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{{In popular culture|date=May 2022}}
[[File:North by Northwest movie trailer screenshot (28).jpg|thumb|250px|Roger Thornhill ([[Cary Grant]]) and Eve Kendall ([[Eva Marie Saint]]) dangle precipitously from the sculpture of George Washington in ''North by Northwest''.]][[Mount Rushmore]] in [[South Dakota]] has appeared in several films, comic books, and television series.<ref name="Gunderson">{{Cite book |last=Gunderson |first=Jessica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M8otBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA28 |title=Mount Rushmore: Myths, Legends, and Facts |date=2014-07-01 |publisher=Capstone |isbn=978-1-4914-0208-5 |pages=28 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Knight">{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Gladys L. |title=Pop Culture Places: An Encyclopedia of Places in American Popular Culture [3 volumes] |date=2014-08-11 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-39883-4 |pages=623 |language=en |chapter=Mount Rushmore |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kheDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA623}}</ref><ref name="VisitTheUSA">{{Cite web |last=Powell |first=Laura |title=Mount Rushmore on the Big Screen |url=https://www.visittheusa.com/experience/mount-rushmore-big-screen |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=Visit The USA |language=en}}</ref> Its functions vary from settings for action scenes to the site of hidden locations.<ref name="Gunderson" /> Its most famous appearance is as the location of the final [[chase scene]] in the 1959 film ''[[North by Northwest]].''<ref name="Knight" /><ref name="VisitTheUSA" /><ref>Charles Paul Freund, "[https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Big+schlock+candy+Mountain%3A+the+many+meanings+of+Mount+Rushmore....-a096644882 Big schlock candy Mountain: the many meanings of Mount Rushmore]", ''Reason'', Vol. 34, Issue 9.</ref><ref name="Parks">Thomas J. Liu, John B. Loomis, and Linda J. Bilmes, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=rgiiDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT88 Exploring the contribution of National Parks to the entertainment industry's intellectual property]", in Linda J. Bilmes and John B. Loomis, ''Valuing U.S. National Parks and Programs: America's Best Investment'' (Routledge, 2020), [https://books.google.com/books?id=RT33DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA95 p. 95-98].</ref> It is used as a secret base of operations by the protagonists in the 2004 film ''[[Team America: World Police]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Honeycutt |first1=Kirk |last2=Honeycutt |first2=Kirk |date=October 15, 2019 |title=‘Team America: World Police’: THR’s 2004 Review |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/team-america-world-police-review-movie-2004-1247989/}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The example of Mount Rushmore as a secret hideout should come from a source on Mount Rushmore in popular culture, per MOS:POPCULT.|date=May 2022}} and the secret underground city of [[Seven Cities of Gold|Cíbola]] is located there in the 2007 film ''[[National Treasure: Book of Secrets]]''.<ref name="Gunderson" /><ref name="Knight" /><ref name="VisitTheUSA" /> In some films, the presidential faces are replaced with others;<ref name="Gunderson" /> examples include the 1980 film ''[[Superman II]]'' and the 1996 film ''[[Mars Attacks!]]'' where the villains add their faces to the monument, and the 2003 film ''[[Head of State (2003 film)|Head of State]]'' where the newly-elected president's face is added.<ref name="VisitTheUSA" /><ref name="Doss" /> In works showing attacks on landmarks to signify the scope of a threat, Mount Rushmore is a common target; examples include the aforementioned facial replacements in ''Superman II'' and ''Mars Attacks!'' as well as natural disasters in works like the 2006 miniseries ''[[10.5: Apocalypse]]'' and terrorist attacks as in the 1997 film ''[[The Peacekeeper]]''.<ref name="Doss">{{Cite book |last=Doss |first=Erika |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-RiQiBwzFCcC&pg=PA57 |title=Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America |date=2012-09-07 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-15939-3 |pages=57 |language=en}}</ref> An atypical representation of the monument appears in the 2013 film ''[[Nebraska (film)|Nebraska]]'', where instead of being treated with reverence it is criticized for being unfinished.<ref name="VisitTheUSA" /><ref name="Metz">Walter Metz, "[https://muse.jhu.edu/article/565609 Review: Nebraska. Dir. Alexander Payne. Paramount Vantage, 2013]". ''Middle West Review'' Volume 1, Number 1, (University of Nebraska Press, Fall 2014), p. 154-55.</ref>
{{notability|date=May 2022}}
Because of its fame as a [[monument]], [[Mount Rushmore]] in [[South Dakota]] has appeared frequently in works of [[fiction]], and has been discussed or depicted in other popular works. The best-known uses of the monument include as the location of the climactic [[chase scene]] in [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s 1959 film ''[[North by Northwest]]'', and in the 2007 film ''[[National Treasure: Book of Secrets]]''. Mount Rushmore "usually serves to connect the national security to individual romance", although other media exists in which the monument is used to symbolize other aspects of the human experience, such as being unfinished, as the monument is.<ref name="Metz">Walter Metz, "[https://muse.jhu.edu/article/565609 Review: Nebraska. Dir. Alexander Payne. Paramount Vantage, 2013]". ''Middle West Review'' Volume 1, Number 1, (University of Nebraska Press, Fall 2014), p. 154-55.</ref>

[[Alan Weisman]], in his 2007 book ''[[The World Without Us]]'',<ref>[[Alan Weisman]], ''[[The World Without Us]]'' (St. Martin's Press, 2007) {{ISBN|0-312-34729-4}}</ref> suggests that the Mount Rushmore memorial could last up to 7.2 million years and thus be one of the longest-lasting human artifacts.{{Relevance inline|date=May 2022}}

Because of this enduring structure, it has appeared in some science fiction set in the distant future.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

==Popularity in media==
Despite its remoteness, Mount Rushmore features as a monumental setting in a relatively large number of films,<ref name="Parks">Thomas J. Liu, John B. Loomis, and Linda J. Bilmes, "Exploring the contribution of National Parks to the entertainment industry's intellectual property", in Linda J. Bilmes and John B. Loomis, ''Valuing U.S. National Parks and Programs: America's Best Investment'' (Routledge, 2020), p. 95-98.</ref> and "has become part of Hollywood legend".<ref name="Gunderson">Jessica Gunderson, ''Mount Rushmore: Myths, Legends, and Facts'' (Capstone Press, 2014), p. 28.</ref> Additionally, "Mount Rushmore has been used in many imaginative storylines in comic books and television series".<ref name="Knight">Gladys L. Knight, ''Pop Culture Places: An Encyclopedia of Places in American Popular Culture'' (2014), [https://books.google.com/books?id=kheDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA623 p. 623].</ref> The use of Mount Rushmore in popular culture, as with many other national monuments, derives from its immediate recognizability; "there are no substitutes for iconic resources such as the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial, or Mount Rushmore. These locations are one of a kind places".<ref name="Parks"/> However, Mount Rushmore also provides access to a surrounding environment of wilderness, which distinguishes it from the typical proximity of national monuments to urban centers like Washington, D.C., and New York City. The use of Mount Rushmore as such a setting, in turn, enhances its popularity as a [[tourist attraction]].<ref name="Parks"/>

In 2016, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the monument, ''[[Time Magazine]]'' published a video listing "Mount Rushmore's Most Memorable Moments at the Movies", including ''[[North by Northwest]]'', ''[[Head of State (2003 film)|Head of State]]'', ''[[Team America: World Police]]'', ''[[Nebraska (film)|Nebraska]]'', ''[[Mars Attacks!]]'', ''[[Superman II]]'', ''[[Richie Rich (film)|Richie Rich]]'', and ''[[National Treasure: Book of Secrets]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://time.com/4552027/mount-rushmore-movies-anniversary/ |title=See Mount Rushmore's Most Memorable Moments at the Movies|publisher=[[Time Magazine]]|first1=Eliza|last1=Berman|date=October 31, 2016}}</ref> Another source notes that "films have portrayed the monument as a secret hideout, a chase scene location, or the entrance to a city of gold",<ref name="Gunderson"/> while still another notes that in movies showing an attack on a landmark to signify the scope of a threat, "Mount Rushmore is another favorite target: destroyed by lasers in ''Richie Rich'' (1994), ruined by an earthquake in ''[[10.5: Apocalypse]]'' (2006), blown up by terrorist missiles in ''[[The Peacekeeper]]'' (1997), annihilated by Michael Moore (playing a suicide bomber) in ''Team America: World Police'' (2004) and defaced (or rather, refaced) in movies like ''Superman II'' (1980) and ''Head of State'' (2003)".<ref>Erika Doss, ''Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America'' (University of Chicago Press, 2012), p. 57.</ref>

===In ''North by Northwest''===
[[File:North by Northwest movie trailer screenshot (28).jpg|thumb|250px|Roger Thornhill ([[Cary Grant]]) and Eve Kendall ([[Eva Marie Saint]]) dangle precipitously from the sculpture of George Washington in ''North by Northwest''.]]
[[File:Nxnwsign.jpg|thumb|250px|Sign near the mountain]]
The memorial was perhaps most famously used as the location of the climactic [[chase scene]] in [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s 1959 film ''[[North by Northwest]]'', which has been described as "[t]he mountain's primary visual association—aside from souvenir postcards".<ref>Charles Paul Freund, "Big schlock candy Mountain: the many meanings of Mount Rushmore", ''Reason'', Vol. 34, Issue 9.</ref> Scriptwriter [[Ernest Lehman]] later recalled that, as they were developing their story idea, Hitchcock "murmured wistfully, 'I always wanted to do a [[chase scene|chase]] across the faces of Mount Rushmore.'"<ref>Barbara Straumann, "Rewriting American Foundational Myths in Alfred Hitchcock's ''North by Northwest''", in Martin Heusser and Gudrun Grabher, ''American Foundational Myths'' (2002), p. 201.</ref> Lehman took a trip to [[Mount Rushmore]] to scale the faces of the famous monument; he only got halfway to the top, and bought a camera to give to the park ranger to photograph the famous monument for him. However, the scene in the film was not actually filmed at the monument, since permission to shoot an attempted killing on the face of a [[U.S. National Monument|national monument]] was refused by the [[National Park Service]].

In the film the villain's house is located on a fictitious forested [[plateau]] above the monument. It has been noted that "the Mount Rushmore sequence undermines name, identity, and national purpose", with the protagonists of the film fleeing for their lives across the famous faces, which themselves are of no help.<ref>Christopher D. Morris, The Direction of "North by Northwest", ''Cinema Journal'', Vol. 36, No. 4 (Summer, 1997), pp. 43-56.</ref> The house of villain Phillip Vandamm, set on a cliff atop Mount Rushmore, was not a real structure. Other scenes, including the view of the Memorial's parking lot, the patio at the Memorial concession, the scene in the dining room of the concession, and the loading of the body into the ambulance, were actually shot at Mount Rushmore. The other scenes involving Mount Rushmore were filmed on Hollywood soundstages. The film's spurious murder of Roger Thornhill takes place in the Buffalo Room of the Memorial View Building at Mount Rushmore. The building was demolished in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/moru/learn/historyculture/keeping-up-with-the-times.htm|title=Keeping Up With the Times|website=Mount Rushmore National Memorial|publisher=U.S. National Park Service}}</ref>

The ''North by Northwest'' appearance has been parodied in several venues. In "[[North by North Quahog]]", a 2005 episode of the animated series ''[[Family Guy]]'', Peter and Lois are chased down the monument by a villainous [[Mel Gibson]], who falls to his death there.<ref name="TVGuide">{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080523171216/https://www.tvguide.com/detail/tv-show.aspx?tvobjectid=100148&more=ucepisodelist&episodeid=4590246 | title=Episode Detail: North by North Quahog|work=[[TV Guide]]|access-date=July 3, 2009}}</ref> In the 1994 film ''[[Richie Rich (film)|Richie Rich]]'', the Rich family's imitation of Mount Rushmore becomes the setting for the film's finale, also echoing the finale of ''North by Northwest''.<ref>Yoram Allon, ‎Del Cullen, ‎Hannah Patterson, ''The Wallflower Critical Guide to Contemporary North American Directors'' (2000), p. 357: "''Richie Rich'' (1995)... refers to Hitchcock in its finale, set against Richie's own Mount Rushmore-style rock faces .</ref>

===As a cover for a secret location===
{{in popular culture|section|date=May 2022}}
Several films and other media depict Mount Rushmore as a secret base of operations for the government or another clandestine group, or as having some comparable significance other than as a monument.<ref name="Gunderson"/> In the early 1980s television series, ''[[Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)|Buck Rogers in the 25th Century]]'', a flashback sequence in the episode, "Testimony of a Traitor", shows Rogers meeting with the [[President of the United States]] in a secret base inside Mount Rushmore. In ''[[Team America: World Police]]'', it is the secret base of operations for the protagonists.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/team-america-world-police-review-movie-2004-1247989/|title=‘Team America: World Police’: THR’s 2004 Review|first1=Kirk|last1=Honeycutt|first2=Kirk|last2=Honeycutt|date=October 15, 2019}}</ref> In the film, the base, along with the sculptures on the surface, are severely damaged in a [[suicide bombing]] by [[Michael Moore]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2008/07/airplane-director-eyes-michael-moore-011959|title='Airplane!' director eyes Michael Moore|first=Jeffrey|last=Ressner|website=POLITICO|quote=Moore had a big role in that comedy, too — his puppet figure was a suicide bomber who infiltrated the titular Team’s top-secret command post inside of Mount Rushmore and then destroyed the place by detonating his dynamite belt.}}</ref>

Mount Rushmore was a primary location of interest in the plot of the 2007 film ''[[National Treasure: Book of Secrets]]'' starring [[Nicolas Cage]].<ref name="Knight"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080124185607/http://fifi.realmovienews.com/reviews/3403 | title=National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (2007) Movie Review | publisher=Real Movie News|access-date=May 12, 2022}}</ref> In the film, Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) discovers in the titular ''Book Of Secrets'' that the location of the monument was chosen to erase [[landmark]]s in a [[map]] that leads to the golden city of [[Seven Cities of Gold|Cíbola]], hidden deep underground behind the mountain.<ref>Lansing Bartlett Bloom, ‎Paul A. F. Walter, ''New Mexico Historical Review'' (University of New Mexico, 2011), p. 352, n. 1, stating: "In a recent Hollywood blockbuster entitled ''National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets'' (2008), starring Nicholas Cage and Helen Mirren, the protagonists search for the secret ancient city of Cíbola by following the clues provided by a confidential book kept at the Library of Congress. Their story, which somehow manages to bring together Spanish conqueror Panfilo de Narváez, Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca, Pres. Abraham Lincoln, and lots of free-masonry paraphernalia, ends when the characters find Cíbola in a cave located beneath Mount Rushmore!"</ref>

=== Alterations and additions to the faces ===
[[File:Naruto-Rushmore.JPG|thumb|right|A fictional monument in the Japanese anime ''Naruto'', inspired by Mount Rushmore]]
The large carved faces of the monument have made it a target for [[parody|parodies]] and other symbolic alterations of its appearance in media, including replacement of one or more of the four presidents' faces with other people or characters, addition of another face, or imitation of the monument with different faces entirely. As Thomas S. Owens notes, "Cartoonists have added more famous faces, real and imaginary, to Mount Rushmore, or show the four presidents talking. [[Toothpaste]] companies have made [[television commercial|commercial]]s showing how [[Theodore Roosevelt|Roosevelt]]'s [[teeth]] could be brushed if he'd only smile again!"<ref>Thomas S. Owens, ''Mount Rushmore'' (1997), p. 21.</ref> In other cases, "movies replace the presidential faces with faces of movie characters".<ref name="Gunderson"/> Examples include the 1980 film ''[[Superman II]]'', in which [[General Zod]] and his criminal partners [[Ursa (DC Comics)|Ursa]] and [[Non (comics)|Non]] (the three escaped [[supervillain]]s from the [[Phantom Zone]]) use their superpowers to replace the faces of Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt with their own, while destroying Lincoln's.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wurm|first=Gerald|title=Superman II (Comparison: Theatrical Version - Richard Donner Cut) - Movie-Censorship.com|url=https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=4165|access-date=2020-10-27|website=www.movie-censorship.com}}</ref> In the 2021 Marvel ''[[What If...? (TV series)|What If...?]]'' episode, "[[What If... Thor Were an Only Child?]]", Frost Giants partying with Thor on Earth use the Casket of Ancient Winters "to create some ice sculptures — like Loki horns — on Mount Rushmore".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/marvel-what-if-episode-7-details-easter-eggs |title=25 "What If...?" Details That Are Small, Incredible, And Make This Thor Episode So Great|first1=Nora|last1=Dominick|publisher=BuzzFeed|date=September 22, 2021}}</ref> In the Japanese [[manga]], ''[[Naruto]]'', the main leaders (Hokage) of Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf Village) have had their faces carved into a mountain overlooking the village of Konohagakure, with one source noting that, "[f]amous for overcoming many tough battles and its Mount Rushmore inspired mountain of legendary faces, Konohagakure is definitely the village we know best".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbr.com/naruto-konoha-unknown-facts-trivia/|title=Naruto: 10 Things You Never Knew About Konoha|first1=Karli|last1=Iwamasa|date=March 26, 2020|website=CBR}}</ref>

During his term in office, President [[Barack Obama]] has been added as a fifth head to Mount Rushmore on internet depictions of the mountain. On July 8, 2009, climate change activists unfurled a [[Banner drop|banner]] over the monument portraying a fifth face on Mount Rushmore of Obama, depicting him as a President who could make Presidential changes in leading effective climate legislation as opposed to being a politician.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ecorazzi.com/2009/07/08/greenpeace-gets-badass-drapes-pic-of-obama-over-mt-rushmore-calling-for-climate-action/|title=Greenpeace Gets Badass, Drapes Pic Of Obama Over Mt. Rushmore Calling For Climate Action}}</ref><ref>[http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/07/08/obama-makes-early-unflattering-appearance-on-mt-rushmore.aspx Obama Makes Early, Unflattering Appearance on Mount Rushmore].</ref><ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/08/south.dakota.protest/#cnnSTCVideo Greenpeace members charged in Mount Rushmore G-8 protest - CNN.com].</ref> More recently, former President [[Donald Trump]] has been noted to keep a sculpture in his [[Mar-a-Lago]] office, gifted to him by South Dakota Governor [[Kristi Noem]], depicting Mount Rushmore with Trump's face added to the mountain, to the right of Abraham Lincoln.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-has-mt-rushmore-sculpture-with-his-face-on-photos-2021-11 |title=Photos show Trump has a Mount Rushmore sculpture with his face added to it in his Mar-a-Lago office|first1=Tom|last1=Porter|publisher=Business Insider|date=November 26, 2021}}</ref>

===As a tourist attraction and landmark===
Mount Rushmore may also be shown in film not to provide an exciting location for an action sequence, or to portray a hidden base or symbolic change to the monument, but merely to indicate its status as a tourist attraction. In the 1998 film, ''[[The Truman Show]]'', in which the title character is unaware that he is the star of a TV show and his entire life has been produced in a studio, it is revealed that he had been taken to an obviously fake mock-up of the monument as a child, so that "[w]hen he sees a picture of his family at Mount Rushmore, he comments that it looks very small".<ref>David R. Coon, ''Look Closer: Suburban Narratives and American Values in Film and Television'' (Rutgers University Press, 2013), p. 54, {{ISBN|0813562074}}.</ref> In the 2013 film, ''[[Nebraska (film)|Nebraska]]'', "a son and his elderly father on a road trip from Billings, Montana, to Omaha, Nebraska, stop at Mount Rushmore", where the father criticizes the monument as appearing "unfinished", which film studies professor Walter Metz describes as positioning the monument "not as an American triumph, but as an emblem of national incompleteness".<ref name="Metz"/>

In the [[science fiction comedy]] franchise ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' the 1991 novel ''[[Better Than Life]]'' has [[Dave Lister]] land on a despoiled planet where "he survives a downpour of acid rain, leaps over gaping earthquake-induced chasms and finally avoids suffocation in a torrent of oil before realising—after seeing Mount Rushmore—that the planet is in fact Earth".<ref>Chris Howarth, ‎Steve Lyons, ''Red Dwarf: Programme Guide - Part 4'' (1997), p. 304.</ref> The monument is half-buried underneath billions of glass bottles, Earth having been turned into a garbage dump for the human-colonised Solar System in the centuries after Lister entered stasis aboard ''Red Dwarf''.

==Other appearances==
{{in popular culture|section|date=May 2022}}
[[File:Mount Rushmore Monument Stamp.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Mount Rushmore National Memorial 1927-1952 [[Black Hills, South Dakota]]]]
[[File:Mount Rushmore commemorative half dollar obverse.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Mount Rushmore [[Modern United States commemorative coins|commemorative]] [[Half dollar (United States coin)|half dollar]] obverse.]]

In music, American composer [[Michael Daugherty]]'s 2010 piece for chorus and orchestra, "Mount Rushmore," depicts each of the four presidents in separate movements. The piece sets texts by [[George Washington]], [[William Billings]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[Maria Cosway]], [[Theodore Roosevelt]], and [[Abraham Lincoln]].<ref>[http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Michael-Daugherty-s-Mount-Rushmore-Premieres-with-the-Pacific-Symphony-and-Chorale/11964 "Michael Daugherty's Mount Rushmore Premieres with the Pacific Symphony and Chorale"] Retrieved 27 August 2014.</ref> By contrast, the song, "Little Snakes", by [[Protest The Hero]], "addresses the violent colonial history involved in the sculpting of Mount Rushmore", critiquing the monument as a symbol of [[colonialism]], referencing the [[genocide of indigenous peoples]] and the ownership of slaves by [[George Washington]] and [[Thomas Jefferson]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Rolli|first=Bryan|date=June 16, 2020|title=Protest the Hero's Rody Walker: Trump's Vision of Greatness Is America's ‘Tragic Flaw’|url=https://loudwire.com/protest-the-hero-interview-rody-walker-trump-greatness-america-flaw/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-10-27|website=Loudwire|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Slingerland|first=Calum|date=June 18, 2020|title=Protest the Hero Give American History a Scathing Rewrite on 'Palimpsest'|url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/protest_the_hero_palimpsest_album_review|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-10-27|website=exclaim.ca|language=en-ca}}</ref>

On August 11, 1952. the [[United States Postal Service]] issued a commemorative 3¢ postage stamp, designed by William K. Schrage of the [[Bureau of Engraving and Printing]], commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Mount Rushmore National Monument.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/about-us-stamps-modern-period-1940-present-commemorative-issues-1950-1959-1952-1953/mt|title=Mt. Rushmore Memorial Issue|website=postalmuseum.si.edu}}</ref> Mount Rushmore has also been depicted on several [[United States coins]]. One of the most recent was the South Dakota [[50 State Quarters|State Quarter]] (seen at the top of this article) issued in 2006.<ref>Jim Noles, ''A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America—One State Quarter at a Time" (Da Capo Press, May 6, 2008) {{ASIN|B009K44LT8}}.</ref> In 1991 the [[United States Mint]] issued several [[Modern United States commemorative coins|commemorative coins]], specifically a 50¢,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/CoinLibrary/index.cfm#rushAnn|title=Mount Rushmore Golden Anniversary Half Dollar
|accessdate=2008-05-30|publisher=United States Mint}}</ref> $1,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/CoinLibrary/index.cfm#rushAnn|title=Mount Rushmore Golden Anniversary Dollar
|accessdate=2008-05-30|publisher=United States Mint}}</ref> and $5 coin<ref>Kevin Dailey, ''United States Modern Commemorative Five Dollar Gold Coins'' (2021), p. 58-65.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/CoinLibrary/index.cfm#rushAnn|title=Mount Rushmore Golden Anniversary Gold $5|accessdate=2008-05-30|publisher=United States Mint
}}</ref> for the anniversary of Mount Rushmore.

The [[Washington Nationals]] baseball club uses large [[foam rubber]] depictions of the "Rushmore Four" in both their marketing campaigns and in a series of in-stadium promotions, which include the "Racing Presidents", "George", "Abe", "TJ" and "Teddy".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mlb.com/nationals/fans|title=Washington Nationals Fan Central &#124; Washington Nationals|website=MLB.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wusa9.com/article/sports/mlb/the-nats-presidents-race-explained/65-49b98b6c-b1c4-4afa-b222-3af5349ecefd|title=The history of the Nationals Presidents Race: Who is winning and why|date=October 21, 2019|website=wusa9.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8457719/teddy-mascot-wins-washington-nationals-presidents-race|title='Teddy' wins for 1st time in 534 races|publisher=ESPN }}</ref>


== References ==
== References ==

Revision as of 19:01, 14 May 2022

Because of its fame as a monument, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota has appeared frequently in works of fiction, and has been discussed or depicted in other popular works. The best-known uses of the monument include as the location of the climactic chase scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 film North by Northwest, and in the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Mount Rushmore "usually serves to connect the national security to individual romance", although other media exists in which the monument is used to symbolize other aspects of the human experience, such as being unfinished, as the monument is.[1]

Alan Weisman, in his 2007 book The World Without Us,[2] suggests that the Mount Rushmore memorial could last up to 7.2 million years and thus be one of the longest-lasting human artifacts.[relevant?]

Because of this enduring structure, it has appeared in some science fiction set in the distant future.[citation needed]

Popularity in media

Despite its remoteness, Mount Rushmore features as a monumental setting in a relatively large number of films,[3] and "has become part of Hollywood legend".[4] Additionally, "Mount Rushmore has been used in many imaginative storylines in comic books and television series".[5] The use of Mount Rushmore in popular culture, as with many other national monuments, derives from its immediate recognizability; "there are no substitutes for iconic resources such as the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial, or Mount Rushmore. These locations are one of a kind places".[3] However, Mount Rushmore also provides access to a surrounding environment of wilderness, which distinguishes it from the typical proximity of national monuments to urban centers like Washington, D.C., and New York City. The use of Mount Rushmore as such a setting, in turn, enhances its popularity as a tourist attraction.[3]

In 2016, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the monument, Time Magazine published a video listing "Mount Rushmore's Most Memorable Moments at the Movies", including North by Northwest, Head of State, Team America: World Police, Nebraska, Mars Attacks!, Superman II, Richie Rich, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.[6] Another source notes that "films have portrayed the monument as a secret hideout, a chase scene location, or the entrance to a city of gold",[4] while still another notes that in movies showing an attack on a landmark to signify the scope of a threat, "Mount Rushmore is another favorite target: destroyed by lasers in Richie Rich (1994), ruined by an earthquake in 10.5: Apocalypse (2006), blown up by terrorist missiles in The Peacekeeper (1997), annihilated by Michael Moore (playing a suicide bomber) in Team America: World Police (2004) and defaced (or rather, refaced) in movies like Superman II (1980) and Head of State (2003)".[7]

In North by Northwest

Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) and Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) dangle precipitously from the sculpture of George Washington in North by Northwest.
Sign near the mountain

The memorial was perhaps most famously used as the location of the climactic chase scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 film North by Northwest, which has been described as "[t]he mountain's primary visual association—aside from souvenir postcards".[8] Scriptwriter Ernest Lehman later recalled that, as they were developing their story idea, Hitchcock "murmured wistfully, 'I always wanted to do a chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore.'"[9] Lehman took a trip to Mount Rushmore to scale the faces of the famous monument; he only got halfway to the top, and bought a camera to give to the park ranger to photograph the famous monument for him. However, the scene in the film was not actually filmed at the monument, since permission to shoot an attempted killing on the face of a national monument was refused by the National Park Service.

In the film the villain's house is located on a fictitious forested plateau above the monument. It has been noted that "the Mount Rushmore sequence undermines name, identity, and national purpose", with the protagonists of the film fleeing for their lives across the famous faces, which themselves are of no help.[10] The house of villain Phillip Vandamm, set on a cliff atop Mount Rushmore, was not a real structure. Other scenes, including the view of the Memorial's parking lot, the patio at the Memorial concession, the scene in the dining room of the concession, and the loading of the body into the ambulance, were actually shot at Mount Rushmore. The other scenes involving Mount Rushmore were filmed on Hollywood soundstages. The film's spurious murder of Roger Thornhill takes place in the Buffalo Room of the Memorial View Building at Mount Rushmore. The building was demolished in 1994.[11]

The North by Northwest appearance has been parodied in several venues. In "North by North Quahog", a 2005 episode of the animated series Family Guy, Peter and Lois are chased down the monument by a villainous Mel Gibson, who falls to his death there.[12] In the 1994 film Richie Rich, the Rich family's imitation of Mount Rushmore becomes the setting for the film's finale, also echoing the finale of North by Northwest.[13]

As a cover for a secret location

Several films and other media depict Mount Rushmore as a secret base of operations for the government or another clandestine group, or as having some comparable significance other than as a monument.[4] In the early 1980s television series, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, a flashback sequence in the episode, "Testimony of a Traitor", shows Rogers meeting with the President of the United States in a secret base inside Mount Rushmore. In Team America: World Police, it is the secret base of operations for the protagonists.[14] In the film, the base, along with the sculptures on the surface, are severely damaged in a suicide bombing by Michael Moore.[15]

Mount Rushmore was a primary location of interest in the plot of the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets starring Nicolas Cage.[5][16] In the film, Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) discovers in the titular Book Of Secrets that the location of the monument was chosen to erase landmarks in a map that leads to the golden city of Cíbola, hidden deep underground behind the mountain.[17]

Alterations and additions to the faces

A fictional monument in the Japanese anime Naruto, inspired by Mount Rushmore

The large carved faces of the monument have made it a target for parodies and other symbolic alterations of its appearance in media, including replacement of one or more of the four presidents' faces with other people or characters, addition of another face, or imitation of the monument with different faces entirely. As Thomas S. Owens notes, "Cartoonists have added more famous faces, real and imaginary, to Mount Rushmore, or show the four presidents talking. Toothpaste companies have made commercials showing how Roosevelt's teeth could be brushed if he'd only smile again!"[18] In other cases, "movies replace the presidential faces with faces of movie characters".[4] Examples include the 1980 film Superman II, in which General Zod and his criminal partners Ursa and Non (the three escaped supervillains from the Phantom Zone) use their superpowers to replace the faces of Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt with their own, while destroying Lincoln's.[19] In the 2021 Marvel What If...? episode, "What If... Thor Were an Only Child?", Frost Giants partying with Thor on Earth use the Casket of Ancient Winters "to create some ice sculptures — like Loki horns — on Mount Rushmore".[20] In the Japanese manga, Naruto, the main leaders (Hokage) of Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf Village) have had their faces carved into a mountain overlooking the village of Konohagakure, with one source noting that, "[f]amous for overcoming many tough battles and its Mount Rushmore inspired mountain of legendary faces, Konohagakure is definitely the village we know best".[21]

During his term in office, President Barack Obama has been added as a fifth head to Mount Rushmore on internet depictions of the mountain. On July 8, 2009, climate change activists unfurled a banner over the monument portraying a fifth face on Mount Rushmore of Obama, depicting him as a President who could make Presidential changes in leading effective climate legislation as opposed to being a politician.[22][23][24] More recently, former President Donald Trump has been noted to keep a sculpture in his Mar-a-Lago office, gifted to him by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, depicting Mount Rushmore with Trump's face added to the mountain, to the right of Abraham Lincoln.[25]

As a tourist attraction and landmark

Mount Rushmore may also be shown in film not to provide an exciting location for an action sequence, or to portray a hidden base or symbolic change to the monument, but merely to indicate its status as a tourist attraction. In the 1998 film, The Truman Show, in which the title character is unaware that he is the star of a TV show and his entire life has been produced in a studio, it is revealed that he had been taken to an obviously fake mock-up of the monument as a child, so that "[w]hen he sees a picture of his family at Mount Rushmore, he comments that it looks very small".[26] In the 2013 film, Nebraska, "a son and his elderly father on a road trip from Billings, Montana, to Omaha, Nebraska, stop at Mount Rushmore", where the father criticizes the monument as appearing "unfinished", which film studies professor Walter Metz describes as positioning the monument "not as an American triumph, but as an emblem of national incompleteness".[1]

In the science fiction comedy franchise Red Dwarf the 1991 novel Better Than Life has Dave Lister land on a despoiled planet where "he survives a downpour of acid rain, leaps over gaping earthquake-induced chasms and finally avoids suffocation in a torrent of oil before realising—after seeing Mount Rushmore—that the planet is in fact Earth".[27] The monument is half-buried underneath billions of glass bottles, Earth having been turned into a garbage dump for the human-colonised Solar System in the centuries after Lister entered stasis aboard Red Dwarf.

Other appearances

Mount Rushmore National Memorial 1927-1952 Black Hills, South Dakota
Mount Rushmore commemorative half dollar obverse.

In music, American composer Michael Daugherty's 2010 piece for chorus and orchestra, "Mount Rushmore," depicts each of the four presidents in separate movements. The piece sets texts by George Washington, William Billings, Thomas Jefferson, Maria Cosway, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.[28] By contrast, the song, "Little Snakes", by Protest The Hero, "addresses the violent colonial history involved in the sculpting of Mount Rushmore", critiquing the monument as a symbol of colonialism, referencing the genocide of indigenous peoples and the ownership of slaves by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.[29][30]

On August 11, 1952. the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative 3¢ postage stamp, designed by William K. Schrage of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Mount Rushmore National Monument.[31] Mount Rushmore has also been depicted on several United States coins. One of the most recent was the South Dakota State Quarter (seen at the top of this article) issued in 2006.[32] In 1991 the United States Mint issued several commemorative coins, specifically a 50¢,[33] $1,[34] and $5 coin[35][36] for the anniversary of Mount Rushmore.

The Washington Nationals baseball club uses large foam rubber depictions of the "Rushmore Four" in both their marketing campaigns and in a series of in-stadium promotions, which include the "Racing Presidents", "George", "Abe", "TJ" and "Teddy".[37][38][39]

References

  1. ^ a b Walter Metz, "Review: Nebraska. Dir. Alexander Payne. Paramount Vantage, 2013". Middle West Review Volume 1, Number 1, (University of Nebraska Press, Fall 2014), p. 154-55.
  2. ^ Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (St. Martin's Press, 2007) ISBN 0-312-34729-4
  3. ^ a b c Thomas J. Liu, John B. Loomis, and Linda J. Bilmes, "Exploring the contribution of National Parks to the entertainment industry's intellectual property", in Linda J. Bilmes and John B. Loomis, Valuing U.S. National Parks and Programs: America's Best Investment (Routledge, 2020), p. 95-98.
  4. ^ a b c d Jessica Gunderson, Mount Rushmore: Myths, Legends, and Facts (Capstone Press, 2014), p. 28.
  5. ^ a b Gladys L. Knight, Pop Culture Places: An Encyclopedia of Places in American Popular Culture (2014), p. 623.
  6. ^ Berman, Eliza (October 31, 2016). "See Mount Rushmore's Most Memorable Moments at the Movies". Time Magazine.
  7. ^ Erika Doss, Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America (University of Chicago Press, 2012), p. 57.
  8. ^ Charles Paul Freund, "Big schlock candy Mountain: the many meanings of Mount Rushmore", Reason, Vol. 34, Issue 9.
  9. ^ Barbara Straumann, "Rewriting American Foundational Myths in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest", in Martin Heusser and Gudrun Grabher, American Foundational Myths (2002), p. 201.
  10. ^ Christopher D. Morris, The Direction of "North by Northwest", Cinema Journal, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Summer, 1997), pp. 43-56.
  11. ^ "Keeping Up With the Times". Mount Rushmore National Memorial. U.S. National Park Service.
  12. ^ "Episode Detail: North by North Quahog". TV Guide. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
  13. ^ Yoram Allon, ‎Del Cullen, ‎Hannah Patterson, The Wallflower Critical Guide to Contemporary North American Directors (2000), p. 357: "Richie Rich (1995)... refers to Hitchcock in its finale, set against Richie's own Mount Rushmore-style rock faces .
  14. ^ Honeycutt, Kirk; Honeycutt, Kirk (October 15, 2019). "'Team America: World Police': THR's 2004 Review".
  15. ^ Ressner, Jeffrey. "'Airplane!' director eyes Michael Moore". POLITICO. Moore had a big role in that comedy, too — his puppet figure was a suicide bomber who infiltrated the titular Team's top-secret command post inside of Mount Rushmore and then destroyed the place by detonating his dynamite belt.
  16. ^ "National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (2007) Movie Review". Real Movie News. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  17. ^ Lansing Bartlett Bloom, ‎Paul A. F. Walter, New Mexico Historical Review (University of New Mexico, 2011), p. 352, n. 1, stating: "In a recent Hollywood blockbuster entitled National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (2008), starring Nicholas Cage and Helen Mirren, the protagonists search for the secret ancient city of Cíbola by following the clues provided by a confidential book kept at the Library of Congress. Their story, which somehow manages to bring together Spanish conqueror Panfilo de Narváez, Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca, Pres. Abraham Lincoln, and lots of free-masonry paraphernalia, ends when the characters find Cíbola in a cave located beneath Mount Rushmore!"
  18. ^ Thomas S. Owens, Mount Rushmore (1997), p. 21.
  19. ^ Wurm, Gerald. "Superman II (Comparison: Theatrical Version - Richard Donner Cut) - Movie-Censorship.com". www.movie-censorship.com. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  20. ^ Dominick, Nora (September 22, 2021). "25 "What If...?" Details That Are Small, Incredible, And Make This Thor Episode So Great". BuzzFeed.
  21. ^ Iwamasa, Karli (March 26, 2020). "Naruto: 10 Things You Never Knew About Konoha". CBR.
  22. ^ "Greenpeace Gets Badass, Drapes Pic Of Obama Over Mt. Rushmore Calling For Climate Action".
  23. ^ Obama Makes Early, Unflattering Appearance on Mount Rushmore.
  24. ^ Greenpeace members charged in Mount Rushmore G-8 protest - CNN.com.
  25. ^ Porter, Tom (November 26, 2021). "Photos show Trump has a Mount Rushmore sculpture with his face added to it in his Mar-a-Lago office". Business Insider.
  26. ^ David R. Coon, Look Closer: Suburban Narratives and American Values in Film and Television (Rutgers University Press, 2013), p. 54, ISBN 0813562074.
  27. ^ Chris Howarth, ‎Steve Lyons, Red Dwarf: Programme Guide - Part 4 (1997), p. 304.
  28. ^ "Michael Daugherty's Mount Rushmore Premieres with the Pacific Symphony and Chorale" Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  29. ^ Rolli, Bryan (June 16, 2020). "Protest the Hero's Rody Walker: Trump's Vision of Greatness Is America's 'Tragic Flaw'". Loudwire. Retrieved 2020-10-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  30. ^ Slingerland, Calum (June 18, 2020). "Protest the Hero Give American History a Scathing Rewrite on 'Palimpsest'". exclaim.ca. Retrieved 2020-10-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  31. ^ "Mt. Rushmore Memorial Issue". postalmuseum.si.edu.
  32. ^ Jim Noles, A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America—One State Quarter at a Time" (Da Capo Press, May 6, 2008) ASIN B009K44LT8.
  33. ^ "Mount Rushmore Golden Anniversary Half Dollar". United States Mint. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  34. ^ "Mount Rushmore Golden Anniversary Dollar". United States Mint. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  35. ^ Kevin Dailey, United States Modern Commemorative Five Dollar Gold Coins (2021), p. 58-65.
  36. ^ "Mount Rushmore Golden Anniversary Gold $5". United States Mint. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  37. ^ "Washington Nationals Fan Central | Washington Nationals". MLB.com.
  38. ^ "The history of the Nationals Presidents Race: Who is winning and why". wusa9.com. October 21, 2019.
  39. ^ "'Teddy' wins for 1st time in 534 races". ESPN.
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