“The Vanishing” Apartment Building
Lindsay
Today’s location is an oldie, but goodie. Waaaaaaaaaaay back in May 2010, the Grim Cheaper and I took a little pre-wedding stalking vacation to the Pacific Northwest to visit our good friends fellow stalker Kerry and her husband, Jim – and to see the grocery store where Michael Buble’s “Haven’t Met You Yet” music video was filmed, which I blogged about here. Before heading up there, Kerry suggested that I check out the 1993 thriller The Vanishing as she had tracked down all of its locales and thought I might be interested in stalking them. Well, I ended up watching the flick just a few days prior to our trip and absolutely loved it – and the uniquely tiered apartment building that appeared extensively throughout it. So Kerry took us right on over there to stalk the place during the second day of our vacay. And, let me tell you, the building is just as cool in person as it appeared to be onscreen. (Please excuse my appearance in the photograph above – the Seattle weather was not very kind to my naturally curly hair and I wound up having to either pull it back or hide it under a cap during most of our stay.)
In The Vanishing, the apartment building is where Jeff Harriman (Kiefer Sutherland) lives with his new girlfriend, Rita Baker (Nancy Travis), after suffering through the unsolved disappearance of his previous girlfriend, Diane Shaver (a pre-Speed Sandra Bullock), three years prior. The building pops up countless times in the movie.
As you can see below, it looks pretty much EXACTLY the same today as it did nineteen years ago when The Vanishing was filmed. Even the paint color is still the same (at least it was in May 2010 when I stalked the place). LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!
In The Vanishing, Jeff and Rita lived in Apartment #20, which is the real life address number of the unit where filming took place, as well. So incredibly cool!
While watching The Vanishing, I had been convinced that the view from the apartment building was fake as it seemed just a bit too spectacular. So I was floored when it turned out to be the building’s actual view! Jaw-dropping!
As luck would have it, while we were stalking the place we happened to meet one of the building’s super-nice residents who invited us to step onto the property to get a closer look. And while I was seriously tempted to pose for a picture next to Jeff and Rita’s front door, I restrained myself as I was afraid that might be overstaying my welcome just a bit.
I am fairly certain that the real life interior of Apartment #20 was also used in the filming, although I could not find interior pictures of any of the units with which to verify that hunch.
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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Kerry for telling me about this location!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Vanishing apartment building is located at 200 Aloha Street in Seattle. In the movie, Jeff and Rita lived in Apartment #20.