The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

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Last updated: August 18, 2024


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Notes on Individual Scenes 

Note that I do not post locations on the maps unless I have a pretty good idea exactly where they were filming. I don't post White Sands' locations, for example, because I don't know exactly where they were in that very large area. 

(The Galloping Horse location and the We Gas Station sites are newly-entered, and still need to be verified and cross-checked, if possible.)

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Stock space imagery from the Apollo program - probably Apollo 7

View of Manzano Mountains and thunderstorm

Southern NM vista & lake? Or stock imagery of Lake Mead, or some other lake?

Fenton Lake, NM, in the Jemez Mountains

Walk down mining scree hill past ruined building - just outside Madrid, NM, roughly (35.404241°, -106.153891°)

View from hilltop - roughly (35.403526°, -106.152595°)

Locomotive in Madrid, NM (I wonder if it still exists?)

Haneyville sign - Highway 6 bridge crossing Rio Grande River at Los Lunas, NM (34.805019°, -106.719448°)

Trini's Bar and Lounge/ Pawn Shop - Original locations along Highway 6 long since erased

Wad of cash - east side of river, since water appears to be flowing from right to left, from north to south (34.804022°, -106.716608°)

Oliver's house

View of big city - NYC - View south along 7th Ave. from roughly 50th St.

Oliver's house

Limo ride - Thinking southbound 3rd St. between Tijeras and Copper Aves. NW - (35.085901°, -106.650164°)

Oliver's House

Campus - New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) in Roswell, NM

Dr. Bryce's House

Japanese Kabuki performance

NYC

Oliver Farnsworth's Office/ Dr. Bryce's House

NYC Drive - Heading south on 2nd Ave. at E. 47th St.?

NM Drive

"It's what I want" drive/ View from Highway 165 in the Sandias - (35.227084°, -106.403649°)

Cannutti's Office 

Vicinity of Hwy 285 and Main St. in Artesia

Hotel Artesia - Hotel
203 N 2nd St
Artesia, NM 88210

Hotel Artesia Barber Shop

Vicinity of Hwy 285 and Main St. in Artesia - NE corner

Dr. Bryce's House/ Hotel Artesia

Artesia Alfalfa Grower's Association and the Navajo Refinery quite recognizable

View out Mr. Farnsworth's Albuquerque office - First Plaza

NMMI Campus

ABQ Sunport - departures

View out Mr. Farnsworth's Albuquerque office - This is in the First Plaza Galeria.  The Albuquerque Convention Center parking garage was under construction at this time, but First Plaza was already there (since it had opened in 1972).

Hotel Artesia room - "It's so strange here; the trains."

Artesia Visitors Bureau and Chamber of Commerce

First Presbyterian Church - 402 W. Grand Avenue, Artesia, New Mexico, USA

Galloping Horse - Sandias are clearly visible.  Candidate location is 1600 Malpais Rd. SW.  I like this location because it's very close to one of the candidate Chevron stations (Isleta Blvd. Chevron, 7630 Isleta Blvd. SW), and thus might well have been a serendipitous bit of footage they captured from already being in the neighborhood.

Reminisces

White Sands

RR crossing - Desert Road SE crossing of railroad, where it meets 2nd Street SW, in the South Valley, Albuquerque

Haneyville again (Los Lunas)

Madrid NM again

Frontier Flashback.  Times past come to life.  I'm thinking the barns are right next to Fenton Lake (35.881852°, -106.724454°)..  The empty valley; I'm not sure, probably nearby.  The view with the pinnacle right next to the road is likely very near Fenton Lake too (Passing Limo).

Fenton Lake/ White Sands (and spinning bodies)

Mr. Farnsworth's House

I'm thinking this might be in the Jemez Valley, near Jemez Springs, NM, with the helicopter hovering about  (35.732271°, -106.711415°).

Helicopter Landing - We - There was (and probably still is) geothermal drilling in the Jemez Mountains.  Thinking the drilling rig is at about (35.881130°, -106.674103°), with one view looking NW.

Caretaker's House

Mr. Newton's House at Fenton Lake

Mr. Newton's House at Santa Fe - Telescope.  Looks like the view of the horizon, looking southeast from Santa Fe, so the location is probably in southeast Santa Fe, not all that far from the International Folk Art Museum.

We drilling rig and trailers/ Mr. Farnsworth's Office

Fenton Lake 

Facility - Cement Facility at Tijeras, NM (35.070895°, -106.389709°)

Apparently at a small studio in Santa Fe - "Are you Lithuanian?"

ABQ Civic Plaza, seen from SE - walking through plaza - they get in car heading west on Marquette

Drive - pine trees seen in rear view window.

Immediately afterwards, "Mr. Newton, are you crazy?" (35.638484°, -106.724169°)

Dr. Bryce records Newton at Fenton Lake caretaker house

We commercial segment at Seaworld in San Diego.  Approximate location of the old Murata Japanese Village (32.765914°, -117.227497°).

White Sands/ Lake Fenton Rain showers

NYC.  NYC Office?  "We're determining a social ecology."

Tossed cookies (Santa Fe house)/ Spinning bodies/ cat's eyes

White Sands/ Fenton Lake/ White Sands

Ramshackle house is near current Valencia Middle School, east of Belen, NM - Dirt road is what has become the Manzano Expressway - Watching Indians on TV

House of Trevor and Mr. Farnsworth/ Mary Lou on bed

Near Valencia Middle School, east of Belen again, with big storm behind Manzano Mountains.

White Sands/ near Valencia Middle School

Space Pavilion, at White Sands Missile Range, Army Unit, just east of the Organ Mountains (32.348196°, -106.446909°)/ Mr. Farnsworth's office

We gas station. According to Susan Compo's book, this station was located in Belen.  It is probably a valley location (due to the visible, copious amount of Summer Cypress growing from summer rains).  Through a label on the pump that wasn't covered, we know the station is a Chevron in real life.  Interestingly, a clerk at the Zuzax exit Chevron east of Tijeras on Highway 66 claims their station was in this film. I no longer believe this claim to be true (because the hill behind the station should be evident, and it isn't)..  I've tried to verify the active Chevrons in the Albuquerque area, plus a few in the Los Lunas/Belen area.  I haven't fixed on any as being correct yet.  In my opinion, the most likely candidates are:

• The former Bosque Farms Chevron, 815 Bosque Farms Blvd.; or,
• Isleta Blvd. Chevron, 7630 Isleta Blvd. SW.

I've come to believe the Isleta Blvd. Chevron is the most likely... (see Galloping Horse, above).

Mr. Farnsworth's/Trevor's apartment

NYC

Mr. Peter's Pool (maybe one of the 4 Hills houses used in the film?)/  Peter's house

122 Second St. SW (It's unclear if the Sunshine Bldg. was actually used as a filming location, but the building that once stood at 122 Second St. was definitely used.)

Mr. Peter's Pool

Clinic

Butterfields Restaurant, once located behind 8426 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA, 90069

Flashback to Madrid

Mary Lou arrives (122 Second St. SW)

(Flashback to eastern end of Highway 6 bridge over Rio Grande at Los Lunas)

Clinic - SW corner of building at 122 2nd SW

White Sands

Unknown launch site

Bedroom - southwest corner of building at 122 2nd SW

Building hallway, elevator (8th, moving to 7th floor), and lobby - Hotel Andaluz.

Hotel Plaza - TWA Airlines - Continental Airlines - Hotel Andaluz - 2nd & Tijeras

Gil Turner's Liquor Store, 9101 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA, 90069 (34.090870°, -118.389993°).

Dr. Bryce's and Mary Lou's house/ View out window

Tower Records, 8801 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA, 90069

Apparently MacArthur Park snack stand (removed around 2014).  Approximate location of the old Snack Bar (34.058202°, -118.276766°).

White Sands Missile Range acknowledged in credits

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Pictures

Hotel Andaluz (formerly the Hilton Hotel).

First Plaza Galeria.

Southwestern interior corner of First Plaza Galeria exterior.

Mr. Farnsworth's Office.

Looking out the window on the 3rd floor (400 level) - Mr. Farnsworth's Office, which, strangely enough, was in the elevator lobby rather than in a separate office ("The Man Who Fell To Earth").

Mr. Farnsworth's Office.

Looking out the window on the 3rd floor (400 level) - Mr. Farnsworth's Office, which, strangely enough, was in the elevator lobby rather than in a separate office ("The Man Who Fell To Earth"). Marquette Avenue is now behind the Albuquerque Convention Center and can no longer be seen.

Hotel Andaluz (formerly the Hilton Hotel).

Hotel Andaluz Lobby ("The Man Who Fell To Earth"). Newton walks rapidly through the lobby on his escape to freedom.

Gas station, with the Chevron label visible on the pump.

Mary Lou enters Newton's prison.

Clinic scene, with the top of the octagonal cupola of the U.S. Court House visible in the distance west down Gold Avenue.

Here is a schematic diagram of Newton's Prison, as far as I can make out by orienting myself to the street scenes outside, as visible through the windows, plus a fuzzy aerial photo from 1961.  Most or all of Newton's Prison was hosted on the second level of the building at122 2nd St. SW, just to the south of the Sunshine Building, in downtown Albuquerque. According to Susan Compos' book "Earthbound: David Bowie and The Man Who Fell To Earth," the structure at 122 Second St. SW was formerly Washburn's Clothing and then the offices of Albuquerque Housing and Development, before becoming a filming location.  After filming, the structure was torn down and later rebuilt.  

The solo numbers in the schematic diagram refer to the story level. Certain features can be glimpsed through the windows (a glimpse of the Sandias to the northeast; the western end of the Lead Avenue overpass over the railroad to the south, and its intersection with Second St. SW; the starlike top of the cupola on the Albuquerque Federal Building & United States Courthouse, at 421 Gold Ave. SW; the former PNM Building (Public Service Company of New Mexico) and the NM Bank and Trust Building). I'm sure there are errors here with the schematic diagram, but the winding path where Newton spends most of his time is here.

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Proposed travel route

Initial idea.