Hotels from Famous Movies

In the 2014 sci-fi thriller “Ex Machina,” a programmer is summoned to a billionaire tech recluse’s isolated retreat to test how advanced the sexy humanoid he created was. Alicia Vikander wasn’t the only thing that wasn’t what it seemed. Turns out a minimalist hotel tucked into nature in Norway was only acting like a home.

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson’s “Lost in Translation” (2003) characters spend so much time in the fancy Shinjuku skyscraper, especially the jazzy New York Bar on the 52nd floor and at the pool with the pyramidal roof, that the hotel becomes the third lead.

From “The Way We Were” to “The Great Gatsby,” the New York grand dame has been in so many films it probably qualifies for SAG. Cary Grant’s Oak Bar kidnapping in 1959’s “North By Northwest” marked its screen debut but it’s “Home Alone 2” shenanigans that inspire a theme package. NBN also checked into @ambassadorchicago.

The Lower Lobby of Honolulu’s historic Pink Palace of the Pacific, with its curved doorways and beach view, features on the poster of the quirky 2002 romance, “Punch-Drunk Love.”

Hollywood comes calling often since the landmark opened in 1954. James Bond spied on guest Goldfinger. Scarface tried unsuccessfully to pick up girls at the pool. Whitney Houston belted in the Fontaine Ballroom for “The Bodyguard.” Sam Cooke stays there for “One Night in Miami.”

Stephen King’s bestseller “The Shining” was inspired by Colorado’s @thestanleyhotel.@thestanleyhotel. But 1980 film director Stanley Kubrick chose this Mt. Hood ski chalet for exteriors. Interiors were designed to look like yet another hotel, Yosemite National Park’s Ahwahnee.