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Not all American movies are filmed on sets in Hollywood. Some of the most famous and memorable classics have been filmed on location within the region.

Portions of the blockbuster hit, the Wild Wild West, were filmed in and around the Lewiston, Idaho area.

Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer, was filmed in southern Montana. Redford and his crew filmed the movie in southern Montana at the base of the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountain Ranges. Redford’s scenic spectacular A River Runs Through it was also filmed in southwest Montana.

The Sun Valley area was the site of Clint Eastwood’s Pale Rider. Famous feature films and countless lesser-known films and commercials have been produced in Jackson Hole, including Shane, Spencer’s Mountain and Rocky IV. The westerns Missouri Breaks,Tom Horn and Rancho Deluxe.

Billings hosted the epics Son Of The Morning Star and Far and Away. DevilsTower, near Gillette, was the landing site for space aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.The faces of Mount Rushmore played a pivotal role in North by Northwest. Badlands National Park was the site of the 1992 film, Thunderheart. A Man Called Horse and How The West Was Won were filmed at Custer State Park.

Rapid City, Spearfish Canyon and Pierre were the sitesfor the acclaimed Kevin Costner hit, Dances With Wolves. Portions of Starship Troopers were filmed on a private ranch in the Badlands of South Dakota, with a large portion filmed at Hell’s Half Acre in Casper, Wyoming.

Return to Lonesome Dove was filmed in Virginia City, Montana. The whitewater action-adventure movie A River Wild was shot in Montana’s Flathead Valley. Dante’s Peak, the action film about a volcanic eruption, was shot in Wallace, Idaho. The recent surprise comedy, Napoleon Dynamite was filmed in Preston, Idaho.

For more information on the Film Locations in the states of Idaho, Montana, South Dakota and/or Wyoming, please visit the official tourism sites below.