England · 1985–86 · Stanley Kubrick
30 psi. Hard tyres on a rough floor: the frame judders.
Parris Island was a barracks off the Royston road. Huế was a gasworks in Newham. The camera ran on tyres let down almost flat.
Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire
The first half of the film is a Marine Corps boot camp in South Carolina. It was shot at an Army barracks on an old RAF airfield, three miles north of Royston.
The former RAF station, then a British Army base, played the Parris Island boot camp.
It was used for location filming in 1985. Some Vietnam scenes were shot here too, and the imported palm trees were left on site for a time.
Douglas Milsome, the cinematographer, says the huts for the Tet scenes were built at Bassingbourn as well, across from the camp that doubled as Parris Island.
The Army took over the old airfield in January 1970. Since December 2018 it has been the Mission Ready Training Centre.
A working Army training site with no public entry. Look, don’t go in.
The real one, never filmed
Parris Island Museum, Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, Port Royal, South Carolina
The real boot camp has been the Marine Corps recruit depot since 1 November 1915. None of the film was shot here.
Some 17,000 to 19,000 recruits train here every year.
R. Lee Ermey had been a drill instructor at San Diego, not Parris Island, before he joined the film as a technical adviser.
Civilians may enter the depot only to visit the museum.
The technical adviser
A former Marine drill instructor, Ermey was hired to advise. Kubrick videotaped him interviewing British Territorial Army volunteers who were up for the Marine parts, and cast him as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman.
Kubrick reckoned Ermey wrote about half of his own lines.
Ermey hired as technical adviser; the videotape with Territorial Army volunteers; the casting.
AFI Catalog: Full Metal Jacket (1987)Wikipedia: Full Metal Jacket
Kubrick’s estimate that Ermey wrote half his dialogue.
The squad bay · a set at Enfield
The barracks were built as a set at Enfield and lit from outside, so the camera could turn all the way round. Every window had four 600-watt lamps behind it. The floor was rough, so Douglas Milsome let the air out of an old Moviola dolly’s tyres until they were almost flat. Do the same, then track past the windows: England is behind every one.
The barracks set built at Enfield; all the lighting outside it so the camera could shoot 360 degrees; seven windows with four 600-watt Par lamps each; the old Moviola dolly with its pneumatic tyres let down to a minimum, which made the shot smooth on the uneven floor.
American Cinematographer: Douglas Milsome on Full Metal Jacket
The tyre pressures on this page are steps for the controls, not figures from the shoot.
American Cinematographer: Douglas Milsome on Full Metal Jacket
Window 1 of 7: Bassingbourn Barracks. 30 psi. Hard tyres on a rough floor: the frame judders.
Behind window 1
Bassingbourn Barracks, 3.2 miles north of Royston, South Cambridgeshire
The former RAF station, then a British Army base, played the Parris Island boot camp.
It was used for location filming in 1985. Some Vietnam scenes were shot here too, and the imported palm trees were left on site for a time.
A working Army training site with no public entry. Look, don’t go in.
Parris Island to Huế
The film goes from a recruit depot in South Carolina to a city in central Vietnam. Kubrick said it was cheaper, and more accurate, to build that reality than to go there.
Parris Island to the Meridian Gate in Huế: about 14,516 km in a straight line.
Kubrick on building reality being cheaper and more accurate than location shooting in Vietnam.
Distances are straight lines between the map points of the Parris Island Museum, the Meridian Gate in Huế, Bassingbourn Barracks and Gallions Reach Shopping Park on the gasworks site.
Wikipedia: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris IslandWikipedia: Imperial City of HuếWikipedia: Bassingbourn BarracksWikipedia: Beckton Gas Works
Beckton, London E6
The battle for Huế, in 1968, is the second half of the film. Kubrick found it at a British Gas works in East London that was already waiting for the demolition men.
Beckton: the blocks the designers matched to photographs of Huế in 1968.
The disused gasworks, a few miles from central London and due for demolition, played Huế after the attacks.
Kubrick and the designer Anton Furst worked from photographs of Huế taken in 1968. Kubrick chose the British Gas site because it looked so like them.
Over six weeks the art department knocked down chosen buildings and dressed the rest as Huế. A wrecking ball opened holes in some of them over two months.
Two hundred palm trees came from Spain and 100,000 plastic tropical plants from Hong Kong. Kubrick had turned down a plastic jungle from California.
Little of the works is left. Two shopping parks, an industrial estate and the DLR depot stand on the site.
The gasworks’ own hill
Beckton Alps, by the A13, Beckton
The gasworks’ spoil heaps, known ironically as the Beckton Alps, are the highest point in Newham and said to be the highest artificial hill in London.
From 1989 to 2001 a dry ski slope, opened by Diana, Princess of Wales, ran on what was left of the heap.
It is now a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade II.
A wooded hill beside the A13, best seen from the junction that shares its name.
The real city, never filmed
The Meridian Gate, Imperial City, Huế, Vietnam
The real Huế: begun in 1804 under Emperor Gia Long, the Imperial City faces the Perfume River.
It became a World Heritage Site in 1993, as part of the Complex of Huế Monuments.
The fighting of 1968 did great damage. Of 160 buildings, ten major sites remain, and restoration goes on.
The walled Imperial City is entered through the Meridian Gate, facing the Perfume River.
Isle of Dogs and the Royal Docks
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Around the gasworks the film used docks, a Thames marsh and the Norfolk Broads. About 5,000 Vietnamese Londoners were hired as extras for the Da Nang streets.
Roughly 5,000 members of London’s Vietnamese community hired for the Da Nang street scenes.
Rayleigh Road, on the south side of the Royal Victoria Dock, Silvertown
It is one of the East London places the film was shot, with the Beckton gasworks and the Isle of Dogs.
William Vernon & Sons built the mill in 1905. Partly destroyed in the 1917 Silvertown explosion, it was rebuilt in 1933 as a ten-storey concrete art deco building.
The Royal Docks closed in 1981. On 21 April 2015 Newham gave permission for a £3.5 billion redevelopment that includes the mill.
Behind hoardings while it is rebuilt. See it across the Royal Victoria Dock.
Royal Victoria Dock
A hotel on a superyacht moored in the Royal Victoria Dock, E16 1AA, across the water from the Millennium Mills. Its Sundown Bar looks over the dock.
See the hotelThe Isle of Dogs docklands, Tower Hamlets
The film was shot on the Isle of Dogs as well as at Beckton and Millennium Mills.
A public district of docks and towers. No single street from the film is recorded, so it is not pinned.
RSPB Cliffe Pools, Salt Lane, Cliffe, Rochester, Kent ME3 7SU
The open-country scenes were filmed on the marshes at Cliffe-at-Hoo and along the River Thames.
The reserve looks across lagoons and pools to the Thames. Avocets and common terns breed on the saltwater pools in spring.
An RSPB reserve. The car park, about 40 spaces, opens daily from 10am to 4pm; dogs on leads on the public paths only.
The Wessex helicopters painted to stand in for H-34s.
The Broads, Norfolk and Suffolk
The helicopter scenes over the delta were filmed above the Broads, not the Mekong.
There are seven rivers and 63 broads, formed when old peat workings flooded, with more than 200 km of navigable water.
The end credits thank National Trust Norfolk.
More than 200 km of navigable rivers and broads, by hired boat or on foot. No exact flight path is recorded, so it is not pinned.
The Broads
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The last march
The film ends with the platoon marching past the burning chimneys of the gasworks.
Milsome lit it with the fires themselves. Oil burners called Dantes made the big background blazes, with black smoke and a lot of colour, and the final scenes were shot at dusk, when the flames looked brightest.
The closing march against the burning chimneys.
Dantes, their black smoke and colour, and shooting at dusk for the brighter flame.
American Cinematographer: Douglas Milsome on Full Metal Jacket
The site now holds an industrial estate, Beckton Retail Park, Gallions Reach Shopping Park and the Beckton DLR depot. Some gasholders remain.
The people
Matthew Modine is Joker, Vincent D’Onofrio is Pyle, Adam Baldwin is Animal Mother, Dorian Harewood is Eightball, Arliss Howard is Cowboy and Kevyn Major Howard is Rafterman. Kubrick wrote the script with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford, from Hasford’s novel The Short-Timers, and voiced a small radio part himself, uncredited. His daughter Vivian wrote the score as Abigail Mead.
Cast, writers, the novel, Kubrick’s uncredited voice part, Vivian Kubrick as Abigail Mead, the shooting dates, Ermey’s car crash and the premiere.
Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, 18 miles west of central London
The end credits say the film was made on location and at Pinewood Studios, Iver, Bucks.
A working studio with no public entry.
Archives and Special Collections Centre, London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle
Kubrick’s archive, from his Look magazine photographs to Eyes Wide Shut, is kept at London College of Communication.
It holds scripts, research, set plans, production papers, props, costumes, posters, sound tapes and press cuttings.
Open Monday to Friday by appointment only. Email the Archives and Special Collections Centre first.
8949 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California
Full Metal Jacket had its premiere here on 17 June 1987. It opened across the United States on 26 June and in Britain on 11 September.
The Academy’s own screening theatre; see the building from Wilshire Boulevard.
10 places on the map: 7 in England and 3 on the far side of the story. The Isle of Dogs and the Broads are named but not pinned.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working Army training site with no public entry. Look, don’t go in.
Bassingbourn Barracks, 3.2 miles north of Royston, South Cambridgeshire
The former RAF station, then a British Army base, played the Parris Island boot camp.
A working Army training site with no public entry. Look, don’t go in.
Stay
A yacht hotel moored in the Royal Victoria Dock, opposite the Millennium Mills.
Royal Victoria Dock
A hotel on a superyacht moored in the Royal Victoria Dock, E16 1AA, across the water from the Millennium Mills. Its Sundown Bar looks over the dock.
See the hotelGo there
Docklands walks, Broads boat trips and London film-location tours.
Isle of Dogs and the Royal Docks
Live marketplace results for walking and river tours of the Docklands and the Isle of Dogs. None is built round this film; check each route.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
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Live marketplace results for boat trips and day hires on the Broads, where the helicopter shots over the delta were filmed.
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Live marketplace results for film-location tours of London. Kubrick’s archive is at Elephant and Castle, by appointment only.
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A guided walk round Cliffe Pools, where the open-country scenes were shot.
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Take it home
Two original 1987 French posters from our store, Hasford’s novel, Herr’s Dispatches and the soundtrack.
An original 1987 French poster, 40 × 60 cm, with Philip Castle’s art. Rolled, near mint.
In stock
View posterAn original 1987 French poster, 40 × 60 cm. Rolled, near mint.
In stock
View posterGustav Hasford · Bantam
Hasford’s 1979 novel of the Marine Corps in Vietnam, the book the film was made from; this is the Bantam paperback.
Find the bookMichael Herr · Vintage
Michael Herr, who wrote the screenplay with Kubrick and Hasford, on his years as a correspondent in Vietnam.
Find the bookAbigail Mead and others · CD, Warner Bros. Records, 1987
Vivian Kubrick’s score, written as Abigail Mead largely on a Fairlight and a Synclavier, with the film’s 1960s songs.
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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.
12 of 12 places · 13 of 13 Moments
Bassingbourn Barracks, 3.2 miles north of Royston, South Cambridgeshire
The Parris Island half of the film is shot at Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire.
Huts for the Tet scenes go up across the road from the camp.
The old gasworks site, now Gallions Reach Shopping Park and Beckton Retail Park, Newham
A gasworks waiting for demolition is opened up, planted with palms and becomes Huế.
The last march is filmed at dusk against the burning chimneys.
Beckton Alps, by the A13, Beckton
Rayleigh Road, on the south side of the Royal Victoria Dock, Silvertown
More of the East London shooting, at the Millennium Mills on the Royal Victoria Dock.
The Isle of Dogs docklands, Tower Hamlets
More shooting on the Isle of Dogs.
RSPB Cliffe Pools, Salt Lane, Cliffe, Rochester, Kent ME3 7SU
The open-country scenes on the marshes at Cliffe and along the Thames.
The Broads, Norfolk and Suffolk
Helicopter shots over the Norfolk Broads stand in for the Mekong delta.
Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, 18 miles west of central London
Studio work at Pinewood, in the credits.
Archives and Special Collections Centre, London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle
Kubrick’s papers, set plans and props, kept at Elephant and Castle.
8949 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California
The film’s premiere, on 17 June 1987.
Parris Island Museum, Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, Port Royal, South Carolina
The place the first half is set, never filmed.
The Meridian Gate, Imperial City, Huế, Vietnam
The city the second half is set in, never filmed.
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