One of the most exciting things about going to see a Mission: Impossible movie is the nervous excitement of what Tom Cruise will do on screen.
The theatrical experience is a sacred and unique experience heralded by Cruise. So when he stars in one of these movies, he makes sure you see something you’re not going to get anywhere else.
We’re seven movies into the series, and each one has raised the stakes, from the kinds of stunts Tom Cruise performs to the ingenious set pieces that keep us on the edge of our seats.
Now, Insider has released a video that shows lots of behind-the-scenes conversations nad shots explaining just how they get these stunts on screen.
Let’s check it out together.
How Tom Cruise Pulled Off 12 ‘Mission: Impossible’ Stunts | Movies Insider | Insider
Tom Cruise is one of the most important showmen of this era and one of the last movie stars.
When he makes movies like this, I always think he is a mixture of Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton. There’s just some deft and exciting work here.
The stunts in these movies really took off with the second movie, where Cruise was free-climbing a mountain in the opening scene. And from there, it became sort of a game, with Cruise one-upping himself as the movies went on.
We’ve see him Halo jump, scale the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and hang off an airplane flying 1,000 feet in the air.
Each of these stunts took hours of rehearsals, with Cruise actually clocking in around 200 hours of practice climbing of the Burj. And when hanging off the plane, Cruise was alone in the air for around six to eight minutes for each take.
In Dead Reckoning, he jumped a motorcycle off a cliff and then parachuted off it. To prepare for that, he did over 13,000 motocross jumps so it became second nature for him.
And it’s not just the stunts, but getting the shots as well.
When they shot his most recent motorcycle jump, they had to have a camera on a gimble attached to a hang glider. The cameraman flew over Cruise in order to follow him down.
Behind every one of these scenes is months of planning and safety. There is an excellent crew planning for every contingency, and also a lot of excited people ready to make movie history.
These movies are truly huge events that have to be seen on the big screen to be believed.
Cruise and the whole production team have ensured that when you sit down in a theater to see a film in this series, you’ll get an experience like nowhere else.
Directors have come and gone in this series, but each movie has been designed to keep the audience coming back for spectacular visuals and storytelling over and over.
What are your favorite stunts in these movies?
Let me know in the comments.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
