Basements are all over movie history; there are plenty of movies from all sorts of genres that utilize basements as a place where someone can hide away for a little while. However, because they’re great places for people to hide, they’re also great places for action scenes to occur. That means many of these basements end up with serious damages. Here are six of the most famous basements in movies and TV, along with a bit of information about how you could fix them.
1. Stranger Things
Stranger Things takes place in a fictional Indiana town, cataloging the strange paranormal experiences of this tiny city. The Wheeler basement takes the brunt of some of this impact; it has one wall that’s broken by a demon, and the lights clearly have some electrical issues. If you were looking to fix this basement, you would need to check for foundation damage before fixing the drywall. Upgrading the breaker box would also help alleviate the electrical problems. There might be increased chances of electrical emergencies due to a faulty breaker box. To get the same checked out, you could get in touch with professionals such as W3 Electric (https://callw3.com/electrical/emergency-services/) to get the breaker box inspected and upgraded if need be.
2. The Sopranos
In this crime drama, Tony Soprano uses his basement to have important conversations because of the noise from the central AC unit. However, his ability to use this basement stopped abruptly when his water heater exploded. The explosion caused the basement to flood. That means to fix the damage, you would have to fix any water damage from the standing water, install a sump pump, and replace the water heater (it might even be best to call the experts, like these plumbers in Everett, out to do the work for you).
3. BlacKkKlansman
Throughout this thrilling movie, one of the characters, Felix, maintains his KKK office in his basement. He tries to force another one of the characters to take a lie detector test at gunpoint. However, anyone watching the movie can note that the damp and dingy room clearly isn’t set up to be an office. To repair this basement, an expert would have to come in to remove any existing mold and add a moisture barrier to help avoid humidity in the future. Some initial water remediation work wouldn’t have hurt, either. It would’ve probably kept all that mold from forming in the first place!
4. John Wick
In an attempt to keep his weapons out of sight, John Wick buries a cache of weapons in the concrete slab of his basement. He uses a sledgehammer to dig them back up at one point. Of course, this could cause permanent damage to the foundation of the home, especially if this was a foundational concrete slab. To repair the basement, an expert would have to assess the foundation, then repour the concrete.
5. Ozark
This crime drama takes place largely in the Ozarks in central Missouri, following a financial advisor who’s tied up in all the wrong things. When the family moves to Missouri, the family takes the top floor of their new lakefront home, while Buddy moves into the basement. However, this damp basement just exacerbates Buddy’s terminal illness. A comprehensive fix would require not only waterproofing the basement, but also likely adding a dehumidifier.
6. Spy
Spy follows Susan Cooper, who works for the CIA. Her office is in the basement of CIA headquarters in Langley. However, the problem is that these basements in the Washington, D.C. area are known to have a number of problems. The basement ends up having plenty of infestation problems, including rats and mice. By calling an exterminator, the owners could address the pest infestation, but they would also need to address the gaps in the foundation, which is where the animals are coming inside.
Conclusion
In Hollywood, you can use a basement as a plot point and then simply move on. However, basements are important to maintaining in the real world as well. Whether you’re having one of the problems from a drama on this list or you’re having an issue that this list didn’t cover, it’s a good idea to call in a basement repair expert whenever you’re having basement problems, no matter what those problems happen to be.