Hollywood made its way to Placer in 2001 to film ‘Dragonfly,’ a supernatural thriller directed by Tom Shadyac from a screenplay by Brandon Camp, Mike Thompson, and David Seltzer based on a story by Camp and Thompson.
Kevin Costner plays Dr. Joe Darrow, a grieving doctor being contacted by his dead wife through his patients’ near-death experiences. Susanna Thompson plays Dr. Emily Darrow, who dies when a bus is hit by a landslide in Venezuela and plunges into the river below. But her body is never found by the authorities.
That’s when Placer becomes home to a harrowing river stunt.
PLACER PLAYS HOME TO SUBMERGED BUS
If you want to check out some of the best Dragonfly locations in person, you can do so, even though some may require a whitewater rafting guide.
While a decent chunk of the movie is set in Venezuela, you might be surprised to learn that many of the filming sites from Dragonfly are actually located much closer to home. For example, in one particularly memorable scene in the movie, Joe sees a bus submerged in a Venezuelan river. Putting all thoughts of his own safety aside, Joe jumps off a cliff and plunges into the turbulent waters below.
Rather than Venezuela, this scene was filmed on the Middle Fork American River in Placer County, a location known for its excellent whitewater rapids.
Other scenes with action supposedly taking place in South America were filmed at the Los Angeles County Arboretum, while waterfall shots were filmed on the island of Kaua’i in Hawaii. However, Joe and Emily’s Chicago home is found in Evanston, a little over 10 miles north of the heart of Chicago. It’s a gorgeous Queen Anne-style home and actually sold for $1,950,000 in September 2021.
Check out the film’s theatrical trailer below:
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