Mount Rushmore in popular culture

File:South Dakota quarter, reverse side, 2006.jpg

Mount Rushmore as depicted on the South Dakota state quarter.

Because of its fame as a monument, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota has appeared frequently in works of fiction, and has been discussed or depicted in other popular works.

As a cover for a secret location

Several films and other media depict Mount Rushmore as a secret base of operations for the government or another clandestine group, or as having some comparable significance other than as a monument. In the early 1980s television series, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, a flashback sequence in the episode, "Testimony of a Traitor", shows Rogers meeting with the President of the United States in a secret base inside Mount Rushmore. In Team America: World Police, it is the secret base of operations for the protagonists. In the film, the base, along with the sculptures on the surface, are severely damaged in a suicide bombing by Michael Moore.

In the universe of the Ben 10 franchise, Mount Rushmore is the location of the main Plumbers (a sort of intergalactic police force) complex, and plays a key role in multiple episodes of the series, including "Secrets," "Truth", the "Ben 10,000" episodes, and "Ben 10 vs. The Negative 10." The monument is inadvertently destroyed by Upchuck in the latter episode, during the final battle with the Forever King. Another group shown as having a secret base inside the mountain is the "All Purpose Enforcement Squad" of Young Justice, in the DC Universe series. The comic book superhero, Mister Majestic from Wildstorm Productions, also had a secret base of operations inside Mount Rushmore, analogous to Superman's "Fortress of Solitude". In Ultraman: The Adventure Begins, a 1981 animated movie jointly produced by Hanna-Barbera and Tsuburaya Productions, the heroic Ultra Force is headquartered within Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore was a primary location of interest in the plot of the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets starring Nicolas Cage. In the film, Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) discovers in the titular Book Of Secrets that the location of the monument was chosen to erase landmarks in a map that leads to the golden city of Cíbola, hidden deep underground behind the mountain. In the film, the golden city appears to be beneath a lake to the north of the monument - this would likely be Horse Thief Lake, about 1.5 miles to the northwest of the monument, but the lake actually used in the film is the nearby Sylvan Lake, five miles southwest of the monument.

Alterations and additions to the faces

Mount Rushmore with a fifth President in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Album cover for Deep Purple in Rock, a 1970 release by Deep Purple, imitating the style of Mount Rushmore.

Mountain overlooking the fictional town of Konohagakure, from Naruto. For a broader view, see this image.

The large carved faces of the monument have made it a target for parodies and other symbolic alterations of its appearance in media:

Cartoonists have added more famous faces, real and imaginary, to Mount Rushmore, or show the four presidents talking. Toothpaste companies have made commercials showing how Roosevelt's teeth could be brushed if he'd only smile again!"

The Judge Dredd saga The Cursed Earth features a Mount Rushmore which has been updated with the face of John F. Kennedy and a mutant warlord who controls the area around the monument.

Replacement or destruction of the existing faces

Alterations in media have frequently included replacement of one or more of the four presidents' faces with other people or characters, or the addition of another face. In Superman II, General Zod and his criminal partners (the three escaped villains from the Phantom Zone) use their superpowers to replace the faces of Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt with their own, while destroying Lincoln's.

Similarly, in Mars Attacks!, the Martians in a UFO carve their faces into Mount Rushmore, replacing the Presidents' heads. The cover of the Chipmunks' album, Chipmunk Rock, depicts Roosevelt replaced by Alvin the Chipmunk. Similarly, the Nintendo 64 video game Pilotwings 64 (which features a level based on United States geography and landmarks) shows the monument in the approximate location of South Dakota, but replaces Washington's head with that of Nintendo's mascot Mario. The player can change Mario into his rival, Wario by crashing into his face or by shooting him from the Gyrocopter.

In a viral video teaser for the Watchmen film, "The Keene Act and You", a brief scene depicts Richard Nixon in place of Abraham Lincoln.

In the movie 10.5 Apocalypse, an earthquake hits the site, destroying the faces of the presidents, which eventually fell.

In the film Category 7: The End of the World, global warming causes the moisture inside the mountain to expand, which causes the head of George Washington to break off.

In Robert Ferrigno's Assassin trilogy, fundamentalist Islamic clerics dynamite Mount Rushmore in a failed attempt to destroy it.

In the Roger Rabbit short Trail Mix-Up, Roger and some other characters are sent flying by an erupting geyser, and crash into Mount Rushmore, destroying it (The faces comically screaming before the crash).

Addition of a fifth face

In the final scene of the film Head of State, fictional president Mays Gilliam's face has been added into Mount Rushmore next to Abraham Lincoln. In a scene cut from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, a fifth face carved into the mountain is that of an unknown African-American woman. The cover of the February 1957 issue of MAD Magazine Issue #31, also depicts Mount Rushmore with a fifth face: that of Alfred E. Neuman. In the final scene of the Michael Weller play "Beast" at New York Theatre Workshop, the disfigured and burned face of George W. Bush appears beside the original four. Depictions of a fifth face usually place it to the left of George Washington or to the right of Abraham Lincoln, at about the same height as other presidents. In the Mad Magazine case, the fifth face is closer to the base of the mountain, and is below Thomas Jefferson. In an episode of Phineas and Ferb, Phineas and Ferb carve a face of their sister, Candace, but it was quickly destroyed by flowing magma. In the Judge Dredd comic The Cursed Earth two faces are added: President Jimmy Carter to the left of Washington and the leader of a group of mutants to the right of Lincoln. In the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown!, Schroeder suggests that Beethoven's face be added to Mount Rushmore.

Since his election as the first black President, Barack Obama has been added as a fifth head to Mount Rushmore on internet depictions of the mountain. On July 8, 2009, climate change activists unfurled a banner with the purpose of portraying a fifth face on Mount Rushmore of Obama as a President who could make Presidential changes in leading effective climate legislation as opposed to being a politician.

Imitation of the style

Deep Purple's 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock has a cover inspired by Mount Rushmore depicting the five members' faces instead of the four presidents. The title is an obvious pun, the music genre of the album being rock music, while the monument is carved from what is essentially a very large rock. In turn, the English cover of the volume 4 DVD release of the anime series Cromartie High School (entitled "Mount Rockmore") is a parody of the Deep Purple album. Here, the anime characters' faces replace those of the band members.

In the Japanese manga, Naruto, four of the main leaders (Kage) of Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf Village) have had their faces carved into a mountain overlooking the village of Konohagakure, in a style similar to that of Mount Rushmore (with Tsunade's face added later, in Shippuuden). The village was designed by Japanese manga artist Masashi Kishimoto. The fictional nuclear-equipped warship Outer Haven, in the video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, features a Mount Rushmore-esque sculpture of the four "Snake" characters that have appeared thorough the Metal Gear series (Solidus Snake, Old Snake, Liquid Snake and Big Boss).

In the 1994 live action version of Richie Rich starring Macaulay Culkin, the Rich family has their own version of Mount Rushmore built on their property with their own faces sculpted into it. It becomes the setting for the film's finale, echoing the finale of North by Northwest.

In North by Northwest

Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) and Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) dangle precipitously from the sculpture of George Washington in North by Northwest.

Sign near the mountain

The memorial was famously used as the location of the climactic chase scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 movie North by Northwest - the scene was developed in the course of screenwriting, as Hitchcock and scriptwriter Ernest Lehman were struggling to develop an idea. As Lehman would later recall, Hitchcock "murmured wistfully, 'I always wanted to do a chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore.'" While writing the script, Lehman took a trip to Mount Rushmore to scale the faces of the famous monument; he only got halfway to the top, and bought a camera to give to the park ranger to photograph the famous monument for him. However, the scene was not actually filmed at the monument, since permission to shoot an attempted killing on the face of a national monument was refused by the National Park Service. The film incorrectly depicts a forested plateau and the house of the villain atop the monument.

Other scenes, including the view of the Memorial's parking lot, the patio at the Memorial concession, the scene in the dining room of the concession and the loading of the body into the ambulance, were actually shot at Mount Rushmore. All of the other scenes involving Mount Rushmore were filmed on Hollywood soundstages. The reference in the movie to the Alex Johnson Hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota is accurate, and the hotel still exists.

The North by Northwest appearance has been parodied in several venues. In "North by North Quahog", a 2005 episode of the animated series Family Guy, Mount Rushmore's forested plateau was the location of the villain's home, and characters Peter and Lois are chased down the monument by Mel Gibson. In Richie Rich, the Rich family's imitation of Mount Rushmore becomes the setting for the film's finale, echoing the finale of North by Northwest.

Other appearances

Appearances set in the future

Alan Weisman, in his book The World Without Us, suggests that the Mount Rushmore memorial could last up to 7.2 million years and thus be one of the longest-lasting human artifacts. Because of this enduring structure, it has appeared in some science fiction set in the distant future. In the Red Dwarf novel Better Than Life, Dave Lister finds Mount Rushmore half-buried underneath garbage, which causes him to realize he is back on Earth (a usage reminiscent of Astronaut Taylor's discovery of the Statue of Liberty in the original Planet of the Apes film). A 1980 episode of the post-apocalyptic cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian, "Attack of the Amazon Women", uses Mount Rushmore as its setting. The altered appearance in Star Trek V is, of course, also a future setting.

Other appearances in television and film

In the film, Powwow Highway, the protagonists Buddy Red Bow (an American Indian Movement activist) and Philbert Bono (his childhood friend from the Cheyanne Reservation) drive past it along the Needles highway. Significantly, only an oblique side view is barely visible, with prominence given to The Needles, a rock formation to one side of the monument with Indian spiritual significance. This is one of many American Indian inside jokes portrayed in the film.

In the film, The Truman Show, the protagonist pages through a scrapbook of his childhood memories, which his mother quickly slams shut when he sees a picture of a visit to an obviously fake Mount Rushmore.

In the episode of Speed Racer titled "Girl Daredevil," Mount Rushmore is revealed as the secret hideout for the criminal Cornpone Brouch.

During one episode of M*A*S*H, Radar O'Reilly mentions that he was once part of a unit that cleaned out Lincoln's ears.

Beginning in 1975, Mount Rushmore was referenced, featured and spoofed by the Muppets on over half a dozen separate occasions, including through the use of a puppet version of the monument in which the heads speak with one another.

The mid 1980's saw children's cable network Nickelodeon use a variant of it by including Ben Franklin in a barbershop quartet-type ensemble. This commercial served as station identification.

In the '80s The Transformers (TV series), Blitzwing changed the faces to Decepticons in Triple Takeover.

In 1987, a color still-photo of Rushmore has four superimposed mouths lip-synching Play Me Some Mountain Music by Alabama on television. This advertisement was for Tulsa, Oklahoma Country radio station 98.5 FM KVOO. This same year, a comic book issue was published of the T.V. series "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future" in which a flyby is made here at mach speed, by one of the title character's aircrafts. Also that year, Mount Rushmore is depicted as a hole in the Wonders of the World miniature golf course created by Dean Proffit (Kurt Russell) in the film "Overboard".

In episode 2 of Phineas and Ferb called, "Candace Loses Her Head" it's Candace's birthday, and they go to Mt. Rushmore, to celebrate. While they are there, Phineas and Ferb carve Candace's head into the side of the mountain. An incident causes the face to collapse into rubble before it is noticed by anyone else.

For an early 1990's commercial for U.S. ice cream brand Wells' Blue Bunny, the familiar site has the four cartoon heads describing the flavor amongst each other. All on a first name basis, they are delighted when "Teddy" speaks up about his amusement of the ice cream name.

Mount Rushmore appears in a number of episodes of The Simpsons. A singing version appears in the episode, "I Love Lisa". In "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington", a congressman representing Springfield wants to drill for oil on Teddy Roosevelt's head. In "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", Lisa Simpson's face is carved into a mountain in a manner that resembles the carvings of Mount Rushmore.

The Histeria! episode "The Teddy Roosevelt Show" featured a sketch about the construction of the monument, with Gutzon Borglum portrayed by a mustached Elmer Fudd. Throughout the segment, he suffers numerous amounts of Looney Tunes-style damage as a result of the "help" from his son, Lincoln (played by Loud Kiddington).

In an episode of Dexter's Laboratory, Dexter and his arch-enemy Mandark cause two of the figures to emerge from the monument and fight each other. Dexter summons Lincoln while Mandark summons Washington; the two stone Presidential monoliths end the argument when they find that they have similar views, much to the chagrin of the boy geniuses.

In an episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog, Courage, Muriel and Eustace help a confused burglar who tries to pick Lincoln's nose on Mount Rushmore.

The ending scene in later seasons of Pee-wee's Playhouse showed the title character flying past Mount Rushmore after leaving the house and before hitting the road.

In the Friends episode 'The One With The Princess Leia Fantasy,' Joey is watching an episode of Wheel Of Fortune where the puzzle appears as _OUNT RUSH_ORE. Chandler then enters the room and Joey remarks, "This guy is so stupid. It's Count Rushmore!" Later in the conversation Chandler exclaims, "Oh, and by the way--there is no Count Rushmore!" Joey replies, "Yeah? Then...then who's the guy that painted the faces on the mountain?"

A children's show on public television called Postcards From Buster has shown Buster going to South Dakota and learning the history of the mountain.

In Jackie Chan Adventures, Jackie Chan is lured into a trap by the villain character Valmont to Mount Rushmore with the hopes of finding one of the 12 Talisman. The fake talisman found by Jackie in the episode was in imbedded in the eye of one of the presidents.

The opening credits of the Disney Channel show Cory In The House feature the Presidential heads singing part of the show's theme song.

A 2007 episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! titled "Mount Rushmore" investigates the origins of the monument and attempts to highlight the positive and negative aspects of patriotism. Chuck Norris made an appearance on The Best Damn Sports Show, Period to comment on the fictional and comically absurd Chuck Norris Facts, declaring his favorite to be: "They once tried to carve Chuck Norris's face into Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn't hard enough for his beard".

In the 2007 episode Last of the Time Lords of the British science fiction series Doctor Who, The Doctor's arch nemesis The Master is mentioned to have "...even carved himself into Mount Rushmore" during 'The year that never was'.

In the animated film Asterix Conquers America, in the sequence of scenes where Asterix and Obelix are seen crossing over the famous landmarks of America, a mountainside carving resembling Mt. Rushmore is shown with the faces of the presidents replaced by those of native American chiefs.

In the April 15th, 2008 episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart referenced Mt. Rushmore when commenting on accusations that Barack Obama was an "elitist":

You know what, candidates? I know elite is a bad word in politics. You want to go bowling and throw back a few beers. But the job you're applying for, if you get it and it goes well, they might carve your head into a mountain! If you don't actually think you're better than us, then what the fuck are you doing?

A "no cellphones on in the theater comercial" had a director who was trying to get permission to blow up Mount Rushmore for a movie.

In the Mad episode "Cliffordfield, Big Time Rushmore," Gustavo Rocque recruits George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln as singers for his new boy band to take on King George and the Red Coats Band.

In theme parks

Mount Rushmore is one of the landmarks reproduced at the Window of the World theme park located in the western part of the city of Shenzhen in the People's Republic of China. A version made out of Lego bricks is featured at Legoland Billund in Denmark. The one at Legoland California has minifigures that move a giant cotton swab in and out of Washington's right ear.

In video games

In addition to the above-mentioned appearance in Pilotwings 64, Mount Rushmore also appears as a Wonder of the World in the PC game Civilization IV, in Capcom's Street Fighter as the background stage of Mike, in Pro Pinball: Timeshock!, where climbing on it is one of the tasks, and in Fatal Fury 2 as Terry Bogard's stage. In the 1993 computer game Sam & Max Hit the Road, one scene features a fictional Dinosaur Tar Pit at Mount Rushmore, where the character Sam can be made to sing "The Name Game" with the names of the Presidents depicted on the mountain. Characters are also seen bungee jumping from each of the Presidents' nostrils using green colored rope. In Metal Gear Solid 4, the four computer AIs: GW, AL, TJ and TR are named after the initials of the four presidents and the antagonist's warship, Outer Haven, is decorated with a "Mount Rushmore" consisting of the characters Solidus Snake, Old Snake, Liquid Snake, and Big Boss. In the 2008 strategy game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, an allied campaign mission is staged around the site, with various weapons located inside the heads. In Crash Tag Team Racing, In the Tyrannosaurus Wrecks Hub, you can see in a mount four dinosaur skulls imitating Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. Brütal Legend has a Mt. Rockmore feature. Due to the game being centered around rock, the legendary figures of the real-life Mt. Rockmore have been replaced with figures of legendary rockers (the player also has the option of changing these heads).In the 1990 game "Fighter Bomber" from Activision you can fly by the monument. In Just Cause 2, one of the settlement features a parody of Mount Rushmore, featuring a 3 headed sculpture secret base where the head of the middle represents the current president of Panau, Pandak "Baby" Panay. That settlement takes place for the 6th mission of the game "Into the den".

Other venues

Mount Rushmore commemorative half dollar obverse.

In the Justice League Adventures comics, Superman is shown as going to Mount Rushmore to seek solitude on at least one occasion.

Mount Rushmore has been depicted on several United States coins. One of the most recent was the South Dakota State Quarter (seen at the very top of this article) issued in 2006. In 1991 the United States Mint issued several commemorative coins, specifically a 50¢, 1$, and 5$ coin for the anniversary of Mount Rushmore.

The Washington Nationals baseball club uses large foam rubber depictions of the "Rushmore Four" in both their marketing campaigns and in a series of in-stadium promotions, which include the "Racing Presidents". "George", "Abe", "TJ" and "Teddy" appeared in the fourth inning of home games at RFK Stadium; the tradition continued at the new Nationals Park. To date, the Teddy character has never won a Racing Presidents event, causing Nationals fans to chant his name in the hope that the race they view will be Teddy's first win.

A 1960s rock band also bears the same name as the monument.

Mount Rushmore has been featured prominently on South Dakota's automobile license plates since 1952. The flag of South Dakota features the phrase "THE MOUNT RUSHMORE STATE", which was added in 1992, although the image on the flag does not include the monument.