Tom Cruise’s stunning stunts in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

The new Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is directed by Christopher McQuarrie and stars Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales and Henry Czerny amongst others. With breathtaking music by Lorne Balfe and stunts by Tom Cruise, the film is doing well at the Indian and worldwide box office in part on the strength of the charisma exuded by Tom Cruise and daredevil stunts performed by him in this brand new instalment.

In this particular scene, Tom Cruise jumps off a mountain cliff while riding a motorcycle and then deploys his parachute to land on a moving train. In behind-the-scenes footage on YouTube, the stunt was shown to be very dangerous and required professional supervision, but Cruise nevertheless performs the stunt with the utmost guts, glory and a daredevil attitude. It is one of his most spectacular scenes of stunt work yet and formed a key part of the promotions for this film.

This nerve wracking scene has Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt) battling it out with a knife-wielding assassin, Esai Morales (Gabriel) on the top of a moving train that is hurtling ahead at full speed. Most directors and actors would simply have this stunt enacted with the help of a green screen and a stunt double, but not Tom Cruise! He actually did film some sequences with Esai on the top of the moving train.

In one of the opening sequences of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, we can see Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt) riding a fast moving horse through the desert at breakneck speed in what appears to be a sandstorm. This is a treat for movie goers as it reminds them of the Wild West era and films which depicted those cowboy battles and horse riding prowess. It takes lots of skill and expertise to control a horse, which can often be an unpredictable animal as in the tragic and unfortunate case of Christopher Reeve who could never fully recover after a horse riding accident.

Alleyways and other narrow spaces can look and feel claustrophobic for some and that nature is brought out expertly in this scene as Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt) has a massive two-on-one brawl with Pom Klementieff (Paris) and another assassin in this scene. The fight choreography is fast, martial arts-esque, graceful and pretty acrobatic to say the least. Ethan Hunt has to fend off two attackers in this scene in an uncomfortable and tight environment.