Tom Cruise is known for his willingness to pull off some impressive stunts in his films, but this new behind-the-scenes video of a stunt for Mission: Impossible - Fallout shows off what might be the most insane stunt yet. The work that was involved in the actor's high altitude low-open (HALO) jump for the new movie required a crazy amount of preparation, and an equally crazy degree of precision, to get it right. And all that's before you think about the fact that the stunt itself is just plain crazy. Check it out.
Jumping out of airplane around 25,000 feet in the air is certainly a Mission: Impossible worthy stunt, but the work that went into shooting this one scene was just nuts. First, the movie has to build a massive wind tunnel so everybody can rehearse what Tom Cruise actually needs to do while in the air. Then comes over 100 standard parachute jumps so they can practice the scene in the air and get the filming right because remember, Cruise isn't the only guy making this jump. There's also a guy with a camera who has to do everything Tom Cruise does, only backward and with a camera strapped to his face. The pair had to learn how to not crash into each other.
Director Christopher McQuarrie had already told us about the limited amount of time they had to shoot the stunt each day, only having a three-minute window to shoot the scene where they had low enough light to film the scene that was supposed to be taking place at night, but still had enough light for the camera. However, seeing everything that went into the jump, it wasn't just about making sure they got the shot. Going up to that altitude required an extensive process to be sure nobody got sick or injured when they made it that high up.
It's not clear exactly how many takes, and therefore how many days, it took to get everything just right, but somehow they were able to make a HALO jump happen perfectly on camera. This is only one of the major stunts that we've seen Tom Cruise do in the trailers for Mission: Impossible - Fallout. He'll also be hanging from helicopters and jumping between rooftops. Ironically, of all the stunts Tom Cruise did for the new movie, it was this last one which ended up causing the biggest injury, a broken ankle.
We'll get to see the final version of the jump, and the context for it within the story when Mission: Impossible - Fallout hits theaters in July.
