GothamLaSalle Street, Chicago · 2007IMAX + 35mm

The Dark Knight

Christian Bale, Bruce Wayne, July 2008. Mutari · Public domain
Aaron Eckhart, Harvey Dent, July 2008. Mutari · Public domain
Heath Ledger, the Joker, 2006. Siebbi · CC BY 3.0

Clean side up: LaSalle Street, in the heart of the banking district.

Searchlight over the Loop

Swing the beam.

Gotham was built from Chicago. Point the light at a building and it tells you what it played.

The beam finds 330 N Wabash: wayne enterprises.

The black steel grid of 330 North Wabash rising beside the curved balconies of Marina City — 330 North Wabash, the dark tower on the right, beside Marina City, March 2022. Chris Rycroft · CC BY 2.0

330 North Wabash Avenue, on the river

330 North Wabash (the former IBM Building)

Wayne Enterprises is the former IBM building at 330 North Wabash Avenue.

The IBM Building was the site of the Wayne Enterprises boardroom.

The Langham hotel is inside the tower; the rest is offices. The plaza on the river side is the best place to look up.

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The Langham

The Langham, Chicago

330 North Wabash Avenue, Chicago

A hotel inside 330 North Wabash, the former IBM Building that played Wayne Enterprises: the last office building Mies van der Rohe designed.

Check rooms

Skydeck Chicago

Skydeck and The Ledge

233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago · Daily 9am–8pm, Saturdays to 9pm (1 Oct–28 Feb)

The 103rd floor of the tower Batman looks down from, and the glass boxes that reach out from it.

Book a time

433 West Van Buren Street

Open the frame.

The opening bank robbery was filmed at the Old Chicago Post Office, which the production used for several scenes. The robbery came first: the crew started in Chicago with the prologue several weeks before principal photography began.

A huge limestone office block with rows of lit windows over an empty expressway at night — The Old Chicago Main Post Office at night, November 2025. Spatms · CC BY-SA 4.0

Letterboxed, as most of the film is. The bank job was not.

Graham, Anderson, Probst & White designed it, and it was completed in two phases, in 1921 and 1932. It also appears in Batman Begins and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Bill Davies bought the run-down building in 2011 for $38 million. It was sold to 601W in 2016, renovated by Gensler, and opened to office tenants in October 2019. It now holds more than 2.5 million square feet of offices and event space, with a 3.5-acre rooftop.

Offices since 2019. See the long front from Van Buren Street; the building itself is for tenants and events.

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LaSalle Street · Lower Wacker · Lower Lower Randolph

Flip the truck.

A 40-foot tractor-trailer, in the middle of the banking district.

An Art Deco skyscraper with a pyramid roof closing the end of a street of stone banks — The Chicago Board of Trade Building at the end of LaSalle Street, June 2024. Warren LeMay · CC BY-SA 2.0

LaSalle Street to the Board of Trade, Financial District

LaSalle Street

A 40-foot tractor-trailer was flipped in the heart of the city’s banking district, on LaSalle Street. Most of the Bat-Pod sequences were filmed with IMAX cameras.

A public street of banks. Stand at Jackson Boulevard and look north, with the Board of Trade at your back.

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A dim underground roadway with steel columns, yellow lamps and a blurred taxi — Lower Wacker Drive under the city, March 2010. Paul Sableman · CC BY 2.0

Under Wacker Drive along the Chicago River

Lower Wacker Drive

Choose Chicago names Lower Wacker Drive as the place where the chase scenes between Batman and the Joker were shot. The chase ran down Upper and Lower Wacker Drive and Lower Lower Randolph.

A working road with no pavement to speak of. See it from the river-cruise dock at 112 East Lower Wacker Drive; do not walk the carriageway.

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Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue

Millennium Station

The Bat-Pod takes a side route through the newly remodelled train station under Millennium Park.

A working commuter station under Millennium Park. The stairs at Randolph and Michigan go straight down.

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Viator · Ad / affiliate

Chicago film-location tours

Chicago

Live marketplace results for film-location tours of downtown Chicago. Check each itinerary for the Dark Knight stops.

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Scene 1 of 3 · The last stand

Two faces.

Every scene here has a Chicago face and a far side, made somewhere else. Flip Dent’s coin to see which one you get.

Clean side: 401 North Wabash (then under construction), in Chicago.

A stepped glass skyscraper with a spire beside the Chicago River — The finished tower at 401 North Wabash, September 2016. Alvesgaspar · CC BY-SA 4.0

401 North Wabash Avenue, across the river from 330

401 North Wabash (then under construction)

The tower’s exterior, still under construction, was used for a pivotal confrontation between Batman and the Joker.

Finished in 2009 and now a hotel and flats. See it from the Riverwalk or the Wabash Avenue bridge.

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Shed 1 was built in 1915–17 by Short Brothers and enlarged in 1926–27 to house the airship R101, which crashed near Beauvais a few hours after leaving in October 1930. Each shed is 812 feet long and 180 feet high. The Dark Knight filmed in Shed 2, as did Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Rises and Inception.

The last nine days of a 127-day shoot were in Hong Kong. Filming ended on 15 November. The HKMA Information Centre on the 55th floor is free, with displays on Hong Kong’s banknotes and coins.

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The lake, Cermak Road, the Thames

Crowds and hostages.

A long pier lit up on black water, with a big wheel at its middle — Navy Pier at night, seen from above, September 2019. Matt Kieffer · CC BY-SA 2.0

Navy Pier

Navy Pier was used for a dramatic scene involving the panicked citizens of Gotham City. Navy Pier is free and open to the public all year.

Free and open to the public all year. Walk to the far end for the view back to the city.

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A glass convention hall under a wide flat cantilevered roof — The McCormick Place West Building on Cermak Road, November 2022. Warren LeMay · CC BY-SA 2.0

McCormick Place West

The Convention Hall at McCormick Place West stood in for the Wayne Enterprises warehouse.

A working convention centre: the halls are open to people attending a show. The glass front is on Cermak Road.

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A brick power station with four white chimneys under a pale sky — Battersea Power Station, restored, in 2023. Bartholomeus Thoth · CC BY 4.0

Battersea Power Station

Rachel’s hostage scenes were shot at Battersea Power Station in mid-October 2007, with a false wall lined with explosives to protect the listed building.

Battersea A was built between 1929 and 1935. The B station stopped generating in October 1983, and the building is listed Grade II*. The main building opened to the public on 14 October 2022.

Open to the public, with shops and restaurants inside. Lift 109 runs up the north-west chimney; book ahead.

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Battersea Power Station

Lift 109, Battersea Power Station

Nine Elms, London · Adults £15.90–£20.90 when tickets went on sale

A glass lift up the inside of the north-west chimney of the building where Rachel’s hostage scenes were shot, to a viewpoint 109 metres up.

Book the lift

Bale · Ledger · Eckhart · Nolan, in 2006–08

The people.

Christian Bale at the Barcelona premiere, July 2008. Mutari · Public domain
Christian BaleBruce Wayne
Heath Ledger at the Berlin Film Festival, February 2006. Siebbi · CC BY 3.0
Heath Ledgerthe Joker
Aaron Eckhart at the Barcelona premiere, July 2008. Mutari · Public domain
Aaron EckhartHarvey Dent
Christopher Nolan in Leicester Square, July 2008. Cristiano Betta · CC BY 2.0
Christopher Nolandirector

Christian Bale plays Bruce Wayne, and did the ledge stunt on the Sears Tower himself. Christopher Nolan directed, and turned Chicago into Gotham.

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Christian Bale plays Bruce Wayne / Batman; Heath Ledger died in January 2008, aged 28; his performance was complete and the Joker’s story was not changed.
Wikipedia: The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan transformed Chicago into Gotham City for the film.
Choose Chicago: Chicago in the movies, film tours and events

Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger died in January 2008, aged 28, six months before the film opened. His performance was finished, and Nolan left the Joker’s story as it was.

Heath Ledger won the Oscar for Actor in a Supporting Role for The Dark Knight at the 81st Academy Awards, on 22 February 2009, at the Kodak Theatre. His father Kim Ledger, his mother Sally Bell and his sister Kate Ledger accepted it for him.

The Kodak Theatre was renamed the Dolby Theatre on 1 May 2012. Its guided tours include a look at an Oscar statuette.

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Christian Bale signing autographs for a crowd of fans with cameras — Christian Bale signing autographs at the European premiere of The Dark Knight, July 2008. Cristiano Betta · CC BY 2.0

Dolby Theatre

Dolby Theatre tour

6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles

A guided tour of the theatre where Heath Ledger’s Oscar was presented in 2009, when it was still the Kodak Theatre. You get to see an Oscar statuette.

See times

Gotham by daylight.

Where it is now

13 places you can visit, from the Loop to Hong Kong. The airship sheds are a working studio: you see them from the road.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Offices since 2019. See the long front from Van Buren Street; the building itself is for tenants and events.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public street of banks. Stand at Jackson Boulevard and look north, with the Board of Trade at your back.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working commuter station under Millennium Park. The stairs at Randolph and Michigan go straight down.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Skydeck is open every day of the year. From 1 October to 28 February it opens 9am to 8pm, to 9pm on Saturdays; last entry 30 minutes before closing.

The Old Chicago Main Post Office at night, November 2025. Spatms · CC BY-SA 4.0
433 West Van Buren Street, West Loop
Old Chicago Main Post Office
The opening bank robbery was filmed at the Old Chicago Post Office, which the production used for several scenes.
Offices since 2019. See the long front from Van Buren Street; the building itself is for tenants and events.
Sources
The Chicago Board of Trade Building at the end of LaSalle Street, June 2024. Warren LeMay · CC BY-SA 2.0
LaSalle Street to the Board of Trade, Financial District
LaSalle Street
A 40-foot tractor-trailer was flipped in the heart of the city’s banking district, on LaSalle Street.
A public street of banks. Stand at Jackson Boulevard and look north, with the Board of Trade at your back.
Sources
The entrance to Millennium Station at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue, April 2022. PerfectSoundWhatever · CC0
Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue
Millennium Station
The Bat-Pod takes a side route through the newly remodelled train station under Millennium Park.
A working commuter station under Millennium Park. The stairs at Randolph and Michigan go straight down.
Sources
Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower, at night, September 2019. Matt Kieffer · Public domain
233 South Wacker Drive
Willis Tower (then the Sears Tower)
In an aerial shot, Batman surveys Gotham City from the top of the Willis Tower.
Skydeck is open every day of the year. From 1 October to 28 February it opens 9am to 8pm, to 9pm on Saturdays; last entry 30 minutes before closing.
Sources

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