That Time Tom Cruise Basically Forced His Cameraman to Do a Blood-Curdling Stunt With Him
The moment was totally worth the effort.
It's no secret that Tom Cruise remains one of the actors who are willing to take on the craziest stunt challenges, risking his own life and health with every action movie he stars in. At this point, legends are being told about the actor's work ethic and dedication to his craft, which is totally admirable.
However, there are people involved in stunts who don't get enough recognition and praise for what they do. The crew members who have to follow the sequences of what the actors are doing are sometimes exposed to the same dangers but aren't talked about nearly enough.
One of the cinematographers working on Mission: Impossible - Fallout in 2018 had to perform one of the most dangerous stunts ever done for a movie.
Tom Cruise, who portrays Ethan Hunt, had to jump out of the plane and perform a High Altitude Low Open skydive, also known as a HALO jump.
The idea of a jump, both in real life and in the movie, is for a person to cross the border of another country undetected. Adding to the difficulty is the filmmaking process itself: not only did Cruise have to do everything perfectly, but he also had to face the camera at the right angle and land within its reach.
A trick that not many professional agents could probably pull off.
The complicated process of training for the shoot was filmed by Paramount Pictures and released separately. The video consists of many people, from director Christopher McQuarrie to Allan Hewitt, the skydiving coordinator on the set, talking about the experience.
However, the cameraman, who was caught on that behind-the-scenes video, and had to do virtually the same thing, is nowhere to be seen or heard.
While it may have been a conscious decision by the cameraman to stay out of the spotlight and maintain his privacy, many viewers felt that he didn't get nearly enough recognition and praise.
The good thing is that the Internet took it upon itself to deliver justice, flooding the comments with words of praise and gratitude.
If you want to re-watch Mission: Impossible - Fallout and see what the stunt looks like in the final cut, you can stream the movie on Netflix, Paramount Plus, or Amazon Prime Video.