Etihad Airways had a partnership with one of the biggest movies of 2023 - Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One. To announce this collaboration, Etihad Airways had to create and launch something as entertaining - if not more - than the movie itself. And that's exactly what we did.

There is no specific cultural nuance in this work. It’s a global film that was promoted regionally, and has universal understanding.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One was one of the most anticipated movies of the year in 2023. And Etihad Airways scored a big role in this iconic franchise starring Tom Cruise, as a featured location in one of the biggest scenes in the movie.

Etihad Airways knew they had to take advantage of this and amplify not only their partnership, but showcase what makes Etihad stand out: their all-star cabin crew. To do this, the brief was simple - do a stunt that not even Tom Cruise has done before.

Our objective was to get as much viewership as possible.

The most logical way to showcase this partnership was to bring the iconic Mission:Impossible theme song to the place Etihad knows best: the skies.

But playing in a plane would be too easy, so we asked our crew to actually do the impossible: play the tune live as they free-fall at 200 km/h towards earth.

This would be the first time an orchestra would attempt to play a tune together while hurtling towards the earth.

Our insight was built out of Etihad Airways' key message: the Etihad Cabin Crew will do the impossible for you. We wanted to speak to anyone who loves to travel by taking this to the extreme showing that our cabin crew will do it all - even jumping out of a plane and playing an instrument.

The strategy from the start was to be as entertaining as possible, and to make a thrilling, dynamic film much like the franchise itself, and worthy of becoming part of the series.

The execution for our film was always going to be tricky - just like real Mission:Impossible stunts, we couldn’t fake it. We recruited professional skydivers that could also play each of the instruments required. Working with a team of expert stunt coordinators, cinematographers and conductors in Hollywood, we filmed the final stunt in 14 jumps.

Each instrument had to be custom-fitted and adjusted to the skydiver's weight. Considerations such as wind drag were taken into account (drag against drums for instance is greater than a guitar due to surface area). All instruments were tuned to play in free-fall according to the actual Mission Impossible composition.

The final edit was a triumph over brutal physics, both in terms of gravity and acoustics.

This film / activation has broken the record for the most viewed piece of content in the region for the Airline product category. With more 90 million views reaching in excess of 600 million impressions, the video far exceeded the project objectives. 98% positive brand comments included competitor airline pilots loving our work. (We have sent MI agents after the 2% that didn't like the video).