Movie Capitals: Top Chicago Filming Locations

Culture
Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago
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Certain cities have attracted film crews for particular periods – in the ‘80s, it seemed like every film was set in Manhattan, while recent the giants of Marvel have favoured cities like Atlanta and London (for their tax breaks as much as their architecture!). However, one city has retained the fascination of directors for decades. Whether playing another city, or depicting itself in all its glory, Chicago has provided some of the most spectacular moments in cinema, in spots that you can still visit today. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

By Victoria Luxford

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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671 Lincoln Avenue – We start off with a house. Just a house. It’s not in Chicago, it’s about an hour’s drive away in Winnetka, Illinois. You can’t even go inside it. However, this particular house is “The Home Alone House”. The remarkably large family home was the basis for most of the 1990 comedy, where Macaulay Culkin took on The Wet Bandits. The exterior still looks very much as it did in the film, although if you are visiting please keep a respectful distance – it is someone’s home!

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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1500 North Milwaukee Avenue and North Honore Street – The recognisable curved corner of this charming Chicago building is where John Cusack went to work in High Fidelity (2000), playing the quirky record store Championship Vinyl. Sadly, there isn’t a record store there in real life – in fact, there never was! The interior of the store was shot in a studio.

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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The Aragon Ballroom, W. Lawrence Avenue – Want to visit where Batman was born (or, at least, Ben Affleck’s version)? Zack Snyder’s Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) used the music venue as the site of Thomas and Martha Wayne’s murder. The building is steeped in history, with anecdotal connections to Al Capone. Music fans may also wish to make a pilgrimage to the venue, which has held concerts by Green Day, Metallica, The Clash and Nirvana, among others.

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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The Seventeenth Church of Christ Scientist, East Upper Wacker Drive – An architectural delight in its own right, fans of post-apocalyptic YA hit Divergent (2014) will recognise the interior of this church as the location of The Choosing Ceremony, where our hero, Tris (Shailene Woodley), chooses her faction. Given Chicago is the setting of the Hunger Games-like science fiction film, many areas of the city are used. Although, thankfully, the locations aren’t as dilapidated as they are portrayed.

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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The United Center – This is a little bit of a cheat, because the home of the Chicago Bulls is famous for far more than its small role in the last moments of Space Jam (1997), where basketball deity Michael Jordan returns to play for the team he is most closely associated with. However, it’s a Chicago landmark that has close ties to the star of a film that still enjoys a cult following. There’s even a statue of Jordan outside.

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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Union Station, South Canal Street – Union Station has hosted a number of climactic scenes over the years, including the finale of 2013’s Man of Steel and 1974’s The Sting. It’s the above scene in the Oscar-winning crime drama The Untouchables that is most memorable to movie buffs, however. An homage to 1925 Soviet classic Battleship Potemkin, the sequence is absolute magic. Lovers of cinema history will be in absolute awe just to stand on those steps (hopefully avoiding a shoot-out with the mob).

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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The Twin Anchors Restaurant and Tavern, North Sedgwick Street – Another location with far more claim to fame than its appearance in a movie, this historical eatery boasts of Frank Sinatra and Bill Murray among its many visitors through the years. In the reel world, The Twin Anchors bar became the scene of an ugly confrontation between Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and a detective in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008). Chicago provided many locations for the film, but this remains the most accessible spot (the location for the film’s opening robbery has since been refurbished).

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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South Shore Cultural Center, South Shore Drive – The Blues Brothers are synonymous with Chicago, having nearly destroyed most of it in the 1980 comedy’s elaborate car chases through the city centre. One of the most famous sequences is the concert at The Palace Hotel Ballroom. The exterior of the hotel is actually the South Shore Cultural Center, where John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd can be seen tampering with cars.

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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Parkway Gardens – While movies often like to focus on the tourist hotspots in a city, one of the most popular films of last year focused on a different side. Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen chose Chicago for his 2018 thriller Widows, eschewing the city’s landmarks for grittier locations such as this housing complex on the South Side. A pivotal scene was also shot at Daley’s restaurant in Woodlawn, which is still in business but has moved location since the production filmed there.

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Culture
Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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The Chicago Hilton – Fun fact: not only was the train wreck in Harrison Ford’s 1993 film The Fugitive real, the wreckage is still there! That’s no good to us, however, as while the film was set in Chicago, that scene was shot in North Carolina (as was Ford’s spectacular dive from a dam). Fans of the film may be interested to know that the climax of the movie happens in the ballroom of the Chicago Hilton, where Dr. Richard Kimble finally clears his name.

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Culture
Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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Willis Tower Skydeck – Matthew Broderick and friends challenge their fear of heights during one of the excursions in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). Whereas they stepped on a barrier to give the impression of nothing beneath their feet, a glass extension called The Ledge has since been built to test your nerve. It’s one of many Chicago spots in the film, described by director John Hughes as a love letter to the city.

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Culture
Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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The Biograph Theater, North Lincoln Avenue – It’s a rare thing to find a period movie shot at the actual site of the events that it was based on. That’s why this registered landmark theatre in Chicago has the unique distinction of being a site of historical importance and a movie location. It’s here that in 1934 notorious gangster John Dillinger was shot dead. That moment in history was recreated for 2009 film Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp playing Dillinger, and the theatre playing itself.

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Culture
Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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The Loop/Chicago “L” System – The city’s famous raised train system has been featured in many movies, but the most spectacular has to be the train-top fight in 2004’s Spider-man 2. Set in Manhattan, which has no elevated subway system, The “L” Train is the setting for one of the sequel’s most memorable moments, as our hero goes head-to-head with Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina). While obviously difficult to experience the way Spidey did, a ride on this Chicago institution is highly recommended.

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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Wacker Drive – This stretch of road seems the ideal spot for a car chase, at least if you’re a character in an action film. The Dark Knight, Transformers: Dark of The Moon (2011), and Angelina Jolie’s Wanted (2008) all filmed explosive scenes on this expansive section of road, which is also where you’ll find the church used in Divergent. A highlight of the film, the car chase in Wanted is perhaps the most involved sequence at the location, featuring Jolie fending of villains in front of a terrified James McAvoy.

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Culture
Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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Fourth Presbyterian Church, Michigan Avenue – Every movie about a wedding needs a big, beautiful church, and the Fourth Presbyterian certainly lives up to that billing, providing the location for the wedding scene between Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney (with Julia Roberts as bridesmaid) at the end of the movie My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997). The stunning building has not often been used for filming, with its other credit being the lesser-known 2003 drama The Company with Neve Campbell and James Franco.

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago.
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9511 Harrison Street, Des Plaines, Illinois – We end our movie tour of Chicago as we started – visiting a private building about an hour’s drive from the city, that isn’t open to the public. However, it’s a building that also holds a lot of significance to movie fans. In 1986, Maine North High School, which had actually closed years earlier, became the set of The Breakfast Club. The library in which most of the film transpires was the school’s gymnasium, and interiors were also used for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The building is a police headquarters now, but the iconic entrance, which is the first thing we see after the titles, remains the same.

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Movie Capitals: On Location In… Chicago

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