[Video] Tom Cruise Faces Death in His WILDEST ‘Mission: Impossible’ Stunt Yet
Tom Cruise showed fans how far he’s willing to go for a Mission: Impossible movie. He famously jumped off a cliff while riding a motorcycle, all for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1. Cruise called it his “craziest stunt yet.” He’s known for doing his own dangerous stunts, but this one took things to a whole new level.
The movie was filmed all over the world. Production was supposed to start in Venice in February 2020, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Italy, everything stopped. A few weeks later, the team started practicing stunts back in England.
In August 2020, Cruise and the crew got permission to film in Norway. That’s where they shot the now-famous motorcycle jump off a cliff. Director Christopher McQuarrie posted photos from the set on Instagram when filming officially kicked off in September 2020. Cruise also filmed a dangerous train fight scene in Norway, standing on top of a moving train with actor Esai Morales.
During filming in Oxfordshire, England, a fire broke out on a motorcycle stunt rig. The Daily Mail reported that it took six weeks to set up that scene, which was one of the most expensive action scenes ever filmed in the U.K. Luckily, no one was hurt.
Filming didn’t always go smoothly. In Italy, production shut down again when 12 crew members tested positive for COVID-19. Then, in London, Cruise famously shouted at crew members who broke safety rules. A leaked audio recording captured him saying he didn’t want the film shut down again because of carelessness. Fans and other actors mostly supported him after that. Some people said he sounded just like his character from Tropic Thunder, Les Grossman.
One of the most talked-about scenes in the film involved a massive train crash. The crew wanted to film this scene in the Swiss Alps but weren’t allowed to blow up a bridge there. They looked for another location and found an old railway bridge in Poland. However, locals weren’t happy when they heard the filmmakers wanted to destroy part of the historic bridge for the movie.
Polish newspapers like Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the bridge was built in 1912 and had survived two world wars. Eventually, after protests and petitions, the bridge was saved and added to Poland’s national heritage list.
Director McQuarrie said on Instagram that they “never planned to blow up the whole bridge,” just a small, unsafe part of it. He also said “there was no disrespect intended.” Still, the controversy grew, and producer Andrew Eksner even sued the film’s crew for breach of contract.
Since blowing up the Polish bridge was no longer possible, the team built their own fake railway line and bridge on the edge of a quarry in the Peak District in England. In August 2021, they finally filmed the big train crash by sending a full-sized train mock-up off a cliff.
The parachute and speed-flying scenes were shot in England’s Lake District during the summers of 2021 and 2022. Cruise jumped off steep hillsides in High Crag and Robinson, with landings near the lake below. These scenes were some of the riskiest in the movie. Norwegian officials also helped the crew safely plan the motorcycle jump stunt.
Throughout the shoot, Cruise kept pushing limits. As McQuarrie explained, “That’s just what Tom does.” Fans now know exactly how much work, danger, and controversy went into making these stunts happen. And Cruise seems happy to keep risking it all for every new Mission: Impossible film.
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