Tom Cruise performs his own dangerous helicopter stunts in a new behind-the-scenes featurette from Mission: Impossible - Fallout. A recently released trailer previewed many of the action sequel's envelope-pushing stunts, including Cruise's helicopter acrobatics. Unfortunately, it was a leaping stunt gone wrong that last August resulted in Cruise breaking his ankle, delaying filming.

Fallout marks the sixth time Tom Cruise has played Ethan Hunt, indestructible international secret agent. In this installment, Hunt and his team are in a race against time after a mission goes terribly wrong. Along the way, Hunt has time for a new love interest played by The Crown's Vanessa Kirby. Cruise is joined by Man of Steel star Henry Cavill, sporting the mustache that almost brought down Warner Bros. Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames and Michelle Monaghan return from previous missions, together with newcomer Angela Bassett.

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In a new featurette from Paramount Pictures UK, we go behind-the-scenes of what is likely to be Fallout's most talked-about set piece. We already knew that the movie features some crazy helicopter stunts. But now we know just how much of the actual stunt flying was performed by Tom Cruise himself. Incidentally, the clip also removes any doubt about Henry Cavill being the villain, as we clearly see him firing a machine gun at Tom Cruise. See the clip above.

Tom Cruise flying helicopter into truck in Mission Impossible Fallout

Most actors would be content letting professional helicopter stunt pilots perform such death-defying aerial maneuvers. But Tom Cruise is not most actors. In the clip, we learn that Cruise put in months of helicopter training in order to accumulate the flight hours necessary to pilot his own bird. This was all so Cruise could fly his own machine during Fallout's intricate chase, which involves multiple copters maneuvering between mountains and soaring over waterfalls.

The featurette shows us the preparations that went into filming the sequence. Crews designed new camera rigs just so we could see Cruise in the pilot's seat and know that he was the only one doing the flying. Cruise himself works out the sequence with his fellow stunt pilots using little toy helicopters. We then see the actual sequence playing out, and yes indeed that's Tom Cruise flying the copter. Insanely, Cruise zips through the air, in close proximity to other machines. But of course, even this was not enough for Tom Cruise. At the end of the sequence, Cruise performs a 360-degree dive intended to make it appear the chopper is crashing.

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Throughout the featurette, we see flight instructors, stunt coordinators and director Christopher McQuarrie speaking very calmly about Tom Cruise's activities. Cruise himself acts like this is all just another day at work...which actually, it kind of is for him. We can't wait to see the results when Mission: Impossible - Fallout comes to theaters.

Source: Paramount Pictures UK

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