The NeverEnding Story and B.C. Place

The NeverEnding Story and B.C. Place January 7, 2007


All the storms and whatnot that have come Vancouver’s way lately have taken their toll on the city’s skyline, as the roof of the B.C. Place Stadium suffered some major tears and was deflated entirely while the people in charge figure out how to fix it.

The stadium has been a key part of the city’s profile ever since it was completed in 1983; it is currently slated to host both the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Thinking about the stadium and its presence on our skyline got me thinking about what might be its first big-screen appearance, in Wolfgang Petersen’s The NeverEnding Story (1984).

Although the fantasy-world scenes were filmed on a soundstage in Germany, the real-world scenes were filmed in Vancouver — and seeing B.C. Place (and the Sun Tower and Woodward’s building, etc.) near the end, as Bastian rides the Luckdragon over the city, was pretty darn thrilling to this 13-year-old Vancouverite.

I found the pic above here; that site has other pics, too, including this one with the Harbour Centre in the background …

… and this one with the Gastown steam clock off to the side:

Wonder what we’d see if we took pictures from those angles now.


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