Where Was The Revenant Actually Filmed?
Back in 2016, Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his very first Oscar — for best performance by an actor in a leading role in director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's "The Revenant" (via IMDb). It was a massive moment for the then 41-year-old actor and the entertainment industry as a whole. "The Revenant" itself follows DiCaprio's Hugh Glass, an early frontiersman in 1820s Northern America as he fights to survive and protect his hunting group and family. At the beginning of the film, Hugh is nearly mauled to death by a bear and then betrayed by his best friend, John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), who kills his son, Hawk (Forrest Goodluck). Ultimately, Glass makes his way across the elements of North America to get revenge on Fitzgerald.
"The Revenant" was praised by some critics for its cinematography and sits at fresh scores on Rotten Tomatoes. However, DiCaprio noted that the filming was incredibly challenging. They shot for about nine months within the brutal elements on location, and a few scenes dealing with extreme cold and "going in and out of frozen rivers" were some of the hardest things DiCaprio has ever had to endure (via Yahoo).
Many movies will often shoot at a location that best represents what the conditions might have been like in a historical retelling, whether fictional or not. Oftentimes, however, the places that are depicted in the movie are not where the crew truly shot it. So where was "The Revenant" actually filmed? Here's what we know.
The Revenant was filmed mostly in Canada
Although the story of Hugh Glass took place in the western United States, Alejandro G. Iñárritu and the crew of "The Revenant" found that much of Canada suited their needs instead. The crew focused on realism as much as possible, shooting almost exclusively with natural light and placing particular scenes in specific areas of the country. Many parts were filmed in Kananaskis Country and the Bow Valley, part of the Canadian Rockies that lie west of Calgary, Alberta (via Movie-Locations.com). Interestingly, the opening ambush on Glass' group of frontiersmen was shot on an actual Native American reservation: Stoney First Nations Reserve.
For the iconic bear mauling scene, "The Revenant" crew moved to British Columbia instead to capture the necessary footage. Most of the rest of the filming for the movie took place in and around these areas in Canada, and the crew even resorted to shipping snow into the locations when it got too warm. However, there were two other spots outside of Canada that the crew ended up relocating to in order to get the best shots.
The first was just outside of Libby, Montana, and the second was on the archipelago Tierra del Fuego, the ownership of which is divided between Argentina and Chile. The South America location actually served as the spot for the final scenes of the film where Glass confronts and manages to kill Fitzgerald.
Clearly, the cast and crew of "The Revenant" went through quite a grueling and intense shoot to capture the realism that is portrayed in the movie. Although it may have been tough, it was certainly a memorable film, winning an Oscar for best achievement in cinematography (via IMDb).