The Mission: Impossible movie franchise has been going strong for nearly 30 years, and the upcoming Dead Reckoning Part 1 and 2 are set to close the franchise with a bang. Cruise took to Twitter to thank his fans as he and his daredevil team of stunt experts go through what it takes to pull off a stunt that he has had in mind for years: a motorcycle jumps off into a cliff into a base jump.
Dead Reckoning has been long-delayed and actor/producer of the film, Tom Cruise, did not want the movie to hit streaming, a bet he similarly made for Top Gun: Maverick and one that paid off. The film was partially filmed in Norway, where the stunt takes place, and director/producer Christopher McQuarrie along with Cruise talks us through the process of what all has to happen to make this particular stunt work.
“There’s a lot going into this stunt,” McQuarrie explains. “So Tom put together this master plan to coordinate with all these experts in each of the disciplines involved to make this whole thing happen.”
“Don’t be careful, be confident,” Cruise adds. “You train for every little aspect, over, and over, and over again.” Cruise got to the point where he was doing 30 jumps a day and has done over 500 skydives for this movie alone.
So excited to share what we’ve been working on. #MissionImpossible pic.twitter.com/rIyiLzQdMG — Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) December 19, 2022
The crew even mentioned how to shoot these sorts of stunts, they had to invent and construct new techniques. Some of the lenses and cameras used weren’t even around two years ago during production.
Filming for both parts of Dead Reckoning was scheduled to begin near the end of February 2020, in Venice, set up to last for three weeks before moving to Rome in mid-March for 40 days. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, production in the country was halted, then just three weeks later, stunt rehearsals in England went on hiatus.
Then on July 6, 2020, after another hiatus, the crew arriving in the UK were given permission to begin filming without going through the mandatory 14-day quarantine. The set was located at Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden in Hertfordshire. Production was halted in Italy in October after 12 people tested positive for COVID-19 on set and resulting in Cruise’s infamous rally about safety.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 is scheduled to hit theaters July 14, 2023, with Part 2, next June.