Caspian Mountains

The Caspian Mountains is a mountain system in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. The system is located in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

The location is noted for being the location of the Leonid Meteor; the “nest” of the Phantoms, that landed on Earth in 2031.

During the movie, Aki Ross, Dr. Sid and Gray Edwards must traverse the mountains’ crater in order to obtain the 8th spirit. However, the spirit is destroyed when Douglas Hein, from the Olympus space station, fires the Zeus Cannon at the meteor. Fortunately, the blast exposes the spirit of Gaia, unfortunately is also exposes the Leonid Meteor’s spirit; the Proto-Phantom. During the struggle between Gaia and the Proto-Phantom a new 8th spirit is created in Aki and Gray’s baby. With the Anti-Phantom Wave complete, and with Gray’s sacrifice, the Phantoms are destroyed and the captured spirits are released back to the planet.

Trivia

 * Square hired a photographer to fly around the Rocky Mountains in a helicopter, taking photographs to use as a reference for the Leonid Meteor sequence.
 * Artists developed a clay model to use as a 3-D reference when developing the crater on film.