Hundreds of films and television shows have been made in Hawaii beginning with the 1923 Paramount Pictures release "The White Flower." The last forty years have seen Hawaii become a major locale for many major motion pictures set in Hawaii, the South Pacific and elsewhere in the world. These are our favorite films made in Hawaii but set in locales other than in Hawaii or the South Pacific.
1. Jurassic Park - 1993
Steven Spielberg's mega-hit, billed as "an adventure 65 million years in the making," is the story of dinosaurs on the loose at the site of the world's only dinosaur farm and theme park where creatures from the past are produced from harvested DNA. The motion picture was filmed on both the islands of Kauai and Oahu.
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark - 1981
Steven Spielberg's first film about archaeologist Indiana Jones opens with scenes filmed on the island of Kauai, used to portray the South American jungle where Indiana escapes from angry Chachapoyan Indians .From there, Indiana goes on a search for the Ark of the Covenant, which is also sought by the Nazis under orders from Hitler.
3. The Lost World - Jurassic Park II - 1997
Steven Spielberg's sequel to his hit film returns to another island where dinosaurs have been bred and have escaped following the abandonment of the project in the first installment. The sequel features much more Hawaiian scenery than the original. This picture was also filmed on the islands of Kauai and Oahu.
4. The Karate Kid, Part II - 1986
In one of those instances where the sequel is actually better than the original, The Karate Kid, Part II takes our hero Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his mentor Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) to Miyagi's homeland, Okinawa, to visit his dying father and confront his old rival. An entire Okinawan village was faithfully recreated on Oahu's Windward Coast.
5. Waterworld - 1995
Kevin Costner directed and starred in this film about a future earth where the polar ice caps have melted leaving most of the world's surface deep beneath the oceans. The survivors live poorly on the sea's surface. Their one dream is to find "dry land." The water scenes were filmed off of Kauai. The final and most beautiful scenes in the movie were filmed in the Waipio Valley of the Big Island.
6. Outbreak - 1995
Wolfgang Peterson directed this tale of a lethal virus that is transported to the United States by an African monkey host. Federal agencies rush to find an antidote before the planet's population is wiped out. The scenes of the African village were filmed near the Wailua River on the island of Kauai.7. Planet of the Apes - 2001
Tim Burton's remake of the 1968 science fiction classic, which starred Charlton Heston, is more faithful to the original Pierre Boulle novel, but also much more dark and sinister. Critics are deeply divided on this film, many because of what is a totally incomprehensible ending. Exterior battle scenes were filmed on lava fields on the Big Island of Hawaii.8. Islands in the Stream - 1977
Rather than film this Franklin J. Schaffner version of Ernest Hemingway's last published novel on the island of Bimini in the Caribbean, where the story is set, producers of the film wanted what they felt would be a more dramatic and pictorial location. They chose the island of Kauai to tell the story of artist Thomas Hudson's renewed relationship with his three young sons and former wife.9. The Enemy Below - 1957
This classic story of a U.S. destroyer chasing a German Submarine during World War II stars Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens in the lead roles as the American and German captains. While all of the ocean scenes take place in the North Atlantic, the scenes were actually filmed in Hawaii, which offered the producers clearer skies, warmer water and better weather.10. Uncommon Valor -1983
Ted Kotchoff's uneven story tells of a retired Marine colonel (Gene Hackman) who reunites his son's former unit to organize a secret raid on a Vietnamese prison camp, where he hopes to rescue his son and other American M.I.A.'s. The climactic scenes set in Laos were filmed on the island of Kauai.