Imagine walking to class one day and seeing Bill Murray in front of Avery. Crazy stuff.

I recently discovered that the original Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy was filmed right here at Columbia. Now, it might seem crazy that I didn’t know this before, but in my defense, I first saw the trilogy when I was maybe seven years old and was blissfully unaware of the concept of college, and have not seen any of the movies since. So imagine my surprise when I’m scrolling on TikTok one night and come across a clip from the first film where THE Willem Dafoe is speaking to Tobey Maguire and James Franco on the Low steps, with Butler gracing the background! The reminder of an old childhood favorite combined with the novel familiarity with campus surroundings gave me a sense of whiplash, almost. It’s a little hilarious to see places I’ve had class in, studied in, stayed up all night in, and cried in just casually in the background of random movies. This sparked my curiosity- so after doing one (1) casual Google search, I discovered other movies that also feature Columbia/Barnard as a shooting location, and have compiled some of them here for your enjoyment. Along with my unsolicited opinions of course, even though I haven’t seen some of these.

Original Spider-Man Trilogy

Don’t make me choose a favorite Spider-Man iteration. That’s cruel and unusual punishment. I however will forever be partial to the original Spider-Man 2 for reasons that I am not fully sure of myself. It is objectively the best in the original trilogy and that one scene after Peter stops the train literally makes me tear up every time for some reason. Anyways. Shoutout Tobey Maguire running across Low Plaza to get to class in Hamilton, because same.

Ghostbusters (1984)

Alma Mater is literally the background for the title card of Ghostbusters, which is a little insane to me (in a good way). Please can we make the parapsychology department a real thing?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

UMMMMM apparently the bookstore Clementine works at in Eternal Sunshine is the Columbia Bookstore??? So you’re saying that the place that Joel and Clementine fell in love is also where I dropped forty bucks on a used rental textbook??? 

Mistress America (2015)

This one is literally about a Barnard freshman, so of course there are a lot of familiar backgrounds. I’m pretty sure there is actually a scene in Hewitt dining hall, which is hilarious. Also featured are the Barnard quad and that area in front of Milbank. Shoutout freshman year disillusionment! 

Kill Your Darlings (2013)

Daniel Radcliffe in front of Butler… guys this one is actually crazy. Columbia in the forties must’ve been insane. Unfortunately have not seen this one yet, but it’s about Allen Ginsberg and the Beatniks so I’m sure I’ll get to it soon.

Still Alice (2014)

Julianne Moore won an Oscar for her role as a Columbia linguistics professor in this one, which partially consisted of her going for a run through campus. It seems that a lot of directors enjoy making actors run down college walk, and I can’t blame them.

Malcolm X (1992), Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

Havemeyer 309 mention in both of these movies! That classroom truly does look like the textbook college lecture hall. 

Peter Parker via Flickr

Ghostbusters via Flick

Ghostbusters still via Flickr

Daniel Radcliffe via Flickr

Julianne Moore via Flickr

Havemeyer 309 via Flickr

Header Image vis Bwog Archives