My trip to Iceland #2
12 February 2021
Laugavegur Trail
22 August 2022
The country of Iceland got an incredible nature and an specacular scenery. No wonder why so many realisators want to include this kind of landscape in their movies/series !
Because its glacial looks, plenty of films were recorded in Iceland where it’s not the actual place it is supposed to be !
Click on your favorite movie !
Noah
The producers of Noah felt that Iceland’s newness played well to their setting: the beginning of the world. The black sandy beaches you can see in the film are at Reynisfjara in the South of the country !
The secret life of Walter Mitty
In the movie, Walter travels to Iceland, Greenland and the Himalayas. But in reality all of this was filmed in Iceland ! From Stykkishólmur with the helicopter, to Seyðisfjörður with the long board, everything was captured in Iceland thanks to its varity of landscapes !
Game of Thrones
The supernatural landscape of Iceland has been the first choice of the producers of Game of Thrones since season one. The area around Lake Myvatn has been the dominant shooting location for North of the Wall.
Where better to film the chilly lands North of the Wall than the glacial Skaftafell National park area? Home to Europe’s largest glacier Vatnajökull the filmmakers barely had to add any effects to the snowy scenes in seasons two and three. Kirkjufell famously appeared on Game of Thrones as the Arrowhead mountain both in seasons six and seven.
The reconstructed Viking-era farmstead of Stong is the place where the massacre of the Free Folk takes place in season four. The beautiful old turf farm quickly turned into a nightmare ni the story. Stöng was completely unedited in the episode’s version, which makes the experience of visiting even better.
The most romantic of all is without a doubt the Grjótagjá Cave, where Jon Snow and Ygrette are falling in love in season three.
Next, we have Þingvellir National Park. It is the site of the original Icelandic Parliament, one of the first in the world. Which is exactly why it landed a place on the shooting locations list for Game of Thrones in Iceland and the makers of GOT have used this to their advantage. Most notably as the entrance to Eyrie, the main stronghold of the House of Arryn which is seen in season one and four when Sansa and Littlefinger arrive at Eyrie.
Oblivion
Iceland provides the perfect canvas for a post apocalyptic universe as this sci-fi movie with Tom Cruise. The movie was filmed at Hrossaborg crater in North-East Iceland, as well as at Jarlhettur (Earl’s Peak) and Drekavatn in the interior of the country.
The most difficult scene to film was to have Harper, Tom Cruise, sitting by a 240-meter edge at the top of Jarlhettur, the Earl’s Peak, a location only accessible by helicopter.
“There is a beauty in desolation there and that seemed to kind of fit the aesthetic I wanted for Oblivion.”
Film Director Joseph Kosinski
Interstellar
Máfabót and Svínafellsjökull glacier represent two different planets in Interstellar. Both locations are in the South-East of Iceland, about an hour drive from each other.
Lara Croft : Tomb Raider
In this movie, the director Simon West filmed a three-minute sequence at the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon in southeastern Iceland. The scene is identified as the frozen tundra in Siberia (which it is obviously not the case) !
Journey to the Center of the Earth
In the classic novel by Jules Verne, the entry point to the centre of the Earth is through Snæfellsjökull glacier/volcano, so it was fitting the story to use the real location for the movie ! They also hired the Icelandic actress Aníta Briem.
Star Wars : Rogue One
Even before Rogue One was released, it was obvious with the trailer that Icelandic nature would play a leading role in the movie. Those black, sandy and alien-looking beaches can be found in the South of Iceland : this is Mýrdalssandur. And those pretty green mountains are Hjörleifshöfði and Hafursey, located just east of Vík.
James Bond
A view to Kill
Roger Moore was 007 for the last time, and Iceland was chosen as a filming location for political reasons. It was supposed to be the USSR. It was actually one of the very few times that James Bond has not been filmed in the actual place it is supposed to be happening in.
The opening scene was filmed at Jökulsárlón, which was also the location where Agent 007 returned in 2002, in James Bond : Die another Day.
Die another Day
Pierce Brosnan as 007, in what many have described as the most spectacular car chase on film. Bond driving his Aston Martin and the bad guy’s Jaguar sliding over the surface of the frozen Jökulsárlón lagoon, complete with huge scary icebergs.
Batman Begins
Vatnajökull glacier is a popular filming destination to substitute more inaccessible mountains, such as the mountains in Tibet. All of the footage is from Skaftafell in Iceland (with a computer made temple). The training scenes are also shot in this area.
Thor : The dark world
Thor is partially filmed in Iceland, wich is coherent, as Thor comes from the Nordic religion. The black sand landscape of ‘Svartalfheim’, the Dark Elves realm is around Landmannalaugar, near the volcano Hekla. The lakes of Asgard is at Detifoss falls, where an aerial unit captured spectacular shots.
The tree of life
Though Icelandic nature is only shown briefly, The Tree of Life is a movie with one of the most beautiful scene from Iceland. The film’s brilliant scenes depicting the creation of life feature the majestic Krafla Volcano and Námafjall.
Prometheus
No wonder Riddley Scott chose the spectacular scenery of Detifoss to be the opening scene of his movie Prometheus. Dettifoss is europes biggest waterfall by volume !
Just before getting to the waterfall, the camera flies you over the Krossá river, in Landmannalaugar.
Black mirror
one of the episodes of Black Mirror season 4, otherwise known as Crocodile, takes place in Iceland. Reykjavík’s City Hall stands in for a hotel reception. You can also see glimpses of Reykjavík’s City Pond Tjörnin and Harpa Concert and Conference Hall. Outside of Reykjavík, most of the shots are from Reykjanes peninsula, just between Reykjavík and Keflavík international airport.
You don’t need to travel far to find some stunning landscapes!
