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.

The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio - Toma Ikuta (2016) - International Finance Centre 2, Central

So the slave auction is supposedly taking place inside the IFC2 skyscraper. And yet, weirdly, when a hole is blown in the side of the building so that they can all make their escape via parachutes (sounds familiar?) the background clearly shows that they are in a completely different area with the IFC2 building visible in the distance (see last image).

So here is Reiji meant to be looking out from somewhere near the top of the IFC2 getting ready to jump. However, you can see the IFC2 in the background. Actually, the shots used for this special effect can only really have been achieved via drone or helicopter because there are no buildings here that give this same height/elevation view.

The Dark Knight - Christian Bale (2008) - View Over Central, Hong Kong

My original screencaps for this film were done from a TV screen so the quality wasn't good enough to include this rather impressive helicopter (or perhaps drone) shot over Central.

The Centre, where all the lobby shots were filmed, can be seen on the left of screen. But the buildings used for the actual office from where Batman kidnaps the crooked Chinese accountant, Lau, were the towers of the International Finance Centre. So Batman launches from 2 IFC (centre right, lower picture) and grabs Lau from the smaller IFC tower (centre screen).

The Dark Knight - Christian Bale (2008) - International Finance Centre, Central

Both towers (International Finance Centre and Two International Finance Centre) feature in the next scene when Batman is preparing to launch his strike at his Chinese target. So, up to the top of 2IFC goes the Dark Knight and he jumps off and after a bit of impressive spinning and flying around, rolls up into a ball and crashes through the windows of the lower IFC1 where his target is located.

The finale of the sequence sees Batman and target being pulled out, up and away from the building by the C130 transport plane that I mentioned in the first film post here.

Of course, most of this was achieved using CGI, but there are pictures of a cabled up Christian Bale standing on a very precarious part of the building for some daytime filming (the scene is set at night so I can only assume they were using filters).

So here we are, with the second film character to leap from the top of 2 IFC (the first one was Lara Croft in case you didn't know).