I don’t think I’m ready to potentially say goodbye to Ethan Hunt, but the 2025 movie schedule looks like it may prepping audiences to do just that. What we know about Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning suggests that Tom Cruise may be saying farewell to his IMF days, so what better time to reflect on the franchise's past? Let's take a trip back in time and recall a Cruise injury that he kept working through in the name of entertainment.
When Cruise sat down for a recent interview with Empire, the much-maligned sequel Mission: Impossible 2 was discussed with a focus on the very memorable opening that features Ethan Hunt out in the wilderness doing some free climbing. It was recalled by the actor that on-location conditions made the idea of shooting the sequence a challenge, telling the magazine,
I wanted to do a climbing sequence. Throughout filming in Australia, there were weather challenges. It rained for 40 days. I felt like Noah. And the studio was like, ‘Listen, because of the rain, and [because] the schedule is over, let’s find another opening to the movie.’ Every day people were coming in with different pitches. I was like, ‘I don’t know how else to open the movie.’
Anyone who knows how this action superstar/leading man works knows that if Tom Cruise sets his mind on doing something, very little will convince him to go the other way. That sort of thinking is what convinced him to travel from the second Mission: Impossible movie's on-location shoot in Australia to Moab, Utah. The mission: to free climb Dead Horse Point, in an era without on-set radios.
Setting the scene during his story, Cruise mentions “gale force winds” complicating the shoot, and while there was a cable attached to provide an assist in case something went wrong, the Syracuse-born legend would have still been in a world of pain.
What most people probably don't know is that he was already in plenty of pain, as Tom Cruise revealed that he actually filmed the Mission: Impossible 2 opening sequence with a broken foot. Said the actor,
As I’m doing the Iron Cross, I’m actually hanging there, but it isn’t quite right, and you can see it. I was like, ‘Just tell me this is the shot, because I can’t do it again.’ What people don’t know is that there’s a section where I’m jumping high to low, but my foot was broken. And I never mentioned it to anyone. Some of these injuries, what’s the point? You just keep going. So I’m jumping, and my foot wasn’t right. John Woo was like, ‘We’ve got the shot.’ I was like, ‘No, we want it in one shot, I gotta keep doing it.’ And that’s the shot that’s in the movie. But it was so much fun working with John, doing that sequence, because I knew it was our [marketing] campaign.
Naturally, when hearing about how Tom Cruise broke his foot for this Mission: Impossible entry, that infamous Fallout ankle injury came to mind almost instantly. In that particular case, he wasn't able to keep shooting, however, and production was put on hiatus for a couple of months.
Once again, Tom Cruise and his cinematic acumen have served his audience well. I personally remember being hyped when the teaser for Mission: Impossible 2 rolled into theaters with that cliff stunt as a major part of the tease. You can experience that moment for yourself below:
If you thought this story was crazy, I recommend you look up the anecdote about how Tom Cruise encouraged co-star Dougray Scott to give his all on the scene where a knife comes within close range of his eye. Don’t worry, you’ve got plenty of time to debrief on all things Mission: Impossible, as The Final Reckoning isn't arriving until May 23. Since public opinion on Mission: Impossible 2 has been evolving, reflecting on the first sequel in the franchise could be a fun way to pass the time.
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