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How Tom Cruise Executed His 'Most Dangerous' Stunt in 'Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One'

The death-defying moment in the franchise's seventh installment involves Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff

Collection Christophel/Alamy

Tom Cruise  turned up the action for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning   Part One .

While the film marks the seventh installment in the highly successful franchise, Cruise, 61, made the occasion even more special by challenging himself to perform one of his most dangerous stunts yet.

The death-defying moment involved Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff, fly off the bike, and parachute to the ground. While fans got a glimpse of the stunt through the film's action-packed trailer in May, Cruise, along with writer-director  Christopher McQuarrie , first teased the big moment in 2021 at CinemaCon.

The pair explained in a special behind-the-scenes video at the event that the stunt took 500 hours of skydiving training and 13,000 motorbike jumps to get it just right. The stunt involved Cruise being attached to a set of wires as he rides a speeding motorcycle off of a large ramp before he throws himself from the bike, backed by the safety wires attached to his back.

Speaking about its execution, McQuarrie, 54, explained in the video that it was "by far the most dangerous stunt we've ever done." The clip then ended with Cruise performing the stunt himself, with a crew member saying, " Tom Cruise  rode a motorcycle off a cliff six times today."

McQuarrie "tried to kill me," joked Cruise at the New York City premiere.

Christian Black/Paramount Pictures

The film's long-awaited release comes after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic . According to an official synopsis, it finds Cruise's Ethan Hunt as he and his team are tasked with tracking down "a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands."

During its world premiere in June , Cruise gave a speech about his passion for the franchise and filmmaking. He said in part, "It’s something that I grew up with, that made me and inspired me to dream and want to travel the world. My goal since I was little was to make movies and travel. And not just be a tourist but work in that world and understand their culture."

"Through my movies, I’ve been able to have that because everyone here has allowed me to entertain them," he continued. "It’s a privilege that I have never taken for granted."

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Mission: Impossible   - Dead Reckoning Part One is out now.

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“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” director Christopher McQuarrie made headlines at the start of June after revealing to Empire magazine that Tom Cruise ‘s insane motorcycle stunt was shot on the first day of filming. The stunt, billed as the most death-defying one of Cruise’s acting career thus far, finds Cruise riding a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff and then parachuting to safety while in free fall.

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“Well we know either we will continue with the film or we’re not. Let’s know day one!” Cruise recently told Entertainment Tonight about filming the stunt at the very start of production. “Let us know day one what is going to happen: Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?”

“I was training and I was ready,” Cruise added. “You have to be razor sharp when you’re doing something like that. It was very important as we were prepping the film that it was actually the first thing. I don’t want to drop that and go shoot other things and have my mind somewhere else. Everyone was prepped. Let’s just get it done.”

“Dead Reckoning” is expected to be one of the biggest Hollywood tentpoles of the summer movie season, if not the biggest. Cruise is riding high off the blockbuster success of “Top Gun: Maverick” last year, which ended its run as the 11th highest grossing film in history (unadjusted for inflation) with $1.49 billion. While “Dead Reckoning” may not reach those box office heights, it’s certainly expected to outgross 2017’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” ($791 million) and become the franchise’s new top earner.

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” opens in theaters July 12 from Paramount Pictures.

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Watch Tom Cruise complete ‘biggest stunt in cinema history’ with death-defying jump

Tom Cruise is soaring to new heights.

The legendary actor appears in a new video from the making of the upcoming “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” that gives fans an “extended behind the scenes look at the biggest stunt in cinema history ,” according to Paramount Pictures’ description of the clip on YouTube.

The video, which runs more than nine minutes long, opens with a breathtaking overhead view of a mountain in Hellesylt, Norway, with Cruise explaining that he will ride a motorcycle off of a cliff that turns into a base jump.

“I’ve wanted to do it since I was a little kid,” he says.

Director Christopher McQuarrie says Cruise helped facilitate the stunt by getting together a team of experts in various fields to make sure it goes off without a hitch.

There are clips of Cruise skydiving and riding a motorcycle on a motorcross track built specifically for the stunt, while viewers learn how different models were constructed to properly gauge the angle Cruise would be diving off the bike. There was even a GPS chip to keep track of all of his jumps and gather a wide range of data, including how the wind would affect each jump.

“I have to get so good at this that there’s just no way that I miss my marks,” he says.

“You train and drill every little aspect over and over and over and over again,” he adds while we see clips of him diving and riding his motorcycle.

And Cruise apparently did just that, performing more than 500 dives and 13,000 jumps on the motorcycle.

Around the 7-minute mark, Cruise takes off on the motorcycle, driving off a ramp and then pulling a parachute to the ground below in a mind-blowing effort.

“This is far and away the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted,” McQuarrie says.

You can see for yourself how the stunt looks on the big screen when “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” opens in theaters July 2023.

Drew Weisholtz is a reporter for TODAY Digital, focusing on pop culture, nostalgia and trending stories. He has seen every episode of “Saved by the Bell” at least 50 times, longs to perfect the crane kick from “The Karate Kid” and performs stand-up comedy, while also cheering on the New York Yankees and New York Giants. A graduate of Rutgers University, he is the married father of two kids who believe he is ridiculous.

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• Tom Cruise's motorcycles used to film Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One's cliff jump didn't survive.
• Following fan demand, a new video shows crew members recovering bits of the motorcycle from the rocky landscape below.
• The upcoming Mission: Impossible 8 is expected to deliver even more jaw-dropping stunts, including Cruise hanging onto the outside of a flying biplane over South Africa.

A new Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One video finally shows what happened to Tom Cruise's motorcycles after his big cliff jumping stunt. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the latest installment in the long-running action franchise sees Cruise return as Ethan Hunt for the series' biggest set pieces yet. In addition to a car chase through Rome and a fight atop a moving train, the film also boasts a jaw-dropping sequence in which Cruise drives his motorcycle off a cliff and into a base jump.

Now, following fan demand, the official Mission: Impossible Instagram account has released a video showing just what became of Cruise's motorcycles after his multiple jumps off the cliff. Check out the video below:

While Cruise may have glided to safety with a parachute, the motorcycles used to film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One stunt evidently weren't so lucky and plummeted to the ground below. With debris from the bikes scattered throughout the rocky landscape, the video shows that all the pieces were eventually recovered.

How Can Mission: Impossible 8 Top Dead Reckoning Part One's Stunts?

Cruise and McQuarrie continue to push themselves further with each new installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. While Mission: Impossible – Fallout featured a HALO jump sequence, a leap between buildings that broke Cruise's ankle, and a climactic helicopter showdown, the latest installment takes practical action to a whole new level. With the motorcycle cliff jump and train sequence representing the biggest and most elaborate action set pieces yet, it begs the question of what Cruise and McQuarrie have planned for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two .

The duo have already teased that the next film will go even bigger, but so far very little of the film has actually been shown off. One stunt from Mission: Impossible 8 that has already been revealed in set photos and videos, however, sees Cruise hanging onto the outside of a flying biplane over South Africa. The context of the sequence isn't clear, but that alone certainly could dethrone the cliff jump as the biggest stunt of Cruise's career.

It's unclear what other stunts may be in the movie, but filming for the next installment also took place aboard the USS George H.W. Bush in the Adriatic Sea, as well as in the Arctic. McQuarrie recently provided a Mission: Impossible 8 filming update , revealing that, while much has been completed, the film's biggest set piece still lies ahead. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One only just hit theaters, but the sequel is already shaping up to be even bigger and more impressive.

Source: Mission: Impossible / Instagram

Key Release Dates

Mission: impossible - dead reckoning part two.

• Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (2023)