A real dust storm rolls over Harry Thomson’s farm near Okotoks, Alberta, July 1933. Glenbow Archives, University of Calgary. Unknown photographer (Glenbow Museum NA-2199-1) · Public domain
Interstellar2014Alberta · Iceland · Los Angeles · London
Interstellar
Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain at the European premiere of Interstellar in London, October 2014. Sassy (frame from a Vimeo premiere film) · CC BY 3.0Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain at the European premiere of Interstellar in London, October 2014. Sassy (frame from a Vimeo premiere film) · CC BY 3.0Matthew McConaughey
Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain at the European premiere of Interstellar in London, October 2014. Sassy (frame from a Vimeo premiere film) · CC BY 3.0Jessica Chastain
Three books are missing from the shelf, and three faces look through the gaps. Through the gaps: Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain at the European premiere, London, October 2014 (Sassy, CC BY 3.0). Behind the shelf: a real dust storm near Okotoks, Alberta, July 1933 (Glenbow Archives, public domain).
Longview, Alberta · summer 2013
Drive the corn.
Production designer Nathan Crowley planted 500 acres of corn, to be destroyed in the film’s dust-storm scenes. Take the truck down the row.
The truck is parked at the edge of the field.
Farmland across the Highwood River from Longview, July 2015. The Cooper farm stood on private land nearby. Ingo Schwarze · CC BY 4.0
Private ranch land near Longview, south of Calgary
The Cooper farm
The land was chosen in early spring so the house would sit well against corn that had not yet been grown. Corn takes about five months to reach six feet, and a back-up field was planted in another part of Alberta.
The blight was inspired by the Dust Bowl. After watching Ken Burns’s The Dust Bowl (2012), Nolan contacted Burns and producer Dayton Duncan, who let him use some of their interviews.
Private land with no public access, and no published address. The farmland round Longview, seen from the public roads, is the country it stood in.
SourcesLongview, looking south down Highway 22, 22 August 2013, the month the Interstellar shoot reached southern Alberta. Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 4.0
128 Morrison Road, Longview
Longview School
The parent-teacher meeting, where Cooper hears the world needs farmers, was filmed at Longview School, 128 Morrison Road. Filming began in Alberta in August 2013 in a handful of southern Alberta communities, Longview among them.
A village school. Look from Morrison Road and don’t go in. Longview sits on Highway 22.
Sources
Murph’s floor · binary
Read the dust.
In the film, Cooper reads the dust patterns in Murph’s room as binary coordinates, left by a gravitational anomaly. Here the bars on the floor are real coordinates: wide is one, narrow is nought, seven to a row. The top row is degrees of latitude, the bottom row degrees of longitude, and every place in this World lies north and west.
Sources
Latitude
Longitude
0° N 0° W
A clean floor. Tap a bar to make it wide, or let the dust fall.
Okotoks and Fort Macleod
The storm.
A real dust storm rolls over Harry Thomson’s farm near Okotoks, Alberta, July 1933. Glenbow Archives, University of Calgary. Unknown photographer (Glenbow Museum NA-2199-1) · Public domain
A real dust storm rolls over Harry Thomson’s farm near Okotoks, Alberta, July 1933. Glenbow Archives, University of Calgary. Unknown photographer (Glenbow Museum NA-2199-1) · Public domain Nolan built the film’s blight on the Dust Bowl.
The Okotoks Dawgs’ home ground; the stands open for games. Tourmaline Field is next door.
Sources
Fort Macleod’s historic main street, 24th Street, July 2024. Kkiefuik · CC BY 4.0
24th Street, Fort Macleod
Fort Macleod’s main street
More dust-storm scenes with McConaughey were filmed in Fort Macleod. The Cooper family drives down Main Street through the storm. Large fans blew cellulose-based synthetic dust through the air to make the dust clouds.
The Empress Theatre on 24th Street, Fort Macleod, July 2024. Kkiefuik · CC BY 4.0
The Empress Theatre, built in 1912 at 235 24th Street, once seated four hundred for vaudeville, plays, concerts and political rallies. Today it is a cinema.
A public main street. Park and walk it; the Empress Theatre still shows films.
Sources
Ha Ling Peak and the Canmore front ranges, September 2022. The Goat Creek car park lies below the peak. Khoshhat · CC BY-SA 4.0
Spray Lakes Road · above Canmore
The way in.
The secret NORAD entrance was built in the Goat Creek car park, south of Whiteman’s Pond and below Ha Ling Peak. The family drives there along Spray Lakes Road from Canmore.
Canmore is one of the Alberta places the film used, with Okotoks, Fort Macleod and Longview. Goat Creek is a year-round trailhead in Spray Valley Provincial Park, for the Ha Ling and Goat Creek trails. Parking needs a Kananaskis Conservation Pass.
A public trailhead car park; you need a Kananaskis Conservation Pass to park. Alberta Parks says cars can currently reach it only from the south, by Spray Lakes Road from Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, so check before you drive.
Sources
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Canmore and Kananaskis tours
Canmore, Alberta
Live marketplace results for guided days in Canmore and Kananaskis, the mountains above the Goat Creek car park.
Kirkjubæjarklaustur from the air, July 2023: the village, the river and the flat lowlands running to the sea. Eysteinn Guðni Guðnason · CC BY-SA 4.0030 cm?
Miller’s water planet was filmed at Máfabót, a lowland near Kirkjubæjarklaustur between the open sea and a river. Máfabót is not somewhere you can simply visit: the crew had to make a road and bring equipment in on huge trucks.
The line is coiled on the shore. The water runs to the horizon.
In September 2013 the Reykjavík Grapevine reported that Interstellar would film at Kirkjubæjarklaustur, on the south coast. The town of Klaustur was part of the Iceland shoot.
A village on Iceland’s south coast. Máfabót, where the water planet was shot, has no public road in; the flat country round the village is what you can see.
Sources
Mann’s planet is a glacier.
The Svínafellsjökull glacier doubled for Mann’s planet. Nolan had shot on the same glacier for Batman Begins nearly a decade earlier.
Svínafellsjökull from the lagoon at its foot, August 2026. Syrio · CC BY-SA 4.0The surface of Svínafellsjökull, June 2012. Zairon · CC BY-SA 3.0Svínafellsjökull seen from Route 1, July 2024. Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0
On screen the crew hike across the ice in full gear, looking for the missing astronaut. It is an outlet glacier of Vatnajökull, and beginners can walk on it with a guide. The Iceland shoot lasted about two weeks, with about 350 crew, 130 of them local. Mock spaceships weighing about 10,000 pounds were carried in.
When a glacier day was cancelled, the close-ups of Cooper’s fight with Mann were shot in a painted motel car park.
An outlet glacier you can see from Route 1. Stay off the ice unless you are with a glacier guide. The Skaftafellsstofa visitor centre is open all year; conditions change fast outside summer.
Sources
Hotel Skaftafell
Hotel Skaftafell
Skaftafell, south-east Iceland
A family-run hotel named for Skaftafell, the national-park area beside Svínafellsjökull, in south-east Iceland.
Inside the Westin Bonaventure’s atrium, October 2011. Prayitno · CC BY 2.0
Downtown Los Angeles · 1976
NASA, in a hotel.
The lobby, with its round balconies, became the inside of the NASA base. The set reached the sixth floor, took three weeks to build and three days to film.
John Portman’s hotel was finished in 1976: four mirrored cylinders round a slightly taller central tower, on a six-storey concrete base. Inside, round concrete forms rise seven storeys from reflecting pools, and a glass lift in each quarter of the atrium climbs out through the roof.
The Los Angeles shoot ran 54 days, at the Westin Bonaventure, the Los Angeles Convention Center, a Sony Pictures soundstage in Culver City and a private home in Altadena.
A working hotel. Walk into the atrium as a guest or for a drink at one of its bars.
SourcesThe Westin Bonaventure’s mirrored towers, July 2012. Dietmar Rabich · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Sony Pictures Studios motor gate on Madison Avenue, Culver City, April 2021. Coolcaesar · CC BY-SA 4.0
10202 West Washington Boulevard, Culver City
Sony Pictures Studios
Part of the Los Angeles shoot was on a Sony Pictures soundstage in Culver City. The crew built practical sets, such as a space shuttle interior, and used miniatures. The Endurance model was 1/15 scale and 7.6 metres across; the Ranger and lander models were 14 and over 15 metres, big enough to carry IMAX cameras.
A working studio. You get in on the guided tour; free parking is in the Overland Avenue structure. The studio runs a two-hour guided walking tour, Monday to Friday, at $55. Booking is required and guests must be 12 or over.
SourcesThe TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, April 2014. Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0
6925 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
TCL Chinese Theatre
Interstellar premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on 26 October 2014. It was nominated for five Academy Awards and won Best Visual Effects.
DNEG made 850 effects shots. A team of about 30 wrote new rendering software from Kip Thorne’s equations; some frames took up to 100 hours, and the work led Thorne to publish three scientific papers.
Christopher Nolan’s handprints and footprints in the forecourt of the TCL Chinese Theatre, signed and dated 7/7/12. Sammyjankis888 · CC BY-SA 4.0
On Hollywood Boulevard. The forecourt of handprints is free to walk; look for Nolan’s.
Sources
Marriott
The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites
404 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles
Sleep in the hotel that played NASA: five 35-storey glass towers downtown, with floor-to-ceiling windows in every room.
The Temple Church organ, London, June 2014, the year Hans Zimmer recorded the score on it. Diliff · CC BY-SA 3.0
The Temple, London
The score is a church.
Hans Zimmer recorded the main score on the church’s four-manual Harrison & Harrison organ, over 45 scoring sessions.
The organ was installed in the church by its builders, Harrison & Harrison, in 1954. It has four manuals and three 32-foot stops, and its case follows drawings of the Temple’s Father Smith organ of 1688.
Usually open for sightseeing on weekdays, 10am to 4pm, and closed to sightseeing at weekends. Services change the hours, so check the church’s calendar.
Sources
The Odeon on Leicester Square, December 2019. N Chadwick · CC BY-SA 2.0
Leicester Square, West End
Odeon Leicester Square
The European premiere was at the Odeon Leicester Square on 29 October 2014. Shooting began in Alberta on 6 August 2013 and finished in December 2013; the budget was $165 million.
A working cinema on Leicester Square; buy a ticket to go in.
Sources
The people, as they were.
Matthew McConaughey in Berlin, February 2014, the winter after the Interstellar shoot. Avda · CC BY-SA 3.0
Matthew McConaugheyCooper
Anne Hathaway in Los Angeles, April 2014. Mingle MediaTV · CC BY-SA 2.0
Anne HathawayBrand
Jessica Chastain at the Cannes Film Festival, May 2014. Georges Biard · CC BY-SA 3.0
Jessica ChastainMurph
Mackenzie Foy, young Murph, at an Interstellar press conference, December 2014. DaCapo78 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Mackenzie Foyyoung Murph
Matt Damon in Paris, February 2014. Georges Biard · CC BY-SA 3.0
Every portrait here was taken in 2013 or 2014, while the film was being made or released. Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, Anne Hathaway plays Brand, Jessica Chastain and Mackenzie Foy play Murph grown and young, and Matt Damon plays Mann. Christopher Nolan directed.
Sources
Cast and roles of Interstellar, and Christopher Nolan as director.
11 places you can visit, in Alberta, Iceland, Los Angeles and London. The Cooper farm was private land and is not pinned. Longview School and Sony Pictures Studios are seen from outside unless you take the studio tour.
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 village school. Look from Morrison Road and don’t go in. Longview sits on Highway 22.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The Okotoks Dawgs’ home ground; the stands open for games. Tourmaline Field is next door.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public main street. Park and walk it; the Empress Theatre still shows films.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public trailhead car park; you need a Kananaskis Conservation Pass to park. Alberta Parks says cars can currently reach it only from the south, by Spray Lakes Road from Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, so check before you drive.
1Longview, looking south down Highway 22, 22 August 2013, the month the Interstellar shoot reached southern Alberta. Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 4.0
128 Morrison Road, Longview
Longview School
The parent-teacher meeting, where Cooper hears the world needs farmers, was filmed at Longview School, 128 Morrison Road.
A village school. Look from Morrison Road and don’t go in. Longview sits on Highway 22.
Sources
2Seaman Stadium, Okotoks, full for Canada Day 2023. Lcoutts · CC0
Okotoks, south of Calgary
Seaman Stadium
The scene where a sandstorm hits a baseball field was filmed at Seaman Stadium in Okotoks.
The Okotoks Dawgs’ home ground; the stands open for games. Tourmaline Field is next door.
Sources
3Fort Macleod’s historic main street, 24th Street, July 2024. Kkiefuik · CC BY 4.0
24th Street, Fort Macleod
Fort Macleod’s main street
More dust-storm scenes with McConaughey were filmed in Fort Macleod.
A public main street. Park and walk it; the Empress Theatre still shows films.
Sources
4Ha Ling Peak and the Canmore front ranges, September 2022. The Goat Creek car park lies below the peak. Khoshhat · CC BY-SA 4.0
Spray Lakes Road, below Ha Ling Peak, Canmore
Goat Creek car park
The secret NORAD entrance was built in the Goat Creek car park, south of Whiteman’s Pond and below Ha Ling Peak. The family drives there along Spray Lakes Road from Canmore.
A public trailhead car park; you need a Kananaskis Conservation Pass to park. Alberta Parks says cars can currently reach it only from the south, by Spray Lakes Road from Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, so check before you drive.
Sources
Stay
Sleep in NASA, or under the glacier.
The hotel that played the NASA base, and a family-run hotel in Skaftafell.
Marriott
The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites
404 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles
Sleep in the hotel that played NASA: five 35-storey glass towers downtown, with floor-to-ceiling windows in every room.
Dates, 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.
The coordinates
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 13 of 13 Moments
The Cooper farm
Private ranch land near Longview, south of Calgary
The corn
Cooper’s farm stands in 500 acres of real corn, grown for the film on land chosen the spring before.
Murph’s room
Cooper reads the dust on Murph’s floor as binary coordinates.
Longview School
128 Morrison Road, Longview
The parent-teacher meeting
Cooper is told the world needs farmers, at Longview School.
Seaman Stadium
Okotoks, south of Calgary
The ballgame
A sandstorm stops a baseball game at Seaman Stadium.
Fort Macleod’s main street
24th Street, Fort Macleod
The drive through town
The family drives down Fort Macleod’s main street through dust blown by giant fans.
Goat Creek car park
Spray Lakes Road, below Ha Ling Peak, Canmore
The way into NORAD
The secret entrance stands in a car park below Ha Ling Peak.
Svínafellsjökull
Vatnajökull National Park, east of Skaftafell
Mann’s planet
Svínafellsjökull plays the ice planet where Mann waits.
Kirkjubæjarklaustur
South coast of Iceland, west of Skaftafell
Miller’s planet
Water less than 30 centimetres deep at Máfabót plays an endless ocean.
Westin Bonaventure Hotel
404 South Figueroa Street, downtown
The NASA base
The Bonaventure’s lobby becomes the inside of the hidden NASA base.
Sony Pictures Studios
10202 West Washington Boulevard, Culver City
The soundstage
Interiors are shot on a Sony Pictures soundstage in Culver City.
TCL Chinese Theatre
6925 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
The premiere
The premiere, at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
Temple Church
The Temple, off Fleet Street, EC4Y 7BB
The organ
Hans Zimmer records the score on the Temple Church organ.
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