Tom Cruise Jumped Out Of A Plane Over 500 Times For His Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Training
At this point, it's no secret that legendary action hero Tom Cruise has gone to some pretty ridiculous lengths to perform the death-defying stunts necessary for the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. Cruise is, after all, the man who actually flew a helicopter for his scenes in "Mission: Impossible – Fallout," climbed up a skyscraper for a stunt in "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," and famously held onto the side of a plane while it was taking off during "Mission Impossible — Rogue Nation."
Just this past year, the internet was set ablaze by photos of the legendary actor hanging one-handed off the wing of a flipped biplane, which was posted by director Christopher McQuarrie to celebrate Cruise's sixtieth birthday. McQuarrie himself is the director of the forthcoming "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One," from which this exclusive behind-the-scenes photo originated.
As ludicrous as this particular stunt was, a recently released behind-the-scenes video from Paramount Pictures promises that the film will include an even greater stunt — one which required Cruise to jump out of a plane more than 500 times in preparation.
Cruise trained extensively in order to pull off a motorcycle base jump
This behind-the-scenes featurette (titled "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One | The Biggest Stunt in Cinema History") showcases the immense amount of work that Tom Cruise and the stunt team put into a motorcycle stunt for the upcoming film. The stunt itself sees Tom Cruise literally driving a motorcycle off of a sheer cliff face and pulling his parachute — transitioning from a motorcycle jump into a base jump.
To prepare himself for this harrowing ordeal, stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood asserted that Cruise underwent a year of base training and skydive training, and jumped out of a plane 500 times in order to master his body control in the air. "They were doing 30 jumps a day," said director Christopher McQuarrie. "Came to a point where he was just a machine, I mean over 500 skydives," echoed Eastwood.
This intense level of dedication should come as no surprise to fans familiar with Cruise's work, as the actor had already jumped out of a plane 106 times for a single stunt from "Mission: Impossible – Fallout" (via Business Insider). In the end, it appears that this ludicrous level of preparation was well worth it, as the video ends with Cruise successfully pulling off the motorcycle jump into a base jump and landing safely on the ground — adding yet another unbelievable stunt to his resume.