‘One Battle After Another’ location scout reveals the surprising places across Sacramento used in the movie.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento may be California’s capital city, but in the blockbuster film One Battle After Another, many viewers might not recognize it.

The movie, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, uses locations across the city that can pass for almost anywhere in America.

“There’s so many places that you wouldn’t guess were in Sacramento,” said local location scout Tyler Semons. “They focused on places that really could be anywhere and kind of illustrate just that fact that Sacramento can be portrayed as Anytown, USA.”

Semons is one of the more experienced location scouts in the Sacramento region and has worked on several notable productions filmed in the area, including the Academy Award-winning Lady Bird and the independent film Sacramento. Most recently, he helped guide crews working on One Battle After Another.

When Anderson first came to Sacramento to scout locations, Semons said the director was drawn to the city’s architecture.

“I know that he was brought, initially drawn here for the brutalist architecture that he thought would match certain scenes,” Semons said. “And for whatever reason, when they came here to scout initially, he found all of these other places that he felt really fit the look that he was going for.”

The film was shot at more than a dozen locations across Sacramento. One of the most notable is the Sacramento County Courthouse (Gordon D. Schaber Courthouse), whose stark design helped inspire Anderson’s visit.

“This building specifically is one of the things that brought Paul Thomas Anderson to this area,” Semons said. “This is a brutalist architectural style where you see the exposed concrete, very broad, grandiose looking.”

The film follows Bob Ferguson, a former radical played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is in hiding while protecting his daughter, Willa. His nemesis, Col. Lockjaw — played by Sean Penn — is trying to capture them in an action-filled chase.

Some of the film’s biggest action scenes were shot on Sacramento streets.

“The massive car chase that took place in Sacramento where we had dozens and dozens of stunt drivers, crashes,” Semons said. “There was a huge helicopter watching the whole thing.”

The action moves throughout the city — over the Tower Bridge, through city streets and even inside unexpected places like a boarded-up downtown bank used for a dramatic explosion scene.

“They took out all the plywood that was here and had it especially fitted with the special type of glass and then filled it with air cannons and a bunch of dust and stuff so that when the time came and boom, huge explosion, all the windows shattered out,” Semons said.

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Another filming site sits in East Sacramento, in the Fab 40s neighborhood — just a few blocks from the house made famous in Lady Bird. One home there also carries its own political history.

“We’re in the Fab 40s that actually the house that Ronald Reagan lived in while he was governor of California,” Semons said. “So this location was chosen as the entrance to almost a secret lair for kind of like the bad guy organization of the movie.”

Filming in Sacramento took several weeks, and Semons said some of the actors spent their downtime exploring the city — sometimes without being recognized.

“So whenever he would go out to any of our local restaurants, he would wear a full disguise, including wig and facial hair and all that,” Semons said of DiCaprio. “So you might have seen Leo while you’re out, but you probably didn’t know it.”

Sacramento may be California’s capital city, but Semons said working in the region could make it an appealing place for more productions in the future.

“Working in Sacramento is 100 times simpler, more streamlined,” Semons said. “You know, where we can just call up the film commissioner with a quick question or see if she might be able to help us — you know, problem solved.”

MORE MOVIE FUN ON THE BACKROADS: When Hollywood Came to Baker County: The Clint Eastwood Movie That Built a City.