The Mission: Impossible franchise prides itself on its authenticity and old-school movie magic. The dedication to relying on practical stunts without the assistance of CGI starts at the top, and who better to lead an example than Tom Cruise? At this point, the world-renowned actor exists in popular culture as this generation’s Evel Knievel instead of a traditional movie star, but he’s proven himself to be such a daring master of stunts, that it’s hard to complain. There is seemingly no stunt or dangerous act that would make Cruise timid while on the set of an M:I film. However, during the production of the recent installment, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Cruise quite literally pulled punches, as he refused to hit one of his co-stars.
Tom Cruise Strives for Authenticity in His Mission: Impossible Stunts
The buzz around the release of a new Mission: Impossible movie centers around one virtuosic set piece. The marketing focuses on whatever death-defying stunt Cruise is partaking in, whether it’s climbing the Burj Khalifa (Ghost Protocol), hanging off a moving airplane (Rogue Nation), a HALO jump (Fallout), or launching off a motorcycle while riding to the edge of a mountain (Dead Reckoning). With each perilous stunt, Cruise undergoes extensive training to convincingly execute them without any trickery regarding stunt doubles or special effects. As a staunch advocate for cinema and the theatrical industry, Cruise puts his life on the line for our amusement. At this point, the Mission: Impossible series can’t end until Cruise flies through outer space.
Any Mission: Impossible film, with its numerous locations, complicated action sequences, and cast and crew safety protocols, is an arduous undertaking, but throw in a global pandemic, and the production turns into a mission too impossible for Ethan Hunt. Practicing COVID-19 safety protocols inflated the film’s production cost to nearly $300 million. The film, led by Cruise and his favorite director of late, Christopher McQuarrie, was shot on real locations in countries with massive breakouts and strict protocols, and experienced numerous delays in filming and release.
Tom Cruise Refused To Kick Pom Klementieff in ‘Dead Reckoning’
Despite the insurmountable number of obstacles, the cast and crew of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning created magic on the screen, per usual. The stunts and action set pieces, while not as jaw-dropping as Fallout’s, evoked the series’ early roots as a spy thriller, notably with the Hitchcockian airport chase and pickpocket showdown with welcoming newcomer, Hayley Atwell. Another newcomer to the franchise, Pom Klementieff, was at the receiving end of an unprecedented feat: a stunt that Tom Cruise refused to perform. Playing one of the film’s main antagonists, Paris, one scene in Venice called for a fight between Ethan Hunt and Paris. “I kept telling him to just kick me here,” Klementieff told Entertainment Weekly, referring to the midsection area of her body. “I was squeezing abs. [I said], ‘You can just go for it,” she continued, giving Cruise the green light to kick her for the scene. Cruise adamantly declined the offer, even with Klementieff insisting that it would help her execute the action sequence.
While Cruise might seem reckless with his own life, he consistently puts the safety of his cast and crew above all else when making movies. Cruise drawing the line at a relatively harmless stunt in a kick to the chest seems incompatible with his devil-may-care approach to performing action scenes, but he understands his limits as a creative figure. It all may seem like a reckless endeavor on Cruise’s part, but he prepares thoroughly for stunts, and kicking a female co-star off the cuff is not in his wheelhouse. He’s more than eager to throw caution into the wind with his own life, but when it comes to his co-stars, he is extremely protective.
Film productions do not always adhere to ethical standards, but from what we know about the complicated filming of the Mission: Impossible franchise, it’s that Tom Cruise is just as committed to delivering audience thrills as he is maintaining a safe set for those around him. The series is subtextually about Ethan Hunt protecting his surrogate family at all costs. Cruise, who has dedicated his life to the power of cinema, treats his co-stars like family, and wouldn’t bear physically harming them.