Treasure trove of San Francisco movie locations revealed

Outer Sunset resident Saam Barrager, 48, has lived in San Francisco since 2005 and moonlights as a freelance mobile developer, working primarily on pet projects like a Hungry Hungry Hippos-inspired video game called Finger Finger Fishes, which incorporates art his four children made. 

Barrager has long wanted to create an app that shows specialty SF maps of architectural sites or earthquake damage, and the first step is the aptly titled San Francisco Film Locations app. Using publicly available data from the city of San Francisco, Barrager spent two months designing a simple iPhone app that showcases filming locations of everything from “Mrs. Doubtfire” to “The Matrix Resurrections.” He identified the areas between Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf as being the most popular spots for filmmakers.

“There’s 2,300 film locations. That’s a lot of film locations! It ranges from Charlie Chaplin to tons of Robin Williams movies,” Barrager told SFGATE.

Barrager’s favorite San Francisco film is “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” a campy 1978 science-fiction remake starring Donald Sutherland and a youthful Jeff Goldblum. There are 16 locations from the movie mapped in the app, ranging from Alamo Square Park to City Hall to Bimbo’s 365 Club. One of the reasons Barrager names it his favorite is that, unlike some iconic chase scenes that don’t follow a cogent path through the city, “Invasion” depicts it with a sense of geographical realism.

“I love the ‘Bullitt’ scene. Everybody loves the ‘Bullitt’ scene. But if you punch that into the app, it’s just all over the place in San Francisco,” Barrager said. “When I’m driving around the city, I will see little areas that 2 seconds of ‘Bullitt’ were filmed there.” 

He also cites two sci-fi shows as favorites: “Devs,” a Nick Offerman tech industry drama that filmed in 32 locations (Bernal Heights Park, Coit Tower and plenty of neighborhood streets), and “The OA,” a cult psychological thriller on Netflix starring Brit Marling (21 locations, including the Fairmont, the War Memorial Opera House and Pier 43).

The free app is fairly no-frills but has some fun search features, allowing users to display map pins by neighborhood, release date, title, director or actor. It doesn’t have any bells and whistles like movie screencaps or trivia, but for a pet project that’s so far only been shared with friends, it’s a fairly polished interface. As for the future of the app, Barrager is content with the current version. When asked if he planned any updates, he had a simple answer.