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The Blacklist. Photo by: Craig Blankenhorn/NBC
It’s the second season of The Blacklist and Reddington is already up to no good. We’ve been documenting the film locations so far, just like we did with Season 1 and decided to share them with you early in the season as you guys have been asking for them. We’ll be continuously updating this article with new content each week. As you know, The Blacklist is filmed in New York City, which stands in as Washington D.C., its suburbs, and all the international locations Red and the team go to. Last season, they didn’t do much to conceal the New York locations (Meatpacking as Belarus?) but this year you have to know New York City pretty well to recognize some of the locations. Without further ado:
In the fall finale, at the closure of the Berlin saga, Reddington brings him to an empty, cathedral-like space that is actually the Cunard Building at 25 Broadway. It’s just near Bowling Green and was designated an interior landmark in 1995.
When Berlin and Reddington head to the bank in Russia, the mobsters are seen on the streets of what is actually the Financial District, given away by the tourist wayfinding signs in the background with the shape of Lower Manhattan. In addition, the building where Alan Fitch is abducted is also in the Financial District near 70 Pine Street:
Tom gets his freedom in exchange for giving up the location of Fitch. He uses a payphone near Conoover Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn with a view of the Liberty Warehouse on Clinton Wharf in the background. In a separate shot, the street signs showing Wolcott Street are clear.
In episode seven, the location of Keene’s holding cell for faux-husband Tom is revealed to be on a docked boat. This is the famous Frying Pan, located in Chelsea, a part of the bar on Pier 66. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In the beginning of episode seven, Reddington meets Keene and Samar in a record shop. This vintage-inspired record shop in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn is Black & Gold, one of the places in the city you can still buy vinyl. It also doubles as a coffee shop.
In episode 6, Reddington goes to surreptitiously befriend long-lost Jennifer who is conveniently working at a food truck called American Bistro. This scene is filmed in the triangular open space next to the Gansevoort Hotel.
One of The Blacklist’s favorite film locations is Chelsea Piers and Hudson River Park. Here are Keene and Redd meeting in the park. Chelsea Piers figures in the background of a scene just a few seconds earlier.
The fifth episode is chock full of New York City references and locations, as a lot of the action actually takes place here. Skipping how speedy Keene and Ressler get from Dupont Circle in DC to New York City (by car), first they make their way to Burial Ridge in Staten Island (a real spot within Conference House Park in Tottenville), where supposedly the body carrying the pneumonic plague is buried. They get images of clues from the burial site, directing them to Holy Trinity Church. In the aerial shot, what we see is actually St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, across from the hidden rooftop gardens on Rockefeller Center. The interior scenes are actually shot in the crypts at St. Patrick’s old cathedral in Little Italy, where Martin Scorsese spent his childhood (and later used in scenes for Mean Streets and The Godfather:
Later in the episode, the team locates an an infected passenger that’s a member of the eco-terrorist group planning to get on a plane at Dulles Airport. The show cleverly uses the New York Passenger Ship Terminal, the cruise terminal on the west side of Manhattan. What gives it away is the construction in the background of the new Bjarke Ingels apartment building in Midtown west. Why Keene and Samar are sent into the field without bio suits can only be explained as a way to create more drama, as they get infected from the passenger.
In the fourth episode, Dr. Linus Creel is targeting people with a genetic predisposition towards violence, based on research from a government brain-washing program. He hopes that by triggering a series of mass killings, the government will listen to his years of research. To do so, he pushes a patient to the limit, who takes his gun to an anti-gun rally he believes his online girlfriend is attending. Creel has made up the online girlfriend and confronts him and takes Keene hostage. A sniper hired by Reddington to protect Keene shoots the patient from the roof.
The rally takes place inside the atrium of the Brooklyn Museum and the shooting occurs just outside the back entrance, next to the parking lot. On the front side along Eastern Parkway is the modern, redesigned front entrance which the public is likely much more familiar with.
In the 3rd episode, where Reddington meets with Keene who asks about the whereabouts of Red’s wife, Naomi, is filmed in Yonkers next to the Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site, not far from the Yonkers train station. They sit in Van der Donck Park, which has a nice rocky creek and pedestrian footbridge. Much of the episode is also filmed in Yonkers, including the car chase from the medical examiner’s office that supposedly takes place in the Maryland. In the scene, we pass industrial buildings in various states of repair and disrepair, including the converted industrial live-work loft Metro 92.
Yonkers Train Station, designed by the same architects as Grand Central Terminal, also appeared in the first season of The Blacklist. We hoped that they’d also swing by the once-abandoned Yonkers/Glenwood powerplant, but didn’t catch a glimpse of it.
Director Cooper’s meeting with the Mossad agent takes place in supposedly Washington DC, but is shot in Riverside Park with a view looking out towards New Jersey.
When Reddington gets back to New York City to meet with Berlin, they rendezvous at the Coney Island Boardwalk with the Wonder Wheel in the background. And the meeting point for the handover of Reddington’s wife, in exchange for the bank codes, takes place also in Coney Island behind the parachute jump and the new Thunderbolt roller coaster:
When the CIA safe house in Warsaw where Agent Keene and Ressler are interrogating Kaja, the Monarch Douglas bank employee known as “The Formula,” is compromised, the trio flees into the streets of Warsaw where they get stuck in a police roadblock. By Warsaw, we mean Station Square in Forest Hills, Queens. The kiosks in the center of the square, which have served over the years as a police booth and a taxi stand, were placed with Policja signs. In a another shot, you can see the Tudor Revival style architecture that distinguishes the planned neighborhood of Forest Hills:
In a later scene after they successfully flee from the police roadblock, the agents are directed by Director Cooper at the CIA to a pay phone in the city. Film location wise, this is also right in Station Square, using a telephone booth that has been added. The staircase on the right is the stair to get to the LIRR station platform in Forest Hills:
In a reverse angle, you can see the kiosks again:
Station Square was also the scene of a grisly murder by the Son of Sam killer in 1971. Read on for 4 other beautiful murder scenes in NYC.
Berlin, whom we discover is a one-armed man with a Peter Pan hook, takes Reddington’s ex-wife Naomi to a hideout apartment where he gets up close and personal and takes her Polaroid photo before taking her to another location. The exterior shot of the apartment is located at 244 Main Street, Staten Island above S. Thomas Heating Inc. at the intersection of Amboy Road.
Stay tuned for next week!
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