The shot of Tom Cruise using a bike off the facet of a mountain has already develop into an iconic a part of Mission: Not possible – Lifeless Reckoning Half One. Somewhat than make followers look ahead to the film to see Cruise’s newest death-defying stunt, the shot was an enormous a part of the movie’s promotion. Whereas the stunt was clearly harmful for Cruise, the quantity of issues that might have gone improper is kind of in depth, and it seems one among them virtually did.
The very first scene scene for the brand new Mission: Not possible film featured Tom Cruise’s climactic bike leap. It was mentioned, principally joking, that the rationale the scene was shot first was in order that if Cruise died consequently, no one would waste their time making the remainder of the film. However which will have been nearer to the reality than we knew. Speaking to Capitol FM Cruise mentioned the stunt at size. He talked concerning the quantity of prep that was finished to verify it could possibly be finished safely, which Cruise says he really actually enjoys. He defined…
The quantity of information that goes into one thing like that may be very thrilling. I take pleasure in studying and I take pleasure in pushing cinema in that approach.
Watching the scene, we see a man who primarily must keep away from crashing right into a mountain both earlier than or after he pulls his parachute. And whereas that’s definitely a problem, there was additionally much more that Cruise wanted to do to maintain himself protected. The method of filming the scene added extra problems, since there was a helicopter that he was hooked up to and a drone that was doing the precise filming. And naturally, Cruise nonetheless has to do the stunt in a approach that’s going to work on digital camera, as a result of, oh yeah, they’re additionally making an attempt to movie a film by all this. Cruise continued…
However even simply as I’m going over [the ramp], the helicopter that’s sort of, you recognize, I needed to be in sync with that helicopter pilot, as a result of if he’s within the improper place, he’s gonna blow me off the ramp. I had a drone that’s following me. I might do this stuff, but when we don’t get the shot, we don’t get the shot.
However even with all that preparation, there have been nonetheless issues that might, and almost did, go improper. Cruise says that in one take, the wind currents blew him off target and despatched him into the facet of a mountain. Fortunately, he was in a position to alter and forestall something catastrophic from occurring. Cruise mentioned…
You can see within the digital press package that I’m leaping out of a helicopter proper earlier than I do it as a result of I’ve to check the wind currents within the bowl; they alter in a short time. You may see that after I opened [my parachute] I used to be a bit off as a result of I had a crosswind, and my shoulder was just a bit up. The parachute opened and the second it opened it was pulling me into the facet of the mountain. When you pull, it’s important to rapidly be prepared to regulate.
Fortunately, regardless of doing a little fairly insane stunts the worst damage Tom Cruise has sustained is a damaged ankle. There doubtless wasn’t a option to get off that simple if one thing unhealthy had occurred on this stunt. Fortunately, all that preparation was price it and he was in a position to deal with it went issues began to go sideways.
