Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok

Snowden makes a bid for freedom via a flight to South America. He gets this from HKIA and in real life this caused a big stink between the US and HK.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Kowloon Park, Tsim Sha Tsui

The film gives us the odd view across Kowloon from the general area of The Mira. I think it was to show the view from Snowden's room, but it looks like the film makers thought the view was actually a bit better from the neighbouring The One mall (built on the site of the old Tung Ying Building), because that's where I think these various shots were taken from.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Harbour Grand Hotel, Whampoa

Although we know that Snowden was holed up at The Mira, the shots where Glenn Greenwald (played by Zachary Quinto) is meeting up with Tibbo prior to Snowden's escape from the hotel, were actually filmed at the Harbour Grand on the Whampoa waterfront.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Mei King Mansion, To Kwa Wan

We've seen this part of To Kwa Wan several times now. It was last seen here when I was finding Ghost in the Shell locations, and is just a short hop from one of the large buildings used in the Transformers movie.

In this movie it is the location where Snowden's refugee protectors are living. Snowden was famously sheltered by various families throughout his stay here, all of which were refugee asylum seekers who risked their lives and futures to provide him a hiding place. They were all clients of the Human Rights lawyer, Robert Tibbo (played by Ben Chaplin), who has since been effectively forced out of the territory (recent NYT article here). Coincidentally, it seems that all of the people/families who helped shelter Snowden have had their applications for asylum denied - in this modern age of HK Govt pettiness, it seems they are paying the price for highlighting HK's refugee problems to the world.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Queen's Theatre, Central

Here's a brief shot that really niggled me. The film makers obviously went to a lot of trouble to stay true to the real story by filming in and around The Mira Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. Why then, for a later scene, did they chuck in a piece of old stock footage of a building that wasn't even around by the time the Snowden story was actually playing out in real life?

The shot in question is a quick snippet illustrating how Snowden's revelations are being broadcast around the world. So the film makers cut to a quick scene of an outdoor TV screen showing his interview. The problem is that the screen is attached to the side of a rather famous building that was unfortunately demolished and redeveloped circa 2007. It's the old Queen's Theatre on Queen's Road Central.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Inevitably, because a large part of the HK section of the film focuses on Snowden's meeting with the journalists at The Mira, we get quite a few different views along Kimberley Road. The first couple of images show Ewen MacAskill (played by Tom Wilkinson) on the phone to his bosses at The Guardian whilst walking by the 7-11 on the corner with Carnarvon Road.

The same corner can be spotted later as Snowden and Tibbo sneak out of the hotel via the shopping centre. In fact they are walking down the steps that also lead to/from Knutsford Terrace.

We also see the same steps on the opposite side of the road as their vehicle drives up Carnarvon Road and turns left onto Kimberley Road. The car picks them up and drives towards Nathan Road, past the mall and hotel.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - The Mira Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

As in the real situation a couple of years earlier, the film shows Snowden hiding away and being interviewed by the journos at The Mira hotel.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Mira Place, Tsim Sha Tsui

The initial meeting between the journalists and Snowden takes place inside the Mira Place (formerly  the Mira Shopping Mall and built in the mid-90s on the site of the original Miramar Hotel). There is a link bridge that connects the mall to the hotel opposite which is used later in the film to get Snowden out of the hotel without the press corps noticing.

Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (2016) - Lung Fu Shan, Hong Kong

Here's another one that snuck under the radar. You'd be surprised how easy it is to miss filming in this place unless you are in with the right crowd. Unfortunately I'm not so when this film was being made here back in 2015, I was none the wiser. That said, it looks as though the actual HK-based locations were narrow in scope, especially given the fact that Snowden kept his movements close to his chest for some time for fear of endangering those who sheltered him. As it turns out,the Govt has totally shafted those involved by turning down many of their asylum applications, so it looks as though his fears were justified.

For those who have been living under a rock for the past 5 years, Snowden was the NSA whistleblower who stole a bunch of top secret data and leaked them to the Guardian newspaper in an effort to shine a light on the overreach that was being utilised by the various US spy agencies i.e. spying on everyone, not just terrorists. He did a runner from Hawaii to Hong Kong and then managed to board a flight onward to Russia. The whole event caused quite a stir here when the local Govt let him 'escape' on the basis of a very pedantic clerical oversight which really pissed off the Americans. This film is a dramatisation of those events and the story that led to Snowden finally becoming disillusioned by his work and that of his Govt.

The film starts in Hong Kong and then deals mainly with flashbacks of his life leading up to that point. What better way to start a film than with an establishing shot of Hong Kong filmed with an aerial camera over Lung Fu Shan.