VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: 5 Movies You Thought Were Shot in Vegas

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Posted on: September 22, 2025, 07:21h.

Last updated on: September 21, 2025, 11:42h.

Most movies about Las Vegas don’t try to fool you. “The Hangover” (2009) was shot extensively around the Strip. So were both 1960 and 2001’s “Ocean’s 11,” 1964’s “Viva Las Vegas,” 1971’s “Diamonds are Forever,” 1979’s “Electric Horseman,” 1988’s “Rain Man,” 1995’s “Casino,” 1997’s “Vegas Vacation” and 1998’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” to name a popular few.

In 2001’s “Ocean’s 11,” a remake of the 1960 heist movie starring the Rat Pack, Matt Damon and George Clooney portray crafty criminals who rob a vault storing $150 million for the Bellagio, MGM Grand, and Mirage. No such vault exists, of course, so it was created on an LA soundstage, but the film was allowed five weeks of 24-hour access to the Bellagio. (Image: Warner Bros.)

But you may be surprised by the famous Vegas movies that were barely filmed there…

Deceiving Las Vegas

For 1998’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” starring Johnny Depp, the Boardwalk Casino had to stand in for Circus Circus, which wanted no association with the drug-fueled chaos of the Hunter S. Thompson novel and was renamed “Bazooko Circus” to avoid a lawsuit. Also, the hallucinatory check-in scene at the Mint, shown above, was recreated at the Riviera. (Image: Universal Pictures)

Filming on the Strip is expensive. Also, directors and producers often prefer soundstages for control over lighting, sound and crowds. But the biggest obstacle is casino cooperation.

To an executive weighing a producer’s filming request, the potential boost in pop-cultural cache isn’t that big a lure. That’s because the movie seeking approval may not become a classic until long after the executive moves on from their job — or it may never become one at all. (Hello, 2013’s “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” starring Steve’s Carell and Buscemi and filmed mostly on location at Bally’s!)

More importantly, if something goes horribly awry, that casino executive may move on from their job against their will.

Few spectacles capable of halting casino revenue for hours, or creating crowd-control nightmares, are worth the risk. (According to the Las Vegas Advisor, simulated gunfire on the street during the filming of 2016’s “Jason Bourne” caused a panic on the casino floor at Aria.)

How many of the following famous Vegas films did you realize weren’t really filmed here?

1. “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995)

Nicolas Cage plays an alcoholic, Elisabeth Shue plays a sex worker and Laughlin plays Sin City in “Leaving Las Vegas.” (Image: United Artists)

Perhaps the most critically celebrated Vegas film of all time — the one so devastatingly good, even Nic Cage couldn’t avoid winning a best actor Oscar — was shot mostly in Laughlin, a small Nevada casino town 90 miles south of Las Vegas on the Colorado River.

That’s because all major corporate casino PR teams in Vegas told director Mike Figgis: “Thank you, next!”

A movie in which Elisabeth Shue’s character gets gang-raped by three college boys in a motel room isn’t quite the family-friendly image they were going for back when the MGM Grand had an amusement park, the Excalibur had a moat with a fire-breathing dragon and the Treasure Island had a pirate battle.

Director Mike Figgis sneaked in this brief outdoor scene in front of the Circus Circus sign without a permit, or permission, to do so. (Image: United Artists)

The film was on a shoestring $3.5 million budget anyway. So the Nevada Film Office directed Figgis to Laughlin, where filming rights were only a fraction of the cost.

The River Palms Resort Casino (now the Laughlin River Lodge Hotel & Casino) became the site of all casino interior scenes — including the one where Cage flips over a blackjack table which, according to the Las Vegas Advisor, was “unscripted and unappreciated by the casino.”

Figgis got his revenge on the specific Vegas casinos who turned him down, though. He filmed some of his outdoor scenes — guerilla style without permits or permission — at Excalibur and Bally’s and in front of Circus Circus, the Mirage and the Flamingo.

2. “What Happens in Vegas” (2008)

Not being filmed in Las Vegas was the least of the cinematic crimes committed by Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz in “What Happens in Vegas.” (Image: 20th Century Fox)

What didn’t happen in Vegas was much location shooting for this romantic comedy that popularized the accidental drunken Vegas wedding myth.

The overwhelming majority of Vegas casino interiors, hotel rooms and the wedding chapel were simulated on LA soundstages, with Vegas represented only by quick exterior shots.

3. “Last Vegas” (2013)

This comedy about aging friends (Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline) reuniting for a Vegas bachelor party was shot mostly in Atlanta.

The Aria’s casino, hotel suites and nightclub were recreated on soundstages at Tyler Perry Studios, with the real Vegas, again, only appearing in exterior shots.

The reason, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was that Georgia awarded up to 30% in tax credits to film and TV productions.

William H. Macy does his thing at a Las Vegas blackjack table that’s really in Reno in “The Cooler.” (Image: Lion’s Gate)

4. “The Cooler” (2003)

Set in the fictional Shangri-La Casino in downtown Las Vegas, this indie about a “cooler” (William H. Macy) who jinxes gamblers’ luck, was shot mostly at the Golden Phoenix Hotel & Casino in Reno, which was then under renovation and which is now a condo complex.

Additional interiors were shot on LA soundstages.

5. “21” (2008)

This film, about MIT students card-counting in Vegas, was shot in Boston, with sets mimicking Planet Hollywood, Red Rock and the (first) Hard Rock. Additional scenes were shot at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. Again, Vegas casinos appear only in establishing exterior shots.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Click here to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.

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