1917 | 2020
This man-made devastation provides a stark contrast to the untouched green landscape in which Blake and Schofield next find themselves.
This is back to Salisbury Plain. As they approach a desolate farm, the pond here is real but the farmhouse, barns and even the cherry orchard were all constructed very precisely, to serve the narrative of the film, just south of Chitterne Road (B390) west of Shrewton.
The cows, by the way, are CGI, since livestock that would have been correct for the period and the region weren’t allowed into the area.
The period of tranquility is short-lived as tragedy strikes suddenly out of the blue. Schofield is now fortunate enough to be picked up by a passing army convoy, and Captain Smith (Mark Strong) agrees to carry him along for the next leg of his crucial journey.
The army truck is real although, like many of the sets and props, it had to be constructed with removable sides to allow the placing and movement of the camera.
It’s still Salisbury Plain where the truck gets bogged down in mud, on a road called Tinker’s Track near a restricted training area surrounding the deserted village of Imber.
Imber, vacated in 1943 when the Ministry of Defence took over the land to be used as an exercise area for American troops, was featured in John Boorman’s melancholy 1965 Catch Us If You Can, intended to be The Dave Clark Five’s answer to The Beatles’ upbeat A Hard Day’s Night.
The convoy is brought to a much more serious obstacle when it’s discovered that the vital bridge crossing a canal has been destroyed. With no time for a detour, Schofield has to continue once again on foot.
From Wiltshire, the location has suddenly shifted to Scotland. That canal is the dry dock at Govan Graving Docks, off Govan Road on the south bank of the River Clyde west of central Glasgow. The landscape leading off into the distance and the ruins of the nearby village are all CGI elements masking the modern outskirts of the city.
The collapsed bridge was built for the film and the pump house, from which Schofield comes under sniper fire as he attempts to cross, was a set extension added to the existing building.
The pump house interior, where the film allows a single break in the timeline as Schofield lapses into unconsciousness and night falls, was filmed on a Shepperton soundstage.
As Schofield ventures outside, the whole ruined village, which turns out to be ‘Ecoust’ is a vast exterior set. The entire sequence of Schofield racing through the rubble illuminated only by dazzling and constantly moving flares, as spectacularly hallucinatory as anything in Apocalypse Now, was staged for real on the ten-acre Shepperton backlot.
The wall of blinding light from the blazing church was a vast bank of lights, ultimately replaced digitally by the image of the flaming building – the nearest the film gets to a French ‘location’.
The Abbey of Sainte-Trinite in Caen was used to supply visual elements which form the basis of the conflagration.
Fleeing from German troops, Schofield leaps from the village’s bridge at Shepperton into the water of the Tees Barrage International White Water Centre at Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, northeast England
This is an artificial whitewater course on the north bank of the River Tees, part of the Tees Barrage which was built as a flood control measure in 1995. It’s a major centre for kayaking, canoeing and, of course, white-water rafting.
Using this controlled environment meant that the camera could be mounted on a tracking rig to maintain smooth motion rather than relying on the jolting the shaky-cam from a camera in a boat bobbing alongside.
The shot of Schofield going over the waterfall was captured by a drone-mounted camera above the Low Force Falls on the River Tees at Bowlees, near Barnard Castle, which was seamlessly blended into a composite of the calmer waters of the rafting centre and the bank of the Tees near Wynch Bridge.
This segues seamlessly into the river itself as Schofield has to clamber over a horrendous mass of bodies and climb up the steep riverbank.
Signs had to be posted to warn local walkers of the possible sight of “prosthetic bodies” – not the ideal way to end that relaxing ramble through the countryside.
Perhaps they were remembering 2005, when a couple of water-borne ‘bodies’ from Steven Spielberg’s 2005 War Of The Worlds broke loose and drifted off along the Farmington River in Connecticut.
The peaceful wood to which Schofield is drawn by mysterious singing, is once again on Salisbury Plain. Here he realises he’s finally reached the Devons.
The ‘casualty clearing station’, where Schofield finally manages to contact Blake's brother Joseph (Richard Madden) was constructed on Pear Tree Hill at Erlestoke, alongside the spot where the film opened with Blake and Schofield waking up.
This is Ministry of Defence land although the paths are generally open to the public, there are restrictions. If you plan to visit, check ahead that the area is not closed for firing and – for your own safety – be aware of red warning flags and 'no entry' signs.
You might assume that the single photogenic tree at which the film ends was added by the film’s Production Designer but, no, this was purely a stroke of good luck.
The script had ended with Schofield sitting by a stream, but it would have been impossible to ignore the satisfying bookend to the opening shot provided by this chance find. It's right along the 'casualty station' site, only a few yards from the film's opening shot.
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