The UAE on Screen: Where Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel and Shah Rukh Khan Checked In

Few places have become film locations as quickly as the Emirates. In barely 15 years, Dubai and Abu Dhabi have gone from occasional backdrops to a regular stop for Hollywood and Bollywood alike, helped by generous production incentives and architecture that already looks like the future. Six hotels have had starring roles.

Armani Hotel Dubai: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

The most famous stunt ever filmed in the Middle East is Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt climbing the outside of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, with Cruise doing it himself. The team's base inside the tower is the Armani Hotel Dubai, which occupies the lower floors of the Burj Khalifa and is referenced in the film. Elsewhere in Dubai, the crew also shot at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, the Ottoman-palace-style resort on the Palm Jumeirah.

Emirates Palace and Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers: Furious 7 (2015)

Furious 7 came to Abu Dhabi for its most outrageous set piece: Vin Diesel's Dom and Paul Walker's Brian steal a Lykan HyperSport and drive it through the windows of one of the Etihad Towers, across the gap and into the next tower, and then into a third. The towers include the Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers, and the crew filmed scenes there.

The team is also seen relaxing at Emirates Palace, the domed hotel on the Corniche that cost a reported $3 billion to build and is now run by Mandarin Oriental. Furious 7 was Paul Walker's final film; he died during production, and the film was completed with his brothers' help. It became one of the highest-grossing films ever made.

Burj Al Arab Jumeirah: Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Dubai played the Federation's Yorktown starbase in Star Trek Beyond, its towers chosen because they already looked like the 23rd century. The sail-shaped Burj Al Arab, built on its own island off Jumeirah Beach and opened in 1999, is part of the cityscape the film used, alongside the Meydan racecourse and Jumeirah Lakes Towers.

Atlantis The Palm: Happy New Year (2014), The Misfits (2021)

In Farah Khan's Bollywood heist comedy Happy New Year, Shah Rukh Khan leads a team of misfits who enter the World Dance Championship in Dubai as cover for a diamond robbery, and much of the film plays out at Atlantis The Palm, the pink resort at the tip of the Palm Jumeirah. Deepika Padukone co-stars. The resort appears again in the heist thriller The Misfits (2021), starring Pierce Brosnan.