Expired - Ryan Kwanten (2021) - View across Victoria Harbour

And just like the name of the film, 2025 is about to be "Expired", so I will leave this film, and this year, with an example of how the film makers achieved their "futuristic" vision on a low budget. The view looks to be kosher in terms of landmarks, with the 2IFC front and centre and then "The Masterpiece" on the left and "Victoria Dockside" on the right and the Harbourfront Landmark in the far distance on the far right. I imagine the smog could've been real - before Covid hit and all the Mainland Chinese factories shut down it could get quite gross here. These days it seems to have improved a little bit. Anyway, on that note I bid you farewell and best wishes for the coming year. Back in 2026 (i.e. tomorrow) with more posts and a new film.

7 Aum Arivu - Suriya (2011) - Two International Finance Centre

In this film, the location of the neighbouring country's security office is located in the IFC2 tower. We only have an external establishing shot for this though as the interior filmed in a studio set.

Geostorm - Gerard Butler (2017) - Central, Hong Kong

I recently watched Geostorm on Netflix without realising that it has some proper Hong Kong locations in it. So, after getting hold of some screen caps I felt it was worthy of inclusion here. It stars Gerard Butler (last seen on this blog leaping from the top of the then under construction 2IFC) as a scientist whose global system of weather controlling satellites protects the earth from sever weather. That is until someone decides to hack the system to wreak havoc across the world.

One of the places that gets to see the sharp end of the satellite system's power (it's called "Dutch Boy" in the film - no doubt a reference to the dude trying to plug up the leaky dam wall with his various appendages) is Hong Kong when hot weather havoc is experienced as the satellites cause some underground piping to overheat and explode.

Daniel Wu plays the HK contact for the good guys and it appears that this footage was shot several years before the film's release. IMDB says the principal photography was started in October 2014 so I guess the screen caps we are about to look at date back a good 5 or 6 years.

Anyway, the establishing shot for Hong Kong is a nice nighttime aerial view of central, including the aforementioned 2 IFC tower.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Angelina Jolie (2003) - International Finance Centre 2, Central

So we have supposedly gone up to the top of 2IFC - which was the tallest building in HK at the time of filming (it was usurped a few years later by ICC) - and are now about to jump off it.

The BASE jumps were for real and the crew filmed 10 of them to get the shots they needed as well as an additional 20 jumps from a helicopter to grab some of the high level wing-suit flying. Anyway, there is a great BTS video here shot by Michael Nordqvist who also filmed the high level stuff - although I have to say there are definitely a few shots that look to have been digitally manipulated in order to get the characters to do very sharp mid-air turns to avoid buildings. Still it's an impressive stunt set piece and worth looking at because it also shows us the 2IFC prior to completion.

Heading up to the top

Jumping out

In the picture above, you can see how high the jumpers had to get in the helicopter. At this point they look to be double the real height of the 2IFC and there is a small sequence in the above linked video that shows you a similar height and angle. The next picture shows the section of the wing suit flight that looks to be digitally manipulated and includes a close bypass of the BOC tower before a sharp left hand turn to avoid the Lippo Centre.

And a boat landing to finish it all off.