Bangkok Dangerous intriguing character in the film, is Thailand itself

“The best way to defend yourself is to know when something’s going to happen.” —JOE

The final, and perhaps most intriguing character in the film, is Thailand itself. As producer William Sherak explains, “In our movie, Bangkok is not just a location. The city and the people in Bangkok eventually make our assassin decide he doesn’t want to kill anymore. The culture turns him away from violence and the people he meets make him aware of his own shortcomings. He discovers something we all realized when we first came to Bangkok: This is a magical place.”

Nicolas Cage recalls experiencing that magic as soon as he stepped off the plane. “I felt the air and I thought this place is really beautiful; there’s a great energy here. It’s free. Isn’t that what ‘Thai’ means, ‘free’? There was a freedom in the air and there was a kindness that I felt there that I really admired.”

The Pang Brothers made every effort to present an accurate depiction of modern Thailand without romanticizing or mythologizing it “Sometimes a foreign director imagines a country to be a certain way and adds the elements of his imagination. We tried to shoot this movie in the real Thailand, to show the culture of Thailand and the country’s spiritual life.”

The filmmakers incorporated many traditional Thai symbols, including the elephant, which holds special significance to the country’s primarily Buddhist population. Cage was fascinated by one of his pachyderm co-stars, a young elephant that interacts with the crowd.

“I was very touched by that scene,” says the actor. “It was a baby elephant and he was very sweet. He seemed like he was smiling when I was feeding him. I don’t get to act with elephants that often, so it was a highlight for me.”

All in all, the film used about 47 locations in Bangkok and nearby provinces, including the city’s red light district, parks, squatter settlements, business centers, the Chao Phraya’s river banks and luxurious five-star hotel suites.

Location manager Andrew Perry observes that in ten years of working in Bangkok, he has never seen a movie do all its shooting there. “The city’s traffic congestion and narrow streets can present a problem for big productions,” he said.

“One of the locations the directors specifically requested was the Kao Luang Temple in Petchburi, about two hours south of Bangkok,” says Perry. “This is for the scene where Fon takes Joe to a temple. It’s deep inside a mountain cave filled with Buddha statues. Sunlight pours down from an opening at the top of the mountain – it makes the cave really, really beautiful.”

The shoot was disrupted briefly by an event no one on the set could have anticipated. Halfway through production, a military coup overthrew Thailand’s prime minister, dissolved Parliament and suspended the country’s constitution temporarily. Thankfully, it was a peaceful overthrow: not a single shot was fired and the set was back up and running the next day.

“Television stations shut off and production halted for an evening, recalls producer Norm Golightly. “I saw some tanks in the streets and feel like I survived a little part of history. We certainly couldn’t know the coup was on the calendar. It would have to be the most unexpected event I’ve experienced, not only on this film, but on any I’ve ever worked on.”