VANILLA SKY FILMING LOCATIONS

The 2001 movie Vanilla Sky can be characterized as a romantic, Sci-fi thriller. Directed by Cameron Crowe, the film stars Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, and Penelope Cruz.  David Aames is a rich, privileged, handsome young man who, after the death of his parents, inherited his father’s successful publishing company.  Julianna (Cameron Diaz) is David’s jilted lover, who is angry after seeing him with his new love, Sophia (Penelope Cruz).  Julianna offers David a ride home one day and purposely crashes her car, a crash which leaves her dead and David with a disfigured face.

David continues to date Sophia and has surgery to fix his face, but begins to notice that he is perceiving the world in strange ways, sometimes seeing his face reverting back to its disfigured state, and coming home to find Sophia and all pictures of her have changed to Julianna.  In a moment of insanity, he suffocates Sophia, and is arrested and assigned to a phsycologist.  David and the doctor eventually discover something called “life extention,” which explains all the recent strange occurrences in David’s life.  Except, David’s life may really just be a dream.

Big time movie star Tom Cruise has won three Golden Globe awards and is a three-time Oscar Nominee.  Although known for his good looks, Cruise is more than just a pretty face.  He has starred in movies like The Outsiders, Risky Business, Top Gun, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut, Mission Impossible, Collateral, War of the Worlds, Minority Report, and Tropic Thunder.

A familiar New York locale from Vanilla Sky is the famous Times Square.  In the  opening sequence of the film, David arrives at a completely deserted Times Square, something you will never see in the city that doesn’t sleep.  In order to shoot the opening sequence, the production was given permission to close Times Square in the late night/early morning hours one Sunday. The only digital modification of the scene was changing the NASDAQ news ticker to avoid dating the film through the coverage of the presidential election.

Don’t miss your chance to see real places in Manhattan where scenes from this movie and many others were filmed.  On the NYC TV & Movie Tour, you will feel like you’ve stepped into a scene from your favorite films.

* In an effort to stay current, we are constantly updating our tours with new locations and cannot guarantee the presence of locations mentioned on our site. If you have a particular interest in locations from a specific TV show or movie, please let your tour guide know and we will do our best to accommodate your request.