Posted by Ra Moon
Over the course of 11 notoriously complicated months of shooting, The Revenant was filmed primarily in Alberta, Canada, but also in British Columbia, Montana, and Argentina.
The cinematography of the movie captures the splendor of the epic, frozen landscapes, as well as the harsh conditions of surviving - and filming - in such a frigid environment.
Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, Amores Perros) was very clear from the beginning: it would not be a green-screen production; 93% of the movie takes place outdoors.
Weather was a major issue for this project. At first, The Revenant was only to be filmed in an extensive area near Calgary in Alberta, plus one scene shot in the neighboring state of Montana in the USA. However, a lack of snow forced the production to move to the southern tip of South America in Argentina.
Welcome to the most complete guide to the filming locations of The Revenantthat you can find. Contains no spoilers!
The Revenant Locations
Most of The Revenant was filmed in Kananaskis Country, a vast area of parks and reserves in the Canadian Rockies situated west of Calgary.
The Arikara ambush scene was filmed along the Bow River on the grounds of the Chief Goodstoney Rodeo Centre near Morley.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
The Morley Indian Reservation is part of the Stoney Nation. The production required dozens of native extras to shoot this epic sequence.
The scene where the boat is burned was also filmed here. The reserve is located along the Canadian Pacific Railway, between the scenic Trans-Canada Highway and the Bow River.
In British Columbia, the iconic bear attack scene was filmed in the Squamish Valley.
According to YVRShoots, the filming took place in an area near the Squamish River in the Derringer Forest.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
The scenes with the group of trappers walking, hunting, and setting a campfire and carrying the injured Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) were filmed a little further down the river in the Shovehouse Creek area.
All the actors are happy to drink hot tea and relax in a studio between takes. This would not be the case with The Revenant: the filmmakers were looking for remote locations to create a sense of wilderness in snowy, pristine conditions.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
After the scene with Captain Andrew Henry's last men trying to find their way back to Fort Kiowa, there is this establishing shot of Bragg Creek, back in Alberta, with the Elbow Falls in the background.
The scale of the landscapes is overwhelming. The spectacular scenery of Alberta can become an extreme place in winter.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
According to Screen Daily, a crane and horses were transported up to 8,000 feet to shoot a scene atop of Fortress Mountain.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
The dramatic sequence in which Glass is caught in the rapids downstream the river was filmed at the Kootenai Falls near Libby in Montana, USA.
The sequence took ten days to complete. A local newspaper reported that the director of photography edited the background of the falls with footage of snowy hills filmed in Argentina.
This is the same location used in the 1994 film The River Wild starring Meryl Streep.
Image by courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Jeff Hitchcock - Map
John Fitzgerald (played by Tom Hardy) sees a meteorite streaking across the sky in the Drumheller Badlands along the Red Deer River, located northeast of Calgary.
This geological wonder is a striking testament to the forces of erosion, sculpting a surreal landscape of deep canyons and sedimentary layers.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Can Pac Swire - Map
The strange mountain of buffalo skulls, the church in ruins, and the Pawnee village, were sets built on location for the occasion.
Star Leonardo DiCaprio said he had to do 30 or 40 of the most difficult scenes of his career in this film alone.
The Revenant crew also built the Fort Kiowa set at Dead Man's Flats near Canmore on the Spray Lakes Road, with Castle Rock in the background.
Another added difficulty for this project was the will of the film director to shoot only in natural light.
Days are short during the winter season, and travel to the remote sets took up so much time that the crew had only a few hours a day to shoot.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
The location where Fitzgerald ambushes Henry (played by Domhnall Gleeson) is situated under the Fortress Mountain.
A helicopter bombed the area in Fortress Mountain to provoke the avalanche seen in The Revenant.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
The final scenes were shot on the southern tip of South America, as the snow in Alberta melted before the end of principal photography.
The small Olivia river near Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, was the unplanned final location to end such an arduous and challenging production.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox - Map
Iñárritu commented that this is an incredible landscape, but the worst place for a producer to shoot a film.
The Mexican director stated that he will never make a movie like this again because “I am a crazy man, but not stupid”.
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