Top Filming Locations in San Francisco
Films and television shows set in San Francisco capture some of its best views and most famous sights. This short list will tell you where to find them.
Alcatraz Prison
Address: San Francisco, CA 94133, USA
Phone: +1 415-561-4900
Alcatraz has featured in so many films that it probably deserves its own videography. In fact, if you’re looking for spots in San Francisco where films were made, this island may have the highest concentration of them in town.
Bullitt Car Chase
Lots of people think Bullitt, the 1960s thriller starring Steve McQueen, features one of the great car chases in cinematic history. However, the filmmakers edited so many streets into those action sequences that it would require a Star Trek-style transporter to execute in real life.
To see one of the film’s most iconic spots, go to Taylor and Vallejo and look from there toward the Bay. That’s where the cars were jumping into the air at each intersection.
Dirty Harry Sites
Address: 666 Filbert St, San Francisco, CA 94133, USA
Phone: +1 415-421-0809
Clint Eastwood’s first outing as Harry Callahan, a determined cop hunting down the psychotic Scorpio, takes place in San Francisco. Some of the sights featured include Saints Peter and Paul Church, where the rooftop sniper shoots a priest. The sniper’s perch itself was blocks away at the Dante Building (1606 Stockton).
High Anxiety
The Mel Brooks farce High Anxiety draws its inspiration from the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo. The obscene phone call scene was filmed at Fort Point, near where James Stewart fished Kim Novak out of the Bay in Vertigo. Additionally, the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero Center’s 17-story tall atrium features in several scenes.
Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan’s novel about generational and cultural conflicts between a small group of traditional Chinese immigrant women and their more liberated Chinese-American daughters is set in Tan’s hometown of San Francisco, with many scenes filmed in Chinatown.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Address: Golden Gate Brg, San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone: +1 415-921-5858
Trekkies know that in the movies, San Francisco is the headquarters of fictional Star Fleet Command and the United Federation of Planets. It also features prominently in the fourth Star Trek film.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Address: Golden Gate Brg, San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone: +1 415-921-5858
In this Alfred Hitchcock classic, a detective tails a glamorous woman around the equally glamorous San Francisco of the 1950s. The film’s most famous scenes feature many of the city’s iconic features, including the Golden Gate Bridge and Nob Hill.
Full House House
Address: Hayes St, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA
Phone: +1 415-218-0259
The iconic row of Victorian-style houses with the San Francisco skyline behind them can be seen from Alamo Square Park above Steiner between Fulton and Hayes. While the opening scenes of the television show Full House were filmed in this park, the “house with the red door” is located further west.
Mrs. Doubtfire House
Address: 2640 Steiner St, San Francisco, CA 94115-1142, USA
At Steiner and Broadway is the house where the out-of-work actor played by Robin Williams works as his ex-wife’s nanny, dressed up as a 60-year-old British woman named Mrs. Doubtfire, just to see his children.
