2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout is often labeled as the best movie in the franchise by fans. In the movie, fans saw the return of actor Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt with a supporting cast of Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Angela Bassett, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan, and Alec Baldwin. There was one specific scene in the action-packed movie where IMF Secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) accuses Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) of being John Lark and filming this particular scene was not easy for Cruise and Baldwin.
If you have always wondered why the camera was zoomed in and focused on Cruise and Baldwin’s faces, it was because both actors were suffering from physical pain. At the time, Cruise injured his right leg in London while shooting a scene and Baldwin underwent a double hip replacement operation, so both the actors filmed the scene using the table as support.
Filming this scene was a nightmare for Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin
The scene in Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) where IMF Secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) accuses Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) of being John Lark was shot differently due to a particular reason. Since Cruise broke his ankle and Baldwin underwent a double hip replacement operation, the camera was focused on their faces and not their entire body. In Mission: Impossible – Fallout‘s audio commentary, director Christopher McQuarrie revealed,
“So here Tom has a broken foot and had finished the foot chase the day before, and Alec is overdue for a double hip replacement to come and shoot this scene … And by the way, to understand the pain of a hip replacement, it is like having a knife stuck in your hip when your hip is given out like that. And Tom is absolutely blind with pain. He had finished the foot chase on an ankle he had broken five months before, and that’s why I blocked this scene the way that I did. I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve got an idea, how about you don’t walk in this scene? Let’s have this whole scene happen around you.'”
The scene was shot with the help of blocking and a table that Baldwin and Cruise used for support. Cruise also revealed in the audio commentary that he couldn’t walk while filming the scene so there was no other way to shoot it.
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Tom Cruise’s injury halted the production of the film
Cruise, who is well-known for doing most of his stunts, broke his ankle while filming a scene of Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) in London. As a result, the studio announced it would halt production for at least nine weeks, leading to a loss of roughly $80 million for the studio because they had to pay the cast and crew for the eight-week break.
Cruise and Baldwin’s hard work certainly paid off as the film grossed roughly $791 million at the global box office, making it the highest-grossing film in the franchise. The film was massively praised for its action-packed sequences and enigmatic cast.
