It is with no doubt that, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has increasingly become a Middle East hub that plays a starring role in several epic movies in the recent past. Many of those movies target the nation’s skylines, impressive chateaus, and classic desert wilderness. That confirms the social-media hype as regards to UAE’s role in Hollywood’s movies including Fast and Furious 7, Mission: Impossible, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and Star Wars among other blockbuster films. However, of great interest is the attention that fans, the casts, and crews have drawn to this borough’s role in most of the epic films that Hollywood has filmed in the country. Notably, these movies have registered tremendous success to confirm the fact that this country has endeavored to provide a legacy in cinematography. This essay explicates two of the greatest Hollywood movies concerning the casts of these movies and the reason behind Hollywood stars’ growing interest to film movies in UAE.
According to The Hollywood News, the film, “Furious 7”, written by Chris Morgan and directed by James Wan was produced and released in 2015 marking the seventh chapter of the “Fast and Furious” movie series. The movie casts include the core actors, Vin Diesel as Dominic Torrent and Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner who are all retired street racers living with their wives, Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) and Mia Torrent (Jordana Brewster) respectively. Other casts include Dominic’s crew namely, Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce who happened to be Brian’s friend since they were kids and Chris Bridges as Tej Parker who is a mechanic and a friend of Brian and Roman from Miami. Additionally, the film incorporates key characters such as Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw who is a rogue Special Forces assassin and Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs acting as a DSS agent associated with Dominic and his team after their excursions in Europe and Rio.
The film is essentially about Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his team of street racers whose lives are under threat from Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) who is out to avenge his brother’s demise caused by Dominic and his crew. Meanwhile, a member of the team is brutally killed in Tokyo and a few seconds later, an explosive sent in a package from Tokyo destroys Dominic’s house. Aware of the magnitude of the threat, Dominic is irked by this action and is set out to fight Shaw who is apparently hard to track. Their hopes are rekindled after they are sent to recover a flash disk containing a computer program that can trace anybody from anywhere and rescue the program from terrorists. The team recovers the drive in Abu Dhabi from Jakande where they easily track down Shaw and a series of wars ensues. After serious brawls, the film ends when Shaw is captured and locked behind bars while the rest of the crew including Brian and his wife in the company of Dominic, Roman, Letty, and Tej are having fun at the beach. Notably, the film is dedicated to Paul Walker, who passed on when the film was under production.
The movie, “Fast and Furious” is notably one of the biggest hit movies that Hollywood has ever produced but the latest movie produced in Abu Dhabi took the film industry by surprise. According to Newbould, the movie production crew chose to film in Abu Dhabi over Dubai preferably to benefit not only from the country’s 30% reimbursement scheme but also because the city provided one of the most stunning and iconic buildings for shooting the movie that ultimately caused a major stir across the world. Remarkably, the shooting of this film in UAE has not only exposed the country but also intrigued many major actors such as Tyrese and many others to collaborate with directors, producers and other actors to enhance film production in the country.
Another movie filmed in UAE is “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”, which was directed by Brad Bird and was in cinemas as early as 2011. This action film is a detective movie that stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, who is the IMF leader and Jeremy Renner as William Brandt and retired IMF agent. Other casts in Hunt’s team include Simon Pegg as Benjamin Dunn working as a technician and Paula Patton as Jane Carter. The movie also stars key characters such as Michael Nyqvist as Kurt Hendricks assumes the role of a Swedish nuclear strategist and Vladimir Mashkov as Anatoly Sidorov who is a Russian intelligence agent following Hunt. Others include; Ivan Shvedoff as Leonid Lisenker who acts as a nuclear code professional, Anil Kapoor as Brij Nath acting as an Indian media mogul, and Lea Seydoux as Sabine Moreau acting as a French assassin for hire. They also play a central role in making this film a success.
Precisely, the film is about the IMF, which for some reasons is locked out of business by the government of United States after being falsely accused and implicated in a terror attack that rocks Kremlin. Meanwhile, the president of the United States induces a Ghost Protocol as the search for these fugitives heightens. Consequently, Ethan Hunt in a company of his squad affiliates is compelled to go mischief in a bid to make it known that their organization had nothing to do with the attack as alleged. Despite the fact that they do not have the resources necessary to carry out their mission, they set out on an impossible mission in a bid to find the real masterminds behind the attack and clear the name of the organization as well as stop another attack.
The shooting of this movie transpired in several areas such as Bangalore, Moscow, Mumbai, and Prague. However, the most interesting part involves Hunt’s nail-biting stunt where he hangs off of the iconic Burj Khalifa’s building. That is undoubtedly the finest action movie shots in the history of filmmaking. According to The Hollywood News, it should be noted that the Dubai scenes filming took over 20 days and involved not less than four hundred members of the shooting crew who ensured that everything went on perfectly according to plans. The shooting of this episode in Dubai confirms the fact that UAE continues to provide good memories in the hearts of major actors such as the Hollywood film icon, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Vin Diesel among others. While many questions are asked concerning Hollywood’s sudden interest in the UAE as its best destination for filming of action movies, the answer lies in the fact that its cityscapes provide a glossy and modern alternative for the film. Besides, the lavish palaces and five-star hotels give an incredible setting for uppermost action series not forgetting the desert, which provides a desolate and rocky topography for classic chase events.
In conclusion, the UAE has been a perfect Hollywood destination for one of the epic films involving major actors like Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, Tom Cruise, and many more. This essay has elucidated two of the greatest movies that were filmed in iconic buildings in the UAE while giving the reasons why the country continues to attract Hollywood film production.
