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| Where Was ‘In the Grey’ Filmed? Every Stunning Shooting Location Behind Guy Ritchie’s 2026 Action Thriller. (Credits: IMDb) |
In the Grey does not waste time pretending to be a small action film. The 2026 thriller arrives with explosive chase scenes, expensive-looking chaos, sharp Guy Ritchie dialogue and enough dramatic staring from Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Eiza González to convince audiences that absolutely nobody in this film sleeps normally. But while viewers were busy following billion-dollar missions and covert operations, many ended up distracted by something else entirely: the filming locations.
A huge part of the movie was filmed across Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, and honestly, the island nearly steals the spotlight from the cast itself. Between volcanic landscapes, elegant historic buildings, fishing villages and beaches that look suspiciously too perfect to exist in real life, Tenerife gives the film its slick international atmosphere without trying too hard about it. Guy Ritchie essentially turned the island into a giant cinematic passport stamp.
One of the film’s earliest standout locations is Real de Tenerife in Plaza de la Candelaria, located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The historic architecture appears during some of the film’s more polished sequences involving elite meetings, high-level negotiations and the type of scenes where everyone wears expensive suits while clearly hiding dangerous secrets.
The elegant colonial-style surroundings give the movie a classy European espionage energy, almost like somebody mixed luxury tourism advertising with a very stressful intelligence briefing.
Santa Cruz itself becomes one of the movie’s major visual anchors. The city blends modern city life with historic architecture, making it perfect for a film constantly shifting between glamour and danger.
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Viewers noticed how naturally the urban streets, waterfront areas and business districts fit Guy Ritchie’s fast-paced style. Several fans online even joked that the city looked “too stylish to survive an action movie” considering how many chase scenes ended up tearing through it.
Another major filming area was San Andrés, the coastal village sitting along Tenerife’s northeastern shoreline. The village appears during several intense pursuit sequences, with narrow streets forcing vehicles and characters into chaotic close-quarter escapes.
The colourful homes, fishing atmosphere and compact layout helped create some of the movie’s most grounded action scenes. It also gives the film that slightly sweaty “everything is about to go wrong” energy that Guy Ritchie loves more than calm conversations.
Not far from there, Las Teresitas Beach became one of the movie’s most visually striking backdrops. Known for its golden sand imported from the Sahara Desert, the beach appears during large-scale outdoor sequences involving tactical movement and transitional mission scenes.
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The contrast between the calm ocean and the film’s constant tension works surprisingly well. One second the scenery looks like a luxury holiday brochure, and the next somebody is sprinting across the coastline while helicopters probably ruin everyone’s peaceful afternoon.
The production also made heavy use of the Dársena Pesquera fishing dock in Santa Cruz. This industrial harbour area appears throughout some of the film’s rougher operational sequences involving cargo zones, covert exchanges and maritime activity.
With cranes, shipping containers and working port machinery filling the background, the dock gave the movie a gritty realism that studio sets usually struggle to replicate.
It also looks exactly like the kind of place where movie characters insist on doing secret deals despite clearly having safer options available elsewhere.
One of the film’s most unforgettable environments comes from Teide National Park, home to the towering Mount Teide, Spain’s highest peak. The volcanic terrain, dark lava fields and wide barren landscapes create an almost alien-looking backdrop for some of the film’s most dangerous mission sequences.
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Several scenes shot there carry an isolated survival atmosphere, making characters appear tiny against the enormous landscape. It is dramatic, cinematic and honestly slightly unfair to every green-screen-heavy blockbuster still pretending computer-generated deserts look realistic.
The production also filmed around Puerto de la Cruz, adding another layer to the movie’s international aesthetic.
The coastal town’s mixture of black-sand beaches, oceanfront promenades and traditional Canary Islands architecture helped create quieter transition moments between larger action scenes.
Unlike the explosive sequences elsewhere, these moments allowed the film to briefly breathe before immediately throwing audiences back into another crisis.
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Another location appearing throughout the production was Garachico, the historic coastal town famous for its volcanic history and stone streets.
The town’s old-world atmosphere added texture to several covert movement scenes, particularly at night when the narrow alleyways and dim lighting amplified the suspense.
Online viewers quickly recognised the area after release, with some joking that the town now looks permanently suspicious after Guy Ritchie transformed it into what appears to be an international spy route.
The movie also used parts of La Laguna, a UNESCO-listed city known for its preserved colonial architecture. Several interior and exterior sequences were filmed there, particularly scenes involving diplomatic settings and private meetings.
The elegant streets and colourful historic buildings gave the production a more refined European visual identity while still fitting naturally into the film’s tense atmosphere.
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| IMDb |
Filming reportedly took place throughout 2023, with much of principal photography completed by late October that year. Production continued despite industry disruption thanks to interim agreements allowing the project to move forward while many other productions slowed down.
By relying heavily on real-world locations instead of oversized studio work, In the Grey ended up feeling more grounded, more textured and honestly far more expensive-looking than some films with twice the budget.
Fans online have reacted strongly to the filming locations ever since trailers and behind-the-scenes clips started circulating. Some viewers admitted they paused scenes just to identify places around Tenerife, while others started building full travel plans around the movie’s locations before the film had even fully released internationally.
One viral comment joked that the film accidentally became “the most aggressive Tenerife tourism campaign ever created.”
Others praised Guy Ritchie for avoiding overly polished studio visuals and instead embracing real streets, real coastlines and real environments.
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| IMDb |
Some netizens hilariously questioned how every action movie spy somehow ends up fighting in the most beautiful locations on Earth instead of somewhere realistic like a supermarket car park during bad weather.
Either way, In the Grey has officially pushed Tenerife further into the spotlight as one of Europe’s most cinematic filming destinations.
Between volcanic landscapes, historic cities, beachside action scenes and coastal villages full of character, the island gave the film a global scale without needing to constantly jump between countries.
And honestly, if fans keep reacting like this, Tenerife may soon have tourists dramatically recreating Henry Cavill walking scenes while pretending they are in the middle of a billion-dollar covert mission.
So the real question is: which filming location from In the Grey would you actually want to visit first, and would you survive one full day in a Guy Ritchie action movie without immediately getting lost?