Get an Eiffel of that tower!
"The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris."
— "Hollywood Rule Book"
, Vanity Fair
, Vanity Fair
Some cities are renowned for their industries. Hollywood makes movies, Detroit makes — er, made cars. Others are known as hotspots for the scientific community, like Geneva. Or for the political community, like... Geneva. And in some places, there is a landmark. Such as Geneva.
A few of these landmarks, in various locations around the globe, are so well-known by so many people that they've come to function as a sort of visual shorthand for the city, sometimes the country, in which they're located, to the point where some footage of the landmark in question must be portrayed on the screen, even when that landmark is irrelevant to the plot and nowhere near where the characters are supposed to be. The National Mall in Washington, D.C., Westminster Palace (specifically, its clock tower housing Big Ben) in London, the Taj Mahal in India, St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow (occasionally mistaken for the nearby Kremlin), the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, the Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, The Colosseum in Rome, the Sistine Chapel for Vatican City... When these locations are portrayed in a film or TV show, expect numerous, panoramic establishing shots of the landmark in question. Occasionally, these landmarks will be visible out of windows or from rooftops where viewing them in real life would be geographically impossible, or in historical settings when they weren't actually built yet.
Iconic structures such as these can also function as Red Shirts. If they are ever destroyed, then circumstances have become dire indeed. Which naturally means that in a disaster movie, the landmark in question will probably be doomed to certain destruction. The Hollywood sign and the Statue of Liberty are popular targets for CGI catastrophes. Alternatively, the structure will be one of the few things left intact After the End, either mostly undamaged, to give the characters some kind of hope for the future, or nearly collapsed, as a testament to how much has been lost.
This trope is not simply here to list various landmarks around the world, but rather instances of landmarks in fiction used as a shortcut to showing either where the action occurs or how bad things have gotten.
Can overlap with both Scenery Gorn and Scenery Porn, depending on how lovingly and lavishly the landmark in question is filmed. Often combined with Time Zones Do Not Exist if the landmark is shown in a view from another country at the same time in both places. For instances where entire countries, or more, are represented by the landmarks of only one city, see Britain Is Only London. Compare Landmarking the Hidden Base, where a major HQ is situated inside or underneath one of these monuments; Rushmore Refacement, where they are deliberately altered; Weaponized Landmark, where they're turned into Weapons Of Mass Destruction; and Monumental Damage, where they are damaged or destroyed, possibly as a result of a Monumental Battle. (And Monumental Damage Resistance, when they survive a disaster.)
This trope is useful for works with an Informed Location, as using the landmark in a Title Sequence is a quick and easy way to establish a setting with little other effort.
The trope namer is on the Champ de Mars in Paris and was completed in 1889. The Other Wiki calls the Eiffel Tower "one of the most recognizable structures in the world." Part of this is because there was a strict building code of no buildings over a certain height in Paris so that the Tower is seen from farther away than it would have been had it been built in, say, New York City.
For its historical equivalent, see "Mister Sandman" Sequence. This trope is not to be confused with the Washington Monument Syndrome.note
Examples:
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Advertising
- Pick any advertising for a French perfume. It will inevitably be set in Paris, with its landmarks showing up.
- In one ad for Liberty Mutual Insurance, a man in Witness Protection tells viewers that with the money he saved on insurance, he was able to go on vacation with his family, but he "can't say where," and the Statue of Liberty is seen in the background. He then shows a picture of his family, who are obscured in shadow the same way he is, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
Anime & Manga
- Tokyo Tower functions this way in many anime; one of the most famous is in CLAMP's works, such as X/1999, Cardcaptor Sakura, and more.
- In Case Closed, one story had Ran visit New York. She takes a nap at one point and when she wakes up, she's already there... And literally the first thing she sees there is the Statue of Liberty.
- Code Geass: Akito the Exiled: Many scenes have the Eiffel Tower, letting viewers know the story is set in France, Paris.
- Death Note uses both the Eiffel Tower and the London Eye to indicate that the world is listening to a broadcast. More bizarrely, the anime uses Big Ben in a flashback where the character in question was remembering Winchester and not London at all.
- In one episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Section 9 assists German military counterintelligence in capturing an international terrorist in Berlin. During his stakeouts, Batou makes one of his hiding spots on top of the Siegessäule. While at 67 meters in height, it offers quite a view, it's right in the centre of Berlin's largest park and about 500 meters from the nearest buildings, making it completely useless for that task.
- Rule of Cool: It's a shout-out to Wings of Desire.
- Darker than Black seems to employ this with the giant wall around Hell's Gate. It's most noticeable in Huang's flashback episode, where the wall still in construction is often visible to signal the timeframe.
- During Renge's introduction in Ouran High School Host Club, when she's having tea with her father you can see the Eiffel Tower outside their window, looming so huge that it practically looks like it's on their property. Considering the tone of the show, this is probably as much for comedic effect as it is to tell the viewers "This is France"*.
- The Legend of Koizumi: How do you know that George W. Bush is in America (as if you didn't already know)? You can see the Statue of Liberty from his bedroom window. His bedroom... in the White House. In Washington DC. 200 miles from Liberty Island.
- Makoto Shinkai likes to use the NTT DoCoMo Yoyogi Building as a sign that the film is currently in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo.
- When Kanna flies to New York City in chapter 62 Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, she lands at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
- Used in Mobile Fighter G Gundam in combination with Earth That Used to Be Better. The Eiffel Tower, Tokyo Tower, Brooklyn Bridge, and other notable landmarks are all in states of hideous decay, and some of them are outright destroyed during the episode.
- Moscow 2160: The main symbol of the setting is an Ostankino Tower. Unlike the real one, this tower became the center of the web of cables that spanned across Moscow to keep the city alive. Danila Kuragin compares it to the nervous system of a man.
- Mostly averted for Noir. Although much of the series is set in Paris, the only glimpse of the Eiffel Tower is from a good distance away in the opening, which an inattentive viewer may miss entirely. The absence of this trope actually causes a slight problem with the narrative pacing, since not all viewers realize at what point the first episode transfers between Japan and France, which may lead to confusion.
- During the Doma Arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!, when the Orichalcos Soldiers were attacking everywhere on Earth, the cities they were attacking were identified with a single famous landmark (e.g. the Palace of Westminster, the Empire State Building, Sydney Opera House, Tokyo Tower, l'Arc de Triomphe, etc., etc.)
Asian Animation
- In the Lamput episode "Zoom Oil", when Lamput steps aside to dodge the docs, the latter characters end up realizing too late that they've got too much of their speed potions on them and start running so fast that they reach different countries entirely. The most prominent features in each country as the docs completely lose control are the countries' most famous landmarks; they find their way to the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, the Eiffel Tower in France, the Statue of Liberty in the United States, the pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt, and the Taj Mahal in India before finally landing face first in a rice field in Japan.
- In the Simple Samosa episode "Doctor D", there is a shot of Dhokla taking selfies on the Eiffel Tower. The country he visits is never referenced by name, so this is the only indication that he's visiting France.
- Weslie and the gang visit America in episode 20 of Pleasant Goat Fun Class: Travel Around the World. One of the first things they see is the Statue of Liberty.
Art
- North America: Portrait of a Continent: This is a pictorial map, after all. Flora, fauna, landmarks, and other such iconography associated with certain locales cover the landscape, (for example, the Wright Flyer in Kitty Hawk) while cities are depicted by their iconic skylines. Fittingly, the town of Paris, Texas is marked by its replica of the Eiffel Tower.
Fan Works
- In Chrysalis Visits The Hague, the medieval gatehouse silhouetted on the story's thumbnail art is actually the historic Red Gate of Scheveningen Prison◊.
- Lady Luck (Miraculous Ladybug): Lady Luck grumbles that too many of the akuma insist on attacking Paris' landmarks, especially the Eiffel Tower, and wonders if they're deliberately trying to remind people that they're French.
- Exploited in-universe in Luminosity when the rebels want to get one of the Volturi guard to defect to their side by causing them to form a vampire mate bond to one of the rebels. This can be done via transmission of one of Alice's visions to the would-be defector in which the potential mate is visible. Unfortunately this on its own won't tell them where to find the person, so they come up with the idea to have them go to Paris and stand in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Films — Animation
- An American Tail: The Statue of Liberty is seen under construction, thus using this trope to establish that the characters have arrived in New York of the past.
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has plenty of fun with this trope, showing a giant club sandwich being skewered on the Eiffel Tower, among other things. Further fun is had when it is revealed that food is raining down on all major landmarks first before spreading to less interesting parts of the world.
- Spoofed in Despicable Me, where Gru is giving a speech to his minions in which he recalls some of their famous landmark-stealing capers, including the theft of the Statue of Liberty ("The small one, from Las Vegas"), and the Eiffel Tower ("Also from Vegas").
- Finding Nemo uses the Sydney Opera House to represent... well, Sydney. Even the school of mimicking fish do this.
- In G.I. Joe: The Movie, the Statue of Liberty is being attacked by Cobra, establishing the setting as New York City.
- Interstella 5555: During "Crescendolls", the montage of the group sweeping over the world with their music includes shots set in France, Italy, China, and Brazil, recognizable thanks to the monuments seen in the background.
- Monsters, Inc.: When Mike and Sully go through the Portal Network of closet doors to escape Randall, the Eiffel Tower and Mt. Fuji can be seen in two of the bedrooms.
- Ratatouille: The Eiffel Tower is the first landmark Remy sees when he emerges from the sewers, and Linguini's cheap apartment and the fancier one he gets later both include views of it from out the window.
- Rugrats in Paris: The filmmakers included a couple obligatory shots of the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and a Monumental Battle.
- Turning Red:
- The Eiffel Tower is used to show Robaire, Aaron T, and Aaron Z are in Paris for one shot.
- Shots of the CN Tower are used liberally to continually remind viewers that the movie is set in Toronto.
- The Wild Robot (2024): To help show the progress of the geese migrating south from the Pacific Northwest, they fly over the ruins of the Golden Gate Bridge in California, and the decaying remnants of the Very Large Array in New Mexico.
Jokes
- A pilot is flying alone in his plane around the world, and his supervisors kept asking him where he is. To figure that out, he has a technique: put his arm through a hole in the floor of the plane and touch things with his hand.
"Where are you now?"
"In the USA."
"How do you know?"
"I touched the Statue of Liberty."
"Now where are you?"
"In the UK."
"How do you know?"
"I touched Big Ben."
"And now?"
"In France."
"How do you know?"
"I touched the Eiffel Tower."
"And now?"
"In Italy."
"How do you know?"
"I touched the Leaning Tower of Pisa."
"Now?"
"In China."
"How do you know?"
"I touched the Great Wall."
"Now?"
"In Japan."
"How do you know?"
"I touched the Tokyo Tower."
"Now?"
"In Brazil."
"Let me guess. You touched the statue of Christ the Redeemer."
"No, that's not it."
"Then how do you know it's Brazil?"
"Because somebody stole my watch." - Subverted in an anecdote about Guy de Maupassant, who regularly dined in a restaurant on the Eiffel Tower. "So you love the Eiffel Tower that much?" "Au contraire, it's just the only place in Paris where you CAN'T see the bloody thing!"
Literature
- In the Cory Doctorow novel Little Brother, it is the Bay Bridge that gets blown up by terrorists, instead of the Golden Gate; the narrator lampshades this with the same comment made above in the film section; the Golden Gate is for tourists, people actually living in San Francisco use the Bay Bridge.
- The Dark Tower often uses this trope for the titular MacGuffin Location in both official and fan artwork (though it's presumably for metaphorical purposes in most cases). It doesn't matter if it's artwork of Roland staring out to sea or the cover for a book almost entirely focused entirely on backstory, chances are the Tower is looming in the distance.
- Decades of Darkness: Since urban development patterns were among the many things altered over the years, cities have different landmarks from those known in OTL. For instance, New York, instead of the Statue of Liberty, has the Colossus of New York, a figure resembling an ancient Greek hoplite that was gifted to New England by the Greeks. The New England capital of Hartford and the US capital of Columbia City (formerly Knoxville, Tennessee) are nearly unrecognizable from their OTL forms by the 20th century due to all the government buildings and monuments that have been built. There is still a Statue of Liberty... only she's overlooking Sydney Harbour instead, reflecting the status of Australia in this world as the land of freedom, liberty, opportunity, and multiculturalism.
- In adaptations of Discworld into visual media, the establishing shot of Ankh-Morpork will always feature the Tower of Art. Since the Tower is 800 feet high and Ankh-Morpork has no other buildings taller than about five storeys, it's pretty noticable.
- Modesty Blaise series:
- I, Lucifer opens with Modesty on holiday in Paris, and her first scene is not over before somebody points out the Eiffel Tower in the distance. (And then, because he's a native Parisian of the "newfangled abomination" school, jokingly solicited her collaboration on a hypothetical scheme to blow it up and save the eyeballs of future generations.)
- Part of The Night of Morningstar is set in San Francisco and revolves around a terrorist plot to bring down the Golden Gate Bridge during the morning rush hour.
Music Videos
- The music video for Phil Collins' "Take Me Home" depicts him hobnobbing around famous city landmarks around the world — in particular, London, Paris, New York City, Tokyo, Stockholm, Moscow, Sydney, Memphis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Texas, and St. Louis.
- Crosses over with Visual Pun in the video for "Dolce Vita" by One-Hit Wonder Ryan Paris. He's Italian, and the title of the song is Italian... but the video is shot in Paris, and we see the Eiffel Tower in the very first frame. He also sings part of the song with the tower in the background.
Pinballs
- Played totally straight in Attack from Mars, where each of the cities attacked by the Martians is represented by its major landmark: The Eiffel Tower in Paris, The Pisa Tower in Italy, The Brandenburger Tor in Berlin, The Tower Bridge in London, and the Statue of Liberty in New York.
- Since Data East's Secret Service pinball is set in Washington D.C., the playfield includes model replicas of the Capitol Building and the White House.
- The Nintendo Entertainment System version of Roller Ball establishes itself in New York City by having the Statue of Liberty visible in the foreground.
- World-famous landmarks appearing in Harlem Globetrotters On Tour include the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, and (of course) the Eiffel Tower.
- The Golden Gate Bridge is prominently featured on the backglass for Lights... Camera... Action!
- Landmarks shown in Vacation America include the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. Capitol Building, a Space Shuttle launch, and Mount Rushmore.
- Spy Hunter includes shots of the Capitol Building and the Eiffel Tower.
Podcasts
- The promo art for The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air) makes a point of highlighting the Eiffel Tower in its skyline to establish the podcast's setting.
Radio
- Audio example: every episode of The Men from the Ministry opens with the chime of Big Ben, establishing the setting as London.
Theatre
- For the 30th anniversary of Disney's theatrical productions, a video was released showing the casts from various Disney shows around the world in these kinds of locations. Rafiki and the animals of the Pridelands with the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben behind them, Belle and the Beast with the Sydney Opera House, Anna and Elsa in a Japanese garden, and so on.
- In Of Thee I Sing, Wintergreen's Presidential office in the White House has a view of the Washington Monument. He asks his secretary Jenkins what it is, and Jenkins immediately identifies it as Grant's Tomb.
Theme Parks
- Many landmarks are used in "it's a small world" at the Disney Theme Parks to represent certain locations, such as the Big Ben for the United Kingdom, the Eiffel Tower for France, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa for Italy. The Paris version goes even further and includes the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Hollywood Hills to represent the United States.
- Also used at Walt Disney World in Epcot's World Showcase. While almost all of the pavilions feature at least some sort of replica location or homage, the most notable is the France pavilion, where you'll see, of course, the Eiffel Tower.
Visual Novels
- In The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures, within hours of arriving in London for the first time, our protagonists meet Chief Justice Mael Stronghart in his office, which appears to be inside Big Ben itself.
- In Marco & the Galaxy Dragon, the protagonists pass through France, Guiana, and Egypt when they first arrive on Earth. The Arc de Triomphe, a tepui, and the Sphinx are all we see of each location.
Web Animation
- Most of the seasonal animations viewable at www.noradsanta.org display Santa's sleigh passing over or circling a monument of this type.
Webcomics
- Girl Genius: The introduction to Paris includes a shot of the Arc de Triomphe and the Awful Tower, the renamed and slightly modified though still identifiable version of the Eiffel Tower that exists in the world of the comic.
- In this Bug Martini strip, the French bug is painting with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
Web Original
- The CollegeHumor short Google Street View Guys, which involves a couple of marshmallow-like caricatures driving around in a vehicle with a camera mounted on top to make shots for Google's Street View feature has a moment when they pass through St. Louis and one of the caricatures refers to the Gateway Arch as the "Golden Arch" and the "Archway to Heaven".
Web Videos
- 7-Second Riddles: A cheating husband in one riddle is caught when he claims to be in London, but sends a picture with the Statue Of Liberty visible in the background, proving him to be in New York.
- In Moone Boy, a doodle-fantasy sequence suggests that Martin thinks Dublin is home of most of the world's landmarks.
- The Weather: When Ben proposes to a caller in one sketch, they are standing on a ledge with the Eiffel Tower in the distance, just to prove that they are, in fact, in Paris.
- Discussed by Kyle Kallgren in the video "Washington D.C. Always Plays Itself", particularly with how Washington, D.C. is often subjected to California Doubling that he, having been born and raised there, can easily pick out. He notes that this is oddly consistent with the history of Washington itself, as a planned city constructed purely to house the federal government as opposed to places like London, Paris, and New York City that were already centers of industry, trade, and culture before they became major world cities, and that its design was meant specifically to express the ideology of the nation — in short, a massive set for America in general, with the city that emerged around it being incidental and rather anonymous.