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The 1982 movie Q: The Winged Serpent ends (just like Godzilla (1998)) with a scene revealing that even though the monster's egg in the Chrysler Building was destroyed, the monster has left another egg in a different building... and it's starting to hatch!

What building was depicted in these aerial shots? I also wonder how the roof damage was done — was this a real helicopter shot of pre-existing damage to some random New York building? or a model of some real building that in real life was undamaged? or a model of a completely fictitious building?

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I wondered if it could be St Joseph's School for the Deaf, in the Bronx, which has similar red-brick towers; but the surrounding streets don't really seem right; surely it ought to be somewhere in Manhattan...

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    While researching to ask this question, I've pretty much concluded that the building matches the then-defunct 455 Central Park West and it would have been a real aerial shot; but I'm hoping someone not-me will do more research and turn that into a really good and entertaining answer. :)
    – Quuxplusone
    Jun 8, 2022 at 22:38

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The New York Cancer Hospital

The building is the New York Cancer Hospital at 455 Central Park West. It was built in the 1880s to treat cancer patients. Later it became a nursing home and then fell into serious decline in the 1970s. From 2001-2005 the building was restored and is now a condominium.

When the film was shot in the early 1980s, it was an historic landmark but had also fallen badly into disrepair and was not occupied. That is real roof damage you see in the movie. The filmmakers seem to have worked the building's condition into the plot of the film.

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  • Yup. The round turrets were used to give the hospital as few interior corners as possible, making it easier to keep clean (dust and dirt in corners being harder to get at than dust and dirt along a curved wall).
    – Michael Stern
    Jun 9, 2022 at 10:41

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