
The Massacre Camp

Q. What is it supposed to be on the show?
A. A campground for Confederados soldiers, and the scene of a bloody massacre.
Q. When do we see it?
A. In Episode 9, where Logan (who has made himself a general in "the Army of New Virginia") has taken William and Dolores captive.
Angered by William's belief that Dolores is special, Logan decides to
teach William a shocking lesson. He takes a large knife and
plunges it into Dolores's stomach, tearing her open and exposing the
mechanical mechanisms deep inside the Westworld host.
Only Dolores is special, so her reaction is to grab the knife
and slice Logan across the face (demonstrating she isn't limited by
Westworld's normal rules), then she grabs a gun and shoots several of the (host)
soldiers, before taking William's advice to flee.
After Dolores is gone, Logan and William appear to reconcile, and Logan
is sure that he has finally convinced William that the hosts, including Dolores, are
just dumb machines. They embrace and appear to reconcile.
But in the morning, a hungover Logan awakens to an equally shocking
lesson: overnight, it seems that William has killed every single
soldier (host) in the camp, leaving their bloody, dismembered bodies
strewn across the landscape.
Logan reaches for a weapon, but William has taken it. A newly
savage and determined William tells Logan he has learned how to play the game, and
then he attacks Logan, pinning him to the ground with the knife at his
throat, and William makes it clear that he is now in control, telling Logan that he is going to find Dolores, and that Logan is going to help him,
Q. What is it in real life?
A. A movie ranch.
Q. Where can I find it in real life?
A. By now, you may have thought Westworld had already used every movie ranch in town. But you'd be wrong.
They found another one for this camp massacre scene.
Pay attention to the crumbling ruins in the background of this camp scene. That's the key.
This is one of the outdoor sets at Blue Cloud movie ranch (not to be confused with Big Sky movie ranch, where they filmed the Abernathy ranch scenes), at 20019 Blue Cloud Road, in Santa Clarita / Saugus, CA.
We tend to think of movie ranches as places designed to film Westerns, and most of them are
that is why the term "ranch" started for these filming properties. But
there are also smaller, more specialized "ranches" which offer
different settings, such as Club Ed (which
offers a '50s desert setting), Warner Ranch (which offers a residential
setting), and this one, Blue Cloud, which offers a Third World ambience.
Although set in the background of this scene may look like the ruins of an old Mexican village (which
fits in well with the geography of this show), this is actually a
general set that (with a little set decoration) can be used as various different locations,
including war-damaged buildings in the Middle East
This isn't the only set at Blue Cloud Ranch. In fact, most of the
scenes I've seen shot at this ranch location were shot on their generic
"Third World Town" street (right next to this ruins area), where
most of the buildings are intact, and which can easily be made to look
like some distant spot in the Middle East or Africa. If you see
someone on TV venturing into a terrorist lair in Afghanistan, there's a good chance it
was shot here.
They filmed the 2012 hit movie Zero Dark Thirty here, as well as scenes from Iron Man, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and True Blood.
Blue Cloud Ranch is located about seven miles northeast of Six Flags Magic Mountain, in the
hills above Santa Clarita, about 12 miles north of Melody Ranch (where
they filed the Sweetwater scenes), and about 40 miles northwest of Big Sky ranch.
Here are photos of that same crumbling arch set at Blue Sky Ranch:
Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?
A. When
I saw those semi-demolished walls and buildings, the first place that
popped into my mind was the bleak "Third World Town" set at Blue Cloud Ranch.
I had earlier found that ranch (and that set) while looking for filming
locations from the ABC TV series "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", where the set played a village in Bahrain in one episode and played Tangier in another.
So, I checked the ranch's site for photos of their sets, and was able
to perfectly match the exact crumbling arch that appears in the morning
scene, where a crazed William confronts Logan.
The Westworld screenshots from the show & all related characters &
elements are trademarks of and © HBO.
All other photos & text are Copyright © 2019-Gary Wayne
and may not be used without written permission.

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