<P> The film's setting proved to be a potential problem for Carpenter, who needed to create a decaying, semi-destroyed version of New York City on a shoe - string budget . He and the film's production designer Joe Alves rejected shooting on location in New York City because it would be too hard to make it look like a destroyed city . Carpenter suggested shooting on a movie back lot but Alves nixed that idea "because the texture of a real street is not like a back lot ." They sent Barry Bernardi, their location manager (and associate producer), "on a sort of all - expense - paid trip across the country looking for the worst city in America," producer Debra Hill remembers . </P> <P> Bernardi suggested East St. Louis, Illinois, because it was filled with old buildings "that exist in New York now, and (that) have that seedy run - down quality" that the team was looking for . East St. Louis, sitting across the Mississippi River from the more prosperous St. Louis, Missouri, had entire neighborhoods burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire . Hill said in an interview, "block after block was burnt - out rubble . In some places there was absolutely nothing, so that you could see three and four blocks away ." As well, Alves found an old bridge to double for the "69th St. Bridge". The filmmaker purchased the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge for one dollar from the government and then gave it back to them, for the same amount, once production was completed, "so that they wouldn't have any liability," Hill remembers . Locations across the river in St. Louis, Missouri were used, including Union Station and the Fox Theatre, both of which have since been renovated, as well as the building which would eventually become the Schlafly Tap Room microbrewery . </P> <P> Carpenter and his crew persuaded the city to shut off the electricity to ten blocks at a time at night . The film was shot from August to November 1980 . It was a tough and demanding shoot for the filmmaker as he recalls . "We'd finish shooting at about 6 am and I'd just be going to sleep at 7 when the sun would be coming up . I'd wake up around 5 or 6 pm, depending on whether or not we had dailies, and by the time I got going, the sun would be setting . So for about two and a half months I never saw daylight, which was really strange ." The gladiatorial fight to the death scene between Snake and Slag (played by professional wrestler Ox Baker) was filmed in the Grand Hall at St. Louis Union Station . Russell has stated, "That day was a nightmare . All I did was swing a (spiked) bat at that guy and get swung at in return . He threw a trash can in my face about five times...I could have wound up in pretty bad shape ." In addition to shooting on location in St. Louis, Carpenter shot parts of the film in Los Angeles . Various interior scenes were shot on a sound stage; the final scenes were shot at the Sepulveda Dam, in Sherman Oaks . New York served as a location, as did Atlanta, to use their futuristic - looking rapid - transit system . In New York City, Carpenter persuaded federal officials to grant access to Liberty Island . "We were the first film company in history allowed to shoot on Liberty Island at the Statue of Liberty at night . They let us have the whole island to ourselves . We were lucky . It wasn't easy to get that initial permission . They'd had a bombing three months earlier and were worried about trouble". </P> <P> Carpenter was interested in creating two distinct looks for the movie . "One is the police state, high tech, lots of neon, a United States dominated by underground computers . That was easy to shoot compared to the Manhattan Island prison sequences which had few lights, mainly torch lights, like feudal England". Certain matte paintings were rendered by James Cameron, who was at the time a special effects artist with Roger Corman's New World Pictures . Cameron was also one of the directors of photography on the film . As Snake pilots the glider into the city, there are three screens on his control panel displaying wireframe animations of the landing target on the World Trade Center and surrounding buildings . Carpenter wanted high - tech computer graphics, which were very expensive, even for such a simple animation . The effects crew filmed the miniature model set of New York City they used for other scenes under black light, with reflective tape placed along every edge of the model buildings . Only the tape is visible and appears to be a 3D wireframe animation . </P>

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