Filming Locations Guide: Where was Blade Runner 2049 filmed?
Blade Runner 2049 was filmed primarily in Budapest, at Origo and Korda Studios, although additional shooting also took place in Spain, Iceland, Mexico, and Nevada in the United States. The Hungarian city provided world-class sound stages combined with beautiful Art Nouveau and Brutalist architecture. The film is set in a dystopian future of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, suffocated by a toxic climate.
The sequel to Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi masterpiece arrives 35 years later. Greeted with strong reviews, Blade Runner 2049 feels like an extension of the original movie that featured stunning visual environments, a mind-blowing story, and the unforgettable soundtrack from Vangelis.
Ryan Gosling plays Officer K, an android hunter known as a “blade runner”, and Harrison Ford returns to his role as Rick Deckard. After the acclaimed Arrival, Canadian film director Denis Villeneuve had the responsibility to bring this ambitious project to success.
Congratulations. You’ve made it to the ultimate guide to Blade Runner 2049 filming locations. Now let’s get started:
The sequel to Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi masterpiece arrives 35 years later. Greeted with strong reviews, Blade Runner 2049 feels like an extension of the original movie that featured stunning visual environments, a mind-blowing story, and the unforgettable soundtrack from Vangelis.
Ryan Gosling plays Officer K, an android hunter known as a “blade runner”, and Harrison Ford returns to his role as Rick Deckard. After the acclaimed Arrival, Canadian film director Denis Villeneuve had the responsibility to bring this ambitious project to success.
Congratulations. You’ve made it to the ultimate guide to Blade Runner 2049 filming locations. Now let’s get started:
The facade of this building, engulfed by a sandstorm in 2049 Las Vegas, was built in a set. The production tried to avoid using green screens and CGI as much as possible, filming on camera all the scenes that they could.
Image by courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures
The interior of the vintage casino in Las Vegas was filmed in the old Budapest Stock Exchange Palace (also known as the MTV building) in Liberty Square, Budapest. Some scenes for the first season of the Hanna series were also filmed here.
The exterior shots of K's apartment and the snowy street where Ryan Gosling walks down were filmed at the junction of Szalay and Honvéd streets in Budapest.
Image by courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures and Google Maps
The shipyard was filmed in an abandoned power plant, digitally altered to make it look rounder. The real place is located in an old industrial complex on the outskirts of Budapest. After reports of vandalism to the building, we decided not to publish the exact location of this spot.
Image by courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures and Vnately Altstadter
Many locations are just studio sets. The crew built everything, including the cool Peugeot flying car with scissor doors.
Also, like in the original Blade Runner, some sequences were made using crafted miniatures made by Weta Workshop in New Zealand. By the way that LAPD stands for Los Angeles Police Department.
You can only hang out in Bibi's bar in Blade Runner's cinematographic version of LA (and also if you have a time-travel machine, in Comic-Con 2017, where the studio reproduced a replica of the cantina).
Do the amazing rooms of Wallace corporation exist somewhere? Only in the stuido, although it is inspired by designs of Mexican architect Luis Barragán. There is a corridor in Casa Gilardi in Mexico City that is identical to one of the rooms the characters pass through.
The hall of Wallace's office was a design for the unbuilt Neanderthal Museum in Piloña, Spain, by Estudio Barozzi Veiga. Concept Artist for Blade Runner 2049, Peter Popken, had permission from the architectural firm to use a version of this image in the film.
Images by courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures and Estudio Barozzi Veiga
Some aerial shots were filmed in Nevada (the Valley of Fire, the skyline of Las Vegas, and the solar power plants in the Mojave Desert near the border with California). The filmmakers also included establishing shots of Iceland (the cloudy black sand desert and a flying car over a rough sea), and the favelas (slums) in Mexico City.
A small team was sent to Spain to film the sea of greenhouses in El Ejido (AlmerÃa), and the Gemasolar Power Station near Seville. Image by Pere Papasseit
In an interview with LMGI, location manager Emma Pill commented that the place where K meets the Replicant Freedom Movement, with concrete pyramids coming down from the ceiling, is an actual location. They found it in the basement of a massive abandoned building somewhere in the Hungarian capital city.
The seashore scene at the end of the movie was shot in a huge water tank that took eight weeks to build in the studios in Budapest. Here is a video of the set.
Images by courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures and Tested
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I think the aerial images in the begging of the movie, the big greenhouses area it's the part filmed in Spain. A place called El Ejido, in AlmerÃa, famous for being visible from space.
ReplyDeleteCalle Cicerón
Calle Cicerón, 04715 El Ejido, AlmerÃa
https://goo.gl/maps/7FqtK8A2wf42
Thanks a lot, Luis!
DeleteI think the aerial images of the solar power station at the beginning (just before the greenhouses) are from NOOR III solar power station near Ouarzazate Morocco.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouarzazate_Solar_Power_Station
https://goo.gl/maps/W5f4EpJwkj72
http://dilus.es/web2/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/gemasolar-600x375.jpg
Thank you, though this may not be the power station seen in the movie.
DeleteEdit to my previous post: in fact it's more likely to be the Gemasolar Power Plan near Seville Spain which is not very far from the greenhouses (250 km)
ReplyDeletehttps://goo.gl/maps/vie8w7H32KR2
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1393879/Gemasolar-Power-Plant-The-worlds-solar-power-station-generates-electricity-NIGHT.html
I was curious, when did they beging actually filming 2049 ? 2015?
ReplyDeleteIn July 2016 in Budapest, Hungary.
DeleteThe steel scrap yard might be the ship recycling operation in Alang, India. Link: https://www.google.com.pr/search?q=ship+breaking+alang&rlz=1C5CHFA_enPR737PR737&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnjeHb24bXAhXG0SYKHVUrCDQQsAQINg&biw=1333&bih=755&dpr=2
ReplyDeletehi guys, Im in Budapest this week, trying to find this old Budapest Stock Exchange Palace building in Liberty Square, but i cant see it. Any help appreciated - is it around here?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.hr/maps/@47.4991519,19.0514401,444a,35y,351.56h,56.2t/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en
It's very easy Eddie, there's a link to the map below the caption of the palace, with the excat location: https://goo.gl/maps/Lq11VnF7grs
DeleteThat railing, towards the end of the movie: what building is it in?
ReplyDeleteWhere is located the 'beach' or seashore at the end of the movie?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, but where is it located?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteNote: To protect the old power plant from vandalism, we decided to remove the name and location of this place from our article. Thanks for your understanding.
DeleteYou can find K's apartment in Budapest at the crossing of Honved utca and Szalay utca.
ReplyDeletehttps://goo.gl/maps/Wyzmf8Efd7T2
That's great, updated!
DeleteDoes anyone know where the exteriors of the “memory maker building” were shot? (This is the building in the final scene where K lies down on the steps.
ReplyDeleteAccording to these, the abandoned power plant is in Budapest, someone else has also visited it but unfortunately there is no details where there exactly:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.instagram.com/p/BbNPeWOnWeY/?taken-by=davidderueda
https://www.boredpanda.com/photos-cold-war-buildings-david-de-rueda/
As for the memory lab exterior, I don't believe it is a real building, in the Making of document on Blu-ray it seemed to be just a studio set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsy7P48EL2o Seen this? Can't figure out what he says the name of the Studio is.
ReplyDeleteVery cool, thanks Dean!
DeleteJust to let you all know … K's apartment building in Budapest and the old stock exchange building (in Liberty Square) used for the casino are only 5 minutes walk from each other. Also (but of much lesser importance) the streets used for the moped / car chase sequence in 'Spy' are between 'St Stephens Basilica' and Liberty Square. Note that as of August 2019 the very distinctive gold quarter circle handles of the 'casino entrance' are still in place and are very noticeable/recognisable' !
ReplyDeleteAll comments are reviewed prior to publication