If you have sharp eyes and an observant mind, you're going to ruin a lot of movies for yourself. Mainly because you'll see a scene that takes place on some alien planet and notice that a mountain formation in the background is the same one you just saw in a movie set in the Old West . There's only a certain number of distinct filming locations within easy driving distance of Hollywood, so you see the same ones turn up again and again, if you look for them. So from now on, see if you can spot ...

5 Griffith Observatory -- That Sculpture on the Front Lawn Should Look Familiar ...

Matthew Field

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Remember at the beginning of The Terminator when Arnold materializes in a time ball dressed in nothing but, well, his balls? And remember the building and the monument behind him as he met those young thugs and stole their clothes?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

When James Cameron told Arnold his penis wouldn't be visible, Arnold asked for the biggest phallic symbol available.

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That's the Griffith Observatory, which is located, perhaps unsurprisingly, in LA's Griffith Park. It turns out that those astronomy-loving tough guys Arnold beat up got off easy, because they were actually hanging out in MacGyver's backyard (according to his show's pilot episode).

CBS Television

"I built the place myself using a box of paper clips and a pack of gum!"

"Stop it, Mac. Just stop it."

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Thanks to its futuristic look, Griffith Park has been a preferred location for sci-fi movies since 1935, including pictures like The Phantom Empire, The Man from Planet X, and Not of This Earth. We could show you pictures of those films, but you've never heard of them, so here are some Autobots clambering over the observatory in Michael Bay's Transformers instead: