“Inception” Set Tokyo @ Heliport ARK Hills

Today, I visited the ARK Hills Heliport in central Tokyo as a part of the Heli Japan conference this year. Rooftop Heliport of ARK MORI Hills is located in Akasaka, Tokyo. This rooftop was a set of the movie “Inception” by Christopher Nolan with Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe etc. A scene with Leo, Joseph and Ken which appears in the first third of the movie shows Leo and Joseph walk to the heli to do some business with Ken who is already in there. They fly off heading West over Tokyo central skyline.

Here you can see the video I took on the rooftop:

The movie’s first takes – at that time – under the working title “Oliver’s Arrow” were shot here at Tokyo in June 2009. The helicopter in the movie is a different Eurocopter EC135 and the elevator to the top was not there at the time of filming. Otherwise, it’s all the same. This is one of the few rooftop heliports in central Tokyo which is commercially used (most others are for emergency rescue only). The Mori Building City Air Services Co., Ltd. provides a shuttle service between Narita Intl. Airport and here with the EC135 for 37,500 Yen (450 $). It takes 30 Min. http://www.mcas.co.jp/

Here you can watch the trailer of this excellent movie:

Jerry Garrett collected some further information about this movie’s locations of this movie: “Inception Filming Locations

Please enjoy and watch the movie, if you haven’t done it yet :-)