Five real-life abandoned movie sets you can actually visit
The number of movies to shoot on location has gradually dwindled with soundstages providing circumstances that the studio – and, by extension, the filmmaker – can control, without having to worry about extenuating circumstances interrupting filming.
Even the productions that do head out into the real world to capture footage use backdrops and buildings that aren’t going to be torn down or left derelict anytime soon, with the bigger movies also packing up their wares and vacating their exteriors so as not to leave anything behind.
Despite that, there are plenty of sets from some major titles still left standing around the world, which have become popular destinations for those who hold a strong affinity with the feature in question.
In some cases, the people who own the land have wisely decided to turn them into tourist traps, but a little money is a small price to pay for anyone desperately keen to visit the site of one of their all time favourites.
Five abandoned movie sets you can visit:
5. The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012)
Despite serving as the backdrop to the home of Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen and being a recognisable location from a blockbuster franchise that earned over $3billion at the box office, North Carolina’s Henry River Mill Village still couldn’t find a buyer when it went up for sale shortly after The Hunger Games‘ release.
It was eventually purchased five years later, but the long-abandoned village has since become a popular site among Hunger Games fans who want to relive the experience of their favourite characters. Rachel Ziegler’s Lucy Gray was also a District 12 resident, with tourism no doubt enjoying an uptick following the recent arrival of the prequel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
However, the production opted not to return to River Mill Village despite the location looking virtually the same as it did a decade ago, with most of the latest Hunger Games movie shooting its exteriors in Poland and Germany.
4. The Patriot (Roland Emmerich, 2000)
Mel Gibson’s questionably accurate historical epic is far from the only film to have been shot in Cypress Gardens, with Cold Mountain, The Notebook, and Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing among the others to have pitched up, but the Old Spanish Mission served as a pivotal location in The Patriot.
It was here where Gibson’s Benjamin Martin would hide out with his rebel forces and inspire them ahead of their next mission, with the crumbling ruins of a church and a bridge left behind after shooting had wrapped, making it a prime destination for anyone with a soft spot for the movie.
Flooding in 2015 saw Cypress Gardens remain closed to the public for almost four years, but according to its website, the Old Spanish Mission – or what’s left of it – remains intact and is still used more than 20 years later as a means of advertising and encouraging visitors.
3. 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995)
What’s better than visiting the location from Terry Gilliam’s Academy Award-nominated sci-fi 12 Monkeys? Doing so with an audio tour narrated by none other than Steve Buscemi, of course.
Gilliam may have used it as a psychiatric institution, but Buscemi’s 2000 directorial effort Animal Factory utilised Eastern State Penitentiary as the prison it used to be, which made him the prime candidate to lend his talents to its reinvention as a tourist hotspot, one that also holds themed Halloween nights.
Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen descended on the facility to shoot parts of the building, too, while its most famous non-fictional resident was undoubtedly Al Capone, who spent eight months at the Philadelphia prison during his very first time behind bars.
2. The Alamo (John Wayne, 1960)
The place that marked the location of John Wayne‘s directorial debut, the Texas set of The Alamo has since been repurposed and used as the backdrop to countless other productions after being left behind following the end of shooting on the 1960 Western.
Renamed as Alamo Village, at various points, it included the John Wayne Western Museum, a collection of antiques, held live music events, boasted a restaurant, church, and much more. The site is no longer in use for anything, and the majority of props have been auctioned off, but at its peak, it was a Hollywood haven.
As well as several additional movies about the Battle of the Alamo, it was a regular location for movies of any genre, as well as countless TV shows, music videos, and commercials, but it’ll always be best known for its original purpose.
1. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
The Tunisian town of Tataouine was a clear and obvious inspiration for Luke Skywalker’s home of Tatooine, but even though the sets have fallen into disrepair due to the passage of time and local weather conditions, the sets located in Tozeur have been a constant hotspot for Star Wars supporters.
Alongside nearby Nefta, the Skywalker homestead and Mos Espa are among the locations still standing, with the country wisely opting to market sightseeing tours directly towards visitors with a soft spot for a galaxy far, far away.
George Lucas would return to Tunisia to shoot footage for the prequel trilogy, continuing Tunisia’s long and fruitful association with Star Wars that’s proven to be hugely beneficial to both parties.
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