Where was 2010: The Year We Make Contact filmed?

1984 film directed by Peter Hyams

2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) was filmed in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, 20th Century Studios, Culver City, Rancho Palos Verdes, Arecibo Observatory and 1 more place, 7 places named in its Wikipedia article's Development and filming section, in the United States, Puerto Rico. Wikidata itself records the shoot only as New Mexico. A sentence in an article is weaker evidence than a statement, and every claim on this page says which it is.

See them on the map → Wikipedia Source data

Places per Wikipedia's Development and filming section

Wikipedia’s Development and filming section names 7 places. A sentence in an article is weaker evidence than a Wikidata statement, so these are listed apart, never mixed into the statement list, and the claim links straight to where it came from.

🏙 Towns & cities

Los Angeles

🇺🇸 United States

seat of Los Angeles County, and largest city in California, United States

“While he was writing the screenplay in 1983, Hyams (in Los Angeles) began communicating with Clarke (in Sri Lanka) via the then-pioneering medium of e-mail using Kaypro II computers and direct-dial modems.” Wikipedia
🏙 Towns & cities

Culver City

🇺🇸 United States

city in Los Angeles County, California, United States

“The majority of the film was shot on MGM's soundstages in Culver City, California, with the exception of a week of location work in Washington, DC, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and at the Very Large Array in New Mexico.” Wikipedia
🏙 Towns & cities

Washington, D.C.

🇺🇸 United States

capital city of the United States of America
🎬 Studios & sets

20th Century Studios

🇺🇸 United States

American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company

“Video Image (also known as VIFX), which would go on to work on a number of major pictures and briefly become 20th Century Fox's in-house visual effects studio, did its first work on this film, designing the video screen graphics.” Wikipedia
🏛 Landmarks & buildings

Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array

🇺🇸 United States

radio astronomy observatory located on the Plains of San Agustin
🏛 Landmarks & buildings

Arecibo Observatory

🇵🇷 Puerto Rico

observatory located in the municipality of Arecibo, Puerto Rico

“Originally, Hyams had intended to film the opening scene at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which at the time housed the world's largest radio telescope, but after visiting there in 1983, he told Clarke that the site was unsuitable for filming because it was so filthy.” Wikipedia
🏙 Towns & cities

Rancho Palos Verdes

🇺🇸 United States

city in Los Angeles County, California, United States

Recorded only at country level

Wikidata also records this film as shot in New Mexico, without saying where. Those statements are true but unmappable — a pin in the middle of a country would claim something nobody wrote — so they are listed here instead of guessed at.

Filming locations that are mapped there: United States

Also shot in these places

Set in the same places

Frequently asked questions

How many filming locations does 2010: The Year We Make Contact have?

No place recorded on Wikidata, but 7 places named in its Wikipedia article, labelled per Wikipedia.

Which other productions were filmed at the same places?

Pulp Fiction (1994), The Dark Knight (2008), Back to the Future (1985), Fight Club (1999) and 8 more, each listed on this page.

Where does this information come from?

Filming location statements on Wikidata, plus places named in the production's own Wikipedia article, which are labelled per Wikipedia. Nothing is scraped from listicles and nothing is generated.