This is Officially the Craziest Thing Tom Cruise Has Done (So Far)
Top Gun: Maverick has been one of the most talked-about films of 2022.
Not only because it was a major success, and a great sequel to a beloved movie, but also because it gave a much-needed boost to the theatre industry, struggling as the result of the pandemic.
Tom Cruise absolutely refused to sell it to streaming services, while it was in theatres.
And now, Cruise is preparing to unleash another big screen event. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 is scheduled to land in theaters July 14, 2023. You can see its new trailer:
And consequently, Cruise is already promoting his new film. Recently he appeared Jimmy Kimmel Live!, both to remind everyone about Top Gun: Maverick one more time before Oscars, and to talk about the new Mission: Impossible.
And among the topics of the conversation was the crazy motorbike stunt, you can see in the trailer above. And yes, that was really Cruise, not a stunt double, playing in it.
The stunt, as you can see, involves Cruise riding a motorbike off a cliff, getting into a free fall, and saving himself by opening his parachute at the last moment.
In reality the time window was almost as unforgiving as in the movie – and they had to film the sequence eight times. Cruise said that he had about "six seconds to open the parachute".
The filming crew also had to make sure that Cruise is not attached to the bike in any way. Even his shoelaces were carefully taped, to avoid getting stuck in any of the bike's details.
Cruise already had a reputation of a daredevil, who does his own stunts, and the Mission: Impossible series has been marked by stunts becoming ever more intense and dramatic with each new film.
The two-part Dead Reckoning is supposed to become the finale of Mission: Impossible, and it looks like both Cruise and his crew are trying their best to outdo themelves and end the series with a bang.
Furthermore, as far as we can tell from the trailers and other teaser materials, they are succeeding. Hopefully, the new Mission Impossible won't lose in quality to the new Top Gun.