Beyond the screen
This journey takes you to real-world landscapes that served as futuristic worlds in sci-fi films. These are places where the imagination of filmmakers met raw nature or haunting architecture, creating settings that feel otherworldly yet utterly real.
Whether you’re a movie buff or a curious traveler, these spots let you walk where your favorite sci-fi scenes came to life. Prepare to explore deserts, glaciers, and remote retreats that transported audiences to distant planets.
Mars on Earth: Wadi Rum
In southern Jordan lies Wadi Rum, a desert of red dunes and jagged sandstone cliffs, often called the Valley of the Moon. Filmmakers have used this dramatic landscape to portray the surface of Mars in films like The Martian and Prometheus.
Visiting Wadi Rum gives you the chance to ride a camel or jeep through dunes, camp in Bedouin-style tents, and gaze up at an absolutely clear starry sky. It feels like setting foot on another world—without needing a spaceship.
Arrakis in Jordan
The iconic desert planet Arrakis from Dune was partly brought to life in Jordan, especially in Wadi Rum. Villeneuve’s adaptation leaned into the region’s sweeping dunes, blending real terrain with grand cinematic vision to evoke a distant, sandy world.
As you explore, you’ll feel the same raw, almost mystical vastness that the characters experienced on screen. It’s a powerful reminder of how one place on Earth can serve as a stand-in for a planet of myth.
Glacial Alien world: Iceland
Iceland’s Svínafellsjökull Glacier offers a surreal, icy terrain that has starred in multiple sci-fi films, serving as alien landscapes in Prometheus, Interstellar, and Oblivion. The shifting ice, volcanic rock, and crevasses give it an otherworldly feel.
When you visit, you’re stepping into terrain that feels unearthly: hiking across frozen expanses or viewing it from nearby vantage points connects you to the raw power of geology and cinema’s vision of distant planets.
High-tech hideout: Juvet hotel
In Norway’s remote Valldal Valley, the Juvet Landscape Hotel was used as Nathan’s secluded high-tech mansion in Ex Machina. The minimalist architecture blends seamlessly with the surrounding forest and fjords, giving the feeling of a futuristic lair tucked into nature.
Staying there or even visiting feels like stepping into a sci-fi story. The design, with its glass walls and quiet isolation, perfectly captures the tension between human, machine, and environment.
Industrial ghostship: Battleship Island
Hashima Island (aka Gunkanjima or Battleship Island) off Nagasaki, Japan, looks like the remains of a dystopian, abandoned city‑ship. This crumbling concrete island served as an eerie inspiration in films and stories with a futuristic, post‑industrial aesthetic.
You can visit via guided boat tours from Nagasaki Port. The derelict buildings and looming silhouettes feel like a set piece from a sci-fi thriller, an unsettling but fascinating relic of the past.
Futuristic skies: Bangkok
In the near-future sci-fi film The Creator, bustling Bangkok was transformed into a vision of tomorrow. Much of its appeal came from real locations like high-rise apartments with angled windows and glowing cityscapes, enhanced by VFX to feel futuristic yet grounded.
When you wander through Bangkok, especially at night, the glowing skyline and modern architecture evoke scenes from the film. It’s a reminder of how a real city can feel like a futuristic metropolis on screen.
Alien shores: Laem Sak Bay, Thailand
In Krabi province, Laem Sak Bay, with its towering limestone cliffs and emerald waters, was used in the sci-fi narrative Alien Earth. The mix of mangrove-lined inlets and misty limestone peaks gives a strangely alien vibe.
As a traveler, you can kayak through mangrove tunnels, cruise by rugged cliffs, and imagine the dramatic scenes filmed there. The area feels both familiar and otherworldly, just like a sci-fi backdrop.
Sky reflection planet: Uyuni salt flats
The vast Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is among the most surreal landscapes on Earth. In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it doubled as the mineral planet Crait, whose white, mirror-like surface reflects the sky in surreal ways
Visiting the salt flats is unforgettable: after rain, the thin layer of water creates a perfect mirror effect. Walking across feels like you are on another planet—floating between heaven and earth.
Lava fields of tomorrow
Iceland’s lava fields, such as those near Eldhraun, have doubled as eerie, alien terrain in various sci-fi productions. Their cracked, rugged surfaces and sweeping expanses evoke distant, uninhabited planets forged by fire.
As a visitor, you can trek across hardened lava, peer into crevices, and imagine yourself on a newly formed world. The rawness of the landscape feels timeless and cinematic, like visiting a place beyond Earth.
Otherworldly jetstreams
Some sci-fi films take advantage of high-altitude sites too. For example, the Vatnajökull region of Iceland has glaciers and ice lagoons that appear in several films with futuristic or fantasy elements.
Exploring this area gives you a sense of isolation and grandeur. Whether on a glacier hike or a calm boat ride, you experience landscapes that could just as easily belong to another planet or a visionary sci-fi film.
Next, discover the breathtaking locations where Netflix’s biggest shows were really filmed and step into the scenes you’ve only imagined on screen.
Your sci-fi expedition
These futuristic filming spots show how film magic can transform real places into cinematic worlds. By visiting them, you become part of the story, walking through landscapes that inspired sci-fi legends. If you plan your next getaway around these destinations, you’re not just sightseeing. You’re embarking on a sci-fi expedition, stepping into real-life scenes that once existed only in imagination, and perhaps leaving forever changed.
Plan your next getaway at lodges that feel like straight out of a movie and experience cinematic landscapes in real life.
Ever wondered what it feels like to step onto a planet you’ve only seen on screen? Which futuristic world would you explore first?
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This slideshow was made with AI assistance and human editing.
