Whether you know it or not, Cleveland has played a role in some of the biggest Hollywood films.

What was purported to be Moscow in Air Force One was actually Cleveland’s City Hall and Case Western Reserve University. Happy Gilmore was filmed in and around the Cleveland area and, of course, a majority of Major League was filmed at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

Now Cleveland can add another big film to its list-Spider-Man 3.

According to the “Spider-Man 3 Filming in Cleveland” blog, stunts and crashes were performed on a shut-down Euclid Avenue as Columbia Pictures was looking to cut production costs and needed a place that would pass as Manhattan.

Though none of the real actors, such as Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst or Thomas Haden Church, were present, the extras were on-hand to film some of the action.

A Kent State graduate, Adam Kern, 25, was cast as one of the extras in the film.

“The casting process was fun if you made it that way. I was the second person in line at 4 a.m. Some people got in line right after me, and we became friends on the line. We all ended up getting in as extras, and we stayed in contact with each other. We basically waited all day. I think like 10 hours,” he said.

Working on the set, Kern saw some of the action of the scene.

“I got to see them ram a bank truck into a garbage truck, and then it flipped into the air,” he said. “A bunch of people who lent their cars to the shoot had their cars destroyed by the cables used to flip the truck. Windshields and tires ruined. The Spidey crew paid for the repairs and for either a rental car or hotel stay.”

But blink and you’ll miss it, as the city only makes a cameo appearance in the film. Scenes containing Cleveland come in about 45 minutes into the movie when Spider-Man and Sandman have their first big fight as an armored vehicle roars down the street. Sights such as the Halle and BP Buildings can be seen, but otherwise the filmmakers blended Cleveland into Manhattan without fail.

– Andrew Gaug