Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon has several significant scenes filmed in Vienna in the third episode of its third season. We spotted some outdoor locations, and here’s how to find them…
- Includes landmarks like the opera house & cathedral
- See also:
Where was Jack Ryan filmed?
In a city that often provides the background for period films and TV, we get a little frisson of excitement when Vienna hosts contemporary thrillers involving nuclear weapons and the CIA.
(Warning: may contain minor spoilers.)
In S3E3 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon, Ryan finds himself in Vienna for a meeting with Zoya Ivanova.
We don’t have inside information on the locations used for all the Viennese scenes. However, we matched what we saw on our TV with our local knowledge and can confirm the exterior shots at least were filmed in the city.
The Staatsoper
(The opera house after hosting the annual ball)
The episode begins with an aerial view of the Vienna state opera house (Staatsoper), built in 1869 and, by the way, a key location in Mission Impossible 5. The trams that appear in that shot look like old timers rather than the usual modern vehicles.
(Pretty much the exact shot we see on the screen)
We then see Mike November trailing Zoya Ivanovna. He’s initially standing under the opera house arches on Herbert von Karajan Platz square, which runs alongside Kärntner Straße.
Sacher hotel and café
Across the road, Ivanovna emerges from the Popp & Kretschmer shop at Kärntner Straße 51 and walks down Philharmoniker Straße, which takes her behind the opera house.
(The famous Hotel Sacher)
November watches Ivanovna from the safety of those arches, and we see Hotel Sacher in the background (look for the red awnings). Normally, she would have to pass a queue of folk eagerly awaiting a table at Café Sacher (on the left of the photo).
Stephansplatz
Then we cut to Ivanovna walking across a square with a large historical building covered in scaffolding on her right.
(Ivanova walks toward us here)
That square is Stephansplatz and the building is Vienna’s landmark gothic cathedral (Stephansdom).
The Russian would have reached the area quicker just by going down Kärntner Straße, which emerges onto the square. But perhaps she took a scenic route to enjoy the lovely Viennese old town.
Stallburggasse
Next we find Ivanovna and her follower on Stallburggasse, heading west. That street is actually roughly half-way between the opera house and Stephansplatz.
(Stallburggasse with the Michaelerkirche spire in the distance)
The background of the shots down Stallburggasse includes a couple of notable historical buildings:
- The spire belongs to the Michaelerkirche, a 13th century church on Michaelerplatz square
- The building on the left of the photo is the Renaissance Stallburg, which still contains the stables of Vienna’s famous Spanish Riding School
(Ivanova goes into the arched gateway on the left)
Ivanovna walks past the Kovacek & Zetter gallery and other storefronts before turning into the entrance gates at Stallburggasse 4. Ryan is waiting for her inside the building.
Dorotheergasse
A little later, Ryan leaves the building and meets November to walk and talk. They go back up Stallburggasse and turn left at the City-Galerie onto Dorotheergasse, which they then meander down.
(View down Dorotheergasse with the museum sign on the left)
This takes them past the main site of Vienna’s Jewish Museum, whose entrance appears on the left of the shots.
I rather hoped they’d keep going for a few more paces before we cut away, as that would have taken them past the lovely Hawelka, one of Vienna’s more famous coffee houses.
Railway station
(Main entrance to Hauptbahnhof)
The final Vienna locations we found in this episode are in and around the Hauptbahnhof: Vienna’s main railway station. The interior and platform scenes certainly look original.
The trains are genuine ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways), too, although you won’t normally get the doors to open mid-journey as in Ryan’s fight scene. Cough, health and safety, cough.
Semmering
As an aside, Ryan throws off his US pursuers by having them wait for his train from Vienna in the town of Semmering, rather than his true destination.
We enjoyed the aircraft landing at Semmering’s alleged airport. This small town does have a rail connection to Vienna, but you’d struggle to find enough flat land to build a decent runway given Semmering’s location in the mountains.
And finally…
Jack Ryan is not the only fictional CIA representative to find his way to Vienna. Owen Hendricks enjoys a foot and car chase, unplanned swim and even a coffee house visit across two episodes of The Recruit.