Our guide to Prague locations in Netflix's 'The Gray Man'

One of the highest profile films to shoot in Prague in recent years is the spy action drama “The Gray Man,” the most expensive film ever made by Netflix. In July 2021, people could easily encounter the production crews on the streets. The film has now been released on Netflix and people can see what locations in the Golden City made it into the final cut.

Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, and Billy Bob Thornton all portray spies caught up in some rather generic globe-trotting plot to recover a flashdrive – the modern-day equivalent of Cold War–era microfilm.

We will leave the plot aside, and let critics deal with whether the Bond-inspired action was good or not. Instead, we want to help the curious find the locations used in Prague while revealing as little of the story as possible so as not to spoil it. For those without Netflix, a couple of minutes of the main action is available on YouTube in the film trailer.

Prague, with its wide variety of architectural styles, often doubles for other cities. In “The Gray Man,” Prague is both itself and Bangkok, Baku, Berlin, and Vienna.

Part of the opening scene in Bangkok was filmed around the Futurama offices in Karlín, though the buildings are disguised quite well.

The first recognizable landmark in the Golden City comes about 24 minutes into the film, but Prague is supposed to be Azerbaijan. The National Monument on top of Vítkov Hill appears during an elaborate funeral scene, with Baku’s steel-and-glass flame towers superimposed in the background.

Nevertheless, the Prague 3 Town Hall was quite proud of the achievement and posted a frame grab on Facebook.

The same Žižkov building appeared in the 2004 version of “Hellboy” as the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense in New Jersey.

Next, at about 42 minutes into the film, Prague pops up as Vienna. Some scenes actually shot in Vienna are mixed in, so it is hard to tell what is what. The overhead view of the Vienna rail station is Prague’s Hlavní nádraží in an altered version of the view from the railing at Vinohradská Street.

A chase across rooftops in Vienna is a mix of locations, including Prague. “If you went to visit it, you wouldn’t find it,” production designer Dennis Gassner told film magazine Variety.

A briefly seen concrete staircase and wooden planks seem to match the rooftop at Lucerna. The view also looks about right, with the top of the Old Town Hall tower in the background.

The rather ornate school at Lyčkovo náměstí in Karlín can be seen clearly at the start of the Vienna sequence. Later, a car ride through Vienna takes us on a circuitous route around the same square. The Vienna scene ends with the car making a turn at the intersection of Lyčkovo náměstí and Křižíkova Street.

In the middle of the Vienna sequence, at about 48 minutes into the film, there is a brief cutaway to Berlin, which at least on the outside is Prague. The Brutalist-style facade of the New Building of the National Museum, aka the former RFE building, is the rather conspicuous CIA headquarters in Berlin.

The same building was used as Berlin’s police headquarters in the 1994 HBO alternative history miniseries “Fatherland.”

Prague finally starts to play itself at about 63 minutes into the film. After the pretty much required shot of Charles Bridge, the action moves to a hillside street in Žižkov. For orientation, the closest landmark is the Jára Cimrman Žižkov Theater (Žižkovské divadlo Járy Cimrmana).

If you are trying to find the trapezoidal building with the Art Nouveau-style round window, you will be a bit disappointed. That side of the building is mostly CGI fused on top of a nice but somewhat typical pre-war residential building. The exact location is Kostnické náměstí. The street where the attack force assembles is the intersection of the square with Štítného Street.

It is best not to try to compare the size of the window and shape of the apartment as seen in the outside shots of the building and the size of the window and apartment in the set for the interior of the apartment.

The view from the window and the geography of the square is also a bit puzzling when you try to compare it to the actual spot. Everything is there, but just not where you expect it to be.

The action quickly moves to what the film calls the “opera house,” and we are finally at the big action scene filmed in front of the Rudolfinum. This filled up local people’s social media feeds in July 2021, as it was pretty hard to hide.

The raised pavilion in the middle of the square was something made specifically for the film, and it is no longer there. The Rudolfinum looks pretty much the same, but the banners advertising “Rusalka” were props. The Rudolfinum has concerts, not stage productions.

The University of Applied Arts (UMPRUM) across the street was decorated as a fancy restaurant. It is seen only briefly, so the effort at detail (there was a full Czech menu with reasonable prices in front) was a bit wasted.

This scene bleeds into a tram chase, which was also all over the news during production. As can be expected, the tram route does not make sense. The tram is identified as the 11 route headed to “Vozovna Bohnice.” In reality, the 11 tram runs nowhere near the film’s itinerary.

The route in the film includes scenes in náměstí Jana Palacha, the bridge Čechův most, the street Dukelských hrdinů and the National Gallery's Veletržní palác, and then a jump to náměstí Republiky, with a bank building getting some damage and Obecní dům popping up in the background. The damaged bank pillars were actually filmed elsewhere on a replica. No actual damage occurred to any of the landmarks.

The tram was modified to have a flat top so people could walk on top. It actually was made for the film from spare parts of damaged trams, according to the Prague Public Transit Company (DPP). It has the look of a 14T tram but did not run on electric power. The spare parts were “glued on” a truck chassis, DPP spokeswoman Aneta Řehková said during production.

This let the “tram” run on its own power. Live electric overhead cables would have been too dangerous for the stunt people running around the top of the tram. It also allowed the tram to move outside the standard tracks during the action. (Do not try to get on top of a tram. It is both illegal and dangerous.)

Prague Castle is finally seen at about 82 minutes into the film in the background of the following hospital scene, briefly lit up on the horizon at night. The bulk of the hospital scene seems to have been filmed someplace else, as there is no tall modern building of that type with a similar view of the Castle.

The last identifiable Prague location is the Negrelli Viaduct, where the Prague action segment finally ends.

Scenes were also filmed in Smíchov in Prague 5 and Průhonice, just south of Prague, as well as the towns of Milovice and Ústí nad Labem.

The scenes set in Croatia were not filmed in the Czech Republic. That is a mix of a castle in Croatia and the Chateau de Chantilly, near Paris. The Hong Kong and Turkey scenes, with palm trees in the background, were filmed near Los Angeles.