New Zealand focus for Mission: Impossible – Fallout
In the second of a three-part locations feature focussing on Mission: Impossible – Fallout, KFTV looks more closely at how Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie filmed in New Zealand.
By Nick Goundry 22 Aug 2018
In the second of a three-part locations feature focussing on Mission: Impossible – Fallout, KFTV looks more closely at how Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie filmed in New Zealand's southern wilderness spots.
New Zealand hosted an aid camp story setting and was used to shoot key helicopter stunt sequences.
“Numerous locations worldwide had been scouted prior to New Zealand,” says Philip Turner, the film’s New Zealand location manager, in comments to KFTV.
“The aerial chase sequence was the priority for the New Zealand visit. The diversity of spectacular and dramatic landscapes within a relatively close proximity to a production base (Queenstown), coupled with less restrictive civil aviation regulations helped seal the deal.”
Production personnel spent around four months building the camp setting for a shoot that lasted four weeks including the aerial work.
“The aerial sequences took place in the South Island’s Fiordland National Park, Mount Aspiring National Park and Skippers Canyon,” says Turner. “The Kashmiri village set was constructed in the Rees Valley.”
Cruise piloted a helicopter himself for a climactic aerial stunt sequence that sees his superspy Ethan Hunt chasing Henry Cavill’s CIA assassin through the mountain gorges of Kashmir.
The actual helicopters used for the chase were specially imported from the US, but Queenstown-based Glacier Southern Lakes Helicopters serviced the aerial elements of the New Zealand leg of the shoot.
Glacier Southern Lakes Helicopters has long experience of servicing aerial shoots in New Zealand, having worked with Disney on Pete’s Dragon and also with Peter Jackson on movies ranging from King Kong to both the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movie trilogies.
Otago Rescue Helicopter Trust supported the Mission: Impossible shoot with medivac rescue helicopters on standby.
So-called ‘hard-mounted’ camera rigs in Cruise’s helicopter were used to film the star as he piloted for real while also performing as Hunt. Spacecam and Shotover camera systems, both gyroscopically stabilised, were used to film the chase from the air.
Aerial stunt sequences have become a trait in the Mission: Impossible franchise, with Fallout also offering a Halo parachute jump sequence that was filmed in the skies over Abu Dhabi.
See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in New Zealand.
To read about how Mission: Impossible - Fallout filmed in France click here.
New Zealand images courtesy of Philip Turner. Mission: Impossible image: Paramount Pictures
“Numerous locations worldwide had been scouted prior to New Zealand,” says Philip Turner, the film’s New Zealand location manager, in comments to KFTV.
“The aerial chase sequence was the priority for the New Zealand visit. The diversity of spectacular and dramatic landscapes within a relatively close proximity to a production base (Queenstown), coupled with less restrictive civil aviation regulations helped seal the deal.”
Production personnel spent around four months building the camp setting for a shoot that lasted four weeks including the aerial work.
“The aerial sequences took place in the South Island’s Fiordland National Park, Mount Aspiring National Park and Skippers Canyon,” says Turner. “The Kashmiri village set was constructed in the Rees Valley.”
Cruise piloted a helicopter himself for a climactic aerial stunt sequence that sees his superspy Ethan Hunt chasing Henry Cavill’s CIA assassin through the mountain gorges of Kashmir.
The actual helicopters used for the chase were specially imported from the US, but Queenstown-based Glacier Southern Lakes Helicopters serviced the aerial elements of the New Zealand leg of the shoot.
Glacier Southern Lakes Helicopters has long experience of servicing aerial shoots in New Zealand, having worked with Disney on Pete’s Dragon and also with Peter Jackson on movies ranging from King Kong to both the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movie trilogies.
Otago Rescue Helicopter Trust supported the Mission: Impossible shoot with medivac rescue helicopters on standby.
So-called ‘hard-mounted’ camera rigs in Cruise’s helicopter were used to film the star as he piloted for real while also performing as Hunt. Spacecam and Shotover camera systems, both gyroscopically stabilised, were used to film the chase from the air.
Aerial stunt sequences have become a trait in the Mission: Impossible franchise, with Fallout also offering a Halo parachute jump sequence that was filmed in the skies over Abu Dhabi.
See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in New Zealand.
To read about how Mission: Impossible - Fallout filmed in France click here.
New Zealand images courtesy of Philip Turner. Mission: Impossible image: Paramount Pictures
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