Part 2

The Actual Southern California Locations
where 2008's "Hancock" was filmed.

We first see Hancock asleep on a bus bench, on a city street, a bottle of booze in his hand.
A young kid wakes him up, telling him that there is a violent police chase underway.

That bus bench was located on the north side of E. 2nd Street, in downtown L.A.
just west of San Pedro Street & Onizuka Street, near the south/SW side
of the Weller Court shopping center in Little Tokyo.

The awnings we see belong to the back side of Marukai restaurant,
at 123 Onizuka St #101, just SW of the New Ontai Hotel.

In the photo below, the camera is looking northwest.  The church steeple visible in
the left background (in the photo below) is the former St. Vibiana's Cathedral,
located at 2nd & Main. It's the second oldest church in Los Angeles,
but when it was damaged in a 1994 earthquake, the old cathedral
was closed & deconsecrated and is now an art center.

The scenes where a flying Hancock chases a car full of bank robbers down the freeway were
shot at the west end of the 105 Freeway, between Sepulveda & La Cienega, in El Segundo.

That's right next to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), west of the 405 Freeway.

In the photo above, you can see the LAX theme building in the lower middle of the picture.

During filming, they shut down the 105 freeway for an extended time,
causing major traffic problems for L.A. commuters.

The building seen on the right (in the photo below) after Hancock crashes through
the freeway sign is the Korean Air building, at 6101 W. Imperial Highway.

For the most part, the cops & robbers were heading east on the freeway, but as usual, they fake us
out now and then - and some shots were filmed while heading west on the same freeway.

When Hancock catches up with the robbers, we get a fake cut to a new location, miles away from LAX.

The building seen in the background when Hancock picks up the robber's car is the
U.S. Bank Tower, at 633 W. Fifth St. (the corner of 5th & Grand), in downtown L.A.

At 1,018 feet (72 stories), the tower is the tallest building on the west of the Mississippi.

When Hancock impales the robbers' car on a spire atop a round tower, you may well recognize that
unique building. It's none other than the landmark Capitol Records Building, located at 1750 Vine St.,
just north of the famous corner of Hollywood & Vine, in Hollywood.

( The Capitol Records Building (said to resemble a stack of records) is actually a good 5 or 6 miles
northwest of that U.S. Bank Tower, seen moments before. )

We next see Hancock hanging out at a seedy little bar, glaring at strangers and picking up
on a bimbo (who he takes back to his trailer).

That dive bar is real.  It's the "PrimeTime Pub" - located at 5556 Santa Monica Blvd. That's on the
south side of the boulevard (across from a Sears store), just west of the Hollywood (101) Freeway,
and about three blocks east of the Hollywood Forever cemetery. It even has its own website.

(This isn't a great neighborhood, so exercise reasonable caution.)