Whenever a Liam Neeson film appears it promises plenty of action sequences shootouts and the veteran Irish actor declaring his intent to deal with villains if they back off.

Seeing the old Holden headquarters play host to the Taken lead comes as a surprise.

The Hollywood crew for The Mongoose descended on Victoria during 2025 shooting across sites such as Castlemaine and Altona.

Yet the roads around Lang Lang received minimal coverage even though they featured heavily throughout the movie.

We will walk through scenes spotted in the trailer and pair them with matching real world spots.

If the trailer and details of this upcoming action title have not reached you here is the premise.

Accused of a crime he did not commit and with nothing to lose a war hero played by Liam Neeson leads law enforcement on a cross country car chase aided by fellow veterans and a supportive public cheering his escape.

It follows the usual Liam Neeson pattern.

The featured vehicle is an S650 Ford Mustang styled as a Shelby Super Snake. Production used a blend of four cylinder Ecoboost models and one V8 hero car none fitted with the supercharger found on genuine Shelby editions.

The twist of a Ford Mustang bringing the former Holden Proving Ground to the big screen stands out though Mustangs have long enjoyed screen success while Commodores have not.

Close inspection of the police chase footage reveals a modified Holden Caprice in the background a model once built in left hand drive and exported to the United States for police duty.

A blacked out Caprice also meets its end against what appears to be a road workers vehicle.

We shared the Lang Lang site with the crew several times in 2025 and assumed extensive CGI would erase the obvious landmarks yet that proved unnecessary.

They used roads across the facility and while the shots stand alone we recognise several spots we have used for our own filming over the years.

They also employed the former truck route for dirt road sequences featuring a heavily computer generated Black Hawk helicopter pursuing the Mustang.

The climactic scene of a car tumbling down a slope occurs in the rear section known as Tiny Town which can be viewed on mapping services.

The lead car is the Ford S650 Mustang wearing a Shelby body kit. Multiple vehicles appeared during filming and those that survived are now finding new homes in Melbourne.

Mustang Motorsport the official Australian Shelby dealer acquired the cars once shooting finished a common step for overseas productions seeking to offset expenses.

James Johnson managing director of Mustang Motorsport described the decision to buy the cars even before the film became public knowledge.

The reason we ended up purchasing them is because we are the Shelby shop and all those cars the components and the parts they added match what we install on our own vehicles so if viewers want something similar after seeing the movie that is what we offer he noted.

The star V8 Mustang has been restored to showroom condition and now sits on display at Lorbek Luxury Cars in Melbourne.

Mr Johnson suggested some Ecoboost examples could also gain new roles.

We have returned them to their original colour and I plan to convert them into track cars because they are left hand drive they cannot be registered so with some engines I will create track toys he said.

Mustang Motorsport intends to launch a content series covering the purchase and refurbishment of these vehicles soon and viewers can explore Shelby options through Shelby Australia.

Although vehicle testing at Lang Lang has ended it is reassuring that nearly every part of the facility has been recorded on camera in recent years.

Founded in 1957 the 877 hectare site tested and developed General Motors vehicles for 63 years before sale to Vinfast for 36300000 dollars. After limited local success Vinfast largely ceased operations and began leasing the facility.

At CarExpert we treated the site as a second home producing more than 350 car reviews in the past five years.

Earlier this year it transferred to defence contractor Defendtex for 20350000 dollars marking a loss of 16 million dollars plus operating costs during Vinfast ownership.

While rocket testing has replaced car work the legacy of the Holden Proving Ground endures through our YouTube coverage and productions such as The Mongoose.

The film is directed by Mark Vanselow and features Neeson Marisa Tomei Ving Rhames and Michael Chiklis.

The Mongoose arrives in Australian cinemas on October 30 2026.