Dubai: A blurry trailer for the latest Mission: Impossible film, Ghost Protocol, much of which was filmed in Dubai, has made it to YouTube.
Dubbed in French, the trailer, which seems to have been filmed from a screening room, shows lead actor Tom Cruise scaling the Burj Khalifa, running from a burning building which looks to be the DIFC and jumping off a speeding car in Satwa.
TheFilmStage website says the trailer was planned to be shown for the first time in front of US audiences at screenings of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which opens Tuesday.
Storyline
The storyline appears to begin with the Kremlin being blown up, and Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt being briefed on a mission - obviously not disclosed in the trailer - by British actor Tom Wilkinson, whose involvement in the film until now had not been revealed.
Wilkinson gets the famous line “your mission, should you chose to accept...” before the Eminem song Won’t Back Down featuring Pink plays.
The Kremlin is bombed and accusations are thrown in the direction of Hunt’s team, the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) who know they have to escape.
The usual deadpan comedy lines are thrown in for good measure. In one scene Cruise is handed a gadget by Simon Pegg, who explains they are testing a glove that can help Cruise climb buildings. It has different colours on the fingertips.
Simon Pegg opens with: “Blue is glue.”
“And what about red?” replies Cruise. “Dead,” finishes Pegg without so much as a smile.
Burj Khalifa
Mission: Impossible newbie Jeremy Renner’s line concludes the 2min 21second trailer. “You’re not gonna make it,” to which Tom replies: “You’re not helping,” before he launches from the side of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Cruise and the MI4 cast and crew descended on Dubai last October and November for around six weeks in total. Cruise is co-producing Ghost Protocol, the fourth instalment of the hugely successful action franchise, along with Mission: Impossible III director and Lost creator J. J. Abrams.
The team filmed at Dubai Creek, the Burj Khalifa, DIFC, Emirates Towers, in the streets of Satwa and on a mock-up of the Burj Khalifa at the International Media Production Zone (IMPZ).
Dust storm
In Satwa men in goggles, ski masks, bandanas and neck scarves attempted to keep sand from their eyes as giant fans whipped up a dust storm for Cruise to shoot a scene from the roof of a BMW. This scene appears in the trailer as the car flies up into the air and comes crashing down just narrowly missing his head.
While in town, Cruise also paid non-working visits to Dubai’s indoor ski slope, Ski Dubai, and was hosted by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who showed the Hollywood actor how to hold a falcon.
Filming at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) had the entire business district closed for two days while explosion scenes were shot. Cruise was captured in action racing through the main ‘Gate’ building of the complex as the debris closely followed by a lucky few fans.
But Cruise drew the biggest crowds when he hung from the Burj Khalifa. Lucky visitors to the viewing gallery of the world’s tallest tower took snaps and video as the actor, famous for doing his own stunts, ran suspended around the circumference of the building, which reaches over 800 metres into the sky.
The film is scheduled for release in December and is expected to feature at the Dubai International Film Festival that month.
