Tom Cruise’s commitment to daredevil stunts makes every installment in the Fallout, the latest entry in the series, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie has been hired back to helm the seventh and eighth movies in the franchise back-to-back. And it’s highly unlikely that they’ll stop there if audiences keep turning out.
So we’ll be enjoying the high-octane adventures of Ethan Hunt and his IMF team for years to come. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to check out these fascinating behind-the-scenes details from the making of the Mission: Impossible movies.
Tom Cruise Performed Rogue Nation’s Opening Plane Stunt For Real
The fifth Mission: Impossible movie, Ghost Protocol.
There were all kinds of obstacles, like the difficulty of keeping his eyes open with such fast winds. A special lens was designed to keep Cruise’s eyes protected. He ended up doing eight takes of this stunt before getting the perfect one.
Fallout’s Bathroom Fight Took Four Weeks To Shoot
The exhilarating bathroom brawl scene in Mission: Impossible – Fallout was initially scheduled to be shot over four days. However, it turned out to be much more complicated than the filmmakers anticipated, and it ended up taking four weeks to shoot.
Henry Cavill reportedly improvised the iconic moment when his character August Wilson “reloads” his biceps before jumping back into the fight.
The Crew Of M:I-III Set Up A Fake Second Unit To Deter Onlookers
As J.J. Abrams’ directorial debut, Mission: Impossible III, broke the record for most expensive movie helmed by a first-time filmmaker, with a budget of $150 million. When the crew was filming in Rome, the producers couldn’t get rid of crowds who showed up to watch the movie being made.
So they set up a fake second unit down the street and hired young women in bikinis and older women dressed as nuns and then pretended to shoot scenes for the film. The fake unit attracted crowds, while the main unit was left mostly undisturbed.
Jeremy Renner’s Character Was Created To Replace Tom Cruise
Jeremy Renner accepted his role in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol with a brief character description as opposed to a full script (which hadn’t been completed yet). His character, Brandt, was created to take over as the franchise’s lead in case Tom Cruise ever decided to step down.
Of course, that doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon, and Brandt has since been retired from the series. Renner was also cast in The Bourne Legacy to take over the Bourne franchise from Matt Damon, which also didn’t take, since Damon eventually returned.
John Woo’s First Cut Of Mission: Impossible II Was Three And A Half Hours Long
When John Woo put together his first cut of Mission: Impossible II, it clocked in at three-and-a-half hours. Paramount executives were shocked by this runtime, and wouldn’t allow Woo to release the movie at anywhere near that length.
They insisted that he cut it down to shorter than two hours, which explains why the final cut is so riddled with plot holes.
For Rogue Nation’s Underwater Scene, Tom Cruise Held His Breath For Six Minutes
Tom Cruise famously performs most of his own daring stunts, and he pushed himself further than ever to make 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. He performed all his own driving stunts, because the stunt team apparently couldn’t find a driver who was more skilled than Cruise himself.
When he was training for the underwater scene in which Ethan Hunt dives into an underwater server to replace a data drive, Cruise was able to hold his breath for an impressive six minutes.
Ricky Gervais Was Originally Cast As Benji Dunn
Ricky Gervais was initially cast to play Ethan Hunt’s British IMF associate Benji Dunn in Mission: Impossible III. However, Gervais left the project when months of rewrites and cast changes stalled production.
When Gervais dropped out, he was replaced by Simon Pegg, hot off his star-making lead performance in Shaun of the Dead. With Pegg in the role, Dunn has appeared in every entry in the franchise since his debut in J.J. Abrams’ threequel.
Tom Cruise Put Coins In His Shoes To Balance Himself In The Iconic Rappelling Scene
For the iconic scene from the first Mission: Impossible movie in which Ethan Hunt rappels down from the ceiling to break into a touch-sensitive vault, Tom Cruise kept hitting his head on the floor when he was lowered down.
After a few head-bumping takes, he got the idea to put coins in his shoes to balance himself out. When he filled his shoes with coins, he was balanced enough to nail the scene and get the shot that made the movie famous.
Scouting The Cliff Location For Fallout’s Climax Proved To Be Life-Threatening
Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie wanted the climactic fight scene in Mission: Impossible – Fallout to take place on the edge of a cliff. The crew couldn’t find a suitable cliff in New Zealand, so they expanded their search and found one in Norway.
However, due to the high wind speeds, it was incredibly dangerous to shoot up there. When the crew did a location scout, they had to crawl on the ground to avoid being blown over the edge.
The Burj Khalifa Scene In Ghost Protocol Used No Stunt Doubles
The sequence that sold Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol as a must-see action extravaganza was the Burj Khalifa scene. Tom Cruise did all of his own stunts in this scene (as he does in most of his movies) without the use of a stunt double.
Some VFX was required to smooth over the shots, but Cruise actually scaled the building. The Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building, standing at 2,722 feet, and Cruise dangled from the side of the tower at approximately 1,700 feet.
