Photo: Empire
Even by the incredibly high standards set by Tom Cruise, Hollywood’s highest-profile stuntman and action hero, the piece de resistance from the upcoming Mission: Impossible 7 is insane. He’s the first to admit it.
In September 2020, when Mission: Impossible 7 was basically the only big-budget Hollywood film still in production because everything else was shut down, Cruise was in Norway. Footage emerged on social media, showing him riding a dirt bike along a very long ramp on top of a mountain. That alone would have sent shivers down a regular person’s spine, but not Tom’s. He jumped off the ramp, bike and all.
Technically, he BASE jumped. A parachute deployed after a few seconds, with the actor landing at the foot of the mountain in safety. The bike was an entirely different story, crashing at some distance: strangely, despite the longstanding partnership with BMW, this one was a Honda. The scene was captured by several drones and a helicopter—which may or may not also appear in the movie.
MI7 doesn’t drop until 2022, but Cruise is already hyping it with a brand new interview with Empire. It marks the first time he talks about this stunt which, unsurprisingly, he calls his most dangerous he’s ever done. To boot, he was under pressure because he knew his movie was the only one to shoot at the time, so many people’s earnings rested on his shoulders. It was “emotional” and nerve-racking, but, in the end, he was glad he did it.
But consider this: the tiniest error or miscalculation could have killed him.
“If the wind was too strong, it would blow me off the ramp,” Cruise explains for the magazine. “The helicopter was a problem, because I didn’t want to be hammering down that ramp at top speed and get hit by a stone. Or if I departed in a weird way, we didn’t know what was going to happen with the bike. I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that’s not going to end well.”
Fortunately, we know it did end well. The scene is spectacular seen from a great distance, as you can see below. Watch it and imagine how much more impressive it’s going to look in IMAX after editing in post-production.
Technically, he BASE jumped. A parachute deployed after a few seconds, with the actor landing at the foot of the mountain in safety. The bike was an entirely different story, crashing at some distance: strangely, despite the longstanding partnership with BMW, this one was a Honda. The scene was captured by several drones and a helicopter—which may or may not also appear in the movie.
MI7 doesn’t drop until 2022, but Cruise is already hyping it with a brand new interview with Empire. It marks the first time he talks about this stunt which, unsurprisingly, he calls his most dangerous he’s ever done. To boot, he was under pressure because he knew his movie was the only one to shoot at the time, so many people’s earnings rested on his shoulders. It was “emotional” and nerve-racking, but, in the end, he was glad he did it.
But consider this: the tiniest error or miscalculation could have killed him.
“If the wind was too strong, it would blow me off the ramp,” Cruise explains for the magazine. “The helicopter was a problem, because I didn’t want to be hammering down that ramp at top speed and get hit by a stone. Or if I departed in a weird way, we didn’t know what was going to happen with the bike. I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that’s not going to end well.”
Fortunately, we know it did end well. The scene is spectacular seen from a great distance, as you can see below. Watch it and imagine how much more impressive it’s going to look in IMAX after editing in post-production.
Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise are taking Mission: Impossible 7 to another level pic.twitter.com/eZaa5z8s5Y
— zach (@ZachMacieI) September 7, 2020
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