Behind the scenes of Tom Cruise’s 3 biggest stunts in Dead Reckoning

Published on Jul 12, 2023 at 7:56 PM (UTC+4)
by Kate Bain

Last updated on Jul 14, 2023 at 11:50 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by Kate Bain

From driving off a cliff to speed flying and fighting on top of a moving train, Tom Cruise proves that no mission is impossible for him in Dead Reckoning. 

Cruise performed some of the biggest stunts in Hollywood history for this film, and his stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood has revealed to supercarblondie.com just how he trained for them. 

Counting down from three to one, these are the craziest stunts you’ll find in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning.

READ MORE! Tom Cruise’s latest stunt is going viral – this is why

3. Dead Reckoning car chase

Cruise did all the driving himself, and he did a lot of it while handcuffed to his co-star. 

And there was no room for error because he had to drift super close to the crew on extremely narrow streets. 

For this chase scene, they modified a tiny yellow Fiat to make it even wilder. 

“We souped it up and did some really cool modifications to it and in the end, it had just over 500 horsepower,” Wade Eastwood said.

2. Train fight

In this scene, Cruise fights the enemy on top of a moving train that eventually shoots over a cliff. 

The scene was filmed in the UK with a real 70-ton train traveling at 100km/h (60 mph). 

At the end of the scene, we see Cruise hanging onto the side of a cliff while the train carriage flies into a ditch below.

And everything you see, the actor actually did. 

“We don’t use CGI in our movies, so if there’s a train and Tom’s hanging on it, Tom’s hanging onto a train,” Eastwood said. 

“Tom comes so prepared, he’s so strict on his training regime, so when he comes to do it, he’s giving 100 percent and we can ask 100 percent from him.”

1. Motorcycle base jump

This stunt has a cult following of its own because it’s the biggest, most dangerous stunt in the history of cinema. 

It involved the 61-year-old driving a motorbike off a cliff and parachuting to safety. 

And believe it or not, Cruise put the master plan together himself. 

To prepare for it, the A-lister did more than 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps.

“Tom rehearsed for months and months and months to do that,” Eastwood said. 

 “He was already a very good skydiver, but we started a really stringent base jump training regime.”

The ramp they used for the scene was built in Norway so Tom Cruise and the entire Dead Reckoning film crew flew over to film it on day one of filming.

“Tom was really competent. There was no one else in the world I would have had actually do this stunt. 

“And he can also bring performance to it, he can play Ethan.”

You can watch the full Xplained vid here!

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Kate Bain is the Page Editor at supercarblondie.com. She is based in Dubai and coordinates coverage of the latest news across automotive, technology, and lifestyle. Kate has a bachelor's degree in business and post graduate in journalism. She is an experienced editor and journalist who has worked for News Corp, Daily Mail Australia, and Sky News. When she's not at work, you'll find her attached at the hip to her dog, Thor.