From a military base of a space empire to an entire Pokémon city, London has become the not-so-secret location hub for the sci-fi movie genre over the last decade.
Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man is the latest to join the trend, with many key scenes of the American-set dystopia filmed on London streets and buildings. Eugene Strange, a supervising location manager who worked on The Running Man production in the planning stage before it was greenlit, told Shortlist that London was chosen to shoot scenes because it was cheaper than filming in America. London could also accurately depict the variety of housing in the fictional Co-op city in the movie, from the slums to the high-rise areas.
“London had the variety. It had the city skyscraper for some elements. It does some really big-scale architectural statement pieces, like Battersea, like Tottenham Stadium,” Strange said.
Strange said the variety in London and the “film-friendly” offices that manage film shoots in the city were likely a big draw for the other sci-fi movie productions in previous years.
“London is used because it's visually arresting,” Strange said. “It gives a lot of different styles and themes through the different areas of the city, from gritty to glossy, to everything in between.”
If you’re on the lookout for more locations in London that were used in your favourite sci-fi film, here’s our pick of where you should visit.
1. Canary Wharf
One of the most well-known films to shoot in Canary Wharf is Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). The production used the area's underground station in the film's final act for the scene when the rebels infiltrate the Empire base at Scarif.
Three years later, the station was used as the base of the London branch of the Men in Black alien spy organisation in Men in Black: International (2019).
The station was used in both 28 Days Later (2002) and 28 Weeks Later (2007) in the scenes where the survivors hide underground from the zombie invasion. A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) also used Canary Wharf to simulate Manhattan, New York, during an alien invasion at the beginning of the movie.
Bonus A Quiet Place: Day One tip? One of our favourite East London boozers, The George Tavern in Stepney, doubles as the film's jazz club.
2. Moorgate
In The Running Man, two roads near Moorgate station, Ropemaker Street and Moor Lane, featured in a sequence of scenes in which the lead character, Ben Richards (Glen Powell), is heading to the Network Building to apply for a reality show to raise enough money for medicine.
Strange told Shortlist that the 60s and 70s “brutalist architecture” near these roads fit the aesthetic they tried to build for the transition between the rich area and the poor area in Co-Op City.
“Just before he hits the network gateway, where he's let in from one part of town to the other, from downtown to Uptown,” Strange said. “And that was a real crucial threshold of telling that story of the haves and the have-nots.”
Ropemaker Street makes a brief appearance in Men in Black: International when M and H turn their car into a spaceship to race to France and save the day. Ready Player One (2018) also filmed multiple scenes on Ropemaker Street, Moor Lane and Finsbury Street, near Moorgate station, despite the film being set in a futuristic version of Columbus, Ohio.
3. Leadenhall and Shoreditch
Ryme City in Detective Pikachu (2019) is a fictional city, but any Londoner would be able to tell that it was filmed in the UK’s capital. Several exterior scenes of Ryme City were filmed in Rivington Street, Shoreditch, and the streets around Leadenhall Building and Broadgate Tower in central London. The arena scene, where Pikachu takes on Charizard, was filmed in the Roundhouse concert venue in Camden, north of Shoreditch.
4. Old Royal Naval College
In Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025), Martin (Rupert Friend) and Zora (Scarlett Johansson) head to a New York museum to recruit a palaeontologist (Jonathan Bailey) for their journey to collect the DNA of three deadly dinosaurs. That museum scene was shot in the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College, in Greenwich, South East London.
5. Natural History Museum
The Hintze Hall, the entrance hall of the Natural History Museum, was used for a scene in Jupiter Ascending (2015) to simulate an intergalactic space palace. Other scenes were shot in the museum’s Zoology basement corridor and General Herbarium.
6. Royal Opera House
Where better to shoot an alien opera scene than in one of London’s most historic theatres? The scene in The Fifth Element (1997), where Bruce Willis attends a performance led by a blue alien, was filmed in the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
7. Battersea Power Station
Before Battersea Power Station's redevelopment in 2013, it was used as the location of the Ark of Arts scene in Children of Men (2006) and briefly appeared in the 1984 movie adaptation (1984). The new Battersea Power Station, now a shopping district, briefly appeared in the opening scenes of The Running Man when Ben Richards is heading to the Network building.
7. Wembley Stadium
Fans likely noticed that The Running Man was partly filmed at Wembley Stadium. The scenes outside the Network building were filmed outside the sports arena, particularly the moment where Ben Richards escapes into the city at the beginning of The Running Man competition. Fans may have missed that the production also filmed at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, using the arena’s locker rooms for the locker room scene inside the Network building.
8. The Wilkins Building
In Inception (2010), Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) travels to Paris to meet gifted architect student Ariadne (Elliot Page) to help him pull off a dream heist. Most scenes in this part of the film were shot in France, but the interior scenes for Ariadne’s college were filmed in the Wilkins Building on the University College London campus. The scene where Cobb speaks to his father-in-law (Michael Caine) was filmed in Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre. The following scene, when Cobb meets Ariadne in the college’s hallway, was filmed in the Flaxman Gallery.
9. Windsor Great Park and Black Park
Windsor Great Park, in Berkshire, and Black Park, in Buckinghamshire, are two large woodlands just outside London, but they’re close enough to visit on a trip to London. The production of sci-fi horror movie Annihilation (2018) filmed in these grand parks to depict a swamp in the Southern USA.
Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.