Part of what makes films so magical is the understanding that, if for only a few hours, the audience will be taken to a world unlike their own. Moviegoers forget about their overpriced one-bedroom apartments, desk jobs, boring fuel-efficient cars, and all the other headaches of their day-to-day lives.
When we aren’t paying attention to character dialogue or plot development, we’re looking at all the cool crap happening in the background—the cars, the exotic locales, the fancy clothes, but most of all, the beautiful houses. There’s nothing that gets us swooning more than a rugged cabin in the woods or a beachside bungalow on a cliff somewhere.
Here are the 8 Movie Houses We Want to Live in:
Sam Flynn’s Container Home – Tron: Legacy
Flynn is the main character in Tron: Legacy, and his digs are beyond dope. The house isn’t technically a real place (though it was constructed temporarily on the shores of North Vancouver), but at least one site has put plans together for people who care to reconstruct a shockingly similar version of the modern, minimalist, futuristic bachelor pad, which, in the movie, came complete with a wood-burning stove, Ducati maintenance space, low-profile leather furniture, and everything else a good man needs to survive (and nothing he doesn’t). We fell in love with the spot the moment we saw the movie—too bad we can’t say the same about falling in love with the actual movie. Either way, major kudos to the set designers who were astute enough to capitalize on the massive interest in shipping container houses sweeping the nation right now.
Tony Stark’s House – Iron Man
Tony Stark is the ultimate man’s man, so it only makes sense that when the folks at Marvel and Paramount were scouting locations for the playboy and business magnate, they gave him the ultimate house of houses. In the movie, his magnificent pad house is located right on top of Point Dume, a real-life nature preserve where building is actually prohibited. It’s heavily rumored that the fantasy funland mansion is actually based on a real-life $34-million one-of-a-kind masterpiece located in La Jolla, California. Seated along the cliffside at Torrey Pines State Park, The Razor House was designed by famed architect Wallace E. Cunningham for a client whose budget was literally limitless. It includes over 10,200 square feet of space, two master suites, two bedrooms, two full baths, a massive 5,100-square-foot infinity pool, an industrial service kitchen, a theater, and much, much more. When scenes from Stark’s house in the movie were placed side by side with The Razor, the design inspiration becomes strikingly apparent.
Frank N. Furter’s Mansion – Rocky Horror Picture Show
Oh, come on… You really expected us to put together a list of the best movie homes and not include the massive party mansion from Rocky Horror Picture Show? Psh. The famous movie mansion was actually Oakley Court, another noteworthy mansion (or, according to Wikipedia, “Victorian Gothic country house”). Set on 35 acres of beautiful countryside overlooking the River Thames in Berkshire County, England, the present day Oakley Court is currently a luxury hotel, and has appeared in several other films you’ve probably never heard of. We’re just hoping Meat Loaf’s [character’s] body is still floating around somewhere.
Nathan’s Home – Ex Machina
If you somehow haven’t yet seen Ex Machina, definitely add it to your list for the next couple of weeks. Without spoiling too much of the plot here, one of the film’s main characters, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), is a filthy, filthy rich mogul who lives in what is probably one of the most gorgeous homes we’ve ever seen on screen. Nathan’s ungodly massive and beautiful home in the film is an actual, real live place—well, places. Some of the scenes (like the living room) were actually taken from a marvelous private home built on the side of a mountain in northern Norway, while others were shot at the modern Juvet Landscape Hotel (conveniently located right down the road from the private home) and on a soundstage in London. Pretty wild.
The Valmont Mansion – Cruel Intentions
Cruel Intensions is an offbeat teen drama from the late 90s that’s reminiscent of a time when Eminem was still a weird comedy rapper, college kids were still raging against the machine, and people were still using dial up connections to ask strangers A/S/L on AOL chatrooms. It’s a weird movie where Ryan Phillippe continuously tries to have sex with his stepsister, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and eventually winds up getting killed. Despite the awkward plotline, Cruel Intentions featured some incredible architecture—like the Valmont Mansion, which was filled with classic oak furniture and beautiful mid-century décor, and even had a swimming pool in the basement. The real location for the Valmont mansion is actually the Harry F. Sinclair House, located in Uptown Manhattan. Designed in 1898 for a tremendously successful New York banker, the property is a National Historic Landmark, and is lauded for its unrestored interior and exterior décor.
Tony Montana’s Mansion – Scarface
The mansion owned by Tony Montana in Scarface is perhaps one of the more impressive homes on this list. Iconized as the tropical Miami paradise where Montana makes his last stand in the classic film, the century-old mansion, known as “El Fureidis” (“Little Paradise”), is actually a massive estate located in Santa Barbara, California. It features an absolutely gorgeous fountain, several swimming pools, a Byzantine-influenced “conversation room,” and some truly incredible classic architecture (like the gold leaf-covered ceiling in the dining room). Though originally put on the market for $34 million, the estate sold for just $12.3 million last year, to the CEO of a Houston-based investment bank. We bet that guy wouldn’t even know what to do with a mountain of cocaine… Ugh!
The Cullen Home – Twilight
Everybody shut up. Say what you will about the Twilight movies, but the Cullen Home gets our nod for the most gorgeous entry on this list. Even cooler, it’s actually a real-deal house, seated in the hills bordering Portland and beautiful Forest Park, Oregon. The secluded luxury abode belongs to John Hoke, director of footwear design at Nike (go figure), and features—aside from its incredibly beautiful and sleek modern design—a gorgeous open dining area with an array of overhead lights, a massive kitchen, a wrap-around balcony with a breathtaking view of Forest Park, and plenty of windows and delicate furnishings to help people take in the brilliance of the surrounding wilderness. We’ll be frank, it’s like a really fancy tree house for rich people… And vampires, apparently.
The Villa Sophia – Entourage
Whether you’ll admit it publicly or not, every single person who has ever watched an episode of Entourage wished to be a member of the Queens Boulevard crew as they gallivanted around the world, did the finest drugs, drove the most exotic cars, laid down with the most beautiful women, and really just lived the damn life. Well, the Villa Sophia, located in the 90027 area code of Los Angeles, is a gorgeous, accessible part of the story. Featured in the 2011 series finale and the 2015 long-awaited feature film, the Villa Sophia is where Ari Gold decides to retire with his family. In the films, however, a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea is transposed into the background of the mansion, as Gold and his wife were supposed to retire to Florence, Italy. Lo and behold, Ari never moved as far as audiences were led to believe!
