Sydney is a town where movies are made. Either as a setting IRL or it casts itself as an imaginary setting – from Metropolis to Angel Grove, Japan to the Matrix itself. With the largest movie production studio in the Southern Hemisphere combining with a rich talent pool of actors, actresses, directors and production crew it has steadily risen to become a default choice for moviemakers.

Below is just a taste of what Sydney has to offer La La Land.

Something Australian

Moviemakers have a shorthand method for conveying geography and doubling down in the viewers minds that this scene is set in a certain place. If you want to show that a character is in Paris – you include a shot of the Eiffel Tower. For Sydney there is only one landmark that fits the same bill – The Sydney Opera House. Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973 this famous world icon has a list of credits longer than my arm.

In 1996’s Independence Day it survives a crash from one of the alien ships. The same cannot be said for Elizabeth Bay though. A pair of Kaiju attacks in 2013 and 2018 also saw the venue escape unscathed. It also escapes the freezing conditions brought on by the death of our sun in Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (2007).

Godzilla: Final War (2004) goes that extra mile and actually destroys the Sydney Opera House thanks to laser beam eyes of the protagonist as does Michael Fassbender’s Magneto in X-Men: Age of Apocalypse as he strips the metal contained within.

Even when it’s not being destroyed or in the foreground – it’s used as a backdrop in plenty of other movies such as Finding Nemo, The Mechanic:Resurrection, The In-Betweeners 2, Frost/Nixon, Mission Impossible II, The Man From Hong Kong and many more.

My favourite placement of the Sydney Opera House is when Jackie Chan did a fight scene on the roof for 2017’s Chinese cyberpunk science fiction movie Bleeding Steel.It even put the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge on the movie poster.

Fox Studios – Moore Park

Occupying 32 acres in the heart of Sydney is the largest movie and television production centre in the Southern Hemisphere – Fox Studios. (It is now called Disney Studios after their buy-out of Fox). It hosts 9 sound stages and an interior tank. The area directly surrounding it is full of creative supporting businesses. It’s our version of Hollywood.

One only has to skim through the list of movies that have been produced here and you get a peek at how well an operation they have in Moore Park. And one has to remember that the studio is only in existence since 1998 so that’s quite an achievement in a short time.

• Alien:Covenant
• Babe: Pig in the City
• Dark City
• The Matrix
• Moulin Rouge
• Star Wars Episodes II and III
• Superman Returns
• X-Men:Origins – Wolverine and The Wolverine
• Planet of the Apes and Kingdom of the Planet of Apes

This year they have been playing host to production of The Fall Guy and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Unfortunately these days you cannot visit the studio (unless you are part of the show) and no tours are available.

Cancelling the Apocalypse

Pacific Rim Uprising (2018) has an extended sequence of scenes set in Sydney as Kaiju and Jaeger Battle Suits do battle across the city. I was incredibly fortunate to be present on the day they shot some of the scenes used. The ICC Sydney (Convention Centre) doubled as the headquarters of the PPDC – the organisation responsible for humanity’s defence.

This youtube clip shows the fight scene showcases the wider city- how many Sydney landmarks can you spot?

Additional scenes were filmed in Cronulla (posing as Santa Monica) and Pacific Highway in North Sydney that according to the supervising location manager on the movie Leann Emmert “was the biggest closure they had ever had”. Another recent road closure for filming was the Sydney Harbour Bridge while scenes were shot for the upcoming movie “The Fall Guy” starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.

Enter the Matrix

Never send a human to do a machine’s job!

Hugo Weaving, The Matrix

If there is one movie that best shows off the various buildings and locales of Sydney it is 1999s The Matrix. This groundbreaking science fiction movie had a huge impact on pop culture and spawned two sequels, spin-offs and created a genre of hard hitting sci-fi action movies. It also brought a slew of Australian and New Zealand actors mainstream success – especially Hugo Weaving but also Matt Doran, Rowan Witt, Julian Arahanga, Belinda McClory Paul Goddard, Robert Taylor and Ada Nicomedua (Leah from Home and Away) as the ‘White Rabbit’.

The opening rooftop chase involving the Agents and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss)was filmed in the US but as soon as we hit street level we are in Miller’s Point. The extraction point – a telephone box is now gone but there is a plaque on the corner of Hickson Road and Town’s Place commemorating the filming of the scene there.

This place feels familiar because Hickson Road was used in another sci-fi movie shot only the year before called Dark City which also had Bruce Spence in the cast. He played the Trainman in the Matrix Reloaded. Many of the same technical production staff worked on both movies.

The ‘Woman in the red dress’ scene is one of the most memorable and that was filmed in Martin Place in front of the Lloyd Rees fountain. The start of the sequence begins on George Street and you can easily see the CBA Bank logo on the window that Neo and Morpheus walk past before the scene cuts to the front of the fountain.

There are dozens of other real-life buildings and locations used. Neo’s office job at Meta Cortex (a respectable software company) is the Met Centre on George Street. The restaurant where Joe Pantaliano’s character Cypher seals his betrayal of Morpheus and his crew was in Level 41 of Chifley Place. The old Sydney General Post Office building next to Martin Place was used to film the scene where they are captured. You wouldn’t recognise it today as shortly after filming wrapped and in line with the impending 2000 Olympics being held in Sydney – large parts of the city were refurbished. Today it is the Fullerton Hotel but you can see a few hints – the staircase and chessboard tiling.

Morpheus is then taken to 52 Martin Place which acts as the government building but during Agent Smith’s monologue about humanity being a virus he looks out the window and sees the walkway bridge that connects Market Street and Pyrmont. During the helicopter escape sequence you can see the Aon Tower on Kent Street, the AWA tower on York Street with it’s white radio mast. Neo and Trinity jump down onto the Allianz Building at 2 Market Street while the helicopter crashes into the BT Tower across the road.

Neo is bungled into custody on Hunter Street and up until recently was a side entrance into the Hunter Connection complex. When he agrees to meet Morpheus he is picked up under the rail bridge on Campbell Street in Haymarket.

The final scene of the movie, like the opening, involves a telephone box where Neo tells the Matrix that he is coming for it before blasting off into the air (because he can fly now!) to Rage Against the Machines’ ‘Wake Up’. This was filmed at the junction of O’Connell St, Hunter St and Pitt St.

The final scene of the Matrix Trilogy sees the Oracle and The Architect meet to agree that the peace will last as long as it can. This bench is still there in the Royal Botanic Gardens down by the Water’s edge. The buildings in the background behind the Architect are Kirribilli where we lived for six years.

Go Go Power Rangers

Power Rangers mania was huge in the early 1990s. The toys, television programme and merchandise was everywhere. It was inevitable that a feature length movie would be made and in 1995 it arrived with Sydney playing Angel Grove.

The opening skydiving and skateboarding sequences showcase Darling Harbour, The Rocks and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Pyrmont Bridge is included with the now defunct Monorail crossing it.The construction site – where Ooze’s prison is discovered is apparently the actual building site for World Square.

Act 2 sees the Power Rangers travel to the distant planet of Phaedos in order to obtain the Great Power to save Zordan. In reality they only travelled 2 hours down the M1 Motorway to Bombo Headland in Kiama.

The Queen Victoria Building and Centre Point buildings are featured in the final fight sequence between the Rangers and Ivan Ooze. The distinct green copper dome and general facade of the QVB giving itself away. Gowings Department Store can be seen when the Rangers get ready to activate their Zord powers. It looks different now and houses retail stores as well as a hotel with the footbridge in the background removed but the original building signage is still there. The post battle dinner scene is clearly at Jordano’s Seafood restaurant in Darling Harbour which is now called Cyren and the author has had food there himself so you could say he has eaten like a Power Ranger!

There are a bunch of deleted scenes that were filmed in the Chinese Gardens of Friendship – a traditional Chinese garden you can visit in Darling Harbour that signifies the strong bond of friendship between Sydney and Guanghzhou. It is well worth a visit and you can read our post on it here.

These were scenes where Dulcea was training the Power Rangers with their new found powers but were deleted as their was a casting change for the character of Dulcea – Original actress Australian Gabrielle Fitzpatrick suffered an on-set injury and was replaced by Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order:SVU). When Fitzpatrick recovered she was re-instated and Hargitay was fired and her scenes were replaced with other ones in a different set.

Up until the late 1990s there was a monorail that swept through Darling Harbour and past Sega World – a huge arcade and entertainment complex. These days the monorail is gone and Sega World has been replaced by the offices of Commonwealth Bank of Australia but it was here that the diner was located in the movie.

Mission Possible?

2000 saw the blockbuster sequel to Mission Impossible – again staring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. The movie was set in Sydney so all the locations were allowed to be themselves.

The villain this time was Sean Ambrose (played by Dougray Scott) and he had a pair of hideouts. A villa on Sydney Harbour – a purpose built building that was located at Bradley’s Head in Mosman (near the memorial site to the HMAS Sydney) The second is in the finale set on Bare Island – a 19th Century fort accessible by bridge from La Perouse. It is one of the best kept historical military installations and is connected to the mainland by a wooden foot bridge making for a great setting for the final battle between Sean Ambrose and Ethan Hunt. The ending of the bike chase scene ended up to the north at Boora Point in nearby Malabar.

The fictional BioCyte headquarters is Governor Phillip I Tower in the CBD and opens our show as Rade Šerbedžijas infects himself with Chimera before making a quick get away. Some of the ‘Seville’ scenes were filmed at Argyle Place in the rocks. The Villa itself is a real life home near Elizabeth Bay.

Additionally the racecourse heist scenes were filmed at Royal Randwick racecourse near Centennial Park. Darling Harbour and North Head are featured as part of the scenes where Thandie Newton’s character is infected with the Chimera virus and released to infect the populace.

Once Thandie Newton’s character is infected she is dumped out of the car in Darling Harbour and ends up walking to the cliffs in North Head in Manly. That’s a good 20km hike. I hope she caught the Manly Ferry!

The epilogue scene (spoiler alert – Thandie Newton’s character lives!) is set in the Royal Botanic Gardens – you can see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House where our two protagonists grant the audience a happy ending. In the first few seconds we see Anthony Hopkins speaking to Tom Cruise in an Art Gallery – this looks like it is the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) nearby in Circular Quay.

Metropolis Now?

Bryan Singer’s version of Superman was released in 2006. Brandon Routh plays the title character in Superman Returns (2006). Probably the most iconic image from the movie is a re-making of the fornt cover of Action Comics #1 – with the Martin Place Fountain prominently in the picture. This is the same one from the Matrix.

The museum heist is actually comprised of two Sydney museums – the National Art Gallery of New South Wales (exterior) and the Australian Museum (for the interior shots). The Radisson Blu Hotel on 27 O’Connell Street is a glorious example of the flatiron design type seen in the United States and is used in a scene to show the effects of Lex Luthor’s crystals on the city.

Another 1930s building up on York Street – which is now the entrance to the Wynyard train station serves as Metropolis General Hospital , the crowd outside on York Street and Wynyard Park eagerly awaiting news of Superman – is he dead or alive?

A number of other scenes are split across New South Wales with Tamworth, Rivendell Hospital in Concord West and Newcastle playing host. The end shot of Lex Luthor’s chopper abandoned on a beach was actually shot on Narrabeen Beach up on the Northern Beaches.

The Wolverine

Probably the most famous Sydneysider of the last 50 years is actor Hugh Jackman. From stage to the big screen there has been nothing he cannot do and most of the time he has spent living and breathing the one character – Logan (Wolverine) from the X-Men. At the time of writing he is suiting up yet again to play the character – for the 11th time.

On a side note: The original choice for the Wolverine character was Dougray Scott, but he had to spend a number of additional weeks in Sydney finishing off Mission Impossible II so the role fell to Jackman. The rest is history.

Two Wolverine movies have been filmed here. X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine – with both movies availing themselves of different parts of the city.

Sydney’s Inner West plays host to a couple of scenes from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The firing squad scene after both Jackman and Liev Schreiber’s characters are captured during the Vietnam War was filmed in the old Callan Park Hospital in Rozelle (it is now part of the University of Sydney) and later when Liev comes hunting for the old Team-X pals he runs into Dominic Monghan’s character at a circus that was filmed in Annandale in Federal Park next to the Metro line.

Going further west, the 1920s disused Homebush Cinema on Parramatta Road doubles for the Las Vegas gym where Jackman runs into Will.i.am and Kevin Durand’s mutant characters and engages in the boxing match against the latter.

The last act finale is set on Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania. This was shot on Cockatoo Island utilising the old WWII shipyards there. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, museum, event venue and all round great place to spend an afternoon in Sydney. We have a post on it here.

This is Colonel Stryker’s Weapon-X facility and where he keeps mutants hostage. The massive Turbine Hall that was built in 1946 is prominently shown in the movie, including the entrance where Logan faces off against Ryan Reynold’s Weapon-X antagonist.

In 2013 it was turned into a Japanese POW camp for the Angelina Jolie directed Unbroken – the story of US soldier and olympic athlete Louis Zamperini.

The Chinese Garden of Friendship is once again used. This time it hosts the fight scenes during the funeral of Master Yashida with Hugh Jackman taking on Yakuza and Ninjas. Its a bit of a deceptive scene as the front of the temple is actually in Tokyo – the Zong-Ji Temple near the Tokyo Tower before the action switches to the scenes shot in Sydney.

Other locations for The Wolverine were the old Hopetoun Hotel on Bourke Street (Internal Yukon bar scenes), Bonna Point Reserve in Kurnell for the opening sequence in Nagasaki, George and Smith Streets in Parramatta for the Tokyo street chase scenes after the funeral and Sydney Metro Airport in Bankstown. Yashida’s Tokyo complex was an elaborate set built in Fox Studios in Moore Park.

Harbour, Sydney Harbour

James Bond has never set foot in Australia – at least not in any of the movies. The closet he has come has been Thailand in The Man With The Golden Gun.

However a man who has played James Bond has been to Sydney. Playing the character of Wilton, the city’s most powerful crime lord, in martial arts crime thriller The Man from Hong Kong is none other than George Lazenby.

Produced by Golden Harvest it is a fantastic parody of James Bond and Dirty Harry and has since gained cult following as part of the Ozploitation craze. Key Sequences were filmed in Hong Kong and the Northern Territory before the action switches to Sydney with a paragliding scene over Sydney Harbour performed by Australian stuntman Grant Page (Mad Max, Roadgames, Death Ship).

The story follows that of Inspector Fang (played by Jimmy Wang Yu) of Hong Kong police as he tracks down Lazenby’s organisation.

Other locations used were the Sydney Opera House, The Boulevard Hotel on William Street, Darlinghurst Courthouse and Paddington (street chase after the assassination of the courier). The sniper was located atop Claridge Apartments on nearby Flinders St.

Fang practices his martial arts on a hill overlooking Narrabeen Beach. Same one as in Super Returns. You can see the pair of apartment buildings in the background that are still there today. The exterior of Wilton’s penthouse apartment is unrecognisable now as a number of buildings have had a make-over. The old IBM Building on Kent Street is now the Observatory Tower Apartment Block and the Dumbarton Castle Hotel was demolished in 1996 but through a bit of digging through the City of Sydney Archives and using google maps I am fairly certain it was the old Esso Building at 127 Kent Street.

The Punisher – the not so good one!

Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe; before the Fantastic Four movies and even before Blade we were treated to Dolph Lundren as Frank Castle aka The Punisher. Starring alongside Jeroen Krabbe (The Living Daylights, The Fugitive), Louis Gosset JR (Iron Eagle, Enemy Mine) and Kim Miyori (Babylon 5) the movie was produced and shot in Sydney. It was done so 10 years before the Matrix, before it was cool or financially convenient to produce a movie in Australia so it is kind of a trend setter. Not released in theatres in the US its a bit of a lost film but you can see a copy of it now on Youtube – including the deleted scenes that actually make up the first act of the movie that never made the theatrical release.

Local talent included Bryan Marshall and Barry Otto as well as a slew of technical production crew.

Dolph was no stranger to the city as he spent time studying chemical engineering at the age of 24 at Sydney University. While working security at the Capitol Theatre in Haymarket he met the charismatic singer Grace Jones and from that romance a career trajectory in Hollywood beckoned.

The film features another Sydney Icon located on the north shore of the harbour in Milson’s Point – The Luna Park Amusement Park. This doubles as a funfair that you would expect to see in New York’s Coney Island.

Lady Tanaka’s office is located in North Sydney at 141 Walker Street. In the End Credits there is a special thank you to the Kendo Club of Willoughby as they not only provided all the Kendo fighting extras but allowed filming to take place in their club.

A lot of the other scenes were filmed in industrial warehouses, docklands and tunnels – mostly at night. The old ABC Studios in Frenchs Forest was used for internal scenes. Jones Bay Wharf was used as ‘Pier 30’ for the shoot-out between Frank Castle, the Mafia and the Yakuza.

And all the rest

As we alluded to above – there are well over a hundred movies that feature scenes in Sydney or are shot there. This blog post is already long enough without going into them all but here is a handy list of some of the other movie locations you can visit while in Sydney

• Oxford Street: Video Shop that Toni Collette works in Muriel’s Wedding
• Imperial Hotel, Erskineville Road: first and final scenes of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Starring The Matrix’s Hugo Weaving in an earlier role)
• Potts Hill Sydney Water Reservoir – ‘The Engineer City’ scene from Alien Covenant
• The State Brickworks site in Homebush (next to Spotlight Stadium) was where the Thunderdome set was built for Mad Max:Beyond Thunderdome.
• Centennial Park has played host to a number of scenes from the X-Men Origins:Wolverine to the Great Gatsby. Even the Peter Rabbit movies had sets built there.
• Waverley Cemetery : The Great Gatsby
• Petersham Town Hall: Strictly Ballroom
• Stickland House, Vaucluse: End scene between Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman in Australia
• International College of Management Manly (ICMS): The mansion for The Great Gatsby.

Thanks

There are a multitude of people responsible for Sydney being such an important part of move-making. From the home grown talent such as Hugh Jackman, Hugo Weaving, Richard Roxburgh to the local director Baz Luhrmann who almost always produces his movies here. Fox Corporation’s decision to build the studios at Moore Park and their partners in the NSW Government are equally responsible for a lot as well as every Gaffer, Set Designer, Foley Artist and Location Scout that makes their city look so great.

Like all good movies I will leave this post with a shocking reveal.

Dave, the foreman of the construction site in Power Rangers went onto play Agent Brown – an agent programme in the Matrix. Does this mean that Angel Grove was a simulation all along? What a pair of credits for Sydney actor Paul Goddard.