Alexandria’s shuttered Landmark Mall served as a set for “Wonder Woman 1984.” It’s slated for demolition to make way for a mixed-use development anchored by a $1 billion Inova Health System hospital. Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Running from police, an unremarkable bad guy with sandy hair suddenly grabs a little girl and dangles the young hostage from the third floor of a mall atrium.
As a gaggle of nonplused bad guys decked out in ’80s pastels and John Oates mustaches look on, the skylight above
shatters. It’s Wonder Woman, swooping into the scene on her golden Lasso of Truth! She saves the girl and makes quick work of the baddies, notably throwing one through a giant gimmick marching drum emblazoned with the “Virginia is for Lovers” logo.
The scene, filmed at Alexandria’s defunct Landmark Mall in 2018, is from “Wonder Woman 1984,” a December 2020 superhero movie that re-creates the era of Jazzercize, Members Only jackets and side ponytails. Though CGI can accomplish most anything these days, the filmmakers behind this feminist slugfest were pleased to make use of the Landmark, which was built in 1965 and operational until 2017.
