Tom Cruise On What It Takes To Shoot The Most Difficult Stunt Of His Career In 'Mission: Impossible 7'

Hollywood star Tom Cruise, who turned 61 on July 3, 2023 will star in upcoming film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1. Cruise has performed chilling stunts throughout his filmography, including the Mission Impossible and Top Gun franchise and had no qualms about performing even more dangerous stunts in his latest, despite turning a year older.

In Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Cruise will be seen doing several high-octane stunts, one of which includes riding a motorbike off a cliff and base jumping. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Cruise was asked why he chose to begin the film with the hair-raising stunt

“Well, that way we’d know either we are going to continue with the film or not! ‘Let’s know on day one what is going to happen, do we all continue or is it a major rewrite,” says Cruise, reports Midday. The Hollywood star said that a lot of energy, equipment and preparation time had gone into getting him stunt-ready for that particular take. Cruise wanted to get into the specifics of the scene right away and said it was crucial he shot the stunt on the first day of filming and prevent the rest of the shoot from getting delayed.

“It was very important as we were prepping the film that the stunt actually was the first thing. Because I don’t want to drop that and shoot other things, and have my mind somewhere else. Everyone was prepped. You don’t want to be waking up in the middle of the night thinking, ‘I still have that left to do,'” he added.

The stunt in question was shot in the mountainous landscapes of Norway. For Cruise, who had been a motorcycle and adrenaline enthusiast for nearly all his life, this stunt had been a childhood dream. But dreams come with their perils –

“Preparing for something like that was years (of experience). I had been riding motorcycles since I was a little kid, raced cars and spent a lot of time with aerobatics, airplanes, helicopters, parachutes. But to figure out something like that… It is our understanding of story, understanding of camera, how to do something like that, it all kind of came in that moment. I had trained for it, you have to be razor sharp when you do something like that," he says.

The stunt is arguably one of the most dangerous in not just Mission Impossible but cinematic history. Fans couldn’t be more excited to watch it on the big screen

Christopher McQuarrie, who previously helmed Rogue Nation and Fallout, has directed Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The film is ready to hit screens on July 12. He is also directing the sequel, which is slated for release in 2024