We all have those movie scenes – the ones so dramatic, so full of romance or even so disturbing (like this, for example) that, for better or worse, they remain ingrained in our memories. Two of my favorites happen to be from the same film and, oddly, it’s a film I don’t even like – 1999’s Cruel Intentions. The first, as mentioned in my recent post on the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, is the scene in which Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon) implores Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) to take himself less seriously by making adorably silly faces. The other is the escalator scene. Ladies, you know what I’m talking about, amirite? For those who haven’t seen it (and if not, I urge you to check it out ASAP), here’s a rundown – after a major argument, Sebastian shows up at what is supposedly Penn Station in New York to surprise Annette. As she heads up an escalator upon debarking her train and sees him waiting for her at the top, she says “I’m impressed,” to which he responds, “Well, I’m in love.” Hearts of teenage girls everywhere broke wide open for Phillipe while watching the scene – mine included. So when I recently learned via The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations that the 7th Street/Metro Center Station in downtown L.A. portrayed Penn Station in the bit, I just about fell over from excitement and immediately added the site to my To-Stalk List. I made it out to the station a few weeks later and was thrilled to see the place looking virtually frozen in time from its onscreen stint almost twenty years ago.
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7th Street/Metro Center Station is located beneath Figueroa Tower on the corner of South Figueroa and West 7th Streets in downtown’s Financial District.
Completed in 1988, the 24-story structure, originally known as Home Savings Tower, mixes Chateauesque and post-modern styles.
The station’s entrance can be found at the building’s southwest corner, beneath a gorgeous mural titled “City Above.”
Painted by Terry Schoonhoven in 1991, the imagery of the colorful piece appears to change drastically as riders journey up the escalators to the street or down to the subway.
The depot itself, the first subway station to open in Los Angeles since the city shut down subterranean transportation in 1955, debuted in February 1991 to much fanfare. The site’s lower level, which was behind schedule, opened two years later.
Very little of the terminal can actually be seen in Cruel Intentions. Thankfully, an elevator is visible behind Sebastian at one point which helped me pinpoint the exact spot where filming took place.
In the iconic scene, Annette and Sebastian reunite on the station’s first level mezzanine, at the set of escalators that abut the elevator just past the turnstiles near the 7th & Figueroa Street entrance. That area is pictured below.
The escalator that Annette rides up in the segment actually moves downward in real life, so it was a bit hard to get a matching shot of her POV. The image below is the closest I got.
Despite the directional switch, thanks to the fact that the camera pans down in the scene, stepping onto that escalator made me feel like I was actually living out the movie. I swear I could almost make out “Colorblind” playing in the background.
The segment also features a blurred view of the station’s ceramic tile art installation titled The Movies: Fantasies and The Movies: Spectacles, hand-painted by Joyce Kozloff, as Annette and Sebastian inevitably kiss. Sigh!
Amazingly, the escalator bit wasn’t an original element of the Cruel Intentions storyline. Per a script I found online dated February 10th, 1998 (which is about four months before filming began), the train station scene initially lacked dialogue and simply consisted of Annette disembarking from a train at Grand Central Station to find Sebastian standing in the busy concourse waiting for her. She runs to him and they kiss. End scene. I would love to know what motivated the change. Did the director take one look at 7th Street/Metro Center Station’s escalator layout and become inspired? Being that locations typically serve as my inspiration, I’d like to think that was the case.
Cruel Intentions is not the only production to have made use of 7th Street/Metro Center Station. Lt. Sam Cole (Tom Sizemore) ventures out of the depot at the end of the Season 1 episode of Robbery Homicide Division titled “Hellbound Train,” which aired in 2003.
In the 2004 thriller Collateral, Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Max (Jamie Foxx) run into the station and onto a train in an attempt to escape from Vincent (Tom Cruise).
That same year, the site appeared in two episodes of 24. It is at 7th Street/Metro Center Station that Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his team set up a stakeout to catch Arthur Rabens (Salvator Xuereb) in Season 3’s “11:00 A.M. – 12: 00 P.M.” . . .
. . . and “12:00 P.M. – 1:00 P.M.”
The entrance to the station also appears in the Season 6 episode of 24 titled “7:00 A.M. – 8 A.M,” which aired in 2007 . . .
. . . though interiors were shot about 15 miles away at North Hollywood Station located at 5391 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood.
Both the subway’s Figueroa and 7th Street entrance . . .
. . . as well as its other entrance at West 7th and South Flower Street make brief appearances in the 2009 family comedy Hotel for Dogs.
Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) investigate the death of a subway maintenance worker at the station in the Season 3 episode of Castle titled “Murder Most Fowl,” which aired in 2010.
The depot and its 7th & Flower entrance also pop up in Castle’s Season 7 episode titled “Kill Switch,” which aired in 2014.
Taylor Swift dances at 7th Street/Metro Center Station (barefoot, no less!) in her 2018 music video for “Delicate,” which you can watch here.
The station’s 7th & Flower entrance masks as the entrance to New York’s Chamber Street Station in the Season 1 episode of For the People titled “Rahowa,” which aired in March of this year.
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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: 7th Street/Metro Center Station, aka Penn Station from Cruel Intentions, can be reached from the bottom level of the Home Savings Tower, which is located at 660 South Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles. The escalator that appeared in the movie is situated just beyond the turnstiles at that entrance, in front of the elevator. Be advised, you will need to purchase a TAP card and buy a fare to access the area featured in the scene.