No matter how engaging the actors or riveting the plot, sometimes, you’re distracted by something else in a film: a dramatic architectural setting that’s so dazzling, it’s practically a character in itself. We can’t help but drool over Jackie Treehorn’s Malibu Beach manse in ‘The Big Lebowski’ and covet Mia Wallace’s stylish living room in ‘Pulp Fiction’. These 13 (mostly) real modern houses featured in major films are memorable even when the movies are not, despite – in some cases – only appearing for a moment or two.

Ferris Bueller: Cameron Frye’s House

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The memorable modern home in Highland, Illinois that held Cameron Frye’s father’s Ferrari in the 80’s classic ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ could be yours for just $1.65 million. After languishing on the market, the home is getting a modern makeover complete with high-end furniture and will be back up for sale in a month or two. The 4-bedroom, 4-bath house was designed in 1953 by A. James Speyer and David Haid and is officially known as the ‘Ben Rose House’.

Twilight: The Cullen Residence

(images via: design tavern)

The main vampire family in the ‘Twilight’ series, the Cullens, don’t lurk in the dark recesses of a run-down Victorian like you might expect. In the film adaptation of the first book, ‘Twilight’, film producers took the liberty of placing Edward Cullen and Co. in a bright, modern home known as the ‘Hoke House’, owned by Nike executive John Hoke. For subsequent movies ‘New Moon’ and ‘Breaking Dawn’, the production moved on to yet another modern house in West Vancouver, this one designed by architect Arthur Erickson. That 5,100-square-foot stunner is on the market for $2,998,000.

The Big Lebowski: Sheats-Goldstein Residence

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The modern Malibu party house occupied by pornographer Jackie Treehorn in the film ‘The Big Lebowski’ is actually located in Benedict Canyon. The Sheats/Goldstein residence was designed by architect John Lautner, whose distinctive homes are frequent film settings. An example of American Organic Architecture, the Sheats/Goldstein residence is built into the sandstone of the hillside and intended to mimic a cave. It also appeared in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and Bandits.

Bladerunner: Frank Lloyd Wright Ennis House

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Among the most iconic and instantly recognizable real-life film settings, the Ennis House and its prominent architectural detail has been featured in over a dozen movies, a television show, commercials, fashion shoots and music videos. Although its exterior only appeared briefly in a single on-location shot in ‘Bladerunner’, it’s best remembered for that film (the interior shots were recreated on a sound stage). Other films like’ Rush Hour’ and ‘The Thirteenth Floor’ filmed scenes in its cathedral-like interior. The blocky Mayan Revival-style tiles are so iconic, they were cast and recreated for a scene in ‘Mulholland Drive’.

Sleeper: Sculptured House

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Put on the market in 2010 and swiftly sold, the Sculptured House, an unusually shaped mid-1960s home, served as a major setting in the Woody Allen movie ‘Sleeper’. Located just outside of Denver, the home – referred to by locals as the mushroom house or the clamshell house – was designed by architect Charles Deaton. The new owners gave it an energy-efficient makeover and have reportedly offered it up to HGTV as the setting for a reality show.

Diamonds are Forever: Bond Villain’s Lair

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The bold modern home that serves as Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s lair in ‘Diamonds are Forever’ practically steals the show with its massive concrete domed roof looming over an indoor-outdoor swimming pool. The Elrod House was also designed by John Lautner, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright who crafted an iconoclastic and sometimes controversial style that interacts strongly with the buildings’ natural environments. Designed to shield the Palm Springs home from the harsh desert sun, the concrete dome echoes massive boulders that were uncovered on the hillside during construction.

LA Confidential: Lovell House

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Considered an important structure in modern architectural history, the Lovell House was the first steel frame home in the United States and an early example of the use of gunite (sprayed-on concrete). It was designed and built by Richard Neutra in the International Style in 1927 and is located in Los Angeles. It appeared as the home of Pierce Morehouse Patchett in the 1997 film ‘L.A. Confidential’.

Sleepless in Seattle: Tom Hanks’ Houseboat

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This home not only stands out as one of the largest floating homes on Seattle’s Lake Union, but for playing a role in the sappy 1993 Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie, ‘Sleepless in Seattle’. The 4-bedroom houseboat, built in 1978, is not open to the public but can be spotted by fans of the film from either land or sea (by hitching a ride on the Duck Tour).

Chloe: Drew Mandel House in Toronto

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The 2010 movie ‘Chloe’ wasn’t exactly a stunner, but one of its main settings certainly was: a geometric steel-and-glass home in Toronto by architect Drew Mandel. The Ravine House was chosen for its dramatic location and its glassy interiors, which make for interesting filming angles, especially from upstairs. But those who have seen the movie won’t even recognize the outside of the house, which, despite its beauty, was not featured in the film. The owners wanted to retain some semblance of privacy, so the facade of another house down the street was used for exterior shots.

A Single Man: The Schaffer Residence

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Incidentally the third Julianne Moore film on this list, ‘A Single Man’ was all eye candy. Helmed by first-time director and famed fashion designer Tom Ford, the Oscar-winning vehicle for leading man Colin Firth was shot partially in a 1949 John Lautner home. The Schaffer Residence is dark and moody, located on a heavily wooded plot in the bottom of a valley in Glendale, California.

Pulp Fiction: Mia Wallace’s Modern Abode

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The real-life home in which Uma Thurman’s character Mia Wallace lives in the movie ‘Pulp Fiction’ is located – where else? – in Beverly Hills, just a few miles north of Sunset Boulevard. While curious passersby won’t see much more than a geometric gate, the magic of modern real estate listings give us a glimpse of the interiors, which we’ll forever associate with the song ‘Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon.’ The three-bedroom home, which was built in the ’60s, sold in 2010 for an undisclosed sum, though the listing didn’t even mention its prominent role in one of the biggest movies of the 1990s.

The Lake House: Modern Steel on Stilts

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The 2006 movie ‘The Lake House’ might have been a critical flop, but there’s one element of it that still stands out: the house itself. Ostensibly located in the Chicago area, the modern house, a glass box on stilts at the end of a pier, is minimalist steel in the tradition of architect Mies van der Rohe. Sadly, the house – which was constructed especially for the movie – was dismantled when filming was complete; local laws don’t allow dwellings on this undeveloped portion of the lake.

North by Northwest: Vandamm House

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Few modern homes from films are so beloved by architecture geeks as the Vandamm House, which was practically a main character in Alfred Hitchcock’s unforgettable ‘North by Northwest’. And so it is often with bitter disappointment that Hitchcock fans learn that the Vandamm House is not a creation of Frank Lloyd Wright – or even a real house at all. It was an elaborate MGM film set, placed on top of Mount Rushmore using movie magic, but it was indeed designed to resemble the works of Wright, who was the most popular architect when the film was shot in 1958. Hitchcock wanted the home (naturally belonging to a villain) to be not just impossibly luxurious but also familiar, a requirement that couldn’t be met by any real-life location.

When filming horror, sci-fi and fantasy movies, set construction is often necessary to achieve a believable effect. But, some real-life locations are a surprisingly perfect fit even when the movie is set in the distant post-apocalyptic future or on another planet. From gritty abandoned power stations and mental hospitals to a town so impossibly perfect it played a film set, these 12 locations have played prominent roles in movies like ‘Terminator’, ’12 Monkeys’ and ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’.

Danvers State Hospital, ‘Session 9’

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Perhaps the most famous abandoned place in America, Danvers State Hospital served as a fittingly bleak, creepy setting for the 2001 horror movie ‘Session 9’. In an unusual twist, Danvers didn’t just stand in for a fictional asylum, but actually appeared as itself. The hospital was closed in 1992 but stood abandoned until its demolition in 2005. It was reportedly the inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham Sanitarium, which in turn inspired Arkham Asylum in the Batman comic book series.

Aldwych Tube Station, ‘V for Vendetta’

(image via: IGN, Wikimedia Commons)

Disused since 1994, the Aldwych Tube Station in London is relatively well preserved, making it an ideal location for film shoots. Built on the site of the Royal Stand Theatre, it opened in 1907 and was used as a public air-raid shelter during World War II. In the movie ‘V for Vendetta’, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore, the Aldwych Tube Station acted as the setting for the final climactic scenes. Other films shot there include ‘Patriot Games’, ‘The Good Shepherd’ and ‘Atonement’.

Griffith Observatory, ‘Terminator’

(image via: James Cameron Online)

When a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger first emerged into the past to find Sarah Connor in 1984’s ‘Terminator’, it was in front of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California. It was also revisited in 2009’s ‘Terminator: Salvation’ as a ruin. The observatory, a popular tourist spot set against downtown LA, also appeared in Rebel Without a Cause, The People vs. Larry Flynt and the Transformers movie among many other films and television series.

Westport Power Generation Station, ’12 Monkeys’

(images via: Urban Atrophy)

While many notable locations were used to film ’12 Monkeys’, the creepiest was undoubtedly Westport Power Generation Station, an abandoned power plant used to create some of the interior shots set in the post-apocalyptic future from which the movie’s protagonist, played by Bruce Willis, originates. Located in the Baltimore Bay, this power plant bore spray-painted “The Army” tags on its walls until its demolition.

Seaside Florida, ‘The Truman Show’

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Truman Burbank lived in an impossibly perfect town, where picturesque little pastel houses with impeccably white picket fences and thriving rose bushes stood against a stunning ocean backdrop. And, though it played a film set in the movie ‘The Truman Show’, Seaside Florida is a very real place. It’s a master-planned community in the Florida Panhandle an is often cited as the first New Urbanist development.

Toronto City Hall, ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’

(images via: Joey DeVilla, Torontoist)

Toronto stands in as fictional Raccoon City in ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’, the second movie in a series based on a popular video game. Torontonians will recognize their home town in virtually every segment of the movie, from the Prince Edward Viaduct to Nathan Philips Square, where Toronto City Hall was nuked along with the rest of the city.

Frank Lloyd Wright Ennis House, ‘Blade Runner’

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Not many pre-existing buildings could fit the dark, futuristic vibe of 1982 classic ‘Blade Runner’, but the Ennis House fit the bill perfectly. Designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the Ennis House in north Los Angeles is constructed mostly of pre-cast concrete blocks with a design based on ancient Mayan temples. The blocks were cast to serve as a backdrop on a studio set for Deckard’s apartment.

The Stanley Hotel, ‘The Shining’

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On a sunny day, the bright white exterior of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado hardly seems like it could serve as inspiration for one of Stephen King’s greatest horror novels. But, it was during a stay there in the 1970s that King conceived of the basic idea for ‘The Shining’. The hotel is purportedly haunted, and King is said to have had some paranormal experiences during his stay. Contrary to popular belief, King did not write the novel while staying at the Stanley Hotel, nor was the Kubrick-directed film version of the story shot there – though parts of the 1997 television series were.

Battersea Power Station, ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’

(images via: Wikimedia Commons)

At one time, the Battersea Power Station was a gleaming symbol of human progress. It’s Europe’s largest brick building and boasted a lavish, Art Deco interior that has since deteriorated significantly. It appeared in the Beatles’ movie Help! and is also pictured on the front of Pink Floyd’s album Animals. As the years wore on, the station fell into disuse, though it remained one of London’s most iconic landmarks. In addition to ‘Children of Men’, ‘Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life’, ‘MacGuyver’, ‘The Dark Knight’ and an episode of ‘LOST’, the Battersea Power Station was used as the external façade of the Victory Mansions in Michael Radford’s 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell’s novel, ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’.

Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant, ‘The Abyss’

(images via: Historic Decay)

Many of the scenes in science fiction thriller ‘The Abyss’ were filmed in eerie, claustrophobic underwater chambers at the Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant near Gaffney, South Carolina. Millions of gallons of water were brought in to fill existing unfinished structures on the site, making it the largest underwater movie set in the world. It was abandoned in 1983 after the Three Mile Island accident, but is now back under control of Duke Power and Southern Company, who plan to redevelop the site for one of the first new nuclear power plants in over 30 years.

Alnwick Castle, ‘Harry Potter’

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Children may never really be able to visit Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but Alnwick Castle in England stands in quite well for the younger set. The castle was featured as Hogwarts in the first two ‘Harry Potter’ films, most notably during the broomstick flying lesson scene and the scene in which Harry and Ron crash land the Weasley family flying car. Other locations that stood in for interior and exterior Hogwarts settings include Oxford University, Gloucester Cathedral, Durham Cathedral and Christ Church College.

Brandeis-Bardin Institute, Star Trek

(images via: memory-alpha.org, Universal Locations)

Trekkies will recall the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a religious retreat in the hills above Simi Valley in Southern California, as Camp Khitomer in ‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’ and Lore’s Borg compound in the ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ episodes ‘Descent’ and ‘Descent, Part II’. It was also the setting for Marilyn Manson’s video for ‘The Dope Show’ and appeared as the Rock & Roll History Museum in ‘Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny’.