How Tom Cruise pulled off the biggest stunt in cinema history
The secrets behind an incredible Tom Cruise stunt – dubbed the biggest and most dangerous in cinema history – have been revealed.
The 61-year-old, famous for performing his own action stunts, sets pulses racing in his new Mission: Impossible film, released on Monday, when he rides a motorbike off a cliff and falls from the sky.
Now, the extent of the behind-the-scenes work to prepare for that one jaw-dropping scene has been unveiled.
A remarkable ten-minute video from Paramount Pictures explains how Cruise undertook years of training, including 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps, for the scene.
It begins with writer and director Christopher McQuarrie admitting: ‘This is far and away the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted.’
The ramp in Norway was constructed over several months, with all the equipment having to be brought in by helicopter.
Filming could only take place if the weather conditions were perfect, both in terms of light and cloud cover – ‘misty, but not foggy’.
BASE jumping coach John Devore admitted in the video: ‘Of course, when something’s being done for the first time you can’t help but worry a little bit about how it’s really going to turn out.’
Daisher added: ‘If you don’t get a clean exit from the bike and you get tangled up with it, if you don’t open your parachute then you’re not going to make it.’
Fortunately, Cruise performed the stunt without any hitches, and was even willing to go back for more takes.
As one crew member recalled: ‘Tom Cruise just rode a motorcycle off a cliff six times today.’
After the suspense-filled jumps, McQuarrie said: ‘The only thing that scares me more is what we have planned for Mission [Impossible] 8.’
Cruise summed up the experience by saying: I’ve wanted to do it since I was a little kid. It all comes down to one thing – the audience.’