“I can tell you that you’ll see that the film is an epic adventure. You’re going to see a very personal journey for Ethan Hunt. And that’s why this is absolutely the biggest story that we’ve ever been able to tell,” Cruise told Arab News on the red carpet of his character in the film.
Some of the film’s scenes were shot in the emirate’s Liwa desert and the Midfield Terminal in the UAE capital’s airport.
Director Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise and 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.
Cruise jetted to the emirate ahead of the film’s Middle East premiere and unveiled custom “Mission: Impossible” livery on an Etihad Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The film’s glittering line-up attended the premiere in Abu Dhabi, including Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg and Pom Klementieff, as well as the film’s director Christopher McQuarrie.
This is the second “Mission: Impossible” movie to be partly filmed in Abu Dhabi. In 2018, a HALO sky-diving scene was shot in the emirate with help from the UAE military, Abu Dhabi Film Commission and twofour54.
The Abu Dhabi premiere follows premieres in Rome and London, where the cast came together to celebrate the film that will open in GCC cinemas on July 13.
American British actress Atwell stepped out in a black gown by Saudi designer Mohammed Ashi, founder of Paris-based label Ashi Studio, at the premiere of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” in London last week.
Atwell, who plays a character called Grace in the film, turned heads as she wore a voluminous gown with a satin skirt — puffed out at the hips — and a velvet top from the designer’s Spring/Summer 2023 couture collection.
In the film, Ethan Hunt, played by Cruise, and his IMF, or Impossible Mission Force, seek to track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity, before it falls into the wrong hands.
With the fate of the world at stake and dark forces from Hunt’s past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Hunt is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission — not even the lives of those he cares about most.