G.I. Joe: Retaliation Set Visit

IGN visited the top secret set of G.I. Joe: Retaliation way back in October 2011. With the sequel's release now just weeks away, we can finally reveal more about what we saw being filmed -- and where.

We'd been sworn to to keep the nature of the facility used for filming a secret. But now we can finally reveal that the Joe sequel was partially shot inside a NASA facility outside New Orleans. A number of scenes for the sequel were shot on these converted soundstages, including the duel between Snake-Eyes (Ray Park) and Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) in the mountain lair of the Blind Master (RZA), the ninja who mentored them in their youth.

The first sequence we saw being filmed was the ninja battle sequence in the Himalayas seen in the trailers, a set-piece that's an homage to the famous "Silent Interlude" issue of the Joe comics. The battle spills out from the monastery onto a cliff side before leading into a full on zip line chase sequence and mountainside battle between Snake Eyes, Jinx (Elodie Yung), and the red-clad villainous ninjas.

During a break in filming, Park said he and Lee "wanted to make (their fights) real. Like it's two brothers fighting, there's a lot of aggression. Instead of flashy-flashy and doing flips in the air, we wanted to tell the story throughout the fight as well. There's a lot of good moves, a lot of great choreography that we worked on."

Lee said that he and Park are "both much more comfortable [with each other] now. We know each [other] and how we move. His specialty and my specialty. In this movie, he has a lot of fights. Of course, we've trained a lot together, but we need to train separately, also. We have other fights."

The NASA facility was made up of massive warehouses and silos, ones large enough to store space shuttles. It was truly amazing to walk around such a place, as if you'd stepped into a world crossed between Armageddon and the cavernous, government warehouse from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The next sequence we saw being filmed was an exterior one on the coastline where Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson) is chasing Cobra saboteur Firefly (Ray Stevenson), who is escaping with a valuable case in hand. The smoking ruins of a tank (that we've seen Roadblock driving in the trailers) was nearby.

"This is the lead in to really a massive action sequence, a third act action sequence," The Rock told us during a break in filming. "Ripsaw, the fastest tank in the world. Beats a ‘Vette out of the blocks. It’s crazy. You can actually see it on YouTube. It’s unbelievably fast. So anyway, that leads into an incredible boat chase sequence and then leads into a big final fight at the end. It’s a really long extensive sequence that you guys are seeing and this is the beginning of it."

Of his role as Roadblock, Johnson said "there was a lot of latitude and leeway to, again, pay homage to the qualities that made up Roadblock, but also being able to add to that to make it even more interesting and make it fit me more." He added, "The great part about this role is there is a slew of bad guys who we have these great action sequences with at the beginning of the movie. Firefly is great, Ray Stevenson. I’m most excited, not necessarily to go toe-to-toe with them, because there is no toe-to-toe with them, but to join Bruce Willis. We’ve been buddies for some time and to be able to come together like this in this type of role."

"It’s so much fun," said Stevenson about playing the nefarious Firefly. "I get to blow stuff up and shoot guns. I have a fight with that big man over there. It’s a lot of fun." Stevenson revealed that Firefly is "working with Cobra Commander. He’s very much a right hand guy, really. But he is a mercenary type of character, basically. He was an ex-Joe and he’s now going for the highest bidder. Now he dresses better. ... He’s got no problem with murdering a few of (the Joes). He just lights them up, really. One of the lines we tried at one point was, 'I’ve broken out of eight prisons, but I’ve only broken into one.' So yeah, he’s got a bit of a sketchy past. He’s just fascinated with things that go boom."

Stevenson was unfamiliar with the G.I. Joe mythos when he landed the role. "It was all new to me. It was a new world to discover, which was great fun. It’s got its own kind of energy and its own genre. It’s own sort of style. Ninjas. The Arashikage. If you can commit to that world, it’s great. You can only take the comics and the previous movie so far. Ultimately, it’s about the script. That’s what you then zero down on."

You can zero down on G.I. Joe: Retaliation when it hits theaters March 28.

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