It's common knowledge how much Tom Cruise loves doing his own stunts in films. He really likes doing things practically rather than with CGI. However, his big zero-gravity moment in The Mummy apparently took quite a bit of time to get right. Tom Cruise apparently went weightless 64 times in order to get all the footage we see in the final film. The good news is that Cruise didn't throw up even once during the entire process. The same cannot be said for other members of the cast and crew. According to director Alex Kurtzman...
There was a lot of barfing.
To simulate weightlessness, a plane has to go up very high into the air, and then drop at a fairly steep angle and high speed in order to throw everything inside the plane into a state that is similar to zero gravity. Generally speaking, such movements can have negative impacts on the contents of your stomach, which, according to Crusie's co-star Annabelle Wallis' comments at CinemaCon (via Variety) lead several people to be sick while filming.
Of course, even the steeliest stomach can begin to weaken when you have to do 64 takes. It's not too surprising when you think about it. The period of weightlessness that this method provides is fairly minimal, causing the plane to have to climb and dive again and again. Since the scene in the trailer alone, which likely isn't the entire scene, shows us several seconds of weightlessness, it likely means that several takes would have been necessary in order to string the entire scene together, even if each one had been perfect. Add to that the fact that being thrown around an airplane, by its very nature is the sort of situation that can be difficult to control and it's far from shocking if many takes got ruined when the actors had trouble doing what they needed to do.
One wonders if Tom Crusie may have regretted his decision to do the stunt practically around take 30 or so. Anabelle Wallis admitted that the actor was given the option to do the stunt on a soundstage but that Crusie opted for the real thing. Wallis did not discuss how she felt about his decision. According to Wallis...
Tom is renowned for making sure that the audience gets the most out of their cinematic experience. So when it came to doing this sequence we had options to do it on a stage. Tom, in his glory and slight madness, was adamant that he wanted it to be done on a plane in zero gravity.
Tom Cruise has hung from buildings and airplanes in the Mission: Impossible movies and has said one of his conditions for ever doing a Top Gun sequel would be the ability to actually get up in the air inside the fighter jets. It's clear that he loves the physical side of acting in action films. We'll get to see all his crazy stunts in The Mummy when the movie is released June 9.
