Now nearing its fifth installment, Mission: Impossible needs no introduction. But if there was ever an actor to steal the spotlight with ever-more-daring stunts, it’s the series’ leading star and secret agent, Tom Cruise. When the maiden trailer for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation hit the interwebs late last month, one of the main takeaways was the star’s airborne stunt, which sees him hanging off the back of a military cargo plane at 3,000 feet. No biggie, right?
In fact, according to director Christopher McQuarrie – who joins Cruise for the pair’s second collaboration following actioner Jack Reacher – the actor jumped at the chance to top his Burj Khalifa stunt from Ghost Protocol. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, here’s what the filmmaker had to share.
“They brought me this plane, and I was looking at the model,” says McQuarrie. “And I said to Tom, ‘What if you were on the outside of this plane?’ I was kinda half joking when I said it, and he just looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, I could do that.’”
As many of you already know, Tom Cruise would often do his own stunts in films, and Rogue Nation‘s airborne sequence proved to be no different. Mind you, McQuarrie was quick to draw attention away from the sequel’s jaw-dropping set piece, hinting that there are many more blockbuster action sets to be revealed when the film hits theaters in July.
Scaling the Burj Khalifa is but a stepping stone for Cruise, who reunites with Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames – not to mention newcomers Sean Harris, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin and Sean Harris as the villain – when Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation lands in theaters on July 31.
