12 Chicago places featured in movies and television shows

In Home Alone, eight-year-old Kevin McCallister is left to defend his suburban Chicago home from invaders after his family accidentally leaves him behind while traveling to Paris. But you don’t have to be a home invader, or a member of the McCallister family to catch a glimpse of the house where the film was set. Located in Winnetka, the Home Alone house is near several other sites from the movie, like Wilmette’s Trinity United Methodist Church, where Kevin finds refuge in a nativity display, and Hubbard Woods Park, where a chase scene took place.

The film was written by John Hughes, the director of films like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Hughes, a graduate of Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, set many of his films in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. 

Before you get in your car, be sure to note that the home is a privately-owned residence, so visitors cannot go onto the property.

Unlike other films and television shows that are set in the city, but produced elsewhere, The Bear actually films in the city and has highlighted some of the most beloved restaurants in the city, like Margie’s Candies, Superdawg and Pizza Lobo. But there’s one restaurant that the hit show has popularized above all others—Mr. Beef. Located in River North, the longstanding Italian beef restaurant serves as the setting for the show, and also the inspiration behind it.

While the Italian beef joint in “The Bear” underwent a serious renovation process in season two of the show (spoiler)—transforming into a Michelin-star-seeking New American establishment—Mr. Beef hasn’t undergone a similar alteration, even with its newfound fame. It’s the same no-frills beef joint that its customers have loved for decades, serving up au jus-soaked Italian beef, Italian sausages, burgers, hot dogs and pizza puffs.

With Batman Begins and The Dark Knight both being filmed in Chicago, real landmarks in the city were transformed into locations set in Gotham, like the Chicago Board of Trade, which became the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises in the movies. 

The building, which stands at more than 600-feet-tall and is listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, has also been seen in the films Road to Perdition, The Untouchables and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Tours of the space can be reserved online, and cost $15.

The Chicago Fire Department’s Engine Co. 18 serves double duty—it is a real, working fire station and it also plays one on television. The drama series Chicago Fire, which follows the lives of Chicago firefighters, rescue personnel and paramedics, has been filming in the city since its premiere in 2012.

While scenes are filmed all throughout the city and at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios, the working fire department has been used for exterior shots throughout the show’s duration.

First opened nearly a century ago, Union Station is one of the city’s main transportation hubs, with more than 30 platforms for Metra and Amtrak trains. It’s also a popular filming destination in the city, and has been featured in several movies, like The Sting, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Man of Steel and Public Enemies. The train station’s great hall was also the filming location for an action-packed sequence in the 1987 film The Untouchables, about a team brought together to bring down Al Capone.

Most recently, the station was used in season four of the television show Fargo, although it was depicted as Kansas City Union Station. The train station is open every day for visitors who want to take a peek at where their favorite movies were filmed, or commuters who are trying to catch a train.

The Art Institute of Chicago has a whole section dedicated to showing the artwork that goes into making film, but the art museum has also been featured in some films, as well. Most notably, the museum was in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which centers on a high school student, Ferris Bueller, skipping a day of school with his girlfriend and best friend. Instead of spending the day in class, the three explore Chicago—they attend a Cubs game, take part in a parade in the Loop and admire the paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, including George Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”

While Ferris Bueller’s Day Off might be the most popular film to have a scene shot at the Art Institute of Chicago, it’s not the only one. The opening shot of the 1947 film The Arnelo Affair was filmed in front of the museum.

After the infamous Joliet Correctional Center in suburban Joliet closed in 2002, it developed another use—as a filming location for television and movies. The prison is the main setting and filming location for the first season of the television show Prison Break. It was also used in the 2006 film Let’s Go to Prison, a season two episode of Bones and a season three episode of The Mentalist. The prison’s exteriors were also used in filming before its closure. Joliet Correctional Center is the site where Elwood Blues picks up Jake Blues after his release from the prison at the beginning of the film The Blues Brothers.

Like many older buildings, the former prison was also explored on a 2019 episode of Ghost Adventures. Interested visitors can take a tour of the former prison ($20 for adults, $10 for children), where they can check out the filming sites, as well as learn the history about some of the prison’s most notorious inmates, including serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Home to plenty of shops, restaurants and, of course, one of the best views of the city’s skyline, the John Hancock Center doesn’t need fame from movies or television shows to attract visitors. But it has that, too. 

The iconic, 100-story building serves as the principal setting for Poltergeist III, when the series’ main protagonist, Carol Anne, moves in with her aunt and uncle, who live in the John Hancock Center. One of the poltergeists that had terrorized the film’s protagonist in a previous movie follows her to the skyscraper, and the hauntings continue there. The film was also shot at the Francis W. Parker School in Lincoln Park, which stood in as the high school that one of the film’s characters attended.

Heath Ledger as the Joker in the 2008 film The Dark Knight is arguably one of the best portrayals of the character, and moviegoers were first introduced to the movie’s iconic villain in a bank heist scene set in Chicago’s Old Main Post Office. The building was also used in Batman Begins, in the opening credits of Candyman and in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

The building ceased to be a post office after a more modern facility was opened in 1997, and sat vacant for decades. The former post office, now called the Old Post Office, was purchased in 2016 by a New York-based real estate company, and now houses several new tenants. The building’s art deco lobby, which is where The Dark Knight bank robbery scene was filmed, can be rented out for events like weddings and galas.

Over the course of eight movies, Chucky, the murderous doll at the center of the Child’s Play franchise, has wreaked havoc throughout much of the country. But the horror series got its start in Chicago. After serial killer Charles Lee Ray was gunned down by police in a toy store, he was reborn as a maniacal doll that finds its way to six-year-old Andy Barclay in the series’ original film, Child’s Play.

The horror classic, which was filmed on location in the city, features plenty of locales in the city for horror fans to visit. Andy’s mother was a retail employee, and scenes of the character working were filmed at the downtown Sullivan Center. The most notable Chicago site in the film is the Brewster Apartments, a residential apartment building in Lakewiew that’s more than a century old. The apartment building, which was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1982, serves as the building where the Barclays live, and where Chucky’s reign of terror begins.

The film Home Alone is about a suburban Chicago family that’s going on a vacation to Paris—the only problem is that they accidentally forget their eight-year-old son at home. The movie, which was filmed in the Chicago area, stayed true to its setting, and saw the McCallister family departing from O’Hare International Airport. The scene filmed at the airport featured the frantic family running through Terminal 3, in the airport’s famous hallway that’s lined with international flags.

Home Alone is hardly the only movie to film a scene at Chicago’s largest airport, though. In 1983’s Risky Business, the main character Joel, played by Tom Cruise, sees his parents off at the airport. And although it’s primarily set in the titular Seattle, Sleepless in Seattle also has a scene filmed at the airport.

The Music Box Theatre, a historic movie theater in Lakeview, has been showing films since it first opened in 1929, but it also was a part of one in 2000, when a scene in High Fidelity was filmed there.

The movie, starring John Cusack as Rob Gordon, a Chicago-based record store owner who is reflecting on his past relationships, was filmed entirely in Chicago. In one scene, he takes his former girlfriend, Penny, on a date at the historic theater. Filming for the movie took place all over the city, including the Wilson ‘L’ stop, the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, the Rainbo Club and Double Door. The record store that Rob owned, Championship Vinyl, was filmed at 1500 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park.