 Mystery Train was filmed in Memphis in the summer of 1988 . After arriving in the city during a snowstorm to scout for shooting locations , Jarmusch drove around without direction before coming to the intersection of a disused train station , the Arcade Luncheonette diner , and the dilapidated Arcade Hotel that would become the film 's core setting . He would later recount the experience in a March 1990 interview in Spin : " Man , ... this crossroad is filled with so many ghosts . You know Robert Johnson walked down that street , you know Muddy Waters was in that train station . " The locale of the intersection was one of the film 's primary formal elements ; the effect of Jarmusch returning to the setting with different characters under different circumstances was one of variations on a theme . 
