No one is more game for some last-minute, improvisational travel than a spy. In Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his merry band of fellow spies embark on—and abscond via—more modes of transportation than there are punctuation marks in the title, and they do it all on very short notice. We’re not just talking planes, trains, and automobiles, either—although there are plenty of each, with “Get me on that flight,” a refrain often heard—but also desert-traversing horses, off-terrain motorcycles, and an especially sleek water taxi. The travel writer in me can’t help but wonder—did I choose the wrong career for seeing the world?
The novelty and privilege is not lost on the characters. For a fleeting moment, on a balcony in Venice, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) remarks to Hunt that it’s her first time in the floating city—Ethan concurs that, somehow, he too has never been till now. To best appreciate the itineraries of these accidental tourists—who stop not only in Venice but also Abu Dhabi, Rome, and the Austrian Alps on their adventures—we sat down with production designer Gary Freeman.
Midfield Terminal, Abu Dhabi International Airport
Can you tell me about the Airport in Abu Dhabi?
We wanted to find one of the most spectacular airports in the world to serve as the backdrop for this big and chaotic chase sequence, and supervising location manager, David Campbell Bell came across the amazing Midfield Terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport that had yet to open. Shooting in airports is notoriously difficult, because you have thousands of paying travelers and most airports are open 24/7 these days. There’s also the security side of things. For us to be able to get time in what is probably one of the most spectacular buildings, let alone airports, I have ever been in was incredible. It’s almost a mile from one terminal to another terminal, it was so vast.
This gave us a unique opportunity to shoot in this amazing and never-been-seen-before location. We were shooting in the terminal, in the baggage handling, out on the tarmac with the planes, and on the roof. There was no duty-free high-end shopping yet, and we knew we needed that aspect for [Hunt] to use as a hiding place. We had to install everything—our set decorator, Raffaella Giovannetti, had a lot of contacts in Italy and we were able to get all of the branding to make it look like everything was up and running.
