2 Hearts Filming Locations

2 Hearts looks, at first, like two separate romances unfolding at different points in time. College freshman Chris meets Sam and begins imagining a future he had not expected, while years earlier, Jorge, a Cuban exile living with a serious lung condition, falls for flight attendant Leslie. Lance Hool’s romantic drama gradually reveals why those lives belong in the same story, turning an apparent coincidence into an account of organ donation, loss and the unexpected ways one person’s life can alter another’s.

The film is inspired by the real experiences of Christopher Gregory and Jorge Bacardi. Gregory died at 19 following a brain aneurysm, and his decision to become an organ donor ultimately benefited several recipients, including Bacardi, who received his lungs. The story was adapted from All My Tomorrows: A Story of Tragedy, Transplant and Hope, written by Christopher’s father, Eric Gregory.

Where was 2 Hearts Filmed?

To give its two romances noticeably different worlds, 2 Hearts divided production between British Columbia, Canada, and Oahu, Hawaii. Vancouver and its surrounding communities handled the bulk of principal photography before the company moved across the Pacific for the final week of shooting.

Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver was the main production base for 2 Hearts. Silver Lion Films announced on July 25, 2018, that the British Columbia portion had been completed and that cast and crew were heading to Honolulu for the final phase of principal photography. Production records place the overall shoot in the summer of 2018.

British Columbia is principally associated with Chris and Sam’s younger, college-centered story. Rather than creating an American university entirely on a soundstage, the filmmakers took advantage of Vancouver’s campuses and residential neighborhoods.

That decision gives this half of the movie a different texture from Jorge and Leslie’s more sun-soaked story. Chris’s world is filled with classrooms, paths, apartments and the everyday spaces of a student still figuring out what adulthood might look like.

Green College at UBC

One of the most identifiable Canadian locations is Green College at the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus. Location reporting places filming at the residential graduate college, which sits on the northern edge of UBC overlooking Burrard Inlet.

UBC is hardly a stranger to cameras. The university says its Vancouver campus has regularly doubled for places elsewhere because it offers an unusually broad mixture of older architecture, modern buildings, forests, waterfront areas and academic spaces within a relatively compact area.

For 2 Hearts, that versatility made the campus a natural fit for Chris’s college life without forcing the production to construct an elaborate fictional university.

Green College itself is a functioning UBC residential college rather than a purpose-built movie set. Its established academic surroundings help the early part of Chris and Sam’s relationship feel pleasantly ordinary, which becomes increasingly important once the audience understands where their story is heading.

Lynnmour North, North Vancouver

The British Columbia shoot also extended across Burrard Inlet to Lynnmour North in North Vancouver. Multiple location records identify the neighborhood among the movie’s Vancouver-area shooting sites.

Lynnmour sits close to the forested North Shore while remaining connected to the urban Vancouver area. That mixture of residential development and greenery gives filmmakers considerable flexibility without the visual density of downtown Vancouver.

Unlike UBC, however, the production has not publicly documented individual Lynnmour addresses or provided a scene-by-scene guide to what was filmed there. It is therefore safer to credit the neighborhood generally rather than identify an unverified house or building as a specific character’s residence.

Hawaii Changes the Mood

Once Vancouver photography was finished, 2 Hearts moved to Oahu for its final week. This part of the production is unusually well documented because a SAG-AFTRA casting notice preserved the actual Hawaii shooting schedule.

The union notice listed filming on July 25 at Kualoa in Kaneohe, July 26 in Kapolei, July 27 at Ko Olina in Kapolei, and July 31 at the Kahala Hotel. The Hawaii unit sought more than 100 local background performers for those dates.

That schedule provides a firmer location trail than many retrospective lists of the movie’s filming sites.

Kualoa and Kaneohe

The first Hawaiian production day was scheduled for Kualoa, Kaneohe, on Oahu’s windward side. Contemporary local coverage specifically reported 2 Hearts filming at Kualoa Ranch’s Secret Island, supporting the union record.

Kualoa’s combination of mountains, dense tropical vegetation and protected waterfront creates an entirely different visual language from Vancouver. The location has long been attractive to filmmakers because a single property can provide beaches, valleys and dramatic mountain scenery without requiring a company to move across the island.

For 2 Hearts, however, the scenery is not being used for dinosaurs or action spectacle. It gives Jorge and Leslie’s story the sense of openness and warmth that distinguishes their relationship from Chris’s campus life.

Kapolei and Ko Olina

Filming moved west to Kapolei on July 26, followed by Ko Olina on July 27.

Ko Olina is the resort district on Oahu’s leeward coast, known for its sheltered lagoons, marina and waterfront properties. Later location accounts identify Ko Olina Marina among the sites used for the film.

These locations are particularly well suited to Jorge and Leslie. Their romance is visually associated with travel, sunshine and the kind of life Jorge is uncertain he will live long enough to enjoy. The Hawaiian setting therefore does more than make the movie prettier. It emphasizes what is at stake for a character who has spent much of his life being reminded that his health could determine how much time he has left.

The Kahala Hotel

Perhaps the most specific confirmed Hawaiian location is The Kahala Hotel & Resort in Honolulu. SAG-AFTRA’s production notice scheduled filming there for July 31, the last Hawaii date listed for background performers.

Photographs taken during the final days of production also show Radha Mitchell and Adan Canto filming beach material in Honolulu, further confirming that the closing stage of photography took place along Oahu’s shoreline.

Some earlier location guides also list Waikiki among the movie’s sites. The better-documented contemporary records, however, specifically name the Kahala Hotel, Kualoa, Kapolei and Ko Olina. Silver Lion Films likewise described Honolulu as the destination for the final week.

When Was 2 Hearts Filmed?

Principal photography took place during summer 2018. IMDb records the production beginning on June 14, while Silver Lion Films confirmed that the Vancouver unit had finished by July 25. Hawaii then occupied the final week, with the SAG-AFTRA schedule extending through July 31.

That makes the geography of 2 Hearts unusually easy to read. Vancouver provides the grounded beginning, with UBC and North Vancouver shaping Chris and Sam’s youthful world. Hawaii opens the movie outward through Kualoa, Kapolei, Ko Olina and the Kahala coastline.

The contrast works because the film is ultimately about two lives that seem to be moving through completely separate places and times. Only later do those landscapes, like the characters themselves, become parts of the same story.