Luzon · 1986 · Oliver Stone
Radio check. Key the handset to spell the call.
Oliver Stone’s own war, remade on Luzon in 1986. The forest is Mount Makiling, the base is Villamor, and the shoot began two days after a revolution.
Stations on the net
Before the first shot
Before filming, the cast spent thirteen days in the field under Dale Dye, a retired Marine captain who had served in Vietnam. Dye later played Captain Harris in the film. Carry the pack up the hill and his course comes up kilometre by kilometre.
The thirteen-day course under Captain Dale Dye; his twenty years as a Marine; the classes, rations, sleep, foxholes and the eighteen-kilometre trek; shooting starting straight after.
Night watch and no showers or toilets. The film’s Wikipedia article gives the course as 30 days; AFI, citing the production notes, gives thirteen, and this page follows AFI.
Mental Floss: 12 Intense Facts About Platoon, by Eric D. Snider (updated 2025)Wikipedia: Platoon (film)
Dye as Captain Harris.
The hill line is drawn for the page, not surveyed.
0 km. Day one. Thirteen days under Captain Dale Dye, a Vietnam veteran with twenty years in the Marines, start in the Philippines.
Squad radio procedure
One of Dye’s classes was squad radio procedure. Every place here is a station on the net. Pick one, key the handset once for each letter of its call sign, say over, and it answers with where it is now.
Classes on squad radio procedure in Dye’s course.
The call signs are this page’s own, made from each place’s name; none comes from the film or the shoot.
MAK selected. Key the handset to spell it.
No station has answered yet. Spell a call sign and say over.
Signal log · 0 of 8 stations heard
| No. | Call sign | Station | Reply |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MAK | Mount Makiling | — |
| 2 | CAV | Cavite | — |
| 3 | VAB | Villamor Air Base | — |
| 4 | EDS | EDSA Shrine | — |
| 5 | TAY | Tây Ninh and Black Virgin Mountain | — |
| 6 | SGN | Saigon | — |
| 7 | TLM | Tropic Lightning Museum | — |
| 8 | NYU | NYU Tisch School of the Arts | — |
Manila · February 1986
The People Power Revolution that ended Ferdinand Marcos’s rule nearly cancelled the film. Shooting began two days after Marcos and his family left. Stone said that when the change came they had to make new deals with the new military.
The US Department of Defense had refused to supply equipment, so the film used the Philippine armed forces’ own. AFI, citing the press at the time, records the start put back a week from 1 March.
The revolution nearly cancelling the film; shooting two days after Marcos left; Stone on new deals with the new military.
Mental Floss: 12 Intense Facts About Platoon, by Eric D. Snider (updated 2025)Wikipedia: Platoon (film)
The Department of Defense refusing; Philippine military equipment.
A one-week delay from 1 March 1986 for the political turmoil.
Where it is remembered
EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue, Ugong Norte, Quezon City
The 1986 revolution that ended Ferdinand Marcos’s rule nearly cancelled the film. Shooting began two days after Marcos and his family left the country.
The shrine was built on donated land to remember the People Power Revolution, and consecrated on 15 December 1989.
A working church at the EDSA–Ortigas junction, open to visitors.
On location
Philippine Air Force Aerospace Museum, Villamor Air Base, Pasay
Villamor Air Base, near Manila, was one of the film’s locations.
The production made a deal with the Philippine military and used its equipment, after the US Department of Defense refused to help.
A working air base; visitors come for the Aerospace Museum, listed as open Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm and Saturday mornings, free. Check before you go.
Pasay, Metro Manila
A 459-room hotel on Newport Boulevard, Newport City, Pasay, across from NAIA Terminal 3 by a covered footbridge. Newport City stands on land cut from Villamor Air Base in 1997.
See the hotel
Laguna and Cavite
The forest is Mount Makiling, south of Manila. Stone shot the film in the order of the story, so the cast lived it in sequence. Richardson, the cinematographer, remembers the jungle work as hard.
Filming in chronological order; Richardson on the difficult jungle shoot, largely in story order.
Wikipedia: Platoon (film)American Cinematographer: Robert Richardson, career interview
Vietnamese refugees living in the Philippines were cast in the Vietnamese parts.
54 days of shooting; Vietnamese refugees recruited.
About 250 crew, most of them Filipino.
The red soil trucked in.
Mental Floss: 12 Intense Facts About Platoon, by Eric D. Snider (updated 2025)
Mount Makiling Forest Reserve, Los Baños, Laguna
The forest scenes were filmed on Mount Makiling in Laguna.
The mountain is an inactive volcano, 1,090 metres high, on the border of Laguna and Batangas. The University of the Philippines Los Baños runs it as a forest reserve.
It was the country’s first national park before it passed to the university, and became an ASEAN Heritage Park in 2013.
The usual route to the summit, Peak 2, is the UPLB trail, about four to five hours up. Walkers on it often meet leeches.
Enter from the UP Los Baños side. The Mariang Makiling Trail is open 8am to 3pm (PHP 30) and the Makiling Botanic Gardens 8am to 4pm (PHP 60). No source fixes where on the mountain the film was shot.
Named, not pinned
Cavite province, south-west of Manila
The river and village scenes were filmed in Cavite.
Cavite is one of the three places the Freeman names for the shoot, with Mount Makiling and Villamor Air Base.
Only the province is recorded, so it is named here and not pinned. The photograph is a Cavite river, not the one in the film.
Los Baños, Laguna · Trail PHP 30 · Gardens PHP 60 · discounts for students, seniors and PWD
The trail opens 8am to 3pm and the Botanic Gardens 8am to 4pm, on the UP Los Baños side of the mountain where the forest scenes were shot.
Check before you goVietnam · 1965–68
Stone first went to Vietnam as a teacher. He came back in 1967 as an Army infantryman and served until November 1968. Chris, the young soldier Charlie Sheen plays, is partly Stone himself.
Teaching in Saigon in 1965; enlisting in April 1967; leaving active duty on 15 November 1968.
Chris modelled on Stone.
Named, not pinned
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, Vietnam
In 1965, before the Army, Stone taught high-school English for six months at the Free Pacific Institute in Saigon.
Vietnam banned the film. In March 1988 the Vietnam News Agency reported tens of thousands watching it on video in Ho Chi Minh City, the first American film about the war to be seen there.
A whole city: no address for the school where Stone taught was found, so it is named and not pinned.
Told in outline
Núi Bà Đen (Black Virgin Mountain), Tây Ninh province, Vietnam
The film’s last battle is based on Stone’s own experience of the New Year’s Day battle of 1968, fought in Tây Ninh province near Highways 244 and 246 and Black Virgin Mountain.
Stone and the writer Larry Heinemann both served in the American units there, battalions of the 22nd Infantry in the 25th Infantry Division.
The mountain is a public park reached by road from Tây Ninh. The pin marks the mountain, not any site in the film’s story.
Building 361, 1414 Waianae Avenue, Schofield Barracks, Oahu, Hawaii
Stone served with the 25th Infantry Division from 27 September 1967 to 23 February 1968, then with the 1st Cavalry Division.
The museum is the 25th Infantry Division’s own. Its south gallery covers the division from its start through the Pacific war and Vietnam.
Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, free; closed weekends and federal holidays. All visitors need a pass to enter Schofield Barracks.
Tây Ninh, Vietnam
Live marketplace results for day trips from Ho Chi Minh City to Tây Ninh and Bà Đen mountain.
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Compare tripsNew York
Stone first wrote about his war as a screenplay called Break, soon after he came home. He went to film school on Broadway, and studios turned the script down for years. The music most people remember from the film is older still.
Break, his first screenplay, written after the tour and the basis for Platoon.
Studios passing on the script; a 1976 draft titled The Platoon.
Mental Floss: 12 Intense Facts About Platoon, by Eric D. Snider (updated 2025)
721 Broadway at Waverly Place, Greenwich Village, New York
Back from Vietnam, Stone studied film at New York University and took his degree in 1971. Martin Scorsese was one of his teachers.
In Scorsese’s class he made a short film called Last Year in Viet Nam.
A working school building; see it from Broadway.
30 Rockefeller Plaza, Midtown Manhattan, New York
Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, the music most people remember from the film, was first played here on 5 November 1938 by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra, on the radio.
Barber wrote it in 1936, as the slow movement of his String Quartet.
Built in 1933 for orchestras and radio shows, the studio has been home to Saturday Night Live since 1975.
Studio 8H is a working television studio. The building and the plaza are public.
The people
Charlie Sheen is Chris Taylor, Tom Berenger is Sergeant Barnes and Willem Dafoe is Sergeant Elias, with Keith David, Kevin Dillon, Francesco Quinn, John C. McGinley and Mark Moses. Georges Delerue wrote the score, and Barber’s Adagio for Strings is the film’s theme. Hemdale paid for it and Orion released it.
Cast, score, the Adagio, Hemdale and Orion, the opening, the nominations and wins.
Opening in Los Angeles and New York on 19 December 1986.
February 1987
Hardenbergstraße 29a, Charlottenburg, Berlin
At the Berlin festival of 20 February to 3 March 1987, Stone won the Silver Bear for Best Director for Platoon.
The Zoo Palast became the festival’s main cinema when it reopened in 1957. It closed in 2010 and reopened after renovation in November 2013.
A working cinema with 1,700 seats; buy a ticket for any show.
30 March 1987
135 North Grand Avenue, Downtown Los Angeles
On 30 March 1987 Platoon won four Oscars here: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing for Claire Simpson, and Best Sound.
The pavilion held 25 Academy Awards ceremonies between 1969 and 1999. It has 3,156 seats.
Home of LA Opera; the building opens for performances.
2006
1 boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes
The Cannes festival turned Platoon down in 1986. Twenty years later it was shown at Cannes to mark a new DVD release.
Open for festivals and events; the steps and the Croisette are public.
10 places on the map: 3 on Luzon, 2 on the real tour, and 5 in New York, Berlin, Los Angeles and Cannes. Cavite and Saigon are named but not pinned.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Enter from the UP Los Baños side. The Mariang Makiling Trail is open 8am to 3pm (PHP 30) and the Makiling Botanic Gardens 8am to 4pm (PHP 60). No source fixes where on the mountain the film was shot.
Mount Makiling Forest Reserve, Los Baños, Laguna
The forest scenes were filmed on Mount Makiling in Laguna.
Enter from the UP Los Baños side. The Mariang Makiling Trail is open 8am to 3pm (PHP 30) and the Makiling Botanic Gardens 8am to 4pm (PHP 60). No source fixes where on the mountain the film was shot.
Stay
A hotel in Newport City, on land that was once part of Villamor Air Base.
Pasay, Metro Manila
A 459-room hotel on Newport Boulevard, Newport City, Pasay, across from NAIA Terminal 3 by a covered footbridge. Newport City stands on land cut from Villamor Air Base in 1997.
See the hotelGo there
The Makiling trail from the UP Los Baños side, Manila history tours and day trips to Black Virgin Mountain.
Los Baños, Laguna · Trail PHP 30 · Gardens PHP 60 · discounts for students, seniors and PWD
The trail opens 8am to 3pm and the Botanic Gardens 8am to 4pm, on the UP Los Baños side of the mountain where the forest scenes were shot.
Check before you goLaguna
Live marketplace results for guided day trips south to Laguna. None is built round this film; check each itinerary.
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Compare tripsMetro Manila
Live marketplace results for history walks and city tours of Manila, some passing EDSA.
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Compare toursTây Ninh, Vietnam
Live marketplace results for day trips from Ho Chi Minh City to Tây Ninh and Bà Đen mountain.
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Compare tripsWhat’s on
The festival where Stone won the Silver Bear, back in February 2027.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Two original posters from our store, Stone’s memoir and the 1987 soundtrack.
An original 1986 French grande, 47 × 63 in (119.4 × 160 cm). Rolled, previously folded; near mint. Available framed.
Framed only
View posterAn original Czech A3 poster, 28.2 × 40.3 cm, with art by Jan Weber. Rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterOliver Stone · Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Stone’s 2020 memoir of his life up to Platoon and the Oscars.
Find the bookVancouver Symphony Orchestra and others · CD, Atlantic, 1987
Barber’s Adagio for Strings played by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, with 1960s songs from Smokey Robinson, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and others.
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.
12 of 12 places · 14 of 14 Moments
Mount Makiling Forest Reserve, Los Baños, Laguna
The jungle scenes are filmed on Mount Makiling in Laguna.
The film is shot in the order of the story.
Cavite province, south-west of Manila
The river and village scenes are filmed in Cavite.
Philippine Air Force Aerospace Museum, Villamor Air Base, Pasay
Villamor Air Base near Manila is one of the locations, and the Philippine military lends its equipment.
EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue, Ugong Norte, Quezon City
The revolution nearly cancels the film; shooting starts two days after Marcos leaves.
Núi Bà Đen (Black Virgin Mountain), Tây Ninh province, Vietnam
Stone is in the New Year’s Day battle of 1968 in Tây Ninh province, the source of the film’s last battle.
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, Vietnam
Stone teaches English for six months in Saigon.
The banned film is watched on video by tens of thousands in Ho Chi Minh City.
Building 361, 1414 Waianae Avenue, Schofield Barracks, Oahu, Hawaii
Stone serves with the 25th Infantry Division, whose museum is at Schofield Barracks.
721 Broadway at Waverly Place, Greenwich Village, New York
Stone studies film at NYU under teachers including Martin Scorsese.
30 Rockefeller Plaza, Midtown Manhattan, New York
Barber’s Adagio for Strings is first played in Studio 8H, on the radio.
Hardenbergstraße 29a, Charlottenburg, Berlin
Stone wins the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlin.
135 North Grand Avenue, Downtown Los Angeles
Platoon wins Best Picture and three other Oscars.
1 boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes
Turned down in 1986, the film is shown at Cannes in 2006.
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