Now we know that a typical London sewer doesn’t inspire the thoughts of Hollywood blockbusters, however, their mystery, dank, and disgust have made them become iconic scenes in many movies across the years.
We’ve put together a list of our favourites from over the years.
TMNT
It’s the classic ‘who lives in the sewers?’ question, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Taking you back to your childhood when the sewers seemed almost admirable to live, despite being infested with a rat and four mutant turtles that fight crime, what’s not to love about lounging in filth eating pizza? From classic chase scenes to practicing martial arts, TMNT has to be on our lists for one of our favourite movie sewers.
Flushed Away
The 2006 animated movie that seen a posh house-trained pet rat named Roddy, voiced by Hugh Jackman, become flushed into the London sewers had to be on our list. The movie was created for children, however, watching it back now there are tonnes of jokes that would have gone amiss if you were a child in 2006. The movie depicts an underworld of rats living in the sewers as if it was a miniature London created from old pieces of furniture and debris that have made their way through the London drains. Again, another desirable sewer to live!
IT
Stephen King’s bestseller is more remembered from its original 1990 adaptation rather than the book itself, it’s also the first sewer on the list that we wouldn’t want to live in. The movie created an iconic scene in which a young child loses his paper boat in the drain, after meeting Pennywise at the entrance to the drain spirals… well spirals terrible things (for the benefit of not scaring ourselves or spoiling we’ll let you watch it!) The scene became so popular that many people were left scared to go near a drain grate ever since.
The Shawshank Redemption
How often do you look at a man’s shoes? If any of the prison officers that escorted Andy Dufresne back to his cell that evening had noticed his shoes then this wouldn’t be on our list, Stephen King probably wouldn’t have had a perfect ending to his story either! That final hit with the rock, causing the prison sewage pipe to burst, still makes audiences feel sick… but just imagine climbing through the entire pipe! An iconic escape featuring a good old sewage pipe.
The Italian Job
You didn’t think we’d miss this out, did you? Perhaps one of the most iconic British movies of all time and it features one of the greatest ‘flee the scene of the crime’ scenes ever! Michael Caine and his team utilise their, slightly British, Mini Coopers as the drive through the sewers of Turin to escape with their haul of gold. Fun fact for you, despite the movie being set in Turin the drains themselves, are also best of Britain as the scene was shot in suburbs of Coventry!
Now if you’re thinking of escaping in a sewer, hunting for clowns, or becoming vigilante martial artists in the sewer you might want to reconsider as current drains aren’t as spacious, cleanly, or inviting as the movies may make out.
