25 Abandoned Movie Sets You Can Still Visit

The Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in California was used for the 2012 blockbuster Zero Dark Thirty. The set is currently unused, and is scattered with props and “locations” from the action thriller.

Wallilabou Anchorage was the principal Caribbean location for Disney’s 2003 blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean. It is still home to many of the props, including replicas of cannons. Many fans visit it annually.

The old Spanish Mission located in Cypress Gardens, South Carolina, was one of Mel Gibson’s favorite sets while filming The Patriot but once the movie was completed it was quickly abandoned.

Alexandre Aja, director of this horror film, built Gas Haven in Souss-Massa-Draa, Morocco, specifically for the movie and once the scenes were finished the place was abandoned and nowadays looks even creepier than it did then.

This western frontier town in Spain might be remembered as the movie set of the classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly but was also used for over 200 Westerns during the glory days of this genre. Eventually it was abandoned after the decline in popularity of these films but you can still visit it, especially if you’re a fan of Spaghetti Westerns.

The Fugitive was undoubtedly one of the best action movies of the ‘90s and in case you miss that beautiful era you can still go and see the debris from the prison bus crash scene, which lies abandoned at the side of the tracks where the scene was filmed in Dillsboro, North Carolina.

The remnants of the unfinished Cherokee Nuclear Plant in Gaffney, South Carolina, were used to film most of the underwater scenes in The Abyss, after they filled the massive structures with water to create a technical ocean for the film’s needs. The best part is that the set remains untouched to this day and fans can visit it and take photos.

Tatooine is a fictional desert planet that serves as the setting for many key scenes in the Star Wars saga, appearing in every film except The Empire Strikes Back. Make no mistake though, Tatooine is nothing but a movie set located in the vast deserts of Tunisia and Morocco that you can visit, if you can withstand the merciless sun and heat of North Africa.

The ramshackle replica of the Płaszów Labor Camp might look as haunting and terrifying as the real one, but in reality it’s just part of the set where the movie was shot in Krakow, Poland.

The film that introduced Robin Williams to many of his fans, Popeye, was filmed in a small, colorful village in Malta, which was built specifically for the movie. After the movie was completed the producers realized that it would be cheaper to abandon the village as it was than to knock it down.

This iconic movie was filmed only twenty-five miles south of Los Angeles in what is now Malibu Creek State Park. If you live close to the area and decide to visit the set you will be able to still see some of the most recognizable parts that were left behind such as the famous sign.

In this case the scary and intimidating home of this film was abandoned before the horror movie was shot there and was abandoned again shortly after the movie was filmed. It’s still available for you to visit—if you’re brave enough, that is.

This diner found in the middle of a field near Napoleonville, Louisiana, was the spot where Old Joe (Bruce Willis) meets the younger version of himself (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Unfortunately it’s in a bad state now as it has been abandoned since the film was completed.

This unused movie set can be found at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in California. Among other films, this set is mainly known for being used in the opening scenes of 2008’s Iron Man.

The slums of District 12 from this film were an already abandoned 1920s textile community in Henry River Mill Village, North Carolina.

If you want to discover the real Middle-earth you can do it by visiting the Hobbiton movie set near Matamata on the North Island of New Zealand. On the picturesque private farmland you can see where The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies were shot in a fascinating two-hour guided tour.

Even though the movie was viciously criticized by critics and fans alike, the beautiful artistic set used to portray the medieval German town has been abandoned but it’s still in great condition and you can visit it in a forest outside Berlin, Germany.

Many fans might not know that the legendary Stanley Kubrick hated traveling and was a little afraid of airplanes. For that reason, even though set mostly in Vietnam, Full Metal Jacket was fully shot in London. The best part for the fans, however, is that the abandoned Beckton Gas Works that were used to shoot the major battle scenes are still standing, waiting for you to visit them.

The Field of Dreams is a baseball field and pop-culture tourist attraction built originally for the movie of the same name. It is in Dubuque County, Iowa, near Dyersville. The studio built the baseball diamond on two farms, a few miles outside Dyersville. Nowadays it might not look as fancy as it once did but you can still visit and enjoy the abandoned scenery.

This movie set is built around an old California mental hospital, and was abandoned for a time before finding further use in a series of modern horror films. The set is most well known for being used in the (terrible) Schwarzenegger film End of Days, but has also been featured in the likes of Insidious: Chapter 2 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

To be historically accurate with this one, the fact is that the Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois, was already abandoned when it was used to shoot the classic chase scene in Blues Brothers, and is still abandoned to this day.

Tim Burton’s hard-core fans are probably aware of this but for the rest of us the good news is that the little haunted town of Spectre remains abandoned in Montgomery, Alabama, waiting to feel alive again.

Even though many of us Batman fans thought that the Gotham City of the original Batman was in some studio in Hollywood, the film was shot in Buckinghamshire, England (which now looks like a bombarded ruin by the way). Those who were lucky enough to visit the set a few years after the film was shot, saw Gotham Bank and various other buildings up close, including Batman’s safe.

Do you remember the marvelous and grandiose statue of an Egyptian ram in this film? Well, nowadays it’s a huge abandoned movie prop that can be found in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

The Malaysian government was wise enough to turn this film’s locations into tourist attractions. The most spectacular of these was the king’s “Summer Palace,” constructed in the resort area of Pantai Kok, a 675-square-meter faux-palace that took over 100 local workers six weeks to construct. Nonetheless, in April 2000, the palace opened as an Anna and the King–themed attraction, housing costumes and props from the film and featuring traditional Thai performances and daily showings of the film. It closed three years later, and the rapidly decaying sets are now surrounded by barbed wire.