Portrayal in media

Christ the Redeemer is featured in various works of fiction and media. As early as the 1940s, Hollywood captured the structure’s iconic appeal in such cinematic vehicles as the 1942 Bette Davis film Now, Voyager and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film Notorious starring Ingrid Bergman. Recently the statue was featured in a major destruction scene in the movie 2012, when its arms collapse, and the rest of the statue fails at the knees and crumbles as it collides with the side of the mountain. This scene was highly controversial, especially when it was featured in a billboard campaign in Los Angeles, when Brazilian Multimedia Designer Sara Vieira spoke out against it. It is featured in the videogames Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X, Driver 2, Tropico 3, Terranigma, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, OSS 117: Lost in Rio, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, Civilization Revolution, Civilization V and “Angry Birds Rio”. It briefly appears in the bonus level of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 on PlayStation. It can be seen in the video for Janet Jackson’s, “Runaway” and in the video for the Latin group Wisin & Yandel’s “Pam Pamdeo. The statue is also found in an episode of the Lupin the Third anime series. In the remake of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the statue is seen overlooking the city amongst the cacophony of screams. The statue watches over fictional “Verona Beach” in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. It is also shown on the MTV show Viva La Bam in which Bam Margera battled Don Vito to win $1,000. It is also in Mr. Magoo. A parody of the statue is also seen in World of Warcraft on an island called Janerio’s Point, the statue was damaged in the Cataclysm revealing a heart filled with riches. It has also been featured in the 2011 animated film Rio and the live-action film Fast Five which had a major part based in Rio de Janeiro. In the science fiction anime Legend of the Galactic Heroes the planet Heinessen, capitol of the Free Planets Alliance, has a giant monument to its founder Arle Heinessen in which Heinessen is posed in the same position as Jesus in the Redeemer statue. The statue is seen in the movie “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”, in the background, when Edward calls Bella’s home and Jacob answers the phone. The statue is also briefly shown in the trailer for “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” as the location of Edward & Bella’s honeymoon.

A panoramic view of Christ the Redeemer at the top of Corcovado Mountain. In the background is Sugarloaf Mountain (centre) and Guanabara Bay.