Tom Cruise shot death-defying MI:7 stunt on day one, in case he didn’t defy death
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One includes the "most dangerous" stunt Tom Cruise has ever done
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Tom Cruise is prepared to give his blood, sweat, tears, and frankly, his entire life for cinema. The man has been doing his own impossible stunt work for years, and Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One is no exception. In fact, one might describe the newest film as a prime example of Cruise’s dedication, as the very first thing he shot for M:I7 was a motorcycle stunt director Christopher McQuarrie described as “far and away the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted.”
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Cruise was pretty casual about beginning production by risking life and limb. “Well we know, either we’re gonna continue with the film, or we’re not,” he laughed. “Let’s know day one: What is gonna happen? Do we all continue? Or is it a major rewrite, you know?”
“A major rewrite” is a shockingly understated Hollywood euphemism for the star possibly being killed or otherwise incapacitated! But actually, there are practical reasons for starting filming with the most difficult stunt. Preparing for it takes “years,” Cruise explained, even on top of his extensive stunt experience. “But to figure out the kind of thing to do something like that, we’re creating knowledge. We’re creating—it’s our understanding of story, our understanding of camera, how to do something like that, and it all kind of came to that moment.”
A pretty incredible behind-the-scenes featurette for the shot, which involved Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff, demonstrates exactly what he was talking about with ET. As McQuarrie explains in the video, the camera technology for this kind of stunt didn’t exist two years ago, so it required a lot of camera configuration on top of Cruise’s physical preparation. And the physical preparation was no joke: Cruise apparently did 30 jumps out of a plane per day, for a total of over 500 skydives, as well as more than 13,000 motocross jumps, all in service of his and McQuarrie’s mantra: “Don’t be careful, be competent.”
“I was training, I was ready, you have to be razor sharp when you do something like that,” the actor told ET. “So it was very important as we were prepping the film that that actually was the first thing, because you don’t—I don’t wanna drop that, and then go shoot other things, and then have my mind somewhere else. Everyone was prepped, let’s just get it done.”
And get it done they did. The tension is palpable behind the monitors as McQuarrie and crew observe Cruise pull off the stunt for the first time in the featurette, but all the hard work paid off—and he ended up doing the jump six times total. “It all comes down to one thing: the audience,” Cruise proclaims in the clip. Another mission made all the more possible.
41 Comments
Wait, Tom Cruise did his own stunts for this series!?
I like to imagine Brooke Shields watching the stunt from her folder chair and with a bag of popcorn, just in case something goes wrong.
Yeah, that’s really impressive and looks really cool.I’m wondering about two things:
Is the ramp in the movie…? If so, how does that make sense? If not, then okay they CGI it out, but how do they explain the bike’s very ramp-like trajectory?Holy crap, the amount of aviation fuel expended on helicoptering the ramp parts up to the cliff and all of Tom’s 7k skydives, all for a movie stunt.
They CGI it to look like the rest of the cliff. Then they edit it so that you don’t see the bike going up just before it goes off the cliff. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the finished shot somewhere and it looks reasonable.My question is: how much does insurance cost for these movies?
oh, a lot. Like, many, many dollars.
The latest trailers highlight this stunt. You probably saw it if you’ve been to the movie in the last month or so.
I’m sure it’s worth all the carbon being released into the air.
Causes of Global warming;1) Fossil fuel power plants2) Internal combustion cars3) Farting cows bred for the world’s increasing demand for beef4) Tom Cruise moviesI’m not sure of the relative contributions of these, but I imagine they are more or less equal across the four.
I’m not giving up my beef.
One day we will engineer a cow that can hold it in.
I was also wondering about the ramp in the final film, and it looks like they CGI’d it out to look like the rest of the hill. My question then is… what the F was the point of doing this stunt on this cliff if you’re just going to CGI it so heavily?
They highlight the final shot in the latest trailer. Not sure if they still have to clean up the final shot before release but this is at least where they were a month ago when this was released.
It’s in one of the trailers. They’ve disguised it with CGI to look like a very conveniently ramp-shaped rocky outcrop.
Okay, I’m impressed. I can’t imagine what goes through Tom Cruise’s mind when he decides “no, I’ll just do it myself.” It’s got to be something inherent in his personality. That is, I don’t think Scientology gives you special powers. Isaac Hayes never did anything like this.I hope that for part two of this movie the main stunt is Cruise running across a street in Tucson, Arizona. The scary challenge will be – can he make it before the walk sign changes to the red hand???!
Well just because Scientology didn’t give you any special powers…
Yes, something inherent in his personality, like extreme egomania.
“Well we know, either we’re gonna continue with the film, or we’re not,” he laughed. “Let’s know day one: What is gonna happen? Do we all continue? Or is it a major rewrite, you know?”This man is going to die onscreen. He really has ascended to some higher plane of existence and has nothing left to live for except putting his body in extreme danger for our amusement.
that higher plane of existence is called Thetan Level 8 I believe, and he also can heal people w/ the power of his mind and transcend space-time (Oh I WISH I were making that up, read your Scientology books and see I’m not)The best is that a lot of the higher-up Scientologists would finally get to level 8 or whatever and pay their 250,000 dollars to “ascend” and then read the stuff and be like “Wait, what? Is this a joke? This is what I’ve been working for 30 years to “achieve”?” Many of them would then just go along because at that point, you’ve fully lost control of the ship. Imagine having to go back to the missus and explain, “so, yeah, all those years? They WERE just batsh*t cray cray and ripping us off of all our money.”WHOOPSIE
“that higher plane of existence is called Thetan Level 8 I believe, and he also can heal people w/ the power of his mind and transcend space-time”- That’d be an OPERATING Thetan 8. (I’ve read too many books on Scientology … )
“Oh I WISH I were making that up”.Well, somebody did.
Hail Xenu!!!
Well, his amusement anyway.
Where was the SPCM* on this? Oh! The horror! All those poor, innocent motorcycles absolutely trashed!*Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Motorcycles
What do you think:A) Do professional stuntpersons think of Cruise as an honorary one of their own?B) Or do they just think he’s taking a job away from one of them?
He’s OTVIII, of course he’d make it.
Base jumping a motorcycle off a cliff is actually pretty straight forward compared to his Burj Khalifa stunt and his follow up “hanging off an airplane” stunt. Why is all the coverage about this movie trying to make it sound like this is the craziest stunt in the world?
Because… the studio is trying to promote the movie? It made a promotional video and likely sent out press packs pushing it. I’m not sure I understand what is confusing about what it obviously studio promotional materials.
My comment was rhetorical… for the most part. Clearly, it’s meant to promote the movie, though I’m not even talking about the studios promotions here. Any article (or youtube video) I read pushes the idea that this is the most intense stunt he’s done. They’re just parroting the same crap they read on other sites. I’m just tired of it.
Same. It’s his brand now, and it’s tired.
The number of likes the other response has is worrying. As if I don’t understand it’s a promotion… lmfao. Also, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been staying away from AV Club and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Commenters like Sheep, writers like Barsanti, and the numerous instances of flat out plagiarism (which I suspect this article is) have ruined the appeal of this site for me.
I’ve been avoiding it too. People log in for no other reason than bullying commenters who are trying to make a contribution or learn something new. The aggression is everywhere, though. Hell, I seldom leave our neighborhood after dark
Hey again, hope everything is well. I didn’t intend to stop in but I clicked a link and it brought me here haha.
Hello! Links be acting funny 😀
I guess they want you to click on the article, which “helps the algorithm” and maybe entice you to buy a ticket to the movie which helps the Tom Cruise.
My theories . . . where do they come from?
I’m sure there’s a story reason for it, but I find it a little tough to understand why you need to motorcycle off a cliff in order to parachute. A motorcycle dropping from the sky isn’t exactly covert.
When Lord Xenu protects you, anything is possible.
Everything’s ‘possible’. Except the Mission …
Wouldn’t you want to do that most dangerous thing last? Like, after both of the two parts of this film had been almost completely filmed? I’m assuming that Tom Cruise is going to die doing a stunt one of these days, so wouldn’t he at least want that film released posthumously? Unless he and McQuarrie have some script in their pocket for “Use In Case of Tom Cruise Stunt Death” where they do a “Bourne Legacy” and kill of Ethan Hunt in the first five minutes and a new MI agent has to avenge him.
“Tom put together a master plan.”
He’s an actor with a lot of experience. He’s not a master stunt coordinator/choreographer.
The video: All I could think of was when this was going to turn into a parody of a stunt video because the set-up is so perfect.
Three letters (and several million dollars saved): CGI
It’s nude scenes you shoot day 1, so the actors don’t back out once most of the film is in the can.I would think that you’d shoot super dangerous stunts last. That way, if Tom Cruise kills himself, the film is done except for stuff that can be done by professional stuntmen.