Filming Locations Guide: Where was The Revenant filmed?
Posted by Ra Moon
The cinematography of The Revenant captures the splendor of epic, frozen landscapes, and also the tough conditions of survival - and filming - in such a frigid environment.
The Revenant was primarily filmed in Alberta, Canada. The 11 months of shooting were notoriously complicated.
Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, Amores Perros) was very clear from the beginning: it would not be a green-screen production; 93% of the movie takes place in exterior locations.
The Revenant was primarily filmed in Alberta, Canada. The 11 months of shooting were notoriously complicated.
Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, Amores Perros) was very clear from the beginning: it would not be a green-screen production; 93% of the movie takes place in exterior locations.
All actors are happy having hot tea and relaxing in a studio between shoots. This would not be the case in The Revenant: the filmmakers were looking for remote locations to give the feel of wilderness in snowy virgin conditions.
The weather was a major issue for this project. At first, The Revenant was only to be filmed in an extensive area near Calgary in Alberta, plus a scene shot in the neighboring state of Montana in the USA. However, due to the lack of snow, the production had to move to the southern tip of South America in Argentina.
Welcome to the most complete guide to the filming locations of The Revenant that you can find. Contains no spoilers!
Most of The Revenant was filmed in Kananaskis Country, an area of parks and reserves in the Canadian Rockies situated west of Calgary. The scale of the landscapes is overwhelming.
Image by Brendan Bell
The spectacular scenery of Alberta’s Bow Valley can become an extreme place in winter.
Lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio declared that, only in this movie, he had to do 30 or 40 of the hardest scenes of his career.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox
The Revenant crew built the fort Kiowa in Dead Man's Flats near Canmore in Spray Lakes Road, with Castle Rock in the background.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Anne Elliott
The strange church in ruins, the frontier fort, the Pawnee village, and the mountain of buffalo skulls were sets built for the occasion on location.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Another added difficulty for this project was the will of the film director to shoot only in natural light.
Days are short during the winter season, and traveling to the distant sets took so much time that the team had only a couple of hours a day for filming.
Iñárritu commented that this is an incredible landscape, but the worst place for a producer to shoot a film.
A battle scene was filmed nearby in the Indian Morley reserve, part of the Stoney Nation.
The reserve is located along the Canadian Pacific Railway, between the scenic Trans-Canada Highway and the Bow River, pictured.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Cszmurlo
According to Screen Daily, a crane and horses were transported up to 8,000 feet to shoot a scene near Fortress Mountain Resort.
Some planes bombed the area in Fortress Mountain to provoke the avalanche featured in The Revenant.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Fitzgerald sees a meteorite streaking across the sky in the Badlands of Drumheller, located northeast of Calgary.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Mathew
In British Columbia, the Squamish Valley was used to film the sequence of the bear attack.
According to YVRShoots, the shoot took place near the river in Derringer Forest.
The scenes with the group of trappers walking, hunting, and setting a fire camp were also filmed here in the Squamish Rainforest, in a place called Shovehouse Creek.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Mike
Now we move to the Kootenai Falls near Libby in Montana, USA. The dramatic sequence filmed here took ten days to complete.
This is the same location as the 1994 film The River Wild with Meryl Streep. According to this local newspaper, the director of photography edited the background of the falls with footage of snowy hills filmed in Argentina.
Image by Troy Smith
The last scenes of The Revenant were shot on the southern tip of South America. The small Olivia river near Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) was the unplanned final set to end such an arduous and challenging production.
Film director A.G. Iñárritu stated that he will never again make another movie like this, because “I am a crazy man, but not stupid”.
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Ra Moon
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Great, great film. I can definitely see the extents taken to film. We live very near Libby Montana. It is beautiful there. Thank you for all efforts to film this movie.
ReplyDeleteOscar for best cinematography. Hands down!
DeleteWaiting to see this movie,looks like it's finally going to happen today. I am very,very excited,wish Hollywood would make more like this they're AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteHaving just been in a scene of the upcoming film Sully, nice warm, controlled environment, and seeing how hard everyone works, and now just having seen this film, I am in awe of everyone who worked on these shoots.
ReplyDeleteGreat landscapes, the most interesting thing about the movie. I love Ushuaia!
ReplyDeleteOne of the most amazing, gritty films I've ever seen. Magnificent!
ReplyDeleteAmazing gods Beauty❤ all around the world!!! And My 2 Favorite Men Leonardo DiCaprio(my#1) and Tom Hardy ❤
ReplyDeleteKananaskis Country is a Provincial Park, not part of a National Park. The pictures are great but some picture titles and locations are wrong. Mt Isabel is nowhere near Spray Lake Road which comes out at Canmore which is 30 minutes drive east of trail head to Mt Ishbel, which is approx 10 km NW of Banff.
ReplyDeletePicture labelled Dead Man's Flat which is just east of Canmore (which is 1 hr west of Calgary) is most probably near Drumheller Badlands (which is about 2 hrs NE of Calgary).
Wow could you be more angry about it? If you read closely it sounds like it's all speculation.
DeleteWow... If read a bit closer it sounds like most of these are speculation
DeleteJust returned from a three week camping trip into Banff Nat'l. Park, Canmore and Kootenai
DeleteNat'l. Park area.....................It's all beautiful!!!!! JTee
Thanks a lot for your comment, Hugh.
ReplyDeleteAbout the Badlands, the previous caption already says "this screenshot and pictured below, the Badlands of Drumheller". Sorry, I know that it may be confusing...
Great movie
ReplyDeleteBut in real life it took place in South dakota and nebraska
One of best films seen in a v long time lot of rubbish out these days
ReplyDeleteTom hardy is brilliant
Unbelievable film. Landscape and acting was incredible. Absolutely the best film I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteFantastic movie. Put yourself there & you'll enjoy it even more.
ReplyDeleteJust saw the "Revenant". Landscape was breath taking.Grizzly attack was very hard to watch. Dicaprio screams of pain was bone chilling. Alot of bloody scenes.Fantastic movie!!
ReplyDeleteA powerful movie but dialogue was very hard to understand.Acting was brilliant but way to much profanity. Totally unnecessary for this film.
ReplyDeleteF***ing may not have even been part of English language in that time period. Agreed. Unnecessary language.
DeleteThat's how men speak.... Hard to understand if you're not one.
DeleteOh it's imperative to speak and use the language the way they did, but it's okay to fabricate the entire story accept for Hugh Glasses name.
DeleteAwesome movie and first I've seen where Leonardo carries the film well. Although he does so here by mumbling most of his dialogue. Was this acting? Still a riveting film.
ReplyDeleteIncredible acting, Leo doesn't have to speak, he can tell a storybwith his facial expressions, especially the one at the end. Man literally looked like he went through hell
ReplyDeleteI just had the incredible experience if watching this movie, I went right there with him, could smell the trees, feel the blood pouring, find the will to stand again ..took my breathe way.
ReplyDeleteI too found it hard to understand some of the dialogue. Felt I was missing a lot in some areas, especially when speaking with his son. Why didn't they cook the buffalo meat as long as there were 3 fires blazing....
ReplyDeleteWhen your starving cooking takes to long. Just saying.
DeleteLoved the movie, saw it twice, loved the feeling that you were there in the experience, falling off the cliff, being attacked by the bear, the wide angle lens that didn't cut scenes too much trying to get human perspective, as if it was live and real, the fog and blood on the camera lens, the sounds of the forest, wind, and snow, the pain, hunger, etc., the fact that the actors were put in the real harsh environments, acting was phenomenal, Leo's best film yet. Also, the dissonant music going on and off throughout the movie, the bear scene without any music, pure raw bear maul.
ReplyDeleteOme thing that I want to comment on was the language critic above. I get it, but most of those guys talked like that back then, couldn't understand them, cursing, but that didn't bother me knowing the culture at that time. I actually liked that Leo and others didn't talk as much. A movie doesn't have to have too much talking to be a great movie, just as long as you know the story.
One of my favorite man movies now.
Amazing brilliant!!! Decaprio deserves an Oscar for this one. Hopefully the academy will do him right this time! I was so caught up in the movie I had my hoody on and over my head. I felt like I was there freezing and HELLOOOO, I am in Hawaii. Superior!!!!
ReplyDeleteA great movie from yet again an amazing talented actor!! Loved ever minute of this!!
ReplyDeleteWonderful movie to watch, Leonardo DeCarlo was excellent! Scenery out of this world, some brutal parts, Leonardo deserves to win an Academy Award for this unique movie!!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful scenic views. The movie was awesome. Hopefully there will be lots of Oscars won for this win. Go get em Leo!
ReplyDeleteExcellent movie!!! Nature's backdrop was breathtakingly gorgeous!!!
ReplyDeleteThis film is truly brilliant, awe inspiring, beautiful and most of all teaches us the will to survive.
ReplyDeletethis movie took my breath away. I thought it was an incredible film. it had us on the edge of our seats in suspension as the tale unfolds. Leonardo was amazing. this is award wining material. loved it, would definitely see it again
ReplyDeleteI liked how Glass returned to the woods after barely escaping them. His tenacity is the truest definition of bad-ass. I never was bored for a moment during this incredible film. The scenery was my favorite part. Kudos to the director for going to these great lengths to film. Legendary!
ReplyDeleteWonderful film, wonderful performances, being from hot Australia, the scenery blew my mind, I felt for Leo crawling around a lot of the movie on his belly, it must have been hell. The makeup was incrediable, his flesh tears looked so real. Congrats to all concerned, great movie and congrats Leo, well deserved BAFTA and probably overdue if you do end up taking home the OSCAR
ReplyDeleteHE WON. SO GREAT FOR THE MAN AND HIS FIRST OSCAR.
ReplyDeleteBesides great nature at display and superb acting, cast of native characters looked authentic. Southern dialect added to the authenticity of characters. Maybe one needs to see it once again to catch the entire story with context. Superb movie!
ReplyDelete. . good movie, great effort by everyone and hats off for the director's persistence and cinematographer's brilliance in capturing the soul of the movie through realistic eye of the camera . . probably the most gripping since Mel Gibson's Apocalypto . . .
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love this film! Definitely in my top 10 ever!
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing movie! The scenery was amazing and Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't of played the role any better. Definitely recommend this movie.
ReplyDeleteWow - the scenery was breathtaking with the majestic mountains with and without snow. I loved the movie - no wonder Leo also won a Granmy award...
ReplyDeleteThis was based on the true. Life story of John Colter and it took place in and around Three-Forks, Montana. Jim Bridger was a trapper with John Colter at times. Read up on John Colter. The script was torn from the history books with the standard Hollywood changes so as to not have to pay for the historic rights of families.
ReplyDeleteI went to the theaters to see this movie and was blown away. The acting incredible and the scenery was stunning. I was entranced from start to finish. I have always enjoyed many movies Leo DiCaprio had made but this one he outdid himself, definitely Oscar worthy. Im glad this won best movie, director and Leo for leading man, well deserved.
ReplyDeleteJust finished the movie and feel as though I've grown some chest hair (am female)... great acting and filming, awesome scenery. Haven't enjoyed a movie this much since Last of the Mohicans.
ReplyDeleteBit late to the party but blown away by this film. Gripping from start to finish.
ReplyDeletegreat use of location. only seeing it after all the hype. well worth it
ReplyDeleteNice movie with nice location.
ReplyDeleteAll comments are reviewed prior to publication