27 Lower Manhattan Movie Locations You Should Know

It might be a cliché, but NYC really is everybody’s favorite movie setting. That’s especially true for us at the Downtown Alliance, and what began as idle office chatter gradually transitioned into an all-team effort to catalog as many titles as possible — in no particular order — that featured pieces of Lower Manhattan.

It was tough work to cull through decades of film footage and eyeball geographic cameos below Chambers Street, but well worth the sacrifice. May this list serve you well in discovering new titles or rediscovering old favorites.

1. Working Girl (1988) 

The dim sum office party was shot inside One Chase Manhattan Plaza. In 2013, the building’s name changed to 28 Liberty Street.

2. Ghost (1990) 

Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) harrowingly hands over a $4 million check “to a bunch of nuns!” in front of Federal Hall National Memorial (corner of 26 Wall Street and Broad Street).

3. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) 

Sticky Bandits (né Wet Bandits) Harry and Marv (Daniel Stern, Joe Pesci) first appear in Home Alone 2 at the Seaport’s Fulton Fish Market, now home to the Fulton Market Building (11 Fulton Street and South Street).  

4. Inside Man (2006) 

The bank in Spike Lee’s Inside Man was filmed at 20 Exchange Place (between Beaver Street and Hanover Street). Now a high-rise rental building, it was once home to City Bank-Farmers Trust Company, a predecessor to Citigroup.

5. Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) 

Inside Wall Street Station, Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to use a pay phone in time while John McClane (Bruce Willis) goes die-harding on a southbound 3 train.

6. Trading Places (1983) 

Trading Places is undeniably a movie that belongs to Philadelphia — where a Rouchefoucauld, the thinnest water-resistant watch in the world, is fifty bucks. But the climactic sequence (“Turn those machines back on!”) is set at WTC.

7. Superman: The Movie (1978) 

In Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie — the one where the Man of Steel reverses time by spinning Earth backwards (?) — our hero (Christopher Reeve) takes Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) on an exclusive tour of Lower Manhattan, with incredible views of the World Trade Center and Liberty Island.

8. Wall Street (1987) 

Viewers first meet Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) inside the scheming investor’s office, filmed at 222 Broadway — 23 floors above what is now Fulton Center.

9. Splash (1984) 

The finale of the 1984 romantic comedy Splash was shot at Pier 16 (89 South Street), where Allen (Tom Hanks) and Madison (Daryl Hannah) outrun and out-swim a bunch of creeps and — spoiler! — somehow live together underwater forever.

10. The French Connection (1971) 

After tailing drug dealers day and night all over the city, Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) wakes up from a much-needed nap inside Ye Olde Market Restaurant on the corner of South Street and Market Slip.

11. Wolfen (1981) 

Super-wolves attack our roughed-up hero (Albert Finney, left) after he steps out of 28 Liberty Street. Catch a glimpse of Jean Dubuffet’s Group of Four Trees in the background.   

12. The Godfather (1972)

The exterior shot for the meeting of the five families was filmed outside the Federal Reserve (33 Liberty Street), where Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) makes peace with Philip Tattaglia (Victor Rendina) — even though it was Barzini all along. The interior, however, was set inside the boardroom of the Penn Central Railroad on the 32nd floor of the New York Central Building (230 Park Avenue).

13. John Wick (2014) 

The Continental Hotel, where all the assassins stay when in town, is located at 1 Wall Street Court — aka the Beaver Building — intersected by Wall Street, Pearl Street and Beaver Street.

14. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) 

Bane’s big scary army is gonna get you on the corner of Wall Street and William Street.  

15. Boomerang (1992) 

Cosmetic execs Marcus (Eddie Murphy) and Jacqueline (Robin Givens) introduce Strangé (Grace Jones) as the company’s new spokesperson inside Brookfield Place’s Winter Garden. 

16. 25th Hour (2002)

The interior of Francis Slattery’s (Barry Pepper) Battery Park apartment was filmed at 200 Vesey Street, the tallest building in the Brookfield Place complex. The film’s location manager told the Alliance that the apartment was likely office space that they converted to look residential for the film.

17. Blue Jasmine (2013)

Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) sends her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) and brother-in-law Augie (Andrew “Dice” Clay) to the Seaport for a little sightseeing before her Madoff-like husband (Alec Baldwin) robs them of their nest egg.

18. Ghostbusters II (1989) 

The haunted museum was shot at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House at 1 Bowling Green, also the longtime home of the National Museum of the American Indian.

19. The Devil’s Advocate (1997) 

John Milton (Al Pacino) woos Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) by taking him to his office rooftop at Penta Plaza, which was actually on the 50th floor of the then-Continental Plaza (180 Maiden Lane).  

20. A Thousand Clowns (1965) 

Murray (Jason Robards) loafs around town with his nephew Nick (Barry Gordon), including at places like One Seaport Plaza (19 Fulton Street).

21. 9 ½ Weeks (1986)

In perhaps the most safe-for-work sequence of Adriane Lyne’s erotic fling 9 1/2 Weeks, Elizabeth (Kim Basinger) strolls through the lobby of John’s (Mickey Rourke) office. That’s 195 Broadway, in between Dey Street and Fulton Street (originally known as AT&T’s Telephone and Telegraph Building).

22. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) struts through the atrium at Brookfield Place’s Winter Garden.

23. Klute (1971)

The office of Charles Cioff (Peter Cable) is set atop a skyscraper at Church Street and Dey Street. “Through the floor to ceiling windows, you can clearly make out the World Trade Center towers being constructed,” according to otsoNY.com, “the North Tower ahead of the South Tower, which still shows the reddish primer paint.”

24. On the Town (1949)

Turn back the clock to Frank Sinatra’s sailor-suit era, when he and his two Navy pals (Gene Kelly, Jules Munshin) sing and dance their way through town: to the Brooklyn Bridge and back to Federal Hall on Wall Street. They even take a ferry to Liberty Island!

25. Godzilla (1998)

The big guy pays an unwelcome visit to the Seaport! Keep your eyes peeled for the now-defunct Smitty’s Fillet House (100 South Street).

26. Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) trails Susan (Madonna) around the Battery in the latter actor’s first major lead role on the big screen.

27. National Treasure (2004)

In the colonial-history thriller National Treasure, every one of the landmarks visited by Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) were actual, real-life sightseeing attractions, including ye olde Trinity Church (89 Broadway). Fun fact: One of our very own Downtown Alliance maps can be spotted during the “treasure” sequence right outside the churchyard!

Tags: movie locations