Los Angeles · Oahu · Oregon · shot 1990–91
Red light. The door is open over the coast; wait for green.
Five breaks · Los Angeles to Oregon
A point break peels along a headland instead of closing out at once: be at the peak when the wave stands up and it carries you a long way. Paddle out and wait. Five waves, five real breaks the film used.
On the beach. Paddle out to the line-up.
A point break, the break order and the coasts: each break’s own sources are on its card. Reeves, Swayze and Lori Petty trained with the former professional Dennis Jarvis on Kauai about two months before filming.
Bells Beach, Victoria · June 1991
In the film, Utah tracks Bodhi to Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia, where a record storm is bringing lethal waves. Bodhi calls it the 50-year storm.
The story: In the film, Utah tracks Bodhi to Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia, where a record storm is bringing lethal waves. Bodhi calls it the 50-year storm.
The sand: The beach, the rain and the last conversation were filmed at Indian Beach in Ecola State Park, in a week of reshoots in June 1991.
Wikipedia: Point BreakAFI Catalog: Point Break (1991), production history
The waves: The waves Bodhi paddles into were shot on Oahu, not in Oregon.
Nehalem Boulevard (US 101), Wheeler, Tillamook County, Oregon
AFI lists downtown Wheeler among the places used in the June 1991 Oregon reshoots. Wheeler had 422 people at the 2020 census. It sits on the Nehalem River estuary and became a city in 1914.
The aerial unit
Swayze did his own skydiving: 55 jumps, with the aerial jump instructor Jim Wallace. AFI puts the aerial unit on airstrips in Palmdale and at Lake Powell. Choose where you come down, then pull.
Freefall. Arms out, eyes on the horizon.
Swayze did his own skydiving: 55 jumps, with Jim Wallace.
Skydiving on airstrips in Palmdale and at Lake Powell.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah and Arizona
AFI assigns the skydiving to airstrips in Palmdale and to Lake Powell. A location guide sets the jump that ends in the lake here.
AFI places it in Arizona and Wikipedia in Utah. The lake lies in both, mostly in Utah.
Glen Canyon Dam, finished in 1963, made the lake. It is about 186 miles long when full.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, run by the National Park Service. Page, Arizona, at the dam end, is the usual way in.
Westwood · Elysian Park · Santa Monica
Utah is a new FBI agent, a former college quarterback. To play him, Reeves spent time with FBI agents, practised on the LAPD firing range and trained with UCLA quarterback coaches. The robbery scenes were shot in disused bank branches around the city; they are not part of this guide.
Reeves’s preparation; defunct bank branches.
11000 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood
AFI lists the Federal Building in Westwood among the film’s Los Angeles locations.
It is the real home of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, in Suite 1700.
Charles Luckman Associates designed the 261-foot tower; it went up in 1968–69.
A working federal building with security screening. See it from Wilshire Boulevard at Veteran Avenue.
1880 North Academy Drive, Elysian Park
AFI lists the LAPD Academy among the Los Angeles locations, and says Reeves practised at the LAPD firing range for the part.
The club that runs it was founded by LAPD officers as a training ground; the 1932 Olympic pistol competition was shot here.
Officers and trustees built the rock garden and stone walls along the drive.
Now a private police club with a café serving breakfast and lunch. Ask before going beyond the gate.
Donald Douglas Loop, Santa Monica
AFI and Discover Los Angeles both list Santa Monica Airport among the film’s locations.
It opened on 15 April 1923 as Clover Field. Douglas Aircraft built its DC airliners beside it.
The runway was cut to 3,500 feet in 2017, and the city and the FAA have agreed the airport will close on 31 December 2028.
The Museum of Flying and the 8.3-acre Airport Park are open to the public.
Pacific Coast Highway
Two stops on the same stretch of highway, 2.9 km (1.8 miles) apart as the crow flies on the map: the café where Tyler works and the beach where the locals wait for Utah.
42505 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu
The roadside café where Tyler works, and where Utah finds her again.
It began in 1956 as a petrol station, estate office and restaurant called Panorama Pacific.
Chong Lee and his wife Michelle have owned it since 4 July 1991, eight days before Point Break opened.
A working seafood restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway, just west of Leo Carrillo. Open to anyone who stops to eat.
Pacific Coast Highway at the Los Angeles–Ventura county line, Malibu
Utah’s fight with the local surfers, which Bodhi breaks up, was shot on Leo Carrillo State Beach.
Discover Los Angeles lists it with Dockweiler, Neptune’s Net and Santa Monica Airport among the film’s Los Angeles locations.
The 2,513-acre park, set up in 1953, is named after the actor and conservationist Leo Carrillo. It has 1.5 miles of beach with tide pools, sea caves and reefs.
A state park on the Pacific Coast Highway with surfing, swimming and tide pools. Park in the day-use lot or on the highway; check California State Parks for fees.
Malibu · Rates on the hotel’s booking page
Twenty rooms and suites in a redesigned 1950s motel on the Pacific Coast Highway, looking over Surfrider Beach. Leo Carrillo and Neptune’s Net are further west along the same road.
See the hotelThe people
Kathryn Bigelow directed; Donald Peterman shot it and Peter Jamison designed it. W. Peter Iliff has the writing credit; James Cameron, then married to Bigelow, was an executive producer. Around Reeves and Swayze: Gary Busey as Pappas, Lori Petty as Tyler, John C. McGinley, James LeGros, John Philbin, Bojesse Christopher and Lee Tergesen.
It was called Johnny Utah, then Riders on the Storm, and became Point Break about halfway through filming. Petty had never been in the sea before; she and Swayze both learned to surf for it. The big-wave surfer Darrick Doerner doubled for Swayze, who partly based Bodhi on him; Matt Archbold was a surf consultant and double.
It opened on 12 July 1991 in 1,615 cinemas and took about $83.5 million worldwide on a $24 million budget.
Bigelow, Peterman, Jamison; Petty never in the sea before; Petty and Swayze learning to surf.
Iliff and Cameron, the cast, the three titles, Doerner, Archbold, the release, the gross and the budget.
11 places you can visit across California, Hawaii, Utah and Arizona, and Oregon. Palmdale’s airstrips 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. A state park on the Pacific Coast Highway with surfing, swimming and tide pools. Park in the day-use lot or on the highway; check California State Parks for fees.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working seafood restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway, just west of Leo Carrillo. Open to anyone who stops to eat.
Pacific Coast Highway at the Los Angeles–Ventura county line, Malibu
Utah’s fight with the local surfers, which Bodhi breaks up, was shot on Leo Carrillo State Beach.
A state park on the Pacific Coast Highway with surfing, swimming and tide pools. Park in the day-use lot or on the highway; check California State Parks for fees.
42505 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu
The roadside café where Tyler works, and where Utah finds her again.
A working seafood restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway, just west of Leo Carrillo. Open to anyone who stops to eat.
Stay
A motel over Surfrider Beach and a lodge a short drive from Indian Beach.
Malibu · Rates on the hotel’s booking page
Twenty rooms and suites in a redesigned 1950s motel on the Pacific Coast Highway, looking over Surfrider Beach. Leo Carrillo and Neptune’s Net are further west along the same road.
See the hotelOregon · Rates on the lodge’s booking page
Twenty-one rooms, from studios to two-bedroom suites with kitchens, at 208 East 5th Street, Cannon Beach: a few minutes’ walk from the sand and a short drive from Indian Beach.
See the lodgeGo there
Surf lessons in Malibu, tandem jumps in Southern California, and day trips to Ecola.
Malibu
Live marketplace results for surf lessons on the Malibu coast. None is built round the film. The cast learned on Kauai with a former professional, Dennis Jarvis.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare lessonsSouthern California
Live marketplace results for tandem jumps in Southern California. Swayze made his own jumps; you jump strapped to an instructor.
Live marketplace results
Compare jumpsOregon
Live marketplace results for day trips to Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park, where the last scene was shot.
Live marketplace results
Compare toursWhat’s on
The 35th-anniversary screenings were in August 2026; nothing later is announced.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
Swayze’s memoir, a book on Bigelow’s films and the 1991 soundtrack CD.
Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi
Swayze’s own memoir, written with Lisa Niemi and published in 2009.
Find the bookDeborah Jermyn and Sean Redmond (eds)
Essays on Bigelow’s films up to the early 2000s, Point Break among them.
Find the bookVarious artists · CD, 1991
The American soundtrack CD, released on 2 July 1991, ten days before the film.
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 · 12 of 12 Moments
Pacific Coast Highway at the Los Angeles–Ventura county line, Malibu
Utah is jumped by local surfers on the beach until Bodhi breaks it up.
42505 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu
Utah tracks Tyler down at the roadside café where she works.
West end of Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Manhattan Beach
Utah buys a surfboard from a shop on Manhattan Beach Pier.
Vista del Mar at Imperial Highway, Playa del Rey
Dockweiler is one of the beaches in the film.
Donald Douglas Loop, Santa Monica
Santa Monica Airport is one of the film’s locations.
11000 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood
The Federal Building in Westwood is among the film’s locations; it is the real FBI field office.
1880 North Academy Drive, Elysian Park
The LAPD Academy is a location, and Reeves trained on the LAPD range for the part.
Kamehameha Highway, Haleʻiwa, North Shore of Oʻahu
The big-wave surfing was shot on Oahu’s north shore.
Ecola State Park, north of Cannon Beach, Clatsop County, Oregon
Indian Beach plays Bells Beach, Victoria, for the final scene.
Nehalem Boulevard (US 101), Wheeler, Tillamook County, Oregon
Downtown Wheeler was used in the Oregon reshoots.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah and Arizona
The skydiving unit worked at Lake Powell.
Palmdale, Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County
The skydiving unit also worked from airstrips in Palmdale.
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