"Tabletop wargaming in movies or television" Topic

With figures and terrain. Could be an actual game, or a "moving diorama" or display. The definition is open.

In Stranger Things, the kids play Dungeons and Dragons. It's a major plot point. I've only seen the first two seasons

In an episode of The Crown, Daemon Targaryen, err, Prince Philip, advises the Queen to seek counsel from Tommy Lascelles regarding the traitorous slime the Duke of Windsor.
She interrupts him (The Queen can do that) in the midst of a diorama of Salamanca. Huge table. She picks up a piece to admire it and, to his concealed annoyance, places it back in the wrong spot. Familiar?
I don't subscribe to Netflix, but my YouTube algorithm suggested that scene.

What other scenes featuring miniatures in a game or diorama have you seen?

Callan: TV series and film.
The Living Daylights (James Bond): Brad Whitaker's wargame / diorama set-up

An opening scene in The Scarecrow and Mrs King had the Scarecrow playing some sort of Medieval siege game or maybe Warhammer Very short scene.

Movie with Westly Snipes had a huge diorama of a ACW battle. Murder at 1600 I think but I'm not sure.

There was a Columbo episode in which the alibi depended on time necessary to set up a diorama, and an old "Avengers" in which a young girl plays both a land and a naval engagement against Steed and beats him soundly both times.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005): The protagonist, played by Steve Carell, is shown meticulously painting miniatures, a core part of the wargaming hobby.

I think a character in "Groundhog Day" also paints figures in his garage.

Both are used to show what a nerd-ish hobby miniature gaming is & how only losers participate. That's why I like Callan. He is,in a sense, a loser too but no-one would tell him that to his face.

In Murder at 1600 Wesley Snipes plays a DC homicide detective whose way to unwind at home is to make big ACW dioramas – he was being evicted from his apartment as a developer was going to make it into a parking lot and he worried about what he was going to do about his dioramas – so when he solves the case the favour he gets is that his apartment and dioramas get spared

There was a British spy film that I recall where one of the spymasters was painting 54mm Napoleonics in his office- also another where one of the spy types had a Napoleonic army that was painted for some weird reason in white phosphorus

The opening sequence of "The Four Feathers," (1978) was the Genesis of my interest in collecting military miniatures.

YouTube link

In the 1960s an episode of the British series the Avengers, had Steed guarding a young woman at her country estate. Bored she suggests they play some tabletop wargames. They play the Battle of Waterloo on a huge table with 54mm figures. She soundly defeats him explaining that her father is major general. Then they play Trafalgar with ships equally impressive and he is reduced to a single lifeboat. She confesses that she also has an uncle who's an admiral. Being about ten at the time I thought how cool it would be to have such toys. Now I do.

There was an episode of the Hulk series from the late 1970s where at the end of the episode the characters were playing a wargame using what looked to be Britain's range of Napoleonic miniatures. This is based on my memory, but I haven't seen the episode since in aired originally, so my details may be a little foggy. But as a kid at the time, I remember thinking, "hey I have some of those figures."

I just remembered "Great Catherine". Jeanne Moreau was Catherine the Great. She sank Peter O'Toole's battleship in a pool in her bedroom. He was indignant!
Technically NOT "tabletop".😄
She waded out into the pool to push his ship underwater. Cheat.

There is an episode of criminal minds where the serial killer is a wargamer. He kills families but spares the son if they have one. He talks to the boys while painting a samurai army. My wife always jokes that it's me when that episode comes on.

In a very early scene in E.T., Elliot's older brother (and friends) are playing D&D (sorta) and IIRC there are miniatures on the table.

In Deep Space Nine, Chief O'Brien and Dr. Bashir have an elaborate model of the Alamo with unpainted(!) figures. One of them refers to a specific figure as "Colonel Travis." They use the whole thing to plot "games" featuring the battle in the holosuites of Quark's.

Worf sees the set up in passing, and comments "There is no way to defend that structure with so few men." At which point, he ceases to dismiss the thing as frivolous and clearly becomes fascinated with the concept and the battle, playing on the Klingons' well-established fascination with dying in "glorious" battle against overwhelming odds.

The sequence is part of depicting O'Brien and Bashir's close friendship and the activities men engage in during their spare time. If anything, the show treats this time as healthy and positive.

And no one involved is a loser or a villain!

Max von Sydow's hit man character in 'Three days of the Condor" was shown several times painting Napoleonic miniatures.

In "The Battle of the Bulge" HQ officers showed pushing tanks across a large map.

Kim

In the movie Ronin, the fellow that Jean Reno takes Deniro to for medical help is painting a diorama of Japanese Samurai.

In the series "Death in Paradise" a 54mm lead soldier provided a valuable clue as to who the killer was. Not what you asked for, but still a 'toy soldier' moment.

"All night long", 1981 – a Gene Hackman & Barbara Streisand. Barbra Streisand's characters husband, who is a Fireman, plays large scale WW11 games in down town at the fire station with his fellow fireman.

Always wondered how that got put in the movie, makes sense but it's in no way central to the story and a strange addition.

I haven't seen it, but heard that one of the characters on "Twin Peaks" was refighting the Civil War on the tabletop.

The Big Bang Theory has several episodes featuring D&D RPGs plus other card driven games as well.

In "Stripes" (1981), the feckless Captain Stillman is shown playing with toy soldiers and tanks in his office.

The Sabaton music video "I Emperor" is set in the back room of a British pub with the band wargaming Waterloo.

The tv series, "Preacher" has Jackie Earle Hailey's character, Odin Quincannon, making a model of The Alamo and painting its soldiers for display.

Can't think of the name of the show. It was a British detective show. One of the plots was around wargaming. One of the old detectives was a wargamer. They played a Napoleonics game.

Grattan54 your example is New Tricks

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from 1968. Near the end of the film, the candy factory owner and Dick Van Dyke's character's father are playing a lively war game.

Father Brown (current series) also has a lead figure (in fact, two of them) be a clue to a mystery revolving around an actual labyrinth built as a folly. The miniatures are part of a boy's collection of Napoleonic toy soldiers (probably Britains— the show is set in the 1950s). There is a tabletop terrain set up, but it doesn't appear that any game rules are applied or suggested. It's not presented as an adult hobby, but isn't negative either.

In another episode, a model train set is a significant clue. The model railroader is the murder victim (though not because of the trains), but also a thoroughly despicable man (as the episode gradually reveals). Again, not because of the trains.

I have nothing to add except a URL to the Bunker Hill scene from Great Catherine. That was delightful fun. It helps that I'm forever a fan of Peter O'Toole.

Oh, wait, I just remembered something to add:

There was a short arc with Bob Newhart in ER (1990s evening hospital soap opera), playing a septuagenarian suffering macular degeneration who spent his time alone painting miniatures (I think ACW figures…?).

"Grattan54 your example is New Tricks"

I'd forgotten that one! Sgt Lane. Brought his old Prussian army down from the attic and straightaway won a smallish tournament. Pairs with the episode of "The Avengers" which I remember somewhat differently. In TV miniature wargaming, everyone knows the rules, which never change, or ever has the wrong basing.

Oh, and: did we all forget Mel Gibson's character melting down his dead son's lead soldiers to make bullets in The Patriot?

There's this scene from Black Adder
link

@Yellow Admiral
👍
I had just finished painting the 17th Light Dragoons when I saw that.
Was Peter O'Toole a madman in that role? 😄

I just added Great Catherine to the Poll Suggestion about movies in which O'Toole was mad.

You bring back ancient memories, Yellow Admiral. There's an old Western in which a homsteadding family melts down the youngest boy's toy soldiers for bullets. Must be 60+ years ago when I saw it.

Yes -- "The Unforgiven" (1960); Burt Lancaster and Doug McClure forced to melt down Doug's toy soldiers and cast Winchester rounds to fend off the Kiowas. I'd forgotten that one -- actually quite a good flick.

@dBerzerk

Check out the book The Unforgiven by Alan LeMay. Movie is based on it. So much better than the movie. One of my favorite novels

I think the early 1980's series the 'Incredible Hulk' had a Napoleonic Wars diorama in one episode.

The New Tricks episode had that annoying thing where the players make ridiculous pwow pwow noises when their units are shooting. But at least they used tape measures.

In Dept. Q, a Scottish police officer on a remote island is shown painting a highlander.

Thank you for the tip-off, smithsco -- I was unaware of the novel.

I vaguely recall an episode of "Magnum, P.I." Higgins was painting a unit of 25mm Napoleonic figures -- Miniature Figurines French Old Guard Grenadiers, I believe. Magnum started to reminisce on some former operation. Higgins, being a combat veteran himself, assumes it was from Magnum's Vietnam War experience. Turns out it was from Magnum's Naval Academy football days.

D&D is played in late episodes of the X-Files or maybe it was The Lone Gunmen spin-off.

It seems to me that a diorama of an American Civil War battle is in Twin Peaks, but I don't remember the details. Well, the owls are not what they seem.

Robert,

Yes, that is it. New Tricks. Thanks for that or it would have really bugged me not remember the show.

I believe in the Magnum episode he was describing a muddy field and Higgins thought Magnum was talking about Waterloo.

In the first episode of Monarch of the Glen (BBC season 1) Hector the Laird of Glenbogle plays the battle of Bull Run against his friend and Rival Kilwillie. They seem to be using 54mm Britains for figures.

I think it's telling that "they" had to fall back on Waterloo or Bull Run. It's like they couldn't comprehend the audience knowing "not famous" battles.
One of the reasons I appreciate Tommy Lascelles doing "Salamanca!" so proudly. And beaming! 👍
It's like, if *I* were in a movie, and I'm bragging about doing Germantown (😱 "What's that???") or Wyoming Massacre. 😱😱😱🙄🙄🙄😱😱🍺

Thank you, Col Durnford. I wish I could find that episode -- must be over 30 years since I've seen it.

Grattam44 -I saw that episode too!!!

Not sure if it was CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or CSI Las Vegas, but the chief investigator had to go to a murder victim's home and there was a large ACW diorama set up. He looked at it real quick and announced, "Antietam". IIRC, the victim was murdered wearing an ACW uniform.

Falcon Crest TV had the main villain always painting 54mm.
On Midsummer Murders a character had high miniature dioramas in the home

Col Durnford -- It looks like that scene appeared in the original Magnum P.I. episode "From Moscow to Maui (2.4)."

"Another great scene is at the end of the episode, when Magnum has Higgins' toy soldiers lined up in a certain formation, and leads Higgins to believe that it concerns a military skirmish Magnum had been involved in. Higgins inquires further as he is interested in the outcome of the skirmish, only to find out that it involved an Army/Navy football game."

link

TimeCast made a Stalingrad diorama for a film, but I can not remember what film it was.

Seen lots of these and forgot them.
Good list growing here

"All Night Long",,, I used to be on the Fire Department, and we'd to play at the station between calls