The film opens with The Terminator's arrival, which takes place at the South East corner of the Griffith Observatory building. He then approaches some punks in the area at 34.119840, -118.300739, which now looks slightly different as the metal canopy and telescope have been removed.
Next we have Reese's arrival in the alley, but there are actually two locations in play here. The first location is the alley beside 214 West 7th Street, which was only used for an establishing shot and was not where Reese actually appears. The second location is the alley beside 316 West 7th Street (just down the road) and this is where Reese arrives and startles the homeless man.
After being chased through several alleys Reese ends up breaking through the door at the rear of 731 South Broadway to gain access to a department store (which in reality is a different location). Reese later escapes the department store via the same alley by climbing down a fire escape.
The department store that Reese breaks into was actually a J.J. Newberry's at the time of filming but in more recent times was a Fallas Paredes, until its closure in 2020. It appears from some online photos that the escalators used by Reese to evade the LAPD survived until the end.
The Big Jeff's restaurant where Sarah works is in reality a Carrows Restaurant (and was back in 1984 during filming). The interiors were also shot here but the employee break room was shot at Miceli's Pizzeria (thanks to terminator1984fan for this information).
The small scene of The Terminator stealing the car was filmed at the South East corner of Council St and Occidental Blvd, just outside the old S&A Studios. Cameron shot this scene guerilla style whilst shooting pickups/inserts at S&A towards the end of the schedule (although I'm sure they didn't steal a random car as is often reported). The house behind Arnold at the beginning of the scene was demolished in 1998 so that the adjacent St Anne's Maternity Hospital parking lot could be extended, but the unique shaped light in said parking lot is still there amongst the trees.
Next we head to the Alamo Sports Shop where The Terminator acquires his weapons. This was a real gun store at the time and remained so until 1985 when it became a used car dealership, which it still is to this day. The building itself has changed very little in the time since filming and the numbers above the door are still the same, as is the distinctive business sign on the pole.
The payphone where The Terminator looks up the Sarah Connors is actually right outside of the Alamo Sport Shop location, but the camera never pans over far enough to reveal that it's the same place. I'm not sure if there ever was a payphone at this location or whether it was just a prop.
The wrong Sarah Connor's house is the first location we come to that no longer exists, having been demolished in 1986 to make way for an apartment building. Some of the neighbouring houses have also been demolished but several across the street can still be matched up.
Reese hot wires the car in front of the entrance to the Promenade Towers Apartments on Figueroa Street, which was the building under construction during the filming of this scene. The existing Promenade West apartments on the opposite side of the road can be seen over Reese's shoulder on the reverse angle.
Sarah and Ginger live in Apartment #225 of the Gilmore Hamlin Apartments in North Hollywood. I believe the parking garage where Reese begins to follow Sarah is also located here but I'm not absolutely certain. A different location was used to portray the exterior of the Apartment complex that we see later when The Terminator shows up.
After getting stood up Sarah decides to go for a Pizza at the famous Miceli's Italian Restaurant in Hollywood, which has been in existence since 1949 (surprisingly the address for this location was not listed online in connection with The Terminator when I first researched it). I believe Sarah is seated at the table in the photo below and based on the surroundings it appears that the restaurant has been remodelled, with the bar being moved further back and the addition of the stairs where the phone would have been.
It should be noted that a different location is used when Sarah leaves the restaurant (see below).
The table right beside the stairs is where Sarah was seated.
After leaving the Pizza Parlour exterior at 712 South Hill Street Sarah walks a few doors down to Tech Noir. The interiors were also filmed at this location despite the fact that it was not a real bar, although it has been reported that the crew had to turn people away that believed it was. The entrance no longer looks the same as it did in the film as it has been remodelled several times since 1984. The entrance was changed again in 2020 and this space is now the home of the Gusto Green restaurant.
The exterior of Sarah's apartment complex is known as The 400 Condominiums and pretty much looks the same now as it did in the film.
Reese drives into what is the Department of Water and Power parking garage via the South West entrance (near the corner of 1st Street and Dewap Road). He later exits via the same route when he and Sarah attempt to flee The Terminator. This location has pretty much remained the same but the distinctive yellow support poles have since been painted over.
The Police Station location had been unknown for a very long time but I was able to uncover it several years ago and be the first to publish the address.
Filming took place in an unoccupied office building at the Bethlehem Steel Plant in the city of Vernon, just South of downtown Los Angeles. The plant had already closed down in 1982 making this an ideal location for the production, who heavily set dressed the interior to transform it into a believable Police Station. The building (along with the entire plant) was then razed in 1985 and the area has since been redeveloped.
The Terminator emerges from the rear left section of the building and fires at Sarah and Reese.
The Terminator's base was the old Panama Hotel in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles (the name Panama would also be used in the novel, but the hotel would be located in Silver Lake). The Terminator's room appears to be located at the rear of the building, as evidenced by the Tai Yick Toys business (located at 327 Winston Street) that can be seen through window as The Terminator leaves for the Sarah's mom's cabin.
The drainage culvert where Reese and Sarah hide was the entrance/exit tunnel for the Old LA Zoo in Griffith Park, formerly located at approximately 34.134801, -118.286207. The tunnel was removed in the mid to late 1980's, along with the small section of road from Merry Go Round Lot Two to Griffith Park Drive. It has not 100% been confirmed which end of the tunnel was used, but from my own research and based on the surroundings I believe it was the exit (West side). I haven't been able to find a photo to fully confirm this, but a photo of the entrance (East side) has been found and circulated (see the comments below).
Special thanks to terminator1984fan for providing confirmation on this location from his collection of production documents.
Filming of the future war scenes appears to have been split across two locations. The first location was the closed down Bethlehem Steel Plant in Vernon, where the scenes with Reese on patrol were filmed, along with the scenes in the tunnel with the civilians and the infiltrator Terminator. The second location was the Fantasy II stages in Burbank, where the scenes that featured the miniature Hunter Killer machines were shot.
In this deleted scene we have Sarah and Reese at a rest stop, where Sarah looks up Cyberdyne in the phone book and wants to destroy it to prevent the future, which is not Reese's mission. This location is a distance from the others in LA but I managed to figure it out back in 2016 after searching for "Falls Cafe" (as seen on the sign) and stumbling across an article that discussed its history and demolition, which took place in 2003.
Trivia: This location also makes an appearance in Friday the 13th Part III (1982).
Reese and Sarah now arrive at the Tiki Motel, which is located in a shady part of Huntington Park. They occupy room 9 but the actual room at the motel was not used for filming and the production instead chose to construct a set at the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Vernon (thanks to terminator1984fan for this information). The motel itself closed between 2013 and 2014 and was then converted into the Tiki Apartments in 2016.
The exterior of the factory is in reality the home of the Los Angeles Police Air Support Division and although the real building can be seen in various shots the building seen when the truck explodes was a miniature constructed in the parking lot of Fantasy II Film Effects in Burbank. After The Terminator emerges from the fire Sarah and Reese gain access to the factory via the door on Keller Street.
The interior of the factory where Reese and Sarah have the final confrontation with The Terminator was the home of Kern Foods at the time of filming and located in City of Industry. The company no longer exists at this location and the building is now the home of several businesses.
In this deleted scene Sarah is loaded into the ambulance and it's revealed to be the Cyberdyne Systems factory where Terminator gets destroyed. In reality this building is the 'C. Erwin Piper Technical Center' and the entrance where filming took place is located on the third level at 34.054977, -118.230659 (with the camera facing South West). A different part of the building was used earlier in the film where Sarah and Reese gain entry to the factory via a side door.
Fast forward a few months and Sarah pulls into a gas station somewhere in Mexico. In reality this is the Super Store 6 in Littlerock California, which has changed considerably since 1984 as the original building has either been renovated or completely rebuilt. The shot of Sarah driving off towards the mountains (which were matted in) was filmed elsewhere, without Linda Hamilton or even a film permit.
Great work, thanks !!!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant details. Thanks
ReplyDeleteAwesome
ReplyDeleteCool!
ReplyDeleteThis is the drainage culvert:
ReplyDeletehttps://postimg.cc/ZC25xJ0P
No idea if it still exists today as you can see the photo is old and is the old entrance to the zoo that used to be there.
Suspect it was demolished as part of the redevelopment of the area during the mid to late 80s.
I'm the guy that runs the Terminator1984fan instagram account. The owner of the page kindly mentioned me in on of his location posts.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the drainage tunnel Kyle and Sarah hide out / spend the night in., the above poster is 100% correct it was filmed in the old zoo tunnel, and the reason nobody can find it is was demolished. I will do a post about this sometime with a photo of the crew map about this former location.
Thank you, I've been trying to confirm that location for some time. I even have some high resolution imagery of the area when the tunnel and road that went over it was still there, but I just wasn't 100% sure based on some other things I could see, so I'm happy that you have the documents to prove it and I very much look forward to your post.
DeleteYes thank you from Retro Recipes on YT too. I’ve been searching for that box culvert for 10 years. Even went back today to look. Please drop me a line at YouTube channel (click About) as I’d love to see the docs. 🙏
DeleteThis page has lots of information that I didn't know, thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks. There will be a couple of other obscure locations added eventually.
DeleteI'll be back 😎
ReplyDelete