One location that I was absolutely dying to stalk while visiting Palmdale last week was the supposed Texas-area gas station where Lucy Wagner (aka Miss Britney Spears) stole the keys to Ben’s (aka Anson Mount’s) Buick Skylark convertible in the 2002 movie Crossroads. I had known from watching the flick’s DVD commentary with director Tamra Davis and writer Shonda Rhimes that the gas station scene was filmed somewhere in the Palmdale/Lancaster area, but unfortunately its exact location was not specified. So, the night before my dad and I were set to head out that way, I got to work looking at aerial views of what I thought was every single gas station located within the Palmdale/Lancaster city limits. Unfortunately though, I came up completely empty-handed. So, imagine my surprise the following morning when I spotted what I was fairly certain was the Crossroads station while driving to the famed Four Aces movie set. I just about had a heart attack, slammed on my brakes, did a U-turn in the middle of the street, and headed right on back to the station to get a closer look.
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And, as it turns out, my instincts were right! The Super Store 6, as it is called in real life, was in fact the gas station from Crossroads! So, I immediately headed right on inside to speak with the owner who truly could NOT have been nicer. She told me that Britney had been very friendly and down-to-earth during the filming and that it had been a fairly low-key shoot. The owner also informed me that her station had appeared in both ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video and the final scene from the original Terminator movie. Unfortunately though, the gas station has been completely remodeled since that time and looks quite a bit different today than it did in the early 1980’s when those productions were filmed.
Thankfully though, Crossroads was filmed after the remodel took place, so it still looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. In what turned out to be one of my very favorite scenes from the movie, Lucy, Ben, and their friends Mimi (aka Taryn Manning) and Kit (aka Zoe Saldana), stop by the station to fill up their car with gas while making their way from Louisiana to California. After grabbing a snack in the station’s mini-mart, Lucy, Mimi, and Kit discover that Ben has fallen asleep in the backseat of his car and, even though they have been warned that they are not allowed to touch the car under any circumstances, they decide to steal his keys and drive to their next destination themselves.
Mimi nominates Lucy to steal the car keys from Ben’s pocket because, as she says, “Well, Kit and I voted and you lost!” (LOVE IT!) So, Lucy snatches the keys and the girls drive off into the sunset.
But not before snapping the above photograph of themselves which I think is just about the cutest thing ever. I love, love, love that famous cross-eyed, tongue-out Britney face . . .
. . . which she later duplicated in her Super Bowl commercial for Pepsi Cola, but I digress.
In Crossroads, Ben’s Buick is parked at the station’s southeastern-most pump, in the spot where I am standing in the above photograph. Because there was a large truck parked right near the pump, though, my dad had to take the picture from the opposite direction from which the camera was facing in the movie.
In the very final scene of The Terminator, Sarah Connor (aka Linda Hamilton) stops by the Super Store 6 to fill her tank with gas and winds up having her photograph taken by a young boy. I am fairly certain that the station was never actually colored pink and green in real life, but that producers had it painted solely for the filming of the movie and then painted it back to its original color when the production was wrapped. Because the gas station is supposed to be located somewhere in the Mexican desert in the flick, producers also added quite a bit of set dressing, including Spanish signs, piñatas, and souvenirs, making the place look quite a bit different than it actually appeared at the time.
You can watch the “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video by clicking above.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Super Store 6, aka the gas station from Crossroads, the final scene in the first Terminator movie, and ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video, is located at 37202 90th Street East, at the corner of 90th Street East and Avenue S, in Palmdale. Some maps also list the gas station as being located in the town of Littlerock. In Crossroads, Ben’s car was parked at the pump located in the northeast corner of the station, in the area denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial view. At the end of The Terminator, Sarah Connor was parked in front of the station’s western-most pump, in the area denoted with a blue “X” in the above aerial view. ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video was filmed in the exact same spot that was used in The Terminator.
The gas price is 40 cents per liter or 40 pesos per liter? Either way it’s expensive ? 4 liters in a gallon is $1.60 or in pesos it’s like $10 a gallon
It was also used in the John Waite music video “Restless Heart” in 1985. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEh6SJ6Ccyw
Also featured quite prominently in Don McLean’s video for American Pie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih7N9_VUU4U at the beginning, the 1:00 minute mark, and the 7:50 mark.
That”s in Littlerock,not Little Rock, I believe it was called Stansberry’s back in the 80’s
Great post! I used to live a few miles from here and never knew that gas station had been used in movies! Right down the street from there, at the corner of 90th and Palmdale Blvd, there’s another gas station and a mortuary on the diagonal corner. Anyway, right next to the gas station there used to be a bunch of old derelict buildings and Terminator 2 shot some scenes there and you can see the mortuary in the background.
OK so where was the video for Legs shot?
Love it! I live about 6 miles from this gas station as the crow flies! It looks a bit different today than in either of the movies mentioned and of course the ZZ Top video since it was done so long ago! They layout of the gas station is the same though and much more has built up around it today! And yes, the area is considered “Little Rock” by all us locals! LOL Thanks for posting a bit of history on our surrounding areas! =)
Love your post Lindsay! I will need to check it out sometime.
Great post! Love ZZ Top video…still need to watch BritBrit movie
Nice post and great uncovered info on the site. I gave up looking for that Terminator gas station because the desert is so huge, like a needle in a haystack, as you saw with the Crossroads hunt. Bravo! ZZ Top is some cool stuff too!
Great Post. Sorry to see the old version of the gas station gone. It had a nice Art Deco roof line to it. Did you notice the gas prices in the ZZ Top video? $1.19 a gallon! That was 1983. I remember when everybody freaked out about gas going over $1/gallon. It was the end of the world.