LOS ANGELES: With the release of Tom Cruise-starring “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1” across Gulf cinemas on Thursday, the director and cast to shared more about the new film.
Some of the film’s scenes were shot in Abu Dhabi’s Liwa desert and the Midfield Terminal in the UAE capital’s airport — the cast and crew shot in the emirate for almost two weeks in 2021 with the support of the Abu Dhabi Film Commission and other local production partners, including twofour54 Abu Dhabi.
“We had shot in Abu Dhabi before. We had done our skydiving sequence in ‘Fallout.’ ‘Ghost Protocol’ had also been in the UAE. So, it was a familiar environment to us,” director Christopher McQuarrie told Arab News.
“I was running around in the baggage compartment of the new airport in Abu Dhabi, which was a vast network of conveyor belts and stairs. I've never had such respect for baggage handlers as I do now,” British actor Simon Pegg added.
At the film’s Abu Dhabi premiere in June, Cruise told Arab News “this is absolutely the biggest story that we’ve ever been able to tell.” And working with the star was an experience in and of itself, the director said in a separate junket interview.
“I'm always learning something from Tom or from working with Tom. If it's taught me anything (it) is you can always do more. You can always go beyond. There are absolutely no limits,” McQuarrie said.
As for the film, which sees Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his team seek to track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity, before it falls into the wrong hands, it is set to be an exciting watch, according to lead star Hayley Atwell.
“Invigorating, exciting, contagious … a deeply fulfilling honor and a huge ride, which I feel like the audiences can feel when they watch the movie. They can feel how exciting it was to make,” she said.
