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I'm working on this puzzle where the solution is either a word or phrase with no theme.

The first part of the puzzle had incorrect movie titles with cities, states, etc, and the solution to the first part of the puzzle is the actual places in the movie titles.

Below is the list of all the actual places.

Somehow, this list should yield a word, but I have no idea what to do to get this word. They are arranged in chronological order.

Sorted by release date:

St. Louis
Tangier
Nuremberg
Flint
Atlantic City
London
East LA
Tombstone
Providence
Arlington
Reno
Union
Elizabethtown
Annapolis
Talladega
New Orleans
Rome

Sorted alphabetically:

Annapolis
Arlington
Atlantic City
East LA
Elizabethtown
Flint
London
New Orleans
Nuremberg
Providence
Reno
Rome St. Louis
Annapolis
Talladega
Tangier
Tombstone
Union

* Full Puzzle *

Meet Me in 'Maryland' 1944 - Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien

'California' Incident 1953 - George Brent, Mari Aldon

Judgment at 'Rhode Island' 1961 - Maximilian Schell, Spencer Tracy

In Like 'Morocco' 1967 - James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb

'Michigan' 1980 - Susan Sarandon, Burt Lancaster

American Werewolf in 'Virginia' 1981 - David Naughton, Jenny Agutter

Born in 'Italy' 1987 - Cheech Marin, Daniel Stern

'New Jersey' 1993 - Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton

Outside 'United Kingdom' 1999 - Alec Baldwin, Shawn Hatosy

'Louisiana' Road 1999 - Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins

Waking up in 'Germany' 2002 - Patrick Swayze, Billy Bob Thornton

xXx: State of the 'Nevada' 2005 - Ice Cube, Willem Dafoe

'Arizona' 2005 - Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst

'Alabama' 2006 - Tyrese Gibson, James Franco

'New York' Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby 2006 - Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call 'Kentucky' 2009 - Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes

When in 'Missouri' 2010 - Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel

My Doubt

I tried a whole bunch of different counting patterns and also introduced some ciphers into the mix, but I still can't figure it out. Can anyone help me out in getting to the probable solution ?

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    $\begingroup$ Taking the first letter of each place-name and rearranging the letters gives A TRANSPARENT FLUTE. Could this be the answer or do you need exactly one word? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Dec 28, 2014 at 12:04
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    $\begingroup$ Another idea: is it definitely wordplay or could it be something like drawing lines on a map joining each place to the next so as to form letters which could be arranged into words? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Dec 28, 2014 at 12:06
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    $\begingroup$ Is this related to your roman Gods question? Could it have a similar answer? Sort by increasing word-length and then take ever 1st, 2nd, 3rd letter of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd... word? if there is no theme or additional clue, I think it is simply a too broad question. I VTC for that reason. $\endgroup$
    – BmyGuest
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 8:03
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    $\begingroup$ @BmyGuest Grumpyguts. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 11:59
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    $\begingroup$ Why not post the full puzzle? $\endgroup$
    – McMagister
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 13:09

1 Answer 1

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The answer is:

Uranus.

The solution:

Each clue mentions a state or country that has a city belonging in the title of another movie on the list.
The first clue mentions 'Maryland', Annapolis is a city in Maryland, and 'Annapolis' belongs in the title of the 14th movie.
Continuing, the 14th clue mentions 'Alabama', Talladega is a city in Alabama, and 'Talladega' belongs in the title of the 15th movie.
The 15th clue mentions 'New York', Union is a city in New York, and 'Union' belongs in the title of the 12th movie.
Continuing in this fashion, we get a cyclic ordering of the list of cities the OP found:

  • Annapolis
  • Talladega
  • Union
  • Reno
  • Nuremberg
  • Providence
  • London
  • Arlington
  • New Orleans
  • Elizabethtown
  • Tombstone
  • Atlantic City
  • Flint
  • Tangier
  • East LA
  • Rome
  • St Louis

Reading the first letter of each city name gives ATURNPLANETAFTERS. Cyclicly permuting the letters and adding spaces gives PLANET AFTER SATURN. 'Uranus' is the planet after Saturn.

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    $\begingroup$ I can't figure out how to deal with spoilers and a list. If someone wants to mess with this, feel free. $\endgroup$
    – Julian Rosen
    Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 0:10

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