Designed by Milton Glaser and Walter Bernard, the credit sequence of Sleepless In Seattle is very simple, the slow revelation from east to west of a map of the United States. The map combines the political and the physical, showing both states and mountains, and is shot from an angle rather than overhead. The curve of the horizon and the schematic arrangement of stars above the map suggest that this is a view of a planet (one on which the only distinguishing feature is the United States):
In different colours, the map returns periodically in the film as the basis of a graphic representation of characters' movements across the country:
At the very end of the film a map appears, revealed as the camera withdraws slowly from a Manhattan of lights. The lights look like stars in a black sky, and as it grows distant New York comes to resemble a galaxy. Eventually, the whole of the Unites States is outlined by points of light,and the country becomes a constellation:
(I may have missed the point of joke being made, but to me this angled view of the United States makes the country look remarkably like a fish.)
There are more conventional maps in the mise-en-scène. A protagonist discusses the geography of the United States with the aid of a wall map:
Another protagonist has a map of the city in which she works (Baltimore) on the wall of the office in which she works:
When she visits another city (Seattle), she consults a map of that city:
She also finds herself in front of a peculiarly decorated, spinning globe in a shop-window display:
