Lee High · last day of school · 28 May 1976Filmed round Austin, summer 1992
One last bell, one long night, and the school that played Lee High closed on the same date fifty years later. Try the combination
Locker 76 · three wheels
The whole film happens between one last bell and the next sunrise. The locker opens with that day’s date, month first, the American way. There is a second combination too.
Locker 76 is shut. Set the three wheels to a date, then pull the handle.
Inside locker 76 · the night in order
0:02:55 into the film
Bedichek Middle School · 6800 Bill Hughes Road, Austin, TX 78745
The last afternoon of school at Lee High, 28 May 1976.
0:23:58 into the film
The Americana sign, Yarborough Branch Library · 2200 Hancock Drive, Austin, TX 78756
Senior girls round up the incoming freshman girls in the cinema car park.
0:30:01 into the film
Top Notch · 7525 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78757
At the drive-in, Wooderson says it for the first time.
0:41:51 into the film
Violet Crown Shopping Center · 6610 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX 78752
The night gathers in the car park outside the pool hall.
1:14:55 into the film
Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park · 6614 Blue Bluff Road, Austin, TX 78724
The party at the moon tower, round a replica built for the shoot.
1:26:47 into the film
Toney Burger Activity Center · 3200 Jones Road, Austin, TX 78745
Sunrise on the 50-yard line of the football field.
Running times and the order of the scenes follow The End of Austin’s walk-through of the film, scene by scene.
Inside locker 76 · 28 May 2026
The film is set on 28 May 1976, the last day of school at Lee High.
Its last day with students was Thursday 28 May 2026. The halls, Fox 7 said, were made famous by the film.
The school opened in 1972 and closed at the end of the 2025–26 school year.
South Austin · 6800 Bill Hughes Road
Bedichek Middle School in south Austin stood in for Lee High School, where the film’s last day of school takes place.
The film is set on 28 May 1976, the last day of school at Lee High.
The school opened in 1972 and closed at the end of the 2025–26 school year.
Its last day with students was Thursday 28 May 2026. The halls, Fox 7 said, were made famous by the film.
The school has closed. See it from Bill Hughes Road; the building and grounds are not open to visitors.
Burnet Road and Hancock Drive · north Austin
2200 Hancock Drive, Austin, TX 78756
In the car park of the Americana Theater the senior girls round up the incoming freshman girls.
The cinema has gone, but its Americana sign still stands. The building is now the Yarborough Branch of the Austin Public Library.
A public library: open Monday to Thursday 9am–8pm, Friday 9am–5pm, Saturday 10am–5pm; closed on Sundays. The sign stands by the car park.
7525 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78757
Top Notch was the film’s drive-in burger joint. Here Matthew McConaughey, as Wooderson, first said “Alright, alright, alright”.
Ray and Frances Stanish bought Burkhart’s Motor Dining and reopened it as Top Notch Hamburgers in 1971. The family ran it for 39 years and sold it in 2010; the new owners changed little.
It has been on Burnet Road since 1971. A second Top Notch opened in Hutto in March 2023.
A working drive-in restaurant. Its listing gives no hours: call (512) 452-2181 before you go.
Austin
Live marketplace results for film-location and city tours of Austin. None is run by the film’s makers; check each itinerary for Burnet Road and the moonlight towers.
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Compare toursThe Emporium · one pool hall
The pool hall in the film is two buildings. Step through its door and you cross about 1.1 miles (1.8 km, as the crow flies) of north Austin.
The car park of the Violet Crown Shopping Center, North Lamar Boulevard.
6610 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX 78752
The Violet Crown Shopping Center was the outside of the Emporium, the pool hall where the night gathers. Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey can be seen hanging around it.
Outside the Emporium, Wooderson hangs out with Pink, Mitch and Don.
Stiles Switch BBQ now trades in the shopping center, at 6610 North Lamar Boulevard.
Stiles Switch BBQ is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11am, until 8pm (8.30pm on Friday and Saturday); closed on Mondays.
6507 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78757
A 2018 Austin guide puts the Emporium’s inside shots here, when the building was a bar called the Poodle Dog Lounge.
It is now the Aristocrat Lounge, a neighbourhood bar near Burnet and Koenig Lane where you can play pool.
The Texas Film Commission names only the outside, at the Violet Crown Shopping Center.
A working bar for adults. Check its own listing for opening hours.
Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park · east of Austin
The party at the moon tower was shot here, east of Austin, round a replica tower 20 to 30 feet high. The base and the top of the tower in the film look quite unlike the real towers.
The replica built for the shoot: 20 to 30 feet. Feet are marked up the side.
At 2,480 acres it is Austin’s largest park, round a 1,200-acre lake.
Vehicles pay $5 a day Monday to Thursday and $10 Friday to Sunday and on holidays, by card or coins (no cash); walking or cycling in costs $1. The boat ramp is closed while Decker Dam is repaired.
Zilker Park, 2100 Barton Springs Road, Austin, TX 78704
Austin bought 31 second-hand towers from Detroit in 1894 and put them up in 1894–95. Each is 165 feet high; fifteen survive.
The Zilker Park tower, moved there from Emma Long Metropolitan Park, is the centre of the Zilker Holiday Tree.
The tree is 39 streamers of LED bulbs, 3,309 lights in all, strung from the tower to 19 poles round its base.
Free, in Zilker Park. The tree is lit round it from 29 November to 1 January.
West 41st Street and Speedway, Austin, TX 78751
The tower on the south-west corner of West 41st Street and Speedway is one of the fifteen that survive.
A photograph dated 1895, credited to the Austin History Center, shows it new, alone over an unpaved road.
The towers went on the National Register of Historic Places on 12 July 1976.
Free. It stands on the south-west corner of the crossing, in a residential street: look from the pavement.
3200 Jones Road · south Austin
The night ends at sunrise on the 50-yard line of the football field here.
The stadium holds 15,000. There is also a 5,500-seat arena and a 3,000-seat baseball field with lights for evening games.
Austin ISD’s sports complex. Watch from the stands at a public game; the district sells tickets through its athletics pages.
Congress Avenue · 28 September 2024
On 28 September 2024 the Austin Film Society and Focus Features showed the film here for its 30th anniversary, with a Q&A with Richard Linklater and the cast.
At the reunion were Anthony Rapp, Milla Jovovich, Marissa Ribisi, Joey Lauren Adams, Christine Harnos, Michelle Thomas and Wiley Wiggins, among others.
The theatre opened on 11 October 1915 as the Majestic. It seats 1,270 and was listed on the National Register on 23 June 1976.
A working theatre on Congress Avenue. Check its own listings for what is on.
The people
Richard Linklater drew on his own teenage years in Huntsville, Texas. Matthew McConaughey was a film student at the University of Texas when he met the casting director, Don Phillips, in a hotel bar where a friend worked; Wooderson was meant to be a small part cast locally. Ben Affleck plays O’Bannion, Jason London plays Pink and Wiley Wiggins plays Mitch.
Huntsville, McConaughey’s casting, the cast, the shooting dates, the budget, the release in 183 cinemas on 24 September 1993 and the North American gross.
10 places you can visit in and around Austin, in four parts of town. Bedichek has closed: see it from the street. The homes in the film are left off.
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. A public library: open Monday to Thursday 9am–8pm, Friday 9am–5pm, Saturday 10am–5pm; closed on Sundays. The sign stands by the car park.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working drive-in restaurant. Its listing gives no hours: call (512) 452-2181 before you go.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Stiles Switch BBQ is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11am, until 8pm (8.30pm on Friday and Saturday); closed on Mondays.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working bar for adults. Check its own listing for opening hours.
2200 Hancock Drive, Austin, TX 78756
In the car park of the Americana Theater the senior girls round up the incoming freshman girls.
A public library: open Monday to Thursday 9am–8pm, Friday 9am–5pm, Saturday 10am–5pm; closed on Sundays. The sign stands by the car park.
7525 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78757
Top Notch was the film’s drive-in burger joint. Here Matthew McConaughey, as Wooderson, first said “Alright, alright, alright”.
A working drive-in restaurant. Its listing gives no hours: call (512) 452-2181 before you go.
6610 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX 78752
The Violet Crown Shopping Center was the outside of the Emporium, the pool hall where the night gathers. Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey can be seen hanging around it.
Stiles Switch BBQ is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11am, until 8pm (8.30pm on Friday and Saturday); closed on Mondays.
6507 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78757
A 2018 Austin guide puts the Emporium’s inside shots here, when the building was a bar called the Poodle Dog Lounge.
A working bar for adults. Check its own listing for opening hours.
Stay
A hotel in the old Crest Inn building, by the lake.
Downtown Austin
Not a filming location. The cast stayed at the Crest Hotel on Congress Avenue during the shoot; the 1965 Crest Inn building at Congress and Cesar Chavez later ran as the Radisson and is now the LINE, with rooms over Lady Bird Lake. Shown here: the Paramount, further up Congress Avenue.
Check roomsGo there
Tours of Austin to compare; none is the film’s own.
Austin
Live marketplace results for film-location and city tours of Austin. None is run by the film’s makers; check each itinerary for Burnet Road and the moonlight towers.
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Compare toursCentral Austin
Live marketplace results for guided bike tours of Austin. Check each route for the moonlight towers and Zilker Park.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
The Zilker Park tower lit for the winter, and the light trail beside it.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
An original 1993 poster, the oral history of the shoot and the first soundtrack CD.
An original 1993 poster, 27 × 40 inches, rolled, mint. Unframed or in a black, white, oak or walnut frame.
In stock
View posterMelissa Maerz · Harper
The making of the film, told by the people who made it, 2020.
Find the bookVarious artists · CD, The Medicine Label, 1993
The first soundtrack album, US, 28 September 1993.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 9 of 9 Moments
6800 Bill Hughes Road, Austin, TX 78745
The last afternoon of school at Lee High, 28 May 1976.
2200 Hancock Drive, Austin, TX 78756
Senior girls round up the incoming freshman girls in the cinema car park.
7525 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78757
At the drive-in, Wooderson says it for the first time.
6610 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX 78752
The night gathers in the car park outside the pool hall.
6507 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78757
Inside, round the pool tables.
6614 Blue Bluff Road, Austin, TX 78724
The party at the moon tower, round a replica built for the shoot.
3200 Jones Road, Austin, TX 78745
Sunrise on the 50-yard line of the football field.
Zilker Park, 2100 Barton Springs Road, Austin, TX 78704
The kind of tower the party is named after. None of the real ones was used for the shoot.
West 41st Street and Speedway, Austin, TX 78751
713 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX 78701
The 30th-anniversary screening, with Linklater and the cast on stage.
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