Paramount Pictures
Despite the fact that he’s now 60 years old, there are few people in Hollywood — if any at all — that take the craft of movie-making as seriously as Tom Cruise. It’s why he’s spent years risking his life for the sake of believable stunts and why he’s such a proponent of the theatrical experience: to his core, Tom Cruise simply *loves* entertaining people via cinema.
For his latest trick, this time in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One — releasing in movie theaters across the United States on Friday, July 12 — Cruise drove a motorcycle off the side of a mountain and into a base jump.
As it turns out, though, the base jump that Cruise pulls off has a more technical term: speed flying.
In a recent video posted to social media, Cruise shared an incredible behind-the-scenes look at how they pulled off the instantly iconic motorcycle jump by utilizing “one of the most dangerous sports in the world.”
“While it may look very similar,” director Christopher McQuarrie says in the video, “speed flying is not skydiving. Skydiving is fairly predictable. Speed flying is incredibly unpredictable.”
In addition to Cruise in his seventh outing as Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One also stars Rebecca Ferguson, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, Rob Delaney, Henry Czerny, and Cary Elwes.
Having seen the film for myself a few weeks ago, what struck me most about Dead Reckoning Part One is its sheer confidence, as if everyone involved in the production clearly knew the culture has spent the last 5 years calling its predecessor, Mission: Impossible – Fallout an all-time great action film.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will hit movie theaters in the United States on Friday, July 12. You can check out the official trailer below.