Glasgow is a fantastic city. If you have not had the privilege to visit it you will have no doubt had the opportunity to see it. Thanks to 19th century urban planning much of the city resembles the ‘grid system’ of American cities such as New York and Philadelphia. Throw in a cracking selection of Georgian, Victorian and Art Deco buildings, some of the finest film production crews and infrastructure and you have got yourself a second Hollywood – GlasyWood.

There is a particular fondness among the people for Comic Book related productions – given the city’s rich history in comic books. We delve into a bit of that here.

Below is a list of some of the more prominent movies and television shows shot there. Recently the internet has been a buzz of activity surrounding the filming of Spiderman 4 : Brand New Day

You can find a walking tour guide and map here.

World War Z (2013)

The film adaptation of Max Brook’s World War Z saw a huge chunk of Glasgow’s merchant city transformed into the Financial District of Philadelphia for the pivotal Zombie reveal scene. Former UN investigator Gerry Lane (played by Brad Pitt) and his family are caught in a traffic jam when a zombie outbreak hits. George Square and surrounding streets (Cochrane St, George St, John St) can be seen as zombies attack.

1,200 cast and crew were involved across a number of days, as American cars and taxis, road signs and buildings were transformed. for the production.

If you are sightseeing be sure and stop into the Single-end cafe for some lunch or breakfast. Australian inspired cafe with lots of great baking.

After escaping Philadelphia, our protagonists stop at a grocery store in Newark for supplies. The exteriors are shot elsewhere but the interior scenes were shot in a disused store – the former Kwik Save on Paisley Road West in Cardonald.

“A very special Gotham” – The Batman (2022)

That’s according to director Matt Reeves who transplanted his vision of a grim, gritty and noir take on Batman. There was always going to be a need to film in a city that can match that mood. In this case the honour was split between Liverpool and Glasgow.

In particular he heaped praise on the Gothic architecture of the city.

The main scene that has Glasgow on display was the final meetup between Batman (played by Robert Pattinson) and Selina Kyle (played by Zoe Kravitz) at the cemetery. Glasgow Necropolis, including it’s Bridge of Sighs and Wishart St are featured here as well as the Glasgow skyline.

City of the Dead – that’s another name for the Necropolis that was build in Victorian times – originally as a park for the living but remodelled into a cemetery in the vein of Paris’ Pere Lachaise. It’s a place for all denominations and contains crypts, pavilions, columns and in the context of this movie – the grave of Selina Kyle’s mother.

As part of his investigations into the Riddler, the Penguin gives Batman a pointer and a trail leads to Gotham Orphanage. This is a real building – the abandoned Hartwood Psychiatric Hospital in Shotts, on the outskirts of Glasgow. It was used for exterior shots in that sequence.

Spiderman : Brand New Day (2026)

The fourth chapter of Tom Holland’s Spiderman is currently filming in Glasgow and has set the internet on fire with its BTS movies and photos as Spidey hangs out in a very friendly neighbourhood.

An army of film production crew have swept into the city under codename: Oasis Blue to transform the city into Manhattan. Vehicles, Road signs, lots of American flags and many more props have been deployed.

The locals have been treated to an explosive car chase scene involving what appears to be an armoured vehicle, crashing into a number of cars and taxis while Spidey is on top of it. This was filmed on Bothwell Street, with additional filming on Hope St,St Vincent Street and Wellington Street, near Glasgow Central Station.

The Lloyds Bank Building at 110 St Vincent Street has also had a makeover – being turned into the New York Federal Reserve Building.

The Flash (2023)

Glasgow becomes Gotham City again in 2023 for DC’s The Flash movie. The opening act features Batman (played once again by Ben Affleck) chasing mob boss Falcone through the streets of central Glasgow. Dropping out the back of the Batwing he is seen riding the Batcycle down Cochrane Street and forcing the bad guys to swerve through the arch of Glasgow City Chambers and into John Street.

The action continues along the southern side of George Square, St Vincent Street and the corner of Hope Street where a cop car gets flipped over.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

July 2021 saw Cochrane Street and St Vincent Street dressed up in USA bunting and filled with thousands of extras for an astronauts parade, to celebrate the Apollo 11 moon landing . Again the old town architecture of the Merchant city allowing Glasgow to easily appear as 1960s Manhattan.

You can see this after the opening monologue as Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford) and his goddaughter, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridges have retrieved the first piece of Archimedes Dial and then have to escape from the clutches of the movie’s villain – Dr Jurgen Voller, one of those Operation Paperclip Nazi scientists the US used in their space programme. Voller is played by the always reliable Mads Mikkelsen.

The chase involved Indiana Jones jumping on a horse before being chased by Voller’s main goon – a great performance by Boyd Holbrook who is on a police motorcycle.

Parnie Street, just off the Trongate was also used as an exterior for when Indiana makes his way into his apartment building.

The Running Man (2025)

Edgar Wright’s adaptation of the Running Man is unlike anything like the iconic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie from the 1980s. This time around Ben Richard’s is played by Glen Powell and part of his mission is to survive being hunted in the streets of, you guessed it, Glasgow once more!

Key scenes were shot on Bothwell Street, Renfrew Street, St Vincent Street, Cadogan Square, Union Place and Blythswood Square as the Glasgow is converted into a dystopian society where people hunting is the main source of entertainment.

Trainspotting (1996)

Choose Life, Choose a story set in Edinburgh, Choose Glasgow as a better place to film..

Irvine Welsh’s hard hitting story about the misadventures of drug addicts was primarily shot in Glasgow.

Aye, the opening foot chase scene, one of the most iconic of the movie, that sees Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner is in Edinburgh but the action quickly jumps to the West Coast.

The Crosslands Pub, now the BrewHaus, on Queen Margaret Drive is the pub where Robert Caryle’s character “Begbie” starts a pub brawl after throwing a pint glass from the mezzanine floor. Director Danny Boyle shot on a budget and so had a novel way of getting access to film ;

“The then owner of the pub was paid £700 to let them take over the premises,” said Killen. “They also gave each of the regulars £20 and free booze for the entirety of the filming session.” 

A stone’s throw away is Cafe D’Jaconelli on Maryhill Road – here Ewan and Ewen shae a milkshake before Ewan’s character has his job interview while further down the road is the Firhill Health Complex and its football pitch which features a game of five-a-side early on in the film.

The George Hotel in Buchanan Street is where we meet a London dealer played by Keith Allen, while the Chrystal Bell Pub in Gallowgate is where Begbie strikes again and glasses another patron after a heated argument.

The old WD & HO Wills Tobacco factory on Alexandra Parade (it’s since been knocked down for apartments) provided the production office and studio space where 30 of the 50 film locations were shot. The social club for the workers on the ground floor was also used.

Fast and Furious Series ( F&F 6 – (2013); Hobbs and Shaw (2019))

It’s such a great thing to hear Vin Diesel and Justin Lin gush about Glasgow and the welcome they got in the city.

Working exclusively at night, over 250 crew spent three weeks working on car chase scenes, turning the city into London and wrecking a number of stunt cars. All great fun!

Cadogan and Wellington Street can be seen in the below footage as well as the main thoroughfare north of the River Clyde – Broomielaw

They had such a good time that six years later, the spin-off movie Hobbs and Shaw (2019) returned to Glasgow for yet another car chase scene.

Idris Elba (Brixton) is thrown from his bike in front of The Piper Bar on Cochrane Street opposite George Square (maybe he saw a zombie!). The scene is unmistakably shot in Glasgow, as the street art – “Hip Hop Marionettes” (by Rogue One) can be seen in the background. Given that the building has since been torn down its great that the artwork still lives further on celluloid.

For a wee guide to Glasgow Street Art you can read our post here.

You can see Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby and Dwayne Johnson then drive through the same arch that Batfleck did – the Glasgow City Chambers arch and into John Street.

Outlander TV Series (2014-2026)

The historical fantasy television series based on the writings of Diana Gabaldon is set in Scotland, so no surprises that Scottish locations were used in its production. The bulk of the filming was carried out in Stirling, Fife and Falkirk but Pollok House in Glasgow was used in Season 1 and 2.

Located in Pollok Country Park in the south side of the city, this grand Georgian mansion is a popular spot to visit. On the show the park doubled as the ground for Castle Leoch, the ancestral home of the Mackenzie Clan. In Season 2 it doubled for scenes set in the French countryside.

Season 2 saw the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral used as the L’Hopital Des Anges in Paris, where Claire was volunteering. Glasgow Cathedral is one of the only remaining medieval churches in Scotland that remains untouched after the Reformation.

Season 3 saw the cloisters in Glasgow University be featured – as a stand in for Harvard University in the 1960s as the cast jump forward in time. You can find this incredible site for yourself in the Gilbert Scott building where it connects the East and West quadrangles and leads into the Bute Hall.

Cloud Atlas (2012)

Glasgow did double duty in this 2012 science fiction movie epic from the Wachowski’s. Playing San Francisco and London and host to Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Keith David, Hugo Weaving and Hugh Grant. It also picked the Glasgow Film Festival to showcase its UK premiere.

This time filming took part around George Street and Anderston (Douglas Street in particular with its stomach churning descent) for San Francisco while St Vincent Street and St Vincent Lane stood in for London.

Glasgow University was also used as a stand in for Cambridge University with the cloisters featuring again once more.

And all the rest…

There are so many other movies and TV shows shot in Glasgow. Here are some other ones featured.

Frankenstein (2025)

Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic novel Frankenstein was filmed in Scotland. Edinburgh, Glencoe and Glasgow were all involved with Glasgow Cathedral featuring heavily.

1917 (2020)

The majority of of the World War 1 drama was filmed in England with parts of Salisbury Plain standing in for the flat open ‘Northern France’ hellscape of the trenches. The Graving Docks in Govan were however chosen for a scene near the end of the movie when Schofield (the protagonist) encounters a collapsed bridge across a canal he needs to cross. In the Dry Dock on the south bank of the River Clyde , the production crew built the collapsed bridge and expanded the pump tower.

Fire Saga (2020)

The Eurovision Song Contest came to town in 2020’s Fire Saga. This hilarious spoof of Eurovision culture starring Rachel McAdams and Will Ferrell used Glasgow Airport and the SSE Hydro, although Edinburgh was the ‘host city’ in the movie’s plot.

Filth (2013)

This dark humoured crime drama starring James McAvoy was set and mostly filmed in Edinburgh apart from a few scenes in Glasgow.

Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson (James), along with his partner (played by Jamie Bell) go to interrogate a murder witness in a fantastic art deco building. The red and white atrium is unmistakably the Beresford Building on Sauchiehall Street. Known as Glasgow’s first skyscraper – it was built in 1938 to provide accomodation for those attending the nearby Empire Exhibition. One year later it was the scene of the first public address by future U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

Park Circus also features, as the location of Robertson’s flat. These 19th century townhouses are in the West End overlooking Kelvingrove Park.

Doomsday (2008)

Zombies again! South Africa stands in for a post apocalyptic Scotland in 2008’s sci-fi action flick Doomsday. Directed by Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, Centurion) its a fun, albeit mixed quality, adventure.

However, about 12 days were given to filming in actual Scotland with Glasgow featuring. And why not given its the epicentre of the main plot as the site of the virus outbreak that turns its denizens into zombies.

Haghill was chosen due to it’s run down nature and distinctive red bricked tenement houses that you don’t get anywhere else.

Churchill (2017)

Starring Dundee’s famous son – Brian Cox as the titular character – Sir Winston Churchill saw Glasgow City Chambers converted to Whitehall as well as George Street and John Street for exterior shots.

The Flying Scotsman (2006)

10 years after filming Trainspotting (1996) in Glasgow, Johnny Lee Miller returns to play Graeme Obree , the Scottish amateur cyclist who broke the world record for one hour distance. He is joined by Billy Boyd and Brian Cox. Filming was split between Ayrshire (Galston), Glasgow and Germany (for the velodrome scenes). The glasgow scenes were done on Argyle Street, Bothwell Street and West George Street as we see Johnny Lee Miller and Billy Boyds characters working as cycle couriers in the city. The Clyde Auditorium also doubles as Hamar Stadium in Norway. You cannot miss it’s distinctive armadillo architecture. Kelvingrove Art Gallery is used as the exterior of the World Cycling Federation building.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)

The original screen adaptation of John le Carre’s novel was in 1979 and was in the form of a seven part drama series on BBC. Sir Alec Guinness portrays George Smiley, deputy to the head of British Secret Intelligence Service in a game of espionage with the Soviets.

The gritty urban landscape of Glasgow was chosen to stand in for the Czechoslovakian city of Brno. Hope Street / Sauchiehall Street and Kintra Street were used. The Sunshine underground arcade inside the Watt Brothers Department Store can also be seen.

You might be thinking – wow I only know of the Gary Oldman movie version of this. If so go and find this one to watch. It’s worth it.

Are there any more movies I have missed? please add them to the comments.