There’s no shortage of footage of Tom Cruise risking it all in the name of jaw-dropping screen entertainment. The latest in Cruise’s expanding resume of extreme stunts: speed-flying, which we’ll see him take on in franchise entry Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
Essentially, speed-flying is a type of advanced discipline of paragliding, where someone takes a small, high-performance paraglider wing and quickly descends through low-altitude heights such as mountains.
The behind-the-scenes featurette above sees Cruise flying at high speeds, mere meters above jagged rocks, while attempting aerial tricks such as spirals. As the featurette shows, the crew had to develop a dynamic way to film the star during the hair-raising stunt. A camera gimbal system was created so that someone could capture footage while speed-flying near Cruise, with a camera operator helping manoeuvre shots from an airborn helicopter nearby.
While Cruise is incredibly gutsy, he’s still very aware of the risks. The featurette shows him call off a speed-flying attempt due to the hazardous weather. “It’s too dangerous.”
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which will also see Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff, will be in Australian cinemas on July 8th and U.S. cinemas on July 12th.
