Burlington Once Stood In for New York in the Original X-Men Movie

Burlington has a surprising place in superhero movie history — and you may have walked right through the set.

These days, Burlington is better known for its waterfront, escarpment views and laid-back lakeside atmosphere.

But more than two decades ago, one of the city's most recognizable parks was transformed into a very different place: Liberty Island, New York, home of the Statue of Liberty.

The movie? X-Men.

Released in 2000, the original X-Men helped usher in the modern era of superhero blockbusters. Starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry and a young Anna Paquin, the film brought Marvel's mutants to the big screen in a way that would eventually become a massive cinematic franchise.

And Burlington quietly played a part in getting it there.

Spencer Smith Park Became Liberty Island

For one of the movie's climactic sequences, filmmakers needed a location that could convincingly stand in for Liberty Island.

They found it along the Burlington waterfront.

Spencer Smith Park was used for exterior shots representing Liberty Island, where Professor Charles Xavier and the X-Men confront Magneto and attempt to stop his plan.

Of course, movie magic did the rest.

The Burlington waterfront was dressed and filmed to represent New York, while visual effects and other filming locations helped complete the illusion. In the finished movie, most viewers would have no reason to suspect that the dramatic showdown was filmed beside Lake Ontario rather than New York Harbor.

That's part of what makes filming locations so fascinating: a familiar place can become virtually unrecognizable once Hollywood gets involved.

A Very Canadian X-Men Movie

Burlington wasn't the only Ontario location recruited to become part of the X-Men universe.

Much of the production was filmed throughout Southern Ontario.

Toronto landmarks including Casa Loma, Roy Thomson Hall and the Distillery District appeared in the film, while Parkwood Estate in Oshawa was used for exterior shots of Professor Xavier's mansion. Other locations across Ontario also stood in for places ranging from New York to Magneto's world.

In other words, that supposedly American superhero world was actually built largely in Canada's backyard.

And Burlington got one of the coolest assignments.

Can You Still Recognize the Park?

Watching the movie today, it takes a little imagination to see Spencer Smith Park beneath the Hollywood treatment.

That's because the filmmakers weren't trying to make Burlington look like Burlington. They were creating the illusion of New York.

The result is a fun bit of local movie trivia: thousands of people can visit Spencer Smith Park today without realizing that the same waterfront once doubled as one of the most famous landmarks in the world.

For longtime Burlington residents, it's also a reminder of how frequently Southern Ontario has stood in for somewhere else on screen.

The Start of Something Much Bigger

It's easy to forget how unusual X-Men felt when it arrived in theatres in 2000.

Superhero movies existed, of course, but the enormous interconnected franchise model that audiences now associate with Marvel had yet to take shape.

The success of X-Men helped demonstrate that comic-book characters could anchor major Hollywood productions with serious casts, large-scale action and stories that appealed well beyond longtime comic readers.

And somewhere in that origin story is Spencer Smith Park.

Not as Burlington.

Not even as Canada.

But as Liberty Island, where the X-Men gathered for their showdown with Magneto.

So the next time you're walking along Burlington's waterfront, take a look around.

You might not see Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops or Professor X.

But for a brief moment in movie history, this was where the X-Men came to save the world.