Filming happened mostly in Los Angeles , including location shooting at Sunset Strip , Silver Lake , Pacific Palisades , the Hollywood Hills and the Biltmore Hotel . Id Club , the nightclub featured in the film , was built within Hollywood 's Pantages Theater , while the hills above Dodger Stadium near Elysian Park was used for the car chase and crash where Sil fake her death . For the opening scenes in Utah , the Tooele Army Depot dubbed as the outside of the research facility — the interiors was shot at the Rockwell International Corporation laboratory in California — and a Victorian @-@ era train station in Brigham City was part of Sil 's escape . Other locations included the Santa Monica Pier and the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico . The most complex sets involved the sewer complex and a tar @-@ filled granite cavern where the ending occur . Donaldson wanted a maze quality for the sewers , which had traces of realism ( such as tree roots breaking through from the ceiling ) and artistic licenses . Production designer John Muto intentionally designed the sewers wider and taller than real ones , as well as with walkways , but nevertheless aiming for a claustrophobic and realistic atmosphere . The underground tunnels was built out of structural steel , metal rod , plaster and concrete to endure the fire effects , and had its design based on the La Brea Tar Pits , with Muto describing them as " just the sort of place in which a creature from another planet might feel at home . "