See Tom Cruise Terrify The Mission: Impossible Crew With His Most Dangerous Stunt
Tom Cruise performed his most dangerous stunt, speed-flying, for Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning.
In past installments of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Tom Cruise has garnered high praise and audience favor by performing his own stunts, including high-speed motorcycle chases and dangling from the side of an airplane as it lifts off into the sky. According to a write-up in The Hollywood Reporter, Tom Cruise terrified the entire Mission: Impossible team while filming an incredibly dangerous speed-flying scene, colliding through the air near-uncontrollably at over 80 kilometers per hour.
Tom Cruise may very well be one of the most high-profile adrenaline seekers to ever walk the Earth, with each installment of the Mission: Impossible film series seemingly exploring a number of practical stunts which grow more and more dangerous as the franchise goes on.
In the latest promotional material for the upcoming film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which is available to view on YouTube, Cruise dons a speed flying suit and leaps from the rocky mountains of The Lake District in the United Kingdom, engaging in a high-stress sport that is too extreme for some of the world’s greatest athletes.
The entire Mission: Impossible team seemed to be completely mortified at Tom Cruise’s adrenaline-seeking behavior, though writer/director Christopher McQuarrie explained that this is the kind of shocking set-piece that the crew has come to expect, as the Mission: Impossible films tend to up the ante for crazed stunts with each new installment.
The danger of speed flying is highlighted within the promo material, from shots of looming dark clouds overhead and flags whipping in the wind to comments made by Cruise himself admitting that the stunt is only possible after taking two full years to train.
This is an unforeseen positive aspect of the film’s many delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted production for a number of years behind the scenes, allowing Tom Cruise and his technical team enough time to skillfully master the art of speed flying, as well as providing the cinematography team the ability to rig specialty foley rigs to shoot the sequence.
To bring audiences into the high-octane adrenaline in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the team constructed a one-of-a-kind speed flying suit rigged with operating camera equipment that flanks each of Tom Cruises’ sides as he careens through the air.
The promotional material available on YouTube provides only a small taste of what the final sequence in the film is set to offer, with the adrenaline rush of Tom Cruise’s high-flying scene shot and edited expertly in classic Mission: Impossible fashion.
At one point in the video, viewers get a glimpse at something previously unimaginable as Tom Cruise surveys the horrific weather conditions and ultimately concludes that it is too dangerous to fly under these conditions, proving that the adrenaline-craved madman actually has a limit.
Tom Cruise can be seen performing the incredible stunt in all its glory in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which hits theaters July 12.
