10 Best Movies Set In Pennsylvania, Ranked

As a born and raised Pennsylvanian — a Philadelphian, to be specific, go birds — I think I know a little something about what makes this state pretty great. (It’s technically a commonwealth, but I’m not going to get into that right now.) With two major cities on either end of the Keystone State and a whole bunch of cows (I assume) and Harrisburg in the middle, it’s no surprise that a lot of good movies are set in Pennsylvania … so which are the best of the best?

A few disclaimers to start: the movies have to be set in Pennsylvania for the majority of the run time and prominently feature major or at least recognizable landmarks. Thanks to the former, “National Treasure” doesn’t make the list, despite the fact that Nicolas Cage sure does steal the Declaration of Independence; prestige picks like “The Deer Hunter” don’t really deal with the Pennsylvania of it all if you’re using the latter as a metric. Frankly, it was hard to narrow down this list, but I stand behind these picks, from an infamous sports epic to an Oscar darling to one of M. Night Shyamalan’s best films (he does love Pennsylvania, after all). Oh, and speaking of Shyamalan, the Pittsburgh-focused award winner “Fences” is not on this list because I went with a silly M. Night thriller instead. Sorry! It’s my list!

Sorry to Jennifer Lawrence, but the movie that won her an Oscar is dead last on this list. David O. Russell — a director who’s invited controversy ever since George Clooney infamously sparred with him on the set of “Three Kings” — crafts his best work when he focuses on character studies and basically throws a cohesive narrative out the window. (This is why his next film, “American Hustle,” based on the real-life Abscam operation, does not work at all; it’s a movie where you sort of have to know what’s going on.) So what about “Silver Linings Playbook”? 

Set in Philadelphia, 2012’s “Silver Linings Playbook” focuses on Pat Solitano Jr. (Bradley Cooper), a man struggling with bipolar disorder who meets a young widow named Tiffany Maxwell — with whom he forms an unexpected connection centering on, of all things, a dance competition. This movie is, frankly, about as Philly as a movie can get; Pat and his dad Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) are lifelong Eagles fans, and Russell and his cast shot on location at Philly-area landmarks like Jeweler’s Row (in the city) and the Llanerch Diner (located in the suburbs). It also has a sort of unsettling message about mental health — is Pat really “better” at the end just because he and Tiffany are dating? — but it’s certainly an homage to the City of Brotherly Love, and to be absolutely fair to Lawrence, she’s great. During a monologue about football, she steals the scene so hard that even De Niro looks small in her presence.

Tina Fey’s biggest movie, “Mean Girls,” is set outside of Chicago, but I had to give the prodigal daughter of Upper Darby her due. Also, “Baby Mama” is sort of a hidden gem saddled with a stupid title; if you haven’t seen it, it’s actually really funny! Fey leads the 2008 film as Kate Holbrook, a career-focused Philadelphia woman who put off having babies to the point where she’s having trouble conceiving on her own. After going to a surrogacy center — led by Sigourney Weaver’s Chaffee Bicknell, who has a running gag where she’s constantly popping out kids at a relatively advanced age — Kate meets Angie Ostrowski (Amy Poehler), a brash, loud woman from South Philadelphia who agrees to carry Kate’s baby for a handsome payout.

Sure, Poehler never really kicks her Boston accent, but she and Fey are always matched perfectly … and watching Kate try to basically bully Angie into having a healthy pregnancy by forcing her to do thinks like “drink water” and “take vitamins” is basically irresistible. Plus, Dax Shepard plays Angie’s awful boyfriend, and the moment where he tells Angie that he’s going to “bang all her friends” is enough to land it a spot on this list. (He follows it up with “consider them all banged!”)

“Trap” is so much fun. M. Night Shyamalan’s 2024 thriller introduces us to Philadelphia firefighter and devoted dad Cooper, who just wants to have a nice time with his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) at a concert featuring the fictional pop star Lady Raven (played by Shyamalan’s real-life daughter Saleka Night Shyamalan). Well, that’s what it seems like at first — the truth is that Cooper is actually a notorious serial killer named “The Butcher,” and the entire concert is a trap meant to catch him after a series of gruesome murders. (In case this seems too wild, let me clarify something: the concept for this movie is based on an actual sting operation in 1985 called Operation Flagship, which invited fugitives to collect Super Bowl tickets as a pretense so law enforcement could arrest all of them.) 

I’ll be the first to admit that “Trap” is not particularly specific to Philly; unlike pretty much all of Shyamalan’s other projects, it wasn’t filmed in Pennsylvania (it was actually mostly shot at an arena in Toronto). Still, Shyamalan is basically synonymous with Pennsylvania — Philadelphia, especially — and he manages to recreate the landscape faithfully enough for people who aren’t intimately familiar with the city and its suburbs. Plus, did I mention “Trap” is fun?! It’s really such a fun ride (and Hartnett is actually pretty extraordinary in it, as a nice bonus).

I am legally required to include “Rocky” on this list. Written by and starring Sylvester Stallone as boxer Rocky Balboa, this 1976 sports drama kicks off when champion heavyweight boxer Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) needs to find a local athlete for a title bout; he picks Rocky largely because he likes his now-opponent’s nickname (it’s “the Italian Stallion,” in case you were wondering). Rocky is definitely a little unqualified to fight someone as successful as Apollo, considering that he mostly trains at small, local Philly gyms and has a side hustle as a loan shark for the mob, but he doesn’t let any of that stop him as he trains (and pursues his one true love Adrian Pennino, played by Talia Shire).

“Rocky” is, for better or for worse, synonymous with the mere idea of Philadelphia; if you visit the city, you can follow in the fictional boxer’s footsteps and run up the massive steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art if you so please. (I don’t recommend this unless you’re in really good shape, though; it’s a lot of steps. If you’re really jonesing for a “Rocky” fix, there’s also a statue of Stallone’s character at the bottom of those steps.) From the iconic theme to the fact that Rocky, like Philly itself, is an underdog, few movies capture the essence of Philadelphia quite so well. The ensuing franchise produces somewhat diminishing returns — at least initially — but the original “Rocky” is still a total classic.

Filmed on location in Pittsburgh and set there to boot, Clea DuVall’s 2020 movie “Happiest Season” is an absolute Christmas delight … and pays homage to the western side of the state. When we first meet Abby Holland and Harper Caldwell, played by Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis, they’re excited to spend Christmas together as a couple — but things start to go awry when Harper impulsively invites Abby to spend Christmas with her conservative family, prompting Harper to admit something pretty wild. She hasn’t come out to her parents yet, so while they’re at the Caldwell home, they’ll have to pretend they’re just friends. When Harper’s ex-girlfriend Riley Johnson (Aubrey Plaza) shows up during the holiday festivities, it all gets a lot more complicated.

“Happiest Season” shot entirely in Pittsburgh and its surrounding suburbs — it’s never specified where the Caldwell family lives, but Abby and Harper live in Pittsburgh’s trendy Lawrenceville and some Redditors think that they’ve tracked down a rough location for the massive Caldwell home — so basically, it’s a perfect Christmas movie and a great Pennsylvania movie, even if you think Abby deserves better than Harper (and frankly, I think Riley and Abby should have run away together at the end).

A legacy sequel to the “Rocky” franchise, 2015’s “Creed,” directed and written by Ryan Coogler, takes place decades after Rocky Balboa first challenged Apollo Creed — and focuses on Apollo’s illegitimate son Adonis “Donnie” Johnson, played by Michael B. Jordan (one of Coogler’s very best collaborators). After growing up with Apollo’s widow Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad), Donnie travels from Los Angeles to Philadelphia to train with his father’s former opponent Rocky. Despite Rocky’s reluctance to get back into the ring, the two start working together as Donnie prepares to challenge “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew), a light heavyweight champion from England whose cocky attitude crumbles when he faces off against Donnie.

Jordan and Coogler’s second collaboration — after “Fruitvale Station” and before they joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Black Panther” — isn’t just a great film and a worthy successor to the “Rocky” franchise; it’s also a phenomenal Philly film. From skyline shots to local gems like Johnny Brenda’s — a bar where Donnie’s love interest Bianca Taylor, played by Tessa Thompson, performs live after Thompson discovered the indie venue on her own — “Creed” respects and showcases the city that made Rocky Balboa into an icon, culminating in a run up those infamous Art Museum stairs. (Seriously, they’re not for the faint of heart. Good for you, Michael B. Jordan.)

Harold Ramis’ 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day” isn’t just one of the funniest movies ever made. It’s also intrinsically linked to Pennsylvania, home of the pesky, winter-obsessed groundhog Punxsutawney Phil. The movie actually kicks off in Pittsburgh, where local weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray, in one of his most famous roles) tells his viewers he’s confident that a huge winter storm will actually pass by the region without incident. When Phil heads to Punxsutawney to report on Groundhog Day and the rodent’s “prediction” — making fun of the entire enterprise along the way — things get weird, and by “weird” I obviously mean that Phil ends up repeating February 2 over and over and over again. From the Sonny and Cher hit “I Got You Babe” to the fact that his producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) always rejects his romantic advances, Phil is stuck in a time loop, stranded in Punxsutawney and forced to endlessly relive the same day.

Thanks to the commonwealth’s delightfully weird groundhog tradition, “Groundhog Day” quite literally couldn’t be set in any other state, making it a quintessential Pennsylvania film. Plus, I bet you probably didn’t know that’s how “Punxsutawney” is actually spelled unless you live there, so, you’re welcome.

You probably know Jonathan Demme’s 1993 drama “Philadelphia” as the movie that won Tom Hanks his first of two consecutive Oscars — he picked up another the following year for “Forrest Gump” — but if you haven’t seen “Philadelphia,” it’s a searing, harsh, and incredibly emotional film about two men battling discrimination at the onset of the AIDS epidemic. Hanks plays Andrew Beckett, a senior associate at a Philadelphia law firm who hasn’t revealed anything about his sexual orientation to his coworkers. When he starts developing lesions — a telltale sign of HIV — Andrew learns that he has Kaposi’s sarcoma, a condition associated with AIDS. Despite trying to hide his health problems, Andrew’s superiors realize that he has the virus and they fire him, at which point Andrew teams up with a former opponent in court, Joe Miller (Denzel Washington).

Demme and his cast didn’t just name the film after the City of Brotherly Love; the entire movie was shot on location throughout the city and its surrounding suburbs. In fact, the courtroom scenes were shot in Philadelphia’s ornate City Hall, proving that Demme went above and beyond to place the film in the Pennsylvania city. “Philadelphia” is an important movie for a million reasons, but it’s definitely a point of pride for anyone from the city itself.

M. Night Shyamalan’s breakout film “The Sixth Sense” offers up one of the most memorable and fascinating twist endings in movie history, cemented the writer-director’s spot on Hollywood’s A-list, and earned multiple Oscar nominations (including Best Picture). It’s also a really, really great Philadelphia movie. After former child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) experiences a shocking break-in and shooting at his home alongside his wife Anna (Olivia Williams), he starts working with a young boy named Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), who claims that he can “see dead people.” Turns out that he can, and in case you’ve somehow avoided the twist ending of “The Sixth Sense” until just now, I guess I won’t spoil it here — but the journey to that ending is shocking, deeply frightening (even if the cast didn’t realize it while they were filming it), and unsettling.

“The Sixth Sense” shot almost exclusively in Philadelphia’s historic district, from Old City (home to Betsy Ross’ house, the Liberty Bell, and Independence Hall) as well as the historic St. Augustine’s Church, which burned down during anti-Catholic riots in the mid 1800s (and was eventually rebuilt). Shyamalan went on to make nearly all of his films and television shows in Pennsylvania — specifically Philadelphia, a location he returns to frequently — but “The Sixth Sense” is his original ode to the Keystone State.

“Best in Show” is one of the funniest movies ever made, and it’s also canonically set in Philadelphia — which, in the movie’s universe, is home to the fictional Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. (In real life, the National Dog Show is held in Philadelphia every year and broadcast on Thanksgiving.) Christopher Guest’s 2000 film — a mostly improvised mockumentary featuring a bunch of Guest’s regular players — focuses on the lead-up to the dog show as well as the event itself, and the cast of characters he assembles for this movie is delightfully bizarre.

There’s Guest himself as Harlan Pepper, an aspiring ventriloquist and nut enthusiast who owns a gorgeous bloodhound named Hubert. You’ve got Meg and Hamilton Swan (Parker Posey, donning real braces, and Michael Hitchcock), a deeply unhappy and extremely uptight couple with a reactive weimaraner named Beatrice. Sherri Ann Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) doesn’t attend the show with her super-old husband, but she does bring Christy Cummings (Jane Lynch), who trains her prize poodle Rhapsody in White. And Scott Donlan and Stefan Vanderhoof (John Michael Higgins and Michael McKean), who don’t travel without several kimonos and their shih tzu Miss Agnes. The eventual winners, Gerry and Cookie Fleck (Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara) and their Norwich terrier Winky, are easily the most hapless and charming couple. And finally, you’ve got color commentator Buck Laughlin (the late, great Fred Willard), who knows nothing about dogs and keeps insisting that the Mayflower made its first landing in Philadelphia.

You can argue with me all you want and say that “Best in Show” isn’t a Philadelphia movie, but honestly? Argue with the wall. The National Dog Show is synonymous with the city, making “Best in Show” the best movie set in Pennsylvania. Honestly, it wins the top spot for the “Cookie Guggleman” bit alone.