Tom Cruise has been recognized to be a daredevil on the subject of cinema. Some may even name him a maverick, particularly after the 2025 film Mission: Not possible – The Closing Reckoning noticed him flying fairly excessive for the stunt of a lifetime on the facet of a airplane. That apparently wasn’t the one factor the star was doing, nevertheless, as co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie revealed one other earned credit score for Cruise’s resume: cinematographer.
Throughout a chat that noticed each collaborators available at this yr’s Cannes Movie Competition (through That Shelf’s YouTube channel,) it was revealed that the ever intrepid main man was really a military of 1 whereas capturing a few of these painful Mission biplane stunts. McQuarrie began to share that information with the group with an anecdote, saying
Once you watch Tom tonight, there’s a second the place he’s in an airplane. He’s in a biplane utterly alone. He’s on the controls, and his biplane suffers some injury. Spoiler — there’s pressure on this. There’s a second the place Tom — the digital camera’s in profile, and Tom Cruise appears to be like over on the broken strut of his biplane, and the digital camera throws focus, and it’s this stunning backlit shot. There’s solar, and also you see this vibrating strut, and Tom turns again, and the digital camera racks focus to Tom. I need you to recollect there’s no crew with Tom in an airplane at 10,000 toes above Africa.
I nonetheless can’t consider what I simply learn. Tom Cruise, the mad man that he’s, was truly working his personal digital camera to get a few of these photographs the place you might need been satisfied Ethan Hunt’s close to dying was imminent. Bodily, and logistically, it is smart – as a result of the person of the hour wouldn’t wish to threat his crew’s lives within the making of his Mission: Not possible swan track.
If Tom Cruise stopped Henry Cavill from a HALO leap, you’d guess he’d inform the crew to remain on the bottom. The outcomes type of communicate for themselves, because the biplane chase joins the remainder of the ridiculous Mission: Not possible stunts within the huge display screen corridor of fame. However a little bit additional background from Christopher McQuarrie definitely couldn’t harm, with the filmmaker saying,
Tom is lighting the shot. By now, he’s positioning the airplane and its relationship to the solar, and he’s working focus simply off digital camera. He’s the crew in each single shot you’re seeing.
At this level, I’m questioning when Tom Cruise goes to go full Buster Keaton and direct a movie of his personal. I can’t consider one other piece of the method that the person hasn’t touched in a roundabout way that he’d must take that gig on, and I’m dying to know what he’d prepare dinner up behind the digital camera. Additionally, that may be the one method Cruise’s mysterious house film will get made at this level. Do you wish to be the particular person to inform him he cannot go away the planet?
That’s no slight to trusted helmers like Mr. McQuarrie although, and if you happen to’ve seen Mission: Not possible – The Closing Reckoning, you’d in all probability agree. For these of you who want some extra convincing, that eighth chapter within the IMF saga is now enjoying in a theater close to you.