After disarming Richard Horne outside the Convenience Store in Part 15, Mr. C takes him for a ride to open Part 16. In reality, this brief nighttime driving scene was shot in Simi Valley, California. It joins the running list of film locations for driving scenes in Twin Peaks including Ray Monroe driving Mr. C, Special Agent Cooper’s arrival in Twin Peaks, and Carrie and Richard/Cooper leaving Odessa, Texas.
The scene starts at 5298 Tapo Canyon Road in Simi Valley, California and continues for a yrev short drive.
The scene opens with a yellow caution sign which was the key to unlocking where the scene was shot. When I began researching the drive on Google Maps, I started from the opposite direction. It wasn’t until I got to the end of the road and realized there was another yellow caution sign. I “turned” around and found that the scenes were a better match.
The driving scene continues along the road. Notice the white markers along the side of the road that appear to match the Google Maps image.
I’ve professed my love for Google Maps multiple times on Twin Peaks Blog. Without it (or Bing Maps), I wouldn’t be able to locate many of these scenes. The camera on the Google Maps car, however, has its limitations. It’s mounted on top of the car and, depending on which direction the car is traveling, images may appear distorted.
The image above looks like the road is going in the opposite direction. But look carefully at the utility tube thing on the left side. It appears to match the scene and the Google Street View image.
The nighttime road scenes end just before a small turn out area.
The scene then cuts to Richard looking at Mr. C driving the truck. After a beat, the road at night appears again. As it turns out, IT’S THE SAME ROAD AS PICTURED ABOVE.
The magic of editing means that you can extend a scene to make it feel longer by recycling previously used footage. Look carefully at the road markers in the images above then compare them to the Google Maps images at top. A similar thing happened with Ray Monroe driving Mr. C, where they used a small stretch of highway but drove in opposite directions to make it feel like it was a much longer drive. Gosh, I love this show!
This part of their nighttime drive ends with Richard and Mr. C looking out into the night. The scene will soon cut to the next part of their drive, which will be discussed soon on Twin Peaks Blog.
This Google Maps image gives you an idea of the approximate locations where these scenes were shot.
