Where Was the ‘Tetris’ Movie Filmed? Discover the Filming Locations for the Taron Egerton Movie

The Tetris movie, which is now streaming on Apple TV+, is not so much a movie about video games as it is a movie about the Cold War. It’s a classic tale of communism vs. capitalism, with those plucky, wide-eyed capitalists coming out on top. This is an American film, after all.

Taron Egerton stars as Henk Rogers, the enterprising young businessman who sees the money-making potential of a block-building computer game he encounters at a tech fair. The only problem? The game was designed by a Russian programmer, and it’s the ’80s. Which means the game is under the control of the Soviet Union.

The Tetris movie went into production in late 20202 and early 2021. It was before Russia invaded Ukraine, but the country was still in a tense political situation with the U.S. Plus, it was still the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with strict filming protocols in place, making it impossible for Tetris to film its scenes set in Moscow in the actual city. So where did Tetris film instead? Read on to learn about the Tetris filming location.

Where was the Tetris movie filmed?

Because the Tetris movie was not able to film on location in Russia, instead the movie was filmed in Scotland, in the areas around Glasgow and Aberdeen. Aberdeen, Scotland also happens to be the home city of director Jon S. Baird. “It’s where I was born and brought up,” the director said in an interview for the Tetris press notes. “They don’t do big movies up there and I always wanted to take something back here someday. We found two or three of our best locations in Aberdeen.” That includes the University of Aberdeen’s Zoology Building, which was used as the headquarters for the Russian company, ELORG. Exteriors shots in Aberdeen included scenes on Tillydrone Avenue, Seamount Court, and Gerrard Street.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh’s West Parliament Square was used for the scenes featuring the Kremlin. In an interview for the movie’s production notes, producer Gillian Berrie noted that Scotland architecture was a perfect stand-in for Moscow buildings, because Russian empress Catherine The Great was such a fan of Scottish architecture that she shipped over Scottish architects to design and construct some of the most seminal buildings in Moscow. “Moscow is littered with architecture designed by Scots,” she said. And Scotland proved to be a suitable stand-in not just for Russia, but in Japan, America, and England, too.

So there you have it! Even though Tetris didn’t journey to Russia, it still made it work with a passable Russian substitute.