Captain Phillips: Where Was It Filmed?
‘Captain Phillips,’ starring Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, and Catherine Keener, is a biographical action-thriller film that centers on the retelling of a true incident that changed the landscape of US Navy operations. It delves deeply into the incident in which a group of Somali pirates captured the container ship Maersk Alabama in 2009, kidnapping merchant mariner Captain Richard Phillips. It is based on Phillips’ book ‘A Captain’s Duty,’ and is directed by Paul Greengrass.
The story revolves around the ship’s commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), and the Somali pirate captain Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who kidnaps him. Muse and his crew aim for Phillips’ unarmed spacecraft, leaving the two at the mercy of events beyond their control. The film shows events that are quite true to truth, with enormous expanses of water and cramped navy ships. This makes us wonder if the film was also shot at real-life hijacking places. Let us investigate!
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Locations for Captain Phillips Filming
The principal photography for the action film ‘Captain Phillips’ began on March 26, 2012, and continued for many months across various regions of the world before wrapping up in the summer of the same year. Malta, Morocco, and England, as well as the American states of Virginia and Massachusetts, were used as filming locations for the action thriller film. If you’re curious about where the filming took place, we’ve got you covered. Here are the specific locations for filming!
Europe, Malta
A large amount of the filming took place on the island of Malta. Several sequences were shot aboard the container ship Alexander Maersk by the production team. Because the genuine Maersk Alabama was on active service at the time, the Danish vessel doubled as it for a total of nine weeks. According to co-producer Michael De Luca, “Maersk and the Navy were highly approving of the screenplay and were friends of the production.” Maersk made the sister ship, the Alexander, accessible to us for a modest fee, and they were kind of our production partners, as was the Navy.”
“Once we had that degree of cooperation,” De Luca continued, “that truly made the production possible.” For a few sequences in the film, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Truxtun stood in for the USS Bainbridge. They also taped a few scenes on the multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, which was actually deployed during the real-life incident. “I’m not a terribly claustrophobic guy, but it was a really confined area,” Tom Hanks said of his experience shooting on a lifeboat. There was no other option.”
“We created an exact copy and mounted it on a gimbal, and that’s where we shot,” the actor continued. It does a lot of the work for you in terms of the environment. It’s a suffocating environment. It has a foul odor. The air quality is poor. It’s hot, and you’re pressed up against each other. But Paul [Greengrass] creates a very realistic world, and I can’t see doing it any other way. There were ways that could have been more pleasant, but for everything we had to go through as actors, that tiny, hot, tight area with only two small windows was a huge help.”
A few sequences were shot at Malta Film Studios, one of the world’s largest production complexes. The 300-foot-wide Shallow Tank at the facility, located on St. Rocco Street in the municipality of Kalkara in Malta’s South Eastern Region, served as the shooting location. The team also filmed at the Boiler Wharf in Grand Harbour in the walled city of Senglea and the Malta Freeport Terminals at the Port of Marsaxlokk. Malta is a popular tourist destination due to its pleasant weather and breathtaking surroundings. It has regularly served as a setting for films such as ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Troy,’ and ‘Gladiator.’
Massachusetts
The actors and crew also visited the Northeastern state of Massachusetts, which is home to several famous universities and institutions, to film a short scene. The team chose numerous shooting locations in and around Worcester in Worcester County and Boston in Suffolk County in the Bay State, notably in the New England region.
While certain sequences were shot at Worcester Regional Airport, which is located at 375 Airport Drive, a few miles from the city of Worcester, the state capital, Boston, stood in for Captain Phillips’ home state of Vermont. In addition to filming in and around Worcester and Boston, the towns of Lincoln and Lexington in Middlesex County were used for a few shots.
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Virginia
Virginia Beach and the Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia were used for picturesque images. “We were off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, for all the Naval sequences and then [flew to] Morocco for Somalia,” the co-producer stated of the Navy scenes.
Morocco
Morocco, located in North Africa’s Maghreb region, is another one of ‘Captain Phillips’ fuming places. Specifically, some sequences were shot at Agadir, a lovely city known for its beaches. According to insiders, the film was scheduled to be shot in Egypt, but security worries in the region led to the production looking for similar locations and eventually ending up in Morocco. Hanks and Greengrass were sighted scouting beaches and places in the region in 2012 to settle last-minute details.
Surrey, United Kingdom
The Longcross Studios near Chobham Lane in the county of Surrey in South East England was another location where the cast and crew spent some time filming. Interior lifeboat sequences were filmed on a tiny stage at the studio building. The facility provides large sound stages prepared for a variety of shots and has assisted in the creation of films such as ‘Hugo,’ ‘Rush,’ ‘Doctor Strange,’ and ‘John Carter.’
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