Blue Jay Restaurant

4154 Hamilton Ave., Northside

The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Old Man & the Gun: This old-school diner was made a star after it first appeared in the 2017 psychological horror, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman and Barry Keoghan. In the film, Blue Jay Restaurant is where the events of the story are put in motion. Farrell’s character, husband, father and heart surgeon Steven Murphy, meets Keoghan’s character, Martin Lang, a boy seeking revenge on Murphy for the death of his father, for the first time. The diner is also in the chilling closing scene of the movie, as Lang walks past the Murphy family, now grieving, haunted and forever changed.

Blue Jay Restaurant returned to the silver screen a year later in The Old Man & the Gun, where Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek’s characters have a meal together. The movie would be Redford’s last. If you visit, you can sit in the same booth where they sat, easily identified by a framed still from the movie.

Pompilios

600 Washington Ave., Newport

Rain Man and Airborne: In the 1988 film Rain Man, before brothers Charlie (Tom Cruise) and Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) take off on their cross-country road trip, they stop for breakfast at what we know as Pompilios. The restaurant serves as the backdrop for the famous “toothpick scene,” where we get to really see the scope of Raymond’s abilities as he accurately counts the number of toothpicks that spilled on the ground while the waitress was trying to hand him one. And the phone booth that Charlie is using is still in the restaurant.

The Italian restaurant welcomed back movie crews for the 1993 skating comedy, Airborne. The movie starred Shane McDermott, Brittney Powell and up-and-comers Seth Green and Jack Black. Pompilios served as one of the locations during a double date with Mitchell (McDermott), Nikki (Powell), Wiley (Green) and Gloria (Alanna Ubach), which goes awry after a confrontation with the rival group of the movie, “the preps.” Pompilios also still has a sign hanging up that the cast and crew signed.

Arnold’s Bar and Grill

210 E 8th St., Downtown

City of Hope, Carol, Marauders, 10 Minutes Gone, Shirley and The Alto Knights: Cincinnati’s oldest continuously operating bar has been featured in several movies throughout the years. The bar first appeared in the 1991 film City of Hope, starring John Sayles, Joe Morton, Vincent Spano and Angela Bassett. In 2020, Arnold’s owner, Chris Breeden, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the crew left a lighted bunch of grapes as part of the set, which Arnold’s kept up. Likewise, Arnold’s also left up curtains from the set of Carol from a scene featuring Mara and Jake Lacey, who played Richard, sitting at the end of the bar. Crews returned shortly after to shoot 2016’s Marauders, featuring Bruce Willis, Christopher Meloni, Adrian Grenier and Dave Bautista. Arnold’s was transformed into a Mexican cantina for the movie. Arnold’s can also be seen in the 2019 Willis movie, 10 Minutes Gone, as well as Shirley (2024), starring Regina King and Terrence Howard, and The Alto Knights (2025), starring Robert De Niro in two roles as warring crime bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, in 1950s New York City.

Union Terminal

1301 Western Ave., West End

Superman: While it’s always been a star in our eyes, Cincinnati’s train-station-turned-museum made its debut on the silver screen this past year in the newest Superman movie, starring David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan. Union Terminal fittingly served as the Hall of Justice — a long time coming considering it was the inspiration for the Super Friends’ headquarters. After ABC acquired the rights to DC Comics characters in 1973, they partnered with Hanna-Barbera to adapt the Justice League comic books into a cartoon. Hanna-Barbera background supervisor Al Gmuer was then tasked with creating a “grand headquarters” for the Super Friends, which he then modeled after our landmark, later saying the task of drawing the building gave him nightmares.

Eden Park

950 Eden Park Drive, Walnut Hills

Carol: One of Cincinnati’s oldest parks, Eden Park was transformed into a festive Christmas tree farm for the 2015 movie Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. The “shop” in that scene is actually a park bathroom.

Krohn Conservatory

1501 Eden Park Drive, Walnut Hills

Airborne: Eden Park’s Krohn Conservatory was another filming location for Airborne. Mitchell runs into his love interest, Nikki, outside the greenhouse and they decide to go in. The couple strolls through the greenhouse, which is then followed by some pretty cool action shots of Mitchell skating his way along the conservatory’s plant-lined walkways.

Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza

35 W. Fifth St., Downtown

Carol, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Alto Knights: Cincinnati’s landmark Art Deco hotel, Netherland Plaza, has been seen in several films. The hotel first served as a stand-in for The Drake in Chicago in Carol, where Carol (Blanchett) and Therese (Mara) stay. The hotel’s Hall of Mirrors can also be seen in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and its lobby is in the 2025 Robert De Niro film, The Alto Knights.

MainStrasse Village

Covington

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile: Covington’s charming German-inspired MainStrasse Village can be seen in 2019’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, the Ted Bundy biopic starring Zac Efron as the notorious serial killer. The street was transformed to appear as Aspen, Colorado, in the ‘70s, complete with vintage cars. You can spot the Covington neighborhood during the scene where Bundy escapes from a courthouse.

Downtown Cincinnati library

800 Vine St., Downtown

The Public: Actor Emilio Estevez, who has never been shy about his love for the Queen City, chose Cincinnati Public Library’s main branch downtown for the setting of his 2018 film, The Public. The movie stars and is directed by Estevez and follows the story of a sit-in by a group of homeless people seeking shelter in a library from a bitter cold snap that devolves into a standoff between the group and police. The movie featured a star-packed cast that included Alec Baldwin, Michael Kenneth Williams, Christian Slater, Gabrielle Union, Jena Malone and Taylor Schilling.

Maury’s Tiny Cove

3908 Harrison Ave., Cheviot

Carol: This Cheviot steakhouse remains untouched by time and appears very much as it did when it first opened in 1949. This made Maury’s Tiny Cove a perfect addition to the ‘50s-set Carol. In the scene, Carol invites Therese to lunch to thank her for finding a pair of Carol’s misplaced gloves. At lunch, Carol and Therese share cigarettes, martinis and infatuated glances across the table as Carol tells Therese about her divorce and invites her to visit her in New Jersey.