Raw Footage of the Mission: Impossible – Fallout Stunts is Mindblowing

As someone who cannot successfully execute a cartwheel, I am stunned by the behind-the-scenes of Mission: Impossible – Fallout. I try to maintain an appreciation for the insane talent that goes into making a major action film. However, something like Mission: Impossible is so polished when it hits theaters that I forget how physically involved it is. Put simply, Tom Cruise goes for it. He trained for a year, pulled off a 25,000 foot jump, and broke his ankle all for our entertainment.

A (mostly) ground level view of the stunts is just as impressive as Cruise jumping out of a plane. Some of the safety harnesses and wires are visible, but it is absolutely no less impressive. These are some seriously dangerous stunts. The safety mechanisms are just there to make sure no one dies.

“People talk about the action, but what they’re responding to is their investment in the characters,” Cruise said. Right, we all love Ethan Hunt and Fallout is sure to be entertaining. But cars are literally hitting people and flipping them a dozen feet in the air. It’s mesmerizing, in a blunt force trauma sort of way. The athleticism that goes into sending someone through a mirror with a single punch or bailing off a motorcycle over the hood of a car is intense.

Costar Simon Pegg says that Cruise has risked his life, literally, for this film. To accentuate the point, we see a shot of that notorious building jump that injured the action star. Despite incurring broken bones from the role, it is endearing to hear Cruise still speak so passionately about the film. He was willing to give it his all and it shows.

Screenwriter and director Christopher McQuarrie promises that Ethan’s journey will be a lot more personal this time. “It’s to take you places you’ve never been. It’s to show you things that you’ve never seen. And it’s to put you in that experience right there with him,” McQuarrie said. Jumping higher, driving faster, and hitting harder is what gives Mission: Impossible relevance 22 years on. You know what you’re getting every time you walk into the theater to see Mission: Impossible and it is never dull.

Henry Cavill has only one thing to say about it, “This is the best mission yet.” He may just be right.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout drops into theaters July 27.

Featured Image: Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout.’ Courtesy Paramount Pictures.