Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Atom Egoyan, ‘The Captive’ charts the disappearance of 9-year-old Cassandra, who is kidnapped one snowy afternoon, and has to endure hell for almost an entire decade. While her parents, Matthew and Tina, try every possible measure to rescue their daughter, the police ultimately come up empty-handed, pushing the case into a state of stillness. That changes, however, when Cassandra’s personal items begin mysteriously appearing around Tina’s workplace, suggesting that the kidnapper plans to toy with her and let the suspense build indefinitely. While the thriller movie spans multiple years, the setting is always draped in a sheet of ice and snow. This is not coincidental or just for superficial reasons, as the atmosphere itself begins to express what the characters feel every second of their lives.
The Captive Filming Locations
The majority of ‘The Captive’ was filmed in the city of Sudbury, Ontario, with the production crew also taking over Niagara Falls and Toronto to shoot some major sequences. While the movie features a non-linear narrative, the creative team, led by director Atom Egoyan, chose to capture a single winter season and let it stand in for different time periods. However, filming in temperatures ranging from -22 to -85 degrees Fahrenheit (or -35 to -65 degrees Celsius) meant the cameras had to be covered with heating blankets, down jackets, and garbage bags to keep them warm. Production began on February 4, 2013, and wrapped up around a month later, on March 1.
Greater Sudbury, Ontario
While the story of ‘The Captive’ is set in Niagara Falls, the movie was primarily lensed in the city of Sudbury, which is the most populous in Northern Ontario. Director Atom Egoyan had a very specific reason for choosing the city, and that was its icy weather. “We can no longer count on having a ‘real’ winter in Toronto,” he explained in conversation with Female, describing the shift to Nickel Capital as “the sensible thing to do.” He was also drawn to the city’s unique natural landscapes, known as moonscapes for their barren, rocky terrain. For the director, a film with an unfamiliar subject matter such as this needed to be complemented with a similarly unfamiliar visual palette, and this creative philosophy guides much of how Sudbury is captured on screen.
While most of the production was shot on Sudbury’s snow-covered roads, forests, and expansive highways, some interior sequences were also filmed at what appears to be the I.J. Coady Memorial Arena, located at 13 2nd Avenue North in the mining town of Levack. Located a mere 45 minutes from the main city, the rink was described as “freezing, inside and outside” by Mark Gorodnitsky, who plays the younger version of Albert in the movie.
One of the scenes was also lensed at the Richard Lake Motel, located at 2377 Crown Ridge Road on South Highway 69. In Estaire, an unincorporated community near Sudbury, the crew took over a former gas station and store, and transformed it into a key set piece in the movie. Sudbury is also famous for having served as the backdrop to other acclaimed titles, such as ‘X-Men’, ‘Letterkenny,’ and ‘Shoresy.’
Niagara Falls, Ontario
As Niagara Falls is the in-universe setting of the movie, it makes sense that a chunk of the movie was also taped there. The crew transformed the border between Ontario and New York into some of the movie’s most iconic landmarks. A portion of the movie was lensed in the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel, with its ballroom and elevator being reimagined for the narrative sequences. The crew also filmed at Dairy Queen Grill & Chill, located at 5500 Ferry St., which they found preferable for an interview scene because of the restaurant’s big windows and the scenery surrounding it. Eardley Wilmot, the location manager, has shared that the original setting was a cafe, but they found Dairy Queen’s environment to be a better fit.
While the crew had its fair share of challenges navigating the production process with a constant flow of tourists to the Honeymoon Capital of the World, they still found the natural force of the place to be an indispensable part of the film’s visual language. Phillip Barker, the production designer, also added that “It’s the kind of place where a story like ours (The Captive) could easily happen, unnoticed.” Niagara Falls is among the most filmed destinations in the world and has also appeared in popular works like ‘The Dead Zone,’ ‘Superman II,’ ‘The Recruit,’ and ‘A Man Called Otto.’
Toronto, Ontario
The capital city of the province of Ontario also briefly served as the production hub for ‘The Captive,’ specifically with the help of Pinewood Toronto Studios, located at 225 Commissioners Street, Suite 203. Although Atom showed a preference towards filming the wintry snowscapes of Sudbury and its nearby areas, The 6ix was still key to finishing the movie’s visual palette when it came to some indoor sequences. It is likely that the crew relied on Pinewood Studios’ over 450,000 square feet of stage space, complete with elaborate sound stages and offices, which were customized to the story’s needs. The state-of-the-art studio has been a home to a number of successful titles, such as ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,’ ‘The Expanse,’ ‘It,’ and ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.’
