Where Was ‘Spiderhead’ Filmed?

Spiderhead, the Chris Hemsworth Netflix movie that began streaming last week, takes place almost entirely in a prison. But, on the plus side, it’s one of the nicest prisons ever. The inmates at this facility are not kept behind bars, aren’t forced to eat prison slop, and are allowed to roam the prison grounds as they please. The catch? The prisoners must partake in human drug trials for some decidedly experimental pharmaceuticals.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, who recently had a big critical and financial win with Top Gun: Maverick, this movie is much smaller and more contained than Kosinski’s Air Force action thriller. Spiderhead is downright claustrophobic, as Hemsworth and co-stars Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollet roam these dim, concrete hallways for an hour and a half.

That said, there are a few brief reprieves into the sunny exterior of the prison, which is surrounded by gorgeous sparkling water and luscious green islands. If those locations captured your imagination, read on to learn about where the Spiderhead movie was filmed.

Where was Spiderhead filmed?

The Spiderhead movie was filmed in Queensland, Australia—where producer and star Chris Hemsworth is from—and those beautiful exterior shots you see were filmed on Whitsunday Islands. But the vast majority of the movie takes place in the elaborate prison set, which was constructed not on a sound stage, but rather inside a sports arena that had been shut down due to COVID.

In fact, the Spiderhead filming location was a bit of a last-minute decision, thanks to the variability of COVID cases. It was up to production designer Jeremy Hindle (whose previous projects include Severance and Top Gun: Maverick) to construct that ’70s-inspired set, which he mapped out in 3D before he knew where the movie would be filming. In an interview for the Spiderhead press notes, Hindle said, “We had to know every millimeter of the design to a T going into the process because we had no idea where we were going to be due to COVID. We could’ve shot it on the moon if we had to! We knew exactly what we were doing the minute we landed in Australia.”

The design of the facility itself was inspired both by Brutalist architecture and high-end rehabilitation centers. As director Joseph Kosinski put it in that same interview, “What would a prison look like in Big Sur that was actually a spa?”

Kosinski went on to say, “I wanted the place to feel calm. I wanted natural light pouring in through the skylights. I wanted it to feel very ordered, but not overly constrictive. I like that Abnesti has a really good sense of design taste. All of the furnishings are bespoke and very specific because I wanted to contrast what’s really happening in this place.”

Prison wouldn’t be so bad in a place like that, right? Minus the unethical drug testing, of course.