F/X (1986)

This clever action film is about a special effects man who is hired by the Department of Justice to fake the murder of a mobster. But after executing the job, he soon finds himself pursued by both crooked government agents and the New York Police Department.

This is one of two of my favorite 1980’s action films that take place in New York City — the other being 1985’s Remo Williams. But unlike Remo, this movie is pretty solid, held together by an ingenious premise and a well-rounded cast, including Australian actor Bryan Brown, Jerry Orbach, Brian Dennehy, Roscoe Orman (AKA Gordon from “Sesame Street”), Diane Venora, Tom Noonan, Cliff De Young, and Mason Adams (who I recognized mostly from his ubiquitous voice-over career). 

 

The Movie Within a Movie

 

 

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Finding this filming location was a rather easy task since the very unique-looking Citigroup Center was featured prominently in the scene (although admittedly, not knowing the exact address or official name of the building, I originally had to search online for “the Manhattan skyscraper with slanted top”).

When it was built in 1977, the 59-story Citigroup Center (originally named Citicorp Center) was the seventh-tallest building in the world. Even though the 45-degree angled top makes this skyscraper stand out in the NYC skyline, the nine-story stilts at the base is what makes it particularly unique — especially since the stilts aren’t located at the corners but in the middle.

The reason there are stilts is because when the Citicorp Center was being designed, structural engineer, William LeMessurier, was required to accommodate St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, which occupied one corner of the construction site on Lexington Avenue. Basically, they had to build their skyscraper around the church, requiring them to put the stilts at the midpoint of each side, opposed to the corners.

This unusual base naturally made the building less stable, so LeMessurier designed a specific bracing framework for its skeleton and installed a “tuned mass damper” to prevent structural failure. At the time, it was considered an ingenious application of engineering, but in 1978 it was discovered that the building was vulnerable to quartering winds (winds that strike the building at its corners), and LeMessurier determined that a strong-enough storm could topple Citicorp Center.

To fix this potentially-catastrophic flaw in the building’s design, LeMessurier and his team worked with Citicorp to coordinate emergency repairs, which consisted of secretly welding in reinforcement plates under the cover of night. To add to the drama, this was shortly before Hurricane Ella began its approach to the northeast.

Fortunately, the repairs were completed before any brutal windstorms hit the city, so the public —as well as Citicorp Center’s occupants— never realized how close they came to a major disaster.

 

Movie Studio

 

 

 

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The first step in figuring out this scene’s location was to try and guess what general neighborhood it was filmed in. By the looks of the tall corporate buildings in the background of the last shot, I figured they were probably somewhere in midtown Manhattan (despite the fact that the dialogue in this scene implied that they were way downtown.) Since there were small apartment buildings near the “movie studio,” I figured they weren’t in the center of the island, but rather in a residential neighborhood on the westside. (I eliminated the eastside as a possibility because the residential buildings in that area tend to be large, doorman high-rises.)

The other big clue I had to go on was a playground and building across the street that looked like it was a public school. So, my first plan of action was to go to Google Maps and search for any school in the 40s or 50s to see if they matched the one in the film.

Surprisingly, it didn’t take long before I stumbled upon P.S. 111, whose building looked very similar to the one that appears in the scene. A little more investigating and I was certain I found the right place.

I was rather pleased I was able to nail this location in a relatively short amount of time. All it took was some educated guesswork and a little bit of good luck.

 

Rollie’s Apartment

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There aren’t a whole lot of F/X‘s filming locations documented on the web, but Rollie’s apartment happens to be one of them, probably because it’s situated right next to one of New York’s most famous movie sites — the firehouse from Ghostbusters. So, needless to say, it didn’t take long for me to figure out this location. I just went to IMDB and found the address right away.

When I went down to Tribeca one morning to take pictures of the building, I happened upon a man standing on the steps in front of the entrance, staring at his watch. Whenever I take pictures of movie locations, I do my best to avoid having any people prominently in the frame, so I waited around, hoping that the man would eventually leave. But after a few minutes, I could see he wasn’t going anywhere. So, I did what New Yorkers are not known for doing — I politely asked him if he could step aside so I could take a picture of the building. He looked up from his watch and nodded, then stepped down onto the sidewalk, somewhat baffled why he was obliging me.

As I took my pictures, a girl of around 10 or 11 came running by, and the man with the watch looked up and shouted, “three more!” I quickly surmised that he lived in the building and was timing his daughter who was running laps around the block. Once I was finished taking my pictures, I started talking to the man who did indeed live in the building. I told him about how F/X was shot there and showed him some stills from the movie on my iPhone. Even though the apartment doors no longer looked like what they did in the film, the man informed me that the stairwell was more or less unchanged, except that it was now closed off with a locked door.

At this point, his daughter was done running laps and they were about to go back inside. That’s when I boldly (but politely) asked if I could step in with them and take a quick peek at the stairwell. Surprisingly, he agreed, and let me in the building where I was able to snap a couple pics of the lobby and the stairwell through the door window.

It pays to be polite.

Andy’s Apartment

 

 

 

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When I saw this scene, I didn’t think it’d be possible to figure out the location since all you really see is one corner of a generic-looking lobby of an apartment building. The camera does look out the front door and onto the street, but it’s dark and rainy, so it was hard to make out any significant details. But then I noticed a little bit of writing on the window next to the door, and hoping it was an address, I took a frame from the film, reversed it, and zoomed in on the lettering. It wasn’t a street address per se, but I could make out one word that said “Van” and another word that ended with a “gh,” and thought it could be the name of the building.

The first phrase that came to mind was, “Van Gough,” and I immediately checked to see if there were any apartment buildings in New York City with that name. And sure enough, I found a listing for “The Van Gough Apartments,” located at 14 Horatio Street. Even before checking out the location in Google Street View, I had a good feeling I got the right place because it was only a couple blocks away from several other F/X filming locations.

I couldn’t find any pictures of the building’s lobby online, but the street view offered a bunch of clues that helped confirm this location. The 45 degree cross-street with an open lot on the opposite side seemed to line up perfectly with what is seen out the front door in the film. Plus, the brickwork on the building exterior matched what appeared through the window in the film.

When I went to the building to try and get a photo of the lobby, I was a little apprehensive, since doormen and security guards often don’t allow any picture-taking on their property. In this instance, the doorman actually stopped me before I could even get in the building, telling me that it was against policy to let a non-resident in the lobby, while also obstinately denying that the lobby was even used in the film. But after doing a little pleading, I was allowed to take a peak inside, but with him standing over my shoulder, I couldn’t take any photos.

Despite the doorman’s strong conviction, I was pretty certain I found the correct location. So I returned to the building about a month later when a different doorman was on duty, hoping I could somehow sneak a photo or two. Luckily, someone was delivering a package when I entered the lobby, so while the doorman was busy dealing with the delivery, I was able to take several photographs unnoticed.

The only awkward part was, after the delivery guy left, I had to pretend I was there for a legitimate reason. So I asked the doorman if there was a “Tom” in 14E (a name and apartment I completely picked out of thin air), which prompted him to give me a puzzled look. After glancing at the computer screen behind the desk, he told me that a “Susan” lived in that apartment.

Continuing with my charade, I acted frustrated and confused. “Really? Tom doesn’t live there?”

My insistence inspired the doorman to check the computer one last time, and then he said with a surprise, “Oh! Yes, Thomas lives in 14E, too.” I was equally surprised, but staying in character, I acted vindicated. Meanwhile, as he called up to the apartment, I prayed that no one would answer.

Someone did answer. It was Susan, and she flatly told the doorman that Thomas was not in.

Relieved that I was finally free to leave, I thanked the doorman and headed out. As I left the lobby, my Oscar-worthy performance culminated with an exaggerated sigh and a head-shake, as if saying to myself, “Where is that guy?”

In retrospect, I suppose I could’ve just initially told the doorman, “Oops, wrong building” and simply walked out. But playacting is much more stupid.

 

Driving the F/X Truck

 

 

 

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There wasn’t any research involved with finding this location. I already knew it implicitly. Having lived in the West Village for ten years, I had been to this intersection thousands of times, and was a regular customer at that HSBC building that appears at the top of the scene.

In fact, the one time I had to have some papers notarized, I did it at that bank. (As a sidenote, I’ve always wondered what inspired someone to become a notary public. Basically, as far as I can tell, their job is to just say, “Yeah I saw that paperwork.”)

 

Meeting on the Overpass

 

 

 

 

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It didn’t take long to figure out where this scene was shot. There are only a handful of two-way streets in Manhattan and the only overpass I knew that ran over one was at Tudor City near the U.N. Building. A quick check in Google Street View confirmed my guesswork.

Taking the “after pictures” at this location proved to be little tricky, only because it happens to be a popular spot for tourists to come and take pictures down 42nd Street and of the Chrysler Building. In fact, I had to come to the location twice in order to get all the pictures I wanted and not have throngs of foreigners posing along the railing.

 

Minetta Street

 

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Whenever I see a picturesque street with a crook in it, I figure it’s either a movie studio backlot, or Minetta Street, and since, as far as I could tell, all New York exteriors were shot on location, I guessed this scene took place on Minetta. Granted, there are a few other streets in Manhattan with the same kind of bend in them, but Minetta is definitely the one used most often in films.

Since the scene took place at night in the rain, it was a little difficult to figure out exactly where the car and F/X truck were parked, but eventually I identified a driveway/alleyway next to 9 Minetta Street that appeared behind Lipton’s car, and from that, got a good idea where the action took place.

 

Assassination at a Restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

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This is a location I had trouble finding for a while, and I ended up revisiting it several times before figuring it out — although technically, my research partner, Blakeslee, found it first.

Like the scene on Minetta Street, this scene took place at night and in the rain, which made it more difficult to make out any details. But by bumping up the brightness/contrast, I was able to spot the number 1422 next to the restaurant’s entrance. Even though the restaurant itself looked kind of fake, I hoped that maybe the address number was real.

By the looks of the neighborhood, I guessed that the restaurant was located somewhere on the Upper East Side, so I checked all the 1422’s on every eastside avenue to see if I could find a match. But after checking out each one, none of the buildings with a 1422 address had a stone facade which looked like the restaurant in the film.

I next tried to use the stores that appeared across the street as a way to figure out the location. It was difficult to see many details, but one of the stores looked like a Chinese restaurant with a sign that said “—Joy” and another store had a sign that said “Churchill Fu——.” After going to the library to look up “Churchill F—” in a 1986 phonebook, I found a listing for “Churchill Furniture,” but none of its locations seemed to make sense.

My third tactic was to see if I could find a building in Google Street View that matched the big white residential building that appeared in the background. I just virtually cruised up and down each avenue on the eastside from 34th Street to 100th Street to see if I could spot it. I was specifically looking for a large light-colored building that had a notch on the corner, with narrow windows along that corner notch and wider windows along the main sides.

As I was doing this time-consuming virtual tour of the Upper East Side, I passed along all the clues associated with this scene to Blakelsee to see if he could help. After he had no luck figuring out the identity of any of those stores across the street, he decided to look at every 1422 building on the eastside as well. And before I could tell him it was a waste of time because I already did that, he found the restaurant’s location on Third Avenue.

I figured the reason I missed it on my first go-around was because the building’s street-level appearance today looks nothing like it did in the 1980s. All the stonework got removed and replaced with glass, which is something I didn’t even consider a possibility. I just assumed from an engineering standpoint, removing large stones from the foundation of a building wouldn’t be feasible.

Another problem was, when I originally checked all the 1422s, I wasn’t using that big white residential building down the avenue as a way to conform the location, but when Blakeslee checked the 1422s, he did. It was a little frustrating that I missed it the first time around, but I was happy Blakeslee and I got this mystery location solved.

Car Crash

 

 

 

 

 

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This is another location I found with the help of Blakeslee.

The one big clue was the clearly visible Disc-O-Mat store at the top of the scene. I was able to find a few scant references to the local record store chain, but nothing on their specific locations. I knew there were a few different outlets in NYC, but I was looking for one that was on the Upper East Side. (Since this scene is a continuation of the restaurant scene, I figured they were in the same general region.) Eventually, I found a reference to a Disc-O-Mat location on Lexington and 58th Street, but it didn’t include an exact address.

Meanwhile, Blakeslee was focusing on a Hotel Dover that appeared in the background of one shot. After a little digging around, he discovered that the Dover was located at 687 Lexington Avenue (which still has a hotel in there today). From that, he was able to determine that the construction area which the car crashed into was the future site of the 32-story office building at 135 East 57th Street, which was completed in 1987.

Once I had a grasp of the geography of the scene, I determined that the address of the Disc-O-Mat record store would be 714-716 Lexington Avenue. And a year or two after I confirmed this location, I found a few more references to the NYC record store, including a nostalgic blog post, a few print ads and a television commercial. Even though it had a name that sounded more like a combination nightclub/laundry, Disc-O-Mat had a strong foothold in the NYC area. It was one of several discount retail record chains that seemed to come and go in Manhattan during the 1970s and 80s. Some of the other competitors during this time were Crazy Eddie’s, Sam Goodies, J&R Music World, and King Karol.

According to a 1977 Billboard Magazine article, Disc-O-Mat started rising around the same time that Jimmy’s Music World, another “lowballing” record store, was fading. Despite a setback when one of their two stores set fire in mid-January 1977, the burgeoning record chain was quickly seeing a growth in sales as customers flocked to their outlets for cheap cassettes and LPs. Part of the appeal of Disc-O-Mat was its seemingly endless supply of musical selections, ranging from pop standards to more underground fare like Adam Ant, Kraftwerk or the Sex Pistols.

Back in days before you could download a song to your computer or smartphone in a matter of seconds, the only way to discover new music was to go digging through bins and shelves of 12-inch records, hoping to find a hidden gem. And the two things that Disc-O-Mat had going for it were their lower-than-usual prices and their sheer volume of selections. However, it appears the management of the record chain was occasionally a bit unorthodox. According to another Billboard article in 1980, in order to fend off internal theft, the owners actually administered random polygraph tests to their employees, trying to weed out the the ones with larceny in their hearts.

Right around the time the car from F/X smashed into the next-door construction site, Disc-O-Mat’s popularity was starting to wane, as the california-based Tower Records was becoming the new king of the hill. I’m not sure when exactly they closed for good, but the last reference I could find to Disc-O-Mat was in the 1992 edition of Birnbaum’s New York guidebook, so I’m guessing it was right around that time.

Phone Booth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This phone booth scene was one of the first locations I sought out, but was one of the last ones I figured out. What bugged me was that I previously thought I had the location already nailed down. Even though the Rollie character says he’s on the corner of 51st and 11th, I thought for sure it was really filmed near Christopher Park in the West Village. But once I went to the actual location, I couldn’t match up any of the elements.

There weren’t really any clues or landmarks in the scene other than the basic layout of the streets. I could tell it was on a diagonal street with a small, most-likely triangular, park nearby, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure it out. I was still pretty sure that it took place somewhere in the West Village, partly because the reverse shot of Rollie watching his F/X truck being towed away was shot back on Minetta. I looked through a map of the village, trying to find a park that matched the film, but couldn’t find anything that worked.

At one point, I tried to figure out if there was any information on a neon seahorse in NYC (which appears in the window across from the phone booth), but that was a dead end.

Finally, about a year after I figured out almost all the other locations for this movie, I decided to draw a little map of what I thought the area would look like, including the park and the surrounding streets, along with their traffic directions.
Once I had a visual reference at hand, I looked through a map of the West Village trying to find a match. And magically, it worked!

After finally figuring out that this scene took place near Abington Square, I was amazed it didn’t occur to me sooner. Although it’s not adjacent to Minetta Street, it’s in the same general vicinity and was not too far from a couple other confirmed filming locations. Also, Abington Square is triangular in shape, so I should’ve zeroed in on it even before I decided to draw a little thumbnail map.

But sometimes a prolonged location mystery is more satisfying when it’s finally solved.

 

Ellen’s Apartment

 

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By the looks of the neighborhood I figured that this scene took place in Soho, especially after I zoomed in on a large banner in the background that said, “Soho Center.” A few strokes on the keyboard later, I found several hits for a “Soho Center for Visual Arts” at 112-114 Prince Street.

When the Center took over the storefront near the corner of Prince and Greene in 1973, it was one of only three non-commercial, non-profit galleries to open in the city. Founded by Larry Aldrich, a successful fashion designer and art collector, the Soho Center reserved its exhibition space exclusively for emerging artists who never had a solo show or gallery representation. During its nearly 20 year run as a non-profit gallery, the Soho Center showcased close to one hundred unknown artists and helped give them the exposure they needed to boost their careers.

After the Soho Center closed in 1990, an interesting art piece got installed in front of 114 Prince Street when the space was taken over by the Mimi Ferzt Gallery  — a bronze, multi-breasted, multi-buttocked sculpture of an ancient fertility goddess. The two-ton statue, created by Russian artist Mihail Chemiakin, was a popular photo-op for tourists and shoppers until it was removed from the sidewalk in 2006, right as the gallery lost its lease.

The space is currently home to a chic jewelry shop.

While the Soho Center helped me figure out this filming location, I later realized the Ellen character actually gave a correct address in a earlier scene outside the movie studio. When she got into a taxi cab, she told the driver to take her to “Prince Street between Wooster and Greene,” which is exactly where the apartment used for this scene was located.

I’m always delighted when movie dialogue is geographically accurate.

 

Hot Dog Stand / Phone Booth

 

 

 

 

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This is a case where two consecutive scenes were shot in two locations close to one another. But before I knew that, I was focusing my attention on the second scene at the phone booth, thinking it looked very familiar. For some reason, I was certain it was shot near NYU, thinking the building the background looked like the library on W 4th Street near Washington Square Park. But after looking around the entire Greenwich Village neighborhood, I realized my instinct was wrong.

After that, I focused my attention on the first scene at the hotdog stand. In the building window behind Bryan Brown, I could make out signage for the fast food chain, Church’s Chicken, which I hoped would help me nail the location. After looking up a list of Church’s Chicken locations in a 1985 Manhattan phone directory, I put my sights on a Second Avenue address which looked promising. After matching the buildings reflected in the restaurant’s window, I became confident that I found the correct location.

Then, guessing that maybe the two scenes were shot close to each other, Blakeslee looked around the nearby Tudor City, thinking that the building behind the phone booth looked like something from that tiny residential community. After a little poking around, he was able to find the location of the second scene, which was only a block away from Church’s Chicken.

I was clearly way off when I originally thought it was shot near NYU in the West Village, considering that that modern building in the far background was actually the UN headquarters on the East River.

 

Police Station

 

 

 

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This was one of the last locations I found for this film, mostly because I barely remembered it even existed. The scene is brief and the location is only used once. But being the completist that I am, I was determined to find it. The first step was to try to figure out if the building they were standing outside of was a real police station or not.

After a little digging around, and not finding anything promising, I became suspicious that it was not a real station house. At that point, I started focusing on the skyline seen in the initial shot of Murdoch walking towards the police station. The buildings in the background looked like the kind you would see in downtown Manhattan, in particular, the building that had a columned tower. I was pretty sure that the tower belonged to the Dinkins Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street, and after checking out a few photos of the government structure, I became certain.

Once I had a landmark to work from, it just became a game of orientation. I kept moving around downtown Manhattan in Google Maps’ 3D mode, trying to match up the skyline from the scene. I slowly started homing in on Tribeca, eventually landing on the Manhattan Community College campus, where I soon matched up the “police station” with the school library.

Central Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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While it was quite obvious the majority of the sequence took place at the Conservatory Water in Central Park, it did take a little bit of legwork to figure out exactly where the characters come and go.

Since there were limited views in Google Maps’ Street View, I ended up going to Central Park in person to work out the specific geography. Using extant trees as guideposts, I was able to determine the exact pathways the actors walked/ran on, as well as which arch they entered at the end of the sequence. But the most obvious landmark was the copper-roofed Kerbs Boathouse, located at one of Central Park’s most popular water attractions.

Conservatory Water, which is colloquially known as the “Model Boat Pond,” was built in the 19th century at a location that was originally supposed to be an enclosed conservatory, but never came to fruition. (Hence the somewhat abstruse name.) Originally built as a naturalistic water lily pond, Conservatory Water was later developed into a more artificial-looking pool with a distinct concrete edge.

Partly inspired by a pond in the Jardin du Luxembourg, in Paris, the oval water basin has been a popular spot for adults and children alike who have been sailing their model yachts during the warmer weather since the 1860s. During the winter season, conditions permitting, Conservatory Water is converted into a small ice-skating rink. (When I took pictures of this location, it was in between seasons, and you can see in the images above that the pond was drained of all its water.)

Along with F/X, countless other films and TV shows have been shot at and around this tranquil Central Park location. The list includes, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Mirror Has Two Faces, 13 Going on 30, The World of Henry Orient, Miracle in the Rain, Weekend at Bernie’s, and Stuart Little.

 

Dressed as Bums

 

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This scene was figured out pretty early in my involvement with this “NYC in Film” project, so I was still getting a thrill from identifying even the most insignificant and unchallenging location puzzles. Naturally, with the median strip running down the street, it was fairly obvious this took place on Park Avenue. It just took a little looking around to find matching buildings along the avenue to figure out what street corner the bums emerge from.

It might be noted that this scene is the second one to feature a hotdog stand, which I’m sure was the same one used in that earlier scene outside of Church’s Chicken.

Likewise, all the phone booths that appear throughout the film were probably the same set piece that just got moved from one location to another. Even back in 1985, when this movie was made, those full-length, completely enclosed phone booths were not very common. However, if you do want to see one of these old fashion phone booths in New York City, there are still a few along West End Avenue at 66th, 90th, 100th and 101st Streets.

But be warned: they can get real hot in the summertime.

 

DOJ Office Building

 

 

 

 

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Like Rollie’s apartment, the location of the DOJ office building was one of the few places already identified on several movie websites.

Being only a few blocks away from Grand Central terminal, the building was a pretty easy place to find. And even though I figured out that the lobby was shot at 90 Park, I felt that the view from Mason’s office windows didn’t quite lineup with that location. Eventually, I figured out that the office scenes were shot a few blocks north, on the third floor of 335 Madison Avenue near the corner of W 44th Street.

I’m not 100% sure why they filmed at two different locations, but my guess is that the Madison Avenue building was used because it had an empty office space available, and the Park Avenue building was used because it had a more appropriate exterior and/or a better-suited lobby for the phone call scene.

Interestingly, while searching through promotional material from the film, I stumbled upon a photo that looked like it was taken outside of the 90 Park Avenue building, depicting an unfamiliar scene.

Originally thinking that it was from a deleted scene, upon closer inspection, I noticed Mason Adams was holding a manila envelope similar to the one used in the scene on the 42nd Street overpass. My guess is they ended up filming the envelope scene twice at two different locations. For what reason, who knows? But for that matter, who knows if I’m even correct? In fact, I’m now questioning whether the photo was actually taken outside of 90 Park Ave.

 

Kidnapping Agent Lipton

 

 

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I got lucky when it came to finding the garage used by Agent Lipton. I guessed, or rather a hoped, that it would be somewhere close to the 90 Park Avenue office building, and fortunately, it turned out to be right around the corner.

When it came to the driving scene that immediately followed, I thought it looked like something on the east side, so I thought I would look at all the eastside avenues in Google Street View. I decided to first look only on or around 42nd Street, again hoping they didn’t travel too far to film these consecutive scenes. Eventually, I landed on 2nd Avenue and spotted some buildings just south of 42nd that appeared to match the ones seen outside Lipton’s windshield.

 

Torturing Lipton

 

 

 

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Although it looks very different today, I guessed that this scene took place underneath the Henry Hudson Parkway on the west side of Manhattan. Since the area has changed so much since 1985 —not just the park area under the highway, but most of the buildings on the neighboring streets— it took me a little while to confirm this filming location.

But with the help of Blakeslee, who identified a few extant buildings that appeared in the background in the scene, including some across the river in New Jersey, we were able to verify this location.

 

The Auto Impound

 

 

 

 

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Using the buildings along 10th and 11th Avenues as a guide, I was able to calculate that this scene took place at Pier 56 along the Hudson River. When they filmed this scene in 1985, the pier’s headhouse had already been removed and all that remained was a flat deck. About a decade later, the rest of the pier was a removed, leaving behind a pile field.

During its heyday, Pier 56 was part of what was once known as “Luxury Liner Row,” which extended all the way up to midtown Manhattan. The piers in this area were almost exclusively dedicated to luxury transatlantic vessels, with White Star and Cunard Lines operating out of many of them. The most infamous passenger ship to depart from one of the Cunard piers in New York was the RMS Lusitania, which ended up being torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland in 1915.

When it came to this scene on Pier 56, I originally thought the film crew used a real auto impound lot that already existed there, but according to an article on AFI’s website, production ended up creating the impound themselves on the unused, barren deck. I suppose that makes sense, since the scene involved car crashes and explosions.

But that’s not to say car lots didn’t exist in that area. According to a 1977 Environmental Impact Statement, the neighboring Pier 54 was, in fact, used to store automobiles by the New York Police Department.

Even though most of the dilapidated piers along the Hudson have been taken down, I was surprised and pleased to discover that the structure at Pier 57, just north of the “auto impound lot,” is still standing today. Built in the 1950s as a recreational pier, it now houses a couple restaurants, an exhibition hall & office space for Google.

And while the two piers to its south are now gone, the water lot has been replaced with public park called Little Island. Completed in 2021 at an estimated cost of $260 million, the artificial island is unique from its neighboring piers in that it’s supported by 132 pot-shaped structures of various sizes, raising the park well above the mean waterline.

Honestly speaking, I find the park to be a tad gaudy looking, but I do appreciate having another green space added to the riverfront. Plus, since it partially overlaps onto pier 56’s footprint, Little Island offered me the opportunity to take modern pictures of this filming location from the correct vantage points.

When I first went to this location in 2017, Little Island wasn’t there, so I had no way to take the pictures from offshore. Instead, I had to take the picts from the bike path along 11th Avenue, which resulted in somewhat incorrect angles.

 

The Chase – The Hudson River

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Even though the geography is jumbled a little bit, the opening section of this extended chase sequence took place mostly on West Street between Gansevoort and W 14th Street.

While Manhattan has been going through a lot of changes over the last 10-15 years, one of the last prominent strongholds of “old New York” was this group of industrial buildings and piers along the Hudson River. However, the last couple years have seen some dramatic “improvements” in this area and a lot of these buildings have been torn down.

Granted, most of those bulky structures were pretty ugly, but it was always nice having a little variety in the city. Going from ritzy to shitty within a few blocks was something that made New York such a unique, diverse place.

One of those bulky structures that helped me confirm these filming locations was the old incineration plant on Gansevoort Peninsula which, up until recently, was used as a garage for the sanitation department. Built in 1953, the facility known as the “Gansevoort Destructor Plant” operated as an incinerator through the 1980s, burning between 700 and 900 tons of garbage a day. The incinerated residue would then be shipped off to Staten Island to be deposited into landfills.

While the practice of burning refuse ended in all five boroughs by 1990, there was still a push by city officials in 2007 to reactivate the Gansevoort Peninsula as a marine waste transfer station. But that effort eventually fell through.

The building finally came down in late-2017 as the city prepared to turn the small parcel of land into a public park. You can read more about Gansevoort Peninsula and the elusive 13th Avenue that occupies part of it in my Side Street post.

 

The Chase – Meatpacking District

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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One fascinating thing about this portion of the chase sequence is seeing that the grand arched entrance to Pier 54 has remained in place even after the rest of the superstructure got razed in 1991. While not a perfect solution, it’s a nice way to modernize an area, but still pay tribute to its history.

Another fascinating thing about the sequence, which takes place in the meat packing district, is seeing how much the area has changed over the years. Granted, most of the buildings along Washington Street and all its cross streets are still intact, but the industrial meat processing business that used to dominate the area has almost completely vanished and been replaced with a high-end tourist trade. It was almost impossible for me to get a clean picture of these locations without a mob of gawking pedestrians clogging the shot.

As to the geography in this portion of the chase sequence, it’s fairly accurate for the most part. The most egregious inconsistency occurrs when the action jumps from Washington Street in the Meat Packing District to Seventh Avenue in the West Village.

 

The Chase – West Village

 

 

 

 

 

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Again, like all the rest of the locations during this extended chase sequence, the geography is a bit jumbled in this final portion, but it more or less takes place in the same general area.

Knowing that the last part of this sequence took place in the West Village, I used certain landmarks to be able to nail down most of the shots used. One key landmark was the former RKO Art Greenwich twin movie theater at 97 Greenwich Avenue, which appears twice in this sequence when the filmmakers repeat the same shot. (You can see the theater’s marquee in the third “before/after” image above).

The very last scene from the sequence took place on W 11th Street (even though the previous shot has them turning onto Jane Street), which I immediately identified by spotting Saint John’s In the Village in the background. When I used to live on Perry Street in the Village, I would often take 11th to the 14th Street subway station, passing the parish on a nearly daily basis.

 

Abandoning Andy

 

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Like the earlier police station scene, I used the skyline to figure out the location of this scene. When the truck takes off and Andy screams back at Rollie, you can see a wide shot of the Manhattan skyline, and by its building orientation, I placed the action in southern Queens. Guessed that the highway that appeared next to them was the Long Island Expressway, I just looked along its route until I found an exit that matched the one from the film.

Once I confirmed the location, I realized that the action took place next to the Calvary Cemetery in Long Island City (although the camera is pointing away from it). However, that meant that the reverse shot of the truck driving away, where no cemetery is present, was shot at a different location. That also meant a little more work on my part.

The one clue to work on was a warehouse on the left that had a sign on top that read, “Diplomat Envelope Corporation.” Fortunately, there was a little bit of information about the business online, and I learned that it was located at 23-23 Borden Avenue, about a mile east of the other location.

In business since the 1950s, the owners of the envelope manufacturing plant stopped its operations right around the time this scene was being filmed in 1985. However, the owners held onto the building, and rented out the space to other manufacturers and organizations until they finally sold the property in 2007. Up to that point, the faded Diplomat envelope sign could be seen above the entrance, but it seems to have disappeared since then.

While still a pretty rough and industrial area, I’m sure Borden Avenue will soon be revamped to cater to luxury rentals and high-end businesses that are quickly permeating Long Island City.

 

Colonel Mason’s Mansion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I found this location with a little help from IMDb, which listed one of the filming locations to be in Rye, New York. Even though there wasn’t any other specific information on the page, I thought there was a good chance that Rye was where they filmed these mansion scenes. After searching online for “F/X,” “mansion” and “Rye, NY,” I came upon a short article about a place called the Wainright House, which was said to have been used as a filming location for this movie.

When it comes to suburban mansions or large estates being used in movies, I have found that misinformation can sometimes float around the web, but it turned out this article was spot on. As soon as I found a few photos of the Wainwright House, I could tell that it was the same place used in these scenes.

Built by Colonel J. Mayhew Wainwright between 1929 and 1931 on his family’s property in Rye, the Wainwright House was based on a 17th century French chateau he was stationed in during World War I.

In 1951, shortly after Colonel and Mrs. Wainwright passed away, their one and only daughter, Fonrose, wanted to find a charitable purpose for the spacious French provincial-style home as a memorial to her parents. In the end, she decided to donate the property to the Laymen’s Movement — a group of professional men who integrated spirituality and ethics into the business world.  Some of the organization’s most prominent members were Dwight D. Eisenhower, J.C. Penny, and Conrad Hilton.

Today, the Wainwright House still functions primarily as a charitable institution, offering classes and seminars throughout the year. Also, like many picturesque estates in the Tri-State Area, the house can be rented for lavish weddings.

 

St. Mary’s Hospital

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The method I used to figure out the location of the previous scene in Rye was also used to figure out the location of this hospital scene. I went to the IMDb filming locations page and found a generic listing for Orange, New Jersey. Even though there was no other specific information, I figured that that was where they filmed the hospital scene (especially since I could already tell it took place somewhere outside of NYC).

Next, I did an online search for any hospitals in Orange. After a few dead ends, I eventually found a 2003 article in The Catholic Advocate that mentioned a Saint Mary’s Hospital on South Center Street. One quick trip to Google Street View, and I could tell that it was the correct place, especially since the building has hardly changed since it appeared in this 1986 film.

Built in 1904, St. Mary’s Hospital in Orange was one of a twelve private institutions established throughout New Jersey by the Catholic Church. Providing low cost medical care for nearly a century, the hospital closed in 1996 and is now a nursing home called, Alaris Health at St. Mary’s.

The location of the final scene from this movie was surprisingly shot on location, all the way in Geneva, Switzerland. It’s surprising since F/X was pretty much a mid- to low-budget picture, and the idea of flying a crew as well as three principal cast members to Europe for one 3-minute scene seems a bit extravagant. But it certainly is a nice touch and gives the movie a bright ending.

There also seems to be the notion that part of the movie was shot in Toronto, Canada, but I am almost positive that that is a bit of internet misinformation. Aside from the Geneva scene, I’ve identified almost every exterior location to be in the New York City area, plus, almost all of the interiors were practical locations (opposed to studio sets).

I’m pretty sure what happened is someone mixed up this 1986 film with its awful 1991 sequel, F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion, which primarily used Toronto, Canada to double for New York. After watching the sequel, I really appreciated how good the original film is.

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Even though I know a lot of movies I grew up on (especially action movies) don’t hold up very well today, I think F/X is an exception. My experience is that even young viewers who weren’t alive in the 1980s end up enjoying this film.

 

Part of the appeal is the movie is chock full of great character actors, such as Jerry Orbach, best known for playing NYPD Detective Lennie Briscoe on the original Law & Order series. I also enjoy watching Trey Wilson who plays the slimy Lieutenant Murdoch, but I will forever know him as Nathan Arizona in the Coen Brothers comedy Raising Arizona.

While F/X is little bit dated, it’s got that 1980s charm to it. The story is both outrageous and undeniably ingenious, and the action moves along at a pretty good pace, so it’s hard to really get bored at any point.

If you haven’t ever seen the film, or it’s been a while since you have, it might be a worthwhile viewing.