Abu Dhabi will host the Middle East premiere of Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One on June 26, with star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie walking the red carpet.
Securing the prestigious event marks a coup for the Emirate in the face of Saudi Arabia’s film and TV clout in the region and continues The Mission Impossible franchise’s long relationship with the United Arab Emirates.
The seventh instalment was shot in Abu Dhabi’s Liwa desert as well as its new Midfield Terminal airport building, with the support of the Abu Dhabi Film Commission (ADFC).
Abu Dhabi entities twofour54 Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Airports (AD Airports) and Etihad Airways, the film’s official airline partner, collaborated on the shoots, which involved the construction of an Arabian village in the desert as well as multiple sets at the airport terminal.
It is the second time the Mission Impossible franchise has filmed in Abu Dhabi. A key HALO (high-altitude, low-open) skydive in the 2018 sixth instalment, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, was shot in the emirate with the support of ADFC, twofour54 and the UAE military.
Previously, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol filmed a daring high-altitude, climbing stunt at the top of the Burj Khalifa building in the neighboring emirate of Dubai in 2011.
Cruise and McQuarrie will be accompanied by supporting cast members Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff and Simon Pegg at the June 26 event, unfolding against the backdrop of Abu Dhabi’s swanky Emirate Palace hotel.
“Hosting the premiere of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is an honor for Abu Dhabi and is also a reflection of the position the emirate holds as one of MENA’s top film and TV locations,” said Khalfan Al Mazrouei, Acting Director General of Creative Media Authority.
“We are proud to have worked with such a genre-defining franchise once again and it demonstrates how Abu Dhabi has everything filmmakers need to successfully complete such large, complex productions.”
The Abu Dhabi shoots for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One took place in 2021 over 15 days at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The set was kept virus-free thanks to a protocol devised by the ADFC, dividing the cast and crew into five separate bubble zones.
As well as the sets in Liwa and at the Midfield Terminal, the production team also shot on the roof of the 7.9 million square feet (742,000sqm) airport building, which is billed as the longest single standing arch in the world at 180m.
The shoot also benefitted from ADFC’s 30% cashback rebate and was supported by numerous other Abu Dhabi-based companies, specialist suppliers, 125 local freelance crew and 250 local extras.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is among the 140 major productions to have shot in Abu Dhabi in the past 10 years, which also include Dune and Dune 2, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 6 Underground and Furious 7, as well as Bollywood hits such as Vikram Vedha, Tiger Zinda Hai and Bharat.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One launches theatrically in the U.S. on July 12, ahead of its international roll-out.