Starring as the premier action hero who commands a global reputation, Tom Cruise built upon an undeniable chunk of it from his role as Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible series. The spy-thriller regularly increased its stakes as it went from one installment to the next with an overarching plots that only dialed up its intensity and tone, coming a long way from its start back in 1996.
A notable trend that happened with almost every next movie in the series was an expanding runtime. The need to fit a large narrative within a stipulated duration is a daunting task. For the franchise to meet its goal of delivering high-quality action and thrill without unnecessarily keeping the audiences waiting, took an occasional toll. One such time was its seventh iteration, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, starring Henry Cavill.
The climactic Mission: Impossible – Fallout scene could have become even lengthier
Christopher McQuarrie left no stone unturned in packing adrenaline-kicking action and plot in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which saw Tom Cruise reprise his role as Ethan Hunt and face off sabotage by August Walker, played by Henry Cavill. The movie’s biggest selling point was the gritty chemistry that the two A-list actors shared on-screen, with the moment of deliverance coming in a final battle to prevent a nuclear battle.
The tense sequences involved Kashmir as its backdrop. Known for its contested status between the countries of India and Pakistan, the region gave the movie its iconic high stakes and all the more reason for the protagonist to risk it all. However, a sequence involving Cruise and the IMF team crossing the borders had to be cut from the final draft despite featuring in a trailer, as it inflated the runtime.
The revelation by Benji Dunn actor, Simon Pegg, as per a Slashfilm report, had him understand the reasoning behind it.
I never regret that stuff because I know it’s for the greater good.
At times film sequences that appear to be very in-tone for the movie, or in this case, riddled with action, have to be cut if they do not play a major role in advancing the plot, which was completely true in this case, as summarized by the actor.
You’ve got to make the film sing. And for Tom and McQ, I asked them when we were shooting, I said, ‘How long is the film going to be?’ And they both said, ‘As long as it’s entertaining.’ And I just thought, ‘Well, that’s the perfect answer.’ I’ve seen 86-minute movies that felt longer than Mission: Impossible.’
Yet, neither the director nor the actors lost the thirst for action as they simply dialed it up a notch with probably the riskiest stunt in film history.
The Mission Impossible sequence that had Tom Cruise perform his riskiest stunt yet
In his decades of starring in Mission Impossible movies, Tom Cruise has climbed the Burj Khalifa, hung off from an actual plane, performed a HALO jump from over 25,000 feet, held his breath for over six minutes, and even learned to fly a helicopter to perform a 360-degree downward spiral.
However, Mission Impossible-Dead Reckoning: Part One, which followed Fallout, featured one of his riskiest stunts yet, especially considering he was age 60 years old. The ambitious stunt had the actor ride a motorcycle off a ramp extended outwards of a steep cliff, then free fall, leave the bike, and open a parachute to land safely.
Physically demanding and imaginably dangerous, not only did Cruise pull off the feat all by himself but also sealed his name as one of, if not the sole actor, to have the guts to go the extra mile.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is available to stream on Paramount Plus, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel, and FXNow.
