Twin Peaks Location – Smash Up from The Missing Pieces of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

If there is one scene in all of Twin Peaks I love the most, it’s “Smash Up” from The Missing Pieces of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. This unscripted scene has Norma Jennings (Peggy Lipton) and Big Ed Hurley (Everett McGill) sharing a tender moment in Ed’s truck near the woods. There was a time when a publicity still from this scene was the only way fans knew of it’s existence. I was transfixed from the moment I saw it on Blu-ray in July 2014. As I prepared for the film location tour of Olallie State Park during the Real Twin Peaks in February 2026, I was asked if I would show where this scene was filmed. I heard it was in the Washington State Park outside North Bend, but it wasn’t until I was researching another detail months later that I figured out where Ed’s truck was parked.

WHERE WAS THE SMASH UP SCENE FROM THE MISSING PIECES FILMED?

The Smash Up scene was shot near the entrance to Weeks Falls Interpretive Trail begins near the Ranger’s house in Olallie State Park located at 51350 SE Homestead Valley Rd outside North Bend. I’ve regularly visited this park since September 2019, documenting the trail and highlighting the natural beauty of Washington state. If you are planning a visit, please make sure you have a Discover Pass which can be purchased online or at the park’s entrance.

The park opened in the 1950s when the Washington State Parks purchased a 160-acre parcel from Puget Sound Power and Light. After an expansion in 1976, the name was changed from Twin Falls State Park to “Olallie” which is a Chinook word for “berries” commonly found in the park. At this point, I want to acknowledge the Snoqualmie Tribe who has existed on land in Snoqualmie Valley long before settlers arrived in the mid-1800s. The land throughout this region is sacred to the Snoqualmie people, so please remember that when exploring the the park. I also invite you to stop by the visitors center at Snoqualmie Falls to learn more about how the tribe continues to protect and respect this land.

EXAMINING THE SMASH UP SCENE AND ITS LOCATION

For more than two decades after Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was released in theatres, this publicity still of Norma and Ed was the only reference that the “Smash Up” scene existed. I recall reading the script to David Lynch’s masterpiece in the late 1990s and found no mention of this scene. Yet the fact the publicity photo was made meant that the crew filmed something with Peggy Lipton and Everett McGill.

For most of the 2000s, this photo, along with a publicity photo of Sheriff Cable and Special Agent Chester Desmond fighting, were used in Dugpa’s “Fight For the Deleted Scenes” campaign. It was designed to convince distributor MK2 and ultimately David Lynch to release these deleted scenes. If I had a nickel for every time I looked at photo and wondered about it, I’d be dead.

Thanks to Dugpa’s efforts, fans were treated to this scene when The Missing Pieces were released on Blu-ray in July 2014. It’s difficult to say where exactly it would have been placed in the theatrical release. The scene was not found in either the July 3, 1991 or the August 8, 1991 scripts written by Lynch and Bob Engels. Yet The Missing Pieces, which Lynch carefully crafted and edited like a feature film, places the scene after an exchange between Leo and Shelly Johnson and the nighttime joyride to The Power and The Glory with Laura Palmer, Donna Hayward, Buck and Tommy.

The scene opens and closes with a slow moving shot of the wind blowing through trees at night. Most likely, the crew captured trees at Olallie State Park. The slow pan moves first from left to right. At the end of the scene, the pan moves from right to left as Angelo Badalamenti’s music fills the air. I combined the panning shots to create the image above.

The scene cuts to an establishing shot of Big Ed’s Gas Farm truck parked beside trees and next to a long log. The license plate on the 1962 Chevrolet C-10 appears to read “26045-J” or “26845-J.” The giant log next to Ed’s truck looked … familiar. I knew I had seen it before in The Missing Pieces.

During the deleted fight scene between Sheriff Cable and Special Agent Chet Desmond, we can see the same giant log placed near the woods. I combined two shots from this iconic moment captured near an Olallie State Park parking lot on Friday, September 13, 1991. Big Ed’s truck would have been parked next to the left side of the long log, best seen between Desmond and Cable on the left side of the image.

Despite many visits to Olallie State Park, I never took a photo of the spot where Big Ed’s truck was parked. The closet image I found was taken by Karl Reinsch on February 22, 2026 while I spoke with Twin Peaks fans in the same parking lot. The truck would have been parked where people were standing on the left side of the image. I’m standing on the right side with the tall fir trees in the distance. Cable and Desmond’s fight scene would have taken place near those trees.

An interesting aside about Big Ed’s Chevy truck, it appears to be the same one from the Twin Peaks pilot. It’s difficult to confirm but I believe the pilot truck has the same license plate as the truck seen in The Missing Pieces.

Big Ed’s Gas Farm logo is on the driver side door and the silver gas cap is located behind the driver, just like the truck in the deleted scene. The Big Ed’s Gas Farm tow truck from Twin Peaks episode 1.005 is a 1973 Chevrolet C-Series, which could mean the pilot and The Missing Pieces truck was locally owned.

NORMA JENNINGS AND BIG ED INSIDE THE TRUCK

The action moves inside the truck where Ed takes a long swig from a brown beer bottle as Norma lays on his chest.

While we can’t clearly see Ed’s beer label, most likely his is drinking a Rainier Beer. In the deleted scene that follows Smash Up, Tommy is seen drinking from a beer bottle with a similar label to Big Ed’s. The iconic red “R” is seen along the edge of Tommy’s label.

Rainier Beer will show up a few scenes later at the end of the Power and The Glory scene as a camera pans a cigarette-covered dance floor.

As Ed puts the bottle down he says, “We couldn’t get any warmer.” Considering this scene wasn’t in the script, the dialogue between Ed and Norma was most likely written on set.

I always thought the line about “not getting any warmer” could have been a reference to the actual temperature at Olallie State Park that night. I never met Peggy Lipton but we had a brief exchange on Twitter on April 16, 2017. After I posted about Smash Up being my favorite scene, she replied, “I loved doing it Cold nite 2 am !!!!”

So most likely this scene was shot when other nighttime shots at Olallie were done such as Bobby Briggs and Laura Palmer’s drug deal at midnight near the sound of sawing wood and James Hurley and Laura Palmer having an exchange along Weeks Falls Interpretive Trail (at the same spot where Bobby and Laura were filmed).

The action continues with Ed taking a Breathalyzer test.

NORMA
Mm.

ED
Ahem.

NORMA
What are you playing? I don’t think I recognize that.

ED
It’s a tune called P-P-P-P-T-B.
It’s a portable, uh, breath tester. Harry gave it to me. What’s it say?

NORMA
It says you can’t even walk. [Laughs]

ED
Oh.

ED
Well, it looks like we’re gonna be here for a long time.

NORMA
Let’s find something good on the radio.

This may be one of my favorite shots of Peggy Lipton in all of Twin Peaks. Lynch (and Cinematographer Ron Garcia) loved using close-ups in the film. There is such a tenderness in this shot, a moment of peace for both Ed and Norma.

There is an insert shot of Norma tuning the truck radio to find a song. She hears the faint sounds of Al Regni’s saxophone playing the “Theme from Twin Peaks – Fire Walk With Me.”

NORMA
So far away

Here is how the Chevrolet C-10 Truck Delco radio looks in the daylight.

ED
God, that’s beautiful.

I have to agree with Ed’s sentiments. In the theatrical release, only a few bars from the saxophone version of the “Theme to Twin Peaks – Fire Walk With Me” is heard in the opening credits. The entire track, however, is stunningly beautiful. The full version was released as part of the Twin Peaks Archive (and documented in Scott Ryan’s book, “There’s Always Music in the Air“).

NORMA
It’s you and me, Ed. You can barely hear us. Ed, do you think we’re lucky, or just a terrible accident?

ED
Sweetheart, I think we’re so lucky.

NORMA
I think we’re one great big giant smash-up.

Ed then pulls Norma closer as the music swells. The scene then cuts back to the silhouette of trees blowing in the wind. It’s truly such a beautiful scene and while I understand it wasn’t included in the theatrical release, I’m incredibly thankful Lynch finalized the edit and eventually released it as a missing piece.