For Fifty Shades Darker Charlie Tango takes flight from Portland, Oregon, flying Christian Grey and his co worker Ros back to Seattle, Washington. Along the way Christian decides to fly over Mount St. Helens for the beautiful views of the crater. The helicopter soon starts to lose engine power with black smoke billowing behind it. In the Fifty Shades Darker book Christian sets the helicopter down near Mount St. Helens and they walk to a nearby road where they are picked up by a trucker and driven back to Seattle. The movie version first shows the helicopter flying near Mount St. Helens, then we see Christian and Ros struggling as Charlie Tango skims over trees and water and starts to go down. The crash scene itself was filmed with a partial helicopter and lots of green screen surrounding it on a lot in Burnaby BC. The trailer for the movie shows the helicopter actually doing a very rough landing. For the actual movie it only shows them flying near Mt. St. Helens, then over a beautiful forested area and then the canyon with water below them. Next we see Christian Grey arriving back to Escala and his family.

Mount St. Helens is located just north of Portland, Oregon. The mountain is easily seen from the city and when the volcano became active it actually blew off the top and most of the northern side of the mountain. I was living in Portland at the time and it was quite a few days to remember with the daytime turning dark with ash falling over the city. The clean up was huge and lasted over several days as the ash kept falling. You can now visit Mount St. Helens up close on the north side at the Johnston Ridge Lookout Center. The views are spectacular.

It mentions in the the Fifty Shades Darker movie credits Coquihalla Canyon Park as one of its filming locations. When I started looking at images of the park I soon recognized it as used for the Charlie Tango flying scene. I am sure there is a lot of computer generated scenes with possibly this area used as the background. The park is located several miles northeast of Vancouver BC, near Hope BC. The park also includes several tunnels and hiking trails. This from their website:

In the early 1900s, the Canadian Pacific Railway decided a route was necessary to link the Kootenay Region with the BC coast by rail. The railway was built over three mountain ranges. In the Coquihalla Gorge – the river cut a 300 foot deep channel of solid granite. A straight line of tunnels were built through it which are known now as the Othello Tunnels. There are spectacular viewing opportunities available on the trail, through the tunnels and on the bridges. This park highlights the Kettle Valley Railway grade that passes through the canyon and 5 tunnels which were built in 1914.

These two beautiful scenic areas along with lots of movie magic helped to bring Charlie Tango back to the big screen for DARKER.

Mount St. Helens from Fifty Shades Darker movie:

Credit Fifty Shades Darker trailer.

You can see some of the behind the scenes filming with Charlie Tango here. 

Beautiful Mount St. Helens:

Views of Charlie Tango from Fifty Shades Darker:

Credit Fifty Shades Darker trailer.

Views of Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park:

Photo credits to their owners.