How did they film the Mission: Impossible motorbike stunt?
Tom Cruise attempts his most audacious stunt yet in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1.
Tom Cruise is never one to shy away from audacious action sequences – but even by his own standards the headline stunt in the latest Mission: Impossible film will take some beating.
During the film's epic climactic sequence, Cruise's character Ethan Hunt launches himself off a cliff on a motorcycle before parachuting onto a moving train. Not bad for a day's work!
Cruise – who has repeatedly passionately flown the flag for practical effects in action movies – has called the stunt the most dangerous he's ever attempted.
But just how was the scene put together? Read on for everything you need to know.
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How did they film the Mission: Impossible motorbike stunt?
Most people watching the film – or at least a significant portion of them – would probably initially assume that there must be some kind of CGI trickery involved in the scene, but that is not the case at all.
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Everything you see on screen was actually done for real – and not only that, it was filmed on the very first day of the movie's production.
"We know either we will continue with the film or we're not. Let's know day one!" Cruise told explained to Entertainment Tonight when asked for the reasoning behind that decision.
"Let us know day one what is going to happen: Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?"
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- Mission: Impossible's Simon Pegg would "love" a Benji and Ilsa spin-off
- Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell on what surprised her about Tom Cruise
Cruise also outlined the incredibly rigorous training process he went through to prepare for the stunt, explaining that he performed over 500 skydives and over 13,000 motocross jumps in preparation.
"I was training and I was ready," he said. "You have to be razor sharp when you're doing something like that. 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. Everyone was prepped. Let's just get it done."
You might think that pulling off the stunt once would be challenging enough – but believe it or not Cruise actually filmed six takes of the scene, with a major cleanup operation required each time.
According to Insider, a team of people at the sight of the jump in Norway was employed "for recovering and disposing of all the broken pieces of motorcycle that shattered on impact before the next jump was attempted."
For a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the scene, you can check out the below featurette appropriately titled The Biggest Stunt in Cinema History:
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- Meet the cast of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1
- Mission: Impossible's Simon Pegg would "love" a Benji and Ilsa spin-off
- Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell on what surprised her about Tom Cruise
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.
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