From the palm-fringed streets of Miami to the charming brownstones of New York, America is a haven for movie-makers. It’s no wonder, then, that the country can often feel familiar to first-time visitors, given that many of its cities and landscapes have played a starring role on cinema screens over the years. Read on to find the most famous filming location in every state, plus some fascinating facts movie buffs are sure to enjoy. As always, be sure to check state travel advisories and any local restrictions or closures before you head out.
One of the two Alabama locations featured in Ava DuVernay’s historical film Selma, the Edmund Pettus Bridge appears, which is also the real-life spot where Dr Martin Luther King (played by David Oyelowo in the film) sets out on the civil rights march. It's also site of Bloody Sunday when police brutally attacked marchers. The film's other key location is the Alabama State Capitol Building (pictured) on Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, where the march ended. The march shaped history, leading to the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
Into the Wild tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young hiker who embarked on an epic, if foolhardy, hike across the US and sadly wound up dead in his campervan in the wilds of northern Alaska in 1996. The infamous "Bus 142" has become something of a tourist attraction in its own right, with many having attempted the challenging three-day hike to get there. In fact, the bus is so dangerous to get to that two hikers have died and at least 15 have had to be rescued while attempting to reach it. In 2020, the Alaska Army National Guard stepped in and helicopter-lifted the bus away from the site and today, visitors can see it at an outdoor exhibit at the Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks.
The Yuma Desert has featured in everything from the original Star Wars trilogy to The Six Million Dollar Man. But there’s no beating a classic western and 3:10 to Yuma, whether in its original 1957 incarnation or the 2007 remake starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, certainly fits the bill. Little remains of Contention City today, the mining ghost town and setting for the film’s dramatic showdown, but the surrounding landscape features heavily. Contention had its boomtime during the 1880s silver mining rush when it was used as a stopover for prospectors travelling from nearby Tombstone.
Sling Blade is about the close friendship between Karl (Billy Bob Thornton), a mentally disabled boy who is released from an asylum, and Frank (Lucas Black), a young man who lost his father to suicide. Much of the action was filmed in Benton, Arkansas. There’s Garry’s Whopper Burger (now Garry’s Slingblade Drive-In, pictured) where a scene between Karl and Vaughan takes place; the C. W. Lewis Stadium where Frank and Karl play football with their friends; and the Arkansas Health Center, a psychiatric nursing home featured at the beginning of the movie.
When Alfred Hitchcock was scouting for locations for The Birds, he came across the Sonoma County villages of Bodega and Bodega Bay and was immediately struck by their creepy isolation. Bodega is a veritable birdwatcher’s paradise, as it's home to flocks of hawks, egrets, herons and pelicans far more friendly than the birds in the film. Today visitors can see the Potter Schoolhouse (pictured), where the birds first besieged the town’s children, although it's now a private residence.
Colorado is often seen as prime John Wayne country and indeed plenty of celebrated westerns have drawn on the landscape. The 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid makes use of Colorado’s stunning heritage railway, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, for one of the most thrilling train scenes ever captured on film. In the memorable scene, Butch (Paul Newman), Sundance (Robert Redford) and their crew try to blow open the train's safe but instead manage to blow up the entire mail car, sending notes flying in all directions. Today, the train service offers scenic trips year-round.
Yale University’s campus provides the setting for a demonstration and dramatic chase scene in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which a statue of Indy’s old colleague Marcus Brody was demolished. Several sites from the film still stand today: there's the Sterling Memorial Library (doubling as Marshall College), Vanderbilt Hall and a few streets which Indy speeds through on his motorbike, away from the pesky villains.
The Everett Theatre in Middletown features in Dead Poets Society as the location where Neil Perry makes his theatrical debut in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The coming-of-age melodrama starring Robin Williams as an inspiring, unconventional teacher in a stuffy private boys' school was a big hit when it was released in 1989. The theatre still hosts films and theatrical shows today. Sadly, another key Delaware location from the film, Beaver Valley Cave, where the society gathers for its clandestine bookworm sessions, is privately owned and inaccessible to the public.
In Scarface, Al Pacino plays Tony Montana, a small-time gangster seeking to capitalise on the mass influx of Cuban criminals arriving in 1980s Miami. The Little Havana area where Montana sets up his El Paraiso lunch stand was recreated in LA (location filming was limited due to concerns about uproar from the local Cuban community), but the unmistakable Art Deco district of Miami Beach was shot here on Ocean Drive (pictured). The former Sun Ray Apartments, the scene of some gruesome chainsaw action, is now a CVS Pharmacy, although its façade and recognisable porthole windows have been preserved.
Georgia is the backdrop for historical drama Driving Miss Daisy, the story of the friendship between a white Jewish widow and an African-American chauffeur. The film scooped Oscars and propelled Morgan Freeman’s career into megastardom. Most of the action was shot around Atlanta’s outskirts, including Daisy’s home in Druid Hills. A vintage clothing emporium in the trendy Little Five Points area was turned into a Piggly Wiggly Store for the movie, and the Temple Synagogue (pictured) was where Daisy came to worship.
The other-worldly, small Hawaiian island of Kauai was the perfect setting for the larger-than-life exploits of the Jurassic Park series. The first three of the films in the franchise, Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, were filmed on Kauai, despite Hurricane Iniki ravaging the film sets of the original dinosaur blockbuster in September 1992. Unsurprisingly, tourism has sprung up around the movies, with a range of jeep and helicopter tours giving an archaeopteryx’s-eye view of sublimely scenic sights, such as Hoopli Falls, the Hanapepe Valley and Allerton Garden, the National Tropical Botanical Garden where the hatched raptor eggs are unearthed in the first film.
There's something strangely timeless about the suburban setting featured in offbeat comedy Napoleon Dynamite, which is in fact Preston, Idaho. The deadpan indie hit was filmed almost entirely in the town and visitors can do a quick photo-stop visit at most of the main characters’ homes. Other movie locations include the Preston High School, Pop ‘n Pins Bowling Alley and Desert Industries Thrift Store, which supplied most of the film’s costumes.
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The motorised musical mayhem of cult 1980s flick The Blues Brothers, starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as a pair of hard living bluesmen on the run, is all set around Chicago. While gentrification has meant the loss of many of the film’s former locales (the ‘Soul Food Restaurant’ where Aretha Franklin plays the spoons is long gone), there’s still plenty to see. There’s the East 95th Street Bridge, which the Bluesmobile memorably vaulted, and Shelly’s Loan Co where Ray Charles kitted out the boys as proprietor of ‘Ray’s Music Store.’ There's also a mural outside, near 47th Street Station.
Indiana may not have enjoyed as much screen time as some other states, but it does pop up in the 2009 gangster biopic Public Enemies, which tells the story of the infamous 1930s bank robber John Dillinger. The film follows Dillinger’s exploits, including his daring escape from the supposedly escape-proof prison of Lake County Jail in Crown Point en route to his crime spree in Chicago. Dillinger even managed to make his escape using the Crown Point sheriff’s own car, ensuring much embarrassment for the sheriff and a lifetime ban from the town. Several scenes were filmed in the former sheriff’s house and jail.
The line "if you build it, they will come" from feel-good baseball movie Field of Dreams is arguably more famous than the film itself these days, but there’s no denying Kevin Costner’s movie put the town of Dyersville on the map. The titular field here was specially constructed for the movie and is now a well-trodden tourist attraction. Half of the field was actually restored to farmland soon after filming wrapped – before visitors arrived in their droves, causing a reversal of the decision. It's also possible to visit the Drexler Elementary School in nearby Farley, where Annie Kinsella takes a stand against the PTA.
Disappointingly, not a single frame of The Wizard of Oz was actually filmed in Kansas – so much for "there’s no place like home". So that leaves us with Kansas, the 1988 crime drama starring Matt Dillon and Andrew McCarthy. The bank and parade scenes were shot in Valley Falls, while the rainy scenes at the Overbook-Osage County Fair were filmed in Overbrook. The towns of Edgerton, Lawrence and the state capitol of Topeka also feature, as various ranches, railyards and highways.
Starring Sissy Spacek in the title role, Coal Miner’s Daughter is a gritty biopic of country star Loretta Lynn, who rose to stardom from humble beginnings in the poor mining town of Butcher Holler. The town naturally features alongside various other Kentucky locations, including Van Lear, Jenkins and Whitesburg. Lynn's real-life home, Loretta Lynn's Ranch, was used to stand in for her parents' one, and today the ranch is home to a museum dedicated to the film.
Reese Witherspoon's movie adaptation of Delia Owens' commendable Where the Crawdads Sing was filmed around various parts of Louisiana. Pictured here is Lake Pontchartrain, one of the key settings in the movie. Buildings in downtown Houma were transformed into the fictional fishing village of Barkley Cove with 1960s-inspired cinemas, barbershops and furniture stores.
Legendary horror novelist Stephen King was born in Maine and still lives in the state – in a Victorian mansion in Bangor that wouldn't look at all out of place in many of his works. So it figures that several of his stories have also been filmed on his home turf. Perhaps the best known is Pet Sematary, the 1989 frightfest in which a family moves to the town of Ludlow, only to be terrorised by reanimated cats. Much of it was shot in Acadia National Park, where an abandoned granite quarry on Mount Desert Island was turned into a burial ground. Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor was used for the graveyard scenes.
John Waters’ Hairspray played up the kitschier side of the city crowned ‘the hairdo capital of the world'. Today, visitors can recreate Tracy’s dodgeball antics at the Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School before heading to the suburbs of Highlandtown (pictured) and Hampden, where the formstone-clad houses are little changed from the film’s 1960s setting. A visit to Atomic Books, Waters’ preferred zine outlet, is also essential.
Steven Spielberg chose Martha’s Vineyard as the setting for the fictional Amity Island in his iconic 1975 shark movie Jaws. Understandably, the upscale holiday resort and conservation area doesn’t shout about the Jaws connection much, but many of the key locations remain. There's the Chappaquiddick Island Ferry, where the mayor first voices concern, which transports visitors to the Joseph A Sylvia State Beach where shark panic sets in. The tiny fishing port of Menemsha is where the old sailor Quint has his workshop, and Sengekontacket Pond is the inlet where police chief Brody's son has a close encounter.
The 2002 biopic 8 Mile, starring Eminem and loosely based on his life, tells the story of a young rapper struggling to make it in urban Detroit. Jimmy B-Rabbit Smith lives in a trailer park (today the A & L Mobile Home Park) on the 8 Mile Road. Rather more ornate and astonishingly photogenic is the underground parking garage where Jimmy faces off with a rival rap crew – it's actually The Michigan Building (pictured), a former 1920s theatre which fell into disrepair in the 1970s. Interestingly, Shelter, the club which hosts Jimmy’s rap battles and where Eminem honed his skills, does exist but was deemed too fancy, so it was recreated in a grungy warehouse which today houses a bar called Downtown Louie's Lounge.
When the artist formerly known as Prince came to shoot Purple Rain, a semi-autobiographical musical rom-com extravaganza released in 1984, there was no question that his native Minneapolis would feature prominently. Key locations in the city’s downtown area include First Avenue where Prince (known in the film as The Kid) rides his motorcycle, Seventh Street and the Crystal Court Shopping Mall. The First Avenue club (a former Greyhound bus depot) is still going strong, with its wall of stars outside. The Kid’s home in suburban south Minneapolis also features but it's not possible to go inside. It was snapped up by none other than His Royal Purpleness in 2015.
Musical romp O Brother Where Art Thou, starring George Clooney as a banjo-plucking escapee from a Deep South chain gang, was filmed mostly in central Mississippi. There’s a host of locations to check out, including the Cedars Plantation Guesthouse and Yazoo City where the boys do a bank heist. The group fail to board a freight train on the Columbus and Greenville Railway, while the baptism scene was filmed at Alligator Lake, Vicksburg. Finally, the wonderfully-preserved town of Canton where Everett discovers his estranged trio of singing daughters has two movie museums to enjoy.
Gone Girl, David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn's best-selling 2012 novel about a marriage turned sour, is set in the made-up Missouri town of North Carthage. Many scenes were filmed around Cape Giradeau, the town which actually provided the original inspiration for the novel. The Common Pleas Courthouse features a fair bit as the site of a disastrous press conference and a candlelight vigil, while the house where husband Nick (Ben Affleck) makes a gruesome discovery is on Keystone Drive near the Cape Woods Conservation Area.
The 1994 film The River Wild tells the tale of a couple, Gail (Meryl Streep) and Tom (David Strathairn) who take a rafting trip along the Salmon River in Idaho where they meet a pair of dangerous criminals. The dramatic river scenes were shot in two white-water rivers, both in Montana: the Kootenai River near Libby, and the Middle Fork of the Flathead River in Glacier National Park. And yes, Streep did most of her own stunts.
In About Schmidt, Jack Nicholson plays a disillusioned Omaha office clerk nearing retirement who embarks on a life-changing road trip to his daughter’s wedding. The office where Schmidt toils away on insurance claims belongs to a real company – the Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Co. There’s even now a plaque there, dedicated to Nicholson. His sad retirement dinner is held at Johnny’s Café in South Omaha, a celebrated steak joint which has been going since 1922. Meanwhile, the movie's "University of Kansas" where Warren went to school is actually filmed at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Steven Soderbergh’s star-studded 2001 remake of 1960s casino heist movie Ocean’s Eleven took place all over the map, but of course the action centres on their target – the Bellagio Casino and Hotel. The real-life Bellagio on the Vegas Strip, with its Neoclassical interiors, Picasso paintings, man-made lake and kitsch dancing fountains is extravagant, even by Vegas standards.
Jumanji, the fun 1990s family film starring Robin Williams and a whole host of rampaging CGI beasts, was set in the made-up New Hampshire town of Brantford, where bullied schoolboy Alan Parrish discovers a board game that magically springs to life. The spot where the animals stampede down Main Street is located at Keene, Cheshire County, where most of the film was shot. The North Berwick Water Mill on the Great Works River became the Parrish Shoe Factory.
Friday the 13th, the original slasher horror which spawned a fair few copycats, was filmed mostly around New Jersey. Camp Crystal Lake is Camp NoBeBoSco near Hardwick – a summer camp in real life too, which is home to Sand Pond, the spot where Jason drowned. Most of the film was shot around the town of Blairstown. Other filming locations include the Blairstown Diner, where Steve spends the evening while his counsellors get bumped off, and the Hope Moravian Cemetery where Anne is ominously dropped off at the start of the film.
Starring David Bowie as a humanoid alien called Newton sent to Earth to harvest water for his dying planet, The Man Who Fell to Earth uses New Mexico's landscape to stunning effect. Newton lands in the waters of Fenton Lake and builds his retreat there. In the narrow canyon of the Ortiz Mountains sits the town of Madrid, which is now a lively arts community. The desert town of Artesia has a railway station which is briefly glimpsed in the movie, and a church where Newton sings 'Jerusalem'. Best of all, though, is the White Sands National Monument, the world’s largest gypsum dunefield whose otherworldly sandy expanses represent Newton’s scorched home planet.
New York’s, and especially NYC's, omnipresence on screen makes it hard to pick just one movie filmed here. But let’s "have what she’s having" and settle on the Manhattan institution of Katz’s Delicatessen, a beloved Jewish deli on East Houston Street in the Big Apple. It's the spot where Sally (Meg Ryan) shows off her acting skills and fakes an orgasm to silence Harry (Billy Crystal) in When Harry Met Sally. And yes, visitors can sit at that very table with a pastrami on rye. In July 2019, Katz's hosted a contest to mark 30 years since the iconic moment, encouraging would-be actors to reenact the scene. Cue uncomfortable glances...
Kevin Williamson’s 1997 slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer is set and was filmed in the scenic coastal town of Southport. The town's Amuzu Theater, where Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is crowned ‘Croaker Queen’, is now a music venue, and the Old American Fish Company, where she enjoys a celebratory dinner, is still open as a restaurant. Further north in the state, Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) attends Duke University in Durham. The house where she receives the threatening note is also in Southport, on Short Street. Just around the corner is the Fishy Fishy Cafe, which was used as the gym where Barry meets a menacing fisherman.
Despite being based on the North Dakota town, not a single scene of Fargo was actually filmed there. Instead, most of the action takes place in Minnesota. One film that was filmed in North Dakota, however, is the early-noughties comedy drama Wooly Boys, which follows a sheep farmer's adventure when he goes to visit his estranged grandson. The majority of the film was shot in Medora (pictured), while the towns of Fryburg and Beach also feature.
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Oscar-winning drama The Shawshank Redemption, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman as a pair of prisoners who bond together to overcome their demons, is perhaps the most famous movie filmed in Ohio. Shawshank Prison is actually the Ohio State Reformatory, where most of the filming took place. Much of it remains unchanged today, including the prison warden office and the halfway house where both Red and aging inmate Brooks stay after release. Visitors can usually tour the facility.
Twister, Michael Crichton’s 1996 disaster movie about a group of tornado chasers caught in the eye of the storm, may not exactly be essential viewing, but it certainly makes the most of Oklahoma’s wide-open landscapes. The movie features a number of small Oklahoma towns, including Wakita where Aunt Meg lives, Ralston where farm equipment goes flying, Guthrie where a drive-in movie theatre is laid to waste and Kaw City where the furious water tornado is unleashed.
Eighties kids' adventure film The Goonies launched the careers of Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman and Martha Plimpton. The Goon Docks, the fictitious waterfront neighbourhood where the rascals live, was based on Astoria, Oregon. Fans still flock to the town and the mayor even made 7 June ‘Goonies Day’ in its honour. The Flavel House Museum where Mikey’s dad works is one of the best-preserved Queen Anne buildings in the state, while Ecola State Park, where the gang discover the treasure map, gives a fine view of Haystack Rock. The Oregon Film Museum dedicates an entire gallery to the film, located in the old cells of the Clatsop County Jail, which also features in the movie.
Many visitors to Philadelphia are eager to recreate Sylvester Stallone’s determined jog up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, now commonly known as ‘the Rocky Steps’. Another Rocky attraction not to be missed is the statue at the foot of the steps: made for Rocky III, it's the perfect spot to take that 'arms aloft' photo. The Yo, Philly! Rocky Film Tour typically takes visitors to Rocky's apartment from the first movie, the Italian Market and the Lucky 7 Tavern.
Conanicut Island, near Newport, provides the location for the fictitious New Penzance in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, as runaways Sam and Suzy kick up a ruckus in mid-1960s New England. Summer’s End, the lighthouse home to Suzy’s parents (and a private home in real life) is Conanicut Island Light. Other Rhode Island locations include Newport’s Trinity Church, the site of the film’s finale, and Moonrise Kingdom cove which is found in the bay beneath Fort Wetherill.
Romantic tearjerker The Notebook, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as lovers thwarted by a social divide, was filmed in and around Charleston. Allie’s summerhouse is actually the Boone Hall Plantation; the Avenue of Oaks is where Noah and Allie cycle together; King Street is where they lie in the street watching the traffic lights on their first date; and Martins Point Plantation on Wadmalaw Island is the spot Noah buys and fixes up. Sentimental couples can recreate the boating scene and rain-soaked kiss at the beautiful Cypress Gardens. But you won't find geese here – they were shipped in especially for the film.
Time for another Kevin Costner epic: Dances with Wolves. This film sees Union Army lieutenant John Dunbar stationed to the deserted post of Fort Hays where he befriends some wolves and gains a deeper appreciation for indigenous Lakota culture. The enlightened western extravaganza was filmed largely in the Badlands National Park, with the bison hunt scene filmed at the Triple U Buffalo Ranch. The original set built just outside Rapid City stands today as a popular tourist attraction.
Of the many films paying tribute to Tennessee’s rich musical heritage, few cover as much ground as the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon as Mr and Mrs Cash. Locations take in Memphis, Nashville, Jackson and Hendersonville. Visitors can recreate 'The Man in Black' audition at Sun Studio in Memphis and enjoy classic Southern fare at the Arcade Restaurant. The Pipkin Building in Memphis Fairground was converted for the famous Fulsome Prison gig.
Tobe Hooper’s infamous low-budget horror movie The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was shot on the outskirts of the director’s home city of Austin. The gas station is now Bilbo’s Texas Landmark and the vandalised cemetery is Bagdad Cemetery, 25 miles (40km) out of town. In the 1980s, the Sawyer family home was falling apart, so it was carefully dismantled and moved to the Antlers Hotel in Kingsland where it currently serves as the restaurant.
Thelma and Louise zips around the US taking in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arizona. The film’s most memorable scene is its ending, which was filmed in Utah. The cavernous Colorado River gorge at Dead Horse Point State Park, south of Moab, doubles up as the Grand Canyon for their climactic motorised leap of faith. Utah’s La Sal Mountains also fill in for New Mexico.
If Me, Myself and Irene takes a few geographical liberties with its locations, just remember that this is a film in which Jim Carrey plays a mild-mannered cop whose alter ego runs amok, so we’re not exactly in cinema vérité terrain. A good portion of the film was shot around Burlington, which stands in for New York state. There’s also the gas station in Addison where Frank gets tasered, several quaint country railway stations and the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory in Waterbury.
The Mountain Lake Lodge in Virginia served as the Kellermans' holiday resort in iconic 1980s teen movie Dirty Dancing. Much of it looks exactly as it did in the film, including the hotel’s exterior, the green-roofed cabin where Baby’s family stayed, the gazebo where guests have dance lessons, and the restaurant where Baby admits to her parents that she spent the night with Johnny. The hotel typically offers Dirty Dancing-themed weekends so film buffs can relive their favourite scenes.
Norah Ephron’s much-loved rom-com Sleepless in Seattle unites Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the Washington city, and locations here even double for some of the other destinations in the film, such as the New York New Year's Eve party, which was filmed in Seattle's Arctic Building (pictured). The fabulously ornate library where Annie meets her brother is the Peabody Conservatory of Music and famous Pike Place Market makes a few appearances too. Sam has an awkward date with Victoria at the Dahlia Lounge, which stood at 1904 Fourth Avenue when the movie was filmed, but has since relocated to 2001 Fourth Avenue at Virginia Street.
When J. J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg needed a place to stand in for the fictional town of Lillian, Ohio for sci-fi horror Super 8, they found just what they were looking for in Weirton. A typical steel town, it has a retro 1970s look that fits the film’s nostalgic vibe perfectly. There are really too many locations to choose from as so much of the movie was filmed here, but film fans can start with a stroll down the town’s Main Street. Block 3000 was used for various shops, diners and businesses, including the significant Olson Camera Store (Weirton Electrical Supply at 3061), and one of the final, jaw-dropping scenes was filmed on this street too.
Bridesmaids, the raucous 2011 female-led comedy that catapulted Kristen Wiig into the Hollywood spotlight, is set in Chicago and Milwaukee. Most of the Chicago shots actually took place in California, but you can see the real Milwaukee in some scenes. At 1009 Mitchell Street there's the distinctive façade of the building which houses the jewellery store Annie (Wiig) worked in, and was fired from. Annie’s apartment, which she shares with Gil and Brynn (Matt Lucas and Rebel Wilson), is at 2501 South Kinnickinnic Avenue. Finally, there's the exterior of the bar where Annie has her first date with police officer Nathan Rhodes (Chris O’Dowd) at 3218 West Cameron Street.
The volcano-like landform which acts as the alien’s touchdown spot and point of obsession for Richard Dreyfuss’ character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind is Devils Tower in the Bear Lodge Mountains of northeastern Wyoming. It has long been a sacred site for indigenous communities and was designated as America’s first National Monument in 1906, but it saw a surge in interest from visitors after the film came out in 1977.
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