Warehouses provide the backdrop for many a great film scene, and they are a popular location choice for many films. Often used in action films, warehouses make great settings for fights, explosions, dodgy deals, torture scenes and much more. They make a great location to film a scene because they are large open spaces and unlike other locations have less need for extras, such as a supermarket or shopping center. So many films have famous scenes in warehouses, but here are just a few.
Reservoir Dogs is set almost entirely in an abandoned warehouse. The warehouse starts off as the safe pre-organized meeting place of a group of colorfully named criminals after a heist. However, the group discover that one of their party is an undercover cop and the location becomes much more sinister as violence ensues.
In the new flick Kick-Ass starring Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski (Kick Ass) and Nicholas Cage as Big Daddy, a warehouse is the setting for an amazing triumph of the goodies v the baddies. In the famous warehouse scene Big Daddy takes on the bad guys and sets fire to the warehouse.
Warehouses seem to feature greatly in Gangster films, where they are often the setting of crime deals and shoot-outs. In Scorcese’s The Departed, a warehouse is the location of a botched deal with some Chinese gangsters and then later on, another disused warehouse building is the setting for the long action scene that sees many main characters killed off.
Sometimes warehouses are used for other unusual scenes compared with the gangsters and violence of the previously mentioned films. In Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks, the use of a warehouse is unusual compared to most films. Whereby in many films, the warehouse is a place of action, violence or crime, in Cast Away it is used at the beginning before the action starts. It is the work place of Tom Hanks character Chuck Noland a Fed-Ex systems analyst.
Although it’s a busy place of work, it’s still a calm use of a warehouse in comparison to its use in action or gangster films. In Footloose, the 1980s dance film starring Kevin Bacon, a warehouse is the setting for an iconic dance scene that is also used in the video for the song Footloose by Kenny Loggins.
Another warehouse theme used in films is the idea of the ‘Government Warehouse’, a location used in films which holds items or information the government want to keep from the general public. A great example of this is the warehouse used in Indiana Jones, first of all in Raiders of the Lost Ark and then again in Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal skull. The warehouse is known as Hangar 58, which is meant to be a cross between Area 51 and Hangar 18; it is here that the Ark of the Covenant and alien remains are kept.
Warehouses are a popular choice of location in a great host of films and will probably continue to be so for many films to come.
Guest Bio: Rachel is a freelance blogger on a variety of topics, from films and TV to uk commercial property.
