The film crew behind director Brad Bird’s 2011 entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, broke 35 windows while filming in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Known for its status as the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa’s incorporation in M:I4 remains its central highlight and arguably one of the greatest moments in the entire spy-thriller franchise. As fans wait for the long-delayed arrival of Mission: Impossible 7, the tenth anniversary of M:I4 provides some new insight into the film.
From the early beginnings of what would become a game-changing franchise, Mission: Impossible has consistently upped the ante in terms of its stunts. This is largely due to Tom Cruise’s involvement with the series, as the star’s eagerness to push his physical limits on the films has resulted in some truly stunning moments. While there were numerous moments in the first three films where Cruise was able to inject his brand of no-holds-barred filmmaking into the process, it was the fourth film where things took on an entirely new level of stunt work. Many people would balk at the idea of simply venturing up to the building’s observation terrace, but Cruise took things to the extreme – climbing the building at a height of approximately 1700 feet and providing the film with a breathtaking sequence.
Much has been said over the years after Cruise’s stunt was seen in the film and a photo of the actor sitting at the very peak of the building has been heavily circulated online. But now, as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol celebrates its tenth anniversary, director Brad Bird spoke with Radio Times and revealed a little-known fact about what the filming process within the Burj Khalifa was like. According to Bird, removing a window from the building meant having to break it. This was a necessary process in order to film the sequence, and as a result, the production ended up breaking something in the neighborhood of 35 windows:
“And you really have to break the windows to take them out and then put new ones in – so we did it in about five locations and once we started we said, well, can we break a few more? And we ended up breaking like 35 windows. We did just about everything except the super close-up where you’re looking up underneath Tom – those were done on a reproduction of the building because there’s no reason to go through all the trouble if you’re just going to be in a close-up.
“But everything else… we not only got everything we wanted, we got basically the whole sequence and we ended up breaking like I said 30-something windows. And we just kept adding camera angles and shooting more and more. And this whole sequence is basically IMAX footage shot on that building.”
Bird did not mention what the cost of each broken window was, but given that the building is one of a kind and that its location deals with some unique environmental factors such as extreme heat and sandstorms, it’s safe to say that they weren’t cheap. Of course, the cost of the windows is just a drop in the bucket when compared to all the other aspects of M:I4’s estimated $145 million budget, but breaking the windows seems burdensome for the production as well as costly. In the end, however, it’s fair to say that most viewers of the film would agree that whatever the number of windows that had to be broken in order to shoot that heart-pounding sequence was a very worthwhile investment.
With a little less than a year to go before M:I7 arrives, fans continue to wonder how the latest crop of jaw-dropping stunts will look. So far what has been seen and talked about seems pretty amazing, though for many fans of the franchise, it will forever be hard to beat seeing Tom Cruise hang from the world’s tallest building in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Fortunately, the only thing that was broken while shooting the scene were some windows, and the Burj Khalifa now has an indelible role in one of cinema’s most thrilling franchises.
Source: Radio Times
