Gemini Man (2019) is an American science-fiction action thriller directed by Ang Lee and starring Will Smith as Henry Brogan, a veteran government assassin who decides to retire after carrying out his latest assignment. His plans are interrupted when he discovers that his former employers want him dead and have sent a younger version of himself to kill him. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays intelligence agent Danny Zakarweski, Benedict Wong appears as Henry’s former colleague Baron, and Clive Owen portrays Clay Verris, the head of a secret military programme responsible for creating the clone. The project had been in development since the late 1990s before finally reaching production in 2018. One of its most ambitious features was the creation of Junior, a completely digital character modelled on Will Smith in his early twenties. Lee also filmed the action in 3D at 120 frames per second, five times the standard cinema frame rate, using specially modified cameras to capture movement and facial expressions in greater detail.
Gemini Man was filmed in the United States, Colombia, Hungary and Belgium, with principal photography beginning in Georgia on 27 February 2018. The film opens in Belgium, where Henry prepares to assassinate a passenger travelling on a high-speed train. The railway station seen during the sequence is Liège-Guillemins in the city of Liège, a modern transport terminal designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Its enormous curved roof of glass and steel provides a recognisable setting for the opening assignment. Following the assassination, Henry speaks with his colleague Marino, played by E. J. Bonilla, in a scene filmed inside the former Stock Exchange Palace on Liberty Square in Budapest. The imposing building, which later served as the headquarters of Hungarian Television, has been used in several international film and television productions.
The American scenes were largely filmed around Savannah and the coastal communities of Georgia. Henry’s isolated waterfront home was filmed at Buttermilk Sound, near Brunswick, while the marina where he encounters Danny was portrayed by Isle of Hope Marina on the Skidaway River, south of Savannah. The historic marina, surrounded by docks, boats and oak trees, had previously appeared in Cape Fear (1962). Another coastal location was the Fish Dock at Pelican Point in Crescent, a seafood restaurant overlooking Blackbeard Creek. Tybee Island, east of Savannah, was also used for the sequence in which Henry and Danny wait for transport while trying to escape the agents pursuing them. These locations establish Henry’s life after leaving the intelligence service, before he is forced back into action.
The production then moved to Cartagena on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, where some of the film’s most elaborate action sequences were photographed. The historic walled city provides the setting for Henry’s first major confrontation with Junior, who pursues him through narrow streets, courtyards and squares on a motorcycle. Filming took place around the Getsemaní neighbourhood, including Plaza de la Trinidad and Plaza del Pozo, as well as streets surrounding the old city. The Clock Tower at Plaza de los Coches, the Caribbean Naval Museum and sections of the city’s defensive walls appear during the pursuit. Another confrontation was filmed near the Teatro Adolfo Mejía, where Junior attacks Henry in an open square beside the historic theatre. The production also used locations around Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, the seventeenth-century fortress overlooking Cartagena.
The Cartagena sequence was particularly demanding because of the narrow streets, historic buildings and complicated motorcycle stunts. Production crews temporarily closed parts of the old city, while local residents gathered to watch Will Smith and the stunt teams at work. Among the most difficult shots was an extended travelling sequence following the action through several streets without a visible cut. Technical supervisor Ben Gervais later explained that planning this single shot took much of a month. The crew installed wireless equipment along the route and tested the camera movements at a former racing circuit near Savannah before filming in Colombia. Another stunt, in which Junior uses his motorcycle as a weapon against Henry, combined live-action footage, a crane-supported harness and a digitally created motorcycle rider. The result was one of the film’s most elaborate combinations of practical stunt work and computer-generated imagery.
Budapest became another major centre of production, with several of its best-known landmarks appearing during the later stages of Henry’s investigation. The Budapest University of Technology and Economics was used for scenes in which Henry, Danny and Junior search for information about the cloning programme. Its library reading room and courtyard both appear in the film. The characters also visit Széchenyi Thermal Bath in City Park, where the normally crowded outdoor pools and Neo-Baroque buildings provide the setting for a meeting connected to their investigation. Other locations include Liberty Square and the streets around the Hungarian Parliament Building. Fisherman’s Bastion, overlooking the Danube from the Buda Castle district, appears when Henry contacts intelligence director Janet Lassiter, while nearby Matthias Church can also be seen among the historic buildings used during the Budapest scenes.
Another important Budapest location is Vajdahunyad Castle in City Park, where Danny meets Junior in the courtyard beside the Romanesque-style Jáki Chapel. The meeting takes place while Henry is attempting to convince his younger counterpart that Clay Verris has deceived him about his origins. The castle, originally constructed for Hungary’s millennial celebrations in 1896, is known for combining several architectural styles inspired by historic buildings. Heroes’ Square appears during a taxi journey through the city, before the characters arrive at the entrance to a network of underground catacombs. The exterior entrance was filmed at the Kiscelli Museum in Óbuda, housed in a former eighteenth-century monastery. However, the underground passages seen in the film were not real catacombs. Their skull-lined corridors were constructed as a studio set.
Much of the interior filming took place at Origo Studios in Budapest, where the production built extensive sets for the confrontation between Henry and Junior. These included several hundred feet of underground tunnels lined with artificial human skulls, along with a three-storey medieval cistern containing water. The elaborate sets allowed the filmmakers to stage the fight between the two versions of Will Smith under carefully controlled lighting conditions. Actor Victor Hugo served as the physical stand-in for the younger character, whose face and appearance were subsequently created by the visual effects team at Weta Digital. The demanding 120-frame-per-second photography required considerably more lighting than conventional filming, particularly because two cameras were used simultaneously to record the stereoscopic images. Origo Studios was also used for scenes at the Gemini training facility, including a purpose-built exterior set representing the organisation’s headquarters in Georgia.
For the film’s final confrontation, the production returned to the small town of Glennville in southeastern Georgia. Rather than constructing an entirely fictional American town, the filmmakers transformed part of Glennville’s actual town centre into the setting for the climactic battle. Local buildings were repainted and altered, a bank was converted into the fictional Glennville High School, and a new Art Deco-style liquor store was constructed for the production. The work attracted considerable local attention, with residents watching as streets and businesses were gradually transformed into a film set. Glennville was unusual because it effectively played itself, although several of the buildings seen during the action sequence were temporary additions.
The film concludes six months later with Henry and Danny visiting Junior, who has begun a new life as a college student under the name Jackson Brogan. The closing scene was filmed at Brooklyn College in New York City. Another New York location used earlier in the film was the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, where Clay Verris meets intelligence director Janet Lassiter. The completed film combines real city streets, historic landmarks, American coastal communities and elaborate studio environments, with the extensive use of digital effects allowing the two versions of Will Smith to interact throughout the story.
Fisherman’s Bastion
Fisherman’s Bastion has appeared in several international productions, including "I Spy" (2002), "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011) and "Gemini Man" (2019).
Heroes’ Square
Heroes’ Square appears in A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), Red Sparrow (2018), and Gemini Man (2019).