CREDITS S.W.A.T., 2003 dir: Clark Johnson Samuel L Jackson Colin Farrell Michelle Rodriguez LL Cool J Jeremy Renner Olivier Martinez

“You know what they say, you're either S.W.A.T. or you're not. ”

Actions fortunately speak louder than the rather cheesy words in this energetic actioner, which opens with a bank raid going horribly wrong for SWATsters Brian Gamble (Jeremy Renner) and Jim Street (Colin Farrell).

The ‘Valley Trust Bank’, supposedly in the ‘San Fernando Valley’, was in Lincoln Heights, northeast of downtown LA, where the ‘bank’ building, which was due for demolition, stood on Workman Street at North Broadway.

S.W.A.T. location: the 'Valley Trust Bank': Workman Street, Lincoln Heights

After being disciplined, Gamble walks, but Street stays on, demoted to the Armory in the Parker Center (the former Police Administration Building) to the southwest of LA City Hall at 150 North Los Angeles Street. He energetically works out his frustrations at Venice Beach.

S.W.A.T. location: the veggie cop: Arcade Building, South Broadway, downtown LA

Enter veteran Hondo (Samuel L Jackson), recruiting a crack S.W.A.T. team, and two downtown locations familiar to Colin Farrell: he drives Hondo along West Fifth Street, past the site of Phone Booth (I know it was set in New York, but it was filmed in LA) – and past the Alexandria Hotel from Se7en) – to interview the veggie cop in front of the Arcade Building, 542 South Broadway, between Fifth and Sixth Streets, which was Matt Murdock’s apartment in Daredevil.

S.W.A.T. location: the simulated hijack: Mojave Airport and Spaceport. Photograph: Mojave Airport and Spaceport

With the team assembled, there’s a training raid, to Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic, in front of the Cocoanut Grove entrance to the, now-demolished, Ambassador Hotel, 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, and a brief chill-out in the hotel’s empty pool, before the simulated hijacking on the plane. The ’plane interiors were filmed at the airline graveyard at Lancaster in the Mojave Desert, but the exercise itself was filmed at the Mojave Airport and Spaceport. The airport has been seen in many other productions including Speed, Die Hard II and Flags of Our Fathers.

S.W.A.T. location: Alex Montel sees off a rival: Figaro Cafe, North Vermont Avenue, Los Feliz

Lethal kingpin Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez) dispatches a rival in the Figaro Cafe, 1804 North Vermont Avenue at Melbourne Avenue in Los Feliz.

Montel is pulled over by the cops, for having a dodgy rear light, on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, outside the Key Club, 9029 Sunset Boulevard.

S.W.A.T. location: Alex Montel pulled over by the cops: Sunset Boulevard, outside the Key Club

The attempt to spring him from the police bus is on Wilcox Street at Hollywood Boulevard, across from Thomas Suriya’s famous ‘You Are A Star’ mural (which you can glimpse in the background). Montel is pinned to the ground by Jim Street on the ‘Walk of Fame’ star of Alex Trebek (the gameshow host of Jeopardy!), outside Roma Lingerie Clubwear, 6501 Hollywood Boulevard.

S.W.A.T. location: the attempt to spring Montel from the coach: Wilcox Street at Hollywood Boulevard

With a $100 million reward on offer, there’s an incendiary attempt to free Montel from the police convoy on Sixth Street at South Main Street, outside Cole’s Restaurant (housed in the Pacific Electric Building used in Forrest Gump, L.A. Confidential, Se7en, Face/Off and Spider-Man)

S.W.A.T. location: the attempt to free Montel: Sixth Street, downtown LA

“Did they build a new airport downtown?” is the question, as a hijacked Lear jet prepares for landing. It’s set down on the 3,446-foot, art deco Sixth Street Bridge over the concrete bed of the Los Angeles River toward Boyle Heights, southeast of downtown LA, for the movie’s spectacular climax, with Street and Gamble slugging it out on the railway lines below.