When it comes to his death-defying Mission: Impossible stunts, Tom Cruise approaches them with the utmost care. We wrote at length about the amount of preparation that went into that terrifying motorcycle jump off of a cliff. And he has walked us through numerous eye-popping stunts that were part of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One alone… forget about the entire franchise. When it came to the one-handed Fiat car chase that has been featured in the various Dead Reckoning trailers, though, Cruise says he had an unexpected concern because of filming in Rome.
The Mission: Impossible team did an extensive press tour in Rome in the lead up to the eventual release of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One. And Tom Cruise joined his director, Christopher McQuarrie, to break down some of the obstacles that came with shooting the Fiat stunt sequence. In that scene, McQuarrie ups the ante by having Cruise handcuffed to his co-star, Hayley Atwell. Which made driving that much harder. And in the process, Cruise said it presented this unexpected challenge:
It was quite a challenge because I did not want to hit any buildings. Of course, I did not want to hit anything. … I don’t know how people feel about scooters in Rome, but we took out a few scooters.
Par for the course when you are filming a Mission: Impossible sequence. Which is interesting because Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One isn’t the first blockbuster this summer season to film in Rome. Earlier, Fast X had a sequence where a giant “bomb” rolled through the cobblestone streets of Rome, and director Louis Leterrier talked about the precautions they had to take to protect the historical city. Which is what Cruise and company did, apparently, as they captured the action sequences for the upcoming action sequel. Listen to Cruise and McQuarrie talk about the sequence on Instagram:
Things are about to get very busy at the multiplexes. Even though the last few movies have opened soft, there’s hope that the trifecta of Mission: Impossible, Barbie, and Oppenheimer will boost a modest (but arguably lackluster) season to date. Keep track of everything else that is coming to theaters in 2023 by checking our guide and refreshing it often.
