(Above) On the 18th floor of Marina City’s west tower parking ramp, 183 feet above the Chicago River and Dearborn Street Bridge, two actors perform a scene for an episode of “Chicago P.D.” that aired on October 21. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

SAG-AFTRA card elusive, but Marina City helps ‘Chicago P.D.’ get its perp

By Steven Dahlman

Day of filming at Marina City on August 31 is spun into a three-and-a-half minute action-packed scene.

26-Oct-15 – “Where you want to meet? Ok, yeah, I know where that is.”

And so begins a three-and-a-half minute scene filmed at Marina City for an episode of Chicago P.D. that aired last Wednesday.

The scene on the top two floors of Marina City’s west tower parking ramp packed in smoke effects, a police sniper, fights, fake $100 bills raining on Dearborn Street, and a showdown with Sergeant Hank Voight himself at least 183 feet above the Chicago River.

The scene was filmed on August 31. Television crews from Wolf Films and NBCUniversal spent the day at Marina City, filming in both towers.

(Left) Jesse Lee Soffer, an actor playing Chicago police officer Jay Halstead, looks out from an area where a smoke bomb has exploded.

In the episode, “Debts of the Past,” a car bomber, James Beckett, played by a bearded Mark Allan Stewart, is lured to the parking ramp by a former partner – Nathan Whitcomb, played by actor Shane Woodson – who claims he has money to give him. The money is fake and the police are watching Whitcomb from both towers, losing sight of him for a short time when a smoke bomb detonates.

Sergeant Voight (Jason Beghe) runs through the smoke, gets his hands on Beckett, throws him to the edge of the ramp, and threatens to shoot him. He is talked down by Detective Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas) and Beckett is taken into custody.

Non-toxic special effects smoke rolled from the west tower during filming, captured by cameras on Dearborn Street, Wacker Drive, and by a hotel guest at Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront. Before he left his hotel room for a few hours, Paul Donovan set up a video camera to capture the sunset over the Chicago River. He did not know until he got back and looked through the video that he had recorded one of the smoke effects.

The drama about uniformed and undercover Chicago Police Department officers, now in its third season, airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Central Time on WMAQ-TV.

(Right) A police sniper watches from a hidden position in the east tower ramp.

(Left) A camera mounted on a crane, anchored to the ramp at right, achieves this otherwise impossible shot from a point in space between Marina City’s east and west towers.

(Right) Armed and angry, Voight approaches Beckett at the edge of the west tower ramp.

(Left) Beckett is in a tight spot here, his back to a 183-foot drop and a gun to his head.

(Right) Another angle. The hand at lower right is portrayed as Detective Olinksy’s.

(Left) What that shot looked like from the ground. The camera above is mounted on a crane that could extend far over the edge of the ramp. Photo by Steven Dahlman.

• Watch the episode on NBC website or HULU
• More photos: Marina City helps ‘Chicago P.D.’ be persuasive