Anxiety

The massive rock mound with the long staircase that Renee climbs in the film is on the former site of the Weldon Spring Ordnance Works, established 1941 by the U.S. government to manufacture TNT and DNT used by the U.S. military in World War II. The Ordinance Works production resulted in toxic waste that contaminated the area. At this same location, in 1956, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission began uranium-processing operations, producing substantial toxic waste which was stored (sloppily) in an on-site quarry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated clean-up and decontamination of the area in 1987. These activities concluded in 2001 with completion of the site's waste disposal cell - the 41-acre engineered structure which now contains all of the site's toxic waste. This structure is the rock mound that the Anxiety filmmakers shot on and atop of - with 1.48 million cubic yards of toxic waste beneath their feet.