A flat, man made port of gantry cranes, dry docks and rail spurs. One high bridge reaches it.
What Terminal Island looks like
Terminal Island is flat and entirely industrial. It is given over to container and bulk terminals for the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, along with canneries, shipyards and a Coast Guard station. Steel gantry cranes line the berths, loading and unloading ships stacked with containers in long straight rows.
Long straight roads run between the container yards and the rail spurs, with almost no traffic once a shoot is past the terminal gates. Four bridges reach the island. The green suspension towers of the cross to San Pedro in the west, and the cable stayed crosses to Long Beach in the east. The Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge and a rail only bridge beside it reach Wilmington to the north.
On the island's south side, dry docks and shipyard buildings stand behind chain link fencing, some disused and some now leased for rocket manufacturing. Wide gravel lots, cracked and empty, run between the buildings and the water.
The , closed since 2026, stands empty at the island's south end behind its own perimeter fence. Near the western shore, tanks and pipework fill the , industrial enough to double as a chemical facility.
Shot in Terminal Island
The Fast and the Furious staged its final street race on in 2001. Terminator 2 sent a helicopter down the in 1991, and Supergirl used the island's water reclamation plant as a chemical factory in 2015.
The Fast and the Furious, 2001
Terminal Way
The film's climactic street race was staged against a passing train on Terminal Way, a long straight road through the container yards. Similar dockside roads still run the length of the island's south side.
What Terminal Island can double for
Port Newark in Newark, New Jersey
Port Newark's own container terminal has gantry cranes and flat gravel yards built to the same scale as Terminal Island's, reached by causeways rather than city streets. Rail spurs thread between its container stacks the same way. The Bayonne Bridge and the Manhattan skyline sit in the distance on the east side, so cameras need to stay low and tight to avoid giving away the coast. Try searching container terminal gantry cranes now.
London Gateway Port in Thurrock, Essex, England
London Gateway Port's own gantry cranes and container stacks sit on flat reclaimed land in the same proportions as Terminal Island's, behind a similarly guarded perimeter. The Thames estuary marshland behind it reads flatter and greener than the Los Angeles hills across the water, so wide shots need care. Try searching flat container port cranes now.
Maasvlakte in Rotterdam, Netherlands
Maasvlakte's automated container terminals share the same scale of cranes and straight roads, though built on a far larger reclaimed peninsula than Terminal Island. Dutch signage and the North Sea wind farms on the horizon would need to stay out of frame. Try searching automated container terminal cranes now.
