Successful windfarms at the Altamont Pass encouraged the development of further industrial wind areas in southern California. These windfarms, in the Tehachapi Pass, led to wider recognition, after windmills played a role as a prominent backdrop in several feature films of the mid- and late 1980s including a 1985 film based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero, featuring Andrew McCarthy and Robert Downey, Jr.