Hollywood Comes to Everett — Live in Everett

Editor’s Note: Originally published July 31, 2018. Updated October 17, 2019.

There was a TIME IN the 1980s and '90s when Everett was a hotspot for Hollywood movies.

And not B-list, total eye-roller, movies-made-for-Netflix movies. We're talking films with/by Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas, Tommy Lee Jones, and David Lynch.

Hollywood films were shot at Grand Avenue Park, The Totem Diner, and Evergreen Cemetery.

Let's take a look.

Assassins - 1995

This Antonio Banderas action thriller film grossed $83.3 million worldwide... but people didn’t like it? According to Wikipedia, “Stallone's performance in the film earned him a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor (also for Judge Dredd), but lost the trophy to Pauly Shore for Jury Duty.”

I’m glad that award went to Shore. Well-deserved.

The following Assassins clip was shot (pun intended!) at the Evergreen Cemetery. Supposedly you can catch a glimpse of the Rucker tomb. (Note: the clip shows an assassination, so... view or scroll past accordingly).

Twice in a Lifetime - 1985

I watched nine minutes of this film on YouTube. It’s about Gene Hackman as a millworker in a midlife crisis who falls for a younger bartender at a dive bar.

Wait a minute... mills? Dive bars? Sounds like Everett! Indeed, in the film footage I saw a station wagon drives up a slope of old houses in what can only be Rucker Hill. Incredible!

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - 1992

Yep, David Lynch shot part of the cult TV show Twin Peaks here. Have you seen it? Have you binge-watched it seven times? Have you read deeply into the plot to figure out the backstories?

Doesn’t matter. You can see Laura Palmer’s house right here in the Rucker Hill neighborhood. The house recently sold for a cool half-million.

The Fugitive- 1993

This Harrison Ford thriller is said to be shot in Snohomish County. I found several places online that made this claim, but none of them seemed to be trustworthy. I’d say the case for SnoCo Fugitive is plausible, but unconfirmed.

The Fugitive was the third-highest grossing film of 1993. The crew was said to hang out in Everett after a long day of filming, which probably means Harrison Ford was getting stiff drinks and singing karaoke at the Hunan Palace. But hey, who hasn’t been there on a Friday night?

Ford realizes that the Hunan Palace has sold out of honey walnut shrimp.

7 Minutes - 2014

An intense movie about a robbery, featuring actual Everett police cars! The movie was shot in part at the Totem Diner. If you go into the Totem today you can see a section of the movie’s storyboard framed and mounted on the wall.

WHY EVERETT?

You may know that Vancouver, B.C. is a hotspot for filming movies. It's often a stand-in for the city of Seattle. There are a lot of incentives to shoot in Canada's "Hollywood North," but basically it comes down to money (exchange rate, unions, etc.).

In the 1990s, though, there was a glut of films being shot north of the border and producers began to look for cheap, nearby alternatives. Everett had a lot of empty warehouses at the time (perfect for soundstages) and so it began to attract production teams.

A few movies were shot here, and the city's economic development team took note. They began to promote the fact that Everett could offer twenty percent of production costs associated with production in Washington State. Movie outfits could save on labor, equipment rental, and hotels.

WILL THERE BE ANY MORE FILMS SHOT IN EVERETT?

I’m glad you asked. I’m at work on a screenplay right now called Sleepless in E-Town. It’s got thrills, chills, mills, and all the seagulls.

But seriously, the economic incentive for filming in this neck of the PNW is gone, or rapidly disappearing. Everett is no longer the cheapest place to shoot footage. It’s getting pricier (thanks Seattle!), so the future of film production here seems... unlikely.

Not that I wouldn't mind seeing Harrison Ford at the Hunan.

That’s a wrap, folks.