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Part 5
The Actual Southern California
Locations where
1995's "Heat" was filmed.
[
Click here for an interactive
MAP of all "Heat"
locations with aerial photos! ]
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* Warning:
due to the gritty nature of "Heat", some of its filming locations
are found in urban areas
that may have a high crime rate, and could be dangerous to visit. Exercise
reasonable caution.
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Before each scene
description, you will see a number (for example: 00:07:05);
this is the time of the movie (on the
DVD) when the scene appears.
1:51:27:
As the gun battle rages, and DeNiro tries to drag the wounded Val Kilmer
to safety,
the battle spills into what appears to be the parking lot of a "Zack's"
supermarket.
There really is no Zack's in L.A. It's a fake. They simply
took a downtown parking lot
(and its parking structure), and (with the help of a few shopping carts
and some signs)
turned it into a false storefront.
But figuring
out the exact location of "Zack's" a decade later, was somewhat
challenging.
The former parking lot is now gone. But by identifying the buildings in
the background,
I was able to pinpoint the location. For instance, in the photo above,
the square,
cube-shaped glass building behind DeNiro is the Bullocks Building
at 600 S. Hope.
The Library Tower (the tallest building on the West Coast) can be
seen on the left side of
the photo below. While the large brown building (with lots of windows)
on the right side of
both photos is the Sky lofts at 801 E. Grand Ave. In both photos,
you are looking northeast.
So where
was "Zack's"?
On the west side of Hope Street,
between 8th & 9th Streets.
The former empty parking lot was bounded
by Hope Street on the East,
by W. 9th Street on the south, and by
S. Flower Street on the west.
A small street called Pembrook Lane
cuts through the property.
That once-empty lot is now under construction, a project called "South
Village" is being built
there and will soon contain the "Market
Lofts" condos, which will sit six stories above a new
retail development featuring, ironically, an actual supermarket
(Ralph's, not Zack's).
2:13:01:
Planning his escape after the botched bank robbery, Robert De Niro and
'Eady'
talk in a park overlooking the ocean, where he tells her that he needs
her to make his
life worthwhile, and asks her to come with him.
This
twilight scene was filmed at Palisades
Park, narrow strip of grassy park land
that
runs for a mile along the the cliffs on the west
side of Ocean Avenue in
Santa Monica,
from the Santa Monica Pier north to the Palisades. (This appears to have
been shot near
the northern end of the park, on Ocean Ave south of San Vicente Blvd.)
Palisades
Park is a popular spot for joggers, and filmmakers often use the park and
its
towering palm trees and ocean view as a backdrop for films.) The far south
end of the
park lies right across the street from Ivy
at the Shore, another "Heat" location.
(Most
of the park is wonderful. But my advice is to avoid the park's far south
end, near
the Pier, which seems to be a haven for homeless people and drug addicts.)
02:14:42:
The police take Val Kilmer's wife & child into custody, and stakeout
their
beach apartment, setting a trap to catch
Kilmer when he comes to visit his family.
This
apartment house is in Venice, California,
and is located right on the beach
on Ocean Front Walk, just north/northwest of Navy Street.
In both
photos of the stakeout street (above and below), we are looking
east/northeast
up Navy Street, from Ocean Front Walk (to
Pacific Avenue). The stop sign we see
in
the photo below marks The Speedway,
a narrow alley that runs parallel to Ocean Front Walk.
[ I originally
had a hard time pinpointing this one, but an actual LAPD cop who works
the area emailed me in 2006 to let me know the exact location. Thanks,
friend! ]
.
02:22:08:
In the photo above, Al Pacino is standing on the balcony of his
hotel, looking
down at the 405 freeway and Sunset Blvd. A moment later, he finds his step-daughter,
'Lauren' (Natalie Portman)
unconscious in a bathtub, following a suicide attempt.
He lifts her out of the tub and bandages her arms and legs to stop the
bleeding.
This
was shot at the Holiday Inn Brentwood-BelAir,
which is located above Sunset Blvd,
next to (west of) the 405 Freeway, just
below the Getty Center. Its round tower
can
easily be seen from the northbound 405 freeway. The address is 170
N. Church Lane.
02:23:56:
Al Pacino carries his unconscious stepdaughter into a hospital.
This scene was shot at the same hospital where (earlier
in the film) De Niro
stole an ambulance for the heist. It's St.
Mary Medical Center, located at
1050 Linden Ave.,
in Long Beach, CA
(30 miles away from the Holiday Inn).
*
Locations marked with an asterisk may be located in high-crime areas. Exercise
reasonable caution.
More Heat Locations!
(Just click the arrows)
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