Hollywood discovered the United Arab Emirates as a location around 2010 and has not left. The country offers a skyline that reads as the future, a desert that reads as another planet, and a film commission that closes highways on request. The result is a short list of set pieces that anyone who grew up on action cinema will recognise on sight, and most of them are reachable without renting a car. Here is the pilgrimage, ordered by how easy each stop is to reach on public transport.
Burj Khalifa, Dubai: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
The one everyone comes for. Tom Cruise really did climb the outside of the 828-metre tower, harnessed but un-doubled, at around the 123rd floor, and the sequence remains the high-water mark of practical stunt work in the series. The tower’s observation decks are on the 124th, 125th and 148th floors, so the ticket puts you at the height of the scene, looking down at the same glass.
Getting there is the easiest part of the trip. Download the Dubai Metro map PDF before you land: the Red Line runs from both airport terminals straight past Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall, so the Ghost Protocol stop is one train, no changes. The station connects to Dubai Mall by an air-conditioned walkway of about 15 minutes, and the tower entrance is inside the mall. The sandstorm chase that follows the climb was shot in and around Dubai’s older districts and on a set; the skyline shots are real.
Downtown Dubai and Sheikh Zayed Road: Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Justin Lin used Dubai’s Downtown and Sheikh Zayed Road towers as the exterior of Yorktown, the Federation’s starbase city, which is why the starbase looks like an architecture render come to life: it is. The relevant stops are Emirates Towers, Financial Centre and Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall on the Red Line, all within three stations of each other. Walk the pedestrian bridges around the DIFC gate building at dusk and you are inside the shot.
Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi: Furious 7 (2015)
The Lykan HyperSport jump between the Etihad Towers is the scene that made Abu Dhabi an action location. The towers are real and the interiors were shot in and around them; the car’s flight between two of the five towers was, of course, not. The Conrad hotel occupies one tower, and the observation deck on the 74th floor is the one place in the city from which the geometry of the jump makes sense.
Etihad Towers is an easy day trip; this guide on how to get from Dubai to Abu Dhabi by bus explains why the E100 and E101 to Abu Dhabi Central are the right pick for a city day, while the AUH Express is only worth it for the airport. The buses run every 15 to 20 minutes from before dawn, take about two hours and cost AED 25 on a Nol card. From Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station the towers are a 15-minute taxi ride along the Corniche, which also passes the Emirates Palace hotel where the film’s party scenes were shot.
The Corniche and Saadiyat: 6 Underground (2019)
Michael Bay’s Netflix film spent most of its budget and much of its runtime in Abu Dhabi: the Corniche, the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s dome, and long stretches of the city’s highways closed for the chase. It is not a good film, but it is a very good travelogue. The Louvre is on Saadiyat Island, a 20-minute taxi from the bus station, and worth the visit on its own merits.
The desert: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Dune (2021, 2024)
The dunes of the Rub’ al Khali near Liwa, two hours south-west of Abu Dhabi city, stood in for the planet Jakku in The Force Awakens and for Arrakis in both of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films. This is the one stop on the list that public transport does not reach. The practical route is a day tour or an overnight at one of the Liwa desert resorts, booked from Abu Dhabi; the dunes in the films are among the tallest in the world and look exactly as they do on screen, which is the point.
| Film | Scene | Location | Nearest stop | How to reach it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol | The Burj Khalifa climb | Burj Khalifa, Dubai | Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall (Red Line) | Metro from either airport terminal, one train |
| Star Trek Beyond | Yorktown starbase exteriors | Downtown and DIFC, Dubai | Emirates Towers, Financial Centre (Red Line) | Metro; walk the DIFC bridges |
| Furious 7 | The Etihad Towers jump | Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi | Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station | E100 or E101 from Dubai, then a taxi |
| Furious 7 | The party | Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi | Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station | Taxi along the Corniche |
| 6 Underground | The chase | Corniche and Louvre Abu Dhabi | Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station | Taxi to Saadiyat |
| The Force Awakens; Dune | Jakku; Arrakis | Liwa desert, Rub’ al Khali | None | Day tour or overnight from Abu Dhabi |
Practical notes for the two-city version
- Do Dubai on the metro and Abu Dhabi by bus plus taxis; a hire car adds parking to both cities and saves nothing.
- Buy a Silver Nol card at the first metro station (AED 25, with AED 19 of credit loaded) and top it up to about AED 60 for the Abu Dhabi bus and a few metro days.
- The metro runs from about 5 AM to midnight, later on Fridays, and from 8 AM on Sundays. The Abu Dhabi buses run from before dawn until close to midnight.
- Photography from the observation decks is fine; tripods generally are not. Filming on the metro itself needs a permit, which nobody has.
Two days covers everything on this list except the desert, and the desert is a third day for people who need to stand on Jakku. Most do.
Transport details checked September 2026. Filming locations as documented by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission and the productions’ own material.