Tom Cruise Killed 6 Motorcycles in One Day Because He Loves Movies So Damn Much | Dead Reckoning

Tom Cruise loves movies. This isn’t always the case with actors or even movie stars, some of whom may be good at faking it but really are more interested in fame and fortune than they are the cinematic experience. And while Cruise may be one of our last, true movie stars, it’s pretty hard to question that his feelings for the art of moviemaking are real.

I mean, Steven Spielberg himself gave Cruise credit for saving “Hollywood’s ass” after the pandemic.

In that particular case, Spielberg was talking about Cruise’s insistence on releasing Top Gun: Maverick in theaters during a time of great uncertainty in the industry. A billion and a half dollars later, Cruise clearly made the right call there. But there’s another key ingredient to the once and future Ethan Hunt’s strategy to keeping cinema alive – and that’s his frankly insane stunt work. So with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One hitting theaters, let’s look at how Tom Cruise approaches stunts in the Mission: Impossible movies, and how his lifelong love of film has fueled that methodology.

Tom Cruise has been making movies since 1981, and became a star within two years of that with the release of Risky Business. He’s had his ups and downs over the decades of course, but one thing that audiences have come to expect from the actor in recent years is him doing his own stunts. And not just that, but one-upping himself with each subsequent Mission: Impossible movie.

Director Christopher McQuarrie, who is currently on his third film in the series, with a fourth in the works, says that there’s a simple reason why Cruise does these huge stunts himself.

“Immersion, plain and simple,” McQuarrie told IGN. “It connects you to the characters and to the story in a way that you couldn’t do otherwise. The challenge of that obviously is putting the camera in a place where you can see that the actor is actually doing it. For us, it’s really important not that you are watching a stunt, but that you are experiencing that stunt with the protagonist.”

But where does this dedication to the art of the stunt come from? In Dead Reckoning, we see Ethan Hunt’s oath to the IMF, so we asked Cruise what his personal oath to Hollywood would be. He had thoughts.

“I’m first and foremost the audience. The audience,” Cruise responded. “So when you look at the films that I have, it’s not about me. It’s about us. It’s about that experience together. … That’s why Top Gun: Maverick, I was like, no, this movie’s coming out in the theaters. And when we were going through that time period, I kept calling the distributors and the theaters. I said, no, it’s coming. And I showed them the movie and I said this will be in the theaters. I want you to have that experience. And, you know, in the ’80s I was the first guy, again in modern cinema, to shoot 65 mm [film] for Far and Away. I want that big-screen experience for an audience. I want it for myself to watch. I want other filmmakers, and also I want actors to have that opportunity where their movies come out in the cinemas. And I want to show them how to do it.”

I want that big-screen experience for an audience. I want it for myself to watch.

And that comes back to the stunts, whether he’s hanging from the side of a plane or climbing the side of a building or pulling off a HALO skydive. Cruise, and McQuarrie with him, are looking for ways to make the cinema the way to experience these films.

“We’re finding ways to immerse an audience into a movie,” Cruise told IGN. “Everything, my whole training, and when I watch movies, I want to feel connected with that character. And how do we do it? That’s one way. You know, I enjoy doing it. I enjoy the challenges of it, but it all comes down to story. How do we invest the audience in the story?”

In the case of Dead Reckoning Part One, the big – capital B – stunt to get that investment involved a motorcycle jump off a cliff which then leads into a base jump. Easy-peasy, right? But Cruise figured the best plan was to film it on day one of production… just in case he got killed doing it.

“Either we will continue with the film or we’re not,” he laughed in an interview with ET. “Let’s know day one! Let us know day one what is going to happen. Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?”

Of course, that doesn’t include all the prep that Cruise and the team did to get the stunt right – and to make sure the actor didn’t get killed in the process. This meant Cruise did over 500 skydives and over 13,000 motocross jumps just during rehearsals and while planning the stunt. 500 skydives! And then when the actual shoot came, Cruise rode a motorcycle off a cliff six times that day. Or rather, six motorcycles, since they didn’t have parachutes like he did.

McQuarrie admits that this was the scariest stunt to execute… for this movie anyway. But Dead Reckoning Part Two isn’t done yet, either.

“In terms of this movie, definitely the motorcycle jump,” McQuarrie said when asked about the scariest stunt they’ve shot. “But we have continued and we’ve pushed ourselves even further in Part Two. And you’ll see. It’s terrifying.”

It all goes back to Tom Cruise’s Hollywood oath, doesn’t it?

“I love this industry, and I’ve been blessed to be able to live my dreams since I was a kid,” Cruise said. “I was four years old and I wanted to travel the world, make movies. I wanted to go to different cultures and not just visit as a tourist. I wanted to work there. I wanted to be there. And this has given me my dream and afforded me to be able to share it and put it on screen. And I’ve dedicated my life to this art form. … I make movies for audiences. I don’t really think about awards either. For me, it’s about the audience. It’s not about all of that other stuff. When I’m making movies, I’m not thinking about that. I’m literally thinking about that family that are going out to the theater. For them to have that experience. That’s what’s important.”

For even more on the film, check out how to watch Dead Reckoning Part One, peruse our ranking of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible teammates, or dig in on our Dead Reckoning ending explained.

Interviews by Stella Chung