Where was The Revenant filmed? All filming locations explored

The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio's Western action drama, takes viewers on a wilderness journey filled with epic, frozen landscapes. Its cinematography captures the harsh condition of surviving, telling the story of a legendary fur trapper who was mauled by a bear and left for dead by his companions in an unforgiving territory.

All the harsh environments featured in the film, from frigid wilderness to snowcapped mountains, are not a green-screen production, as 93% of the film was shot in real-life landscapes that are as dire in the film as it is in real life.

DiCaprio talked about filming in temperatures of 40 below for the movie in a feature with Men's Journal in 2017:

"It hit 40 below zero. At that point, we couldn't really open our eyes. And our fingers locked together and the camera gear locked together, and I looked at Alejandro (Inarritu) and said, 'I'm all for enduring realism, but there comes a point when nothing is operable.'"

Most of the filming was done in a collection of spots in Canada. Specifically, the cast and crew filmed in and around the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.

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The Revenant was mostly filmed in Canada

The Revenant crew focused a lot on realism while filming the movie, and the freezing Canadian wilderness was key to bringing a realistic look and feel of survival to the big screen.

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Alberta

The region, best known for its scenic landscapes, was a fitting backdrop for filming the movie's wilderness scenes. It's where most of the scenes in the movie were shot.

The scene where John Fitzgerald (played by Tom Hardy) saw a meteor was filmed around the Fortress Mountain Resort, which is near the Kananaskis Trail. It's located in Kananaskis Country, a municipality in Calgary.

Dead Man's Flats, a Hamlet within Alberta's Rockies, served as the fictional fure trade post called Fort Kiowa in the movie. Meanwhile, the nearby Fortress Mountain was where they filmed Fitzgerald's ambush on Captain Henry (played by Domhnall Gleeson).

Other filming locations used in Alberta include:

• Mini Thni
• Elbow Falls
• Drumheller Badlands

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British Columbia

One of the memorable parts of the movie is the bear mauling scene, where a huge grizzly attacks Hugh Glass (played by DiCaprio).

The scene captured the danger of the wild, which was filmed in the real-life wilderness of British Columbia. Specifically, the lush and heavily forested Squamish Valley served as the backdrop for the scene.

The Revenant cast and crew also filmed in the nearby woodlands and campsites for other scenes.

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What are other The Revenant filming locations?

Libby, Montana

Besides the forests and mountainous views, many of the scenes in The Revenant revolve around the water. In many of the scenes, characters are forced to flee from a fight or an ambush, escaping by the river or jumping into waterfalls in hopes of survival.

Those scenes, including specifically the one where Glass escapes the Arikara tribe, were filmed in Kootenai Falls in Libby, Montana.

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Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Initially, the plan for filming The Revenant revolved around specific locations in Canada. However, there was a delay in the production, which meant that by the time the cast and crew were about to film the movie's climax, the Canadian weather had gotten warmer.

Hence, from Canada, the production continued the filming in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Specifically, they picked the town of Ushuaia to shoot some of the final scenes, including the climactic showdown between Glass and Fitzgerald.

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Catch The Revenant streaming on Max.