The idea for the film may have originated from the story of
Mehran Karimi Nasseri, also known as Sir Alfred, an
Iranian
refugee who lived in Terminal One of the
Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris from 1988 until 2006. In September 2003,
The New York Times noted that
Steven Spielberg bought the rights to Nasseri's life story as the basis for the film; and in September 2004
The Guardian noted Nasseri received thousands of dollars from the filmmakers. However, none of the studio's publicity materials mention Nasseri's story as an inspiration for the film, and the storyline bears no resemblance to Nasseri's experiences. The 1993 French film
Lost in Transit was already based on the same story. In deciding to make the film, Spielberg stated that after directing
Catch Me If You Can, "I wanted to do another movie that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world. ... This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times." Spielberg traveled around the world to find an actual airport that would let him film for the length of the production but could not find one. The
Terminal set was built in a massive hangar at the
LA/Palmdale Regional Airport. The hangar, part of the
U.S. Air Force Plant 42 complex, was used to build the
Rockwell International B-1B bomber. The set was built to full earthquake construction codes and was based on
Düsseldorf Airport. The shape of both the actual terminal and the set viewed sideways is a cross-section of an aircraft wing. Because of this design, the film was one of the first to use the
Spidercam. The camera, most often used for televised sports, allowed Spielberg the ability to create sweeping shots across the set. The design of the set for
The Terminal, as noted by
Roger Ebert in his reviews and attested by Spielberg himself in a feature by
Empire magazine, was greatly inspired by
Jacques Tati's classic film
PlayTime. Hanks also had some help from a Bulgarian translator.
Krakozhia Krakozhia (
Кракожия) is a fictional country, created for the film, that closely resembles a former
Soviet Republic or an
Eastern Bloc state. The exact location of Krakozhia is kept intentionally vague in the film. However, in one scene, a map of Krakozhia is briefly displayed on one of the airport's television screens during a news report on the ongoing conflict. Its borders are those of present-day
North Macedonia (known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia at the time of the film's production). However, in another scene, Viktor shows his driver's license, which is a
Belarusian license issued to a woman bearing an
Uzbek name.
John Williams, the film's composer, also wrote a national anthem for Krakozhia. Hanks' character speaks mostly
Bulgarian as his native Krakozhian. However, in one scene, in which he helps a Russian-speaking passenger with a customs-related issue, he speaks a
constructed Slavic language resembling Bulgarian and Russian. When Viktor buys a guide book of New York both in English and in his mother tongue to compare the two versions and improve his English, the book he studies is written in Russian. The film presents a reasonably accurate picture of the process of naturalistic
second-language acquisition, according to linguist
Martha Young-Scholten. == Soundtrack ==