In Transformer's 2: Revenge of the Fallen, you know, the one where Shia Labeouf dies and goes to transformer heaven, there is a scene that takes place in the same area where Al Capone was held and 12 Monkeys was shot.
It's the Eastern State Penitentiary, a strange dilapidated prison across the street from some alternative cafes in the heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The building was designed as the first literal penitentiary--one where convicts would actually pay penance for what they did. It had plumbing before the White House, and when it was built in 1829, it was one of the most expensive structures ever made on American soil.
The logic was simple, put everyone in solitary confinement so they could think about what they did. For 23 hours a day, convicts would sit in their cell. For an hour, with a leather mask over their face so they couldn't see the guards, they were allowed out in their own yard. Most went crazy.
Now it's a tourist site and also a popular set for post-apocalyptic styled movies. While the tours are horrible -- too many 'um's and not enough goulish tales -- its abandoned buildings do make for a great film set, though it may be better served as a prison for some of America's greatest directors. Take Transformers 2 executive producer Steven Spielberg, for example, who is now making an Indiana Jones 5 (he's also working on the Adventures of Tintin: the Secret of the Unicorn).
Like Al Capone and the prison itself, it may be time for this film institution to retire itself. Cancel the sequels, eliminate anything with unicorn in the title, and head across the street to one of those alternative cafes.
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