MORE OG ROMSDAL, NORWAY: Tom Cruise is renowned for his own crazy stunts ranging from hanging off the side of a building in 'Mission: Impossible' and scaling the Burj Khalifa in 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol' to running across London's rooftops in 'Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation'. Now in the upcoming installment of the franchise, 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One', set to debut on June 12, Cruise performs a risky motorcycle stunt.
The 60-year-old continues to be a popular action figure in Hollywood, thanks to his passion for performing his own stunts. Previously, while explaining why he dislikes using a stunt double, he said "I feel that [when acting] you're bringing everything, you know, physically and emotionally, to a character in a story."
According to reports, Cruise, for his new film 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' recorded the motorcycle stunt on the first day of filming. The action star recently explained to Entertainment Tonight why he and director Christopher McQuarrie started the filming process with the most perilous scene. In the shot, Cruise is seen riding a motorcycle down a cliff before opening a parachute, which drops him to the ground unharmed while the bike smashes.
Why did Tom Cruise perform the stunt first?
The reason for filming the risky stunt first, according to Cruise, who is touring to promote the summer blockbuster, was to make sure that if he got hurt, the $200 million picture would not be stuck in a limbo mid-shoot. "Well we know either we will continue with the film or we're not - let's know day one!" said the actor, who portrays Ethan Hunt in the action movie series. "Let's know day one, what is going to happen: Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?"
'I was training and I was ready'
The veteran of the entertainment industry previously had an ankle injury while filming 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout', which hampered production. The A-list actor claimed that he was completely focused on the motorcycle-related cinematic action scene as it called for the highest level of physical dexterity. "I was training and I was ready. You have to be razor sharp when you're doing something like that," Cruise said to the outlet. "It was very important as we were prepping the film that it was actually the first thing. I don't want to drop that and go shoot other things and have my mind somewhere else." The attitude going into filming it, he continued, was "Everyone was prepped - let's just get it done."
'It's such a living, breathing thing'
Cruise also claimed that capturing the moment was a synthesis of his prior expertise in performing stunts and the creative techniques used by the directors in the film. The film's director, Christopher McQuarrie, talked to Empire magazine earlier this month and explained that the risky stunt used to start filming established the tone for the entire project. "Doing that on day one gave us all the time in the world to understand why he [Ethan] was doing what he was doing," he stated. "If we sat around and tried to figure out these movies the old-fashioned way, you'd never find it, simply because it's such a living, breathing thing."
