Eddie Carroll |Feb 23, 2016

Five Famous Movie Scenes Shot in Las Vegas

With its larger-than-life props and pulsing neon signs, Las Vegas can sometimes feel like a giant movie set. And in a way, it is; countless movies have been set in Sin City, and dozens have actually been filmed there. We’ve picked out five Las Vegas movies—all #1 blockbusters—whose filming locations you can visit the next time you’re looking for things to do in Vegas.

Ocean’s 11 (1960)

Stars: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Angie Dickinson 

Las Vegas scene: In this classic caper film, Danny Ocean (Sinatra) organizes a robbery of five Las Vegas casinos, two of which you can still visit today. They include the Flamingo (3555 S. Las Vegas Blvd.), which was opened by mobster Bugsy Siegel in the 1940s, and the SLS Hotel & Casino (2535 S. Las Vegas Blvd.), known formerly as the Sahara. 

Trivia: The other three Las Vegas hotels featured in the movie are the Sands, the Desert Inn, and the Riviera, which closed in May 2015.

Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Stars: Sean Connery, Jill St. John 

Las Vegas scene: In Sean Connery’s last appearance as the suave secret agent, James Bond and Tiffany Case (St. John) team up to infiltrate a smuggling ring. On an assignment from Bond, Case visits Circus Circus (2880 S. Las Vegas Blvd.), where she’s to play a water-balloon game and retrieve the diamonds hidden at the stand. 

Trivia: At one point, Bond is knocked out by his enemies and placed in a cremation oven. This scene was filmed at Palm Mortuary (1325 Main St.) in Vegas.

Rain Man (1988)

Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise 

Las Vegas scene: Charlie Babbitt (Cruise) and his brother Raymond (Hoffman), an autistic, card-counting savant, travel to Las Vegas to win money to cover Charlie’s debts. During their adventure, the pair stops at Caesars Palace (3570 S. Las Vegas Blvd.), where Charlie teaches Raymond how to dance in one of the hotel’s luxury suites. 

Trivia: Rain Man was the first major film scored by composer Hans Zimmer, and it earned him his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Score.

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992)

Stars: Rick Moranis, Marcia Strassman 

Las Vegas scene: In this follow-up to the original Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, wacky inventor Wayne Szalinski (Moranis) accidentally turns his infant son, Adam, into a 50-foot giant. Late in the film, the colossal kid mistakes the colorful Vegas strip as a playground, at one point ripping the iconic guitar off the Hard Rock Cafe (3771 S. Las Vegas Blvd.) and playing it.

Trivia: The movie was not originally a sequel, but rather an original film titled Big Baby. The plot revolved around, well, a big baby who smashes his way through Las Vegas.

The Hangover (2009)

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms 

Las Vegas scene: Before Phil (Cooper), Stu (Helms), and the gang get sucked into a black hole of Sin City debauchery, they arrive at Caesars Palace in a scene filmed in the hotel’s actual lobby. 

Trivia: The lavish villa in which the four friends prepare for the evening is actually a set created at Warner Bros. in Burbank, CA.