Green Iceland Becomes a Biblical Landscape for Noah's Ark

On the southern coast, the small peninsula of Dyrhólaey serves as a natural monument adorned by lava and the forces of the North Atlantic with unique rock structures, making it the preferred nesting site for puffins and the territory for Noah to carry out his epic mission. Through that vast volcanic soil, adorned with shades of blue, black, and green, the feet of the chosen one and his family approach the door of the hole, a massive arch sculpted by the sea, traversed by boats when calm arrives. From there, the camera's gaze captures those stony giants emerging from the sea, envisioned by legends as trolls, the Reynisdrangar. The three pinnacles raise their solitude against the world's most beautiful and treacherous black sand beach, sheltered between walls of basalt columns, the backdrop guarding the back of Russell Crowe as he directs his eyes toward a still silent sky.

With the route oriented northward, the production sets up near the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik. The filming location uses the Fossvogur valley, with its unique inlet where tidal differences are drastic, especially valuable when the flooding has yet to come.

Director Darren Aronofsky wanted his Ark built according to the Bible: "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening of one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle, and upper decks" (Genesis 6:14-17). And so it was constructed, entirely, without computer effects. The flood scenes are filmed with the Ark built in the state of Washington, in the natural setting of Planting Fields Arboretum, a national park in the village of Upper Brookville, very close to Oyster Bay on Long Island. Fake rain bars pour down on four hundred extras who struggle to get inside the giant lifeboat, which constitutes the film's quintessential epic action.