Today marks the 20th anniversary for the release of Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt. You would think with a movie mostly shot in my city, I would have all of these locations covered, but I wasn’t even close. I had intentionally visited a few of the locations over ten years ago, but finally got around going to more locations. I remember when they were shooting and would often come across them while going to lunch. I remember one time seeing the RV parked by a local restaurant and assumed it was the makeup trailer, but had no idea it was Jack Nicholson’s vehicle in the movie.
Below are a lot of the locations, but I have several more to still visit in the near future…
The movie starts with some establishing shots, this one is near South 16th and Pierce Streets in Omaha.
Warren Schmidt’s last day at work was at the Woodmen building, located at 1700 Farnam Street in Omaha.
Later in the movie, Warren exits the building and sees his files in the trash.
The retirement dinner takes place at Johnny’s Cafe, located at 4702 South 27th Street in Omaha.
This room was used for the banquet and thankfully hasn’t changed.
Warren walks down the hall to the bar…
Warren’s house is located at 5402 Izard Street in Omaha. I lived on Izard Street about a mile from this house in my early twenties!
They recreated the house on a set, but did shoot some scenes inside the house. I was lucky to have a friend of the owner who let me visit one day for pictures.
The kitchen…. (The second picture is a photograph the owner currently has in the room of the dressed set.)
The dining room…
The next shots are actually from the set, but wanted to show how they recreated it from the original location.
The side porch was converted into Warren’s home office in the film.
A few props from the film I own include a couple of paintings from their living room and a couple thimbles from his wife’s collection. I also have a trenchcoat from the film, but likely not the hero one worn by Jack Nicholson.
This K-mart was located at 5000 L Street in Omaha, but is now a self-store company.
Warren drives to the Dairy Queen located at 5071 S 136th Street in Omaha.
This post office is located nearby at 5346 S 136th Street.
And down the way was the then Baker’s Supermarket located at 5230 S 136th Street.
The cemetery is located at 5201 Center Street in Omaha.
Here they are at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Gate 10 is now Gate A9.
After twenty years, I finally decided to to grab pictures of my home airport! This is the escalator to the south terminal gates.
This is across from the south terminals with the original garage on the left.
This was a bitter cold day on the rooftop of the garage, so my pictures aren’t the best, but still looks the same all these years later.
This shopping plaza is located at 4601 South 50th Street in Omaha. This is the spot where I saw the RV parked as they were preparing to shoot the scene.
Warren attempts to visit his childhood home, which is now a Tires Plus, located at 2103 W Broadway in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Warren visits his college at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. This same spot was used in Terms of Endearment. He then visits his fraternity located at 1601 R Street in Lincoln
Warren makes a phone call here at 502 Highway 6 (or Senator Carl T. Curtis Drive) in Minden, Nebraska.
Roberta’s (Kathy Bates) house is located at 3215 Poppleton Avenue in Omaha.
The church exterior was shot at 950 28th Street in Boulder, Colorado.
However the church interiors were shot in Omaha at 5015 South 80th Street at the Messiah Lutheran Church. They were gracious enough to let me take pictures and share some great stories of filming.
On the way home Warren visits the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, located at 3060 East 1st Street in Kearney, Nebraska.
I just visited this location for the first time and not much has changed in twenty years.
This sign has been relocated inside, the second picture shows where it was originally located.
I picked a similar overcast and blustery day for my shots.
Always nice to see a location acknowledge the film.
In this deleted scene, Warren visits Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska. This is just down the street from the earlier phone booth scene.
This was shot on I-480 headed north towards downtown Omaha near Arbor Street.
On a recent trip even farther out in Western Nebraska I hit up a couple more locations. This is Hokes Cafe is at 302 East 1st Street in Ogallala.
The Buffalo Bill Museum is at 2921 Scouts Rest Ranch Road in North Platte.
The Peking Restaurant is at 112 E A Street in Ogallala.
Not very good quality but this is video my dad shot of Jack Nicholson and Kathy Bates shooting their driving scenes on Center Street near 132nd Street in Omaha.
Dermot Mulroney, Howard Hesseman, and director Alexander Payne.
I have several more locations to visit and will update the page soon!