15 More Things You Didn’t Know About Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)

10. Kirk’s Pad Is In “The Towering Inferno”

Search For Spock
Paramount

Although we never see the building housing Admiral Kirk’s apartment in either The Wrath of Khan or The Search For Spock, we can pretty much tell you his street address: the 135th floor of the Glass Tower at about 333 Market Street in San Francisco.

How do we know?

Because the cyclorama backdrop seen outside the windows was repurposed from the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno, where it was used to represent views from the top floors of the titular torched tower.

In that film the Tower’s address is not clearly established, and, depending on the shot, it appears it could be anywhere between 301 to 655 Market Street. But from the landmarks seen on that reused backdrop outside Kirk’s windows, and the various matte paintings and down-shots in the Inferno film, you can triangulate the location as near the foot of Market Street and the waterfront, just south of One Maritime Plaza.

Whatever the exact street address let’s hope Kirk has fire insurance, especially with that open fireplace. (Star Trek III had a notable soundstage fire that threatened some of the production’s sets.)

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Maurice is one of the founders of FACT TREK (www.facttrek.com), a project dedicated to untangling 50+ years of mythology about the original Star Trek and its place in TV history. He's also a screenwriter, writer, and videogame industry vet with scars to show for it. In that latter capacity he game designer/writer on the Sega Genesis/SNES "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — Crossroads of Time" game, as well as Dreamcast "Ecco the Dolphin, Defender of the Future" where Tom Baker performed words he wrote.