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Tom Cruise is no stranger to heavy action and breathtaking stunt work. Over the almost 30 years of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Cruise has put himself in dozens of dangerous situations, but for one particular stunt for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1, Cruise had to train for a few years to make it work and it involved the sport of speedflying.
At first sight, speedflying might seem like paragliding or even sky diving, but it’s much more dangerous, and only a few people in the world actually actively participate in it. “One of the things that is particularly dangerous about speedflying is the close proximity to the ground that you’re flying,” director Christopher McQuarrie told Popular Mechanics. “And the other is the risk that the canopy can collapse. It’s very unpredictable.”
Setting up the stunt was only the first challenge; the other was developing new technology to show Cruise performing it. The crew devised a gimbal rig with cameras hanging from both sides, operated from a helicopter not far from Cruise’s Ethan Hunt while in flight.
“Flying very close to rocks looks quite beautiful,” McQuarrie said. “Behind the scenes, we were all in absolute terror.”
Dead Reckoning Part 1 will finally hit theaters on July 12, with Part 2 arriving on June 28, 2024. There have been more features about the wild stunts that Cruise and his team performed for the film. The most talked-about ones include the wrecking of a 70-ton train and a base jump scene that was filmed on the first day just in case Cruise died.
