‘Come to Shell Beach. The water’s fine!’ This original prop miniature sign, complete with a slightly sinister winking sun and a waving woman dressed in a bikini, was used for special effects during the production of Australian director Alex Proyas' 1998 tech-noir film Dark City. This imagery of Shell Beach is key to the film. It represents an out-of-reach distant memory for the central character, Murdoch (played by Rufus Sewell), who inhabits a place that is in direct contrast to Shell Beach: a dark city bathed in shadows where the sun never shines.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.