San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is a former nuclear power plant on the California coast, south of San Clemente and close to the boundary of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The plant is especially recognisable because of its two large dome-shaped containment buildings, which sit between the Pacific Ocean, Interstate 5 and the railway line. Even after the plant stopped producing power, the domes remained one of the most distinctive landmarks along this stretch of the Southern California coast.

The location is best known on screen from The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), where its unusual shape is used for one of the film’s early visual jokes. The domes are seen from the freeway area as Frank Drebin reflects on his failed marriage, and the shape of the power plant immediately reminds him of his ex-wife’s boobs. It is a very brief moment, but exactly the kind of absurd sight gag the film is built around: a real California landmark is turned into a joke simply because of how it looks.

Its twin domes have often been compared to breasts, and the film leans directly into that association. Instead of using the power plant as a serious industrial or political location, “The Naked Gun” turns it into a piece of visual comedy, making San Onofre one of the film’s small but memorable Southern California locations.

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