Filming Locations of Uncharted
Adapted from the bestselling video-game series, Uncharted is a classic Hollywood adventure romp that trots the globe in swaggering style. We follow Spider-Man star Tom Holland as young treasure hunter Nate Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his mentor Sully as they sally forth in pursuit of lost treasure and Nathan’s missing brother, with thrills and peril set against a backdrop of famous landmarks around the world.
Despite its computer-generated origins, much of what we see onscreen is the real thing – which surprised even Holland. ‘Movies aren’t made like this anymore,’ he said during the film’s launch. ‘When you make these big, big action movies, you’re just acting on a blue screen.’ Director Ruben Fleischer, best known for the hugely entertaining Zombieland movies, instead chose to build old-fashioned sets. Despite the extra obstacle of filming during Covid, shooting on location added realistic dimensions to the scenes. Here’s our trip around the highlights.
Berlin
The production was based in the legendary Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam, home to films from 1927’s Metropolis to The Hunger Games. Here, the production constructed sets that included a cathedral crypt, the catacombs where we see Nate and fellow treasure-hunter Chloe (Sophia Ali) attempting a desperate escape, a treasure room, and some ancient ships that are the site of a spectacular battle scene.
Filming also took place in the city itself, with a key scene happening in the Deutsche Telekom Hauptstadtrepräsentanz, a 19th-century brick office building on Franz Strasse that has been refurbished with an enormous glass atrium and now operates as an events center. In Uncharted, it becomes the Augustine auction house in New York, where we see Nate and Sully on the hunt for an ancient cross. Says production designer Shepherd Frankel, ‘When I walked in, I thought, ‘This atrium tells our story.’ It sets the theme of the film, which is Old World meets New World, antiquities against the backdrop of a contemporary New York City.’
