Lift was shot in Harbour Studios and on location across Northern Ireland. The film is now available to watch on Netflix.
From director F. Gary Gray (Friday), Lift is a heist film starring Kevin Hart (Central Intelligence), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Easy), Vincent D'Onofrio (Daredevil), Úrsula Corberó (Money Heist), Billy Magnussen (Game Night), Vivek Kalra (Blinded by the Light), Yun Jee Kim (Road Kill) and Sam Worthington (Avatar). The film is now available to stream on Netflix.
Lift follows a master thief (Hart) and his Interpol Agent ex-girlfriend (Mbatha-Raw) who team up to steal $500 million in gold bullion being transported on an A380 passenger flight.
Between March and July 2022, the film was shot in Northern Ireland. The production took place in Harbour Studios, Belfast’s newest film studio based at Giant’s Park, as well as a variety of location across Northern Ireland, including:
Ulster University
Titanic Hotel
Crown Liquor Saloon
Riddel Warehouse
Castleward Estate
Shackleton Barracks, Ballykelly
Ward Park, Bangor
Whitehead Railway Station
Ardglass Harbour
Crown Liquor Saloon, which first opened in the 1850s as The Railway Tavern, provides an impressive cinemtaic location with mosaic tiled floors, carved ceiling and snugs. Scenes involving the preparation of the heist by Cyrus’ crew took place at an airplane hangar on a retired military base in Ballykelly. The 621-acre facility opened in 1941 as an RAF base, then closed in 1971 when the site was handed over to the British Army as Shackleton Barracks and Airfield. The site, which sits on the banks of Lough Foyle, was decommissioned and sold to a private investor in 2016.
Harbour Studios provided a space to build many of the film's interior sets including Cyrus’ apartment, various parts of the airplane's interior (first class, business class, economy class and the cargo hold), as well as the Brussels Flight Center and Heathrow Airport security. Filming also took place at Loop Studios for the gimbal work and stealth jet cockpit, and Titanic Studios.
Director F. Gary Gray and producers Kevin Hart, Adam Kassan, Patricia Braga, Brent O’Connor were assisted on the ground by local crew during the production.
“Lift is the second film that Netflix has shot in Northern Ireland in recent years and that is testament to the talented local crew working behind the camera,” said Richard Williams, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Ireland Screen. “The dedication and craftsmanship of the local crew complemented the work of global players Kevin Hart and F.Gary Gray to bring this eagerly anticipated film to life.”
Lift is the second Netflix film to shoot on location in Northern Ireland following The School for Good and Evil, an adaptation of a series of young adult fantasy novels by Soman Chainani following a group of girls and boys who are taken to an institution and trained to become fairy tale-like heroes and villains.
