Movie locations around the world part 2

This is part 2 of my quest for finding movie locations around the world. Left images are from the actual films and to the right are my visits to the spots.

You may also be interested in Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 and Part 10.

Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner: Bradbury Building, Los Angeles

The end game of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece was partially filmed at this 1893 building in downtown Los Angeles. The elevators, stairways and iron railings are easily recognized even though the building was completely renovated in the 1990s, and the entrance used by Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) has today become a Subway restaurant. Unfortunately the interior of Sebastian’s apartment was a set built in Sound Stage 25 at Warner Bros.

Blade Runner: Union Station, Los Angeles

The Union Station was used as a police station, where the office of Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) was temporarily constructed inside the waiting hall.

Star Wars Episode 4 (1977)

Star Wars: Dante’s view, Death Valley

Before Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) enter Mos Eisley, they have a look at the city from a high viewpoint. That is actually Death Valley in California, as seen from the peak called Dante’s view.

Star Wars: Artist’s Palette, Death Valley

Several other scenes from Star Wars Episode 4 were shot in Death Valley. This is the place where the Java people had parked their large Sand Crawler, although in reality the hill is only a few meters high.

Skyfall (2012)

Skyfall: Vauxhall Bridge, London

M (Judi Dench) pulls the “don’t you know who I am” card at an unfortunate police officer, in the middle of Vauxhall Bridge…

Skyfall: MI6, London

…just in time to see her office at MI6 going up in flames.

Skyfall: Smithfield Market, London

James Bond (Daniel Craig) returns to the “new digs” of MI6 by entering the parking garage near Smithfield Market.

Skyfall: Broadgate Tower, London

A clean-shaven Bond is ready for a new mission and goes to Singapore, but in reality it’s just a building in London.

Skyfall: Glen Etive, Scotland

Bond and M travel through the Highlands of Scotland after the escape from London, stopping for a break at the small road in Glen Etive, near Glen Coe.

The Living Daylights (1987)

Living Daylights: Volksoper, Vienna

James Bond is back, this time played by Timothy Dalton. The featured Bratislava opera house is actually the Volksoper opera house in Vienna. The name sign was obviously changed, but an even more distinctive difference is how much the tree in front has grown in the past 20 years.

Living Daylights: Währinger Straße, Vienna

Bond and Saunders (Thomas Wheatley) walk across the street from the opera house into the “sniper bookshop”, which looks quite different today.

Living Daylights: Volksoper, Vienna

The window where Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé) makes his escape as seen through Bond’s night-vision goggles is still there.

Living Daylights: Gasometers, Vienna

The gasometers where Koskov boards a Harrier plane were built in 1896. They were once the largest in Europe for producing gas from distillation of coal, but after the restoration in 2001 they now feature apartments and shops.

Living Daylights: The Gloriette at Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna

Bond always enjoys spending MI6’s money on luxury hotels, and this time even the Schönbrunn Palace is featured as a place to stay. It was once the residence of Maria Theresia, mother of Marie Antoinette, and Napoleon stayed there during the occupation 1805.

The Third Man (1949)

Third Man: Palais Pallavicini, Vienna

The most famous location from the 1949 noir classic is the house of Harry Lime (Orson Welles), with the statues flanking the doorway. The statues are still there at Josefsplatz 5, more than 50 years later.

Third Man: Prater, Vienna

The Ferris Wheel at Prater is where Lime delivered his famous cuckoo clock speech. The wheel was also featured in Living Daylights and Before Sunrise, half a decade after Orson went for a spin. Anthony Bourdain referenced the speech while visiting the wheel in 2010.

Third Man: Am Hof, Vienna

The vast cobbled square Am Hof is where Lime makes his mysterious disappearance, but the central kiosk was only a prop placed there for the film.

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

First Contact: Titan Missile Museum, Tucson

In the movie, Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) uses an old rocket from a missile complex in Montana to build the first warp drive ship. But it’s actually the Titan Missile Museum, a former intercontinental ballistic missile site in Arizona. I even found a signature from actor LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge) in the museum, as well as a copy of the script used for the scene.

First Contact: Titan Missile Museum, Tucson

Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Data (Brent Spiner) having a closer look at the ship/missile. The silo became operational in 1963 and was deactivated in 1982. Today the underground complex can be visited by civilians.

Star Trek: Voyager (1996)

Voyager: Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles

The Griffith Observatory was seen in an episode of Star Trek Voyager season 3, where the crew time-travel to present day Los Angeles. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and Tuvok (Tim Russ) enter the observatory grounds…

Voyager: Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles

… only to end up in a ray gun fight. Just a normal day in Los Angeles. The shooting takes place around the central column with statues of famous astronomers. An amusing detail for trekkies is that the showroom hall inside the observatory is named “Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater”.

Before Sunrise (1995)

Before Sunrise: Albertinaplatz, Vienna

Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) wander around in Vienna all night, ending up at the statue of Hapsburg Emperor Joseph II. (Also see movie locations for the sequel Before Sunset)

Easy Rider (1969)

Easy Rider: Monument Valley, Arizona

Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) traveled by chopper bikes from Los Angeles to New Orleans in one of the early road movies. In this scene they went through Monument Valley in Arizona on US Route 163.

Russian House (1990)

Russian House: Red Square, Moscow

Bartholomew (Sean Connery) and Katya (Michelle Pfeiffer) take a sleepy walk outside the Kremlin Walls on the Red Square of Moscow. This movie was the first western production to get filming permissions from the Russian government.

North by Northwest (1959)

North by Northwest: Grand Central Station, New York

This classic thriller by Alfred Hitchcock features several familiar locations, and few are more instantly recognizable than the Grand Central Station where Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is having a phone call.

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

Escape from Alcatraz: Alcatraz, San Francisco

Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) is wearily crossing the outdoor yard while plotting his escape from the infamous prison, located in an island in San Francisco Bay.

Californication (2007)

Californication: Malibu, California

The TV series Californication is filled with great shots (no pun intended) from all over Los Angeles. One of my favorites is the opening scene from the pilot episode, where Hank Moody (David Duchovny) drives east on Pacific Coast Hwy through Malibu. The exact location was a bit tricky to find, but make sure to look for the white mailbox next to the white fence.