The Terminal: a film about New York… without New York

The Story of The Terminal

• Steven Spielberg is one of cinema’s most successful directors. His filmography includes Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the Indiana Jones saga (1981), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and War of the Worlds (2005). In 2004, Spielberg made a film that flew under the radar but deserves attention: The Terminal.
• This blend of comedy, drama, and romance follows Viktor Navorski, a tourist from Krakozia, as he arrives at New York’s JFK Airport. Tom Hanks plays the lead role. The problem: as Viktor passes through immigration, he sees on airport screens that a military coup has just overthrown his country’s government. Krakozia’s borders are closed, and other nations refuse to recognize the new regime. Viktor’s passport is now worthless, and the immigration officer denies him entry. Unable to speak English, Viktor has no choice but to remain in the airport terminal, stranded.
• The Terminal is inspired by the true story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian asylum seeker who spent 18 years in Terminal 1 of Paris’s Roissy-CDG Airport from 1988 to 2006. Despite efforts by his lawyer and authorities, he eventually made the terminal his home, descending into a kind of madness. During that time, you could spot him near the terminal’s shops, barely hidden behind stacks of cardboard boxes. He was finally admitted to a hospital in 2006 and later taken in by an Emmaüs community shelter in Paris.

New York in The Terminal

• When you look into the filming locations for The Terminal, you quickly spot something odd. Viktor arrives on a United Airlines flight and should logically land in Terminal 7, which handles United’s international flights along with British Airways and other Oneworld alliance carriers. Yet despite having visited Terminal 7, the scenes don’t match what’s on screen. The reason is simple: the terminal in the film is actually a massive movie set built inside a hangar at Palmdale Regional Airport, about 100 km (62 mi) north of Los Angeles. New York transported to California.
• Equally amusing: several exterior scenes were shot at Montreal-Mirabel Airport. Again, New York is nowhere to be found.
• Still, the film does contain some genuine New York. After a series of complications, Viktor finally makes it through U.S. immigration. He hails a taxi and heads to the Ramada Inn at 161 Lexington Avenue, between 30th and 31st Street. This hotel actually exists. It has since changed its name to The Hotel @ New York City.
• Viktor goes to the Ramada Inn to meet one of his late father’s heroes: saxophonist Benny Golson. In a nice touch, Benny Golson plays himself, at age 75. Autograph in hand, Viktor jumps back into a taxi.
• Here’s another geographical oddity: the taxi immediately heads west on 7th Avenue toward Times Square. You can spot the old Virgin Megastore at the corner of 7th Avenue and 46th Street. But why is the taxi going this way? From 161 Lexington Avenue, any taxi heading to the Queens Midtown Tunnel would turn east on 3rd Avenue, then head north to 36th Street. No taxi would go west on 7th Avenue through Times Square’s crowds. Poor Viktor really is being taken for a tourist.

The Terminal Trailer

Meeting Benny Golson at the Ramada Inn

The Movie Poster

What Did You Think of This Film?

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