Tom Cruise fulfilled childhood fantasy of 'throwing train off a cliff' with ‘Mission: Impossible 7' stunt
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Tom Cruise, the "stunt god," saved "Hollywood's a**" in 2022, according to filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who added that the 61-year-old "might have saved theatrical distribution." The action hero who is set to premiere the seventh installment of the 'Mission: Impossible' series with 'Dead Reckoning Part One' has been portraying Ethan Hunt for 27 years, with the first film in the franchise opening in theaters in 1997.
Cruise is renowned for his love of filmmaking, his desire to amuse fans, and his struggle for providing the realistic theater experience a patron can have. Over the past three decades, Ethan Hunt's stunts have become legendary because the actor keeps pushing the envelope with each new movie. This time, Hunt and Hayley Atwell's character Grace are involved in an action-packed train scene that will leave audiences catching their breaths. The actor revealed to Complex how his death-defying stunt in 'Mission: Impossible 7' allowed him to fulfil his childhood dream of "throwing a train off a cliff."
Tom Cruise's childhood fantasy
According to the site, the train scene in the upcoming film is one of the "wildest set pieces in any Mission: Impossible movie." While discussing the dangerous stunt, Cruise said, "That's McQ [Christopher McQuarrie]. McQ designed that whole thing and we had to build the train for that." He continued that he gained more knowledge about trains, tracks, recommended track widths, weight limits, and top speeds while doing the scene. The 61-year-old also discussed his early wish to throw a train off a cliff. He added, "But as a kid, I played with trains. McQ played with trains. We always wanted to throw a train off a cliff or blow it up. So to be able to have that opportunity to do that—and [through] his design of those things, you see the character progression throughout—it was quite spectacular," he said.
'Can't believe that this is happening'
While describing the scene, Cruise said that they were filming it in Norway and that he couldn't believe that this is happening." "How lucky are we to be here to be able to do this?" he continued. "With Esai Morales doing very sophisticated fights as the train is rocking back and forth at, I don't know, 50, 60 miles an hour. And the cars at the end, the stuff that we went through."
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'We're sprinting up'
It takes a lot of planning to create those characters and color schemes, among other things, as per Cruise. "When you look at it, you have Vanessa [Kirby] and the champagne [she wears]," said the actor. "You know we're also thinking about the story, and the progression of that story, and where to end that story." Even the colors inside that car, where it finishes, were extremely carefully analyzed, according to the star. It was extremely clear where it would take place, where Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and the other characters would be, and how it would end at that certain time. Hayley has never performed feats like this before, he continued. "When you see that car go vertical, we're sprinting up. I don't know if you've ever sprinted up a train car when it's going down?" Cruise added.