Mission Impossible director reveals Tom Cruise did a bi-plane stunt so daring he wasn't sure if it was really safe

Tom Cruise does his own stunts, as everyone knows, but there was one particular scene in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning that had director Christopher McQuarrie worried.

The director wasn’t even sure it was safe.

But the scene turned out better than they thought.

And McQuarrie admitted the scene did provide the ‘pay-off’ they were looking for.

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The director believes it ‘was all worth it’

It’s kind of hard to up the ante when you’ve been performing some of the world’s most daring on-camera stunts for decades.

Since the first Mission: Impossible movie, in 1996, Tom Cruise and his team have constantly been trying to go the extra mile for the next movie.

Tom Cruise’s attention to detail is famously unmatched and this being the last-ever Mission: Impossible movie with Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie decided to raise the bar – one last time.

The stunt in question, the one that briefly made everyone think they’d perhaps gone too far, is the extreme biplane chase scene in The Final Reckoning where the villain dies.

Speaking to Empire, Christopher McQuarrie said it was ‘very physically punishing’ for Cruise to hang on the wing of that plane while 8,000 feet in air and traveling at 140MPH.

The actor was strapped to the aircraft with a thin piece of wire, but obviously that wasn’t enough to keep everyone’s heartbeat under control.

“We lived in constant terror,” McQuarrie said.

“That was a nail-biter for us, right up until the first proper screening of the finished film with an international audience. We were like, ‘Okay, it was all worth it’.”

That was the pay-off McQuarrie was referring to, because when he realized the scene resonated with the audience, as a director, that’s all the pay-off he needed.

End of an era for Tom Cruise

No one knows for sure whether Paramount Pictures will keep the Mission: Impossible saga alive, but we do know that Tom Cruise’s reign as Ethan Hunt is coming to an end after eight movies and some pretty incredible stunts, including the record-breaking one in Dead Reckoning.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Cruise, who always does his own stunts in every movie, said he plans to continue starring in action movies even after he turns 100.

However, he also said this will be his last appearance in a Mission: Impossible movie.

“The film is the final! It’s not called ‘The Final Reckoning’ for nothing,” he said.