Where was North By Northwest Filmed?

The movie begins with a flood of people exiting an elevator with the camera focused on Roger Thornhill who seems to be talking with his secretary as they go through his itinerary for the day ahead. As they exit the office building where he works, he asks her what’s next on the list and she mentions, “Gretchen Sabinson”, to which Roger tells her to, “Send her a box of candy from Blum’s. Ten dollars. The kind… you know… each piece wrapped in gold paper? She’ll like that...” Much like the rest of the introduction of the movie up until Roger gets kidnapped, many of the shots seen in the early minutes utilized New York City as the filming location of North By Northwest. Being close to many landmarks, especially Central Park, it's easy reaching the filming location for this scene at 650 Madison Avenue. Since this location is located close to busy areas, there are plenty of ways to reach it including public transportation. To get there via train, you can take the N train anywhere south of the building and make a stop by the subway station at 5 AV/59 St. From there it’s a short walk to the building that was used to film North By Northwest.

The beginning of the movie introduces us to the advertising executive Roger Thornhill who is visiting the plaza hotel for a meeting. While talking to his associates, a bellboy calls and says, “Mr. George Kaplan!” to which Roger Thornhill says, oblivious to who the bellboy was calling for, “Boy – would you come here please?” The camera then pans to two men who now eye Roger in a different manner, clearly thinking that he is Mr. George Kaplan. Moments later he is taken into a car by those two men eyeing him earlier, one of which has a gun pointed at Roger Thornhill’s heart. This section of the film was shot at the Plaza Hotel located in New York City. This film by Sir Alfred Hitchcock was the first ever film to be shot on location at The Plaza Hotel, all movies prior that featured this hotel were merely Hollywood replica backdrops. The famous hotel is located at the edge of another famous landmark, Central Park, and to get to the hotel, you can drive along Broadway and then make a turn on West 59th Street going towards East 59th Street. At the corner of Central Park, you will be able to see the Plaza Hotel on the right-hand side.

As Roger Thornhill heads for the United Nations General Assembly Building, he climbs into a taxi and asks the driver to take him there. On the way there he mentions, “I’m being followed. Can you do anything about it?” To which the driver replies with, “Yes I can.” The audience then hears the revving of the engine which was meant to show that the taxi sped up to evade the pursuers. He then drops off Thornhill at the General Assembly Building moments later. Sir Alfred Hitchcock didn’t get permission to film inside the U.N. so Roger Thornhill’s entrance into the United Nations building was shot across the street with a hidden camera. The interior of the building was later recreated on a sound stage. The U.N. building is a massive building that is one of the few isolated blocks within New York City. To get to the filming location for this scene in North By Northwest, interested viewers can travel along 1st Avenue to come across the U.N. General Assembly building. From there you will be able to see the steps that Roger Thornhill took to get inside the building.

After escaping and entering the U.N. General Assembly Building to meet Townsend, when Roger meets him, he realizes that he isn’t the man that he met in Long Island. Townsend is killed when one of the thugs throws a knife and Roger is seen holding the knife that was thrown leading to many thinking that he is the murderer. He quickly evades his pursuers and heads into the subway station where police are searching for him. As he’s talking to his mother, we can hear him explain his hiding options saying, “No dear, the train is safer. Well because there’s no place to hide on a plane if anyone should recognize me.” This scene that slowly panned to Roger Thornhill was shot within Grand Central, which at some point was the sixth most visited attraction in the world. With a place as packed as that, it's no wonder that nobody was able to find Roger Thornhill. Visit North By Northwest’s filming location by traveling either by train or by car. To get to it via a car, you can drive along 4th Avenue and then along Park Avenue South to get to the station. From there you can descend to the lower levels to find the area where this scene in North By Northwest was shot.

With Eve Kendell explaining to Roger Thornhill that she has arranged a meeting with Kaplan at an isolated rural bus stop, Roger agrees to wait there in hopes that he finds answers to several big questions he has. However, as he waits there, he is suddenly attacked by a crop duster that appears in the surrounding landscape. He ducks for his life a couple of times to evade the threat and happens to stop a truck that brakes in the nick of time to prevent him from being run over. However, the relentless crop duster doesn’t stop and crashes into one of the fuel tanks that the truck was carrying and explodes. The drivers, unaffected by the explosion, hop out and tell Roger to, “Get out of here, the other tank may blow!” With that, both the drivers and Roger flee the scene to get to a safer area. Considered one of the most iconic North by Northwest action scenes, this crop duster scene was intended to subvert the cliché of a man lured into a dark alleyway by substituting it with the complete opposite – a bright day in a rural area. To get to this location, drive along the Central Valley Highway and then make a turn to drive down Garces Highway. You know you have reached the location when you meet the intersection between Garces Highway and Scofield Avenue.

As Roger Thornhill waits for the arrival of the others, he and the professor have a chat as they blend in with the rest of the tourists. He asks the professor, “Suppose they don’t come?” The professor retorts with, “They’ll come.” He plans to negotiate Vandumm’s turnover of Kendall to be arrested. While shooting on the location of Mount Rushmore, Eva Marie Saint, the actress who played Eve Kendall, found that Cary Grant, the actor who played Roger Thornhill was charging fans fifteen cents per autograph. Various scenes throughout this final sequence were shot at Mount Rushmore while others were shot at a studio replica of the location. To get to this famous location where the final sequence was shot, you can drive along US Highway 385 and then along the 244 to get to the famous landmark that represented the first 150 years of American history.