When Zack Snyder set out to make "Man of Steel" he wanted to make it as realistic as possible.
To accomplish that, Snyder set out to use practical locations for filming and also used a handheld camera to deliver a "gritty, embedded journalistic documentary style."
While a lot of the film takes place in Clark Kent's hometown of Smallville, Kansas; however, no filming occurred in America's heartland.
Rather, most of the production took place in Illinois.
If you haven't seen the film, there are some mini spoilers.
Early film sequences were filmed on Vancouver Island.
(Source: "Man of Steel" production notes)
Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) works on a real crab boat, the Debbie Sue.
(Source: "Man of Steel" production notes)
You can see the boat in the background of the film when Lois Lane (Amy Adams) goes on the hunt for Clark Kent.
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