Tom Cruise's new cliff jump stunt for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One creates a big challenge for Mission: Impossible 8. The action movie franchise has become a vehicle for Tom Cruise to push himself to the limit as he attempts new death-defying stunts. Mission: Impossible 7 features several stunts that are sure to leave audiences floored, but the cream of the crop is set to be a daring cliff jump. The moment was used to close out the first Dead Reckoning Part One trailer, and yet it did not fully capture the danger and thrill that comes with Tom Cruise's new stunt.
The pressure is always high on the next Mission: Impossible movie to give audiences something they have not seen before from an action standpoint. Cruise has made it his mission to increase the level of difficulty to practically pull off these stunts with each passing movie. Mission: Impossible 7's cliff jump is a daring step up from Mission: Impossible - Fallout's skydiving sequence, Rogue Nation's underwater tank scene or Cruise hanging to the side of a plane, and Ghost Protocol having the actor scale the largest building in the world. However, Dead Reckoning's cliff jump stunt now means Mission: Impossible 8 has to try and beat it.
Mission: Impossible 7’s Cliff Jump Is Tom Cruise’s Most Dangerous Stunt Yet
Every new glimpse at Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One's cliff jump reinforces that this is Tom Cruise's most dangerous stunt to date. The sequence involves Tom Cruise riding a dirt bike at high speeds off the side of a cliff and free-falling base jump into a dive before needing to pull his parachute and guide himself to safety. The Mission: Impossible team had to create a ramp on the mountains so Cruise could safely jump the bike. Any mishandling of the bike or his parachute would result in catastrophic injuries for Tom Cruise. That is why Cruise trained tirelessly to pull off the stunt in a practical fashion.
The high degree of difficulty in making Mission: Impossible's cliff jump stunt a reality meant Cruise spent months doing sky diving and motocross training. The combination of over 500 helicopter jumps and 13,000 motocross jumps ensured he would be comfortable with the equipment he would be handling. Furthermore, repeated simulations of the event helped Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie figure out how to film the stunt safely. But even as they managed to capture Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One's cliff jump, the challenge of trying to top the franchise's most dangerous stunt looms over Mission: Impossible 8 now.
Every Tease For What Mission: Impossible 8’s Big Stunt Might Be
The tease for Mission: Impossible 8's big stunt being even more dangerous than Dead Reckoning's cliff jump is a huge challenge and a mystery for the time being. That said, there are a few teases for what the next great Tom Cruise stunt might be. There have been multiple teases of Cruise hanging onto small planes and doing more skydiving sequences. It is possible that Mission: Impossible 8's dangerous stunt involves a fight scene on these planes and an escape after it goes wrong.
It has also been revealed that Mission: Impossible 8 includes a huge submarine sequence. McQuarrie and Cruise thought of it later on and even included some submarine action in Dead Reckoning Part One. Ethan Hunt operating a submarine is hardly a difficult challenge at this stage, but perhaps Cruise's IMF agent will have to escape from a sinking submarine that is overflowing with water. This could be Mission: Impossible 8's dangerous stunt as the actor attempts to avoid drowning and being trapped in an enclosed space.
