Times Square - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Times Square has been featured countless times in literature, on television, in films – including the 1980 film Times Square, which featured a punk rock/new wave soundtrack – in music videos and recently in video games, such as Grand Theft Auto IV, in which a recreation of the Times Square area is included in the game's fictional "Liberty City" setting.

An immediately recognizable location, Times Square has been frequently attacked and destroyed in a number of movies, including Knowing, when a solar flare destroys New York City, Deep Impact, when a tsunami created from a meteor impact destroys New York City, Stephen King's The Stand, where the intersection is overcome by total anarchy, the ending of Captain America, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Films have also employed the opposite tactic, depicting the typically bustling area as eerily still, such as in Vanilla Sky, as well as the post-apocalyptic I Am Legend, in which Will Smith and his dog go hunting for deer in the deserted urban canyon. Times Square was also depicted in the 2011 movie, New Year's Eve, and was also seen in the festival battle scene in the 2002 film Spider-Man.

Times Square was featured in 2012 when an announcement about the apocalypse from the President of the United States was occurring. It included the area being crowded and NYPD officers.